Jazz clubs in SF

As a jazz fans, nothing beats living in Manhattan, the capital of jazz IMO. SF is probably the second best in US though. While living in the SF bay area, I could count on a few clubs for good jazz most of the time. Yoshi's has been a staple in the East Bay. The old Claremont location has its charm and it got bigger and better after moving to the Jack London Square. It was basically THE place for big names to play for decades (Milt Jackson, Chick Corea, Regina Carter, Charlie Haden to name a few) From the 90s to early 00's, SF has Jazz at Pearl's. In the past few years, Yoshi's SF (its 2nd location) has fill the void after Jazz at Pearl's went out of business. Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, McCoy Tyner, Roy Hargrove, Pharoah Sanders ...... were among some of the remarkable concerts I saw there. However, I sensed a changing of the guard ever since the grand opening of the SFJAZZ Center last year. Regina Carter and Hiromi no longer played at the Yoshi's. I saw both of their recent performances at SFJAZZ.

I foresaw clubs like Yoshi's losing big names to SFJAZZ when I learned about the plan in 2011. And my worry was rightfully justified: it's indeed more expensive to go to a concert at SFJAZZ than at Yoshi's. For comparison, tickets I bought for my SFJAZZ concerts ranged from $25-$75 (mostly in the middle) while it's $20-$50 at the Yoshi's (mostly on the lower side) So, what does the media say about these competitions? East Bay Express published an article about the rise of non-profit, which included SFJAZZ and the Sound Room in Oakland. In addition, it mentioned Yoshi's SF's financial situation and switching focus from jazz, which sounded rather sad to a long-time fan like myself. The days of big names playing 2 shows per night at the Yoshi's in Oakland from Thursday to Sunday are over too. Still, there are big names. Just for this month, Hiroshima, Cassandra Wilson and Arturo Sandoval play there.  Nevertheless, I will check out the less well-established acts at the Sound Room when I get a chance. While researching this topic, I've also found an article about another SF jazz club dealing with changes. I am putting Savannah Jazz on my list of clubs to visit.

Getting kids to view art

My kids refuse to visit art museums with me these days and think it's extremely boring. Oh well, bringing them to art museums while they were babies wasn't successful in converting them to art lovers subconsciously.

However, like most guys my son has a curiosity in gadgets, including cameras. (DSLR is "standard equipment" for HK guys) And he has always been interested in animals. So, I used wildlife photography from the catalog of Silicon Valley Open Studio as a bait for him to go visit with me last weekend. (In fact, the event has a lucky draw contest that anyone could enter to win free art and kids love to win, anything!) To make this even more fun, I had him responsible for navigating to various studios showing photography using the maps and indexes in the catalog.

It was a success! We enjoyed the works for photographer Joan Sparks very much. She had photo of hummingbirds, falcons, butterflies, bears and so on. We got some good tips from her regarding wildlife photography. And my son ended up browsing some non-photography works (mostly painting) as well. Any exposure is better than none.

Sports highlights: Champions League, English Premier League

It has been a very eventful two weeks in the world of soccer. Tons of drama even before the World Cup started to dominate the headlines.

There were 2 legs of semi-finals of UEFA Champions League. Not much happened until the 2nd legs: Bayern Munich was trashed by Real Madrid much like what they did to Barca last season. Chelsea took a slim 1-0 lead but quickly conceded the all-important away goal to Atletico Madrid, and then some more to seal their fate. This will be an all-Madrid final with a potential double or treble winner. (Atletico is at the head of the La Liga table now while Real has won the Copa Del Rey already)

And the English Premier League featured another exciting end-of-season fight for the championship. When Liverpool played Chelsea, the latter was still in the hunt for both CL and EPL. Some said Chelsea should cut Liverpool some slack for their own good. Well, Jose Mourinho had already pull most eligible first-team players out to get rest for the match against Atletico. No wonder I didn't know half of the starters. Still, Chelsea was able to strike first when the Liverpool captain slipped and Liverpool could no longer control its own fate after this loss, i.e., if Liverpool and Man City all win the rest of the games, the latter would claim the championship on goal differential.

Well, the road to championship for Man City was not without obstacle though. They still needed to beat the fifth-place Everton who has been "trending upward" lately. And Everton indeed scored first but eventually the City came back. Well, either Man City or Liverpool winning the championship wouldn't make me happy but it's good that it won't be decided until the final day of the season.

Last and least was a match unrelated to the championship: Manchester United vs Sunderland, which was the 2nd match that Man U was managed by their former player and legend Ryan Giggs. Well, it's their first home loss to Sunderland since 1968. And it saved Sunderland from relegation. Enuff said.

Regina Carter's Southern Comfort

I think the advertising agency used by Southern Comfort did a good job. I knew nothing about this brand of liqueur until I saw its attention grabbing commercial. I still haven't tried it but at least I know it's kinda like whiskey/bourbon now. And combining the phrase Southern Comfort with great violinist Regina Carter certainly sounds awesome even though I guess the music has nothing to do with the brand.

This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've been to a Regina Carter concert and she's one of the artist that I consider "couldn't go wrong": anything she played has high musical values. Of course, that's a huge compliment to a musician. Before her last 2 albums, Regina Carter had already played a large variety of jazz throughout her career, including her early, heavily pop-influenced "Something for Grace," classically-influenced "Paganini's Dream" and the jazz-standard filled "I'll be Seeing you: a sentimental journey" which established her status as one of the top jazz violinist. In my opinion though, it was the last 2 releases that broke away from mainstream jazz and propelled her from "merely" good (skillful, versatile and enjoyable) musician to a truly great master.

In her last album "Reverse Thread," Regina Carter collaborated with African musicians and came up with authentic, original music by combining elements from African music (folk tunes and rhythms) and jazz (improv) She continued her musical journey tracing the roots of her ancestry in the South. This time she used a lot of melodies from her childhood. Her performance at the SFJAZZ center included playback of such music pre-recorded in the South as references for the audience. We could clearly hear how she used the simple tunes as building blocks and transform them into vehicle for improvisation. The concert hall was filled with joyful mood. The encore piece was about going home by train and it deeply moved me as it brought back all those old memories of taking KCR trains home after school or work when I was in Hong Kong.

Sports highlights: Cricket World Twenty20 final, Paris-Roubaix, Darlington

It has been another week full of great matches and races. It was disappointing that the Wisconsin Badgers was so close to the NCAA men's basketball championship game but couldn't make it. Instead of watching the championship game, I'd rather watch the replay of the Cricket World Twenty20 final between India and West Indies. What an exciting match (maybe the NCAA game was better but I wouldn't have known)! India batted first and the West Indies bowled so well that India couldn't put up big numbers during the last few overs. However, India bowled almost as good during the bottom of the inning and shutdown West Indies' offense for the most part. West Indies was lagging for such a long period that I thought they might not be able to catch up but they eventually got the bat going and hit quite a few big ones out to win the championship.

The 2 NASCAR races at Darlington also had exciting finishes. The young Chase Elliot winning the Nationwide races two weeks in a row was kinda surprising. He restarted well and seized the opportunity to move up. On the Sprint Cup side, Kevin Harvick was simply strong from the pole but had to fight hard at the late restarts to beat Dale Jr for the Green-White-Checker finish.

Another great race of the week was the Paris-Roubaix bike race. My cycling enthusiast friend was actually right there in Paris and watched it with the local folks! Good for him! Niki Terpstra made a bold move to break away while he was still a good distance from the finish and succeeded. That was one sweet victory.
 




 

The Lion The Beast The Beat

I have been seeing Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on TV quite a bit lately. First, I saw her being interviewed on the Guitar Center sessions from AXS (a "new" TV channel that I just started subscribing to) Her live performance in the session was so full of energy. She is a very talented multi-instrumentalist (piano and guitar to name a few) as well as a soulful singer. There was an interesting conversation about how she started playing piano: her mom was a piano teacher and gave group lessons to local kids to earn some $. Grace Potter asked her mom to teach her stuff she taught the most advanced student so she could be better than all of them!

Later that night I was channel surfing and saw Palladia was supposed to be showing a programme about Heart (the rock band with female lead) but I saw this instead:

Well, I don't recall the Wilson sisters (from Heart) looking that young. They were certainly that young in the 70s but the clothing was not from that era for sure! I didn't realize that's Grace Potter until the end. (Gotta admit I'm bad at recognizing faces, even good looking ones!) Her vocal style did sound a bit like Heart though. And she's hot in the video!

So I decided to listen to the whole album. (I don't listen to much pop rock these days.) I enjoyed it. Some songs reminded me of Fleetwood Mac too. And, surprise surprise! Grace Potter has indeed covered a Fleetwood Mac song ("Gold Dust Women") with Warren Haynes.

Art explosions Spring Open studios

Art Explosions has studios in SF for rental by artists and 2 of their locations hosted open studios this weekend. I went talk to some artists and checked out their works.

Melisa Philips
She was the first artist I talked to. If you know me, I am not the type who could talk to strangers easily. Fortunately I saw a picture that seemed to be taken in Hong Kong in her studio and I used it as a conversation starter :P It was indeed taken in HK in 2006 when she attended a wedding of her friend. The works she showed were mostly photo as well as some paintings (some based on photo she took) She is very into patterns and shapes, e.g. those from the windows of buildings or staircases. I bought two bike-related photo from her for $5ea. I also found her painting "Give Me a Sign" very interesting. It's actually based on that HK photo in which there were lots of signs of stores/restaurants, a typical sight from the main streets in HK like Nathan Rd. Finally she told me about her online shop at Etsy.

Mathilda Lazelle
Her big self-portrait was actually the first piece I saw at the event as it is close to the entrance (and she used it for one version of her business card. Great idea :) The paintings she showed was mainly people or food, or both. One of them is superimposed images of a person and a jellyfish. I told her about one main character from Haruki Murakami's novel liked watching jellyfish as he felt calm. She felt the same way too. Not me though. To me, jellyfish represents danger.

Rasika Apte
She is an Asian American artist from my generation. She was working on a watercolor piece while I was there and we started talking about it, which has several circle outlines. She told me she is developing a theme with repeating patterns. She has already painted a few. And it all started with one small painting with a radish. Another painting of hers that caught my eye was one with a Sikh temple. She painted it after the shooting incident at a Wisconsin Sikh temple. It was based on some photo she had plus her own imaginations.

Ameena
She showed a large Pollack-esque abstract water color, which is a collaboration with another artist. In addition, she had a lot of small acrylic paintings. We talked about the challenges with such a small real estate.

Mary Stengel Bentley
She had a very interesting piece titled WELCOME. Each letter is converted to binary ASCII and each 0 or 1 was painted with a different colored pattern. Perfectly fitting the

Bronwyn DexterOne of her piece has a red-ish background with a few running horses and "cheez-it"-like patterns. I told her it's the year of the horse on Chinese calendar and she could sell it to Chinese for a good price. She is also a musician. In fact she used the Fender Jaguar head image on her business cards (that's the guitar she plays. So do I!)

Emily Proud
We talked about what kind of art she does inside (and outside) this studio. She told me the watercolor landscape she showed was actually drawn outside near Land's end. She is also a teacher. Maybe I could take one of her group lesson some day.

After talking to Emily, I left this location (2425 17th St) and moved on to the 3-story building on Alabama St.

Alison Walker
Like many other artists, her works utilize many repeated patterns and lines as common themes. One piece that caught my eye though was a drawing of a rose, which was based on the ones planted by inmates at the Alcatraz (she visited as a botanical artist working to preserve such images since the place was being torn down) She left a lot of white spaces and used quite a bit of thin narrow lines for the stem and leafs, which reminded me of Chinese paintings.

Hannah Schutzengel
She was working on a small painting (oil on treated paper) I told her it looks like avocado to me :P

Lucia Gonnella
I was attracted by a few of her seaside landscape painting about Bari (in South Italy), the bay area and Hawaii. Took a few picture which got her notice and she started talking to me about her art. Bari was her birthplace so no wonder she has several paintings about it. In addition to traditional paintings, she also made relief sculpture on canvas with a person (herself) and flowers. Another interesting piece consists of three canvas connected with door hinges. It's about water. She intended it to be viewed closely, with two canvas on each side of the head. I was glad to talk to an artist with lots of experience and so friendly.

Beth Knight
Her pieces were all about dogs appearing in various sizes in the city.

馬到成功 vs 馬到功成

以「馬到功成」一詞恭祝對方在商業上、在競賽上取得好成績，從小就聽不少，也不止於新年才用得上。踏入馬年，忽然發現很多地方展示「馬到成功」標語，包括球場（在歐洲足球場出現為中國客而設的廣告板已是屢見不鮮）小朋友學校（那是預祝籌款達標，可能因為中國人家長眾多吧）看來兩詞不同，又是中港差異吧。於是Google一下，多得蘋果日報左丁山撰文解釋，原來兩詞各有出處：

「馬到成功」見元代無名氏《小尉遲將鬥將認父歸朝》第二折：「那老尉遲這一去，馬到成功」，意思係一開始就成功，掂晒。至於「馬到功成」，出自元代鄭廷玉在《楚昭公》第四折：「只願你馬到功成，奏凱而還」，意思係事情順利，得到勝利。

不過習主席說的是「馬到成功」，各大媒體知道要怎做吧。

African cichlid fish

I wrote about guitar-related newsletter I got in my Inbox the other day. I also got newsletters from my Alma Mater, University of Texas at Austin. I found the ones from the college of natural sciences particularly interesting. As a trained scientist, I gotta admit I wasn't in touch with science as much as I did when I was a kid but this newsletter keeps me closer. I especially enjoyed this article on African cichlid fish: only one male fish in the group (called a school of fish) gets to be the colorful one and have strong reproductive system. Other male fish with grey color could challenge and if it wins, it becomes colorful and reproductive while the loser loses the color and its reproductive system gets weaken! Well, that kinda reminds me of the scene at UT back then: guys fight for gals (metaphorically) The winner got in good mood and sometimes dressed himself up too, while the loser became less active and might just withdraw from the social circle. 

Sports highlights: Supercross, F1, IndyCar, NASCAR

I have followed a few seasons of Supercross (motorcycle racing) but I think I have just watched the most enjoyable race so far: the Toronto race in which 2-time champ James Stewart came from behind to earn his 49th victory of his long career. And he was not the only highlight! Defending champ Ryan Villopoto was injured earlier in the day but he hang on to qualify for the main event and had a good finish. It showed how much heart and will to win he had.

The 2nd race of the F1 season was held in Malaysia last Sunday. The folks were quite heavy hearted there because of the MH370 disaster. I read the attendance number was rather low. The entertainment value was just so-so: Lewis Hamilton was on the pole and won the race. Vettel did that many times last few season and made the races BORING! He was actually on the front row but slipped to the third. That's the surprise of the race and I guess it was worthwhile to stay up 'til 3am.

And it was the first Verizon IndyCar race of the season later in the day. That's a street-course race in which the polesitter couldn't lead 'til the end of the race. The winner was a familiar name though: #12 Will Power, the Verizon sponsored driver. The other Verizon driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, did just so-so on his first race back to IndyCar after a long time away.

Also, it's the MLB opening night (in US) on Sunday. I knew it's inevitable that I caught the name of the winner of the NASCAR race at Martinsville before watching it taped, as much as I tried to avoid reading the scrolling news ticker on the bottom of the screen. I was glad I saw it though 'coz it was a surprise: Kurt Busch, who has not won a race in years (which was understandable as he spent his last 2 seasons with 2nd or 3rd-tier teams after he ruined his relationship with Team Penske) I would have turned off the TV if I didn't knew the eventual winner because Jimmie Johnson did so well: no matter where he started after a re-start, he was able to get to the front during the green flag run, well, except the last one. And it's a strange feeling: I bet there were a lot of fans who dislike both Busch brothers. Being ousted from Team Penske was basically all Kurt's fault (bad temper and arrogance.) However, he got quite a bit of respects after bringing those 2nd/3rd-tier teams up a level or two. Seems like he got mature a bit, evident in this race: he got tangled with Brad Keselowski, who was so mad and kept retaliating but Kurt kinda kept his cool and avoided further damages.

It was a great weekend for racing fan :)

Epiphone artists interviewed

I received a ton of newsletters in my Inbox everyday. Other than the ones from online stores I shopped from, I also got a few from guitar or effect pedal manufacturer of which contests I entered (and I never won any free equipment :( ) I actually enjoy the ones from guitar maker Epiphone quite a lot. My first guitar was an Epiphone SG Junior (that I still play whenever I am with it) And I did "win" something from them back then: it's a promotion with guitar instruction video (yes, in VHS!) that they gave away gig bag ("official" one with the Epiphone logo!) So you may say I'm partial to the brand. Their newsletters usually feature interviews of musicians who play Epiphone guitar. You might be surprised by the big names (not playing the "big brother" brand Gibson instead!) Jazz/blues master Robben Ford is one of them. Jeff Waters of Canadian thrash metal legend Annihilator is another. The part I found especially interesting was when he talked about running into musicians influenced by him. Personally I have run into a guy who listened to my band before without knowing I was the one in the YouTube clip. And I have also found a cover-version of our song on the internet before! And Robben Ford's interview got me really interested in the 1966 Epiphone Rivera he plays. He actually recorded an entire album, "Bringing it Back Home", with just this guitar, hoping to capture that one sound.

皇后大道東

羅大佑真係未卜先知，當年一首「皇后大道東」己經預言:

知己一聲拜拜遠去這都市
要靠偉大同志搞搞新意思
照買照賣樓花處處有單位
但是旺角可能要換換名字

有了屍爬及自由行之後，偉大同志們都說香港沒有他們早已玩完。
旺角火車站的確被改了名字。題外話：其實兩鐵合併，應該兩站一齊改名，不然只改歷史較短的地鐵站名才對！

Sports highlights: F1, MotoGP, NASCAR, T20 World Cup

Many sports competitions have started their 2014 seasons finally. Formula 1 started two weekends ago in Australia, which translates to a 3:30 am start time. I was not sure if I was gonna watch but I woke up without an alarm so I guess I wanted subconsciously. And it was not a bad race. To me, the major reason NOT to watch was that the 4-time defending champ Sebastian Vettel seemed to win every race. Not this one though 'coz something was wrong with his car early on. So did Lewis Hamilton's car. That left only 3 former champs competing with the rest of the field. Still, not too much competition up front: Nico Rosberg won for Mercedes easily. The local guy Daniel Ricciardo finished behind Rosberg and got the crowd really excited (However, he was disqualified because the fuel flow exceeded the rate allowed by the rule and his team refused to change after receiving warning from the officials. The owner of his team seemed really upset when things don't go in his favor. Oh yeah, his other driver is Vettel. To be honest, it's not fair when the governing body came up with rules against your team: e.g, favoring engine power over aerodynamics, which has been Red Bull's strength, but as a spectator I don't wanna see the same guy winning all the time. Anyway, saying things like this sounds just like a cry baby) And a rookie, Kevin Magnussen, finished third (bumped up to 2nd after Ricciardo's DQ) It's too early to tell if there's more parity this new season but I'm keeping my finger crossed.

Compared to F1, NASCAR seems like it's mid-season already with 5 races in the books, one exciting finish after another. Maybe the rule change was a good thing: it made the already-competitive drivers battled even harder for the win. And the normally nothing-goes-wrong #48 team got a flat tire late in the race while leading at the Fontana race. It ended with a Green-White-Checker finish: the same Toyota driver, Kyle Busch, won on Toyota's "home track" 2 years in a row.

MotoGP just had its first race of the 2014 season at Qatar last weekend. It was a duel between the young defending champ, Marc Marquez, and the legend, Valentino Rossi, at the end.

I didn't know it's a world cup year (Cricket Twenty20 that is) until my friend told me Hong Kong defeated Bangladesh during the last first-round group match. It's kinda like Australia upsetting England in the soccer world, I guess. And the result didn't affect which team advance to the next round (the latter did) Still, a win is a win. Looking forward to watching more 2nd round group and knockout stage matches!

Last but not least, the 2014 MLB season has also started, again, in Australia (Sydney Cricket Ground) with the Dodgers vs the D-backs at 1am PDT Saturday. This time I did set an alarm just to watch it and had to endure a ~40 min of rain delay! Since I was up after the game anyway, I ended up watching the Arsenal vs Chelsea game too. However, it's too sad for me to continue after the gunners went down 0-3 (the last one involved a red card that should not have been given. And it was given to the wrong player! How bizarre!)

Real Disasters

It seems like sad news of disasters came one after another: first it was Malaysia Airline 370 went missing. Then 100+ were missing after the mudslide in the Washington state. That really puts things in perspective. Losing 0-6 to Chelsea didn't seem that bad any more. The media misuses the word disastrous a bit too much.

霸氣十足的中國電視觀眾

據報導，南韓首爾大學一篇研究中國電視觀眾品味的論文，被指提到「低收入和低學歷觀眾喜歡看韓劇」，引起大陸一群韓劇迷不滿，集體在南韓報章登廣告，要求撰寫論文的教授道歉。

學術自由也不懂尊重，是否正反映其水平呢？

這篇文章詳細介紹該教授及其他批評韓劇的觀點，值得一讀。

IndyCar has got a new title sponsor

Can't believe I missed this piece of big news all weekend and only learned about it on the intranet on Monday! This is very exciting: IndyCar is now Verizon IndyCar. (Some news reports keep mentioning Verizon Wireless. Hey, Verizon still has wireline business! It's the "mothership" who got the title!) Among all title sponsors in recent years, Verizon has the biggest marketing muscle and IndyCar has got a much needed lift. To be honest, at this point IndyCar has nowhere to go but up (not my opinion. I read from a comment on this piece of news) I believe it's a win-win for both parties: it's reported that Verizon will be contributing 10 millions (half in cash) Most major sports sponsorships cost more than that! In fact, Nationwide insurance pays double that to sponsor the 2nd tier series of NASCAR! And of course, the top tier of NASCAR's title sponsor is none other than Verizon's competitor: Sprint. I think that motivates Verizon to step up its game. After all, Sprint forced Verizon out of NASCAR completely with its exclusive deal (Verizon used to sponsor #12 team of Penske at Nationwide. When Verizon was forced out, the victim was Justin Allgaier who lost his Penske ride and ended up with a team with less resources) Another thing interesting about this deal is that team Penske has been sponsored by Verizon for the last few years. The #12 car driven by Will Power was so close to winning the championship a few times but fell short. For the 2014 season Verizon will also be sponsoring the #2 Team Penske car driven by former F1 and Indy 500 Winner Juan Pablo Montoya. I expect him to be very competitive and a favorite to win the championship as he's still one of the best driver in the world. Oh well, no matter who wins, Verizon will get the spotlight being the title sponsor. I'm looking forward to a successful IndyCar season, which would benefit motorsports in US in general! (The third important motorsports series in US is already sponsored by Tudor so I don't think AT&T could join the party soon :P)

培正和舊金山

一直以來都知兩者頗有淵源：不少培正校友移民或升學之後定居該地。作為培正人，小時候不知在勝利道一帶甩掉多少腳毛，竟然到最近巧合在維基百科看香港街道名，才知那裡有一條舊金山徑。以下摘自報章：

勝利道一帶的街名別具革命和外國色彩，何解呢？這要從梭椏（Soares）先生講起。Soares是葡萄牙普遍的大姓，於1925年一位名為Francisco Soares的葡萄牙開發者，用其姓氏為「梭椏道」命名。他更以自由、勝利、太平幾個與第一次世界大戰有關的詞語，作為此區的街名。另外，因其名字部分與美國城市「San Francisco」相若，於是採用了當時中文「舊金山」的翻譯，將梭椏道與勝利道中間的小巷稱做舊金山徑（San Francisco Path）。而他的太太Emma和女兒Julia同樣榜上有名，譯音後化身成梭椏道旁的艷馬道和棗梨雅道。

 如此翻譯地名，的確有點馮京作馬涼的味道（麻雀館英文譯作mahjong school一樣耐人尋味）

A day-ful of Ingrid Jensen

It's the international women's day so it's perfect time to play music from female jazz musicians. I prefer instrumental music and one of the biggest name in big band yet I seldom listen to is Maria Schneider (she decided not to license her music to streaming/download services)

Found this video of her band performing Ivan Lins' composition, Lembra de Mim
The first horn soloist appeared in the video was Ingrid Jensen. I actually first learned about her today! And coincidentally the local jazz station KCSM played a few tunes she played on, including Vernal Fields from her album with the same title at 11:51AM, and Hope Springs Eternally from Helen Sung's album Anthem for a new day at 5:14PM. (KCSM also played an Ivan Lins' tune Comecar De Novo from the album Juntos at 12:40PM too. Things certainly came full circle today!)

Data Cruncher Uses Code to Solve NYC’s Problems

I read this article from the Wired magazine while having my froyo break. I was fairly impressed even though there wasn't much detail about what that female programmer did exactly. In any case, it was a good thing done by our profession and definitely deserved some credits. I guess I'm really easy to please 'coz judging from the comments on the linked articles, a lot of readers were not impressed. I do agree with one of them: some mission critical systems (like the ones used in hospital) could be so buggy that a whole team of programmers are dedicated to fixing bugs and basically performing the heroics mentioned in the article all the time!

現今的地下黨員應汗顏

蒲開油麻地的朋友可能見過「實用書局」的名字，原來創辦人龍良臣上世紀三十年代已支持共產主義，被指為共產黨地下黨員，他開辦書局賣共產書籍，又將大宅改建學校貢獻社會，當然不容於當時執政的國民黨，其後南下香港，1947年在廣東道創立「求實出版社」，五十年代遷至當時書局林立的西洋菜南街易名「實用書局」，他在書店開闢小室，供書生住宿，方便寫作又印書，30年前遷至油麻地彌敦道麗星大廈的樓上舖，可惜近年生意慘淡，今年六月將結業。

龍良臣及「實用書局」的故事十分具傳奇性。他比起今時今日的親共媚共或所謂地下黨員只知揾著數，人格高尚得多。

Links: 1, 2

劉星中阮

為打發時間上討論區，讀的十之八九為無聊帖，不過偶爾也會因此讀到一些好文，得到一點有用資訊知識，也就不算浪費了時間。有個很少上的中樂版，有名為HKCO（莫非HK Chinese Orchesra官方?）的版友常常發帖連結到相關文章，例如這篇提到以中阮作品《雲南隨想》聞名的作曲家劉星改編自己作品所面對的挑戰，實在有趣。其實中阮這件彈撥樂器可算冷門（和二胡琵琶等相比），著名作品當然不多，自不然就想到劉星。最後，發表原文的頭條日報值得一讚。

旺角行人專用區與街頭文化

旺角女人街一帶是我從中學年代開始已經常蒲的地方，熟悉有感情，從來都是人頭湧湧。成為行人專用區早期，更覺那裡好行。之後由週末擴展至七天，但隨著易拉架推銷黨、影相黨及各樂隊樂團入侵佔領，反而變得嘈吵又難行，非常擾民，最近當局終於取消該區七天行人專用，只餘週末，又成為一個具爭議性的話題。

趕絕推銷及影相黨相信反對意見不多，剩下來值得討論的，是應否支持樂隊樂團？作為業餘音樂人，我也感到有點矛盾。我親身及在網上電視聽過看過不少他們的演出，有些唱老餅國語歌，有些翻唱廣東流行曲，例如SMS樂隊唱Beyond名曲，算是頗有名氣；都不覺得怎樣出色，對於老餅歌有大班粉絲更是不以為然。（BTW，看過電視節目訪問成員威哥才知SMS是解作Sing My Songs，可是只見到他們唱別人的歌！可能也有原創作品只是無人留意？）但那只是個人主觀意見，坦白說沒有甚麼準則，若說翻玩別人作品我不支持，也不成立，皆因如果有Flamenco結他手或中樂團表演傳統樂曲，我必定舉腳贊成。

講到尾，這個層次的音樂，縱然稱不上藝術，也總算是街頭文化，在音量不至擾民的情況下，警方也無謂太過打壓。希望他們能找到一個平衡點，玩的有得玩，聽者有得聽，居民有得耳根清淨，那就皆大歡喜。

Sports highlights: Daytona 500, UFC 170

I was really looking forward to this weekend because it's NASCAR's season opener, Daytona 500, which happened to be the biggest event of the whole sports. Among all sports, NASCAR probably has the shortest off-season. Still, I had waited for 3 months! The other big event for me was UFC 170 featuring Rhonda Rousey vs Sara McMann as the main event. It has been a little less than 2 months since Rousey's last fight. I am happy about the winners of both: Daytona 500 won by Dale Earnhardt Jr and Rhonda Rousey successfully defended her title. However, the road to victory cannot be more different between them: Junior hasn't won a race since two years ago. And before this victory, he had exactly two W since 2008! Yet he was the most popular driver among fans 11 years in a row, mostly because of his last name. Anyone could see how much pressure was on him. The amount of frustration must have been through the roof! On the other hand, Rhonda Rousey has been undefeated in UFC. She dominated her opponents most of the time and scoring 1st round victory one after another (until her Dec 2013 fight in which she needed 3 rounds) She TKO-ed her opponent (who was well-rested compared to her) in the 1st round again this time. Junior had to "fight" really hard among all those great drivers who were front-runners towards the end of the race: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski, Danny Hamlin (they were either former Daytona 500 winners, former NASCAR series champs or driver on a hot streak!) Even though he was leading the race late, he had to restart perfectly to hold off the competition several times after wrecks/cautions. It's certainly no fluke as Junior finished close to the top many times during the past few seasons which showed how good he was.

I also watched a bit of Winter Olympics (mostly hockey and curling) but certainly nothing as dramatic as the above.

RIP Helen von Ammon

I attend the (free, Classical) Noon Time Concert at Old St. Mary near SF China town from time to time. Just learned that one of the long time supporters, Helen Von Ammon, has passed away recently. RIP. People like them made this a wonderful community to live/work in. Case in point: the concert today is fantastic: it featured pianist Sophie Xuefei Zhang and violinist Solenn Seguillon (yes, she is attractive. Check out the previous link to her pictures) Both had superb techniques and were perfect for playing modern pieces like the Debussy and the Ravel.

Schindler's list music chosen by skater at the Olympics

I was surprised when I heard it during Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya's performance. It was great music and she did a pretty good job (except for a few mistakes) The first thing came to my mind was that the movie was about a brave person acting against dictatorship. Isn't it ironic considering where the skater came from (and it's the host country too!)? Anyway, I don't think using the music for figure skating performances trivialized the Holocaust. Some journalists agreed while some disagreed. See this. One comment said it best: the music was NOT used in concentration camp and if the controversy made more people pay attention to the movie and the topic, that's a win.

港鐵不勝負荷 左報落力抽水

最近港鐵多次發生故障導致服務中斷多小時，我目睹火車滯留在吐露港公路對開路軌，慶幸我不在內。眾所周知，由於自由行氾濫，港鐵已不勝負荷，連局長也不得不承認（雖然他的反應是叫港人忍耐多等幾班，完全是無能的表現）

從工程角度看，一個長期負荷過重的系統，出現故障是必然發生的事。加大承受力可作為長遠計劃一部份，短期若不能減低負荷，至少也要遏止增長。左報文匯社評卻不提後者，反而強調港鐵需更新，以及向港鐵管理層問責，兩點都可能有政治因素：傳媒報導過早前港鐵引入祖國製新車，不知港鐵高層是否有人不是西環朋友，文匯乘機摑一巴。

之後報告指原來導致港鐵故障的是絕緣體零件，文匯再度抽水，強調零件來自歐洲供應商。誰不知一天後其他媒體踼爆(港鐵不得不證實)劣質絕緣體實為內地製造。


今次港鐵固然要俾幾個dislike，不過更大罪的是混淆視聽的左報文匯。

Overpaid executives

Just read an article about people shouldn't just complain about Wall St executives being overpaid because Silicon Valley executives are too. I just think the article sounds like sour grapes and probably written by someone from Wall St. For all these years (especially the past few), the banking industry has accumulated enough ill will: Manipulating the market. Getting bailed out by the public. Just to name a few. How could it even be compared to the tech industry? Disclaimer: I have worked in both. It's definitely not so black-and-white that one industry is evil while the other does no evil (Well, that was Google's motto) In fact, most workers like myself are at too low a level to do any evil :P

員工離職的原因

今早才討論過這個話題，之後即在FB看到朋友link阿里巴巴馬雲的文章。老實說我一向覺得馬雲名大於實，講得太誇張，唯有今次我就十分同意，他說只有兩個原因最真實：
1)人工太低
2)感到委屈
HR做所有exit interview，其實只要這兩個checkbox就夠了。講其他甚麼做得久想改變環境接受新挑戰之類，大多是讓大家好過一點而已。(當然，也有私人原因例如搬家或創業等等，兩者都是個人經驗:)

Movie time

We had a vacation last week. And it's time to do something I don't usually do: watching movies (6 on the flight, 1 off the flight!) I'll talk about them in the order of my preference:
1) La Grande Boucle (Tour de Force)
The movie is about an amateur cyclist started his personal Tour de France after losing his job and wife. Basically he rode one day ahead of each stage of the "real" tour. Lots of interesting things happened during his tour. I don't wanna spill the beans here 'coz I think every cyclist should watch it. Here is a review with more details about the movie.

2) Rush
I am a huge fan of auto racing but I gotta admit I'm rather disappointed with the current state of Formula 1: there is one far superior car in the field which either qualified for the pole and lead from start to finish or simply make one less pit stop. Having one car winning half of the races and cruising to the championship every year ruins it! I remember it used to be more competitive when I was a kid. Well, I was too young to know anything about the 1976 season described in the movie Rush, which is even more dramatic than anything I could remember: Austrian Niki Lauda was the defending champ. British James Hunt was the flamboyant driver hoping to unseat the champ. His aggressiveness caused him a few races and points in the standing. However, Lauda was injured (seriously burnt) in an accident during the Grand Prix of Nürburgring. He missed the next few races during which James Hunt was closing the point gap quickly. Lauda decided to came back earlier than recommended by his doctor to defend his title. And it all came down to the last race of the season. Fast forwarding ~40 years, 2008 was the last time F1 championship being decided by the last race of the season. Regarding the movie itself, the actors did a great job portraying these larger-than-life characters. And the gf/wives were pretty! There's nothing not to like about the movie.

3) The Lego Movie
Lego sets were toys I played the most when I was a kid (I still play because of my son) So, when the movie came out, it's a must-watch for me. There were sets that I built according to the instructions and never broke apart while other sets were mixed to create something brand new. And these are the themes of the movie: the "dictator" (dad) wanted the former while his kid wanted the latter. Don't we have the same conflicts in the grander scheme of thing too? THE man in the real world do want people to watch the same kind of dumb TV drama/sitcom over and over (e.g. the HK government encourages CCTVB to monopolize the market by trying to eliminate upstart competitors like HKTV) The title of that "theme" song, Everything is Awesome, is so ironic too.

BTW, we watched the Cantonese version (no subtitle) and worried the kids might not be able to understand but so glad they did. And it was so funny when the movie made fun of people drinking expensive coffee sitting next to my sister who does the same :P

4) Thor 2
I would not have admitted watching mainstream blockbuster like this when I was younger :P The comic book-based genre actually has a pretty good reputation among movie critics. Case in point: movies from the Batman franchise were usually quite deep. It seems that I watch at least one movie based on a Marvel comic every time I fly these days: Captain America, G.I.Joe, Wolverine, and this time, Thor 2. Natalie Portman looked gorgeous in it, especially in Asgardian costumes (all handmade by a craftsman in the workshop in London!) And the actor who played Thor was the same guy who played James Hunt from 'Rush.' Man, he was everywhere, just like a real superhero. And the action scenes seem more exciting than the first Thor movie, in which the bad guy was too easy to beat. The plot was also a bit more complicated with Thor needing Loki's help to fight the enemies. 

5) Last Vegas
This belongs to the "old man movie" genre in my book. Oh well, I watch those once in a while too (For example, the Oscar nominated "Crazy Heart".) Very simple story here: 4 old guys going to Vegas for an old friend's bachelor's party. Of course there were lots of history between them. And the old friends got involved in a love triangle. Man, I could totally see this happen to my friends in 30 years :P

6) Escape Plan
Just realized this movie was the first pairing of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in leading roles. I thought there were prior cases. Regardless, 2 things for sure: (1) this gotta be my type of movie, (2) reviewers would diss it because the guys have passed their prime. Well, there were indeed a lot of cliches: A prison security expert (Stallone) was wrongfully put in a maximum security prison, which operated so secretly that no law applied there. Needed help from a fellow prisoner (Schwarzenegger) to break out. I found it very enjoyable.

7) The Expendable
I watched the Expendable 2 on DVD recently. It's another movie with both Stallone and Schwarzenegger (and a whole bunch of action starts like Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and Randy Couture. Stallone was the main character though) Very straight-forward story (good guys and bad guys fight for info about material for weapons. Bad guys won and tried to obtain the material. Good guys went prevent that to happen) and old school actions. That means I liked it. Usually the original movie would be better than the sequel so I watched this on the plane. This was an exception: it was rather boring and certainly worse than the sequel. The story has something to do with the American wanna take out a dictator ruling some sort of island. I didn't really watch it except for the "blow'em up" scenes. 

I guess I won't have another movie-watching-spree for a while. 

Analysis of commercials during NFL playoff

I don't know much about advertising. My work is not related to it at all but I still find this article very interesting (and the sarcasm makes it more fun to read) The strangest thing is: I got the link and summary of the article from the daily newsletter I receive from MLB! I guess the guys at MLB think it's a good idea to trash another league/sport. Basically, the article pointed out not only that the whole 3-hour broadcast of a NFL game actually contains 11 minutes of real action (from analysis by Wall Street Journal), but also a really high amount of commercials (112 on average and 60% of the broadcast) per game!

So, what are these commercials? Beer is probably the first thing came to my mind as beer commercials are very high profile and generated a lot of conversations. Well, it turns out there are not as many as I thought: only 8%. Car commercials double it at 16%. And there are even more tech product related commercials (18%. Verizon is the top company that pays for ~50 ad per game!)

Talking about beer commercials in NFL, I recently read an analysis from Charles Wheelan's book "Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data" about the famous 1981 campaign in which one beer company (Schlitz) challenges supporters of its competitors to do a blind tasting test. One would think it's tough to produce an outcome that makes Schlitz looks good. However, if you understand the statistics behind it, it's really a gimmick. From the book:

Let’s assume that Schlitz would have been pleased if at least 40 of the 100 tasters picked Schlitz—an impressive number given that all of the men taking the live blind taste test had professed to be Michelob drinkers. An outcome at least that good was highly likely. If the taste test is really like a flip of a coin, then basic probability tells us that there was a 98 percent chance that at least 45 of the tasters would. In theory, this wasn’t a very risky gambit at all.
So what happened to Schlitz? At halftime of the 1981 Super Bowl, exactly 50 percent of the Michelob drinkers chose Schlitz in the blind taste test.
There are two important lessons here: probability is a remarkably powerful tool, and many leading beers in the 1980s were indistinguishable from one another.

Flawed Google Drive

Isn't it awesome that someone provides a free service that let user edit Microsoft Office-compatible files (and include most functionality that people actually use) anywhere anytime when the user gets online? You know I'm talking about Google Drive (formerly known as Google Doc) I use it a lot but it has a really annoying bug: when you pick a cell on a spreadsheet, sometimes it will erase the content of the cell without you telling it to. Apparently I am not the only one who ran into this (see this post on Google's forum) Fortunately, Google Drive keeps revisions of files after every edit. According to Google's support doc, there is a menu option to access these revisions. Well, support was wrong! The option is NOT there. To see your revisions, you need to click on that "All changes saved in Drive" text instead, which is totally not intuitive.

You might say I'm nitpicking on something that is free. Maybe I am but this is from a company known for hiring the best talent in the industry! Anything less than perfect is unacceptable :P

The Real World

I'm talking about the TV show that I think ruined MTV in the 90s for good. You know, back in the days MTV actually stood for Music Television and broadcasted shows about music and ...... (surprise! surprise!) music video! I guess their management would rather boost ratings via these so-called reality TV shows that were full of shocking moments and outrageous dialogs (which I still believe were scripted!) Just realized the show has been on for 29 seasons! And the producer was really proud of this show, thinking it has done some good to the society, according to this interview:

maybe The Real World had a part in making this the most tolerant, open-minded generation ever.

Really?

Sports highlights: the Super bowl

Manchester United broke yet another "record" by losing to Stoke City 1-2. Oh well, "records were made to be broken" should be David Moyes' motto. The only things that could make me laugh are these jokes that made fun of Man U. But then none of them could be funnier than this (and this was real): a guest on a Detroit TV program mentioned a wrong team (New England Patriots who lost to the AFC champ Denver Broncos) when asked about the Super bowl. The host wasn't that knowledgeable either.

Even though the game was so lopsided, I enjoyed it a lot and I'm not even a Seahawk fan. Its QB, Russell Wilson, went to U. of Wisconsin so I supported him. And he looked so calm making those passes for 3rd down conversions. Glad to see him being successful. Normally I switch channel during half-time and I didn't have to do it. The performances by Bruno Mars and Red Hot Chili Peppers were better than I expected. I wish the latter played more than one song! And do you know Super bowl half-time performers never get paid? I didn't. They actually got compensated by huge increase in record sales the week after. Is this fair? Maybe.

NASCAR's new championship format

Yes, NASCAR has come up with yet another set of changes to its system (a.k.a. the Chase) that determines its champion (at the highest level of racing, i.e. Spring Cup) It's controversial, as usual. Feedback on various sites are mostly negative. A lot of long time fans still prefer determining the champion simply by points (just like most other auto racing competition!) Well, I didn't start watching until the Chase has already in place so I am not clinging to the past like these folks. One thing interesting about this system though (and it makes very interesting conspiracy theory): the most popular driver in NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr (who won exactly 1 race in last few years) would have been the 2013 Champion under the new system. Wouldn't NASCAR just want that to happen in 2014?

The History of the Eagles Tour

I drove down to San Jose yesterday and the traffic was worse than usual when I was near the exits for SAP Center (formerly known as HP Pavilion or Compaq Center) My teacher told me there's an Eagle's concert and we joked about how old bands like them declined. I mean, what have bands like Rolling Stones written lately? They keep recycling the old songs and charge a leg and an arm for concert tickets. BTW, I think the guitar solo on Hotel California is a bit overrated even though I won't switch channel when I hear it.

Still I'm curious what the critics said. Then I found out the Eagles actually play twice at San Jose (with a George Strait concert on 1/30 sandwiched in between! How strange.) Here is a review by the local paper. Well, once again, the name of the tour alone confirms my point that these bands are about the past, not now nor future.

Shock rock/metal pioneer Alice Cooper will open for Motley Crue's "Final tour"

I heard it on the radio last night and read it on the Rolling Stones just now. First of all, what's deal with signing an agreement not to tour again, ever? That's BS to me. They could probably change one member or the name of the group and get away with touring again, when they run out of money. Second, Alice Cooper should NOT be opening for them. It should be the other way around! A lot of comments here said the same. It's not because I like AC more than the Crue. I actually enjoy the latter's music a bit more but from the grand (musical) scheme of thing Alice Cooper > Motley Crue, period!

香港人用香港語

早一陣子發表過反對香港中文用詞強國化的意見，後來在網上找到有人轉載一篇《香港人用香港語：秒殺匪語一百例》，出發點不是一味反共，就我個人而言，強國式中文一大缺陷是放棄固有合適兼意義明確的詞語不用，夾硬新作一些直譯外文的語句，例如：一籃子因素不如寫為多種原因、加大力度即是加強、所謂地標實為名勝。

後記：後來看到有人link去新華網一篇文章批評「重中之重」一詞被濫用。其實論點有少少不同，畢竟作者認為該詞也有其意義，只是使用者常常誇張其事。

The Jimi Hendrix Strange Experience at Miami

今日有空檔去圖書館刨雜誌，照例睇屋企無訂的Guitar World，其中一篇鱔稿味甚重但我都照讀，講一個幾乎失傳的The Jimi Hendrix Experience live performance，那是一場在Miami賽車場內舉行的一個音樂節，舞台就在兩架貨車上搭成，Jimi Hendrix這個三重奏已推出第二張大碟（亦將於一年後拆伙）合作得相當緊湊，雖然開show前hi了不少野；那是原本為期兩天的音樂節的第一天，第二天卻下起雨來，只得彈木結他的Acoustic blues高手Mississippi Fred Mcdowell有得演出兼收得酬金，此外財政處理一鑊粥：連負責保安的也收不到錢，與負責運錢的護衛公司職員持槍對峙！錄音和錄像失踪也和演唱會員工收不到酬勞有關：該名員工拿走母帶一走了之，幾十年後其後人才將之賣給Hendrix公司，今天終於重見天日：收錄上述演出錄像的PBS Jimi Hendrix傳記DVD及錄音黑膠均在最近推出，該文宣傳頗為成功，搞得我心癢癢想入貨！

後記：近期和Hendrix有關的新聞的確不少，以其生平為主題的電影All is By My Side（Hendrix由Outkast的Andre 3000飾演）將於九月上映。

Grammy and jazz

I was trying to check out the nominations in the jazz category of Grammy 2014 using Google. Well, one of the links I got is a British newspaper article moaning the lack of European Jazz artists being nominated. Ironically, the article didn't mention any European jazz artists who the journalist think deserving of nomination. And the photo chosen for the article is American pianist Fred Hersch, who the journalist totally agree deserving nomination, which is totally irrelevant to the point he is trying to make! Oh well, good journalism is scarce on the other side of the Atlantic as well. The only relevant article I found so far has to do with the jazz vocalist category. I guess I will have to write another one after the results are announced.

Palm and Qualcomm

It was April 2010 last time I wrote about Palm, the handheld computing pioneer. HP acquired Palm back then. Too bad it was not a success as I hope it would be. HP did release a tablet called TouchPad based on the webOS developed at Palm but it was a flop and was discontinued 49 days after it was announced in 2011. HP opensourced webOS and transferred its team to LG. The latest move by HP was selling off Palm's patents to Qualcomm. Qualcomm is certainly capable of making good use of the patents to create new products. On the other hand, they might just use them for legal purpose only. :(

Unfamiliar territory

I suppose one of the least understood country (especially to the west) would be North Korea. NBA great (and the notorious) Dennis Rodman has organized a few trips and playing games over there, which generated a ton of publicity, not all of them positive to say the least. However, I've just read an interesting article about a scientist who were with Rodman there (translating for him). There are few things I wanna mention from the article: he found that North Korean people were genuinely friendly to him, in spite of the propaganda against Western people (especially American)  Trips like the one made by Rodman would make North Korean understand the outsiders more (and vice versa) And the understanding could only be a good thing. Regarding his own activities there (researching genetics and teaching science,) he found the students were really interested in the scientific methods and ideas he taught and appreciated his efforts. It's good to put politics aside.

The "epic" Windows 8.1 upgrade

If you bought a PC that was released more than a few months ago, it's likely to have Windows 8 instead of 8.1 installed. And since the 8.1 upgrade is free (for most version of Win 8), it would be a good idea to get it. But how? Well, the update is supposed to be available at the "(App) Store" (i.e., the one on the "Start" screen) However, it is only available when your Win 8 has the KB2871389 patch/update installed already. And this patch is supposed to be automatically "discovered" by Win 8's Windows Update. In my case, it was indeed suggested to be applied but that did not happen. And for some reason the PC won't download any update even if I requested it to. So I ended up going to Microsoft directly to download the update installer and ran it. For a long time it was "copying packages to the windows update cache" and I was worried it hang but fortunately it completed eventually. Upon restart it actually pulled 60+ other updates, which took about an hour to complete. Once it was done, the 8.1 update is finally available in the Store and I chose to install it. However, downloading was stuck at 0% after 15 min. I googled again and found another KB article by Microsoft. I ran the "troubleshooter" which seems to fix something and not fixed something. Oh well, it doesn't hurt to try installing the 8.1 update again! And it did slowly made progress downloading. The whole update is ~3-4Gb and of course I didn't wait for it to finish before heading to bed. I guess it took 2-3 hr to download. When I got up, I finally see the "Agreement" screen. Next, it asked me to confirm the hotmail address I provided when setting up the PC the first time. How? It's tied to another e-mail addr which I have to check on my other PC. Man, these days people are expected to have multiple e-mail accounts and multiple internet devices. Anyway, it's finally done! And I am one happy 8.1 user.

Next project: install a SSD. Found this post from someone who did it.

HIMYM is officially over the hill

I was a big fan of the show "How I met your mother." I have always found Cobie Smulders ("Robin") very attractive but I gotta admit my passion for it has waned some what and stopped watching every episodes religiously after the first few seasons. It's because I found sometimes the writers just tried too hard to be funny and "beat the horse to death" so to speak. However, the show went from "sometimes boring" to bad taste when the 1/13 episode was aired. This episode continued one of the show's more boring theme: the slap bet. One of the character went on a journey during which he met 3 Kung-Fu master-like characters who taught him the art of slapping. The problematic part is that the Kung-Fu master wore costumes that were stereotypes of Asians (e.g., the Fu Manchu moustache, the yellowface) These might have been acceptable a few decades ago but it's generally regarded as racist these days and caused an uproar in social media. The creators came out to apologize afterwards but the damage has been done. It's probably not gonna stop me from watching the show completely 'coz it's the last season anyway but it just dropped out of my list of all-time favorite sitcom.  

US education system

I guess most people won't take a close look or try understanding the education system until they have kids (unless they study education at college?) I was told the charter movement was a good thing years ago but then I've also heard some skeptical opinions. Anyway, none of our kids ended up going to charter schools. Just came across a post on Slashdot about it. It links to a few articles, including one that criticize it heavily. There are always 2 sides on every coin: new form of schools brings new way to educate kids. Sometimes things could get out of control though. For example, one of the operators mentioned in the article use computer-aided classes heavily to reduce the cost of hiring teachers. It's a good thing to bring down the cost but you can't sacrifice the human touch too much. Another example is about teacher's union disallowed at those schools. We all know what powerful teacher's union could do. It's always difficult to strike the balance.

Jazz playlist

There are quite a few interesting jazz albums released this year. I put together this play list:

• Charnett Moffett: The Bridge
• Ron Carter Golden Striker Trio: San Sebastian
• Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo: Melody Magic
• Lage Lund: Foolhardy
• Jim Hall: Fame and Fortune

And there are quite a few common themes among these albums:
1) guitar/bass centric: there are albums for fans of guitar and bass (like me :) Charnett Moffett and Ron Carter are among the biggest names in jazz bass. Bass lovers certainly won't be disappointed with the amount of bass solo. All 5 albums features guitarists except the first one (solo bass!) And as a bonus for fans of violin, guest violinist Zack Brock played on 4 tracks on Melody Magic.  
2) small groups: there were solo, duo, trio and quartets. That's all. Very intimate. You could clearly hear the on-going (musical) conversations.
3) If you are a fan of Beatles, you would enjoy the covers on both "The Bridge" and "Melody Magic"
And if you are a fan of Jacques Loussier, THE master of arranging Bach's work into jazz piano trio format, "Melody Magic" has that kind of magic. You will find the classical melodies very familiar yet refreshing with the new arrangements.

Finally, the world of jazz guitar has lost one of the icon: Jim Hall, in 2013. This Fame and Fortune album seems to be a compilation by the "mysterious" Jazz2Jazz label (aka JEI records) from earlier releases featuring Jim Hall playing with different pianists. Too bad there's very few info about the label (and the album!)

She Rocks

That's the name of an award ceremony. Gotta admit it sounds kinda cheesy but I dig the idea: paying tribute to women in the music industry. Many female rock musicians are household names. However, it's interesting to learn about the ones "behind the scene", like Dinah Gretsch (CFO of Gretsch guitar) and Maricela "MJ" Juarez (pickup expert at Seymour Duncan) Yes, they rock!

「大陸詞匯」vs「正宗港詞」

剛在高登看到關於春節一詞的爭論，Google一下才知有網民反對香港中文用詞強國化，有議員提出

「本土語言清洗論」（按：即香港原本常用詞語被取代，需撥亂反正），他們稱「適當」不能寫成「適切」、「推出政策」不能寫成「政策出台」、「最重要」不能寫成「重中之重」、「改善」不能寫成「優化」，「質素」不能說「素質」、「趨勢」不能說「勢頭」、「新年」不應說成「春節」、「功夫」不能說成「武術」

對我來說，從小已習慣農曆新年及春節互通，不過可能因為家人多和台灣及星馬人溝通，讀的又是右派報紙，所以我的經驗對判定春節是否外來語，實在作不得準。

至於功夫及武術，兩者實無抵觸。我認為功夫是武術的subset，專指傳統中國武術例如太極詠春少林等等，外國的武術如日本空手道或巴西柔術，甚至中國本身的摔跤及散打，稱之為功夫都不恰當。

除了以上兩項，我十分贊成必須堅持香港原有的寫法。

2014 Class of MLB Hall of Fame

I'm so happy that one of my favorite baseball player of all-time, Frank Thomas, was just voted into the Hall of Fame on the first year he was eligible. He totally deserved it. His bat could really hurt the opposing team, whether he swung it or not! He's called the "Big Hurt" for a good reason. He was part of the reason I became a fan of Chicago White Sox. And I was glad that he spent a season with the local Oakland A's late in his career too. You always learn something new everyday: I just learned why he was so motivated from the linked article. Too bad Craig Biggio was a few vote short of getting in. I'm looking forward to seeing him (and Bonds, Piazza, Kent) in some day.

對德國學前教育認識之謬誤

早一陣子看過網上廣傳一文指出德國法例明文禁止兒童六歲前接受學前教育，即香港大行其道的各種「不要輸在起跑線」課程在德國均屬非法。本人雖然不支持虎爸虎媽行徑，倒也無法想像德國會這樣，要知道德國出了不少傑出音樂家，很難相信他們全在六歲後才開始學音樂（翻查音樂家生平也否定這一點）

再看看維基百科介紹德國教育及相關法律條文，意思也不像是禁絕學前教育。果然，找到一篇深入分析德國教育的文章，指出原本網文之錯處。其實，該條文針對的是德國史上一種「貴族」先修班，並非泛指學前教育。

Sports highlights: college football and supercross

It was the first weekend of NFL playoff. I watched a bit of those 4 games without high hope (the only team I rooted for was the Packers and didn't expect them to advance) However, the bowl games were better for me. I enjoyed watching Oklahoma defeated Alabama (not that I was a fan) The 2 bowl games on Friday night were also highly entertaining (Ohio State lost to Clemson and Oklahoma State lost to Missouri)

And the biggest highlight was the 1st race of the 2014 Supercross season. The races were really competitive. Too bad both the rookie Eli Tomac and veteran James Stewart crashed out. The former champ crashed while challenging for the lead! Ironically, the 450 race was won by another rookie: Ken Roczen. I saw a few of his 250 motorcross (outdoor) races when he first came over from Germany after winning the MX2 World Championship but still adjusting to the environments in the States. I guess it doesn't take long to learn for those with great talent.

Finally, I came across an article about 10 years of Endurocross competition in the States. I'm surprised that it's doing relatively OK during the economic downturn because of its ability to promote the sponsors inside a stadium setting compared to the outdoor version. I hope I could watch it live in Vegas some day!

Sports lowlights: football and more football until autoracing

It has been a few years since last time I watched this many football during the weekends and holidays near New Year's day. I was sick the last 3 days of 2013 and had WatchESPN on most of the time while listening to the (college bowl) games lying in bed. The results were mostly disappointing: Texas Longhorns lost (as expected by ESPN's stat dept, by > 3 TD to the pretty good Oregon Ducks) Dallas Cowboys lost (as predicted by me. In the recent years, the team almost always got a chance to win the final game to get into the playoff and lost) Wisconsin Badgers lost (ESPN predicted a 3 pt victory, not with high confidence though. The winner South Carolina ranked 10 places higher for a reason I guess) Man U lost (to a team in coaching turmoil like the Tottenham Spurs) I didn't even watch any of these games (so not watching didn't help the teams but helped my sanity) Instead, I watched NHL's Winter Classic (Maple Leafs vs Red Wings) played outdoor in U of Michigan's football stadium (nicknamed "The Big House") It was snowing real hard. Great atmosphere. I think it slowed down the puck movement and action a bit though and hurt the entertainment value somewhat. (I just found that there'll be a few more outdoor games, including one in Dodgers stadium on Jan 25th between the 2 So Cal teams! No snow for sure.) I also watched quite a bit of the Rose Bowl (first time not featuring the losing Wisconsin side for a long time!) My Stanford friends please don't hate/unfriend me but I was mildly happy that Michigan State won (for some reason I like this team better. Maybe because it's a Big 10 team and a public school :P) Hopefully the same vibe infects the NFL matchup between the bay area 49ers and the midwestern Packers this Sat! BTW, Aaron Rodgers WAS the man. It's the first game he came back from a broken collarbone and he led the team to a last minute comeback to win the game, the division, and a chance to challenge the defending NFC champ 49ers.

Now that the new year has started. It means the new AMA Supercross season is starting very soon. Can't wait! Here is the complete TV schedule:

• 1/4/2014, 10 p.m. : Anaheim, Calif., Angel Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 1/11/2014, 9:30 p.m.: Phoenix, Chase Field – Fox Sports 1
• 1/18/2014, 10:30 p.m.: Anaheim, Calif., Angel Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 1/25/2014, 10:30 p.m.: Oakland, Calif., O.Co Coliseum – Fox Sports 1
• 2/1/2014, 10 p.m.: Anaheim, Calif., Angel Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 2/8/2014, 10:30 p.m.: San Diego, Qualcomm Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 2/15/2014, 8:30 p.m.: Arlington, Texas, Cowboys Stadium – Fox Sports 2
• 2/16/2014, midnight: Arlington, Texas: Cowboys Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 2/22/2014, 7:30 p.m.: Atlanta, Georgia Dome – Fox Sports 2
• 2/23/2014, midnight: Atlanta, Georgia Dome – Fox Sports 1
• 3/1/2014, 7:30 p.m.: Indianapolis, Lucas Oil Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 3/8/2014, 7:30 p.m.: Daytona Beach, Fla., Daytona International Speedway- Fox Sports 1
• 3/15/2014, 7:30 p.m.: Detroit, Ford Field – Fox Sports 2
• 3/16/2014, 1 p.m.: Detroit, Ford Field – Fox Sports 1
• 3/22/2014, 7:30 p.m.: Toronto, Rogers Centre – Fox Sports 1
• 3/29/2014, 8:30 p.m.: St. Louis, Edward Jones Dome – Fox Sports 1
• 4/5/2014, 8:30 p.m. Houston, Reliant Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 4/12/2014, 10:30 p.m.: Seattle, CenturyLink Field – Fox Sports 1
• 4/26/2014, 7:30 p.m.: East Rutherford, N.J., MetLife Stadium – Fox Sports 2
• 4/27/2014, 4 p.m.: East Rutherford, N.J., MetLife Stadium – Fox Sports 1
• 5/3/2014, 10 p.m.: Las Vegas, Sam Boyd Stadium – Fox Sports 1

Daniel Snyder says Redskins will never change name

That's the title from USA Today, which is totally misleading! When I saw it, I found it odd 'coz never is pretty strong and he won't have a say when he doesn't own the team anymore (maybe he will sell it someday or die, who knows?) It turns out he said 'We will never change the name..." which makes more sense (Still, I think the name should be changed because of the racism concerns) Poor reporting by USA Today!

Sports highlights: Dallas Cowboys

It's yet another up-and-down, drama-filled season that is almost over for my team. The loss to the Packers after leading by 23 at the half was extremely mindboggling. Oh well, fans should not have high hope on the current team anyway. Still, there is one feel-good story I could write about: former Cowboys QB (mostly backup) Jon Kitna may play the same role again this Sunday (The starter Tony Tomo was injured. They might start Kyle Orton and have Kitna backing them up) He planned to donate his salary from that game to school. I posted another story (forgot where, probably FB) about him contributing to the community after he's done with NFL. A real class act!

My "best of 2013"

Albums of the year:
- Yellowjackets: A Rise in the Road. I gotta admit I listened to them for the wrong reason: Jaco Pastorious' son Felix played bass on it. It's actually fusion jazz at its best.
- Death Angel: The Dream Calls for Blood. They just stick with the classic thrash sound like they did it 20+ years ago, exactly what I need!
- In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores. Violinist Hilary Hahn plays 27 new works she commissioned. Gotta support adventurous classical musicians.

Books of the year:
- Haruki Murakami: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Compared to the epic 1Q84, this "long" novel doesn't seem like much (I finished reading in 3 nights) and it's much more "realistic" I guess it's easier to relate to the story.
- Geek to Guitar Hero: The hero here is Alex Skolnick, guitarist of Testament (metal) and Alex Skolnick Trio (jazz) He wrote this memoir by himself. Testament is one of my all-time favourite band. Alex Skolnick's unique style of guitar solo was one of the reasons I'm attracted to their music. I wanted to read about the beginnings of his band and his guitar study and the book certainly didn't disappoint. The book basically covered his childhood (not a very happy one because he didn't fit in with his family and school) to present, primarily focusing on his experiences from his first stint with Testament. I felt somewhat connected to his stories because he grew up in the SF bay area (Berkeley) He mentioned a lot of local places (e.g. Yoshi's!) and bands that I'm familiar with.

Concerts of the year:
- Black Sabbath: I have never been to a Black Sabbath concert until this year. The set list included every Black Sabbath classic I wanted to hear: War Pig, Iron Man, Paranoid, N.I.B.... etc. Plus a few songs from their latest album, 13 (their 13th studio album), which was a pleasant surprise, even though Ozzy's vocal was a bit shaky.
Still, I was so glad that I went. They are the one and only Black Sabbath.
- Chick Corea: He is certainly one of the biggest names in jazz today. He is the type of musicians that makes the others play better. One thing I really like is instead of drawing attentions to himself, the big star, he made the whole band shine, especially the up-and-coming guitarist Charles Altura, as well as the horn player Tim Garland.
- Solo Bass Night 5: as the name suggested, the concert was all about solo bass players. I was most impressed by Ariane Cap, who showcased her masterful two-hand tapping techniques. It got even more interesting when she was joined by her bandmate, bassoonist Paul Hanson (their group is named Oon!) This unusual pair of instruments complimented each other very well. I also enjoyed listening to 11-string master Jean Baudin. He created music with complex texture and layers using his bass, effects and loopers. I rarely buy any CD these days but I bought 2 of his.

Rides of the year:
- Mt. Tam: The ride started from Bolinas Rd, through the neighborhood via some local streets to Olema Rd and back onto Sir Francis Drake towards North. Then we turned right into Nicasio Valley/Reservoir. Quiet and open country road there. Nice! Next, we turned West to Point Reyes Station, then to Hwy 1. We saw the ocean again (~40 miles into this route) and it was time to turn left and ride up Bolinas-Fairfax rd (small entrance, easy to miss!) It's a long 4-mile climb 'til we reached Ridgecrest, i.e., the famous Seven Sisters. Each sister represents a rolling section of the road (more than 7 of them!) The last "sister" was a hard 3 mile stretch before reaching the East peak. The original map didn't have this section so our planned 64 mile ride became 70!
- Mt. Diablo and Morgan Territory: I always wanted to climb Mt Diablo since I've already done 2 out of the Big 3 Mt in the Bay Area (Mt Hamilton and Mt Tam) and I think it's the right time to go. I started at the Blackhawk Plaza Shopping Center and took Blackhawk Road, which passed a few gated communities (affluent neighborhood!) Then turned into Mt. Diablo Scenic Blvd at 3.5 mile mark. A cat 2 climb starting at the South Gate 'til the entrance kiosk, then a 6-mile cat 1 climb all the way to the top. I was not only a bit tired from climbing but more importantly very much bothered by the poor visibility due to dense fog and mist. The very last section before the Summit was steep. The dense fog and mist was still there, if not worse, when I needed to go back down (also needed to negotiate the turns on the slightly slippery road and avoid getting hit by cars going downhill, which I could only hope the drivers were skillful enough to handle) I couldn't feel safe until I got back to the junction, where I regained visibility finally (that 4.7 mile descent felt like eternity!) I rode thru Walnut Creek and Clayton and the next major milestone was Morgan Territory Rd (at the 38.5 mile mark) The first few miles of Morgan seemed too mild and that worried me coz' I knew it went up to 2000+ ft above sea level eventually so the later the climb start, the steeper it would be! Finally I started climbing at the 42 mile mark (where the road is buried deep in the woods and my friend warned me there's no phone reception) and the Summit (2087 ft) is at 48. Overall, Morgan wasn't that bad (I had similar if not worse experience with long climbs on the Sea Otter ride, Tunitas Creek and West Portal on the Peninsula.) It's just that I was tired from the prior climb and rides. This is a ride any rider would be proud of!
- Tennessee Valley: unlike the first 2, this is a mountain bike ride. And it's in the Marin, kinda close to the Mt. Tam area. Although I bought my mountain bike for over a year, I have never rode it with anyone else! I'm glad that I learned a few tricks from my co-workers who went with me. The SF scenery from the top of the mountain was awesome. 

Sporting events of the year:
- America's Cup: even though the races were not exactly at where I work, I could see things related to the event all the time. For example, one of the base is really close so I saw the boats being lifted to and from the water. And of course, banners are everywhere in SF. However, I got the best view on cable TV (installed right around the races started!) And this series were epic! Biggest comeback ever, period. This is the type of event you talk about for the rest of your life: how bad the Oracle/USA team was in the beginning and how the boat got faster and faster and things got turned around completely. And of course, how unlucky the Kiwis were: the races that favored them got cancelled because of weather (too windy or not windy enough and thus exceeded race time limit!)
- Grand Prix Macau: it's hard for a auto-racing fan grew up in HK not to get excited about the event. So glad that it's held while I visited HK this year so I could go, at least once in my lifetime! The road course featured lots of tight corners (it has actually been modified from the early days for improving safety) and drivers could actually pass (unlike the boring F1)
- Bruno Escalante vs Michael Ruiz Jr. It's the fight for the IBA junior bantamweight title at Redwood City. It's also the first time I saw boxing live in action. There were 7 fights in total with some knockouts. Some were really entertaining. And the judges seem to score the same way I did :)

Gadgets of the year:
-Nikon D3200: I always think it's cool to own a single-lens reflex camera. However, I was just not the type of guys who carry a camera around everywhere AND taking good pictures! So I am content with using the camera on the phone most of the time (at least since owning camera phones 10 years ago) I'm glad that I took the plunge and bought this camera (and the flash recommended by my friend) Even with auto-settings, the camera takes pretty good photo.
-Fender Special Edition Jaguar Thinline: This is one guitar with the look I like (the f-hole) and good playability: easy access to higher frets because of the body shape and easier stretches of fingers for complex chords because of the shorter scale length. Haven't bought something I like this much for a while!

Jazz playlist

It seems like the only reason I still subscribed to magazines are for the new release reviews. Found a few really interesting ones that fill up my recent playlist:
David Weiss, Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter
I don't listen to a lot of large ensemble jazz. However, some groups do work better for me. Like Dave Holland's and this one with David Weiss. As the title said, it features work of great saxophonist Wayne Shorter. The reason it "works" for me is that I could still hear distinctive voices from each individual instead of getting blended altogether.

Jacam Manricks, Cloud Nine
The leader, saxophonist Jacam Manricks is an unfamiliar name to me. The reason I found this is that the aforementioned David Weiss was the guest trumpeter here. More importantly, Sam Yahel, a jazz organist I really enjoy listening to, played on it too. Manricks played a 4-minute long unaccompanied solo. That's really a challenge. The guitar playing of Adam Rogers was a pleasant surprise.

Adam Rogers, Apparitions
And the above led me to check out the guitarist's work as a leader. This one features Chris Potter on sax and Edward Simon on piano. Can't go wrong with that!

Amir ElSaffar, Alchemy
That's a well chosen title. The trumpeter was really good at fusing middle eastern music with jazz.

It has been a good month discovering "new" jazz for me, after a brief trip out of the country. Still have a few more to write about. Stay tuned!

Crowd goes wild

I watch quite a bit of Fox Sport 1 channel because of its auto racing, MMA and soccer programming. Once in a while I would also watch their talk shows, like Fox Sports Live and Crowd Goes Wild. I like Georgie Thompson on the latter because she looks and sounds sexy (that British accent!) Well, more reason to support the show: turns out two guest hosts are from my Alma Maters: Jason Gay, the Wall Street Journal writer, graduated from U of Wisconsin while Sanya Richards-Ross, former Olympian, went to U of Texas.

A side-note: On today's show, Sanya Richards-Ross commented on her personal experience with the recently stepped-down football coach Mack Brown: Brown would text her with encouragement when she was at track-and-field competition all over the country and the world. That's why people call him a class act!

惡星情人

早幾日被問到那一本村上春樹作品我比較不欣賞，我直覺的答案是「國境之南、太陽之西」我也不知道原因；其實我根本完全忘了故事情節，唯有重讀一遍吧。我還以為這書是我在十年前左右讀的，原來是1993年出版，很可能我即買即讀，之後數年也可能重讀過一兩次，相信超過十年沒有碰過。很快就重讀完，也明白為何當時我不太欣賞：因為沒有村上招牌的超現實情節，當年我也沒有家室，很難想像主角的心境。

一如村上其他作品，本書和幾首曲子頗有關係，奇怪的是我一直對書名前半部的South of Border一曲興趣不大，又一直誤會書名後半部是耳熟能詳的East of the Sun, West of the Moon，最想聽的反而是Star crossed lover。在那個互聯網剛起步的年代，要找來聽實在不易。今天在Rhapsody及YouTube一口氣聽了六七個不同版本，結他版比鋼琴版少得多，不過也找到兩個：
有機會的話也想試彈一下，當然，這在廿年前是無法想像的。

機上娛樂

在沒有自選電影的年代，每次來回香港及美國，起碼看三四套新電影，現在反而看得更少，可能因為自選會看電視劇集、資訊節目及舊片。講講今個trip看的：

新電影是The Wolverine, 動作打鬥英雄片對我來說十分適合在極度沉悶等待到目的地的長途機上看，近年就看過Captain America及GI Joe。本片故事了無新意，離不開英雄被困解困成功救美打敗頭號壞人的情節，Wolverine很有型就是了。差點忘了我也看了The Great Gatsby，原著我是後知後覺地在去年才看，因為想擴闊我看的小說範疇，不再局限於中日文。電影在夏天旺季推出，反應似乎普普通通，所以我的期望不高，其實想找一套悶片催眠，結果只是錯過了幾段，倒看了大半套，和我看小說時所想像的境像相若吧。

電視劇集是Big Bang Theory，自從Friends完結之後，我很少追處境喜劇，不過間中會看看這套以冷門的大學科學家為主題但收視強勁的劇。其中一集講他們到中學勸女生加入科研行列；無獨有偶，最近有一則IT界新聞是關於各大公司獎勵學校辦寫程式課程，如多女生參與可獲額外獎金。

資訊節目有一集講韓國斧山旅遊，行程包括寺院食齋參拜穿佛珠修心，學做米酒及咖啡拉花，試穿韓服（包括龍袍），少看旅遊節目的我也很enjoy。另一集講位於玻利維亞，全世界最大的巨型鹽沼Salar de Uyuni, 無邊無際無窮無盡一片白，實在壯觀；當地居民用鹽建屋，掘鹽賣錢，鹽下更有鋰礦，未來會是一大財路。 最後看了三集Birth of Europe，這個地埋節目探究歐洲大陸如何造成。

舊片是以前看過多次，近年未有重温的李小龍作品唐山大兄。有趣的是原來該片配樂用上Time from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, 配樂人有點前衛。

Jazz fusion playlist: Dave Holland, Jeff Lorber

I enjoy bassist Dave Holland's performance a lot. I've been to concerts of his groups at Yoshi's a few times. I listened to his big band album even though I'm not a fan of this format at all, not to mention many albums in which he played as a side man. However, I was not familiar with the fusion side of his playing (which I should have 'coz Holland played with Miles Davis) until now: after listening to his 2013 release "Prism" (reviewed here), which features his long-time drummer Eric Harland (great to watch him play live), guitarist Kevin Eubank (even non-jazz fan would know him for his time at Jay Leno's 'Tonight show')

Regarding the term fusion, I first saw it being used in the 80s to describe music by the likes of John McLaughlin but also that of Kenny G and Spyro Gyra. The name "smooth jazz" took over in the 90's. However, the tide has turned: smooth jazz is going out of favor and musicians are distancing themselves from it. One evidence: Jeff Lorber started using the name of his old group, Jeff Lorber Fusion, since 2009. His group did play an important role in the history of smooth jazz: Kenny G got his start playing in this group (you could hear his playing on this album) Enough of the past. I highly recommend their new (2013) album, Hacienda. Smooth or not, this is great instrumental/improvisational music. And it featured two guests: guitarist Larry Koonse and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. That's a lot of star power!

東區我的故事

在香港生活差不多廿年，成長期活動範圍以油尖旺沙田為主，過對面海總是隆重其事，例如跟父母到中環購物到北角會友，偶爾也會到淺水灣石澳，總的來說是相當陌生，東區更是絕少踏足，今次我的｢做個遊客｣計劃選了小西灣。

從大埔中心坐74X到大老山隧道(入隧道前落車) 轉682，不到兩小時就到小西灣運動場外，事前讀過這個詳細介紹(網友寫得相當用心，super like!) 知道沿海旁走，有路上山可望大浪灣，風景優美。其實這次共走了三條路，第一條是在公園洗手間附近開始的龍躍徑，大部份雖稍斜但寬闊，行山客不少開著小音響邊聽邊走，有粵曲有英文金曲，很高興聽到有人播｢萬水千山縱橫｣，和我同是關正傑fans(我踩車上山多唱｢天蠶變｣) 半個小時後到達一個大涼亭，東張西望，找到第二條-有很多石級的砵甸乍山郊遊徑，走起來甚為吃力，十多分鐘後見到山頂觀景台指示牌，那是一個短短的detour, 觀景台可見整個九龍東部(包括鯉魚門)，也有一個大涼亭，我醫肚醫得太遲，經已餓過飢，吃了預先買定六個麵包的兩個，再加一個powerbar，肚餓尤未止，已有打退堂鼓之意，休息廿分鐘離開觀景台，抉擇時候：向左走向右走？結果好勝之心得勝！其實最辛苦路段已過，向馬塘坳的路都是下山或平路，這段可見大浪灣，有一對港男港女情侶行孖必打情罵悄，令我頗為驚訝有不怕曬不怕辛苦的港女(路上見好幾個) 過了馬塘坳就見一大路，那是港島徑第八段，跟著大潭峽的指示牌(牌上有巴士標誌)，走下一條樓梯就是石澳道，稍向右行至哥連臣道交界，就是往筲箕灣的9號的巴士站，我未見巴士先見紅色小巴，$7到筲箕灣。

本來打算即坐叮叮到銅鑼灣，但想起筲箕灣也是我極少到之地，於是改變主意隨便走走，見到譚公廟的牌，十分好奇，皆因我只知金庸小說〖天龍八部〗有個譚公，走到譚公廟，當然參拜一番，見有幾隻用來裝飾的木雕船及水上人家，估計是保佑他們的神祇。下一個吸引我的指示牌，是海防博物館，我記得星期三全港博物館免費，實在不容錯過，也是明智抉擇：在鯉魚門堡壘原址建成的博物館極具氣派，乘電梯一上就是八樓展覽廳，永久展出明朝以來香港海防(亦即是軍事) 歷史，倭寇為患的明朝，腐敗懦弱的晚清，抗日失敗的英治香港，其歷史在香港讀書的朋友想必略知一二。無獨有偶，展覽介紹了哥連臣這位有多地以其命名的早期英國軍士，原來就是最早勘察地型畫成香港地圖者；展覽又介紹了添馬艦地名的來歷。最後隨導賞團參觀魚雷發射站，為了此設備，又建有供應蒸氣機的水池，及煤炭用的鐵路、煙囪，如此大陣仗，卻從未建一功即已被拆。最後觀看的是火藥庫，日軍佔領後被改作處決囚犯的刑場！導賞員叮囑大家必需教育下一代不忘歷史，諷刺的是有訪客穿的是日本排球隊T恤(不是我), 用的是日本牌子相機(是我) 我的東區之旅就此結束。

後記：之後沒有坐叮叮，為的是把握時間逛銅鑼灣誠品，當真好心有好報：為姐姐找CD時竟然見到大量雨果唱片公司新舊出品，十分齊全，包括幾隻尋找多時的潮州弦絲樂及潮州客家箏樂。

2013培正同學日

今年是母校培正香港建校八十周年，同學日格外隆重，正日前一晚先和幾個舊同學在TST Fat Angelo's來個「小圈子」晚飯，當中有位已兩年沒見，可喜的是大家「無穿無爛」，縱有煩惱事，即管一起分享下。

當晚仍jetlag，同學日一早就起床，唯有看看電視消磨時間，亞視歲月流聲台當然是首選，看了第五十幾集的天蠶變，還有新角色加入，飾演的竟然是港姐張瑪莉，原來她當選後加盟過佳視及麗的，那是香港有三個免費電視台百花爭鳴而無一台獨大的年代。之後再轉睇J2，因為播的是我大學畢業後至愛的動畫：美少女戰士(Super S系列) 夠鐘向培正出發！

十一時多在窩打老道校門左近下車，已見校內好不熱鬧，原來是同學會新址開幕！一班同學會高層和校友老師在慶祝，見大家身上戴著新的八十周年紀念校呔或風褸，我趕快也去買一條。接著行上中學部，經過校友對教師的籃球比賽，戰況激烈。為找小食部，行了數段新的自然教育徑，找個同學仔問路，才知小食部已搬至新大樓中間，行當年往體育堂更衣室的通道可達，這時適逢同學仔帶領校友參觀新大樓及和舊時很不同的圖書館，我也加入行列，中學禮堂控制室看起來相當pro. 到了午飯時間，我光顧了小食部為曦社辦的$60自助餐，味道真不錯，又和幾位同樣由海外回來的同學高談闊論，更是高興。

飯後回去小學部，皆因老友女兒在培正小學就讀，有份演出；又遇到其他現為家長的舊同學。之後就是在中學禮堂舉行盛大的加冕儀式，非加冕班級也有份上台接受薪火相傳，小弟有幸代表禮社。第一個高潮是為畢業八十年的老校友鄺伯加冕，從小就見鄺伯代表同學會出席活動，聲若洪鐘多年不變，其實已是一百歲的老人家，他的一句：「行得、食得、瞓得」引來全場笑聲掌聲。然後七十周年至廿五周年（隔每個五年）各級社皆人強馬壯分別上台接受加冕，主角當然是銀禧的曦社。儀式後繼續在門外拍照，和一班當年相熟多年不見的電腦班師兄們吹水，吹到勝利道的茶餐廳打個底（因為晚宴尚有數小時才開席），然後浩浩蕩蕩往YWCA上接載我們的旅遊巴，前往大公宴會場九龍灣展貿中心，路線和以前體育課去游泳池（那時校園內並無）相似，勾起一眾乘客集體回憶。

九龍灣展貿中心乃係全港最大的晚宴場地之一，才能容納得了一百席的大公宴，我們禮社所訂的一圍正是#100！這一席有我們兩位校花，多年不見，美貌更勝當年。重遇的不只他們，還有兩位old family friends，認真意外驚喜。

大公宴表演節目包括時裝表演，方知香港十大名模之一陳祉妤（舊名陳沛嘉）也是同級禮社同學（來自澳門分校）。另一個精彩節目則是由銀樂隊新舊成員組成的jazz band表演多首名曲。

幾個有趣小插曲：和校花傾了幾句，原來當年大家談論背書，自負的我說了一句話，她如今仍記得，又再印證客戶服務的真理：一個正面形像不易建立，一件破壞形像的事情卻令人難忘！還有另一位舊同學，新來培正就被改花名，原來也是我做的好事呢:P

後記：用了current affairs的label，皆因香港建校八十周年晚宴有多位名人校友出席並見報。

New thrash metal from old and new bands

Thrash metal continues to be one of my favorite sub-genre of metal. Many great thrash bands from the 80s are still going strong like Anthrax and Slayer (oh yeah, almost forgot Metallica played thrash metal too) or have come back from hiatus like Testament, who released 2 highly acclaimed albums since then. And I've just listened to 2 pretty good new albums: "The Dream Calls for Blood" by Death Angel and "VI" by Onslaught. Check out the linked reviews! In both cases, there isn't anything really ground breaking. They just stick with the classic sound, i.e, the sound we thrash metal fan enjoy! On the other hand, if you prefer a thrash metal band that's willing to experiment on a new album, I suggest you give Annihilator's "Feast" a listen. Their main man Jeff Water likes to throw the listeners some curve balls. And a vital music scene not only needs new albums from old bands but also new blood. Diamond Plate is one of the latter. They have just released a new one "Pulse." Glad to see the scene is alive and kicking!

HBO Documentaries: YoungArts Masterclass, Sports

I wasn't in the mood for sitcom or drama last night and I realized Comcast's free HBO offer should be over soon so I purposefully looked for good shows on HBO and came across one with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. At first I thought it might be just a cameo appearance but I couldn't be more wrong! The whole episode was about Wynton mentoring a group of young jazz musicians (some are only 18-19 yr old) as part of the YoungArts Masterclass Season 3.. Obviously all of them have the chops. The advices given by Wynton were way above technical level. He gave each of them one word. For example, the saxophonist needed relaxation because of his intensity. The bassist needed concentration to support everybody else. And the pianist needs to free his playing and takes some risks. It's kinda like watching American Idol (except all the comments was about musical art instead of manufactured crap) I can't believe a major network like HBO shows something this good (and niche)

The 2nd show I watched was Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Last time I watched gotta be long time ago (maybe in college when I had HBO) The hour long show talked about 4 stories in depth:
1) Concussions in NFL: NFL setup a fund of $765 Million to settle the lawsuit by former players. Man, it's a brutal sports. It's really sad to see the guys who played real hard are now having serious health issues like ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)
2) Around-the-world sailing race: this is the ultimate tough-guy sport - Half of the participants couldn't finish the race! Basically the route takes ~3 months to complete. Each yacht is manned by just one sailor. He was all by himself for that 3 months battling dangerous water.
3) The Seattle Sounders-mania: Soccer (or football for the rest of the world) has never been that popular as a spectator sport in the States. I mean, lots of people played but not that many watched pro-teams play compared to baseball/football/basketball. Things have changed in the past few years though: per-game attendance of MLS (major league soccer) has passed NHL and NBA (which was actually "reasonable" because NHL and NBA teams play way more games per season) Still, it's hard to imagine one MLS team could have such loyal/crazy fanbase that rivals the top teams in Europe (think Liverpool, for example) That team is Seattle Sounders. The show kept comparing the sold-out crowd at the Sounders' game vs the many empty seats at the Mariners' game. Gotta give a lot of credits to the 2 owners of the Sounders. Both of them have a background in the Hollywood/show-biz and know how to generate buzz well.
4) The comeback of pitcher Steve Delabar: he was in minor league baseball for a while and his arm was injured really bad. Had a surgery but his baseball career was over. He worked as a substitute teacher at a school and also helped out their baseball team. He was introduced to a strength-training program. He wanted to try it out before the students did. And the program really worked for him. He was able to pitch well (velocity reached mid-90s) again and was noticed by some scouts. Next thing you know, he's back in pro-baseball, progressing thru the minor league and eventually made his major league debut! The next year he was traded to Toronto Blue Jays. Continued to play well as a closer and got chosen for the All-Star team. Couldn't his story be more Cinderella-like?

IndyCar championship

As I predicted, Helio Castroneves was unable to overcome the point deficit during the last race of the season at Fontana and Scott Dixon won the championship for the 3rd time in his career. He definitely deserved it. It was a bit unfair that the league penalized him for that pit road incident earlier in the season anyway. And I was glad to see the "King of the road" Will Power had his second victory on an oval track! What an irony. If he did well in any of the final race of the season in the past few years, he would have won a championship or two.

下一代

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 在這個人人上網的年代，原來後生仔女依然喜歡聽收音機！女兒和姨甥女坐我車，要求轉台，一時101.3，一時97.3，好在這個爸爸不太老餅，除了爵士古典，這些台也在preset。其實很好奇她們在家何時聽收音機？還記得以前深夜或清晨都會聽收音機，中學年代開夜車收音機更是良朋，不過那時坐爸爸的車常常都要被迫聽新聞台，爸爸更加不會讓我寫一張清單然後幫我錄歌！

早幾天參觀女兒下年就讀的初中，原來有家政班（教煮食）、法文班、工業班（教木工）；在香港受教育的我，當真大開眼界，這樣比起我小時候獨沽一味鋤書的模式確實優勝。

Sports highlights: Red River rivalry, upset Saturday, MLB, NASCAR at Charlotte

The past Saturday of College Football was all about upsets. The most important one to me was the big win by Texas over the heated rival Oklahoma. We haven't won for 3 years! And Wisconsin beat the then-ranked Northwestern later that day. I watched only the OT part of the Michigan-Penn State game. Every time I thought it would have been over after someone kicked a FG and switched channel, I found that it's still not over when I switched back! It's like no one could win the game! Not a fan of either team but I was happy to see the underdog (Penn State) won as well as the other upsets :Utah defeated Stanford (a new PAC-12 team > an "old" PAC-12 team) and Missouri beat Georgia (a former Big 12 team > a SEC team)

We were certainly following the MLB playoff on TV and radio even though no bay area team (no team I root for, in fact) is still in it after the A's went down. The low-scoring St. Louis vs LA game was a nail-bitter but I'm not counting the latter out yet. And Red Sox coming back from 5-0 deficit in ALCS game 2 was a dramatic one. I guess it's deja vu of 2004 (which means the White Sox will win the WS next year. Yay!)

The complete opposite of drama was F1 in Japan. Vettel and his invincible Red Bull machine was passed during the start (surprise!) but he still won on tire strategy. BORING! In comparison, the NASCAR race at Charlotte was much more exciting. I thought it would be a waste of my time to watch when Jimmie "Five Time" Johnson made steady progress and eventually overtaken team mate Kasey Kahne for the lead in the middle of the race. He and his car looked so good. Well, this was not F1 and he didn't do well on one of the re-start and slipped back. On the other hand, Matt Kenseth, JJ's main competitor in the championship chase, didn't do well in the beginning but slowly improved to finish 3rd, one place ahead of JJ and maintained his championship point lead. However, the story of the race gotta be 2012 champ Brad K finally winning his first race of the season, after he failed to get into the championship chase. What made it more amazing was that he recovered from a poor pit stop in which the jack was stuck to (and damaged) his car and he had to serve penalty! Please remind me why I still watch F1 (!? Maybe just because it's on TV)

And the great sports weekend was concluded on Sunday night with Da Boys winning over rival Redskins. Texas rulez.

Sports lowlights: Dallas Cowboys, Helio Castroneves

Hate to mention "lowlights" two weeks in a row but it was disappointing to see Da' boys lost by 3 late in the game. They showed signs of brilliance from time to time but just not have the consistency for the whole 60 minutes :( And I was rooting for Team Penske to win the IndyCar championship this year but Castroneves' car had issue on both races in Houston during the weekend and lost his big point lead in the standing. I'm afraid it's another 2nd place finish at the end of the season for a Team Penske driver. That's Will Power for the past few years. Ironically, Power won the 2nd race at Houston. The "King of the road" seem to get back on track after a disastrous season. So that belongs to the "highlight" department. Another one is Manchester United's victory with new kid Adnan Januzaj scoring 2 goals (he was the difference between a W and a L.) We also have a new star this side of the Atlantic: San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl. I was happy watching him scoring 4 goals against the New York Rangers, even though I also like the latter team and hoping for a less lopsided game. It's awesome watching the opening games of the new NHL season on TV in HD! Anytime of the year in the world of sports some leagues start while others end. One just finished this weekend was Champion League Twenty 20 (Cricket) The semis and the final were all exciting. Lots of fire powers from the final 4! Mumbai Indians deserved to win it all. Last but not least, the late late game on Sunday night, Raiders vs Chargers, was an entertaining one. Glad to see Raiders winning another one. The Ws are hard to come by these days. Maybe Pryor could make it in NFL after all (not expecting MVP/Aaron Rodgers-type of numbers)