Crazy December

I received my Taipei airticket today. Yay! Exactly a month to go before my Taipei trip! It's been almost a year and a half since my last trip to Taipei and this is gonna be my first trip there in winter so I'm really looking forward to it.

December is gonna be a crazy hectic month for me. I've taken 9 days of leave for December (utilised 21 days of my 28 days annual leave entitlement) for my trips to Singapore, Bangkok and Taipei (I'm contributing greatly to those country's music tourism!)

I'm counting down:

17 days to Lee Guitars All-Star concert in Singapore

18 days to Bangkok 100 Rock Festival in Bangkok

31 days to Mayday's 50,000 People 出頭天 concerts in Taipei

...and looking forward to meeting up with my fellow friends along the way =] See ya'll in December!

DSi

Last week in Japan, Nintendo released the third generation NDS, the DSi, which is currently only available in Japan and won't be available outside Japan until the first half of next year.

The DSi is 12% thinner than the DS Lite with larger screens (wow!) and has a built-in 3 MP camera + 256MB internal flash memory + SD memory card slot. Here comes the bad news - the DSi does not support R4 *gasp* and is apparently region-locked.

It looks so sleek! Definitely gonna be in my Christmas 2009 wishlist

The greatness that's ASH

Since Ash's 1977 Deluxe Collector's Edition arrived last Thursday, it's been playing non-stop, alternating between CD1, 2 and 3. Mayday's Poetry Of The Day After has been shelved away.. for now.

1977 sounds as fresh as it did when I first heard it over a decade ago. Listening to it brings back memories of my school days. I had forgotten songs I used to like: "I'd Give You Anything", "Let It Flow" and "Lost In You". Classic timeless hits such as "Girl from Mars", "Kung Fu", "Oh Yeah" and "Angel Interceptor" never sounded better.

Ash's cover versions of ABBA's "Does Your Mother Know" (fantastic!), Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want To Be With You" (so amazing!), Star Wars' "Cantina Band" (even John Williams would have been proud) and The Temptations' "Get Ready" (wicked!) goes to show that Ash aren't just another punk band, they're so versatile! They sound almost like a 60s/70s band doing those cover versions.

They sure don't make albums like they used to. The current era of bet wetters music can't hold a candle to the once great Britpop bands.

Mark Sutherland, who was entrusted with the task of writing the sleeve note for the 1977 deluxe edition wrote:

"While everyone else from our supposedly golden generation
crashed and burned, Ash have never let us down. As heart-tearingly
fantastic today as they've always been, throughout the line-up changes, shifts
in direction, rock'n'roll excess and rehabilitation, their recordings have
always retained the happy knack that all the great possess: of always being
different, while never once betraying their core essence."

"Once you've heard 1977, whatever year you're living in just
won't feel the same."

Listening to "Girl From Mars" 4-track demo in its purest form with a semi-comatose sounding Tim Wheeler reminds me of what a great band Ash have been and will always be. I'm looking forward to seeing them live again this 30 November at the Bangkok 100 Rock Festival =]

Justice is served

I jumped into Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney right after I concluded Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations and the first episode kept me gripped to my DS for hours! It was an excellent first episode which takes place 7 years after the last Phoenix Wright game and once again Phoenix Wright found himself being accused of murder.

7 years after Trials and Tribulation, Phoenix is no longer the great defense attorney that he once was. He's been reduced to a 'professional' poker player cum pianist working in a seedy Russian joint. Whatever happened to Nick??! I've yet to find out what exactly happened 7 years ago that caused him to lose his attorney's badge..

Graphics on Apollo Justice look somewhat improved and but gameplay remains the same. I do believe the new Miles Edgeworth Perfect Prosecutor game due out next year will feature improved gameplay compared to the previous Phoenix and Apollo chapters. Can't wait for that!

Britpop revival

The Star ran a full page article on the return of Britpop in today's paper. A decade after the height of Britpop, it’s making a comeback and leading the revival are none other than the big bad boys of Britpop, Oasis, whose latest studio effort peaked at No. 5 on the US album chart. Looks like they're finally making waves across the Atlantic.

It was reported that Keane recently knocked off Oasis from the top album chart spot and in the coming weeks, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight will be vying for the same position.

In the past 12 months or so, major Britpop bands like Stereophonics, Travis, Ash and the Manic Street Preachers have played across Asia (but not in KL!) indicating that the next Britpop revival may spread across Asia (hooray!)

Britpop giants Oasis

1977 revisited

My Ash 1977 Collector's Deluxe Edition arrived in the mail today!

The official release date in the UK was 3 November but Amazon UK mailed it two days earlier i.e 1 November. Royal Mail has always been so efficient - the CD only took 4 working days to reach me from jolly ol' England.

Unlike the original version which came in a standard jewel case, the deluxe edition is housed in a digipak with 3 discs. Bands take note - this is how first albums should be rereleased. Remastered with sh*tloads of goodies, bonus tracks and rarities thrown in with an updated lyrics booklet.

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go burn my CD player

Case dismissed

I always take a long time to finish a Phoenix Wright game and the final Phoenix Wright is no exception. I started the game in mid/end Sept and after my week long SG trip in early October, the DS laid idle on my bedside table for a good 2 weeks before I dusted it off for the final gameplay.

By the time I was close to the end, the battery indicator was flashing red and I knew I had to quickly finish it before the battery goes dead. There's nothing worse than the DS going dead when you are so close to finishing a game! Sure enough, the battery died just as the end credits started to roll.

And despite what the reviews say, this is definitely not my favourite chapter of the Phoenix Wright trilogy. Dahlia Hawthorne was put on the trial stand too many times in this episode though they made up for it by introducing the Godot character. One of the many great character in the Phoenix Wright series (Miles Edgeworth is still my personal favourite)

Moving on, my next game will be "Apollo Justice", the successor to the Phoenix Wright series.

the cast from Apollo Justice

yes the scruffy looking dude on the far left is Phoenix Wright !

Dead rising

back from the dead

My old dead lappy was brought back to live today!

Thankfully it didn't cost me serious money reviving old lappy - only US$12 for the replacement part sourced from the US (Elly brought the part for me to Singapore). Dad replaced the faulty part (and upgraded the RAM yay!) so no workmanship cost incurred.

Whatever am I gonna do with two laptops? I suppose I could use them interchangably on alternate days ;)

Poetry Of The Day After.. 2 weeks

It's been about 2 weeks since Mayday's "後青春的時 Poetry Of The Day After" was released in Taiwan and I have been waiting very patiently for my copy of CD before listening to the album. Downloads just don't cut it for me.. I must have the shiny round disc to listen to while perusing the CD booklet.

After listening to the entire album in one sitting, it struck me how much more mellow they sound now. Track 10 in particular is almost like a classic Dadrock track. Most rock bands go through that Dadrock phase at some point after band members get hitched and inevitably Mayday seems to have gone in the Dadrock direction [oh no!!!] I'm afraid OMG (hehe it's cute how it's spelled OMG in Chinese) is one of the very few songs that's not-so-mellow and it's also my favourite track off the album at the mo ;)

Now then, I have exactly 5 weeks to memorise the album and songs furiously before I embark on my Taipei trip to attend the 50,000 People 出頭天 concerts the guys are throwing for free =]

Music-Man (with sidekick Bahamut) rocks Singapore

Music-Man was fun. And it was good to see all the familiar faces of the homies from across the globe gathered at the Indoor Stadium in SG last Saturday. And of course Elly a.k.a smeLLyphant, my homie from Boston! :) I last saw her [almost] 2 years ago at the Mohegan Sun show in Conneticut on my maiden trip to the States.

That Saturday we arrived early at the stadium to pick up Elly's ticket.. and unexpectedly, much to our surprise we saw an altar table set up at the side of the stadium where the local fans in blue Ourhome SG tees have already gathered to watch the Music-Man offer prayers. We waited for almost an hour before Leehom appeared to pray.

Leehom praying for a fullhouse concert... and his pants not to fall off ;P

We sat at PA-1 section, Row 10 which is in the heart of the fanclub zone. Once again much thanks to Fei for securing the tickets. The seats were really squashy - I don't know why they arranged the chairs so close to each other cos the last time I was at the Indoor Stadium to watch Mayday back in April, the seating wasn't as bad. It's kinda weird to be rubbing thighs with the stranger guy beside me and each time he blew his whistle I swear I felt as if my left eardrum was gonna pop!

The Japanese fans seated beside Baby J were a funny lot. The one right next to her brought along a pair of binoculars *ahem* Row 10 isn't that far from the stage. Maybe she's got really bad eyesight or something.

The concert was about 2.5 hours long and it was good to hear Leehom sing songs that weren't in the previous tour. I particularly enjoyed "Ai Cuo/愛錯" ;) Previous songs from Heroes Of Earth tour (that had not been dropped) has been rearranged. And I still think the rock version of "W-H-Y" sounds bizarre. And so does "Hua Tian Cuo". Highlight of the night was when Leehom's pants fell off. Ha ha ha! That's what happens when you do speed costume change :P

If anyone has it captured on vid, please do share :)