riding the tiger...

kelly went and bought a hello kitty stool last weekend. driven by the excitement of adding yet another hello kitty item to her collection and wanting to make a point that the stool is no gimmick but really is a stool (albeit disguised as hello kitty), she had lester sit on it and took this picture...


















the picture really cracked me up when i first saw it. not only was sitting on hello kitty's head a hilarious stunt in itself, the picture also reminded me of this much-circulated picture of a lady riding a tiger... classic! hahaha!

dean...

meeting and chatting with dean wareham was definitely one of the highlights of the wonderful formoz weekend. all credit goes to baylene for spotting the man behind the legendary band galaxie 500 and taking this photo (from a rather respectable distance due to the use of the lovely nikon 105mm f/1.8 lens). it all made up for missing out on the couple of classic galaxie 500 songs that dean & britta played when they took the stage. dean, you da man!

the aftermath...

i was totally out of it in the taxi on the way home and started throwing up when the taxi made the last turn to my place. sorry, mr taxi driver! after quickly getting out of the car, i was on the floor of the empty parking lot across the street trying to spew out all that was still left in me. i guess the taxi ride really made sure that all the alcohol had made way to my head for a few rounds because it was 10 minutes before i could barely stand up and walk.

the short elevator ride upstairs proved to be simply too much for me to handle in that state. after getting out of it, i was giddy as hell and somehow found more stuff to throw up all over the hallway before i could reach the door. luckily, that kind of made me a bit more sober but at the same time i realised that i had better clean up all the puke right away... what better to do in the wee hours of my birthday than squatting there frantically trying to wipe up the puke with paper towels in the dim light of the hallway eh? woohoo! i would have to say that i did a fine job because the hallway was squeaky clean again after 15 minutes. now, what to do with all those paper towels soaked full of puke? flushing them down the toilet to erase all traces of the incident? brilliant! that was exactly the kind of stupid thing that i tried to do. the result? the toilet got blocked right away with the water full of mushy bits and pieces rising up to the brim... crap!

when the sun rose from the east on my 32nd birthday, i was a man with a mission. i ran to the store to get a good old toilet plunger. after sweating it out for about 10 minutes pumping away in the already murky water, i finally heard the beautiful sound of water rushing down into the toilet drain... oh sweet jesus!

anyways, cheers to all those of you who were at the party at mod that night. you guys are an awesome bunch and i really had a blast!

some of the stuff i miss about nz...

good times...
- pies and sausage rolls
- l&p and ribena
- summer
- manutara ave
- university
- lunching out in the city
- driving to alex's place
- hanging out with jason
- tennis at campbell's bay
- real groovy
- midnight spareribs at d72
- heretaunga ave
- trip to south island
- sw776
- wendy's
- ken's yakitori bar
- gigs

juicy music for thirsty ears...

lately i've been fortunate enough to be introduced to (thanks to alex and lester) a number of great albums that i hadn't come across before and my yearning for good new sounds has been rekindled after such a long drought. these ones here are constantly "on the go" on my ipod now.
- okkervil river (black sheep boy)
- galaxie 500 (today, on fire)
- arcade fire (funeral)
- the decemberists (picaresque, the crane wife)
- yo la tengo (i can hear the heart beating as one)
with great music comes the insatiable desire for more and there are indeed a lot of other albums that i wanna check out. this is all very exciting and i think i'm gonna make a big purchase from amazon soon.

this rather amusing album cover that i came across a while ago in a cd store got me into this local band that goes by the name "natural q".










their stuff is mainly made up of buoyant and cheeky little folk-pop songs with some bossa nova touches here and there that are perfect for a relaxed stroll around town in a balmy afternoon. hiding in the two albums that they have put out are some real gems that actually bring to mind the works of air. one of them even contains a brief passage that is reminiscent of mezzanine-era massive attack, which can't be a bad thing...
c'est la vie - postcard, how much
c'est la vie vol. 2 - ich liebe dich

news programmes...

all you frigging news programmes on telly here...
- why do you have to give your own subjective and egoistic opinions about nearly every piece of news that you cover? aren't you supposed to be factual and impartial?
- why do you have to try every effort to use words and experssions that are as provocative and coloured as one can barely stand?
- why are you so devoted to inciting further chaos in the political scene that is already in disarray? is it all just a hideous soap opera that you so greedily feed on at the expense of the well-being of the society?
- why do you not care about what's going on outside of this little island? where is all the international news?
- why do you love digging all those tasteless gossips and tabloid news so dearly? can't you all just leave them to women's magazines?
- why do you promote stuff that is so blatantly superstitious?
- why do you have to fall so low as to align yourselves with the likes of apple daily and next magazine? where is your integrity? where is your credibility? where is your self-respect?

riverside...

wow... this place really kicks some serious fanny!

i had been wanting to go check out riverside (www.riverside.com.tw) for quite some time already but never really got around to do so until a couple of weeks ago. this rather inconspicuous basement pub right next to the tai power building is a venue for mini gigs by local rock bands and jazz groups seven nights a week. admission typically costs $300 ~ $350 per head and comes with a drink worth up to $180, which is a pretty good deal. the place packs in around 150 or so people at most and you are always no further than 20 metres away from the stage anywhere in the pub.

there were two acts on the night i was there and the place was already teeming with people more than an hour before the gigs actually started. the first act to take the stage was bibi chao. her debut album was released a couple of years ago and the set was largely based on the songs from it. her live singing voice was solid and had a lot of punch behind it, to say the least, and the guitarist in the band was quite amazing. although her debut album wasn't that big a hit commercially when it came out and i didn't think too much of the songs from the album when they were played on the music channels on telly, the live performance that night was really something else altogether. there was so much energy and passion infused in her pop rock music and the crowd was happily wowed by the entire set of around 10 songs. and for some reason, she just kept reminding me of that female singer from catatonia.

the second act of the night was an underground band that goes by the name "strawberry saviour". i had never heard any of their stuff before, but the zealous reaction from the crowd when the band took the stage promised good things to come. much to my delight, there was an apparent british shoegazer influence in most of the songs performed to offset the few pretty average ballads that were also thrown in the set. the layers of reverb and distortion that they put out with the two guitars were pretty sweet. the first few numbers that they did were more than pleasing. however, it was midway through the set when the band started to really pick things up with songs that wouldn't be so out of place if they were in a mogwai album. when they went full blast towards the end of the set, i was lost for words...

shutout...

late sunday afternoon.
tienmu baseball stadium.
setting sun and cool breezes.
cobras against bears.
first base stand with ex-colleagues.
amusing cheerleaders gone hyper.
fervid crowd.
getting on big screen.
mexican waves.
amazing defensive plays.
timely hits (none from chin-feng chen).
excellent pitching.
four-nil shutout.
w for cobras.
beauty!

driver's licence...

it's a real shame that the ministry of transport here in taiwan no longer acknowledges new zealand driver's licences (for that matter, driver's licences from all those countries that drive on the "wrong" side of the road i think). this means that i now need to take all the regular tests before i can get myself a taiwanese driver's licence. bugger! it's not a big hassle but it's just that before they made the change i could have got the licence simply by doing a quick and easy physical check-up. oh well...

the first thing to do now is to take the written test. i thought that all you need is boldness and a touch of local common sense to drive on the road here, but the road regulations booklet that i got for the written test stipulates a great deal more. apart from all the do's and don'ts that nobody actually gives a crap about in reality, it also goes on about things like fines and penalties, car mechanics, and ethics in driving. now, the latter two sections really make me cringe and are a bit of a joke i'd say. god only knows why someone has to learn what the compression ratio of a diesel engine is at the end of a compression stroke as part of the course to get a driver's licence, and the section on ethics in driving is just insane, to say the least. here are some sample test questions straight out of the booklet...




























no matter how absurd these sample test questions may be, i guess i'll just try and memorize the stuff in the booklet as much as possible, take the written test, and then quickly forget about all the rubbish. there is not much of a choice, is there?

twelve ball puzzle...

"there are twelve balls of identical appearance. all but one have exactly the same mass. the odd ball is either slightly lighter or slightly heavier than the rest. by using a two-sided balance at most three times, work out a set of procedures to determine which of the twelve balls is the odd ball and whether it is lighter or heavier than the rest."

this is a brain teaser that my dad told me about quite a few years ago when i was still in uni back in auckland. one of my favourites among the many from him. apparently, there is more than one solution out there. the number 3 is key to the one that i worked out.

the apartment...

the interior design for the new apartment is now going into the final review and revision stage. the ownership of the apartment has already been officially handed over (got the papers and all) and i hope to have enough details of the interior design settled in the next few weeks so as to allow the actual contruction on the interior to get under way sometime in april.

it's a rather compact two bedroom apartment that we are talking about here and so there isn't too much space to play with. since space is quite limited, making effective use of it is a top priority when it comes to the layout of the apartment. the latest blueprint from the interior designer does a very good job on that and i think we'll go with it as much as possible and not make too many big changes. the main thing on the agenda now is the styling of the interior. you know, the stuff that guy thom from queer eye does on tv. i've got a rough concept in mind but am still trying to flip through some more books and magazines on interior design to get a few more ideas on things like the colour scheme, ceiling lighting, flooring, and furniture. i'm sure that the interior designer already has a pretty good vision of his own on all these things and i'll be in frequent discussion with him to come up with something that everyone is happy with.

oh, and i've been thinking if i should get a japanese high-tech toilet that warms your buttocks when you sit on it and cleans you from underneath with a water-squirting smile-inducing nozzle when you are done? hmmm...

photos...

no blog is complete without some photos i guess. however, it turns out that blogger does not provide online photo albums as part of its services unfortunately. anyways, i've got a flickr account and the link to it is on the right. it's currently empty but i'll try and add some photos to it soon.

better living through more money?

a short while ago, the mayor of taipei was saying that he supports the plan to build a couple of pedestrian-only grand boulevards in an effort to make taipei move even closer to becoming a truly international metropolitan city. well, perhaps he meant it with all good intentions and the plan would help further modernize the image of the city, bring in more tourists, and benefit the local economy, but, imho, in order to improve the city as a whole, the emphasis should not be focused merely on this sort of things. while it is all good trying to raise the international status and boost the local economy of the city, it is equally important to make the city a "feel-good" place to live in. keeping that balance right and moving ahead with growth in the economy while looking after the other aspects such as environmental and social sustainability issues at the same time would be a more healthy way of progressing.

personally, i really do appreciate the many developments that have been infused into the city of taipei in the past decade or two and the improvement in certain areas is very evident. and maybe i'm being too naive and things may not be as simple as this, but here are a few things that i'd love to see more attention get paid to by whoever is waving the magic wand.
* clean up the rivers (even if one can't fish there, at least it's hygienically safe enough to jump in)
* clean up the streets (more public rubbish bins, please)
* get rid of the smog (where is my blue sky?)
* tidy up the traffic (somehow...)
* even out the roads (no more wrc-ready tracks for my buses)

in a broader sense, it wouldn't hurt to take care of the following as well.
* raise the environmental awareness in the public conscience
* inject some sense of social and moral responsibility into the media
* inject some sense of social and moral responsibility into the politicians

just some of my whiny gripes and wishful thinking. no big deal.

the beginning...

okay. it seems like everybody is doing this blog thing and has been doing it for quite some time already. i just thought that i might as well join the flock and start jotting down my two cents worth. things happen and pass. thoughts come and go. thirty years of living have whizzed by just like that. this blog, provided that i keep at maintaining it from time to time and don't slack off too much, just might be able to capture some of those bits and pieces in life that mean something and make life that much more flavourful.

this is getting kind of corny. so yeah, anyways, watch this space...