I'M BACK

Right it's been 5 months since I last posted on here and I am back and deciding that this blog needs a change of voice. Fuck all that actual stuff about my life and interesting photos of HK and what not. I am on the internet! This is not a place where I am meant to be a nice quiet reserved person this is gonna be all the random crap that pops into my head and my opinions on all sorts of stuff. It will probably be mainly HK related because that's where I am at bitches!

Okay lets get this show on the road:



Carson Yeung. Birmingham city fans I pity you because Carson Yeung is not the guy who owns your club now. Grandtop International Holdings owns your club and Carson Yeung owns 16% of that company. We are not sure who owns the rest, or what else they actually own. This company apparently "is engaged in the provision of apparel sourcing, sportswear and apparel trading, and entertainment business". I can find no information anywhere on teh interwebs that will tell me what companies they actually own so I must assume that they don't.

Also last time Carson Yeung on his own tried to buy the club he couldn't come up with the money. I doubt highly that you supposed millions for transfer fees will materialise at all because this is likely to be a front for something else and I can easily see your club being sold on again very quickly.

In short Birmingham City... your fucked.

This week has also seen the release of what could be one of the most fun video games ever released Brutal Legend.

There is no denying that this game will be a riot to play. From what I have heard so far the cameo appearances by such renowned Heavy Metal gods as Ozzy and Lemmy are excellent and should be worth a good few laughs.

There have been some concerns that this game is less action and more RTS and these concerns would appear to be justified when the lead guy actually has to issue an open letter telling people how to play the game you might be right. However I have great respect for Tim Schafer as being one of the most fun (and certainly the most metal) game designers out there. So I will reserve judgment until I have played the game thoroughly.

In related news the misses recently expressed some interest in forming a band. I could not be happier at this kind of expose on her part. However in the practicalities of such an endeavour we must reconcile her classically trained soprano against the kind of music I can actually play.

Many bands have and do delve into the realm of classical singing. Most significantly of course being the legendary Tarja Turunen of Nightwish fame and her very decent voice a great example of which can be found below.



I could go down this route but it is not my area of expertise on the guitar and I feel somewhat hampered in the song writing department in the genre of "Epic Metal". My guitar abilities lend themselves towards more traditional aspects of hard rock and metal. Guns n Roses, Black Sabbath, Audioslave, Van Halen, Motley Crue etc. are the bands that I am adept at playing. Having said that I do stretch towards more progressive bands such as NIN, Tool, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, King Crimson etc. However none of these are traditionally suitable for female vocalists. So we shall see what direction we head in with this project. It may be that we are able to hybridise many elements into a new direction in music. Only time will tell in this regard but I can promise that there will definitely be some very self serving intricate guitar solos (hey write what you know!).

Christmas in HK

Ok apologies first. I haven't blogged in 2 weeks, been very busy what with Christmas and all, so an extra long post today to update you on what I have been doing in that time. 

I am currently suffering from culture shock at Christmas in Hong Kong. The first thing was the rather strange decor that goes along with Christmas over here. Christmas decoration ideas appear to have arrived here from cartoon America via those twisted warped minds who design stuff like this in Japan. Here is a photo from a friend of mine that kind of sums up what I am getting at (many thanks to Lisa for snapping this)

I mean what the hell. Has a 1950s demonic, Elvis impersonating Santa decided to build himself a little fort out of poinsettias and strike a Kung Fu pose. Also why is he wearing a sleeveless top, who the hell does he think he is Chuck Norris. 

However there are some plus sides to Christmas in HK. Everything is open pretty much as normal on Christmas Day so if you had forgotten to buy something at the supermarket you could nip down and get it, if this were England you would be buggered. Also the weather is brilliant, I was sat outside at 9pm on Christmas day in Civic square at Elements shopping mall wearing a t-shirt, drinking a pint of Guinness whilst listening to my fiance and her choir sing Christmas carols. Surreal but utterly enjoyable.

I also had my company's Christmas dinner out at Po Toi O, near Clear water Bay in a small fishing village with an absolutely cracking seafood restaurant in it. 

Here is the office team. Clockwise from bottom left they are Brick (I know please don't ask), Vanessa, Minnie, Chris, Me (also Chris), Bowie, Kanas, Carol, Carmen and Ricky (our factory manager)

And here is the factory crew. I know how to pronounce this lots names but writing it out is a different matter as most of them don't have an English name.

Menu was as follows:

Seafood Soup with Corbicula, Bean Curd and Fish

Vegetable fried Razor Clams

Cuttlefish Sashimi and Deep fried Cuttlefish

Egg White Steamed Crab with Shaoxing Wine

Salted Shrimp

Boiled Spiral Shells with Spicy Wine

Whole Steamed Grouper

Deep fried Shrimp Ball

Sea Urchin fried Rice

Fried Noodles

All the food was excellent and a good time was had by all. I was glad that is all went well as this was my first meal with them all since the old manager (another Chris) had left. I felt it was a real bonding experience and I hope that this helps promote a good working relationship between everybody for the future.

A note on our transport to Po Toi O, we had a bus that the restaurant uses for large parties come and pick us up. If you have ever been out to this part of the New Territories you will know that the terrain is not what you would call flat and the roads are not straight but rather twisty. Despite this and the fact that we were driving along a cliff edge at the coast for long periods the bus driver maintained a steady 70mph, speeding up occasionally to overtake cars and trucks in his way. This was fine and quite fun on the way there, but on the way back with 5 beers and a large amount of seafood in my belly it was not so pleasant. To give you an idea of the speed we got from Tsuen Wan to Po Toi O in around 25mins, it is direct about 30km on the map.

A double dose of my music selection for you today, because... well just because I can. First up I am going to show my misspent youth by posting a classic Sublime song up. This brings back some very good memories from my days in a Ska/Punk band. We had one song where we used to switch instruments and this was the song I got to play the guitar on. There is a recording of this event floating around out there somewhere from a gig back when I would have been 16, I have no idea who has it now all I remember was that it was on a mini disc (they didn't last long did they)

I will follow this up with a song that I remember fondly as inspiring me to want to be a Bass player (along with Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who) and also started me listening to some more challenging and interesting Music in general. I therefore give you Schism by Tool. For all you music buffs out there the main verse is in alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8 instead of straight 12/8 to give this disjointed feeling (a Schism in the music), shifting into 13/8 for the bridge and a straight 12/8 for the chorus (joining up the Schism in the beat). 

The end sequence of the song shifts into 8/4 then 9/8 and 7/4 (once again Schism in the beats) before the end riff which is in 12/8 to join the whole thing up again before closing in 4/4. Horrendously difficult to count but not something you can play just by feel as the timing of each note is crucial to this idea of having deliberate splits in the beat.

A Goodbye but a Good Weekend

Today was the first time in about 2 months where I woke up on a Monday feeling a little drowsy but ultimately refreshed and not tired. I still look tired, I have large bags under my eyes and I am a little pale but I feel... good. No other word really to describe it I feel right in my body and my head. I think I was helped by having my first Saturday off for about 5 weeks so the extra day where I could sleep in was very welcome. 

There was a touch of sadness this weekend as Chris who his Operations Manager for the company is leaving us and it was his leaving party this weekend gone. Chris has been with the company in HK since it started nearly 8 years ago. It is in many ways sad but also good because he has been training me to do his job and it has been awkward top have two people around who are doing the same jobs, although my remit and position are slightly to different to his.

It was also good for everyone in the office and the factory as we all got to spend some time together and everyone is now accepting of and used to the reality of Chris not being around anymore. All I can say is that I appreciated everything that he has helped me with and wish him and his wife and young daughter all the best.

I have decided due to some positive feedback I had from my last post to add a music section in with my blog as a regular spot. I mentioned in my last post how I enjoyed Mahler and I recently saw that the HK Philharmonic will be performing Mahler in a one off special next month. I will be trying to get down to that with my fiance. So for your pleasure I have below the 1st Movement of the Symphony No 8. Which as I have mentioned before is one of the first occasions where an Orchestra was used in a Symphony. Due to unfortunate restrictions I cannot bring you the whole of the first movement in one hit as it is 25mins long and would be three videos worth. The others are up there on youtube if your interest is piqued and you want to keep listening.

Music or lack of

I am what you might call a failed Musician. I "play" five different instruments: Piano, Clarinet, Saxophone, Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar. That is also the order in which I learnt them and is also the order of my ability on them although I am divided about the last two.

Despite this however I struggle to read Music (this is one of the ways my Dyslexia manifests itself) and the best way I have found of improving my playing has been to watch somebody else play and I play essentially from memory a lot of the time. I am therefore an avid concert and gig attender, everything from Opera down to Punk is fair game to me as I don't limit myself by style. I do like to go and watch musicians who are at their peak or who are doing something new and challenging.

For example I loved going to watch a performance of Mahler's 8th Symphony, as it was one his more innovative works along with the 5th which was the first Symphony to use a choir. My favorite gig to date has been going to see Dream Theater at the Manchester Apollo. These guys are on the cutting edge of what it is possible to do with the basic setup of Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, Drums and Vocals. If you haven't heard anything by them I would heartily recommend you to go look at the video below. The main part of the song kicks in about 2 minutes in after the heavy intro.

The real rub with living in HK is that I hardly ever get to see any decent musicians or hear any decent music. I cannot see what is good about Canto Pop, J Pop, K Pop or Cheesy Dance music that I hear everywhere. I can get the occasional decent Jazz or maybe some more inventive dance or Drum n Bass at a couple of places, Gekko in mid-levels is fast turning into a favorite. 

There is also one "rock" club in HK called The Underground which tends to play middle of the road Indie pop bands. It is a shame as a lot of the time it makes me think twice about going out for the night. The company is important yes, but as I am not the sort of person who goes out and gets drunk for the sake of it I like to have something decent to listen to or watch being played.

As a result of this I am contemplating forming a band just for the sole purpose of trying to shake up the music scene here and introduce some variety into the system. Maybe two will be required one decent rock/punk band and one fusion tripped out weird Jazz band. The grand plan is to try and make HK more like Japan, a must stop place for all decent or well know artists. Anyone interested?