Russtifarian

Favourite Music of 2008

2009-01-05T01:59:00.004Z

At last, here is a complilation of the music which meant the most to me last year. To qualify, they have to be songs I heard for the first time in 2008, regardless of year of actual release. Most are from the past few years, but a couple of tunes are from the 1950's!

Click here to listen while reading the stuff beneath.

1. David Byrne and Brian Eno - Strange Overtones (4:17)

2. Gonzales - Working Together (3:04)

3. The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go (2:52)

4. Radiohead - Idioteque (5:07)

5. Muscles - Sweaty (4:14)

6. Benny Benassi - Satisfaction (2:55)

7. We Are Wolves - Fight & Kiss (3:04)

8. Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (3:32)

9. Madonna - 4 Minutes (4:03)

10. Coldplay - Viva La Vida (4:04)

11. The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name (5:08)

12. Frankie Vaughan and the Kaye Sisters - Gotta Have Something In The Bank Frank (2:17)

13. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Mean Son of a Gun (2:37)

14. The Johnston Brothers - Hernando's Hideaway (2:31)

15. Ariane Moffatt - Poussière D'ange (5:11)

16. David Byrne - Tiny Apocalypse (4:03)

17. Jose González - Heartbeats (2:40)

18. Max Richter - Horizon Variations (1:52)

19. Eraldo Bernocchi & Harold Budd - Fragment Two (8:32)

20. Johann Johannsson - IBM 1401 Processing Unit (8:32)

21. Harmonium - Dixie (3:26)

22. Seu Jorge - Burguesinha (4:17)

23. The Divine Comedy - A Lady of a Certain Age (5:47)

24. Lizz Wright - A Taste of Honey (3:50)

25. David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (3:46)

The first 5 songs I have listened to dozens of times. The Eno/Byrne album was very good, with a couple of stand-out tracks that book-end this compilation. I saw Byrne in concert in Montreal, and the man knows how to please a crowd. I also saw Radiohead in concert at Victoria Park, and discovered their electronica edge, highlighted by the closing number Idioteque which blew me away. I also saw great concerts by Lizz Wright and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, who I have included on my list.

I discovered many of these tunes while listening to my favourite radio station on the planet: FIP (France Inter Paris). The diversity of the programming is delightful (pop, jazz, classical, rock, chanson...) and refreshingly multi-lingual. I know only perhaps a quarter of the tracks played, but so many of the unknowns are winners and make me run to their website to see what's playing.

This compilation is front-loaded with high-energy tunes, giving way to a trio of early rock 'n' roll(ish) tunes, then shifts into lower gears with some instrumental and mellow melodies. I could describe each tune and why I chose it, but then I'll never release the compilation or this blog into the world.

Finally, I must give credit to some compilations ("mixtapes for non-linear minds") which have given me great satisfaction and solace. They are from a guy known online as "nrvnet" whose taste in music is excellent. My favourite mixes are of the ambient or contemporary classical type. If you want to board an emotional roller coaster, check out Desolation Angels.

That's it! Hope you enjoy it.

Cars I Like #1: Morris Minor and Jaguar XJS

2008-03-14T12:09:00.005Z

In another sign of deciding to follow through on ideas I've had for some time, I've decided to document cars that grab my attention. I pass a few of them taking the kids to school, and took some photos this morning. I seem to have a preference for old cars, ones "with character" I like to say to the kids.

Can see all the photos via Picasa at Cars I Like

Morris Minor 1000
Details at Wikipedia

Jaguar XJS V12
Details at Wikipedia

À la veille du 40

2008-03-11T18:07:00.005Z

My lord.... was it really one and half years since I last wrote in here? Guess blogging was a fad for me back in 2006, but on my last day as a 30-something, I feel strangely reminded of Russtifarian, and want to express myself. Not that anyone reads my blog, but wtf it's really for me to review later in life and get a feel for the moment, eh?

"Eh"... I'm Canadian already!

Here's what I'm thinking ..........

Sometimes these past few months I just feel like randomly crying. Sometimes because of Calypso, sometimes because of how stifling my job feels. Sometimes I give in to the depression, sometimes I control myself, like I did today. Was listening to Styx's "Don't Let It End" on my MP3 player and was suddenly awash in memories from 24 years ago, as a sophomore in Cardinal Spellman High School. Memories of my first girlfriend Michelle, of all the pain I felt as a teenager, of the passion I felt as a Peer Minister, of the intensity of almost everything I felt at the time. I miss the sharpness and novelty of life at the time, although no I wouldn't return to it voluntarily. Too much accompanying pain, soul searching, and parental breakup issues.
I'd like to say that life is more balanced now than it was as a teen, but not for the past year! I think in 2006 I felt quite complete with my career, 2 kids, a proper house in London, secure in my life as an adult. That vanished in 2007. My job turned very very sour, with little satisfaction, long hours, and extended overseas business trips to allegedly exotic places but in reality I got to experience little of it. I left them. While my new job is far more satisfactory, it still leaves a gap, and raises far too often the question, "Is this really how I want to spend my life"?
So what a bloody cliché, eh? Almost 40, and feeling that my career should have more personal meaning, that each day is precious, that I'm passing the half-point of my life and asking if this is all there is. Got it makes me want to cry just thinking about it. But I won't! (Mostly because I'm in a pub and that would be rather inappropriate.)
But how liberating to be inappropriate!

Here's a list of how I think my life is changing, how I can escape/am escaping from the cocoon:

Joining Sustrans as a Bicycle Ranger. Encouraging myself to exercise and cycle, yet within a community of like-minded people.
Finally following through on our plans (dreams!) to move to Montreal.
Reading books & magazines in French, at almost an adult level, and daily listening to French radio via my internet wi-fi radio.
Re-learning kanji, with the goal to soon start reading manga in the native versions.
And mostly, this desire to break from my current (dead end) career path for something which keeps the IT/gadget fun, but adds music and pleasure and excitement!

Planning to get re-trained as a sound engineer, perhaps at a French-speaking school in Montreal.
Purchasing a MIDI controller; learning to use Ableton Live.
Asking for a Pro Tools Mbox 2 for my 40th, a real symbol of my desire to delve into life as a musician, a recording engineer, a dad who tinkers with sound, a guy who likes to sing & play & have fun.
Why the fuck can't that be me? Why must I be limited by who I have been for the past 4 decades? Isn't that the main lesson from Tokyo, that I can turn my back on something and start again, with something far more appropriate for my stage in life? I'm not the 30-year-old I was in San Francisco, eager to be a web designer/Java programmer and live a life of code! That is all dying, all dying, and I'd be a fool to ignore the (at times desperate) desire for something more pleasurable and exhilarating to get me through my last 4 decades.

And the prize-winning photo was...

2006-11-28T13:18:00.000Z

... the boy running with the Chinese Flag on Tiananmen Square! Whew! I would have been greatly disappointed if it had been the other one.

My first photo prize!

2006-11-25T18:21:00.000Z

Who would have thunk.... After my 2 weeks in China, I fulfilled a long dream and entered a couple of photos to a competition sponsored by the Beijing Tourism Administration. Lo and behold, I got an award, second prize! Shared with a few other folk, but hey I get almost $400 in prize money, which will just about pay for the tea ceremony I stumbled into and got taken for a ride.

Anyway, I don't yet even know which photo won. Below are the ones entered. Which one do you think is better? I hope they picked the first one...

http://www.btmbeijing.com/events/olymbj2006

Half-minute Meditation: Fountain with Big Dog

2006-09-25T00:30:00.000Z

How about some videos today... here's a 30-second pieces for you from the streets of Bangkok. A bit grainy since was taken from my mobile, but let the blurriness be part of the experience.
I took it while on the way to Isetan department store, where I get the best cup of green tea I have yet found in Bangkok. Funny, we are so close to China and Japan yet the average cup of green tea here sucks! Often is mixed with mint or other herbs, or served with sugar. Somebody oughtta set these folks straight...

Half-minute Meditation: Deluged Highway

2006-09-24T23:41:00.000Z

My first video piece, taken after exiting MBK department store in Bangkok, and finding myself in a tropical downpour. I took shelter with everyone else (including a dozen soldiers) on the covered pedestrian overpass near the Sky Train. The rain was unbelievably loud, and I just thought it looked great hitting the streets down below.

Day 2 of the Coup: Sudden Unease

2006-09-22T12:03:00.000Z

My experience was a bit different yesterday (Thursday). Until I went out for dinner, I was all set to write that it was indeed business as usual in Bangkok. Banks, schools and post offices were open. The traffic was still jammed. Thais seemed as relaxed as normal. The ethos of "mai pen rai" (don't worry about it) seemed in full force.

And then I went out for dinner. On the way there and home afterwards, I saw around a dozen soldiers and various military vehicles. This was nowhere near Government House. What it was near, though, were 2 large office buildings owned by Thaksin Shinawatra. Indeed, they proudly bear his name. There were 2 soldiers, guns at hand, in front of Shinawatra Tower 1, and 7 more in front of Shinawatra Tower 2. One of the soldiers wore a T-shirt (in English!) reading "1st Regiment, King's Own Guards". On the way home we saw another dozen soldiers at different intersections in the shopping area. Did I miss them Wednesday, or was there suddenly a larger presence? I can't say. But there they stood, a reminder that it was NOT business as usual (unless you consider coups as integral to Thai political life).

Seeing the soldiers was disconcerting. I have worked inside 3 of the Shinawatra buildings. In fact, Tuesday night we left Shin 3 around 9pm, apparently moments before a few dozen troops arrived. My affilation with one of Thailad's biggest companies was something I suddenly felt I should hide. I removed the building passcard from my belt and put it in my shirt pocket.

Why are soldiers outside Shinawatra's buildings? Are they waiting to confiscate his assets? Are they afraid that pro-Thaksin supporters will gather there as a symbol of their fallen leader? Or is the fear that anti-Thaksin protestors will try to attack and destroy his property?

But hey, some of the soldiers were laughing, and a couple of young ladies had stopped by one group to chat, I presume to offer their support. Mai pen rai, right?

Notes from Bangkok during a coup

2006-09-20T17:24:00.000Z

There is an uncomfortable twinge while I watch the TV news channels and look down from my 10-story window at the streets of sordid Patpong, Bangkok. The news warns me that there is martial law, that there are tanks on the streets, that there are "soldiers every 100 yards at major intersections". Yet I've seen nothing of the sort. I watch the soldiers on the TV and ask "where are they"? I repeat the phrase "martial law" and ask myself, "So why are all the bars & shops open as normal until very late in the evening"?

A London colleague said the TV was showing/implying that the street stalls of Patpong were closing early because of martial law, but I was there near midnight last night and saw them packing up because of a sudden downpour. The coup and martial law had happened hours earlier. There were no soldiers or policemen telling them to go home.

I am not the type stay locked away in a hotel room all day long. I walked around Bangkok today, partially for the exercise (certainly not for the fresh air) and partially to see if there was indeed any military presence. There was none. While my half-an-hour walk may have been long by London standards and an eon by American standards, it still did not take me anywhere near Government House (Dusit area) where all the drama is happening. I do not deny that there is any drama, or that military coups are unacceptable. All I say is that while walking street-level from Patpong to Pathumwan, and spending hours walking around the malls, shops and cinemas of Siam, I oberved that business is most definitely as usual. The IMAX being closed for the occasion didn't strike me as being a great hardship to the Thai people.

One of the most telling conversations I had was with a clerk from The Body Shop who was not bothered by the coup, but by the fact that she had to work on a day the military had declared "a day of rest". I felt a bit guilty, since I had been told to stay away from the office, and here I was out wandering the shops, glad for the chance to save a couple of quid on some tea tree facial wash.

Perhaps I was warned off from work because the building I work in is named after the (ex-)prime minister, and he still owns part of the company I work with. Oh, and apparently there are troops outside the building, which would make it difficult to get inside anyway. But I am told that the banks, stock market and schools will re-open tomorrow, and I am expected to get back to work.

The PM was once incredibly popular, and was elected with his party to a huge majority not too long ago. But Thailand and its economy have been on hold for months during a political and legal stalemate. Most commentators I've seen on TV have expressed relief that the stalemate has been broken, even if that means throwing democracy out the door. Those commentators have almost all been Western, and my interaction with Thais has been very limited, so I can't confirm what the Thai masses really feel. I'll see what I can find out for my next entry.