Star of the day: Steve McNair

Another one left us this week! I'm talking about the great quarterback Steve McNair. Who could forget his performance in the superbowl? What a game he played (even though his team didn't win)

RIP.

Topic of the day: bike messenger

I was told that biking up and down hill is a great way to lose weight. Even though I'm no good at biking, I love doing it. So I figure it might be a good idea to get a bike messenger job if I get laid off. Well, it is a very dangerous job according to studies. And the job doesn't paid that well.

I still dunno why a lot of messengers ride road bike rather than mountain bike though. I thought the latter is easier to get up and down hill and ride through uneven surfaces in the city. If anyone knows the reason, please comment.

Star of the day: Billy Mays

RIP, Mr. Mays.

I am an informercial junkie. Of course I've seen many of Billy Mays' commercials, of which the most famous is Oxiclean (too bad I couldn't find a good YouTube link of that) I'm sure I'll be watching re-runs of this and many other of his great works. He will be missed.

Another icon from our generation has left us in the past few days :( When the radio station played a couple of Bon Jovi's songs in a row this morning, it scared me!

Musician of the day: Ottmar Liebert

I saw new flamenco guitar master Ottmar Liebert playing at the Rrazz Room inside SF's Hotel Nikko tonight. I was totally amazed by the complexity of the music coming from his solo guitar. His music truly embodies the "global village" spirit as its root is in Spanish while played by a German like him (his father is actually Chinese-German!) And the background slideshow of photo from places he traveled enhanced the whole experience too.

He also spent some time answering questions from the audiences. He told us he started playing when he was 13. He paid merely $20 to take weekly 30 minute guitar lesson for the whole semester!
About his guitar, it's made by luthier Lester Devoe. Even guitarists from Spain buy from this California luthier so it's a testament of how good his guitars are. He said flamenco guitars usually don't last longer than a few years because of the "abuse" they received from the guitarist (e.g. the percussive tapping on the top) so flamenco guitarists usually spends less (~$7500) whereas classical guitarists would paid $30K or more!

每週一噏：巨星殞落

講的當然就是Michael Jackson！無論你喜歡他的音樂與否，也不論他的私生活是否有問題，無可否認，他是流行音樂界一代巨星，82年一張Thriller，九首歌中有七首出single，全部都能打入Billboard十大，實在架勢堂！

不過，我認為MJ最值得被紀念的，是由他和Lionel Ritchie為非州旱災帶來的饑荒賑災，合寫We are the World一曲，該曲及相關的Hands Across America活動總共籌得一億美元善款。

最後想提一件個人的MJ小插曲，話說小時候有朋友問我最喜歡聽甚麼音樂，我說MJ，其實當時對外國樂壇一竅不通，只知有MJ，一首歌也未聽過；她即時嗤之以鼻，因為她喜歡的是巴哈！