golden apples baked in swirling seas
that's the first thought that was born in me
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Why I like music, playing music rather.
Today I asked myself whilst driving home, what was it about making music that made me love it so much?
As I started to dissect the reasons, I applied some of what I was teaching in tutorials today - about how images dominate and shape much of our perceptions. We live in a society that is fueled by visual communication.
Music on the other hand, involves listening and hearing, not looking and seeing. Playing music is beautiful because by and large, we can do it with our eyes closed (after some manner of instrumental proficiency, of course). We communicate through sounds. It is so beautiful jamming away with a band, big or small. Imagine a hundred people contributing to this symphony of sounds we cannot see, but can hear, and thus feel.
The truth is, aural communication, the lack of it, and understanding of it, is nowhere as purposefully designed as the visual world. The aural world takes a back seat and is a consequence of what is happening visually. What if, sounds shaped the world instead? How amazing would that possibly be?
Studies in acoustic ecology have developed a nifty new way to design the sounds around us, to better keep us at peace (yes, control too, but I trust it will not turn that way). Limited usage of it exists in Muzak, museums, installation art, and some buildings. It is a growing awareness, and one I am most glad to be a part of.
So, this is it. A short capture of my thoughts as I was driving home in my car, and into the driveway, and trying my best to remember to immortalize these thoughts, into words in this virtual reality.
As I started to dissect the reasons, I applied some of what I was teaching in tutorials today - about how images dominate and shape much of our perceptions. We live in a society that is fueled by visual communication.
Music on the other hand, involves listening and hearing, not looking and seeing. Playing music is beautiful because by and large, we can do it with our eyes closed (after some manner of instrumental proficiency, of course). We communicate through sounds. It is so beautiful jamming away with a band, big or small. Imagine a hundred people contributing to this symphony of sounds we cannot see, but can hear, and thus feel.
The truth is, aural communication, the lack of it, and understanding of it, is nowhere as purposefully designed as the visual world. The aural world takes a back seat and is a consequence of what is happening visually. What if, sounds shaped the world instead? How amazing would that possibly be?
Studies in acoustic ecology have developed a nifty new way to design the sounds around us, to better keep us at peace (yes, control too, but I trust it will not turn that way). Limited usage of it exists in Muzak, museums, installation art, and some buildings. It is a growing awareness, and one I am most glad to be a part of.
So, this is it. A short capture of my thoughts as I was driving home in my car, and into the driveway, and trying my best to remember to immortalize these thoughts, into words in this virtual reality.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Been a while... yet again.
In all honesty, all my attention has been focused on the upkeep and development of Wandering China, so this personal blog has been a tad neglected. Wandering China has been doing well, averaging 1500 unique readers a month. The dream is to eventually spend enough time to build it into a useful resource for understanding the Chinese diaspora's perceptions of what mainland China is doing today.
In any case. Here's the latest addition to the home, a little brown fence to liven up the walkway into the house. And with a little arrangement (the walking stick, plus a postcard, with a picture of a cottage sitting on a hill, in the flower pot), hopefully making an inviting entrance into the traveller's home.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Reflections
"The main purpose of acquiring knowledge is to give it away" was a quote my dad picked up from an SMU advertisement back home in Singapore. And it rings true in my ears - more than an acceptable perspective to make meaning with the life direction I decided to take, it re-affirms another little bit of wisdom my mother used to share with me. It has shaped me into who I am today! It is originally in Mandarin, but when translated, it reads - "Helping others is the source of all true happiness".
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Facebook beats Google for visitors: tracker
Noteworthy stuff.
- - -
Facebook beats Google for visitors: tracker
March 18, 2010 - 7:01AM
Source - The Age
Social-networking star Facebook surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the United States for the first time last week.
Facebook's homepage finished the week ending March 13 as the most visited site in the country, according to industry tracker Hitwise.
The "important milestone", as described by Hitwise director of research Heather Dougherty, came as Facebook enjoyed a massive 185 per cent increase in visits in the same period, compared to the same week in 2009.
By comparison, visits to search engine home Google.com increased only nine per cent in the same time - although the tracker does not include Google property sites such as the popular Gmail email service, YouTube and Google Maps.
Taken together, Facebook.com and Google.com amounted to 14 per cent of the entire US internet visits last week, Dougherty said.
Google has been positioning challenges in recent months to Facebook and the micro-blogging site Twitter by adding the social-networking feature Buzz to its Gmail service.
In what could signal an escalating battle between Facebook and Google, the leading social-networking service celebrated its sixth birthday earlier this year with changes including a new message inbox that echoes Gmail's format.
Facebook boasts some 400 million users while Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, according to tracking firm comScore.
AFP
- - -
Facebook beats Google for visitors: tracker
March 18, 2010 - 7:01AM
Source - The Age
Social-networking star Facebook surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the United States for the first time last week.
Facebook's homepage finished the week ending March 13 as the most visited site in the country, according to industry tracker Hitwise.
The "important milestone", as described by Hitwise director of research Heather Dougherty, came as Facebook enjoyed a massive 185 per cent increase in visits in the same period, compared to the same week in 2009.
By comparison, visits to search engine home Google.com increased only nine per cent in the same time - although the tracker does not include Google property sites such as the popular Gmail email service, YouTube and Google Maps.
Taken together, Facebook.com and Google.com amounted to 14 per cent of the entire US internet visits last week, Dougherty said.
Google has been positioning challenges in recent months to Facebook and the micro-blogging site Twitter by adding the social-networking feature Buzz to its Gmail service.
In what could signal an escalating battle between Facebook and Google, the leading social-networking service celebrated its sixth birthday earlier this year with changes including a new message inbox that echoes Gmail's format.
Facebook boasts some 400 million users while Gmail had 176 million unique visitors in December, according to tracking firm comScore.
AFP
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Sinatra hit has deadly record
Scary stuff! "The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you're somebody when you're really nobody. It covers up your failures. That's why it leads to fights." I trust none of the songs the band and myself have written so far will evoke such feelings! Music is much better for celebrating, healing wounds, and of course, chasing girls. Hah!
---
Sinatra hit has deadly record
Norimitsu Onishi, Philippines
The Age, February 8, 2010
It's not safe to sing My Way in karaoke bars.
AFTER a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighbourhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone and briefly stilled the room with the Platters' My Prayer. Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck.
But Mr Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra's My Way.
''I used to like My Way, but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,'' he said. ''You can get killed.''
The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling My Way in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines. But the media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and include them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the ''My Way killings''.
The murders have spawned urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings a byproduct of the country's culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song? Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks.
Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for monopolising the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbours in a rage after they sang John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads. And Filipinos, who pride themselves on their singing, may have a lower tolerance for bad singers.
Indeed, most of the My Way killings have reportedly occurred after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.
''The trouble with My Way,'' said Mr Gregorio, ''is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion.''
Others point to the song itself. The lyrics, written by Paul Anka for Sinatra as an unapologetic summing up of his career, are about a tough guy who "when there was doubt", simply "ate it up and spit it out''.
'' 'I did it my way' - it's so arrogant," said Butch Albarracin, the owner of Centre for Pop, a Manila-based singing school that has propelled the careers of many famous singers.
"The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you're somebody when you're really nobody. It covers up your failures. That's why it leads to fights."
NEW YORK TIMES
---
Sinatra hit has deadly record
Norimitsu Onishi, Philippines
The Age, February 8, 2010
It's not safe to sing My Way in karaoke bars.
AFTER a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighbourhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone and briefly stilled the room with the Platters' My Prayer. Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck.
But Mr Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra's My Way.
''I used to like My Way, but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,'' he said. ''You can get killed.''
The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling My Way in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines. But the media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and include them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the ''My Way killings''.
The murders have spawned urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers. Are the killings a byproduct of the country's culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song? Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks.
Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for monopolising the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbours in a rage after they sang John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads. And Filipinos, who pride themselves on their singing, may have a lower tolerance for bad singers.
Indeed, most of the My Way killings have reportedly occurred after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.
''The trouble with My Way,'' said Mr Gregorio, ''is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion.''
Others point to the song itself. The lyrics, written by Paul Anka for Sinatra as an unapologetic summing up of his career, are about a tough guy who "when there was doubt", simply "ate it up and spit it out''.
'' 'I did it my way' - it's so arrogant," said Butch Albarracin, the owner of Centre for Pop, a Manila-based singing school that has propelled the careers of many famous singers.
"The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you're somebody when you're really nobody. It covers up your failures. That's why it leads to fights."
NEW YORK TIMES
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