Hey can you hear that sound?

It's the sound of apathy.

ujetynghjdygh??

Spot the Buddy Guy:








These cats are totally awesome. Didn't catch a pic of them climbing up the bamboo plants to feed on their juicy leaves though. It was just like the pandas. In China.









Went to watch the Sasha Bach Band on sat night. Turns out there was NO Sasha Bach. They got cancelled or something. Kinda disappointed so we went to the esplanade to watch the free shows. There was this really grim, grave, sad, emotional, deadpan dude playing radiohead and classical stuff with his band. He sounded like a choir boy but put his falsettos to good use. Great musician. Then we went to Harry's to watch Paul. Stayed for 2 sets. Highlights for me were his rendition of Misty, Mustang Sally and the last one i saw, Hotel California, which he ended with a killer outro (warning us before hand not to try at home or risk bloodshed) involving a thumb movement of extremely high speed (almost vibrating) and a seemingly impossible to coordinate melody line. We left satisfied.

School today. The new time table is way better than before, my latest lesson for the week ends at 3.30pm. Got back physics, B, exceeding expectations but nonetheless felt that I could've gotten an A if I had done a bit more work. Got one of my four lit papers, which i scrapped an E. Not hoping for much though, these are probably the best results I'll be getting for this BT.

I also borrowed some books from the school library too. It's only the second time I've done so, according to the helpful volunteer librarian at the counter who offered that interesting bit of trivia without me having to ask . Borrowed King Rat, Animal Farm and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Books which I've been wanting to read for years but never really bothered to get. Couldn't find Ender's Game though. Well, it's time to catch up on reading, which I haven't really been doing actively for a couple of years.

Oh and I conducted a bunch of character analysis experiments too. Turns out I was right, although I wish I weren't. Oh well that's peoples for you. Sometimes you try to find something more inside them, but they're are just exactly as they seem to be.

the tokyo ska paradise orchestra

So on Friday, we decided, "hey let's pay $42 to go watch this awesome looking jap ska band tomorrow that we barely know because they look kinda cool." And it was worth every cent. Their kickass show can't really be described in words, just pure awesome music and energy, probably the one of the best live performances you can possibly watch, regardless of what music genres you like.

Shitty pics of the free live shows before that:

The Sasha Bach Band. Really good playing and all their stuff were originals. Mostly mainstream-ish modern rock, but without the suck, which means they rock. The band members are all talented musicians too. Guitarist sounded kinda satriani-influenced with his riffs and the rhythm section was solid stuff. I thought Sasha Bach was a weird name for a band. Until later.









Barbie Almalbis. (On the right) Pretty pinoy singer-songwriter playing to an 80% male audience. Decent poppy music, although the bassist (on left) was absolute shit and ruined all the songs with his shitty overpowering tone. We left soon after.










Went to watch Paul Ponnudurai again at Harry's bar before and after skaskaska. Was even better than the previous night's. Off the top of my head I remember him playing his renditions of girl from ipanema, day tripper, sesame street, a rockabilly number and some jazz stuff. The sasha bach band was around too and the drummer went up to jam with paul in The Best Jam Ever. They really had the swing going on and the drummer had great improv skill to keep up with Paul.









Met the Sasha Bach Band after Paul's performance, who are super friendly people. The front man introduced himself as Sasha so I went "Oh, you're the Sasha in the band name" and asked who was "Bach". Turns out his name was Sasha Bach, to both of our amusements. Well, that's Danish names for you. Danish people are so cool.

We also talked to Paul for abit, introducing ourselves as his new superspecialawesome fans. He said he used to play with Tommy Emmanuel quite often in the good old days, no surprise there although I wish I could've seen that.

Need a better cam-phone.

mosaic part 2

ZOMG THE BEST FUCKING AWESOME NIGHT EVER.

Damn right I've got t3h Blues

It was quite an amazing night I guess. Met up with Glenn and Bran for dinner first at the ripoff hawker centre beside the esplanade. Watched a couple of cats imitating pandas by climbing up the bamboo shoots and eating bamboo leaves, though they jumped off before I could snap a shot of them.

Arrived late for the concert, while Buddy Guy was blazing through his first song. 1 and a half hours of intense, stone cold red hot blues passed by really quickly but it was really worth every cent. Going from barely audible whispers into a volcanic solos. That sure was bluesy. The emotional screams from the soul (emotional, not emo) without using the mics. That sure is bluesy.

Trading solo phrases with the keyboardist, letting the 2nd guitarist have a shot at a lengthy intense solo which also show cases his amazing spinning guitar strap trick, walking out into the audience and sitting down amongst them and then going all the way up to the second floor to play in front of people and letting some random girl to help him with his solo? That sure makes an awesome show.

I'm not an avid listener of his recorded stuff but yea, definitely amongst the greatest performers around. The keyboardist and 2nd guitarist were also really decent players.

After getting our minds blown out we went to find more live music to satisfy our hunger and we weren't disappointed. Ernie Halter, some singer-songwriter guy was okay. Then there was this indie jazzy band over by the bay playing their last song. Then we walked past Harry's bar and saw the Paul Ponnodurai poster. I've seen him on the net. Glenn has heard about him. It was about time his gig was starting. Ok why not? Let's ignore the fact that it's 10pm and I've got canoeing competition tomorrow, Glenn and I should be studying for our block tests and Brandon needs to get home.

It was 2 hours well worth it. An amazing act of a man with a piece of wood with six strings and songs to sing. A virtuoso at guitar playing and amazing song arrangements. Halfway through, Marty and Rick, the keyboardist and guitarist from the Buddy Guy Band came in to watch. In awe. Minds blown out again. He played Sweet Home Chicago for them, then went into more great songs, ending with his very own rendition of... Sesame Street Theme Song, which was indescribably cool. Got to greet him after the set, which was cool since he's a friendly guy but awkward since he was probably much more interested in meeting the two big shots behind us.

Oh and we decided to watch Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra tomorrow.

Canoing competition tomorrow and Sunday Hoorayzzz! Block test on Monday! Double Hoorayzzz!

ieh?

Duck!

Huh? Wher--- oof.

A misunderstanding often results in tragedy.

Moving on to a totally unrelated topic, I'm still hungry.

13 hours of irony

That was today. It was Quite surreal.

Almost everything that happened today was tinged with irony. Conversations, situations, actions, sights, sounds, everything. what I told people was ironic. What people said to me was ironic. What I noticed was ironic. The events of the day were ironic. It had also nothing to do with the lit test in the evening, which was another irony on its own due to me not being able to complete both papers and not having enough time to cover any ironies of the text.

The last conversation I had before I reached home was the most ironic of all. And the irony didn't end when i was back in my living room.

And can fake people ever be real too? The search for the answer(s) continues.

my brother

sometimes i envy people with good older brothers. the ones who teach you stuff, help you out, share their things with you.

selfish, jerk, unkind, slob, self righteous, armchair critic, hypocrite, mean, unhelpful, inconsiderate.

that's my brother for you. in my opinion anyway. of course, who cares about what my opinion says? maybe i've misunderstood him all this while. maybe other people say he's cool, kind, nice, friendly and compassionate.

but then again, my opinion is the only thing i've got about him.

i'm totally looking forward to my family coming back now. then at least i won't have to be alone with this jerk. i'm sorry.

anyway i got a D for chinese . shouldn't be so proud of it but worth a yay anyway.

yay.

i'm a pretender

do i have to pretend that i don't care? do i have to pretend that i don't understand what's going on? do i have to pretend that i don't notice? do i have to pretend that i don't bother about those things? do i have to pretend i can't see it? do i have to pretend things are just the way they were?

yes. because i'm a pretender.

anyway, chinese results coming out tmr. DON'T WANT TO FAIL.