Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Next Level by Ayumi Hamasaki – I Love It

Ayu's Next Level

I met my friend for lunch one day at Shokudo and told her that Ayumi Hamasaki has released a new album.  “Who’s [What’s] that?” she asked.  Maybe I am too naïve to think that everyone know who she is.  Japanese artist Ayu has been my inspiration for years.  Since 2000, she has been releasing one studio album, one video recording of her concert tour, and one video recording of her New Year countdown tour per year, non-stop.  She is involved in all aspects of production including the branding of her own image.  That makes her one of the most hardworking and successful artists I have seen.  Even with the loss of hearing on her left ear since 2008 amongst other distractions such as her failed love relationship, the show must go on.  This sort of spirit inspires.

At 30, onto the 10th year of her commercially success career, I thought the title “Next Level” is timely.  The sound is mostly electronic, the fashion is colorfully fresh, “Next Step” is a premium production that fans will love.  I do.  As seen in her previous productions, “Next Step” has songs of similar nature packaged in segments divided by the instrumental tracks.  The opening tracks are energetic, discotheque-like, and almost sound like a series of remixes.  Midway through the album, it is transited to be more rock and “Next Step” is closed with an acoustic track that she shot the video barefoot walking around the movie street set in what seems like a freezing evening (see below).  My favorite track is the non-single track “Rollin’”.  That reminds of “Startin’”, not sure why.

Comes with the package is a CD recording of her Premium Countdown Live 2008-2009 and a DVD consists of 6 videos from “Next Step” as well as the making clips.  That covers the entire spectrum of studio production to live recording to video production with a glimpse of her personality.  Would I prefer the Countdown Live in DVD format instead?  In a way, yes, because her live concerts are always so out-of-the-world.  However, without the visual impact, I tend to pay more attention to her vocals.  I have got to say, for someone who has partial hearing loss, that is one heck of a performance.

Below is the last track of the album – “Curtain Call”.

Categories
Diary Reflection

Into the Valley of Selegie

An area around Selegie

A few good friends of mine commented that I have come to a full circle when I told them that (1) I’ve moved to a “new” office that isn’t new and (2) year 2000 I worked at the same building for the same employer.  The difference is: I was a consultant to them back then and am one of their gazillion employees now.  I have no idea what a full circle means.  Year 2000 was perhaps a mini-peak of my career.  And then kind of crashed and burned for a while.  Recently, things started to look up and then I am working in the same building as I was nine years ago.  Now, is that a full circle?  What is a full circle?

Back in the beginning of this millennium, the surrounding area of my office was awesome.  Vast area of greenery right in the middle of the city.  And then the unthinkable happened: our government has decided to build a university that spans across adjacent plots of beautiful parks.  I was much saddened, kind of upset.  Today, Singapore Management University (SMU) looks pretty awesome, architect in a way that blends in well with the surrounding.  But I still prefer the parks to a set of buildings that mean nothing to me, personally.

I still prefer the newer looking old office to my older looking new office.  One friend at work said to me: Once it gets into your system, you’ll be fine with it.  My desk space has shrunk at least 4 times; I no longer have my own desk; there are junks, empty water bottles, half drank water bottles left behind from the previous occupants; dust everywhere; I now look up and see tons of faces staring at me; and there are even more staring at the back of my head.  These two days, I have this hallucination that I am working inside a cube farm.  I know what I am producing each day.  I wonder what everyone else are producing each passing moment.  Time to get plugged in.  I need a phone line.

I am a natural when it comes to making myself happy creatively and realistically.  So I took the opportunity to explore the area during my lunch hours.  It turned out so fun that I am going to set up a plan to explore this strange neighborhood systematically.  Day one after my brief lunch, I took a walk into the area of Selegie, discovered quite a number of eating places, old fashioned shops that sell interesting stuffs, new shops that are opening soon, quite a number of night clubs, and I came face-to-face with the awesome looking building called LASALLE College of the Arts.  I took some pictures with my phone.  I wish I had my dSLR with me.

I took a picture of LASALLE in year 1996 when the construction was started and another one in 1997 when it was completed (see my previous blog entry).  Perhaps life is as such: At times we go through changes in life and some are dusty, some are messy, and through all these unpleasantness, inconvenience, something good, something beautiful may blossom.

LASALLE College of Arts

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Rimi Natsukawa 夏川りみ – ココロノウタ – A New Studio Production, A Live Recording, and A Concert DVD

Rimi Natsukawa

I wouldn’t imagine in a light year that I would enjoy listening to Japanese folk music.  Rimi Natsukawa’s previous album “Self Selection” has been like a comfort album to me.  So when I saw her 13th album “ココロノウタ” selling on the shelf, I quickly grabbed one without even test listening to it.

“ココロノウタ” comes with 3 discs.  A 8-track studio album, a 9-track live recording of her December 2008 concert held in Taiwan, and a DVD of that concert (12 tracks).  I’ve watched that DVD.  Even with zero knowledge in Japanese, she connects to me – with her expression, her tone, and her gesture.  Rimi can sing live really well and she plays the instrument too.  I don’t even know what that guitar-like instrument called.  It looks fretless and it looks difficult to play.  Most tracks are slow to moderately paced.  Towards the end of the concert, she picked up the pace with lots of colorful music arrangements.  It is a pleasant surprise and I can understand why some of these live tracks are not present in the CD recording.  They work better with the visual impact.

The songs from the new studio recording is just as pleasant as her previous productions.  Lyrically – judging from the Chinese translation – is poetically beautiful.  Beyond the visual images of the light and the blue sky, the wind and the hills, the moon and the darkness are a set of songs about yearning, about love and life and the embrace of a loving mother.

Click here if you wish to sample the album.  Below is one of the live recordings (not from this album collection) if you are curious about how Rimi’s music sounds like.  From the Chinese translation, the album title “ココロノウタ” means “Songs from the Heart and Soul”.

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Horsemen – If Not for Zhang Ziyi …

Horsemen

Sorry for my previous post that is kind of depressing and thanks for all your support.  I am OK, still [trying to be] as positive as ever.  So today has been a mad day at work.  I’ve told everybody that we are moving office and yet, work requests, meeting requests, email requests aimed at my team from near and afar – non-stop.  In between the request gaps, I was packing, frantically deciding what should go into a box that someone [I hope] would carry for me to the so-called new office (it’s not new for sure), what should go into the trash bin, and what should be shredded.  At day end, I turned to my team member and shocked that he hadn’t even started!

“Erm, you could use some of my box space.  I don’t have that much stuff,” I offered.  He is a lot older more experienced than me and at times, I feel that he’s my boss instead.  He waved and said, “Nah.”  “You are not bringing anything?” I asked.  And he pointed at his laptop bag and said, “That’s all.”

Wow.  I love that mentality.  I reckon I could have done the same.  What’s inside my box anyway?!  Junks.

So, what do men do when their partners are having all-girls-night-out?  Woohoo!  I frantically took out my [mental] note of things-I-wish-to-do-when-Cynthia-is-having-a-good-time-on-her-own.  Horror movies!  Except, there are none showing and “Horsemen” is the closest movie that neither Cynthia nor our movie buddy TK would want to watch with me.

So I wrapped up with the day with “Horsemen”.  To tell you the truth, if not for Zhang Ziyi, I wouldn’t have picked it.  I love her acting and she speaks better English this time.  Even with little makeup and with no fancy clothes throughout the show, she is just gorgeous.  While I am not quite sure if it’s a good idea to mix a bunch of suicidal, depressed kids with family issues and the [mis-] interpretation of the Book of Revelation from the Bible, “Horsemen” did prompt me to think or do the followings:

  • Work is just work, don’t forget your family.
  • I nearly cried towards the end.
  • [I confess that] it’s been a long time since I opened the Bible and not only have I read a bit here and there, I read the study notes in details too.

To the curious minds, the Book of Revelation is not meant to be taken as a literal set of predictions for the current events.  It is so encrypted because it was written during the Christian prosecution.  Divine revelation no doubt but do read it with the study notes.  Chapter 6 is the center theme of “Horsemen” and in the Bible, it is the visions of cosmic conflict.  A vision of four horsemen to kill with sword, famine, and plague, and by means of the beasts of the earth.  And then the angels appear and so on.

“Horsemen” is a pretty gruesome movie.  But then, for those who enjoy watching CSI, I don’t think you’ll have a problem with this one.  For those who dislike movies that end abruptly without a conclusion, you may not like “Horsemen”. 

I don’t hate “Horsemen”, I am just OK with it.  Nothing makes sense in the movie.  It is because by definitely, suicidal is momentary insanity.

Categories
Diary

Cold Cold Floor, Cold Cold Reality

This is the usual view from my cubicle

Good thing I have waited for a week or two before writing this.  It would have been rather depressing for me to write, even more depressing for you to read.  This proves one thing: for most of us, work is just business.  Unless you are building something that has the civilisation, interglacial level kind of long lasting impact, in a positive way, work is just business.  May 97, I was about to leave my client site in Paris.  I’ve had such a memorable time.  One friend whom we’d had lunch and coffee almost every weekday during my 9 months of stay wrote: Out of sight, out of mind?  Call it self-fulfilled prophecy, we’ve lost touch.

One fine Monday morning, I arrived at the office at the usual hour, the usual minute, and my office floor was freezing cold.  I took a picture as I looked around, hardly a soul.  Not enough body heat to consume the cool air from the air conditioning vents.  The cold cold reality as such: my previous department [that I’ve left a while back] has been dismantled.  The Friday before, everyone was saying goodbye to everybody.  Some moved on with a job elsewhere, some without.  Others have found another role within our organization, as a permanent, as a temp.  All had the same last day.  Global economy hits even those that are profitable.  Some sacrifices need to be made to meet or top that operating profit.  I get it.  Some say that the easier jobs are lost, the easier jobs can be created.  Oh is it?  So where is that spirit of mutual survival, huddle together and weather the bad storm?

Work is just business.

After attended that lunch time corporate talk that I went zzzz, I have attended another one and have thoroughly loved it.  What a contrast.  The topic was on economy outlook.  Throughout the talk, the knowledgeable presenter slipped in a few forecasts.  On the threats that may upset our economy, he highlighted the possibility of a flu like bird flu and SARS.  He couldn’t pinpoint what that could be.  That talk was held last month.  No, he didn’t say the words: Swine Flu.  I would have called him an oracle otherwise.

Next week, I will be moving to another office building as our organization is consolidating all who remain.  Looking at the space surrounding my cubicle, can you imagine that just less than 2 years ago, my floor was fully packed?  New hires like me were squeezed into a meeting room sharing one round table with 8 to 10.  Job openings could be closed within a week.  There was a huge shortage of office space in the central business district.  Looking at the recent up and downturns, it never ceases to amaze me on how much we as a collective species have progressed, and how much we have yet to learn.

Today, inside the restroom, in front of a huge mirror, I saw one colleague of mine patiently teaching another colleague of mine on how to put on a tie.  I guess in his new role, he is required to wear one.  Such a heartwarming moment.  That spirit of mutual survival, it’s hard to forget.  I wanted to chip in and help.  But I reckon too many cooks spoil the soup.

Categories
Action & Thriller Movie Reviews

Taken – I Squeezed Cynthia’s Hand So Hard That It’s No Joke!

taken

I am a big fan of Liam Neeson – less so for that Star War film but more so for say “Schindler’s List” and “Michael Collins”.  So naturally, I like “Taken”.  Did you know that it is scripted by Luc Besson?  “The Fifth Element” is my all time favorite.  And surprise-surprise, “Taken” is directed by Pierre Morel who has also partnered with Luc Besson in “District 13”.  All of us in the Movie Review Squad have watched “District 13” back in 2006.

While all of us love “Taken”, TK thinks that the open scenes are a bit too slow.  For me, I appreciate the character development, especially for this type of film.  To the least, you get to know where those special ‘capabilities’ of Neeson’s character – Bryan Mills – come from, his relationship with his daughter, and the situation he is now at.  Rather than a 007 or Bourne kind of intensity from beginning to end, there is a build up right to the point when Bryan’s daughter, Kim, was kidnapped in Paris, sold to a prostitution ring, and from then onwards, all hell break loose.

Maybe such circumstance has a higher urgency than ransom or even murder.  I didn’t expect the violence, I didn’t expect the excitement.  I was squeezing Cynthia’s hand throughout the show.  At the end of it, I felt some soreness on my jaws.  Gosh.  I must have been grinding my teeth hard.

TK said that “Taken” reminded him of the TV series 24.  Quite true.  The girl has a similar stage name some more.  Cynthia said that the show reminded her of “Your Name Is Justine” (a very painful movie to watch based on human trafficking) from the content point of view.  For me, “Taken” is like a series of little quests on the journey of a very desperate father trying to find his daughter in a foreign country, at times beyond comprehension how things could happen that way.  Kind of remind me of that one online role playing game’s non-stop questing (don’t think, just do).  90 minutes seemed to have passed way too quickly.  I want more.

Categories
For the Geeks

Dell Swarm – The More People Buying It, The Most Discount You Get!

Dell Swarm Website

So I was at what appears as the world first preview of Dell Swarm.  Of all the countries in the world, Dell has decided to choose Singapore as the pilot for this new and innovative way of product sales.  Maybe that says something about how we Singaporeans love … discounts?  Or more so for group discounts.  To cut a long story short, Dell Singapore is selling some of their products at a promotional price.  But there is more to it.  The more people swarmed together and buy the same product, the more discount the entire group gets.

That makes perfect sense.  I bought my Nikon dSLR camera together with my buddy Darkspore; and then we bought the white balance card together at Amazon.com.  I bought my NAS together with my buddy TK; and then we bought the digital jukebox together at Amazon.com.  So if the air travel industry has the 2-to-go or 4-to-go concept all this while, why doesn’t the e-Commerce retail business follow suit?

Apparently, that is what Dell Swarm has in mind.  The idea is so new that the Dell and Intel folks at the blogger event are as excited as me on how this will turn out.  So what exactly is Dell Swarm?  Here is a quick run down.

  • A Swarm is a group that forms to buy selected Dell laptops powered by the latest Intel® processors for less, within Singapore.
  • Every Tuesday (at 00:00:01), two swarms will be opened for two selected products eligible for group discount.
  • Any product put on swarm will have a discount from the original price as advertised in Dell.com.sg regardless on how many buyers are in the swarm.  So I guess if you already want to buy that Dell product powered by Intel®, you already have a good deal when you join the swarm.
  • And now, here is the fun part.  The more people join the swarm (in Singapore) and buy, the lower the price will drop!
  • The swarm has a lifetime of 72 hours or it will close when a limit of 15 buyers is hit.
  • So how much do you pay?  Everyone in the swarm will pay one final price – the lowest one.

Since I am given an access to their yet-to-go-live website, here are some screenshots on how it works.  I was told that all prices shown are not official so don’t get too excited if it is too … low … ha ha ha.

Dell Swarm - Demo 1

In this example (above), the Inspiron Mini 12 at the original price of S$899 is selling at a discounted price of S$854 if you are the first buyer (I tried the new netbook by the way and it looks awesome!).  So what happens when more buyers are joining the swarm?

Dell Swarm - Demo 2

With just 3 buyers, the price has dropped from S$899 to S$820.  And with 8, the illustrated price has dropped to the lowest you can get, S$809.

If you are not sure about buying, you can choose the follow option and will be informed as and when the price changes.  Maybe you have a target price in mind?

What is interesting about this innovative sales model is that it encourages word-of-mouth through both traditional means as well as the social media network.  Simply put, the more people join your swarm, the deeper discount you will get.  And which products do Dell Singapore plan to promote via Dell Swarm?  Reliable source tells me the followings: Inspiron Mini 12, Dell Studio 14, Dell Studio XPS M1340, and Dell Studio 14.

Dellswarm.com will be launched on May 5, 2009.  Keep a look out if you plan to get a Dell.  I for one am shopping for a netbook for our upcoming Spanish trip (mainly for the back-up of my digital photos just in case you think I am a workaholic or blogaholic).  I know someone in office who is buying a netbook for her business trip to UK.  And another friend is buying a laptop for his daughter.  Happy swarming guys! 

PS. This is not a sponsored post and all details are subjected to change.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

Spanish Supercharged: Elementary 2 @ Las LiLas School

The only Spanish DVDs I have ...

The thought of giving up on my Spanish class has briefly come and gone.  I would miss my classmates too much, my teachers too much, and if Cynthia wants to continue, I just have to press on.  It is rather up to my linguistic limit knowing how little talent I have on that department.  Today was the first day of the 10 “Elementary 2” lessons that will lead to an examination, unlike “Elementary 1” that is exam-free.  My lovely teacher Natalia jumped when I jokingly yet rather seriously commented that the only two or three things I have learned [by heart] from the last 10 lessons were que pasa (what’s up?), pausa (have a break), and uff (an expression).  Something Natalia always says; something I can always pick up.  The rest of what she says?  It literally sounds like music to my ears.

Stress aside, I always welcome a lighthearted break.  This morning I woke up with a foggy mind and a pair of eyes that could hardly be opened.  Still not fully recovered from that mild cold over the weekend, I thought of taking a medical leave.  But I thought of all the work piled up, the face-to-face meetings and the multi-country conference call that were set up, maybe working through the day with half of my brain still working is not too bad an idea.  So I did.  And as I was rushing out of the office for the Spanish Class this evening, my wireless phone continued to ring.  OK.  One more call to answer then.  This morning, in the car, Cynthia was playing the album by James Morrison.  I nearly fell asleep.  I begged for something more upbeat and she put Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on repeat.  Immediately I woke up.

Immediately I woke up when today’s Spanish Class started.  Today’s topic was on movies.  Thank God.  I love that topic.  You know I do.  And we learned the different genres in Spanish, how to describe everything about movies in Spanish (including popcorn), and we were given a printout of a movie schedule and asked to form sentences in Spanish.  Lovely.  When it came to my turn to speak, I said, “Me gustaría ir a (I would like to watch) … Confessions of a Shopaholic.”  The rest of the class was shocked while Cynthia was laughing (she knows me well).  And I continued, “Porque me gusta (Because I love) chick-lit.”  OK.  It took the entire class some time to explain to our teacher Natalia what chick-lit is.  And it took me quite a few moments to convince them that I do read the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella.  Seriously guys.  To get into a woman’s head, chick-lit is as close as you can get.  Besides, that series is very entertaining to read.

So, how does the photo relate to this blog entry?  Well, as part of the exercise for next week, we are suppose to pen down some Spanish film titles that we know.  I dig through my foreign film DVD collection, only manage to find 3.  Two of which I have yet to open.  Maybe I shall try out learning Spanish by watching Spanish films.  Now, that’s easy.

Categories
For the Geeks

Norton Internet Security – Protection That You Won’t Feel Like You’re Having One!

Norton Insight

These days, everything seem to be on steroid.  Like the F1 on TV, that very fast very furious movie, and like the new Norton Internet Security I have been using for the past 30 days.  In the beginning of this year, I wrote an entry on the Norton Gaming Edition.  I’m still running that in one of my machines at home.  Friends of mine know how much I value the speed of my quad core monster.  Right after my Norton subscription on that machine was expired, I installed this 2009 version.

I timed it.  The installation was indeed less than a minute as advertised.  That’s pretty fast.  From the moment I’ve installed Norton Internet Security till now, everything works in the background.  That is, from live update (or now they call it pulse update as it happens every 5 to 15 minutes on its own) to quick scan to incremental full system scan.  What is really cool about the latest version of this software suite is that scanning happens whenever my computer is in idle, automatically (see screenshot below).  The moment I wake up my computer, the scanning stops.

Norton Security History

So how quick is a quick scan?  I just did one.  Less than 30 seconds.  How can that be?  That has to do with the new Norton Insight.  It is a community intelligence-driven technology that drastically cut down the need to scan common files.  As you can see from the screenshot at the top of this entry, 87% of my files are in the trusted zone.

Just how resource intensive Norton Internet Security then?  In terms of working memory usage, it’s less than 7MB.  That’s pretty light.  Norton Internet Security offers a higher level of protection than Norton Gaming Edition, for those who need it.  And if you are into actively monitoring your security, there are tons of reports on security risks and scan, firewall activities, errors, Norton community watch, and more.

Idle time scan

If you need a more comprehensive protection than just an anti-virus and if you work with the Internet a lot, Norton Internet Security is a good product to consider.  Its small memory footprint, fast scan, and hassle free security management makes it certainly one attractive product to own.  If not for the little pop-up that appears every now and then (see right), I wouldn’t even feel that Norton has been working hard for me.

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Mai Kuraki (倉木麻衣) – touch Me! – Odd Song Choices Aside, A Decent Effort Nonetheless

Mai Kuraki - touch Me!

Again, the Japanese pressed CDs of Mai Kuraki don’t come cheap.  Three times the price of a normal disc.  HMV Singapore charges me the price of one English CD as shipping fees.  I guess it is sort of fair.  If only I could read Japanese and order online instead.  Pondered in front of the counter for just a moment, I grabbed one copy.  The truth is, quite a few times I hesitated for too long (it could well be less than 24 hours) and the stock was gone.  And I had quite a tough time trying to hunt for them.

Onto her 8th album, “touch Me!” entered the chart at the #1 position, after three misses from her previous albums.  If you like her sensual and light R&B kind of voice, well, she sounds pretty much the same as before.  Had “touch Me!” stopped at the 10th track, that would have been much better.  I love the oldie “Top of the World”.  Just not sure if I like Mai Kuraki’s rendition.  And the 12th track is a remix of track 4 that is a bit too dreamy to my liking.

The good news is, if you ignore the last 2 tracks, “touch Me!” does have a good mix of fast and slow pace, mostly catchy.  My favorite track would be “Break the Tone” and “Catch”.  Fans would love this new album, I bet.