have added a new link to the list of music sites to the right.
menomena's page is the most fascinating webpage/band page i've seen in a very very long time. you should go visit.
plus it helps that their music is good and original. piano-driven rock at a fresh best.

sigh. it's more than three days from school, and i cannot any more sorely crave the (physical) company of 1-soon-to-be-2a13a. especially shoujie, ruth, claud, kelly, tsz san, randy, yiting. i miss the presence of these people the most, because somehow their presence alone is enough to light up my day. i wonder how much of them i will see given the circumstances next year. the more the better, i guess.

about corporations doing their bit to help the tsunami victims. i know it's not true in all cases, but sometimes you cannot help but suspect that sometimes some people are just opportunists in nature, and see this sad situation as some way to raise the profile of their firm or something. not to say that they're cold or whatever, but we all know that altruism gets kicked out of the window in the corporate world, so when shell offers to donate 5 cents with every litre of petrol pumped out of their tanks, the fact that shell will invariably gain more revenue from this undoubtedly will eat at the corner of your mind. or my mind, at least.

when thinking about altruism and sincerity and all these related notions, what strikes deepest is not that you know people can do things that should be from the heart in a very pragmatic manner with these notions close to being the least of their concerns, but that you begin to nod and recognise the reason in them and their manner of thinking.
i may be generalising, but certainly for me this is very true.

sigh. the dell has gone down again, and this time the treasure in it is gone for good.
i seem to have very pathetic luck with physical errors in hard disks. so far the compaq is the only one to not have suffered that fate, and even the compaq is not actually my computer; it's borrowed from my aunt.
so the 200 or so mp3s that i've added to my collection over the holidays, not including music videos and quite a few full albums, are now out of my reach.

was absolutely pissed for a couple of hours after scandisk also stopped working. i cannot remember myself being so angry for such a long time. it's been a long time since i was even this angry. very long. angry at what i'm honestly not sure myself, but there i was stalking around the house seething like crazy. guess it was losing the mp3s that did it.

but after that, and after i sent out an email to dell customer support, i kinda cooled off as the resignation set in. i can smile to myself about it now, albeit in a very sad kind of way. nowhere near despondent though :p
and i must admit, it felt kind of good being that angry. not nice, i know, but for me it probably was a form of relief, a form of catharsis. because you must know that a lot of things that i don't feel good about, i don't tell people. i'll just hole up with music, i'm that kind of person. i'm quite amazed at how i managed to hole up so much before being this angry for like, two hours.

so for the moment i'll just lean back onto my wall of sound, and hope that dell does offer on-site service in singapore, even though the nearest customer service centre is in penang.

i like jose mourinho. i don't think he's really as arrogant as the press seem to make him out to be. he speaks with authority and confidence, the kind you get when you know you have the ability and you know you are showing the ability. so if you have it, why not flaunt it? at least it's a good break from managers whose maneouvres on the pitch somehow don't consistently do enough justice to the flowery language attached to them.
then again, if someone opens his mouth as much as mourinho does, he's bound to get his foot in it sometime or other. should be quite spectacular when it happens, given his comments are not far away from hyperbole at the moment.

i cannot say i love the new rjc campus. it's big all right, and does have lots of wind at certain places.
but the whole place just gives one a clinical feel. like a hospital.
it reminds me vaguely of sgh. with white and green walls and ramps here and there and circular blocks and stuff.
maybe it's only because it's not filled with people yet. hopefully it'll look and feel much nicer after that
it's missing a lot of the charm that mt sinai had. who cares about the peeling walls and the ever-full urinals - it felt like a student's school more than anything.
i quite regret not going for a walk around the campus before assembling this morning.

and stars!
stars, not the stars. that would be too snotty a name for a pop band.
the term indie pop may sound quite oxymoronic but if you listen to stars you will know what indie pop is.
the melodies would have no problems (in theory) making it onto the airwaves, and the best part is the instrumentation that comes along with it. they know how to use electronics - enough to make it sound fresh and engaging without ever indulging in overkill. and the twin vocals - male and female - give them an overall vibrant feel. who cares about the soppy sentimentalist lyrics. sometimes indie fans also need to let down their cool front...haha ;]

and bjork. never fails to amaze. this is a very nice song.

Sonnets / Unrealities XI
it may not always be so; and i say
that if your lips, which I have loved, should touch
another's, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as I know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;
if this should, i say if this should be -
you of my heart, send me a little word;
that I may go unto him, and take his hands,
saying, Accept all happiness from me.
then shall I turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

cds i resolve to get myself in the new year or suffer my conscience pressing me down into the ground:



funeral - the arcade fire



these were the earlies - the earlies



chutes too narrow - the shins



dead cities, red seas & lost ghosts - m83

hi! back from bintan.
the beach at nirwana gardens was nice if a little bit small. but nice nonetheless. fine white sand which turned into velvet as the tide washed over the beach. quite gorgeous, coupled with today's sunrise and johann johannsson's music in my ears.
but gorgeous beach aside traffic at the resort during my stay there was surprisingly sparing given the holiday period. i didn't see many people tanning themselves on the beach/by the pool/pretty much anywhere else. they probably were all at club med on the other side of the island.
so the festive period was kind of missing despite the resort staff's best efforts to spruce up the atmosphere. but ah well.

got too little of the sun for a holiday at a beachside resort - well, nowhere near as much as i would have liked. we only checked in at 4 on wednesday, so i only had like 2 hours at the beach before sunset and dinner. then the next day my father decided to bring us all to some "traditional-styled" market village for lunch and a bit of shopping.

the village, though it had shops, was nowhere near traditional. sure they were all buildings on stilts but one was a haagen-dazs shop (french ice cream sold on an indon island at tourist prices in singaporean currency), there was a ripcurl shop, a polo shop, a supermarket and countless other shops selling identical hand-made indonesian heritage handicrafts. i saw a set of batik-print cards that said "BALI, INDONESIA".
i had a cheeseburger at one of the two cafes there for lunch.
(nicely-made and -cooked patty though.)

we got back around three which left me like 3 hours in the sun with roddy doyle and interpol.

and the morning sun isn't really the most effective way to tan especially when it gets blocked by sheets of wispy could every now and then, as beautiful as the colour may be. so essentially i have gone to and come back from a beach holiday pretty much the same colour and shade.

merry christmas! haha.

i just realised, while reading the pitchforkmedia.com 2004 top 50 albums, how much i rely on the site for my music. of the top 50 i own

on cd:
(40) bows and arrows by the walkmen
(27) antics by interpol
(26) franz ferdinand by franz ferdinand
(23) good news for people who love bad news by modest mouse
(20) talkie walkie by air

on md:
(49) the blue notebooks by max richter
(37) virthulegu forsetar by johann johannsson
(35) c'mon miracle by mirah
(33) the futureheads by the futureheads
(29) the slow wonder by a.c. newman
(13) ta det lugnt by dungen
(08) thunder lightning strike by the go! team
(01) funeral by the arcade fire

and countless mp3s from all but 14 of the 50 (most of which are rap records).

2004! CD1
1. U2 - Vertigo (3:14)
2. The Black Keys - 10 A.M. Automatic (2:59)
3. Dungen - Festival (3:43)
4. Fan Modine - Pageantry (4:00)
5. The Coral - Bill McCai (2:36)
6. Air - Surfin' on a Rocket (3:45)
7. The Caribbean - William of Orange (3:12)
8. The Thrills - Whatever Happened To Corey Haim? (3:34)
9. Bloodthirsty Lovers - The Conversation (4:33)
10. The Helio Sequence - Repeater (4:22)
11. McLusky - She Will Only Bring You Happiness (3:27)
12. The Walkmen - The Rat (4:27)
13. Björk - Oceania (3:28)
14. Mirah - We're Both Sorry (4:36)
15. Interpol - C'mere (3:11)
16. Travis - Walking in the Sun (2:58)
17. Sufjan Stevens - A Good Man Is Hard to Find (3:16)
18. Modest Mouse - Float On (3:28)
19. Wilco - Hummingbird (3:13)
20. Supergrass - Kiss of Life (4:03)

have put together two cds of what i felt was the best music in 2004. one cd features bands making their lp debuts, while the other has the so-called veterans.

2004! CD2 - Debutants
1. The Killers - Mr. Brightside (3:42)
2. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out (3:57)
3. Castanets - As You Do (2:53)
4. The Comas - Moonrainbow (3:15)
5. Chin Up Chin Up - We Should Never Have Lived Like We Were Skyscrapers (4:37)
6. The Futureheads - The City is Here for You to Use (2:35)
7. Delays - Wanderlust (3:58)
8. Scissor Sisters - Laura (3:36)
9. A.C. Newman - Miracle Drug (2:19)
10. Uncut - Day Breaks Red Light (3:04)
11. Rogue Wave - Endless Shovel (4:47)
12. TV on the Radio - King Eternal (4:27)
13. The Earlies - Wayward Song (6:16)
14. Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For (3:41)
15. Inouk - Elected (3:37)
16. Khonnor - An Ape Is Loose (3:47)
17. The Zutons - Zuton Fever (3:10)
18. The Ponys - Hey, That's My Only Necktie (3:21) *
19. Bloc Party - Banquet (3:19)
20. The Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) (5:10)

*disclaimer - this song is actually a 2003 song. but i'm too lazy to change it because 1) i've already burnt it onto cd-r and 2) it's the second time i found a song was released last year not this (one cd has been resigned to the coaster heap because elefant's "misfit" was released last year) and 3) the ponys only released their debut lp this year anyway. so there.

i felt tempted to provide a short review of each song, but that was when my 2004 selection was still only one cd and 20 tracks long. we shall see.
still yet to design a cover though. i think i may design one of those crappy commercial ones like fresh! or NOW. haha.
also yet to finalise tracklisting for the 'vets' cd. will do that tomorrow (technically later).

p.s. oh and-
the new song scrolling in the status bar (if you have it on) is "we're both sorry" by mirah. which i think i shall include on my cd1.

haha what a hectic two days.

the og outing me and mark organised had promised so much, with like twelve people saying that they could make it, only for withdrawals of all sorts to come in from all corners to leave me, bharath, daryl and mark playing foot-volley and two-on-two football on siloso beach for a little over two hours. ruth then came over and we met for lunch after a wimbledon-style rain delay, after which ruth went off home at her mum's command. dinner was a somewhat more populous affair though with jiawen blee and bena joining us at orchard.

guess i should be happy though that our og is still alive and kicking, thank you, despite the obviously dwindling numbers. we really need to find a new ja-cozy next year in bishan or else it's going to fall apart further.

anyway. from cine to seletar at nine p.m. and the 4m reunion at jp's bloody ulu place at springfield crescent, which did not evoke any images of glorious spring at all in the night. beer, bridge and bluff ensued, and i could only down a pathetic three cans before i tried to go to the loo and found that my field of view had turned out to be just a tad wobbly. so thereafter i retired to the sofa and watched yongxi pull an all-nighter (partnered by jp, tim soh and eldon in turn) playing halo 2 on moh's xbox until i fell asleep at some ungodly hour.

but i still got up early for somethingood, and would not have been late on my first day had the prata guy not take ages to take down our orders then serve us breakfast, and had my cab jinx not strike again.

the location at lido was pretty bloody good though. it attracted big money today. whee.

woo. benitez rocks.

he sends on one sub, he scores in 2 mins.
he sends on a second, he scores within two as well.
then he sends on a third, and riise, who moves upfield as a result of the shuffle in formation as josemi came on to form a back three, sends in the ball that mellor heads down for gerrard to sweetly send home.

three mastertouches in one game.
plus - harry kewell played well! i cannot understand why the soccernet people keep picking on him when he obviously had a good game in the second half once he was pushed out wide left.

in other news singapore is finally starting to resemble a decent football team.
two matches against arguably two of the top three in s.e. asia - vietnam and indonesia - and no defeats, only one conceded!
it could have been so much more had agu casmir decided to run a bit faster at arnd 15 mins to poke that cross in, or if dickson started listening to instructions from raddy avramovic as well as his teammates. but still quite good, provided singapore continue to play decent football - and vietnam and indonesia don't draw when they play each other.

but liverpool. woohoo.
=]

hmm.
comme une image was an odd show. yes it was nice, had witty dialogue, acting was good etc etc, but ultimately it was quite nebulous and random and you couldn't quite make out who was supposed to be the focus of the movie or, more importantly, what on earth it was really about.

so then. a slight misfire for french cinema. but the french do make damn good music.
finally got down to downloading cyann & ben's debut album from soulseek and boy is it wonderful.
quite like sigur ros, only with discernable lyrics (if not tinted by a heavy french accent), more liberal electronics and (somewhat) more traditional song structures.
lush instrumentations augmented by flourishes of strings and very well-balanced effects and synths. very nice.

oh and travis are back in the studio - and working with brian eno!!
wonderful.

"The Music
Welcome to the North
[Capitol; 2004]
Rating: 5.0

The Music is a hell of thing to name your band. There's an arrogance to it but at the same time, it's just about the least creative, least clever name you could give to a band-- especially since we've already had The Band and The The. If you're going to adopt the generic term for your chosen art form as your band's moniker you had damn well better make music that flattens the earth, because if you don't you will be easily forgotten. And those who are interested won't even be able to find you on the Internet because your handle brings up more than a million results.

...Guitarist Adam Nutter must have about 60 effects boxes to trip over in the studio, but were he restricted to some vacuum tube distortion and reverb he'd be three times as powerful as he is here with his overly digital, grayed-out tone. The best thing about this band is drummer Phil Jordan, whose shuffling, propulsive beats and auxiliary percussion additions save essentially every song from potential complete collapse. He's all that redeems the awful ballad "Bleed From Within", which begins as a limp U2 homage with lyrics like "The sun is bleeding into mine eye" and "When darkness falls there will be war/ I'm bleeding/ Yeah, I'm bleeding from within." The chorus, whose sole word is "burn" repeated over and over again is reasonably buoyant, but this song goes nowhere until Jordan's beat takes center stage and the rest of the band just hangs on for the ride. Vocalist Robert Harvey tries his best to ruin it with inexplicably horrendous wordless vocalizations but on an album where the band flails for gripping moments, you take what you can get. ..."

i love pitchfork. =]