Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu On Trains and Automobiles
"A compilation of Yasujiro Ozu's common "pillow shots" (to give audience a rest between dialogues)" by Hiroshi Kokubu.



At once contemplative and poetic. Ozu's fascination with trains. The camera (set close to the ground) sits and humbly looks on, almost in awe, at ongoing Life enacting in front of it. Ozu's camera is often positioned at the eye level of one who is knelt/seated on the floor (such as in a respectful, traditional japanese manner), about 3 feet above the ground. Excellent composition of shots. :)

Drinker's Peace

Merry Christmas. Time of the year to get away from your frantic workload and crazy bosses. Drinker's Peace Out.



Drinker's Peace - Guided By Voices

At times I wish I were dead
Busy people dancing all over my head
Real shock value with every move they make
Real bad headache with every step they take

I get a contact buzz
Can't remember what the problem was
I find it hard to even care
Life was too real till you got there

My life is dirt but you seem to make it cleaner
Reduce my felony to a misdemeanor
When I feel sick you're an antibiotic
Organize my world that was pointless and chaotic

Sordid Sentinels

Pavement: Wowee Zowee Sordid Sentinels Edition is out. Christmas present for me. :)



What does Wowee Zowee mean to me?

I remember 3 songs sandwiched together- Flux = Rad, Fight This Generation, Kennel District. Flux's a very cool song. Fight This Generation had me humming "Fight-tis Generation" forever. Kennel District is a great Spiral Stairs song. Kennel District also reminds me so much of The Pixies... the "ooo-ooo-ooo" part. :D I think maybe Spiral Stairs likes the Pixies too. And then there's Grave-Ar-chi-tec-ture- I never knew u could put the word "architecture" in the lyrics of a song and it'd fit so well. "We'll Dance, we'll dance..." The album is full of memorable songs. It counts as one of Pavement's great albums and there's every reason to re-release it. But of course, I'm biased when it comes to Pavement. I find that Stephen Malkmus can't make a really bad song.

There's also the closer. I always enjoyed the "closer song" in all the Pavement albums. In this case, it is Western Homes, but we all know the real closer is the 6mins Half a Canyon before that. I listened to this band Grifters later on and in the notes, they wrote Pavement as one of the influences. To me, it's like the whole One Sock Missing album (great album btw) took off from/was launched by this Half a Canyon song. They got the whole Grass Blues thing going too.

Found a version of Half a Canyon on Stereogum.com. It's different from the original album version. This is more like, dubbed "space-blues"? There's also a new version of In the Mouth of a Desert on Matador website.

Pavement- Half a Canyon (Live in Australia) (Stereogum.com)

Pavement- Heckler Spray/In the Mouth of a Desert (Live in Los Angeles) (Matadorrecords.com)

The Fall

The Fall and Mark E. Smith.

Julie Doiron Shady Lane Cover

More Pavement stuff.

First, a cover of the Pavement song Shady Lane, by the talented Julie Doiron ex-bassist/guitarist of Eric's Trip (yep the band got it's name from the Sonic Youth's song).


Julie Doiron - Shady Lane (Pavement cover)


Julie Doiron + Shotgun & Jaybird - Snowfalls in November


Julie Doiron + The Wooden Stars - Dance Music


Eric's Trip - Stove


Someone with initials J.M. - We Dance (pretty cool cover of the Pavement song) :)


Pavement on Space Ghost! (pt.1) :O


Pavement on Space Ghost! (pt.2)

346battingcenter-Pavement

Pavement lives on. Would you believe- in Japan? In a relatively unknown jap band by the name of 346battingcenter and a newly released album Clover.

346battingcenter- http://www.myspace.com/346battingcenter


346battingcenter - Range Life (Pavement cover)

It's difficult to do a Pavement song well. These guys managed to pull it off pretty well. They got almost all the lyrics wrong but the fun, relaxed nature of the song - almost spot on.


346battingcenter - Song of Fishing

This band is totally Pavement, crazy about Pavement. :) Check out the other songs on the website- http://www.myspace.com/346battingcenter

Hopes for a Pavement reunion. S.M. mentioned it's possible in the future. I think 'that early-90s Pavement era' is gone. When they do get back together, it will be a different Pavement to behold. Here's to Pavement, past and future. A vid of S.M. in his current incarnation, with The Jicks, I think.


Stephen Malkmus - That's what mama said


Pavement - Range Life (Dumb mtv but a brilliant song nevertheless)

And the crazy lyrics of Range life. Nothing short of poetry.

Range Life
After the glow, the scene, the stage, the set
Talk becomes slow but theres one thing Ill never forget:
Hey, you gotta pay your dues before you pay the rent.
Over the turnstile turn out in the traffic
Theres ways of living its the way Im living
Right or wrong, its all that I can do,
And I wouldnt want to let you be

I want a range life, if I could settle down,
If I could settle down, then I would settle down
[x2]

Run from the pigs, the fuzz, the cops, the heat
Pass me your gloves, theres crime and its never complete
Until you snort it up or shoot it down
Youre never gonna feel free
Out on my skateboard the night is just hummin
And the gum smacks are the pulse Ill follow if my walkman fades
But Ive got absolutely no one, no one but myself to blame

Dont worry- were in no hurry
Schools out, what did you expect?

I want a range life, if I could settle down,
If I could settle down, then I would settle down
[x2]

Out on tour with the smashing pumpkins
Nature kids, i/they dont have no function
I dont understand what they mean
And I could really give a fuck.
The stone temple pilots,
Theyre elegant bachelors
Theyre foxy to me are they foxy to you?
I will agree there isnt absolutely nothing
Nothing more than me

Dreamin dream dream dream....

Words of Convenience

A trivial note. Not a big deal. The 4-letter word- l-o-v-e. Not the other 4-letter word. But both words are similar in that they are often 'words of convenience'. To me, whispering 'I love you' to someone has the effect of saying 'Fuck you' to the person's face. It is effective in conveying particular emotions, but not to be whispered into someone's ears. I think, like "Fuck you", it is only viable when it is shouted out to the world. :) These words hold nothing of the sort of 'a great embodiment of ideals/aspirations', that everyone is led to believe.

It was a Hal Hartley movie, Trust, I think, that made up the summation- love = trust + respect + admiration. It is pretentious to think of 'love' as something greater than the sum of these 3 components.

To me, trust + respect + admiration > love.

Little Lines

I stumbled on this [Blog] earlier that told an interesting story. Never had a "gbv moment" with a friend (or, for that matter, any "pavement/rather-obscure-bands-that-i-like moment"). But I was kinda surprised back then that some of my poly mates listened to gbv. I think I'm the only person in this world who finds similarities between Cheer Chen and Guided By Voices' lyrics- Meaningful little lines. :)

吉他手

媽媽睡了

Vid of some fans' travel to YiLan to catch a Cheer Chen's concert. In a sorta "road-movie" spirit of the album and first song off the album- 旅行的意義 (Meaning of Travel)

2003 海洋音樂祭

Wrong

Sonic Youth- Paris 2006 Pt.1 Incinerate/Sleepin Around off latest album Rather Ripped

Sonic Youth- Pt.2 Do You Believe in Rapture?/Pink Steam
Sonic Youth- I Love You Golden Blue

Sonic Youth- Karen Revisited (Lee Ranaldo on vocals)

Sonic Youth- Death Valley '69


Wrong for the right reasons. Sonic Youth. The noise. Chaos. Fun. Death Valley '69. You can never go wrong with Sonic Youth.

Sound-track of my life.

Memories of Sonic Youth concert circa 1996 at WTC auditorium. Yeah, whenever I think back, still can't quite believe the concert ever happened. But SY were here in small Singapore. They were here! In 1996. Unbelievable eh? :o)

Clap Your Hands Shout Yeah

Found some great stuff on youtube every night. It's a treasure trove of rare vids. These are clips from a favourite band Spoon, an early Cat Power clip and the crazy new band, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. YEAH! :O

The Kims

There are 2 important Kims- Kim Gordon and Kim Deal.



This vid is truly special. The Breeders playing a GBV song and members of GBV skulking outside the house.

Hello Dayton, Ohio! Thanks YouTube.

Shocker in Gloomtown
Were you there?
Were you kicking?
Alive in aisle 12?
Give the girl a century
In boxes of jars
And give away cars
Hes motioning for you

There was a band
They were sickening
Arousing everyone
P.s. dump your boyfriend
Emotional trash
Emotional trash
With helium balloons

So then tell me
How the hell did we miss it
Bared his ass for all to see
And no one got to kiss it

Indulgence

For my indulgence...

piling it up

Ass-kicking

YLT- I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass. - Get it! Nuff said.

now i can't wait for pavement's third reissue- Wowee Zowee: sordid sentinels edition in nov.

Happy Holidays

It's that time of the year again.

The Clang of bells. Gifts under the tree. Turkey.



My one christmas wish is yet to be fulfilled- I have not ran into any Moose on the road or came across such a creature outside the zoo. I just found out too that the headlights of a vehicle can blind a Moose 'cos their eyes are not accustomed to that blinding glare. So folks, please dim your vehicles' headlights when you are driving in the night and expecting to run into a moose. The poor creature isn't equipped with a car horn...

This Christmas also serves to remind us of the grim event of last year.

I also just found out from Bluesnews that the actress who played Mrs. Martini in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life", Argentina Brunetti, passed away recently on 20 December at the old age of 98. She had written a book and done many cool stuff in her life. Near the end of her life, she became a passionate blogger and made this blog- AB's Hollywood Stories relating events in Hollywood. She was dubbed "Web's oldest blogger". If you check out the blog at ArgentinaBrunetti.com, you can see that she is as much a movie fan, as a movie actress. She took pictures with virtually every actor/actress out there! :/

Like a yearly ritual, I try to watch that ol' classic film on Christmas day when I can.

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays.

Cheer - Adventure

Cheer Chen's new album titled "Adventure" is out. Do check it out.



Found out too late that she'll be here on Nov 19 for a concert at the NTUC auditorium. The 500 or so tickets were sold out. :(

Section of cheer chen's blog off a jap fan site- http://cheer-chen.jp

這幾天密集通告真的吃不消了

想想這三年的輕鬆度日好似浦島太郎遊龍宮
結束剛剛電視節目?影才驚覺好似回到人間已過三百年

明天要早起

畢竟是這十幾天唯一一次也是不得不的一次
好好享用一頓早餐

晩安上海

狂風暴雨的上海
請讓我安然回到我的家

那才是能讓我出發到世界的起點

-綺貞, 2005/8/7上午 03:17:38

---

Quite taken in by this malkmus song on his new album. In my head all day -

Stephen Malkmus - Freeze the Saints

We meet again
Riding our divisible bodies
Feel no shame
Luck is love is on

If you need the pain
Well you are, yes you are so much like me
Seasons change--nothing lasts for long
Except the earth and the mountains
So learn to sing along and languish here
Help me languish here

It was long ago
That all of your willing dimensions
Lost the flow
And vanished in vaneer

But I want to know
If you are, yes you are so much like me
Steel restraints
Zodiac ballet, everybody play
There's no more counting days, you languish here
Help me languish here

You said, "done is good,"
But done well is so much fucking better
Share the wealth
And cauterize the tears

If you want to know
Well you are, yes you are so much like me
Freeze the saints
Such a subtle read, exquisite pedigree
Just let yourself be and languish here
Help me languish here

This is, imo, a good review of Face The Truth.

Some Days

Some days, one wishes that everything could be as simple as when Guo Jin first met Huang Rong, and he knew instantly that he loved her. Alas, that is not the case usually.

Searchin' for my Polestar

This small, excellent japanese series "Searchin' for my Polestar" (Tentai Kanzoku or 天体観測)- follows a group of 7 friends, how life changed for each of them, 3 years after they graduated from the uni. It is showing again on Channel U on the weekends.


(from japan.videoland.com.tw)

Starring Koyuki (小雪)- most will remember her role with Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai". Great actress- must say her performance and that other Japanese dude's stole the show from Tom Cruise in that movie.


(from jdorama.com)

Features some great soundtrack by Bump of Chicken and Mika Nakashima. Am trying to find that theme song.

Quotable quotes-

When Kyoichi started the astronomy society in school- "An individual may not be able to find that certain star in the sky. But with a big group of us, it's easier to see that star."

"Each of us is a boat. That can only hold one person. When we see a person struggling in the waters, sometimes we can't do anything but helplessly watch him drown. But we are boats with the ability to sail major oceans. And when we group our tiny boats together, we can ride thru the most maniacal storms. Each of us is a boat. That can only hold one person..."

Baby, C'mon

Been a while. And I bring to you an incredibly fun song by Stephen Malkmus, former frontman Pavement. "Baby C'mon" from recently released album "Face the Truth".

Click here to Download (from official Matador Records site)



Baby, C'mon

With a thousand tiny terrors
No more weekend shares
Make it get away
Baby come on

If you give it to me timmy
I'm out here on a limb-y
I don't need hideaways
Baby come on

well, half-way through my life
I flipped on internal bitch so
Tell it to me straight
Baby come on

And i know that the shapes are great
So i won't hesitate
To leave it at the door
Baby come on

I see you're under my diamond
I see you driving the winter shell

So you say that you're too old to yell
But too young for hell
It's not far away
Baby come on

If a life of tears cuts you down
You can sit around
I won't make you stay
Baby, come on

I see your lovely traffic pose
I see you're trailing what you're good for

Baby come on
Baby come on
Baby come on
Baby come on, let me come

Baby come on
Baby come on
Baby come on



"Well half way thru my life, I flipped on internal bitch so"
hurhur great stuff.

special treats- folks may wanna check these out-

S.M. on KCRW show 'Morning Becomes Eclectic'
(S.M. on acoustic guitar :p)
(from KCRW website)

Concert recording on CBC radio3 website. Search for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.

all malkmus' weekend. hoho.

Random Sightings

Do you know this movie- Serendipity (2001)? (Got the spelling right?) Starring John Cusack etc etc. Nothing amazing about it. In fact, I didn't like the cast or plot of the film. Parts of the film are funny but that's about it. It's along the line of movies such as Annie Hall, Sleepless In Seattle, When Harry Met Sally. What is strange is that I always happen to catch it when it's showing. Caught the movie when it was first shown in the cinemas here. A friend had spare tickets. Subsequently, I managed to watch the movie or parts of it on TV on various occasions/locations. So, this, now, is like the 5th or 6th time I've seen it. And the film is really about mad coincidences. I blame it on the repetitive program schedules of cable tv.

Anyway, I decided to note down some details of the film on this 6th outing.

Sightings in the movie-

A book titled Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Strictly for the hopelessly romantic. Either this book or some other won the author the Nobel Prize.

The star system Cassiopeia. Had to look up the spelling for this one. Yeah, I know how to spell it now.

The movie Bridges of Madison County was mentioned.

The ice-skating rink in Rockefeller Center, Central Park, NY.

Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Bloomingdale's.

Fatum means Fate, Destiny or Doom, in Latin.

That Nick Drake's song.

---

In other news, I just got my first phat lewt (epic), after what, 5 months of WoW?

Phat Lewt

My Skewed Lenses

I wanna talk about how infectious Cheer Chen's songs can be. Watched the mtv "Jiu3 Feng4 De4 Ka1 Fei1 Dian4" (Coffeeshop at Jiu3 Feng4). Can't get it outta my head.

Wanna visit Jiu3 Feng4 九份, Taiwan. But I don't know. Has 九份 changed?

I wanna call this friend who seemed to have disappeared.

Wanna mention the anime Full Metal Alchemist. The fundamental law of Alchemy, one of the ideologies the anime is based on- "You reap what you sow." You can only gain what you put in/gave up. Most things can be summed up with a constant. Life can be so simple. The equations we learnt in Chem class.

Wanna catch Hou Hsiao Hsien's films at the film fest. Talk about his early films. Film Fest's starting today.

Talked to a friend on internet yesterday on Warcraft3 strategies. Felt like I could go on talking for the entire day on this same topic. Kinda brought me back to old poly "Mud" days- where the buncha us geeks would hang out after school to mud till the comp lab closes, we'd then head down to the Mac at nearby King's Cross Ave? to discuss the adventures we had that day. Whereby the menu for the next day could be to slay so-and-so Dragon. Fun times.

I wanna know someone who has read Mallory's LeMorte D'Arthur. Read the funny version The Once and Future King by T.H. White. To tell me the details. It was, really, pretty sad at the end.

My hard-disk is dying. Making strange grinding noises. Recorded a single 4kb bad sector. GG. Thanks for the good times.

To talk about this french film I watched recently- Jeux d'enfants (2003 (Child's Game/Love me if you dare). I kinda enjoyed it. But yeah, looking at the reviews- you either like it or hate it. Great first-time effort by the director imo. Learnt that popular song in the film is titled La vie en Rose.

Wanna talk about these things and more.

Glanced thru some other blogs of friends/folks I don't know.

Sometimes, what we chose to put up on a blog, tells more about us, than the content that was written. These choices, the "How" and "Why" (we decided to post certain stuff) occasionally tells more about a person than the content itself. The content at times didn't matter. Other times, it did. Silly idea I thought up.

---

Random (or not so random) Quote of the Day -

"What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
Just trying to make his way home
Back up to Heaven all alone
Nobody callin' on the phone
cept for the Pope maybe in Rome" -Joan Osborne.

---

陈绮贞 - 妈妈睡了

妈妈睡了

歌手:陈绮贞 专辑:收藏陈绮贞(最新创作

被罚跪的下午
"为了什么被惩罚呢"
从小的恶习到现在还是改不掉
"到底为了什么被惩罚呢"
总是会很轻松的被忘掉
用跪在地上的膝盖
慢慢的慢慢的在绿色的地毯上移动
绿色的地毯"是绿色还是黄色呢"
"到底是绿色还是黄色"
错误的童年记忆对智能没有损伤
"妈妈睡了吗"
为什么窗外这样大的太阳
怎么
样都睡不着的我
无聊的在床的四周用膝盖走来走去
妈妈却还睡的如此深沉呢
我偷偷摸了一下妈妈的鼻息
看到妈妈薄薄的眼皮突然动了一下
我很快的将手收回来
"呼"松了一口气
嗯妈妈睡了
我很安心
悄悄的从抽屉拿出可以换衣服的纸娃娃
一边罚跪一边玩了起来
红裙子白上衣棉被真厚冷气好大声
妈妈可不可以不要变老
漂亮的妈妈不会老
真的喔
午睡结束的时候
妈妈和我都笑嘻嘻
没有人记得我为什么被惩罚的下午
在太阳下山的时候溜过去

"While her mom slept, she felt under her nose to feel her breathing. Mom's shut eyelids twitched a little. Retrieved her hand. She felt relieved..."

陈绮贞 - 九份的咖啡店

九份的咖啡店

歌手:陈绮贞 专辑:收藏陈绮贞最新创作

这里的景色像你变幻莫测
这样的午后我坐在九份的马路边
这里的空气很新鲜
这里的感觉很特别
仰望这片天空
遥尽我对你的思念
窗外的星空像你嬉笑不眠
这样的午夜我坐在九份的咖啡店
这里的街道有点改变
这里的人群喧闹整夜
望着朦胧的海岸线
是否还能回到从前
昨日的单纯今天的实际像你
而你也早已不是你
我的心是一杯调和过的咖啡
怀念着往日淡薄的青草味
窗外的景色像你没什么道理
这样的午后我在忠孝东路的咖啡店
这里的街道有点危险
这里的人群面无表情
想问你也问问自己
是否还会记得从前
怀念着往日的坚持和现在你我的改变