Blog games

Grabbed off cher's blog. Sorry cher.

1. Open your library (iTunes, Media Player, iPod)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool!

Opening Credits : Fall to Pieces by Velvet Revolver - oddly appropriate.

Every time I'm falling down
All alone I fall to pieces

Waking Up : I am the Walrus by the Beatles - What the hell.

I am the egg-man. They are the egg-men. I am the walrus.

First Day of School : Build God, Then We'll Talk by Panic! at the disco - hmm. no comment.

Falling in Love: Summer Rain by Hiromi - also no comment. I realise around this point that my library doesn't have a lot of vocals.

Fight Song: Another Kind of Green by John Mayer -

I didn't need another kind of green to know I'm on the right side with you.

Breaking Up: Satin Doll by Ella Fitzgerald - not quite.

She's nobody's fool so I'm playing it cool as can be.
I'll give it a whirl but I ain't for no girl catching me

Prom: When We Were Free by Pat Metheny Group - haha.

Life: You Got No Right by Velvet Revolver - one of the few on my playlist that I've never listened to before O.o is that trying to say something about the state of my life?

Mental Breakdown: Telegraph Road by Dire Straits - wonderful song, scores just about nothing for appropriateness. It's about a road.

There's six lanes of traffic
Three lanes moving slow

Flashback: Theme from frasier. Hey baby I hear the blues are calling...

Tossed salads and scrambled eggs.

Wedding: Danse Macabre. Holy Crap.

Birth of Child: Four by Miles Davis. NO. NONONONONONONONONO.

Death Scene: Battle Hymn by Manowar. No comment.

Funeral Song: Headless by Joe Satriani. -.-

Ending Credits: Big Machine by Velvet Revolver. WHY do i keep getting them? I don't even particularly like them or have a huge lot of their music.

adam

Blu Jazz

I went to the Blu Jazz restaurant/bar twice in the last two weeks to play with the band. Aya Sekine is an amazing musician. The night I played she had in two guests who she happened to know - Joshua Wan on bass and someone else on drums i can't quite recall. What amazed me was that they didn't gig regularly together, but on stage they were so together it was almost telepathic. This is really creepy territory. I'm not talking about simply playing on time or stuff like that. Interpretation-wise, that band is able to turn on a dime. They can jump from a flying crescendo to pin-drop silence in the space of a bar, and it's entirely improvised. They just communicate somehow. Anyway that put enough of the righteous fear in me that i gave up comping and just quietly took my solo. Aya said she liked it (woot) and asked me to come back (woot.).

Came back the week after and discovered that there was a guest band i.e. Aya wasn't there. So I asked the guest band (michael stenton) whether I could play - well actually i mentioned that I played guitar a bit and Michael invited me on stage. That was scary. Luckily I called familiar stuff - a blues shuffle and then someone called Black Orpheus. Not a terribly difficult tune, I could've handled the changes probably, but Michael told me he'd give me the outtro. 3 minutes of A minor. That is a freaking dream come true for someone who's spent the last two years playing So What (7.5 minutes of D minor and 2.5 minutes of Eb minor) and the rest of the modal jazz standards. So it was good. I'm fairly happy about that.

Then of course got dragged to Xun's place and got smashed. I'm not happy about that, but that's another story for another day. God, I sound like Ringo Starr.

adam

There was probably a point sometime around last year where i stopped being a writer and I started being a musician. And then I realised with not a little surprise that it was the same thing. The only thing which keeps me going at all this is that spark of wonder that wakes me up in the morning whispering 'Inexplicably, I am alive. I don't know why. But is it not beautiful?' It is beautiful, oh it is beautiful.

Inexplicably we are alive. Somehow we fumble our way through the recesses of this world, clueless as to where we came from. We cling to each other, quite afraid. The highest faculty we possess is empathy (Phillip K. Dick got this one right) - the ability to recognise that same wonder and fear in another person.

Inexplicably we are alive. Consciousness is a nested existential crisis. I have no reason to exist. If i did not exist, I would not be wondering why I exist. I respond with fear. I respond with wonder. The world has no explanation. It is wild and beautiful.

Inexplicably we are alive. Individuality is the only undisputable fact and the only insoluble mystery. Is a person more than the sum of his parts? I am proud of myself because I exist. I have no reason to exist. I have no reason to be proud except my individuality. I am separate from you, I am sovereign. You are sovereign; you are my brother.

Experience is sacred. Art is the worship of experience.

adam

Imagine

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say I'm
a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is totally the atheist anthem O.o

But it made me ask myself the question Am I an Atheist? Because religion has slowly been dropping out of my life. I mean, i still go to church on sundays but that's the extent of it.
But no, i'm not an atheist. I mean, atheism is sexy and all (very sexy. just ask dr. house) but I don't think we can be that sure.

adam

I've always hated Dave Weckl.

Around 5 minutes ago I thought to myself that I may be being just a little prejudiced and decided to consult the almighty youtube about giving him another chance. I regretted that almost instantly. His cover of Jaco's 'The Chicken' is one of the truly awful things in this world - yes, right up there with income tax and trombones.

Good lord. He has no ideas. He plays fairly conventional fills except with blindingly fast technique - alright, I'll grant that he's a master technician - but nothing new. He's not bad but just strikingly unmusical for all the hype he gets. The kicker came at the end of the tune when they were waiting on the last note of the signature riff that ends the song - he takes 10 seconds to do a long drum solo almost as if saying 'wait a minute - stop! the song can't end yet, I haven't finished jacking off!' It adds nothing to the song except to make a cheesy ending worse. It's Jaco. It demands ideas, attitude. Yes the 'busy' sound does work but not when everyone at once is trying to sound like a one-man band. When you add those up you don't get a three-man band, you get three one-man bands which sounds less like music than like group sex.

This is what is wrong with fusion. Just to check if my ears were working right - I went back and listened to weather report again - predictable high. I'm alright. Dave Weckl DOES suck - all is right with the world. But not yet - I haven't finished bitching. What is even worse is the parade of music snobs that fusion spawned in the 70s and haven't quite finished dying out yet - the worst bunch since the Nazis decided they liked Wagner. People who turn up their noses to rock and pop music and worship their gods of stick technique, claiming that any detractors have 'no ear for music' and cannot appreciate the intellectual intricacies of their heroes. Yes my friends, the only way Dave Weckl and his ilk can obscure the fact that they have no ideas is to hide behind their enormous drumsets (seriously. Think NASA.) and their shredding and jerking off behind so-called funk beats. Complexity does not belie content.

In the end, music (leaving out John Cage for now) is about experience and emotion. It made the great musicians like Miles Davis (who, incidentally, was a big fan of pop music). Heck, jazz was originally a popular music and most of our standards today are reworked pop tunes from the 20s and 30s. I think fusion as played by Mike Stern and Dave Weckl needs to die out quickly, and those people need to grow up and put their serious chops to better use.

EDIT: As a note of comparison, check out Jaco's own recording of The Chicken here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhkPSEXs1Q
That is a real drummer, and THAT is a real drum solo. He has so much wit - I actually laughed out loud during the first bars of his solo.

adam

John Mayer, when he's not having one of his Moments, is a god-awful songwriter. One wishes he'd put up a more consistent performance on Continuum. For what it's worth, the album sounds good, he's a very good guitarist, and the occasionally poignant song such as 'Stop this Train' or 'Vultures' makes it worth the while. The much hyped radio hit 'Waiting on the world to change' is bullshit. Sure he hit on a couple of nice hooky little riffs but the songwriting is so appalling I don't think i'll ever reconcile myself with the song.

Make no mistake, however; I genuinely enjoyed this album. John Mayer has some way to go, but I really hope he makes it.

adam

New Years

I don't want to do this, really I don't... but i guess come end of the year you really have to sit down with yourself and take stock.

Who am I kidding. It's 3.50 am, I'm remarkably sober and i'm bored.

2007 was awesome in many ways. (Rayner I don't know how you did this in chapters)

Jazz club has been one of the most fulfilling things i've ever done. I guess there's little of the warm fuzzy feeling in retrospect; we weren't that sort of people, and we weren't out to do great romantic things. We learned, we gigged, and we dealt in our own way with the harsh reality that musicians are the most bumfucked people on the planet. I guess that's what counts - I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

For the most part, I developed a little bit of 'musical maturity' this year i.e. sharpened my prejudices and finally figured out what i like. Learning jazz has taught me how to learn - I had to pick that up again after so many years of being spoon fed. I'm glad for it, even if I do grow up to be completely worthless. Jazz itself is a wonderful metaphor for life - you take each moment as it is; letting go of the past and heedless of the future. We need more of that. I need more of that.

This year has also been about people. I love people (even if I never ever let this fact on). Doing stuff has brought me near to so many interesting characters I couldn't possibly list them all down.

Sophie : I don't know what to say. You bewilder me. Whatever happens, it's been wonderful. You've forced me to grow up, in some ways. In other ways I'll probably be around 5 years old for the rest of my life, and you'll have to live with those. I've never met someone so... heedless and immediate. I need that. I also wonder what on earth you see in me.

Rayner : I guess I keep you around so i seem intelligent by comparison. I also don't think i really need to type much here. I respect you much more than I let on. Keep smiling, cos life's a laugh and death's a joke.

The Manly Men : T, Xun, D, Wang. It's time for Wangernum! No lol. Despite the fact that you only act macho because you're secretly insecure about the size of your genitals, i love you guys. Thanks for keeping me from sinking into the depths of antisocialness. T:I know you hate to hear me whine and bitch. Thanks for doing it anyway. Xun: Your advice is useless, but i take it anyway because i know that what you really want me to do is do something instead of sitting around and worrying like I usually do. D: Thanks for being around when I needed normal (read:geek) activity. Doing inane stuff is important when you're religiously avoiding deeper issues. Wang: Despite what i say sometimes, you are actually a funny guy, and even funnier when i'm slightly drunk.

Jazz cats : I can't believe I just typed that. So fucking gay. Hyqel, Xiumin, Clara, Kelly, Vivek, Boyle, Huang. Mark and Debbo too, and the juniors. No mushy feelings here. We had loads of fun , partly because we are all so unbelievably inept, but also because we were willing to try something new, even if it meant we inevitably got sexually harrassed by drunk people because we could only pull seedy gigs. I can respect that. Don't ever stop.

07S03N: I got lucky when I was dropped into this class. I have not been able to say that for 6 years. These people are so amazing and vibrant and full of laughter and life, it'll almost be a pity when half of them grow up to be mediocre middle-class white collar workers. I guess you can't have it forever. I'm glad I knew you when you did.

Church: I'm sorry for drifting. So much has happened and I've realised so much about myself that a huge chunk of my faith suddenly no longer applies. I never had anything against any of you, so keep up what you do and never give up.

That's all i can think of for now. More later maybe. Or never.

adam

My last word for 2007: A quote from monty python.

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.