Baby I Love Your Way

Last week I went online and bought independent music CDs from www.cdbaby.com. I checked it out and it offered an extensive selection of music from a wide range of genres. I ended up buying two CDs. The first was an album called Imagine We Were by Tribe of Heaven, which is basically 1990 recordings by Mark Roebuck, formerly of the band called The Deal and his friend, someone named Dave Matthews. This is a steal of an album. For only US$10.97, you will hear Mark and Dave's early recordings, including the song Song That Jane Likes, which is now one of the Dave Matthews Band's classic staples. Another gem is a cover of U2's In God's Country.

Here is a short writeup about the album.


Mark Roebuck, formerly of the 80s power-pop band the Deal, began work on Tribe of Heaven in 1989. He invited then fellow bartender Dave Matthews to assist him in writing and recording a CD-length project. Tribe of Heaven would produce a rich, folk-acoustic sound, woven with dark, sometimes melancholy themes.The Tribe of Heaven project included nine songs, five written by Mark Roebuck alone, three written by Mark Roebuck and Dave Matthews together, and one a cover of U2's "In God's Country." Mark and Dave both sang and played on all songs. Greg Howard added keyboards on "Imagine We Were" and "Half the Time." Mike Rosenski played guitar on "Touch." The recording was done locally in Scottsville, Virginia on 8 track reel to reel at the home studio of Greg Howard during two sessions separated by about 6 months.Tribe of Heaven was informally shopped around in early 1990, but without success. Dave would go on to form Dave Matthews Band the next year and include a Tribe of Heaven song, "The Song that Jane Likes," on the band's first release, Remember Two Things. The Tribe of Heaven project lay dormant for more than a decade until a revival of interest in Mark's various musical projects, and interest from Dave's fans, led to this release.

The second CD I bought was an independent album by a couple of pretty 16 year old girls from Canada. Bonnie McGrew and Kelsey Ngai has since developed a sort of cult following with their crystal-clear vocals and catchy hooks. Emotional tracks fill the album.

Here is a short writeup about the efforts of Opening Axe.


"A recording as sophisticated, classy and hook-filled as'Accidental' comes along so infrequently, we almost want to go door-to-door to tell people about it. This is a brilliant record, and all the more astonishing when one considers that Opening Axe's core singer/songwriters are just 16. Only regular airplay stands between these two and stardom."MARK RHEAUME, CBC RADIO

From 256 entries, OPENING AXE has just been awarded the TOPprize in the 2004 Okanagan Grown Band Competition! Bonnieand Kelsey look forward to their time in the studio with Juno award-winning producer Dave Tyson.Opening Axe released their CD entitled "Accidental"prior to Christmas and response has been overwhelming.The CD overtook big names to be the #1 selling recording in the Shuswap. Scott Ryrie, Manager of CD Plus, sayshe has "never seen anything like it".

The Observer declared "If one were to compare their sound, you might look at Michelle Branch and her acoustic guitar-driven sound with energetic and clear vocals".

The Phoenix's Endrene Shepherd wrote "All of the songs have a poetic prettiness that I believe many songwriters envy. Their guitars are fabulous...undeniably, these are two talented young women...this is a fantastic first effort.

"While the song "Tragedy" (written about a classmate who was killed in a drinking-driving auto accident) has received the most media attention and airplay, "Are We Alright", "Too Far In"and "Anybody But Me" are not only radio-worthy, they have sparked the interest of an A & R rep at major record labels!

A unique thing about CDBaby is that they give you the choice of getting the CDs shipped with or without the plastic case. You can ship up to 10CDs with the flat rate of US$7 (international shipping) if you choose this option. This is especially good for people like me who has tons of CDs with nowhere to store them. The CDs came nicely bubble-wrapped in a USPS parcel.

When I ordered the CDs, I expected them to arrive around 2 weeks later. But lo and behold, exactly one week after my order, the CDs arrived! That is fast shipping, considering the CDs came from Portland, Oregon and I'm here, all the way in Singapore. And by sheer miracle, the package wasn't tampered by the local post office. Don't get me started on this matter.

Anyway,for everyone out there looking for a good source of independent music which ships quickly and economically, take a gander at CDBaby. I know I will.

The Last Stop

As I mentioned in my last entry, Singapore is full of idiosyncrasies. There is the practice of leaving a tissue packet on a table in the food court to reserve or "chope" the table. I've literally seen brawls occur when fellow diners don't respect the law of the tissue packet. I honestly haven't even heard of the term "chope" before I came to the Lion-state.

Another funny and sad thing I have noticed is the sheer stupidity of local programming. I do not limit myself to English programmes. The Chinese programmes, which I used to think were better, although having repetitive themes and plots, have turned for the worse. A year ago, there was this TV series that portrayed parts of Singapore as HELL. (I disagree. They shouldn't have limited themselves to City Hall.) When the most popular TV series in the country is about a curly-haired, moled contractor with a extra-long pinky fingernail who wears yellow boots, you know entertainment is at ist all time low. Then they do one better (or worse), they make the show into a stage production.

Lest I be thought of as overly cynical,I do admit I have a favorite. The show is callled "In Parliament". It is a reality show featuring overpaid, underworked government officials in sweaters talking about traffic laws and pet subsidies. And best of all, they know that whatever they say means nothing unless the GODFATHER says it is so. A truly compelling show.

Singapore is truly a unique metropolis. Where in the world will you find the Deputy Prime Minister as Chairman of the largest and ONLY news publisher and the First Lady as the CEO of one of the largest holding companies in the world? Only in Singapore. Uniquely Singapore.

To be continued...

Ride, Cowgirl, Ride

Living in a country like Singapore, where people feign to be outraged when you say the word FUCK, you kinda get used to not seeing dirty magazines and explicit things on TV or the movies. When even Cosmopolitan is banned, you know you're living in a very sexually repressed society. Moral, but repressed.

And as studies have shown, the more you keep things from people, the more they want to get hold or expereince these things. Sex in the City used to play in HBO with the small note at the bottom: Not available in all territories. This "territories" is actually Singapore. But you know what? I bet that 90% of women here who have heard of Sex in the City have seen it through DVDs, VCDs or digital downloads.

A few years ago, my brother bought a copy of Disclosure on DVD. You know the movie. Michael Douglas gets sexually harrassed by his beautiful, sensual superior, Demi Moore. I played the DVD and lo and behold, the scene that the whole movie is based on, isn't even in there. It's like watching King Kong without the gorilla. It's outright ridiculous.

Anyway, you get used to it. Until I saw this monstrous contraption called the iGallop. It is a: a pathetic attempt to cash in on the success of products starting with the prefix "i" e.g. iPod, iMac, iTrip, etc, b: it is basically a stool with a moving top. I've seen people try it in the roadshows and people look really ridiculous on it. And the kicker is...check this out....

They market this product as a health product, actually, it looks oddly similar to another product with a slightly different purpose.

Go figure. Images of cowgirls....riding....laughing.... having the time of their lives... taking turns...

Just an image: Old 50-year old guy taking turns with his 50-year old wife while salesperson looks on anxiously telling them how they will look better after riding it.

Yuck.

Photograph

Due to the advent of technology, the quality of pictures taken by the consumer have improved dramatically in the past few years. I remember when I was in elementary when photos taken by Polaroids seem to be the accepted means of capturing "Kodak" moment. Such an irony, isn't it. High school saw point and shoot cameras. When I was in college, I took up a photography course where the first photo we took was with an old can with a hole punched through it. This was called a Pinhole camera. Our teacher told us to photograph something we thought was interesting. I took a photo of the men's room.

Hey, give me a break, ok? Out of 40 people in the class, only 6 of us were guys and even in the six, two weren't in the usual persuasion, if you know what I mean. I thought, why not give 80 percent of the class a chance to see what goes behind the doors of the men's room. I decided to change the mental image of some women that the men's room is always a: occupied by people writing lewd messages on the walls and b: guys jacking off to an encounter with the hot girl in class

These days, pictures are taken in digital form where 90% of pictures never even get printed. Phones are equipped with 3 megapixel cameras WITH video recording. But what i don't get is, why is it that as the quality(pixels-wise) of pictures gets better, the worse the quality (visually) has become.

Everyone seem to have this one picture taken from above her head then she's looking at the camera while her face is at a 45% angle from the frame. WHY IS THAT? C'mon admit it. You've seen it in friendster,myspace, hipstir, sms.ac, blogs, and all those personal website. Maybe you even have one. I look stupid in these kind of shots. If I wanna look stupid in a picture, I'll wear a chicken suit.

In the meantime, I'll just continue to look at other people's pictures. Then go do my business (not in the men's room, though.)

New York, New York (delayed blog)

Nov 7. 3am. Still recovering from a gurelling day at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios AND CityWalk, we wake up early to prepare for our 6.40am flight out of Orlando International Airport to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. As usual, my Dad was the first one to wake up,taking a shower at around 2.30 am. Anyhoo, we reached the airport at around 4.30am, 30 minutes befor the gates opened. NO WAY we were gonna miss this flight. Fast forward to around 9:30am CST. Remember, Chicago is 1 hour behind Orlando and New York. On my watch it was 10.30am which told me that our flight was about to leave in 3 minutes. And the worst thing was, the traffic in O'Hare's runways was so bad, we only were able to get off the plane aound 9.45am Orlando time,the time of my watch. Thank god for different timezones, because when we got to our departure gate we still had 15 minutes to spare. We got off in Gate 24 and our departure gate was Gate 65. So you can imagine us running through the airport. 41 gates in 10 minutes. A personal best for me.

Nov 7. 1pm. We land at LaGuardia Airport. as we were waiting for a cab (the recommended mode of transport from LaGuardia), a fight ensues between the can dispatcher and a cab driver. Ah...New York. I'm home. We stayed at the Belleclaire Hotel, located on the corner of West 77th St and Broadway. Quite decent and very accessible to the subway. A marked imrovement from previous visits where we stayed in Queens, Edison,NJ, and Jersey City.

The next few days were spent spending money aka shopping. Visits to Century 21, Macy's, Woodbury Commons and Filene's Basement netted me a whole luggageful of clothes, shoes, etc.

Nov 12. We leave NY and fly back to Singapore. Back to work. Sigh.

It's A Small World (delayed blog)

Nov. 1. We fly from Las Vegas to Denver on Ted. I think airline owners should be less egotistic in nameing their companies. Question: "How did you travel from LA to Vegas?" Answer: "Well, I rode Ted on the way over." Denver International is a marvel of an airport. It is, apparently, the 10th busiest airport in the world. So that means, a hella lot of people ride Ted over there, nyuk nyuk! From Denver, we fly over to Orlando, Florida, Land of Mickey. We reach Orlando at 6pm EST. We moseyed on over to the Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista. Where we ended the day with overprized pizza.

Nov. 2. MGM Studios. We hurried over to the The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ for our early morning wake-up. Nothing like a 12-storey drop from a old, decrepid hotel to perk you up in the morning. Any sci-fi fan should take Star Tours - the ultimate Star Wars™ thrill ride . There is nothing like taking a space transporter piloted by an R2 unit. Another great attraction is the Lights, Motors, Action!™ Extreme Stunt Show where stuntmen in stunt cars perform great feats live in front of you. I liked it especially because of the extremely hot Asian American host (I have a distinct liking for Asian Americans). Of course, the stunts aren't something to scoff at, either. Other great attractions include Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! , "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" Movie Set Adventure , Muppet Vision 3-D , Indiana Jones ™ Epic Stunt Spectacular, Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour , and of of course, the Fantasmic show around 7pm. It is a water fountain show built around the storeyline of Fantasia with Mickey (of course) as the leading man. It's like the all-star game of DisneyWorld where you see all the major Disney Characters: Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Aladdin, Mulan, Belle and the Beast, Pocahontas, Simba, Pumba & Timone, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

Nov. 3. Epcot Centre. No biggie. Still the same Epcot. There is a new ride, though, the best, I mean the BEST ride I've ever been on. Mission:Earth. Lemme put it this way. If you've ever imagined how it would be like to go to space but are afraid of heights, this is THE ride for you. Test Track is great. This is where you are supposedly testing out a new car for General Motors. The highlight, in my opinion, is the car showroom just outside the ride (I love the Hummer.) We ended the day with the amazing fireworks show over Lake Buena Vista. Now I feel the Magic of Disney. Another cool ride is Soarin'™, this ride takes you on a virtual tour fo the California coastline. the experience is so realistic. Disney has even rated it as the number 1 attraction in Walt DisneyWorld. IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth is a wonder of a lightshow. It is, in my opinion, the best lightshow out there where you don't have to a remote area just to see it.

Nov 4. AM: Animal Kingdom. We ran from the gate to Kali River Rapids® . We rode it 3 times. We would have ridden it more if time permitted, but we were supposed to go on the Kilimanjaro Safaris®. A ride that is a must-see is the ride Dinosaur. It is quite scary in a Jurassic Park sort of way.

Nov 4. PM: Magic Kingdom. Nothing new. We rode Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad then caught a performance of Cinderellabrationin front of Cinderella's castle. The show was ok, but a little childish for me. A ride I always enjoy is Pirates of the Caribbean. But we're in DisneyWorld, so who cares?

Nov 5.AM:Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure. We wake up early to catch the free shuttle to the Islands of Adventure. When we got there, we immediately rushed to the Marvel Superhero Land, where rides like the Dr Doom's Revenge, and the Incredible Hulk, the Ride awaited us. Unfortunately, the inner chicken in me reigned supreme as I couldn't see myself surviving these two rides. A ride I wasn't gonna miss was the Spiderman ride. Just like Spiderman, it was Amazing. Donning the yellow 3D glasses, we swung through the heart of New York City battling baddies like the Green Goblin, Hydroman, Sandman, the Scorpion, the Lizard, Electro and other nasties. Of course, the comic geek in me stood out as I was amazed at the enormous amount of merchandise at the store outside the ride. After battling baddies and saving the world for the forces of evil, we moseyed over to the Toon Land, we rode Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges, where you may get wet and most probably get drenched. They weren't kidding. We came in dry like a martini and came out like real bilge-rats! A must-ride. But remember to bring towels, as Universal is making a killing on selling you 15$ towels just outside the ride. After a quick stroll through the rest of the park, we took lunch outside The Lost Continent The Dueling Dragons ride is a monster of a ride where two dragons (rollercoasters) representing Fire and Ice battle each other in a duel to the death. We caught the Eight Voyage of Sinbad show, quite cool.

Nov 6. PM After lunch, we moved over to the Universal Studios. A little bit different from the one in L.A. Great attractions include Back to the Future The Ride, Twister...Ride It Out, Revenge of the Mummy The Ride and Shrek 4-D. The best or most enjoyable attraction is Fear Factor Live. This live show is a recreation of the famous TV shows where people eat bugs and spiders, jump buildings, crash cars, all for money (or as they call, the honor of becoming Fear Factor Champion). This show brings the show to you LIVE and some of the audience are selected to be the contestants! Imagine the possibility of eating a worm shake.Yummy.

Nov 6. After Dark. After a long weary day at Universal Studios Orlando, we dropped by Universal CityWalk. It's a nightspot where you have everything from Jimmy Buffett’s®; Margaritaville®, a Hard Rock Cafe®, a NASCAR Cafe™ to an NBA City Restaurant. Nightlife attractions include Bob Marley - A Tribute to Freedom™, Hard Rock Live®, the grooveSM, CityJazz® and a Pat O’Brien’s®. We reach the hotel around 11pma and prepared for an early 3am departure to the airport on our way to the Big Apple, New York City.