Michael Jackson 'Off The Wall'

In memory of MJ. I have chosen the amazing album 'Off the Wall' as album of the week. In my opinion, this remains his greatest achievement. It is pop perfection and the best disco album ever! Superb production, amazing fusion of soul rock and funk, dance floor prowess, great ballads. It is truly one of the greatest albums of all time. Listen, enjoy and love!

June in a nutshell

It would seem that I rarely give updates on what is going on in my life. Therefore, this is my effort to summarize June in a nutshell.

13/14th June
On Friday after work, i joined George and Cia Cia at Starbucks at New York, New York. She is back in Taiwan to receive treatment for her severe burns accident. Luckily it would appear she is recovering well and most can be covered up by clothing. By the sounds of it, it could have been a whole lot worse! We went to Outback for dinner. Then it was home to rest, we were both exhausted and slept for over 12 hours. In the afternoon we went for lunch and to see 'Duplicity'. A great movie which demands attention but a very rewarding movie! After that, we went shopping to buy Matt a birthday present which ended up being a T-shirt and book. Then it was off to a Tapas bar, Barcelona, an hour and a half later than scheduled. The food was a middling to fair an all-you-can eat effort. Then it was off to Bliss, which was dull, then Watersheds, much better. Sunday consisted of more catching up on sleep followed by a visit to Paul's bakery. It boasts some of the best cakes and desserts in town but you certainly pay the price for the quality! We ended up at Toasteria for dinner.

20/21th June
This weekend was rather uneventful and relaxing. Most of it was spent lazing around watching TV and drinking with friends.


27/28th June.
Last weekend was a movie weekend. I managed to get away from work early (6:40) and so we went to Vieshow to grab a bite to eat and see 'The hangover'. A great movie, and certainly one of the best this year! Then it was home to relax. Saturday saw us get up reasonably early and then head to Ximen to grab a quick lunch and then star the first of our Taipei Film Festival movies, Ashes of Time, Redux. It was another Wong Kar Wai movie to add to my growing list, now totalling in at 5. It was great although my tiny brain couldn't quite weave together the relationships between characters at times. I would like to watch it again before truly commenting fully on this movie. The next was Goodbye, Lenin. A fantastic movie! We also got to see and question the director afterwards. Then it was off to Watamai for dinner with Georges' dad. It was then home to relax before we went to Hell's Kitchen to join David for his birthday celebration. After a few drinks and a few hours later we returned home. Sunday was generally relaxing. We ended up watching 3 movies in a row. A documentary on Harvey Milk, Sunshine Cleaning, and Almost Famous. Al were pretty good. No doubt more movies will follow as the Film Festival is ongoing until Mid July.

Michael Jackson

What are the odds? I turned on my MP3 which contains over 17,000 songs at present, select shuffle play and the first song that came on was Michael Jackson, 'Gone To Soon' from the Dangerous Album, very eerie!

At the age of 50 Michael Jackson is dead. A rather unusual character he may have been; however, he is certainly up there with Elvis and The Beatles in regards to shaping and influencing popular music. A look at Amazon.co.uk website shows the impact his death has made.

Bestseller List 29th June 2009

1) Off The Wall

2) Bad

3) Thriller

4) Dangerous

5) Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)

6) Number Ones

7) King of Pop, Best of

8) The Best of MJ and the Jackson 5

9) HIStory

10) Invincible

11) La Roux, La Roux

12) Blood on the Dance floor

13) The Essential MJ

14) 50 Best Songs; The Motown Years (MJ and the Jackson 5)

15) West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Kasabian

He totally dominates the top 15 slots, amazing!

Finally, the bizarre stories surrounding his life will be put to rest and what is left is what matters, his truly awesome contribution to music!

Spandex, big hair, heavy rock, falsetto. 'The Darkness'? I hear you cry! Well yes, it probably could be although these guys opt for far filthier lyrics yet highly amusing at the same time. The songwriting is strong and the riffs and solos are fantastic. Sure, they are a novelty band parodying both the best and the worst of the 80 metal phase and could completely disappear by the end of the year. However, their love for the genre shines through. If nothing else, these songs will have you rolling around in stitches even if you hate heavy metal. Quite simply a must, a fantastic album, contender for album of the year!

Week 2: Back Into Shape!

It's been two weeks since I decided to tackle the weight issue. It's proving a lot harder then before mainly due to my work schedule. I'm often putting in 12 hour shifts at work and any free time I do have has been dominated by preparing for the impending kindergarten graduation next month.

Therefore, even when i do get a chance to get to the gym the mere thought of it is enough to make me collapse from exhaustion! My initial plan was to force myself no matter what. However, a half-hearted workout is really not worth the effort. Hopefully after next week I can step up the game a bit.

Thinks are looking rosier on the healthy eating plan. I'm doing quite well; taking in a lot of fruit and vegetables and my general intake of food is more sparse than before. Good news on that front then!

Result: I've actually done surprisingly well considering. I've managed to shift a little over 2kgs in two weeks which is an excellent result so far.

Little Boots: 'Hands'

June has arrived! Finally it is time for the highly anticipated albums set to give electro pop its rebirth and dominate the soundscape of 2009, and pop in general. This three-pronged attack is headed by Victoria Hesketh aka Little Boots (La Roux and Florence and the Machine await hotly on her heels). Hailing from Blackpool and a failed Pop Idol contestant doesn’t bode well; yet she has had accolades literally thrown her way over the course of the past year. With such hype there is only one way to go and that’s down. The question is will the parachute open for a safe landing or is it a crash landing with no hope of recovery? Thankfully the former is more appropriate. ‘Hands’ is nowhere near as raw and experimental as promised; in fact, it’s as commercial as they come, a big, brazen pass at daytime radio and gay discos, produced to within an inch of its life. However, once over the initial realization that she is not the second coming or creator of some sub-genre of pop meshing minimalist Japanese music with Joni Mitchell, then it delivers on a 80’s induced retro voyage. Some of these could be off the latest Lilly Allen or Kylie album, just listen to ‘Ghost’ and ‘Remedy’ for starters. However, she provides her unique angle and ‘Symmetry’, ‘Stuck on Repeat’ and ‘Earthquakes’ see her at the top of her game. The rest is catchy and solid. ‘Meddle’, a bizarre industrial mix of what appears to be a Daft Punk-Eurovision Contest hybrid is odd but is hard to dislike at the same time. A solid debut which didn’t disappoint although I await her rivals with baited breath.

Typhoons trigger slow earthquakes

Source: BBC News

Typhoons can trigger imperceptible, slow earthquakes, researchers say. Scientists report in the journal Nature that, in a seismically active zone in Taiwan, pressure changes caused by typhoons "unclamp" the fault. This gentle release causes an earthquake that dissipates its energy over several hours rather than a few potentially devastating seconds. The researchers believe this could explain why there are relatively few large earthquakes in this region. Alan Linde from the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US and colleagues monitored movement of two colliding tectonic plates in eastern Taiwan. They used three borehole "strainmeters" - highly sensitive instruments deep below the ground. "These detect otherwise imperceptible movements and distortions of rock," explained co-author Selwyn Sacks, also from the Carnegie Institution.
Gentle relief. The instruments picked up 20 "slow earthquakes", each lasting from several hours to more than a day. Of these, 11 co-incided exactly with typhoons. The authors described the possibility that this coincident timing was by chance as "vanishingly small".

For the typhoon to be a trigger, the fault must be precariously close to failure. "It's rare that you see something so definitive, especially when it's something new," Dr Linde told BBC News.
Their findings could provide clues about why there are relatively few large earthquakes in this region. Here, the colliding plates move so rapidly that they build mountains at a rate of almost 4mm per year. Dr Linde said that in geological terms that was almost like "growing mushrooms".
"It's surprising that this area of the globe has had no great earthquakes and relatively few large earthquakes," Dr Linde commented. "By comparison, the Nankai Trough in southwestern Japan has a plate convergence rate of about 4cm per year, and this causes a magnitude 8 earthquake every 100 to 150 years. "The activity in southern Taiwan comes from the convergence of the same two plates, and there the Philippine Sea Plate pushes against the Eurasian Plate at twice that rate. "This fault experiences more or less constant strain and stress build-up." He described how the fault "dipped steeply" westward from near the east coast so that it is under the land area. So the landward side is under constant strain to move upward. When a typhoon passes over the land, the air pressure on the land is lowered. That slight change in force "unclamps" the fault and allows it to move. "But this change is quite small," said Dr Linde. "So for the typhoon to be a trigger, the fault must be precariously close to failure." The frequent, slow earthquakes this causes are "totally imperceptible" from the ground. And Dr Linde thinks it is sensible to assume that they may reduce the frequency of larger, more damaging earthquakes. But this is extremely hard to show because, as he puts it, "how do you prove something that doesn't happen?"

Finaly!! I am so happy for them!! Anvil picked for AC/DC concerts

Anvil are planning to release their 13th album. Canadian rockers Anvil, who spent years in obscurity before a film about their struggle became a hit, have been chosen as the support act for AC/DC. The band will be the sole secondary act for the rock giants at two stadium concerts in the US next month. Their dogged determination to succeed was captured in rockumentary The Story of Anvil, a film festival hit. The band has played a series of concerts across the US, and will play at the Download Festival this weekend.

Commercial failure
Anvil is due to return to the US after its visit to the UK with performances at the three-day Rocklahoma Festival next month. The band is due to share the bill with rock acts including Anthrax and Twisted Sister.

AC/DC scored a UK number album with Black Ice in November
The DVD release of the Anvil documentary has been brought forward three months, while their next album - the 13th in their career - is set to come out later in the summer. The band, who formed in Toronto some 30 years ago, failed to gain commercial success. But bands including Metallica and Motorhead cite them as an influence, and famous faces including actor Keanu Reeves and Coldplay's Chris Martin count themselves as fans. The two concerts supporting AC/DC will take place at the Gillette Stadium in Boston on 28 July and New Jersey's Giants Stadium three days later.

EU and UK Council Elections 2009

The EU elections are not usually high on my priorities but this one really proved a wake-up call. First and foremost, it was a barometer from which to judge just how unpopular Gordon Brown and Labour have become. The result, unsurprisingly, a crushing defeat for Labour, their worst in over one hundred years and clearly shows if a national election were held tomorrow, Labour would suffer a terrific defeat. Largely, this is not so surprising. Governments in power for over a decade always fall to the whim of government fatigue no matter what. This can only have been compounded by the current, and ongoing, expenses crisis which has hit the government lately forcing a number of high level politicians including cabinet members, to be accused and forced to leave the government. As if peoples trust in the government wasn’t bad enough as it is! All of this explains the continuous, and very much alarming, trend which has been the case for decades of voter apathy. Voting has steadily decreased from 62% in 1979 to 2009’s level of 43%, truly abysmal yet completely understandable. All of this has taken place under the underlying problem of an economic recession, which is always, and largely unfairly, blamed upon the government; who else are we to blame? An economic crisis, ministers quitting left, right, and centre, and voter mistrust all conclude in Gordon Brown merely clinging on to a sinking ship. Many have jumped, when will the captain abandon ship? It can only be a matter of time.

The UK, however, is not the only country shying away from the left. Europe in general took a rather large step top the right with even far-right groups and anti-immigration groups making gains. Sadly, the BNP also gained its first seat in the European Parliament, truly tragic! Rather sadly, conservatism looks set to be the dominant force in Europe.

Hell's Kitchen and Roxy 99

Last weekend was a short one. To make up for the previous 'long' weekend everyone had to work on Saturday. Therefore, after getting off work at 4:30 i headed home to freshen up then it was off to meet George and his army colleagues for dinner at the Royal Host. After that we headed to a bar nearby our place called Hell's Kitchen. There we met George's Elementary class school mates and Willie, Nicolette and Destin came along. Both Nicolette and Willie are leaving Taiwan next week so it was their farewell to Taipei night. After warming up we headed to Roxy99. As usual, a great time was had by all; drinking, dancing, and being merry was the order of the day. A great night! Sunday was mostly spent recovering and generally lazing around.

New Camera

The trip to Hualien was the final straw. The beautiful scenery is certainly served no justice by my rather redundant phone camera. So i decided to buy a 'proper' digital camera. Here it is! Bye bye crappy pictures; hello to some great pictures! Well, i hope so anyway.

Gurrumul Yunupingu: 'Gurrumul'

Blind from birth, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu makes a stunning debut onto the scene without any hype whatsoever. This powerhouse of musical creativity hails from the Gumatj nation, indigenous to the Northern Territory of Australia. In my opinion indigenous music, in general, is often widely disregarded replaced instead with some dire manufactured nonsense who don't have a musical bone in their body. This guy is what music is all about. A solid musician and songwriter with a voice that positively soars over the tracks. His music is soothing and spiritual, it clears the mind and takes you far away from the daily grind that life usually offers. Amazing in every way. Certainly worth a listen!

Back into Shape!

Last weeks annual visit to hospital for the mandatory health check was certainly pause for thought. It was more the fact that it made me pull out last years test and compare. Initial signs were good, over the four years my blood pressure is the best it has ever been, finally no worries there! Unfortunately, despite moderate levels of exercise my weight has increased somewhat.

Therefore, from June 1st i am on mission "Get Back Into Shape". I'm always reluctant to go on diets and will refrain from doing so as i know i will not keep to any strict diet. However, the snacks are out and the fruit and vegetables are firmly in and my exercise regime has now doubled in intensity. I'm not looking for fast results. My aim is to steadily decrease until a level i am happy with by the end of the year.

Watch this space! Updates will come monthly!

Our Trip To Hualien (May 28-30)

With the four day holiday George and I decided to head to Hualien for a few days to get away from the rather overwhelming city life of Taipei. So on Wednesday night we got some takeaway pizza, drinks and a movie and settled in to start our holiday, what a great start it was! We had to get up at 6 to catch the train by 7:30 which we just managed to do in time. Then we were all set for Hualien. By the time we arrived it was 11:00 and we bumped into Matt Adam, Rene and George who also had the same idea as we had. So we had lunch together, rented a scooter and found our hotel.

When we got to our hotel it was raining and we were exhausted so we had a lazy afternoon until the evening where we met Georges' army friend at the bay side area. We looked around the night market and chatted. The latter half of the evening was spent drinking beer and relaxing.

We got up early the next day and headed to the beach. It was great there and we just hung out taking in some of the fresh air and sun. We had lunch at a nice place which boasted a selection of goat milk products. It was a great restaurant and right on the sea front. Beautiful! Then we drove to Taroko National Park. I've always liked it there and this time didn't fail to impress either. We took the famous trail in search of the elusive 'Cave of Water Curtain'. I assumed it was a waterfall, although we came across many apparently none were the great cave of water curtain. We had to head back early as it was getting dark. So we headed back into town for dinner.

We lined up two hours, that's right, two hours for the famous oyster omelet. It was good but hardly worth the wait, what is? Then we met Matt and Adam for some drinks in a local bar. The live band was quite good pumping out some rock classics but i was exhausted and we decided to call it a night quite early.

The next day we planned to go to Ocean Park, however, we got up too late and decided to take it easy instead. We headed to a brunch place called Country Mother and had a great brunch there. For there we headed to Carp Lake where we decided to rent a pedalo and paddle around the lake. It was tough going in the heat and we both later regretted our rash decision. By then it was almost time to catch our train so we headed back into town to get some famous Wontons and then on the train back home.

Saturday night was spent at Noah's faying farewell to Anji. It was a great way to end what was a fantastic holiday. I just wish it was longer! Great scenery, great food and drink, great company, great holiday!!