The new anti-smoking campaign announces a 'Rockin' without Smokin' concert - and suddenly I am overcome by the threat of a congregation of terrible Straight Edge bands making music awful enough to wake the dead who sleep beneath the foundations of the Esplanade. 

Actually, no - there aren't actually any good bands in Singapore, although the Observatory comes close at times, as does ublues - but my real grief with this ridiculous business is that making rock squeaky clean is necessarily disingenuous, if you actually give a shit about the music. Now, don't get me wrong - I don't in any way promote smoking, although I have done my fair share of it. But to use rock (or the idea of rock, in this case - asking for actual rock in this country is asking for far too much) to push your own squeaky clean agenda is to disassociate it with everything that rock stands for - the great sacred chaos at the heart of human interactions. 

I'm not outraged at this point. The concert is well meaning, and given the quality of past such productions I'm not (and doubt if anyone is) shocked. But I'd like to add my voice to a debate that maybe will help this sodden little country grow up a bit.

adam

Last night was quite the disaster. Still making sense of what happened - but hey, I guess you don't get awesome unless you're prepared to accept epic failure. 

Sigh.

adam

Science: the God of Small Things (with apologies to Arundhati Roy)

From this moment on, I will be featuring a new sort of blog entry, one that celebrates the little observations that keep you on the thin and narrow ridge line of Sanity, the joyful little discoveries that make you sit up for a moment and go 'wow,' and thank your preferred deity that but for the whim of Science, we might all still be sitting in caves and scratching our armpits and watching the Simpsons.

1. 

Put a watermelon in the refrigerator for a few hours. Take it out, cut it into small chunks and eat it. 90%  of the pieces will be colder on one side. This happens because the outside of the watermelon is the first to lose heat to the cooling effect of the refrigerator - common sense really, but in the days of Phlogiston and liquid heat (scientists actually believed heat was a liquid until alarmingly recently) there would have been a considerable lot more confusion. I think it is actually beautiful that the same laws that govern the motion of the heavenly bodies and the rise and fall of the tides could actually make chilled watermelon pieces cold only on one side. If there is a God, he truly is a joker.

" And I really like Strauss and Mozart and all that, but the priceless gift that African Americans gave the whole world when they were still in slavery was a gift so great that it is now almost the only reason many foreigners still like us at least a little bit. That specific remedy for the worldwide epidemic of depression is a gift called the blues. "

- Kurt Vonnegut

I am happy, for I have found my Kind of Blue. 

When I opened the Head Hunters cd to rip to to FLAC, imagine my surprise when two cds fell out - one of which was the Kind of Blue that I'd been mourning the loss of for months. 

Rejoice, for my brother was dead and now is alive!

adam

Back from Taiwan

Not something I really want to talk about. 

Did get the opportunity to shop for some clothes, though. 

I've got about a week off, sans wednesday, so I guess i'll try and get back to my old life for a quick while before it's torn away from me again. I will not succumb to army! 

In keeping with the general atmosphere of hope and all that, here's some Shonen Knife:

IT'S A NEW FIND

Feel in your pockets for something fun
Wash your socks and turn them inside out
Try to look hip in old ugly clothes
There'll be something different in your life

*It's a new find, It's a new find,
It's a new find, It's a new
It's a new find, It's a new find,
It's a new find, It's a new

Let's all get up and dance to a song
It gets you feelin' very nice
You can have a strange hair cut
There'll be something different in your life

*repeat x2

I can't find any more but you can find a new way

Sache down the street in platform shoes
You can find some new scenery
Make up with your friend and try again
There'll be something different in your life