Top metal 2016

It's that time of the year so a "rock (but also tons of pop and other genres)" publication like the Rolling Stone magazine of course has to write about their 20 best metal albums. I might not agree with their choices (as my taste of metal is kinda narrow) but still appreciate the effort. It's always good to learn about the new bands/albums out there. And several well-established bands have released albums in 2016 that I wasn't aware of, like Megadeth's Dystopia and Meshuggah's The Violent Sleep of Reason. Both are at their usual high standards with great guitar parts. Of course, the biggest release has to be from the biggest metal band in the history of music: Metallica! The first single was actually quite enjoyable. The rest are actually not bad too but the vocal still reminded me too much of the black album and thus do not measure up to their best (Master of Puppet, And Justice for All)

Not all "big enough" bands that had new release in 2016 made the list though, e.g., Death Angel's "The Evil Divide" and Testament's "Brotherhood of the Snake" (even though I am a huge fan, gotta admit this is not among their strongest works)

There are surely plenty of thrash metal diehards like me. This article talked about all of the above thrash bands' new albums. I learned quite a few things. I also learned that T-shirt with 80's Thrash band logo and album designs have become some sort of retro fashion trend this Summer while visiting the H&M store in Hong Kong. Testament's Alex Skolnick wrote a post to ridicule Kanye wearing one. Yeah, wearing tee of bands that you don't listen to is kinda lame.

咖啡世界

開始飲cappuccino不經不覺已是大半年前的事，在屋企及公司附近的Blue Bottle及Philz自然是最初的選擇！前者的Bella Donovan味道相當balanced討好，我更喜歡dark一點點的Giant Steps(當然，作為John Coltrane忠實fans的我非試不可）而Philz的decaf dark French及Jacob's wonderbar 兩溝的味道對我是百喝不厭。花心的我當然不能滿足於僅僅喝兩家咖啡！這幾個月每月都有新發現：Napa Oxbow market內的Ritual coffee, SFMOMA內的Sightglass, SF Mission/Valencia的Fourbarrel, Palo Alto Cal Ave 跑步用品店Zombierunner內的咖啡檔，以及南灣Campbell的Barefoot, 皆各有特色。
特別想推介Walnut Creek downtown 附近的Pacific Bay Coffee Company, 在這貴租地區一杯cap賣$3.5一點也不貴，而且播smooth jazz網台好好feel，老板見我會說廣東話多談了幾句，他告知賣咖啡關鍵是炒豆，一般咖啡店賣所謂一磅豆只有12oz, 因為25%水份在炒時流失，但Pacific Bat就賣足秤16oz， 我買了他的espresso blend，有機會會再光顧。

Oakland artist collective tragedy

年尾傳來一單令人十分悲痛的新聞，就是屋崙「鬼船」大火。該處本身正式用途其實是貨倉，但二房東分租給不少藝術家當工作室及住所之用，亦有時舉行小型音樂會，今次火警發生時正是，因此死傷人數如此之高。據報導，該處被間成兩層，樓梯用木板搭成，防火滅火裝備不合格，裝修又像迷宮一樣，不少參與音樂會的觀眾就算不是被困在二樓，也因為不熟內裡格局而找不到逃生之路。其實市政府也曾接過關於該處用途成疑的投訴，只是例行公事地去看看，無人開門就不了了之。
除了物業安全監管，是次慘劇引起其他多個值得討論的話題，包括小眾電子音樂人表演場地難找，就如今次音樂會的主角，藝名Golden Donna的男樂手來自Wisconsin，其作品由小型唱片公司出品，靠本身或公司的能耐，要找個正規表演場地有難度，老實說，從YouTube找到的視頻可見鬼船攪這類音樂會氣氛實在不錯，可惜卻有安全問題。而灣區高昂的租金對低收入人士，包括一眾藝術工作者越來越不利。一方面，灣區人才濟濟，造成一個刺激創作的氛圍；但另一方面，無法負擔住所／工作室的租金，只有離開這裡才能解決問題；實在可悲。