Album of the day: Invocation

I learned about the guitarist Paul Bollenbeck and this album of his from his interview in this month's Guitar Player magazine. It is also reviewed by JazzTimes. The tracks I like include the bluesy "Everything must change" and the Pat Martino-ish "Dancing Leaf" Don't care for those with vocal (wordless!) though.

Topic of the day: Shaolin Theme Park

My friend told me some monks are planning to build a Shaolin "theme park" in Hong Kong to promote Buddhism and he wonders if this (using Buddhism themes to make money) is against Buddhism principles.

I am no expert in Buddhism but I think one key concept is 破除執著 (don't be fixated on things, in this case, commercialism being wrong) so I don't see a big problem in this one. In some Buddhist traditions, the method for promoting Buddhism does not matter as long as it gets the job done.

On the other hand, I can't deny it is getting more and more common these days that religions (including Buddhism and Christian) are being exploited for money making purposes.

Topic of the day: octuplets' family in financial trouble

I wrote about the octuplets' controversy last week and I was hoping she made enough deals so that she could take care of her kids without using taxpayers' money (yes, mine included)

Well, things are not going that well for them: she was just dropped by her PR firm. Their house may be foreclosed. And TLC (the learning channel) has no plan to create a reality show based on her story.

Here are some really good suggestions for TV exec. Hopefully one of them will listen. I can't wait to watch if it happens. Please help me help her!

Topic of the day: even bad movies look good?

Roger Ebert supposed to have said that, according to this review. Ebert did not say so about the movie being reviewed, Hotel For Dogs, but the reviewer thought it applied to this movie. In fact, most critics are rather harsh on it.

Oh well. I enjoyed it (watched with my daughter yesterday.) Having a good looking young actress, Emma Roberts, certainly helped. Forget about the critics!

BTW, I googled but could not find where Ebert said that. Nevertheless, I kinda agree with that in the sense that the technology, effects, costumes...... are so good these days that it is not too difficult to make a grandiose movie with a terrible story.

Star of the day: Paris Hilton

Happy birthday, Paris!

Yeah, I know it's someone else's birthday too.

Album of the day: In Hatred's Flame

This was released last year by the death metal band Exmortus. This album contains lots of "classical" metal elements like melodic bass lines and great guitar solo. Some songs reminded me of Iron Maiden. I am glad to see bands going in that direction. BTW, the members of this band are all very young and I believe are from the bay area. I am proud of them!

每週冷飯﹕ 國寶

原刊登於00年5月15日:

本月初兩間拍賣行在香港拍賣國寶招致滿城風雨一事﹐ 相信很多朋友都會聽過。我覺得在中國人的地方拍賣本國被入侵和掠奪去的物品﹐的確是一種十分不尊重的行為﹐其實拍賣大可在紐約或倫敦進行。我個人認為大商業機構一般情況下不會公然挑戰政府權威﹐這次拍賣行罔顧政治壓力﹐必定是出於商業因素。這幾件拍賣品如果不是在香港這個中國人地方拍賣﹐相信不會如此矚目 ﹐自然也不會賣得這樣好的價錢。無論如何﹐為了短線利益而自毀名聲和得罪權威﹐我覺得始終不是高明的商業手法。

至於有關方面以高價購回國寶 ﹐有論者認為此事令年青一代重新認識以及關注中華民族尊嚴和文化﹐花了錢也是值得。筆者不敢苟同﹕首先﹐傳媒以至普羅大眾一向善忘。更重要的是﹐本地流行文化一向沒有保存和維護中國文化的意識﹐現時不少香港報章雜誌大力宣揚吹捧日本潮流﹐常常在中文之中夾雜日文﹐例如以“水著”代替泳裝﹐以“攻略”表示策略﹐以“OL”代表白領儷人等等﹐以顯得“入流”。但願中文不會因此而失傳﹗

我認為這個社會任何機構﹐不論大或小﹐都負起相當社會責任﹐不能為了商業因素任意妄為﹐這個會是我們《零零誌》堅守的一個原則。

事隔九年，又有國寶圓明園銅獸首被拍賣，今次地點雖則是在巴黎，似乎仍然傷害中國人感情。

那邊廂為了短線利益而自毀名聲的事情亦繼續發生，當真是太陽底下無新事。（《零零誌》當然亦繼續不會為了商業因素任意妄為﹐皆因小弟尚未想到如何用本站賺錢！）