28/7/2002
Had a good three days hanging out in Coventry. The place itself was as dull as ever, but it was nice to catch up with the ol' Whitefriars Street posse again. And it's been such a long time since I had a proper Chinese dinner. The meal in Birmingham sure did make up for all the good food that I've been missing out on ever since I set foot in London. Fish, prawns, crab (big ones at that), eel, 'kangkong belacan' (which wasn't even remotely close to the real thing but good enough on its own), copious amounts of chilli in soy sauce, tofu with scallops ... mmm ...

And once again I managed to surprise everyone at the table with the amount of food that I can consume, you know, me being skinny and all. If there was a computer program which could simulate the conversation I have every time people start talking about my eating habits, it'd probably go something like this:

begin
   repeat
      write('Wow, you really can eat a lot!')
      write('Umm, yeah, I guess I do,')
      write('So how come you don't gain any weight?')
      write('I ... dunno.')
      write('You must have a very high metabolism rate!')
      write('Mmm, perhaps.')
   until (bill arrives or dinner finishes or divine intervention shuts everyone up)
end.

Yeah, more or less like that.

18/7/2002
I bought a cassette of Beck's Mellow Gold when I was 15 on the sole strength of 'Loser'. This was a big leap forward for me in terms of buying music, considering that my sonic diet back then was made up of a steady intake of Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr Dre, Warren G, 2pac, Naughty By Nature, Aaliyah, SWV and, umm, the Home Alone soundtrack which came along with my first copy of the Bible (they were birthday presents). Anyway, I remember playing the cassette for the first time on my little bass-deficient Philips radio in the living room at home, nodding my head to 'Loser'. And that was all I could nod to. Later on, I was like, what the heck's this? Country music? Grunge (which brings back memories of two distinct posses of people back in high school - either you 'rock' or you 'rap'. And I rapped. Hell yeah, I was representin' back in the dayz, yo!)? I remember my sister asking me what sort of weird music I was listening to, which, incidentally, she still asks to this day. I didn't quite know what to reply, and I made it a point to sit through the whole album at least once. Ultimately I ended up thinking what crap Mellow Gold was. I remember asking a friend of my sister's if he wanted to buy the album from me (he was from the 'rock' clan) cos I really, really didn't like it. And so it was that I eventually stuck some cellophane tape over the erase-protection tabs and dubbed over the tape with some radio shows.

Odelay came out when I was in Form Five. I tried persuading my friend to play it in the morning before the school assembly on the PA system but he already got into trouble for playing Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and KRS-One so he refused. He was given a warning by the teachers to play only 'relaxing' music to mentally prepare students for the day. Little did the teachers realise that having Mariah Carey's 'Hero' invading our aural canals every morning could actually lead to temporary insanity. We were short of actually shooting each other. I kid you not.

Anyway, Beck. This time around it was on the sole strength of 'Where It's At' which I haven't even heard in full. I remember seeing a snippet of the video on TV and Beck was wearing a tie, doing a kick-jump against a backdrop of a typical American car sale garage surrounded by breakdancers. The beat was catchy, the video was rife with hip-hop overtones - I was intrigued. This was way before the Grammy hype surrounding the album came about. By now my diet has expanded to include DJ Shadow, Howie B and Portishead so I got into Odelay easily. Only then did I realise the genius that is Beck. I tried digging up the Mellow Gold cassette after that cos I couldn't quite remember if I actually did erase it but I seemed to have lost it.

Right now, I'm listening to Mellow Gold, Odelay and Midnite Vultures back to back and I'm really looking forward to the new album due in September. The whole thing with Beck gave me an answer to a generic question friends usually ask me when I start talking about the music I listen to. "Man, how can you like (Sonic Youth/Le Tigre/Stereolab/My Bloody Valentine/Low) when you also listen to (Jay-Z/N.E.R.D./Gangstarr/Ghostface Killah)?" The question's not always just between rock and rap, but also between electronic music, jazz, anime soundtracks, whatever.

The answer? "Easily." If you can appreciate the artist beyond the foreground of the music they make and delve into the background where the artist operates, you'd be able to appreciate so much more. Try tapping into the passion that drives people to make the kinda music they make. Comprehend the angle that they come from. Who are their influences? What inspires them? What are they trying to tell you? Are they having fun? Are they depressed? You know, all sorts of questions. The music they make may not completely appeal to you, or at least not immediately (see Beck) but once you are able to grasp the whole process the music went through before you actually got to hear it, well, simply put, "The world would be a better place!" (With sash over shoulder, crown on head and sceptre in hand.)

Over and out.

13/7/2002
It's awful when life is clouded with uncertainty. Not knowing where you'll be in a few month's time, no idea what's gonna happen, no sign of anything permanent, nothing. You're just floating along the ether, drifting at the mercy of other people's decisions. The transition from being a student (and essentially, a kid) all your life to the real world is horrible. Before you know it, you'll be out there, sustaining your own life. Which I'm actually quite prepared and psyched for. What worries me is that state of limbo, that intermediary period between crawling out of a lifetime of predetermined phases and lining yourself up on the starting line of the proverbial rat race. And even worse, not knowing where to find the race track.

Oh, and the new place? It's like being transferred from a maximum security prison to a minimum security one. In the words of Death, "Peachy keen!". You know, I really shouldn't be saying all this, especially not on a weblog. But I love revelling in whatever morsel of sympathy that I can get. It's perverse and sad. But that's me for you.

Soundtrack for the moment: Red House Painters' Ocean Beach.

10/7/2002
Alrighty, it seems that I might be getting out of this prison-cell of a room sooner than I think. My sister found a place in Bayswater and she'll be moving in soon. I'd probably get in later, once I finish my final project. Gawd, I'm gonna miss my cable connection!

Do you think I have too many pop-up windows on my site? Well hey, don't complain till you've been here.

8/7/2002
Minority Report was pretty good. Although I felt that a lot of the stuff in the film are hyper-futuristic, in the sense that it's much too high-tech to be able to take place within the next 50 years or so. Or perhaps it can. We'll see.

Aside from that, MAJOR SITE UPDATE ALERT! Added a completely new section under stuff! Basically inspired by those photo albums on altsense. Check it out now!

1/7/2002
Time files. I mean 'flies'.

Here's a tip if you're compiling some serious rock tunes into a minidisc. Take Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation and Murray Street, add The Hives' Veni Vidi Vicious, squeeze in White Stripes' 'Fell In Love With A Girl' and top it off with Weezer's 'Buddy Holly'. Of course, remember to do it in MDLP2 mode. And when you're done, you'll have a solid two and a half hours of rawk action to accompany you wherever you go! Provided you bring your minidisc player along of course. Mmm ... the joys of minidisc. Until I have enough cash to afford an iPod that is.