Holy shit... It's been soooooooooo long since I came up here to drop a line!
I say blame it all on Facebook!
Facebook is just too convenient! hehe...
Anyway, I'm in Kuching, Sarawak, now. Yes! I'm in Malaysia! My annual return to Malaysia during the summer!
This time I'm sooooo much more freer than last year. I'm really glad that I learned to say "no" to some stuff, otherwise I'd be working myself dead again while I should be home accompanying my folks.
I went for a couple of movies these days. I found out that Mr. Thum that does the Chinese subtitles is really not doing a bad job at all --- other than a few occasional wrong words. But most of the time he did a beautiful job in making the Chinese translation comes alive! Good work Mr Thum! I shall check u out again next year!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, October 13, 2008
張國榮vs歐陽鋒
我向來都不算是張國榮的fan. 他的歌聲, 老實說, 並不是我喜歡的那種類型, 他演的電影, 我也少看.
可是他有一個令我念念不忘的角色 --- 歐陽鋒. 那種深刻的印象甚至比<<霸王別姬>>裡面的程蝶衣更震撼.
電影開場他跟顧客"推銷"的那段就非常有帶入感, 那種眼神就很有"西毒歐陽鋒"的陰險奸詐, 讓你對這個人有點厭惡. 雖然就只透出那麼一點, 但在在表現出恰到好處的演技, 使角色非常有說服力. 甚至讓你深刻感覺到歐陽鋒未來的命運和性格, 在這屬於前傳的故事裡絕對有跡可循.
喜歡他在這部電影裡面的表現, 就因為他那種淡淡然的臉部表情, 更彰顯了那種自然流露的邪氣. 如果誇大來演的話, 相信效果就會很糟.
題外話: 我昨晚在電影院看的這個<<東邪西毒>>是最新的"終極版", 王家衛在電影裡面加了一些電腦影像, 重新錄了聲效, 把林青霞的原音帶回來, 更弄了個馬友友進來在原聲配樂之上添加了一些獨奏與即興片段(畫蛇添足). 裡面做的一些添加效果相當好, 至於馬友友的部分, 就免談, 實在不明白到底弄那個來幹嘛.
可是他有一個令我念念不忘的角色 --- 歐陽鋒. 那種深刻的印象甚至比<<霸王別姬>>裡面的程蝶衣更震撼.
電影開場他跟顧客"推銷"的那段就非常有帶入感, 那種眼神就很有"西毒歐陽鋒"的陰險奸詐, 讓你對這個人有點厭惡. 雖然就只透出那麼一點, 但在在表現出恰到好處的演技, 使角色非常有說服力. 甚至讓你深刻感覺到歐陽鋒未來的命運和性格, 在這屬於前傳的故事裡絕對有跡可循.
喜歡他在這部電影裡面的表現, 就因為他那種淡淡然的臉部表情, 更彰顯了那種自然流露的邪氣. 如果誇大來演的話, 相信效果就會很糟.
題外話: 我昨晚在電影院看的這個<<東邪西毒>>是最新的"終極版", 王家衛在電影裡面加了一些電腦影像, 重新錄了聲效, 把林青霞的原音帶回來, 更弄了個馬友友進來在原聲配樂之上添加了一些獨奏與即興片段(畫蛇添足). 裡面做的一些添加效果相當好, 至於馬友友的部分, 就免談, 實在不明白到底弄那個來幹嘛.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Germany trip
So, I'm back from Germany!
This 9-day trip was fun with the Sirius Quartet, it was an intense schedule. But don't get me wrong --- it was not a tour, we stationed in the Ochsenhausen Monastery and never left the place.
I flew in to Stuttgart from Amsterdam with our violist and founder, Ron. The flight was crazy because when we got into Stuttgart from New York, we only had around 20 minutes to run over to next gate for departure. And in between that, we had a big airport to deal with, a long line at the customs, and a security checkpoint.
When we finally got to Stuttgart, of course, you can imagine, our luggage was not there. We made it, but our luggage did not.
It was cool though, the Stuttgart Airport apologised to us (damn, when have you seen that in New York or KL?!) and gave us each a pack of toiletry for the night's use. They promised to deliver us our luggage bags to where we stayed, Ochsenhausen, which is a village in the middle of nowhere, basically. When I opened the pack in my room, I found a white t-shirt, a pair of socks (the kind which you can only use once), toothbrush and toothpaste, shaver and shaving cream. Gregor, our 2nd violinist, and Mike, our cellist, came to pick us up and drove to Ochsenhausen, which is a very quiet and tiny place, probably 30 KM outside from Biberach.
The second day was an intense rehearsal day with the student string orchestra with the first batch of improvisation students in the Landesacademie, which we didn't teach. The Landesacademie is an academy that runs different workshops the whole year, there are educational workshops, music workshops, art workshops and many many more. The monastery is basically turned into this academy, except their main church building, which is built baroque cum gothic style, during those respective periods. The interior was gorgeously painted with biblical stories on the high ceilings, sculptures and a beautiful organ. Too bad I didn't get to take pictures of these.
We finished our rehearsals at night, around 8.30pm, totally exhausted. But of course, the next thing I knew was.... BEER TIME! How can you not have beer in Germany? Each bottle of beer you buy from the machine costs 1.50 Euros. Among the string orchestra, I found my friend from Mancini, Katarzyna. She was serving as faculty in the workshop, we're so happy to see each other again. It was so random, you get to meet an old friend in a place you least expected.
The third day was our recording day (!!). Yes, already. One day of rehearsal, and then recording. It was very intense, of course. We started off recording Gregor's Cuban Impressions. That was almost a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, beautifully written, so complicated rhythmically, in the first movement. We got our ass kicked REALLY HARD to get the rhythm right. But hell, we got it right finally.
We continued our recording on the fourth day, which we finished up Cuban Impressions and went on to record Gregor's cello concerto written for Mike, with materials from Mike's own compositions. That was a tour-De-force for Mike and he played his ass off, it was so perfectly done on his part. Good job dude!
That night, we started our own album's recording. We did one movement and called it a night. We wrapped up on the next day by finishing the entire piece of Gregor's String Quartet No.3 a.k.a. New York Suite. The thing that we least expected was that we spent so much time on the second movement, 125th Street. It almost drove us crazy because we usually treated it like a jam piece without caring much, but our engineer, Johannes, pointed out so many things that we never took note of. Good on us for having such a great recording engineer --- in fact, the greatest in Germany! He's the engineer of Keith Jarrett's trio albums and many many other ECM and European recordings. This guy would read the full score while we record and would give us so many great musical suggestions which are 99% of the time accurate. You will spend half as much the time with him as you spent with other engineers. He is that great.
The string orchestra was gone since the wrapping of Mike's concerto. But the new batch of students came in the day we finished our quartet piece (we decided to do the rest of the album in NY). We met up and gave the students a brief orientation, playing 2 movements from Gregor's piece and Mike taught them a fiddle tune called "Shove The Pig's Foot Further into the Fire". Them kids (and adults) loved it and could never stop playing the tune since.
The rest of the days were all individual and group classes. On Day 7 and early Day 8, we did 2 short and messy rehearsals of the concerti with Mike and Gregor. I guess the students weren't confident enough with all the crazy cross rhythms and stuff, plus, further confused by the conductor. We had a nice concert in the afternoon of Day 8 though, playing our quartet pieces --- which included a new tune I wrote in Germany, This Could Be A Ballad. Gregor's 2 movements from his concerto was pretty messy, orchestral speaking, but Mike's concerto was great on both sides.
Sirius had a nice German dinner in the town area (that was the first time I've seen the town, honest), and had a long talk about future plans. We all agreed that this is a very exciting line-up and we need to do something to push our name to a wider popularity. Let's hope it will happen.
We woke up the next day at 6.30am, all looking like zombies, because we needed to check out at 7am. Gregor drove all of us to the airport. Poor Mike, he didn't even need to get to the airport so early, for his flight was around 2.30pm. But I heard he had a great time dining in the city of Stuttgart, good for him! As for us 3, we had our toughest time waiting for both planes in Stuttgart and Amsterdam. The Stuttfart-Amsterdam plane was delayed for an hour or something, which we thought was not so cool. But little did we know that the Amsterdam plane also had mechanical problems they had to change a plane that was flying in from Shanghai! And that delayed our Stuttgart-New York flight for 5 hours. Luckily KLM issued us vouchers to have lunch, call home, and 50 Euros worth of discount for our next KLM flight.
When I finally landed in New York, it was 7.40pm. Got home by subway around 9pm, had my dinner at 11pm. And my housemates went to play pool and ping pong till 1.22am. I didn't know how that can happen to me, for I should've been crashing. But I guess that's because I had a great time there, not travelling like mad, though busy, no phone calls, limited internet access...
Yeah, I can use another 9 days in Ochsenhausen... :)
This 9-day trip was fun with the Sirius Quartet, it was an intense schedule. But don't get me wrong --- it was not a tour, we stationed in the Ochsenhausen Monastery and never left the place.
I flew in to Stuttgart from Amsterdam with our violist and founder, Ron. The flight was crazy because when we got into Stuttgart from New York, we only had around 20 minutes to run over to next gate for departure. And in between that, we had a big airport to deal with, a long line at the customs, and a security checkpoint.
When we finally got to Stuttgart, of course, you can imagine, our luggage was not there. We made it, but our luggage did not.
It was cool though, the Stuttgart Airport apologised to us (damn, when have you seen that in New York or KL?!) and gave us each a pack of toiletry for the night's use. They promised to deliver us our luggage bags to where we stayed, Ochsenhausen, which is a village in the middle of nowhere, basically. When I opened the pack in my room, I found a white t-shirt, a pair of socks (the kind which you can only use once), toothbrush and toothpaste, shaver and shaving cream. Gregor, our 2nd violinist, and Mike, our cellist, came to pick us up and drove to Ochsenhausen, which is a very quiet and tiny place, probably 30 KM outside from Biberach.
The second day was an intense rehearsal day with the student string orchestra with the first batch of improvisation students in the Landesacademie, which we didn't teach. The Landesacademie is an academy that runs different workshops the whole year, there are educational workshops, music workshops, art workshops and many many more. The monastery is basically turned into this academy, except their main church building, which is built baroque cum gothic style, during those respective periods. The interior was gorgeously painted with biblical stories on the high ceilings, sculptures and a beautiful organ. Too bad I didn't get to take pictures of these.
We finished our rehearsals at night, around 8.30pm, totally exhausted. But of course, the next thing I knew was.... BEER TIME! How can you not have beer in Germany? Each bottle of beer you buy from the machine costs 1.50 Euros. Among the string orchestra, I found my friend from Mancini, Katarzyna. She was serving as faculty in the workshop, we're so happy to see each other again. It was so random, you get to meet an old friend in a place you least expected.
The third day was our recording day (!!). Yes, already. One day of rehearsal, and then recording. It was very intense, of course. We started off recording Gregor's Cuban Impressions. That was almost a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, beautifully written, so complicated rhythmically, in the first movement. We got our ass kicked REALLY HARD to get the rhythm right. But hell, we got it right finally.
We continued our recording on the fourth day, which we finished up Cuban Impressions and went on to record Gregor's cello concerto written for Mike, with materials from Mike's own compositions. That was a tour-De-force for Mike and he played his ass off, it was so perfectly done on his part. Good job dude!
That night, we started our own album's recording. We did one movement and called it a night. We wrapped up on the next day by finishing the entire piece of Gregor's String Quartet No.3 a.k.a. New York Suite. The thing that we least expected was that we spent so much time on the second movement, 125th Street. It almost drove us crazy because we usually treated it like a jam piece without caring much, but our engineer, Johannes, pointed out so many things that we never took note of. Good on us for having such a great recording engineer --- in fact, the greatest in Germany! He's the engineer of Keith Jarrett's trio albums and many many other ECM and European recordings. This guy would read the full score while we record and would give us so many great musical suggestions which are 99% of the time accurate. You will spend half as much the time with him as you spent with other engineers. He is that great.
The string orchestra was gone since the wrapping of Mike's concerto. But the new batch of students came in the day we finished our quartet piece (we decided to do the rest of the album in NY). We met up and gave the students a brief orientation, playing 2 movements from Gregor's piece and Mike taught them a fiddle tune called "Shove The Pig's Foot Further into the Fire". Them kids (and adults) loved it and could never stop playing the tune since.
The rest of the days were all individual and group classes. On Day 7 and early Day 8, we did 2 short and messy rehearsals of the concerti with Mike and Gregor. I guess the students weren't confident enough with all the crazy cross rhythms and stuff, plus, further confused by the conductor. We had a nice concert in the afternoon of Day 8 though, playing our quartet pieces --- which included a new tune I wrote in Germany, This Could Be A Ballad. Gregor's 2 movements from his concerto was pretty messy, orchestral speaking, but Mike's concerto was great on both sides.
Sirius had a nice German dinner in the town area (that was the first time I've seen the town, honest), and had a long talk about future plans. We all agreed that this is a very exciting line-up and we need to do something to push our name to a wider popularity. Let's hope it will happen.
We woke up the next day at 6.30am, all looking like zombies, because we needed to check out at 7am. Gregor drove all of us to the airport. Poor Mike, he didn't even need to get to the airport so early, for his flight was around 2.30pm. But I heard he had a great time dining in the city of Stuttgart, good for him! As for us 3, we had our toughest time waiting for both planes in Stuttgart and Amsterdam. The Stuttfart-Amsterdam plane was delayed for an hour or something, which we thought was not so cool. But little did we know that the Amsterdam plane also had mechanical problems they had to change a plane that was flying in from Shanghai! And that delayed our Stuttgart-New York flight for 5 hours. Luckily KLM issued us vouchers to have lunch, call home, and 50 Euros worth of discount for our next KLM flight.
When I finally landed in New York, it was 7.40pm. Got home by subway around 9pm, had my dinner at 11pm. And my housemates went to play pool and ping pong till 1.22am. I didn't know how that can happen to me, for I should've been crashing. But I guess that's because I had a great time there, not travelling like mad, though busy, no phone calls, limited internet access...
Yeah, I can use another 9 days in Ochsenhausen... :)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Bravo Mr Thum!
I went to see "21" last night, and I was waiting for another good laugh of Shirley Pang's Chinese subtitles.
Surprisingly, the shit was smooth!
The Chinese was really not bad at all!
What was going on with that bitch? She improved?
No.
It was another guy who did that subtitles, and he was smart enough not to put in his real name, he only stated himself as "Mr Thum".
Very good, Mr Thum! You're good! Keep it up!
People, you should simply go to see 21 solely for that one reason!
I really wish to see more of Mr. Thum's work.
And fuck you, Shirley Pang, time to go home and sleep.
Surprisingly, the shit was smooth!
The Chinese was really not bad at all!
What was going on with that bitch? She improved?
No.
It was another guy who did that subtitles, and he was smart enough not to put in his real name, he only stated himself as "Mr Thum".
Very good, Mr Thum! You're good! Keep it up!
People, you should simply go to see 21 solely for that one reason!
I really wish to see more of Mr. Thum's work.
And fuck you, Shirley Pang, time to go home and sleep.
Monday, August 25, 2008
.45
I have a .45 pressed on my head, but it wouldn't go off. I'd rather it does.
Wouldn't it feel sooo good if I'm shot dead right now?
Been 2 months, what do I get in KL? Vacation? Officially yes, practically no.
Just give me a fucking break, that's all I ask for. I don't need much, just two weeks will do me so much good.
Otherwise, please pull the fucking trigger.
Wouldn't it feel sooo good if I'm shot dead right now?
Been 2 months, what do I get in KL? Vacation? Officially yes, practically no.
Just give me a fucking break, that's all I ask for. I don't need much, just two weeks will do me so much good.
Otherwise, please pull the fucking trigger.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Who is Shirley Pang?
OK, 回到最根本的问题上：到底谁是Shirley Pang?
我知道很多人注意到我最近在为这件事情抓狂，甚至有人以为她是个我想要追的人。
错！
这个人我先杀之而后快！！
到底Shirley Pang是谁？我问了好多人这个问题，都问不出个所以然来。
还有一个问题，她到底懂不懂中文？这也是另外一个谜。
前两年还是Sharon Pang, 今年突然间变成了Shirley Pang, 到底是怕被人打而换名字，还是做不下去了把自己妹妹抓出来顶差？如果是怕人打的话，为什么不连Pang也换掉？
不过，Sharon也好，Shirley也罢，反正风格非常一致，是谁是哪个名字都没关系。
超过十年前银幕上的第一次解逅，让我无法忘记这个人。电影人物姓“Pope”，就直翻“主教”。那个时候看来确实是一绝。
谁知道好戏才刚开始，更妙的陆续有来。
魔戒第一集里面的半兽人(Orc)竟变成“果树林”。
"Give him your gun"变成“给你他的枪”。
"Princess"变成“王子”。(Hellboy II)
"Ironman"变成《坚强的男人》。
还有更多不胜枚举的例子，足以令一部严肃的电影变成胡闹搞笑片。正如我朋友在网上告诉我的：“It really makes you angry in a funny way!”
好，笑够了。现在是下达通缉令的时候。
在逃犯：Shirley/Sharon Pang
悬赏：无价
罪状：1. 涉嫌丢尽马来西亚华人中文水平的面子
2. 胡翻英文电影对白
最高刑法：游街示众
Everybody! Let's go!!
我知道很多人注意到我最近在为这件事情抓狂，甚至有人以为她是个我想要追的人。
错！
这个人我先杀之而后快！！
到底Shirley Pang是谁？我问了好多人这个问题，都问不出个所以然来。
还有一个问题，她到底懂不懂中文？这也是另外一个谜。
前两年还是Sharon Pang, 今年突然间变成了Shirley Pang, 到底是怕被人打而换名字，还是做不下去了把自己妹妹抓出来顶差？如果是怕人打的话，为什么不连Pang也换掉？
不过，Sharon也好，Shirley也罢，反正风格非常一致，是谁是哪个名字都没关系。
超过十年前银幕上的第一次解逅，让我无法忘记这个人。电影人物姓“Pope”，就直翻“主教”。那个时候看来确实是一绝。
谁知道好戏才刚开始，更妙的陆续有来。
魔戒第一集里面的半兽人(Orc)竟变成“果树林”。
"Give him your gun"变成“给你他的枪”。
"Princess"变成“王子”。(Hellboy II)
"Ironman"变成《坚强的男人》。
还有更多不胜枚举的例子，足以令一部严肃的电影变成胡闹搞笑片。正如我朋友在网上告诉我的：“It really makes you angry in a funny way!”
好，笑够了。现在是下达通缉令的时候。
在逃犯：Shirley/Sharon Pang
悬赏：无价
罪状：1. 涉嫌丢尽马来西亚华人中文水平的面子
2. 胡翻英文电影对白
最高刑法：游街示众
Everybody! Let's go!!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
菅野よう子
突然间想用中文写部落格。
怎样？吹咩？想看啊？去学中文啦笨！
最近在纽约煲《攻壳机动队--Stand Alone Complex》电视影集。故事和先进动画看到爽之余，我也同时爱上了作曲者菅野よう子（Kanno Yoko，华语大概念成“阳子”还是什么的吧）。看名字就知道是位女士。她的音乐果然很有女性细致的一面，都写得非常用心。我很少注意到电视片集的音乐可以做到这么用心的。
菅野的这部作品大多运用电子元素，很多声音样本（sample），很多很好玩很特别的节奏，再加上很多延绵不断的悠长和声，把人带进无限遐想，且很有lounge还有chill out music的味道。
我非常幸运竟然在谷中城广场顶楼的东洋动画店找到SAC的原声唱片，不过一直都没有坐下来好好听。现在夜阑人静的时候插入耳机听起来，竟然让我连听了好几次！
有两首特别惊艳的曲目，让我在这里列明一下，好让当家去买了过后注意一下：
Track 5 Where Does This Ocean Go?
菅野在这里先让爵士常用的刷棒（brush）击打小鼓（snare drum）的真实声响，然后配上很空灵的Fender Rhodes电子钢琴的键盘声，非常有那种真假，新旧的对比。再加上柔美的歌声，听了根本就不会想再从梦中醒来。
Track 12 Fish ~ Silent Cruise
这首刚开始的时候很悲情，童声女高音配上委婉的弦乐，是非常典型的日本现代电影音乐。不过一阵沉默过后，五分钟十五秒的时候，电音节奏开始了另一段音乐。弦乐还是一样悲哀，可是那越来越强劲有活力的电音节奏竟然重新诠释了这段弦乐的整体感觉。虽然和声还是一样，但竟然在节奏下被重新定义成“酷”。菅野这一手还真的非同凡响，佩服！
接下来我要去买它第二第三张原声大碟，嘿嘿...
怎样？吹咩？想看啊？去学中文啦笨！
最近在纽约煲《攻壳机动队--Stand Alone Complex》电视影集。故事和先进动画看到爽之余，我也同时爱上了作曲者菅野よう子（Kanno Yoko，华语大概念成“阳子”还是什么的吧）。看名字就知道是位女士。她的音乐果然很有女性细致的一面，都写得非常用心。我很少注意到电视片集的音乐可以做到这么用心的。
菅野的这部作品大多运用电子元素，很多声音样本（sample），很多很好玩很特别的节奏，再加上很多延绵不断的悠长和声，把人带进无限遐想，且很有lounge还有chill out music的味道。
我非常幸运竟然在谷中城广场顶楼的东洋动画店找到SAC的原声唱片，不过一直都没有坐下来好好听。现在夜阑人静的时候插入耳机听起来，竟然让我连听了好几次！
有两首特别惊艳的曲目，让我在这里列明一下，好让当家去买了过后注意一下：
Track 5 Where Does This Ocean Go?
菅野在这里先让爵士常用的刷棒（brush）击打小鼓（snare drum）的真实声响，然后配上很空灵的Fender Rhodes电子钢琴的键盘声，非常有那种真假，新旧的对比。再加上柔美的歌声，听了根本就不会想再从梦中醒来。
Track 12 Fish ~ Silent Cruise
这首刚开始的时候很悲情，童声女高音配上委婉的弦乐，是非常典型的日本现代电影音乐。不过一阵沉默过后，五分钟十五秒的时候，电音节奏开始了另一段音乐。弦乐还是一样悲哀，可是那越来越强劲有活力的电音节奏竟然重新诠释了这段弦乐的整体感觉。虽然和声还是一样，但竟然在节奏下被重新定义成“酷”。菅野这一手还真的非同凡响，佩服！
接下来我要去买它第二第三张原声大碟，嘿嘿...
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