Join the fight against "Hi-Tech" crime!

I bring you the Australian Hi Tech Crime Centre

Now what do they define as "High Tech" crime?

"High tech crimes include:

computer intrusions (e.g. malicious hacking) unauthorised modification of data, including destruction of data denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and the creation and distribution of malicious software (e.g. viruses, worms, trojans). "

Acts which are all easily performed by any cluey 13-yr old.

How disappointing! Who ya gonna call once the crimes get seriously hi-tech, involving cloning, wormholes, particle colliders, faster than light travel, nanotechnology and sharks with friggin' lasers on their heads? The Australian Exxxtrem3ly H1 T3kk Crime Centre?

The dead stay online

So what happens to your online presence once you die? How long will you remain on blogger? Will the flickr admins pay any attention to your friends' pleas to keep your photos on the site even though the account has expired? Or maybe one of your friends will copy all your photos and put it up on a memorial site. Hey, maybe flickr will have a cemetery, for members who have been confirmed dead (death certificate required).

Just started thinking about this again after I came across somebody's profile that had a tribute to a flickr member who died in a car crash back in July. The deceased member's photos are still up, so I guess they're paid up til next year. So what's going to happen once it expires eventually?

I suppose as long as Google exists my stupid Usenet posts will remain out there. What a scary thought.

Reconciling online personas

Sometimes it's just not worth it, all this subterfuge with online identities.

I posted a comment on my friend's blog, telling him about a gig I saw and how it was the most awesome gig ever, what they played, etc etc.

Then on another occasion, after he told me how he was going to check 'em out in San Francisco, I told him how he was going to love the final song they played in their encore. I then tried to get him to guess what song they would play. I finally tell him, and then he reminds me, "Uh, yeah, you already told me that on my blog". I'm a bit confused at first and then I realised I was probably posting using another username. And then I had to think - which one was I using? Was it my flickr user? Gmail? Yahoo? Blogger? Hotmail? Bah!

Big Kev is dead.

Not excited!

Late night infomercial junkies of Australia will turn down the volume for 1 minute tomorrow. But they will still see the number flashing on their screens, so they can still make purchases afterwards!

Got my U2 Tickets! Barely.

U2 toured Australia twice in the 90s, first in '93 (Zooropa) then in '98 (Lemon (?)). I didn't go to either of them.

Why? First time around because I didn't really love them as much. My nostalgia glands hadn't kicked in. In '98 though, I was probably going through my slack mofo phase where I would buy tickets then just bloody not go to the gig cos I was sad at going alone and woe is me ladeeda depressive shit... Not a good time for me. I clearly did it at least twice, and not just some el cheapo $5 gig at a pub - with Everclear at the Metro, then Smashing Pumpkins at the Hordern Pavillion. I'm sure Billy would've been crushed by my no show. Oh, and while I knew Bono was probably going to pull some McPhisto big-ass stage gesture shit, and they did have that big lemon on stage, I was kinda getting turned off by their attempts at being disco or ironic or cynical or whatever you call it. I like my U2 big and sincere, heart on sleeve singing words like "incantation, isolation, condemnation.. let it go, and fade away" Soppy and earnest.

Anyway, I'm finally going! Along with 6 other slack-arses that couldn't be bothered helping to get the tickets. Why the hell do I have to be the Ticketek line-up-for-1-hour-or-more peon. Oh yeah, sure, you all have jobs - just like I do! Okay, it's not really that big an imposition, but why doesn't anyone else give a damn about these things and try organising things. Sometimes it's good, cos once I got to corral my friends into checking out Philip Glass playing the Koyaanisqatski soundtrack at the Opera House. Or go to the Big Day Out (which is waay more fun when you have friends to lose in the crowd).

My biggest mistake was turning up to Ticketek at Star City at goddam 8.30 in the morning! Why o why didn't I go earlier? It's bloody U2! People sleep over for these things! I saw people smugly beaming as they got their tickets, lugging their pillows, blankets, luggage, and in one instance - a 14" TV. No slumming it for those fans. The good thing was it was all under cover. If you're going to stay the night for tickets, make it at Star City. Not only are you not exposed to the elements, but you have easy access to food and alcohol and poker machines! Why, you could - theoretically - actually earn enough money to get up to 8 A Reserve ($200 ea) tickets. If there were two of you, that'd be 16 tickets to scalp, er peddle, because all 16 of you got called to jury duty or had to do something for the Army Reserve that evening. And since some ebay suckaz have paid up to 8x for a ticket, you're looking at a potential profit of $22400 (($200 per ticket * 16 tickets * 8x markup) - ($200 * 16 initial investment) ). You don't get that at the Elizabeth St branch.

Back to the topic - why was I late for U2 tickets? I got my 8 D reserve seats - yes, up there in the air close to the clouds - at 9.45.. and then I found out later that tickets sold out at 10am! That's cutting it a bit fine. How come I was able to haul ass to get New Order tickets at 7.30 in the morning? A show that I really regretted seeing as they didn't play Bizarre Love Triangle or Confusion. Bernard blurted out something about how sick he was of it, but he had to play the damn song called Blue Monday. (though they did play Love Will Tear Us Apart!) So how could I do it for New Order and not U2? Am I just getting too lazy to care about rock and roll?

I was actually more excited about getting tickets for Sleater-Kinney, also selling on the same day. Actually.. no, they were selling on 2 December, same day as the White Stripes. But anyway, comparing all 3 shows, from small (S-K) to medium (White Stripes) to humongous (U2) -- maybe I'm not really as enthusiastic about the bigger shows because of the distance factor. Watching it from so far away, that the best you can do is just look at the big screen -- well, what's the point? Might as well watch a DVD. But then, watching at home on TV - you don't get to be part of the big herd/ crowd doing the gigantic singalong.

But then fukkkkk... 70,000 people singing "One". Maybe 50,000.. since there will be spouses and children or parents bought along who have NFI when it comes to the lyrics.

I remember feeling a bit of this when we saw Springsteen, in what was probably one of the worst gigs of his career, where the power came out 5 times, and he was already swearing at one point "I don't know what the fuck is going on". Watching at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and I couldn't actually see anything onstage... just doesnt work for me.

Yes, this is incomplete, but I gotta get some sleep.

Phew, it stinks. Was 33deg C today. Hottest day of the year, apparently. And it's only going to get hotter.

17 days to go til Christmas! Yes, I really do want that 60Gb ipod this year. Dear Lord, please. Maybe I can buy it then give it to my wife and get her to give it to me. Yay, my devious mind has a cunning plan. Bla bla bla...

Dream - goodbyes to two ex-future girlfriends, graduation day, john howard at the pub

30 Oct 2005, sunday

slept at 3.30am, woke up at 7 (pre-DST) or 8, current time. f&*k - lost one hour of sleep. need to pretend i got 5 when i only got 4 hrs sleep. the following is pretty much automatic writing, just going with the flow and not subjected to my usual hours of pain selecting the right phrases and weighing the nuance of individual words. fuck style, this is all content. from mah brain to mah fingers. [music: keyboard player starts playing in-a-gadda-da-vida like that Simpson's episode where Bart distributes those R.Ron Butterfly hymn sheets at church]

had the weirdest dream this morning.

was having drinks with johnny howard and a few guys at the pub. we were going into this separate section for drinks but johnny didn't go in, but he had one drink, toasted me along with some other guys and left after that. i remember in the dream thinking if i should criticise him or attack his record over drinks at the pub but decided not to. seemingly following some rule of etiquette about not criticising a guest at one's own celebrations. he was probably a teacher in the school, because in the scene b4 that. the guys along for drinks seem to include some guys from my real-life contiki tour that we went on hour honeymoon. i recognise among them jaydyn, the wild party animal who could drink like a fish. strangely, him and some others are already in the separate area, and inexplicably, i see them from an elevated position, as i could see over the partition dividing them from the main pub. there is a door on the left of this permanent wooden partition. i possibly could have been on the mezzanine, but there is no part of the dream where i am actually present there. it's more like a view from a movie camera, where it gets lifted by the mechanism for those wide tracking shots showing the countryside or overall view of an area, like the sequence showing a view of the train station platforms in harry potter. before i am at the pub...

i'm at some form of school assembly, perhaps a graduation of sorts. i come in late to the event, having arrived from my faraway trip, and feel like some big reward or acknowledgement is going to be made with me going to the front. i was expecting this to come after the event, and that i was to go to the front to make a speech. however, the event closes, and me and C are going through my cds in my woven cloth backpack trying to find he right song, to be played either in the background of the speech or as i walk on, but i can't seem to find it or figure ou what the perfect song is. suddenly it seems he's made the choice, and its a song with a u2-like intro (i rmembver thinking hmm.. "is this U2?" can't remember if it was a u2 song. chimey solo guitar riff ala-streets have no name or beautiful day, but a different song i think)... don't remember if my relatives are at the event at all, but in the scene b4 this...

my relatives are at the elevator, waiting for me to get in. it feels like we were all just visiting this place, probably a province far away. i feel that auntie T and family are among those relos in the left. i meanwhile, am around the corner saying goodbye to two women. one at a time. i distinctly remember kissing one of them, long and deep. i remember thinking she has a small mouth. it's not a kiss of commitment, but more one of unrequited love, a kiss as a poor substitute for all the moments that we would never have, could never have. it's a kiss to say: this is what we could have been had our roads diverged earlier and met up, before being irrevocably set in their present paths. here is what you could have had, and more. it's a kiss that in a different version of our respective histories would have promised much more. instead it is all we would ever really have. business cards are handed over, emails are confirmed, as are phone numbers. but it will never be as it should be, or could be. what could now only be a friendship from afar will not burn the same, will not give the same pleasure. she has small lips, and a narrow face. i don't actually remember the whole that these remembered features are comprising. it's not a whole face i remember, just body parts. i don't remember her cleavage or what her body is like below her neck. the face is all i am focused on, but i still don't remember all of it. those lips i devour to make up for all the other goodbye kisses that we will never have.

another of the countless forks in the road that i could have but did not take.

with the one i don't kiss, i remember she seems the more subservient one. no, not subservient, but seeemingly one who'd want to take more care of me than the one that i do kiss, who seems to be a target of my greater lust. this one would be more inclined to try to please me, do favours i ask of her. the one i don't kiss looks more plain, actually looking like RZ from an old encounter in Cebu, but i don't remember if it was her exactly. again, it seems a relationship doomed to future musings about what could have been, how things may have turned out if i had gone right instead of left. how we would have enjoyed each other in ways deeper and far more meaningful than our brief turn as passers-by in each others lives. the one i don't kiss is preparing some papers , or is it letters or writing down some contact details. but as far as i remember, i never held her in my arms, or leave the one that i kiss.

i dont' remember any of their names, or even if i said them at all in the dream. i remember seeing a URL or an email address on one of the business cards. the word "condon" is all that remains in my head, a domain name in one address.

then i woke up to the sound of rain starting, and our rush to get the washing off the clothes line before they're soaked and ruined. such a good day yesterday but we didn't get the washing off the line. now we've got humid, ambiguous weather, threatening a downpour but not delivering. drips and drabs - "manaka-nakang pag-ulan", as filipino weather forecasts would say. we get the washing onto a portable clothes hanger under the roof of our backyard veranda, and maybe they'll dry off to be useable this week, and not stink the hell up.

this is the first dream i've written down quickly. i wonder if i should leave my pc on. doing a cold start on the fucking pc just takes too long, and i'll forget it all while waiting for xp to become useable once i log in. maybe i should keep a notebook, but then i'd have to transcribe it to put it online. dont' know if this should go on blogger or in another, more secret website.

maybe i should get an ibook, to remain in standby mode for quick pick up and use. i've recommended it to a relative, but still can't dish out the $$$ to buy one. aah, forever collecting postcards of Apple products and being a mere wannabe. sad.

Favourite Gigs of All Time

Not in any particular order. Subject to further editing and exaggeration as time goes by.

1. The Polyphonic Spree - Enmore Theatre, January 2005

2. Prince - Sydney Entertainment Centre, December 2003. My ultimate Prince concert comes true after almost 20 years. He played his 80s hits, including those from Purple Rain! Arrived at the venue to buy a ticket, and was approached by these two girls wanting to sell her dancefloor ticket! It was my lucky night. Now it would've been an even luckier night if it also meant her friend would keep me company before, during, and after the gig. Hoo-wah.

There were people onstage who apparently paid about A$1000 to watch his Princeliness up close, watching the gig from the back, near where the drummer was sitting or from the side, and turned into impromptu backup dancers.

Larry Johnson (bassist of Sly and the Family Stone) came onstage during one of his extended encores/jams. Apparently, they're both Jehovah's Witnesses.

3. Sleater-Kinney - Gaelic Club, December 2002 - It was the first time I heard "You're No Rock and Roll Fun", which is actually the funnest song with Rock and Roll in the title. Corrin is simply hot.

4. Lou Reed - Enmore Theatre, October 2003 - sure, he had his tai-chi instructor onstage, and you just had to stop from laughing cos it's LOU! They did an amazing Venus in Furs with a wild woman on the viola! And Anthony came on stage and sang Candy Says. Beat that, sucka.

5. Kylie Minogue - Sydney Entertainment Centre, 2002 - Fever tour - shiny, shiny, shiny. I just can't get Can't Get You Out Of My Head video out of my head. Actually, I can. I just think of the Spinning Around video, with the gold hot pants. Baby got back. She had robots and a UFO onstage!

6. Elvis Costello & Steve Nieve - Her Majesty's Theatre, 18 Feb 1999 - see review at http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/dpannell/music/ecrev3.htm

7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - State Theatre, November 1997. Everyone has to hear Nick and the gang play The Mercy Seat. Maybe accompanied by shouts of "Death! Death! Death!" every few minutes. It's your patriotic duty, Aussies!

8. The Prodigy - Metro Theatre, (August?) 1997. At the end of the night I was wringing sweat out of my t-shirt. They were that good.

9. second Big Day Out - Sydney Showground, January 1993 - with Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, Iggy Pop.

The ground was muddy from a little rain, so they had plywood boards for people to stand in the grandstand(?). It was still slippery though, so we rushed away from the mosh to avoid falling down and getting trampled during Mudhoney's set.

It wasn't the last act of the night, if my memory is right, but the highlight of the day was seeing all these people on the main stage playing "I Wanna Be Your Dog". Nick was running around on stage, carrying Iggy on his back!

Also memorable for the giant inflatable monkey set up near the main stage, with it's bare ass showing the words "Baby Got Back". I guess that was in lieu of Sir Mixx-a-Lot as headliner. Oh the possiblities!

10. first Big Day Out - Sydney Showground, January 1992 - with Beasts of Bourbon, Violent Femmes, Nirvana. I didn't know the words to Smells Like Teen Spirit, so I had to make them up while singing along with 10,000 people at the Hordern Pavillion. When the lights out, ini-tage-yash! Here we ornah, Ene-tay-shah! I feel stupid, and container! Here we ornah, Anastacia!

11. The White Stripes - Enmore Theatre, Oct 2003. Extremely memorable not just for the insane bluesy rawk action at the gig, but earlier in the evening, while we were at a Thai restaurant, Meg walked in with two friends, and sat at the table beside us!

I had my copy of SPIN with her and Jack on the cover, I had my silver pen, I had my Ixus camera in my bag. It was fate man, fate! I never buy SPIN anymore, but that morning I got a copy thinking, "Hey wouldn't it be cool if i hung out at the theatre exit and wait to get an autograph?" Maybe Jack can shake my hand and I'll be as good as he is on geetar. But I only took the magazine with me on the very very slim chance that I'd get to see them up close.

And there it was, staring me in the face. This was my chance. But I chickened out. I thought I'd be cool and not disturb them while eating.

Wuss. Loser. When did being nonchalant and acting like you don't care when you really OMG OMG OMG it's her it's her it's her love this fucking band so much it hurts. When did irony, not feeling, distancing, and all this post-moderny rubbish become "cool". Self denial is never cool! (yes, I'm Catholic) "Cool" is getting near Meg White, maybe touching her soft, alabaster skin as I shake her hand, or maybe give her a hug (it gets lonely in a band of two) and feeling her ample bosom touching my chest as I whisper a soft moan in her ear and she whispers back... err... or maybe just an autograph and a picture.

London, Oct 2004

 
Just testing the BlogThis! function in Picasa.
 

Ingmar Bergman to direct Film of my life

Ingmar Bergman Your film will be 57% romantic, 30% comedy, 41% complex plot, and a $ 40 million budget.

Your life will be portrayed on film as an intense psychological drama, likely with some actresses screaming at the camera (Persona), or maybe a pleasant chess game between the Grim Reaper and a Crusader (The Seventh Seal). This Swedish director's films are intensely scrutinzed and studied in colleges all over the world to this day. This means that most Americans still don't understand his films! Still alive, he released in the U.S. in 2005 his first film in 23 years (Saraband), and he can still take on one more project to make your film biography. If curious, start with his films Wild Strawberries and Smiles of a Summer Night.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 70% on action-romance You scored higher than 33% on humor You scored higher than 57% on complexity You scored higher than 72% on budget

Link: The Director Who Films Your Life Test written by bingomosquito on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Thailand Chronicles

Day 1, Phuket

Arrived at around 6.20am, on Thai Airways. Flight was fairly uneventful, unlike other recent plane trips plagued with delays. Couldn't help but compare everything with Qantas.

Thai Airways

PRO
- More legroom! We both noticed this immediately. It probably makes more of a difference when you're on a long-haul international flight, but it's always good to not risk that DVT-feeling when flying.
- The stewardesses have much nicer gowns. Form-hugging uniforms on service staff are always a pleasure to enjoy watching.
- Better food.

CONS
- fewer drink choices. No coke at all, only juice. Doesnt seem to be as systematic in distributing food, eg, stewardess comes out with a tray instead of trolley containing everything, means she has to go back to seats if a selection runs out.
- no toiletries pack with eyecover and toothbrush, but lani found toothbrush kit in toilet.
- female staff not as hot. But then Qantas have the same issue. Only Virgin Blue seem to have consistent hotties.
- less liquor choice. not that it affects me.
- no personal video screen
- crappy audio. or is it the headphones. sound keeps breaking up.
- snacks were cold.

Arrived in Phuket, picked up by Tour East and taken to hotel. They inspect for bombs under the vehicles! seriously kids.. if you wanted to blow up a place, wouldn't you be wearing the bomb, or at least keep it inside the car or in luggage. Got driven in golf cart to our very excellent room! Great view but smells kinda funny (smell gone on 2nd day).

slept and woke up at 11. went to hotel restaurant only to be told breakfast had ended at 10.30. damn, and it was free too! doh. we order instead. lani gets salmon and i get pad thai. their pad thai comes inside an omelet! wow, never seen it like that before. A+++ for presentation.

Day 2, Phuket
9 - went to stretching class. only lani and i were there. we were led by this dark, muscular thai guy, mostly exercises we already knew. got my heart rate up on the rowing machine! decently-equipped gym. the guy laughs at every opportunity it seems - a very thai trait, apparently.

9.45 - had brekkie. great variety. not just western dishes, but also some Asian touches. Fried rice and noodles! Pork sausages! They've got itlog na maalat (salted egg) and dilis with peanuts! If only they had tocino, we could've had tocilog, and it'd be perfect.

Day 1, Bangkok
(to be continued)

Twas the morning before the night flight to Thailand...

Okay, am now in pre-departure buzzing mode. I always do this - staying awake til early morning on the day that I leave. Did it when I went to the Philippines in 2001, did it before we went to Wellington, NZ in 2003, when we went to Europe for the honeymoon in Oct last year, and now before going to Thailand. Why? It's usually that fear of forgetting something extremely important. Like the bloody passport or the plane tickets. Or some electronic thingo that to buy overseas would cost twice as much. But then again, we're going to somewhere much much cheaper than Australia, so we can always take comfort in knowing we can buy almost everything we need over there!

Except maybe for my imaginary iPod, cos it seems to be more expensive over there than in HK or here. Yeah, that one, the 40Gb one that I'm proabably never going to buy. It's disturbing really. Remember in Mean Girls, where Lindsay Lohan's character realises she simply cannot stop talking about Regina George? It's the same with me and the iPod. A friend has already noticed the increasing frequency of mentions in our daily emails. At the moment, I've actually found the best deal is from buystation in HK, where a 40Gb iPod is on offer for around A$400. In Australia, that won't even get you the 20Gb one at most retailers.

But this again raises the question, why don't I just get the Shuffle? I've already concluded that I only need 512 as the only time I need that city soundtrack is when I'm commuting home, which should be sufficiently covered by 512 mins. of music. But it's so small, and I can't rate the music, and what if I need to have alternative storage media to transport my feature films, like they did on Lord of the Rings? Hmmm..

So what did I do today?

1. Got a haircut. Was thinking of just getting it in Thailand, cos it'd be much cheaper, but wifey reminds me, "Remember,we're going to my brother's wedding immediately after we arrive in Sydney!" [code for: Please on't embarrass me with a shitty 'do. And don't you dare shave your head and say you became a fucking Buddhist.]

2. Passed by one of the local Asian stores and almost spent too much money on food items. Bought siomai, vietnamese rice cake (the green one, with white layers), Knorr "chinese soup" mix, and 3 vietnamese Pork rolls from the shop beside it. Mmmm...

3. Watched this HK flick from the early 90s called New Dragon Inn, starring Donnie Yen, Maggie Cheung, Brigitte Lin and Tony Leung. God, Maggie C is so cute! And the fight scenes were just awesome. The highlight for me is this scene at the end where the butcher llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk God, that was me falling asleep and pressing down on the keyboard. Am so totally screwed. Gotta go to bed.

Lemme finish that thought -- the fight is near the end, where Donnie Y's character has managed to defeat or at least seriously puncture with a sword the other three lead characters. Then to their rescue comes the Dragon Inn's in-house butcher, who was shown earlier in the movie to be seriously adept at carving away strips of human flesh from a carcass hanging in the basement. He collides and does battle with Donnie, and there is a blur showing the results of battle. Camera moves away and we see that butcher-guy's managed to strip all flesh from his left hand up to his forearm, and also from his left foot! Donnie tries to walk and his left leg breaks and he comes crashing down. He's eventually slain by Tony L's character, but Brigitte's body has already sunk into the sand.

4. Oh, and Iron Chef French (Sakai) lost to a challenger for the first time! Secret ingredient was Homard lobster, which is apparently a variety found mostly in Europe. A bit shocked to see the live lobsters being skewered and getting their shells taken off while still alive. I wish they'd hurry up and release the show on DVD already! Warning: just checked on Amazon and found an American version called Iron Chef USA, but apparently it was so awful that only two episodes got made.

I'm really going to bed now. It's 5.21 am. Do you know where your children are?

God.. just spent half an hour browsing. Bloody hell. Wanted to place a pic of Robert Patrick in that scene from Terminator 2 where he's asking "Have you seen this boy?" Couldn't find one. Then somehow ended up on a co-worker's blog. Then onward to a few of his links, one of which is Alterslash - a slashdot digest, then found a link to Tor: An anonymous Internet communication system. And found an interesting article about the early Internet, and a reporter getting in touch with Bill.

I'm really going now.

Han Solo-related thought for the day

star wars 013
Originally uploaded by tamura.

Whoever you are, whatever you do, anytime you think the pressure's too great, that things are just crashing down on you, just remind yourself: it sure beats being encased in carbonite.

Arabic cover of Rock the Casbah

Listening to Alchemy, on SBS Radio, and heard this cover of the Clash's
"Rock the Casbah", complete with Middle Eastern touches in the
instrumentation. It's by Rachid Taha, a French-Arab singer. Time to
fire up Kazaa Lite! Heheh.. Found this article about him:
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/022405/cover_music.html

18 May - Wong Kar Wai Retrospective, Dendy Opera Quays

Arrived at Circular Quay at around 5.20, pretty pleased with myself at being early, and not being out of breath from all my powerwalking. Then I take my ticket out and realise the movie started at 5! WTF! Serves me right for not looking at the schedule, and presuming that the same schedule as yesterday would be followed. Not that there was any reason for me to assume that!

Slimmer pickings this time around. Both films presented are
representative of early period WKW, BCD (before Chris Doyle). No hyper-saturated, neon-soaked colours here! Both are straightforward, non-arty, very 80s flicks. The first film is "Final Victory", which I guess is a comedy, but not a memorable one. Somewhat clunky, mass-market comedy. "As Tears Go By" has a more coherent plot, and has Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung. (okay, having MC is enough for me to watch it). Lots of cheese, with a Chinese version of "Take My Breath Away" at the romantic sequences. Lots of beatings, broken glass, and weapons - not so much guns as knives and baseball bats. In some scenes you see the beginnings of WKW's usual techniques - the slo-mo foreground contrasting with blurry sped-up action in the background, for example, in the scene with Andy Lau at a bar in front of a jukebox. Or I think that's what it was...

17 May - Wong Kar Wai Retrospective, Dendy Opera Quays

Test post. Let's see if mailing to this address will publish on blogspot.

Managed to get to Dendy Opera Quays in time for the screening of Wong
Kar Wai's "Fallen Angels". About a hit man, his point girl, a mute
scam artist, his psycho would-be girlfriend. One of the clearest examples of the WKW- Chris Doyle (cinematographer) combination. Some scenes tended to be blatantly self-indulgent but at times, done with such inventiveness that you don't really mind at all (ie, the scene with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Charlie Young at the bar, seemingly filmed with a time lapse camera, everyone around them moving in a blur, and TK slowly trying to nuzzle Charlie).

More people came in to catch the next one
"Chungking Express". Oh boy, more Tony Leung, this time being stalked
by a skinny but cute psycho chick played by Faye Wong. But that's the second part. The first part is about a drug smuggling attempt, and a heartbroken cop. More satisfying than the former, that's for sure.

More later, I'll edit this post anyway. Bla bla bla...

Must remember to leave work earlier next time. Was extremely lucky to get across town to Circular Quay in 30 minutes.

First Post

This will be a diary, an aid to memory, a tool to help my family use my words against me, a scrapbook, an album, a scratchpad, a post-it note stretching out for all the days from now til Google turns Evil. Or at least til I decide to self-host and move. Or my ADSL access is cut off. Or all sorts of nasty shit.

Hello.

Krang's Mood

You may ask yourself: well, how did I get here?

When I first started getting into Mr Hayes's music, I had these grand visions of becoming - if not Shaft - then definitely a (perhaps) lower-rung, but still well hung, sex machine to all da chicks, somebody who'd get chicks all hot and wet, cos I could play them deep-throated bassy vocals by someone who wasn't Barry White (who all the ladies already knew via Ally McBeal).

Picture the scene:

[late night funky stuff in da bedroom. soft female moaning, wafting thru the house]

me: MMM..mmMMMMM.. ooh.. yeah... baby, you like that doncha??

she: uh-huh... uhmm... mmm...

/krangsquared pulls supacool vinyl out of his dj bag

she: whatchu got there, baby?

me: This is Isaac Hayes's album, "... To be Continued"

she: so what?

me: This is what you could call my big gun, baby, musically speaking. This is where I go for the kill and demolish all your trainspotting, sampledelic defenses. Listen to this closely, my lovely, for almost every note in this has been sampled to a degree not too far removed from "Apache" and "Funky Drummer"

she: huh?

/krangsquared puts album on turntable, and cues up "Ike's Mood"

me: Listen that horn blast in the intro. Doesn't that remind you of every Ms Universe broadcast you ever saw back in the 70s? When the strings come in and you hear your M.C. for the evening talks about "these lovely ladies from all around the globe vying for this prestigious title"..

[music continues for a while]

Listen to that guitar riff... picked up and recycled by groups like Massive Attack and The Chemical Brothers...

she: Waitaminnit, but that riff wasn't really used on a Chemical Brothers song, I think. It was on the track "Wede Man", in the intro...

me: I see...

she: And the "Live at the Social" CD, where it's on, is pretty much just a DJ set, and only features I think 1 or 2 tracks by them.

me: mmm...MMMMM... baby, I can clearly see whose defenses are coming down... and it ain't yours. And here I was thinkin I was gonna try and impress you! I can see we've really got a groove thang going here.. Together, we'll set the sky alight. Together, we'll make each evening feel like it's our very last night. Together, we've got a chance to spot so many samples, and identify so many riffs - we could even win at musical trivial pursuit at the local bar on Wednesday nite!

she: Baby, that rhymin' was risky but heartfelt. It's almost like in Light My Fire where Jim matches "liar" and "pyre". He could've just used fire anyway, but that boy, he just had to tempt fate.

Yeah, baby, we've really got it going on.... uh huh...

Ooh, dat's right... do dat again, lovah... mmmm...

me: mmmm-mmmmm-MMMMM!

[the strings come in, and the lovin' keeps comin on]

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My friend thewilyfilipino was disturbed enough by the above posting to suggest that I set up a blog. I took that as a compliment. :)