The Lighthouse

- It's been awhile, thus this rambling.

- Facebook is eating away my time on this, but the old friends found there were extremely gratifying. I've never been a good manager of friends, because I'd much like to do things alone (eating, sleeping, shopping, reading). No one can be called my best friend, while I can't be to anyone. But after finding, and being accepted by, about 80 friends, I don't think I can be called a loner. That's good.

- It's hard to lead a double life. Will I be an above-average sports columnist/newpaper designer, or will I be a so-so guitarist with the (very) occasional inventiveness?

- Interpol remain haunting, but they seem in a rut. The icy, film-noir guitar lines are getting tiresome in some tracks. That said, when they hit form, it's way above the trash that comes out of music these days. Jaded? You bet I am.

- My heart swings, a lot.

- Harry Potter's over. Nice. I'm most like Hermione, according to a Facebook survey. That seemed to get onto many people's nerves.

Ich Will

The comedy of subtitling.

Time

Jaded with rock music, like I am right now? Go listen to Tom Waits, like I did.



One online reviewer said there are only two rock musicians whose lyrics are as beautiful on paper as they are when sung - Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. So here are the lyrics to the song above.

Time - Tom Waits

Well the smart money's on Harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you're east of East St Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
And Napoleon is weeping in a carnival saloon
His invisible fiancee's in the mirror
And the band is going home, it's raining hammers, it's raining nails
And it's true there's nothing left for him down here

And it's time, time, time
And it's time, time, time
And it's time, time, time that you love
And it's time, time, time

And they all pretend they're orphans and their memory's like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget
That history puts a saint in every dream
Well she said she'd stick around until the bandages came off
But these mama's boys just don't know when to quit
And Mathilda asks the sailors, "Are those dreams or are those prayers?"
So close your eyes, son, and this won't hurt a bit

Oh it's time, time, time
And it's time, time, time
And it's time, time, time that you love
And it's time, time, time

Well things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street
And when they're on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips
As the dish outside the window fills with rain
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off 'til I come back again

Oh it's time, time, time
And it's time, time, time
And it's time, time, time that you love
And it's time, time, time

There She Goes

Another spate of mp3 downloads. Realised that most musicians I like are male.

There must be some women singers I like, I thought. Scrolled through my library, it became obvious who my fave woman musician is.

Sarah McLachlan.

Actually, I like only her two major albums. But what beauties those are. Spellbinding is the only word I can think of to describe Sarah's voice. Listen to it wrap around your ears. You'll forget the world.

Here are my top 10 Sarah McLachlan songs

10 Blackbird (Afterglow live)
If you want to cover the Beatles, you better match their high standards. Wisely, she picks this gentle ditty from The White Album. Stellar guitars.

9 Possession (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
Lead-off track of an extraordinarily beautiful album, but the treasure lies at the end, as she tucks a piano-only version as the hidden track. A tale of a stalker? Feel the eerie power as she sings amid the gorgeous piano: "I will be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard."

8 Adia (Surfacing)
'Cause we are born innocent.....

7 Do What You Have To Do (Surfacing)
If just for how she sings the opening phrase: "What ravages of spirit conjured this temptuous rage?/Created you a monster, broken by the rule of love?"

6 Elsewhere (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
"I believe this is heaven to no one else but me/And I'll defend it as long as I can be left here to linger in silence/If I choose to, would you try to understand?" Yes I do.

5 Fear (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
Bone-chilling vocal acrobatics.

4. Hold On (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
Only she can make a song about an impending death seem so warm, tender and devoid of schmaltz.

3. Good Enough (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
The perfectly-emoted soft-rock song for a woman to sing.

2. Wait (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
Overlooked gem. A weird beat over a simple piano riff. Then her ethereal voice drifts in, singing about...whatever she's singing. Obtuse, yet so haunting like you know every word she says.

1. Angel (Surfacing)
The most beautiful song ever. Pure at heart, crystalline voice, gorgeous musical accompaniment. Just incredibly moving. During a strange drinking session back in my uni days, with some of my closer female friends around, I said if some woman ever sings this song for me, I would fall immediately for her, no questions asked. None of those friends did =p But the offer still stands. Serious.

Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

Something to make us a little less cynical.



So in the semi-finals....



And in the final....





Now if you had noticed the small girl in the above video, here's her performance. Warning to females: it WILL reduce you into blabbering "SO CUTE!" for hours.

Survivalism

- Just bought "Year Zero" by one of my favourite musicians, Nine Inch Nails. Extremely noisy, extremely bleak, extremely good. Dunno if it's a healthy thing.

- "Hurt" gets me more and more emotional as I get older. Dunno if it's a good thing.

- These days, I get worked up over the smallest things. And it's not about work. It's about my own hobby. This is hardly a good thing.

- Hey man, slow down, slow down. Idiot, slow down, slow down.

- I eat too fast.

- Start all over? Dare I?

- My favourite NIN songs:

5. Terrible Lie (Pretty Hate Machine): God owes me a great big apology? Gulp.

4. Closer (The Downward Spiral): I wanna *bleep* you like an animal. Sex in electronica.

3. Something I Can Never Have (PHM): The most depressing piano ballad. Ever.

2. March Of The Pigs (TDS): Now doesn't it make you feel better?

1. Hurt. But of course.

- I'm alright. I really am. It's the people around me that are falling apart, and it's affecting me.

Wasn't Born To Follow

- I've always wanted to be a Jack of all trades.

I figured, why exclude? Why this and not that? Why can't a person be a master of none?

Do I need to pigeon-hole myself, when the world is already busy trying to categorise me?

I'm whoever I want to be. And I'm good in everything I want to be. I count my blessings for it.

But no, it's not enough for the world, isn't it? It's not enough to just dabble, one must be obsessive to be considered an expert, a master of one.

Everyone pushes himself over the edge for his own ego, that he may call himself dedicated to his field of expertise.

They scoff, they jeer, they blame those who are laid-back, those who have a short attention span, those who are easily bored.

I've always been able to jump off the wagon before it gets derailed.

People view it as a curse. I view it as keeping my sanity.

- I'm burning out real fast. Gotta recharge. Thailand here I come.

Feelings, nothing more than......

ROFL. God I miss the Muppets.



Mee mee, mee mee mee mee mee mee
mee mee mee mee mee mee
mee mee mee mee

Mee mee, mee mee mee mee mee mee mee mee mee
mee mee mee mee mee mee mee mee mee mee
mee mee mee mee

MEEE MEEE!!!! Mee mee mee mee mee MEE MEE!!!!
Meeee..... mememememememe.....
MEEE MEEE!!! Mee mee mee mee mee MEE MEE!!!
Meee.... mememememememe.....

Yellow

If the movie is as good as these two trailers, I'm gonna die laughing in the cinema.

Wolf Like Me

My current fave. What a beautiful sound/noise TV On The Radio create.



Letterman seems to like this band, that old fart. Awesome performance.



Say say my playmate
Won't you lay hands on me
Mirror my melody
Transfer my tragedy

Got a curse i cannot lift
Shines when the sunset shifts
When the moon is round and full
Gotta bust that box, gotta gut that fish

We could jet in a stolen car
But i bet we wouldn't get too far
Before the transformation takes
And bloodlust tanks and crave gets slaked

My mind has changed my body's frame
But God i like it
My heart's aflame, my body's strained
But God i like it
My mind has changed my body's frame
But God i like it
My heart's aflame, my body's strained
But God i like it

Charge me your day rate
I'll turn you out in kind
When the moon is round and full
Gonna teach you tricks that'll blow your mind

Baby doll I recognise
You're a hideous thing inside
If ever there were a lucky kind
It's you you you you

I know it's strange, another way
To get to know you
You'll never know unless we go
So let me show you
I know it's strange, another way
To get to know you
We've got till noon, here comes the moon
So let it show you, show you now

Dream me, oh dreamer
Down to the floor
Open my hands and let them weave onto yours
Feel me, completer
Down to my core
Open my heart and let it bleed onto yours
Feeding on fever
Down on all fours
I'll show you what all that howl is for

Hey hey my playmate
Let me lay waste to thee
Burned down their hanging trees
It's hot here hot here hot here hot here

Got a curse we cannot lift
Shines when the sunshine shifts
There's a curse comes with a kiss
The bite that binds, the gift that gives

Now that we got gone for good
Writhing under your riding hood
Tell your grandma and your mama too
It's true true true true

We're howling forever....

1,000 Oceans

While the rest of the world go ga-ga over the iPhone (click on the links to my friends' blogs), I'm still plugged to my oversized, battered Creative Zen original.

Plowing through some alternative music. Then one song stopped me in the tracks, as it has done always.

Tori Amos released this song when I was in university. A young man still with enough naivete to believe in falling gloriously in love with someone.

That song drove me to tears the first time I heard it. The second, the third, the fourth.....

And, when I revisited it about two hours ago, I'm still affected by its purity. The young man's tears, however, have dried.

Such a simple declaration. Like when the accountant told Schindler that his list is "absolute good", so is this song.



These tears I cried
I've cried a thousand oceans
And if it seems I'm floating in the darkness
Well, I can't believe
That I would keep, keep you from flying
And I would cry a thousand more
If that's what it takes to sail you home
Sail you home, sail you home

I'm aware what the rules are
But you know that I would run
You know that I will follow you
Over Silbury Hills
Through the solar fields
You know that I will follow you

And if I find you
Will you still remember
Playing at the trains
Or does this little blue ball just fade away

Over Silbury Hills
Through the solar fields
You know that I will follow you
I'm aware what the rules are
But you know that I would run
You know that I will follow you

These tears I cried
I've cried a thousand oceans
And if it seems I'm floating in the darkness
Well, I can't believe
That I would keep, keep you from flying
So I would cry a thousand more
If that's what it takes to sail you home
Sail you home, sail you home

Incinerate

Oh wow. This is bloody awesome. My favourite song of 2006, and I heard it about a month too late for the year....=) Hail Kim, Thurston, Lee and Steve.

Next Year

- Can't sleep. Thought about the ending year. Some reflections (10 of them).

10. Sustaining my sports column throughout this year. Miraculous.

9. Still jamming. But I wish it could go somewhere fast.

8. Hitting the 3-0. I'm glad I still feel like 29.

7. KTV sleaze in Beijing. Dragged into it by my important acquaintance. Let's just say ladies from every Chinese province were lined up in front of me. Sigh.

6. Oasis concert. Power of rock still resonates. Almost passed out in the heat of the crowd.

5. Bob Dylan's "Modern Times". Lyrical aches.

4. Sydney Harbour. A$1 million for a house overlooking this beauty.

3. Great Wall during Beijing trip. 2nd time on the Wall, walked further than the first time. Cheered on by an old lady as I struggled with my weight.

2. Finally being comfortable and competent with my job. I have the skills to pay the bills.

1. Willing my team to FA Cup victory. Just before Stevie G hit his last-minute screamer from 35m out, I shouted "SHOOOOOOOT!!!!!" in front of all my colleagues. Apparently, Stevie heard me. I feel so important.

I wish next year will have a memorable moment with someone. I. care.

After The Flood

- Wash away the loose ground.

- Late night drink sessions are always candid. With my old JC friends, it gets really funny. Miss them much, especially as more and more of them go strike it out overseas, or get married, or both.

- New year dawning. Can't wait for it. I always feel ready to start anew. Of course, six months down the road, I'll be back where I'm used to be. Whatever.

- A quick Top 10 list before I go. Paul Simon has a way of with words unlike any other songwriters. No one writes songs as poignant, in as literate a manner, as he does. Beneath his wealth of words, lies an attention to emotional detail no one else comes close to.

10 You Can Call Me Al
At his most fun, he can be as nonsensical as John Lennon on LSD. This is his "I Am The Walrus". Check out one of the most beautiful bass breaks in pop history late in this song.

9 Slip Slidin' Away
What a downer of a song. Of course, he had to marry to one of the beautiful folk melodies for the poignancy to hit home. The spine-tingling line: "We're working our jobs/Collect our pay/Believe we're gliding down the highway/When in fact we're slip slidin' away".

8 The Cool, Cool River
Late-era Simon songs are embellished by world music. This one marries South American percussion to a powerful lament on man's powerlessness against the forces of nature. It's a stunning, surging epic, ending with one of his best couplets: "My life's so common, it disappears/And sometimes even music/Cannot substitute for the tears."

7 Homeward Bound
Best song about a songster's homesickness. "All my words come back to me/In shades of mediocrity/Like emptiness in harmony/I need someone to comfort me."

6 Mrs Robinson
Bouyant and whimsical, Simon paints the 1960s with humourous flair. And here's to you, Mrs Robinson.

5 The Sound Of Silence
His first hit, with Garfunkel. Try listen to this song live, and not have a tear in your eyes when they sing, in their perfect harmony: "And the sign said, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls/And tenement halls/And whispered in the sound of silence."

4 Hearts And Bones
Written during his marriage breakdown, it is naturally heartbreaking. An underrated classic. "Tell me why/Why won't you love me/For who I am/Where I am?"

3 Bridge Over Troubled Water
What an apt metaphor for friendship, sung in Garfunkel's beautiful tenor. The irony is that this song was made when his and Garfunkel's relationship was at their worst. Absolutely a hymn. "I'll take your part/Oh, when darkness comes/And pain is all around/Like a bridge over troubled water/I will lay me down."

2 The Boxer
Awesome tale of everyman's fight to survive. When the "Li-la-li" refrain begins, you're swept away by the cinematic grandeur and tragedy. "In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade/And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down/Or cut him till he cried out in his anger and his shame/I am leaving, I am leaving/But the fighter still remains."

1 Graceland
The one song where his music matches the poignancy and richness of his lyrics. Credit the South African backing band that created the looping, uplifting rhythms and exquisite guitar fills. But the lyrics are all Simon, and I think it's about his recovery from his failed marriage. Such a beautiful metaphor, comparing the recovery to a trip to Graceland, surely every American musician's Mecca. And therein lies his greatest and truest line: "And I see losing love is like a window in your heart/Everybody sees you're blown apart/Everybody feels the wind blow."