World Cup of Hockey 2016

北美四大體育/聯賽中的冰上曲棍球是我最喜愛觀看的比賽之一,而四年一度冬運,頂尖球員為自己國家全力爭勝,可觀性極高!捷克由綽號Dominator的守門員及另一位名將Jaromir Jagr領軍奪金那一屆,我印象尤深;以Sidney Crosby為主將的加拿大激戰美國奪金一役,亦算經典.其實NHL職業球員能參與奧運,始於1998年那一屆,在此之前他們能參與的國際賽,是加拿大盃(1996年改為世界盃),這世界盃在2004年也舉辦了一次,停了十二年今年終於舉辦第三屆!基於全球有頂級實力的國家其實不多,就以2014冬運十二國的比賽為例,多次出現勝負相差五或六球的一面倒比數,今屆世界盃八隊中找來六個實力最高的國家,再加兩隊"明星隊":Team North America由美加U23(該歳數或以下)球員組成(主辦機構靈感當然來自奧運足球),Team Europe則是由除俄羅絲瑞典芬蘭及捷克四國外的歐洲球員組成.八隊可謂叮噹馬頭.Team North America一班初生之犢表現尤為矚目,而其有型的球衣據報相當好賣,現場觀眾很多年輕人穿著!

目前四強中三個席位已由加瑞歐奪得,美國兩戰兩敗,實在另人失望.餘下賽程越來越緊張精彩,熱切期待!

欲知天下事，記得睇FB

這幾天靠FB 讀到以下幾則新聞：

1）著名爵士口琴家Toots Thielemans去世，享年94。我曾經有一陣子每天彈他膾炙人口的名作Bluesette, 是當時唯一一首我練習的3/4歌曲。作為爵士樂及口琴雙重愛好者，實在感到惋惜，今天下班一於大聽特聽他的唱片。還有鋼片琴大師Bobby Hutcherson，也於上星期過身。

2）有人回帶到2012年，指Usian Bolt當年在接受記者訪問時，運動場奏起美國國歌，Bolt即示意暫停，待歌播完再繼續，Bolt其實是牙買加人，對別國國歌同樣尊重，可見其為人甚有教養。2016奧運，除了Lockte講大話之類的醜聞，更多的是體育精神被展示，大會特別嘉獎兩位在賽跑時同跌倒，然後互相扶持過終點的女跑手。而『水神』Michael Phelps在蝶泳敗給新秀Schooling(our fellow University of Texas student!)後，叫記者多點訪問後者，亦被視為有風度的表現。

3）加國某網站登出一文，標題是黑膠碟買家多為中年loner, 再看內文，其實是部份（七成）黑膠碟買家接受調查時表示喜歡獨處，我覺得兩者不完全相同，有點微妙的分別：喜歡和朋友聚會的，也可以喜歡獨處呀，就像我！

Strange Radio Experience (again)

U2's "In the Street of No Name" was playing on the radio just now while I was flipping through my "commercial" email account. And I saw this: "Guitar World's October Issue Featuring The Edge is Here!"

Metal Mayham

Once upon a time you could listen to and watch great metal music video on TV. That's the late 80s and early 90s when MTV was still about music instead of reality shows all day. The best segment of video came from "Triple Thrash Threat" during the show "Headbanger's ball" Of course that's a long gone era. Still, I have been able to watch some good old metal videos from the show "Metal Mania" on VH1 Classic. I guess that reflected the revival of interest in metal this decade. I haven't been channel-surfing for a long time but I just did last night and found VH1 Classic has become MTV Classic with special focus on the 90s. And the "new" channel has a show called "Metal Mayham" (with an 'a') I couldn't find any info about the show on the net. That "episode" started with Metallica's "Fade to Black" (Not a bad choice!) Then Testament's "Practice What You Preach" (I've listened to the song a thousand times but have never seen its MV!) Followed by Anthrax's "Time"! I guess the channel paid a tribute to "Triple Thrash Threat"! After that, it's hair metal with MV from Twisted Sisters, Quiet Riot, Ratt and White Lion. Then a very unusual choice from Living Colours (Vernon Reid's guitar never disappoints) And also a real "Classic" moment with a track from the Dio-era of Black Sabbath. Looking forward to other episodes.

(Side note: I am writing this at a tire shop waiting for service. The classic rock channel is on. Rocking with ZZ Top right now. \m/ )

Baseball legends

I watched a bit of the Marlins vs Giants game today and would like to write about 2 legends on the opponent: Ichiro Suzuki hit a ground rule double in the 9th inning (but Casilla didn't allow anyone else to get on base and saved the 1-0 game for the Giants. Yay!) That's Ichiro's 3002 hit. (He hit the 3000 milestone last weekend) Another legendary hitter was not a Marlin player, but their hitting coach, the former Giant Barry Bonds. He got ejected arguing with the umpire today. That's his first ejection (as a coach, obviously) Not sure if he made a big difference but this team has certainly improved a lot from last season and is a contender (currently holding one of the wild card) So glad to see the Giants finally won a series (against a contender too!) after their long long slump since the all-star break. Well, they will be the co-leader of the NL West for at least another day. 

Letter opener and cycling

I watched a bit of the Olympic's Men Time trial on the really really early TV broadcast. None of the other "contenders" had started at that time. US cyclist Brent Bookwalter did and he slipped and crashed very soon after his start while crossing a tricky pavement. I guess there was really nothing else to show so it was replayed over and over and over and over! Then I head to work and rode from the train station to office. Just when I saw the pavement and reminded me of Bookwalter's incident, I started hearing weird clicking noise from the rear wheel! Shifting up and down didn't help. After I got into the office, I flipped the bike over and finally saw what's wrong: a piece of metal wire got into the bottom rear derailleur pulley (that small "wheel" thingy. I just learned its name) The only "tool" that I could find at the desk was a metal letter opener, which was actually very useful. I used the sharp end to pry out the wire, which broke into pieces and I got all of them out eventually.

Here is a bonus cycling related story, from the Olympic time trial: a few slots opened up at the last minutes (probably because of injuries at the road race?) Namibian cyclist Dan Craven was invited to fill one of the spots. He took part in the road race earlier and that's the only bike he had. No time trial bike for him. He was in a dilemma but finally accepted (after consulting his followers on Twitter!)  knowing that his time won't be good. He did finish last. At least what he was afraid of, i.e., getting passed by all the guys started later than him, didn't happen. It's good to have the spirit to participate anyway. That's what sports is about!

隸書入門

我們從少學習書法,十之八九是從楷書入手,事實上我們日常閱讀的書籍,基本上都是楷書,可惜規規矩矩的寫從來都不適合我.最近再次迷上書法,發覺喜歡行書篆書的我,似乎也不必局限於以楷書入門,隸書也是一個極佳選擇.

乙瑛帖就是一篇適合隸書入門者臨的帖.

古董電腦

音響迷中有一派喜歡玩和聽古董音響,通常是把上世紀中出產的音響系統的部份元件,例如號角掦聲單元,或真空管等放到新組合使用,也有人修理原汁原味的舊機來用.

不過電腦迷收藏古董機的不知又有幾多呢?相信大部份玩家追求速度和新功能,就算舊機有甚麼特別好用軟件或好玩遊戲,多數可在新機使用,大不了來個emulator!例如我很想懷舊一番的倚天中文系統, CP/M, 或Karateka


至於更古老的,多得有心的博物館收藏有歷史價值代表著一代最先進科技的產品,此文介紹了多部被收藏及還可以工作的古董電腦(雖然其運算能力不及你的電子錶)

港澳台遊記:飲飲食食篇

今次回香港因事去了港島好幾次,姐姐提起西環那裡有潮州菜館德記,難得爸爸同行,一於架忌冷食潮州菜啦!潮州人煲潮州粥煲得不爛(媽媽最拿手),連不甚欣賞這傳統的我,也對德記的蠔仔粥讚不絕口,皆因蠔仔又多又飽滿,蠔仔煎也是.之後一次去北角就幫襯了也有潮州菜如蠔仔粥的太平飯店,鵝片啖啖肉,正!而首次幫襯的譚仔三哥的米線也不錯.
澳門一日遊其實飲食的選擇超多,不過我們一心懷舊想追尋兒時風味的葡國菜,在氹仔的木偶和小飛象選了後者,雖然食完感到名過於實,也不算太失望,馬介休球前菜不俗,只是那個扒刀也切不開的羊排實在太失敗,我想餐廳也同意,所以收回沒計單;卻錯過了新濠影匯沒有人等位的鼎泰豐!在威尼斯人意外發現安德魯葡撻,作為下午茶最好不過,晚餐則是foodcourt的大利來豬扒包,麵包和扒一如以往有水準,只是大家貪新忘舊,其實不用排長龍也是好事.
廿幾年後重遊的台灣,美食處處比起港澳有過之而無不及,真是無法抗拒了.下機不久就和司機談起牛肉麵,廿幾年來我一直懷念我心目中全世界最好吃的,是以前爸爸司機介紹在桃源街的一家,當年資訊沒現在發達不算超級出名,和很多人提起都沒聽過,最近Google一下,才發現桃源街老王記現在大大有名!雖然如此,今次的司機也有其他更欣賞的牛肉麵,後來他送我們到西門町的酒店,下車時告訴我桃源街牛肉麵就在1 block之外!我匆匆check in 放下行李,就立即去幫襯,店還是當年的老樣子,每塊牛肉依然切得恰到好處,入口軟硬適中,無論紅燒或清燉,味道也是和當年一樣正!講完老王記,美食和老字拉上關係的,還有各條老街例如九份十分淡水都有大量當地特色美食,真是眼闊肚窄，試不得太多！台中勝興車站的老街以客家菜為主,我們幫襯了一次和菜午飯,梅菜扣肉食過不少,龍鬚菜就是第一次,有營養也好味.
在台灣吃地道麵有牛肉麵，飯則有魯肉飯，司機帶我們到這家排隊排出街的，似乎是台北No. 1,幸好食客都是匆匆食完就走，等了一會就有位，加個滷水豆腐，才是幾美元。
曾受日治的台灣當然流行日本菜,我們遊過陽明山,去地熱谷之前,司機帶了我們去一家温泉拉麵,麵的口感及湯的味道甚佳.
我們住的酒店既在甚麼都有的西門町,理所當然在附近解決了好幾餐晚飯(老王記光顧了三次)及早餐(街邊檔的飽點,蚵仔煎及蘿蔔糕),馬辣火煱亦值得一去,雖然沒有因為任食而暴食,任飲的台灣啤酒也只喝了兩三杯,但其肥牛及手打花枝實在美味.西門町除了有好吃的,也有好喝的,包括蜂大咖啡,及北回木瓜牛奶(不過半糖淡了點,還是要正常糖量才是以前的味道)

另一條特地去食的是司機(旅遊書也有)介紹的永康街,那家牛肉麵是他心頭好,但排到出街那條隊實在太長了,所以我們改食高記上海菜,來個真的東坡肉.我想鼎泰豐水準也是差不多吧.

最後當然不能不提夜市,小時候最喜歡逛士林夜市,其實主要為了看日本流行樂有關商品多於為食,今次只去了台北的饒河街夜市.及台中的逢甲夜市,畢竟兩個美國小朋友不太習慣掃街當晚餐,雖然見他們己努力融入:)兒子吃雞腿卷吃得津津有味!

Sports highlights: Euro 2016, NASCAR at Kentucky, IndyCar at Iowa, Home run derby

I think it's blessed to be a soccer fan these days, even if you live in USA. This year we witnessed the amazing rise of Leicester City, the Cinderella who went from surviving to contending and eventually winning the most competitive league in professional soccer: The English Premier league. They clinched the championship in May. Soon followed by the UEFA Champions League final, which was won by Real Madrid but Athletico Madrid fought hard too. Then we had Copa America started in USA (in fact, right here in Santa Clara) in early June. And 1 week later Euro 2016 started in France. To be honest I didn't quite follow the qualification that much and only found out (1) France was the host and (2) Holland was NOT in it. My prediction was France winning it all (well, they did make it to the final) I also knew Argentina won't have any trouble making it to the final of Copa. I had to miss quite a few games because of traveling. I did manage to watch the penalty shootout between Argentina and Chile via my Slingbox. I guess the curse of Maradona's hand ball is still in full force. Don't feel sorry for Messi though. He has his fair share of glorious moments. And my vacation ended before the semifinals and final of Euro 2016 so I was able to watch the full games. (Still wish I could witness the triumph of Iceland and Wales in the earlier stages. Both teams feature mythical character lookalikes: Thor and the Monkey king :P ) As a supporter of Germany since forever, it's sad to see them losing to France on self-inflicting wounds (Schweinsteiger's hand ball resulted in a penalty) There's even more drama at the final between France and Portugal. When Cristiano Ronaldo was hurt and got replaced at the 25 minute mark, I thought it's over: just like the Brazillian Ronaldo becoming a non-factor last time in France. Well, for some reason the French couldn't take advantage. And Portugal played like they'd rather keep the tie and wait for penalty shootout, and was successful at that. And just like Leicester City, it was the unlikely hero Eder who scored and won the game for Portugal (and Ronaldo "the acting coach") Eder received a ton of criticism during the tournament. He was an underachiever who started his career promisingly in the Portuguese league. He almost played for the Hot Spur but ended up with Swansea instead where he didn't get to play much and was moved to the French club Lille, where his hard work was appreciated by the coaches and was a good fit to their system. I guess his experience scoring against opponents in the French league helped! Overall speaking, it was an OK tournament, which would have been better if there was more offense. It would be another 4 years until the next time they play the highest level of soccer in the world. Well, it will be a short break until we have the Olympic soccer tournament. And the European leagues will resume too.

The one sport that get little coverage while I was in Asia was NASCAR (I did accidentally find out Tony Stewart won our "home" race at Sonoma) Glad to be back and the first Sprint Cup race I watch featured a nail-biting finish: the leaders were all in fuel saving mode and Brad K was able to last 'til the end to beat out Carl Edwards for another victory this season. There was no fuel saving at the IndyCar race in Iowa. Josef Newgarden's No.21 car was simply good. No one was able to catch him, not the current points leader Simon Pagenaud, multi-time champion Scott Dixon nor the recently-got-hot Will Power, who ended up finishing 2nd. Well, this result made the overall championship a bit more competitive and interesting.

It was also worthy to write about the MLB Home Run Derby: my favorite teams combined have one participant: the defending champ Todd Frazier, who did make it to the final but lost to Giancarlo Stanton, who was predicted to win by someone from my son's baseball camp. You would probably agree with him if you have witnessed his beautiful and consistent swing. Stanton hitting those 61 HRs in one night was special for us baseball fans.

港澳台遊記:寶島風情篇

網誌是不能不寫的！何出此言？雖然廿幾年前去過台灣多次，爸媽帶我到過多個名勝，但那時去完就算，現在已不記得幾多。今次台灣之旅，遊過許多名勝，必須立此存照！

抵台第二天我們的重點是遊九份和十分。司機先帶我們到基隆市台灣北岸，觀賞南雅奇岩，石上的紅色來自蘊含的鐵質，這些礦物質也是陰陽海奇景形成的元素。向山方向走，可見日治時期遺下的銅礦，附近就是黃金瀑布，我們略過黃金博物館直接前往九份老街，全街商店林立，我們買了高山茶及手製毛筆；小食多不勝數，我們幫襯了黑豬肉腸，芋圓及肉丸，當然少不了在極具代表性的悲情城市梯級拍照，我本來不明白這個山城緣何悲情，後來才知同名電影背景是本地人和外來統治強人衝突的228事件，今時今日的香港人相信很有共鳴。離開九份前往十分，中途停了一下以貓招徠旅客的貓村（又名猴硐），十分有兩樣最出名：在吊橋另一端的十分瀑布，以及放天燈的十分車站，都是港片拍台灣常出現的景點。

之後幾天繼續精彩：陽明山是我唯一記得小時去過的地方, 小油坑可觀看火山噴氣的景象，我卻全無印象！只是令我想起之前的夏威夷之旅。而淡水以羊駝（alpacas)為生招牌的草泥馬咖啡（草泥馬是網民為取代粗口而創作的代詞，說成羊駝）又令我想起以前在Pacifica常見到的駱馬（llamas ）店內那隻羊駝多次把我的衣服當作食物！附近的漁人碼頭倒不太像三藩市那個，這裡肯定沒有情人橋。淡水老街又是以小食為主，那酸梅湯甚有名氣。

除了以上提過的十分和猴硐車站，我們也到過充滿歷史意義的台中勝興車站：那是舊時台灣鐵路一個高點；如果說這車站顯示人們下決心的毅力，附近的龍騰斷橋可算相反：展現了大自然無情的破壞力！

講了這許多名勝,其實還未開始提到台北市內的呢!一個我以前肯定未去過的,是對上一次遊台之後才落成的台北最高地標101,地下數層是名店,那些國際品牌不算特別;不過89樓的瞭望台,和各地高樓的相比,算是玩得較為過癮,皆因該處相當寛敞開揚,那個天氣不錯的星期六遊客也不致多得你擠我擁而急於離開,觀賞台北市四方的景致,實在心曠神怡,我們打了兩轉,流連差不多兩小時呢.而離開時被迫觀看的珊瑚製品,其實也頗有欣賞價值.
而我小時肯定去過的,是中正紀念堂,不過內裡介紹蔣介石生平包括抗日及國共戰爭的展覽就無甚印象,作為一介武人,他的書法筆筆有力,頗有可觀之處.除了這些,還有其他藝術展覽,可能國民黨在野期間被淡化?這裡相信是以華盛頓的林肯紀念堂為藍本,而在同一地點的音樂廳及歌劇院,也像紐約的林肯中心!

另一個台北市名勝也和蔣介石有關,就是士林官邸,我們沒有買票入內參觀,欣賞其外圍的大花園已很滿足.

至於比這些歷史都要悠久的,是艋舺龍山寺.首次聽到艋舺這地方名,是數年前一套幾賣座的同名台灣電影(片中的黑幫來自該處),其實是台語,日治時期稱為萬華區,現今也沿用.該寺位於市區繁忙地段,香火鼎盛,供奉神袛數量極多,我為小朋友介紹了醫神華陀及愛情專家月老.

港澳台遊記:文化藝術篇

近年世界各地大都會對文化藝術的重視程度與日俱增,實在有點發財立品的味道,鄰近的三藩市和聖荷西街頭展示不少官方或民間資助藝術家作品,而機場已成為藝術展覽的重要場地之一,香港機場也不例外!今次在出機場去搭巴士的通道看到畫展及攝影展,在閘口又有茶壼陶藝展,電視台也播放不少介紹藝術的節目.連澳門這個大家第一時間想起錢的地方,其實亦很重視文藝節目,在碼頭也可見展覽的宣傳.

至於今次去台灣,到博物館欣賞藝術是重頭戲之一,總共去了六個!

1)鶯歌陶瓷博物館:早幾年迷上茶道,飲茶之餘又玩茶具,亦對其他陶瓷器愛屋及烏起來,不會錯過旅遊城市的陶瓷藝術展,包括香港公園內的茶具博物館,南加洲的美國陶藝博物館,而陶瓷業頗有歷史的台灣鶯歌區我聞名已久,我們在桃園機場下機,第一站就是參觀鄰近的鶯歌那裡甚有規模的陶瓷博物館.該館除了介紹傳統陶瓷器燒製過程,古代中國至台灣鶯歌陶瓷業發展史,也展出一些當代台灣名家作品及當地廠家的特色製作,相當多樣化.附近的鶯歌老街有很多商店,由於傾盆大雨及無意購買我們就沒有停下逛逛了.

2)故宮:最近迷上書法,故宮收藏大量來自中國各朝代皇室的珍品中,就包括了好幾篇書法藝術的顛峰之作:例如王羲之的快雪時晴帖,蘇東坡的寒食帖等等,可惜兩者目前皆沒有展出,可喜的是今次有兩個和書法相關的展覽:典藏新紀元展示了以近代作品為主的對聯,筆有千秋業則以歷代名家作品介紹書法的發展,其中包括蘇東坡另一大作:榿木詩卷,單看此兩展也不枉此行了,還有扇面書畫展也很精彩,至於其餘的玉器銅器瓷器等等,就不算太特別,香港藝術館也收藏不少.其實故宮最著名的兩件鎮館之寶皆被外借:白菜現在故宫南院,東坡肉則在三藩市的亞洲藝術館!我們唯有買下複製品留念(頸錬及磁石:)

3)台北美術館:展出的都是台灣當代藝術家作品,有些奇怪得creepy,例如李小鏡的動物人混合概念.較為有趣的是舞弄珍藏:主旨是把一些舊作品(如照片)改動再述.
4)科學教育館:以展品介紹數理化概念,也有介紹生態,遺傳學及半導體等等,我最欣賞的是科學攝影,包括微距拍生物,以及天文攝影.

5)三義木雕博物館:旅程最後一站是台中,因為要看之後介紹的薩克斯風博物館,順道經過以木雕聞名的三義市,司機建議參觀一下當地的木雕博物館,對各類藝術品口味很雜的我,其實對木雕頗為陌生,皆因木會腐朽難保存,不過最近讀過潮州老厝一書介紹潮人喜歡用木雕裝飾豪宅,總算加添了一點興趣,而佛像用木雕觀感亦相當調和,在此館我又見識了栩栩如生的木雕花卉鳥獸.
6)張連昌薩克斯風博物館:據音樂討論區網友,全球每三支saxophone有一支在台灣生產,而台灣最多此樂器工廠的地區應該就是鄰近台中的后里.台灣第一位成功製作saxophone的就是張連昌先生,他自小愛好音樂藝術,既擅畫畫,亦和鄉里夾band,當年saxophone十分昂貴,只有他一位做醫生的band友買得起,可是其宅失火,唯一一支sax被燒燬,亦無人能修理,於是贈予有意研究的張連昌,張逐個零件去鑽研,終於研發出製作方法,現在已傳至第四代,本來只為其他品牌做代工,張氏第三代才開始發展自己品牌.博物館簡單介紹了sax的分類,發明者,生產過程及發聲原理,近年迷上吹sax的我看得很過癮.

台灣另一個(偽)文青必到之地當然就是誠品書店!旅行期間我一般早起,不會晚過七點,所以24小時營業的誠品敦南店就是我最佳(或唯一?)選擇!從西門町德立莊酒店5號入口搭5號線坐5個站就到,結果隔一晚又去了一次,並逛了不是24小時營業的文具及音樂部,其實去多十幾次也逛不完,兩個小時也只是看了一點音樂和書法書.值得一提的是台灣不是每一間誠品也賣書，而台北賣書出名的還有重慶南路的書街。

事實上，台灣出版業一向發達，例如村上春樹作品中文譯本，以前有港版和台版，現在大家都讀台灣時報出版社的版本了。至於台灣人自己的作品，幾米的向左走向右走，香港網民幾乎無人不識，司機本來建議去宜蘭，其中一個景點就是幾米廣場，我們為免太趕沒去，改為到台北101附近的以幾米作品月亮忘認了為主題的巴士。

Last but no least,在台中去了由細玩到大的阿苗開的December Gallery,她平時在這裡教畫畫,在網上已看過她多幅作品,今次有緣親身觀賞,深深感受到那赤子之心.

港澳台遊記:音樂篇

常常聽說在香港開jazz club有如倒錢落鹹水海（其實在三藩市又何嘗不是？連Yoshi's SF也要結業，新東主打算靠加入其他類型的音樂打救，甚有名氣的Savanna jazz為生存也要遷離SF） 不過jazz club有如打不死的生物，一雞死一雞鳴，在香港有心聽live jazz，還是可以找到，就如今次我們去的Peel Fresco，（今時今日香港聽jazz首選是Orange Peel，查過該週六Orange Peel無concert，再去Peel Fresco網站check calendar才知星期日有show）9點半到達show已經開始，是來自美國的鋼琴手領導三重奏，和calendar所述的陣容有所不同，客串打鼓的則是香港首屈一指的爵士鋼琴手Ted Lo!之後各路英雄輪流上台jam,我對吹tenor sax那位印象最深,可謂揮灑自如.我老友為了和我hangout聽音樂特地等我離港他才去vacation,今次實在盡興而歸.
我的聽音樂之路上台灣有一個特別地位:中學時代常常去台灣唱片舖買卡式帶,那時我開始沉迷重金屬,不過香港唱片舖的重金屬音樂以黑膠為主,只有卡式機的我很難買到心頭好,找得到的也很昂貴;去到台灣好像發現新大陸!那裡選擇既多且便宜,製作亦相當精美,介紹文寫得很用心!今次抵埗第一晚就在酒店鄰近的西門町佳佳唱片入貨,這個規模的獨立唱片舖在香港已絕跡:(
到得誠品,不得不逛其唱片部,適逢歌手少浪在現場演出,此君活力十足;我亦購入一張由台灣爵士樂團Mission Formosa的專輯Kind of Truth,那是世界一流的原創作品及演奏.
星期日我們特地往台中后里參觀張連昌薩克斯風博物館,途中經過高速公路休息站湖口服務區,見到街頭藝人莊萬富演奏tenor sax,他的台灣及日本老歌別有風味;到了張連昌薩克斯風博物館,剛好趕上聽館內的live performance,表演者亦是擅長日本老歌,我最欣賞他smooth jazz版的周杰倫作品.
以下是大師在張連昌館演奏我當日的試sax曲:
這是一次十分inspiring之旅,我要好好練習我的sax!

港澳台遊

暑假又到,乃係一年一度外遊時間,今年早已定了在六月尾遊港澳台;而母親四月去世,大海撒灰儀式就在今次之旅進行,重遊澳門台灣,很多名勝以前都是跟母親一起去的,今次也讓我們懷念一番.
今次在香港去的地方比較特別的要算上環的西港城,前身是舊上環街市北座大樓,保留了外觀,內面則是一些特色商店,布舖及懷舊酒樓.不過我們在上環最欣賞的還是咖啡店Barista Jam.
至於澳門,早幾年跟老友去過看大賽車及在附近酒店賭幾手,今次目標是帶女兒去見識名勝,(題外話:本來兒子也有份去,不過一行四人坐271過了培正才發現忘了帶護照,於是當日行程改為去愛民邨懷舊,第二天再去,決定留下對觀光不感興趣的兒子陪姑媽,也省點船票費用!)由我以前工作地點中港城的碼頭坐船前住,其實已多年未到過中港城;原本打算買由氹仔回程的船票,不過航班選擇較少,還是買了(舊)外港碼頭的票.下船後,為省時搭的士到新馬路遊覽具歐洲廣場風味的議事亭前地及大三巴,再搭的士過橋到氹仔小飛象餐廳食(名過於實)的葡國菜,本來打算坐酒店專車到新的新濠影匯,找不到上車站,結果還是坐的士.該酒店以電影為主題,有蝙蝠俠機動遊戲等,有沒有人等位的鼎泰豐,還有一大堆名店,window-shopping也很過癮;接著坐東線酒店車到金沙城,該處由多間酒店組成,看到DreamWorks的卡通人物巡遊,更有特色的則是室內園林,從這裡可行到威尼斯人,本來我興趣不大,因為據聞和Vegas的無分別,去了才知相當不同:1)撐gondola的有唱國語歌(月亮代表我的心)的女船夫,2)有曼聯專門店,3)有安德魯葡撻及大利來豬扒包,都不用怎排隊,想當年兩者都是極度搶手的食品,其實今次也覺很美味.
最後一星期留給台灣,這是和我們一家淵源甚深的地方:爸爸和姐姐都曾在那裡讀書,爸爸也曾長期在那裡工作,好友提醒我上次見面是她的大學畢業典禮,原來我已有廿年未踏足該地!旅程比想像更具新鮮感.詳情見另文.

迷你倉

和香港相比，美國人居住空間相對地多，不過租迷你倉擺放家中放不下的雜物，在這裡已盛行多時，反而在香港似乎是近年才發覺打到「通街都係」的廣告，原來香港迷你倉大行其道，始自早前港府提出活化工廈政策，修例令開設迷你倉毋須申請。世上眾多嗜好，大多需要佔點地方，不要說單車友、結他友或hifi 友，就算是愛好買袋買鞋的時尚男女，租用迷你倉都可算是一條｢後路｣。不幸地，上個月牛頭角一間迷你倉發生大火，兩位消防員殉職。還記得那天正在香港，第一次看到這單新聞，已覺突兀，皆因火警新聞通常報導時已受控甚至撲熄，這是例外，之後一天又一天，竟然等了四天半才傳來撲滅的好消息！期間不免議論紛紛，尤其是針對派消防員入內｢進攻｣的決定。近年建制派傾向凡事賴佔中，這次應該說不上；但反對派凡事賴689, 這次倒不無道理：如果消防處高層決定保守地只在外面灑水，必定有輿論壓力指責｢唔做嘢｣，一個有公信力的政府，是不怕也不被這些壓力影響其做法的。無論如何，今次事件引起各方關注迷你倉安全，相信將來會有嚴格的安全標準，不過，租用迷你倉之風不見得會減弱。其實港台早前拍了一套以迷你倉為背景的處境喜劇，並已播出數集，不過遇上迷你倉大火這個敏感時刻，該劇已停止播出，期望復播後有機會看看。

香港賽車人

在香港坐爸爸開車,甚少會開動其CD changer,但做乘客的我常常轉他的電台,他好像也不介意(不過如果我開車我不讓別人轉我台!)這天聽到一個很有趣的訪問:港人馬君宇Brian Ma在美國就讀航天工程大學,然後於賽車隊工作,其中包括美國champ car這個open wheel頂級賽事(其後為IndyCar合併)的車隊,2004年他是著名車手Alex Tagliani的總工程師,也有美國的房車賽經驗(Grand Am Series)目前已轉戰中國的房車賽.訪問中他提到美國車隊工作人員在比賽週末生活和歐洲人的分別,以及中國的房車賽由網民投票決定出賽排位的有趣現象(說的當然是買票!) 和我一樣由香港赴美讀書工作的大有人在,不過這位肯定是相當不平凡的一位

以下是在Youtube找到的video:

廣告好橋？

公司打廣告用代言人大家都屢見不鮮，有的是大明星，又有的是不見經傳但因該廣告為人所認識的，例如Progressive 保險那位很annoying 的女士（證明她有演技）又或者本文主角：Verizon以前那位試手提電話網絡訊號強弱的Can you hear me now老兄。最近他被另一家電話公司Sprint挖角，宣傳重點是雖然Sprint的網絡依然及不上Verizon, 但差距只是很小，價錢卻相宜得多。我覺得Sprint用的廣告公司頗有心思，回想過去出名用代言人的廣告，例如汽水啤酒化𥺁品等等，轉代言人屢有發生，卻鮮有代言人跳槽到「對家」，這的確達到引人討論令人關注的效果。

Emacs 24.1 copy and paste

I have been an Emacs user for years. And my time of using Emacs on Windows has already surpassed that of using on Unix. One operation I perform a lot is highlighting a section of text and then either hit Ctrl-Y in Emacs to copy it or Ctrl-C in other Windows application. That's actually not the "correct" X-Windows behavior so it was corrected in Emacs 24.1 and up. However, I am so used to this and need it back! From this link:

Here are the exact lines to put in your .emacs (C-x C-f RET and enter ~/.emacs) file:

(setq select-active-regions nil)
(setq mouse-drag-copy-region t)
(global-set-key [mouse-2] 'mouse-yank-at-click)

Sports highlights: Tour of California 2016 Stage 5-8

The "2nd half" of the tour was the like the 1st half: all stages feature exciting finishes. Stage 5 was from Lodi to South Lake Tahoe. This was another stage that the breakaway succeeded. And the winner, a young rider, should be no stranger to those who followed the tour last year. Toms Skujins won Stage 3 in San Jose in 2015 in a breakaway too. He was so new that other teams probably overlooked his ability last year and tried catching the breakaway too late. Teams certainly know his ability this year but still couldn't catch him. Stage 6 was a time trial. The big question was whether Julian Alaphilippe would retain the yellow jersey since there are quite a few good time trialists behind in the standing that could potentially overtaken him. Rohan Denis won the stage in convincing fashion but Alaphilippe responded well so he still had a healthy lead in the total time. Stage 7 was another one that featured one of my more memorable rides: Coleman Valley Road from my Levi Gran Fondo in 2011. Peter Sagan actually broke away on his own for a while and then was part of the group sprint, only finishing second to the best "pure" sprinter in the cycling world today: Alexander Kristoff. His team knew they must seize this opportunity (the next to last stage) and got the lead-out train well organized and they did a great job leading him out. Stage 8 was a loop in the State capital Sacramento which catered to the sprinters as well. The only big name sprinter that was overdue for winning a stage in this 2016 tour was Mark Cavendish, who was 2nd in total stage win to Sagan. When the riders approached the finish line, it was basically a huge mess. Cav lost his usually dependable lead-out guy Renshaw but this time it was him who successfully improvised. Cav, Sagan and Kristoff finished 1-2-3 for this last stage! And Julian Alaphilippe won the tour as the youngest ever winner (and the first French :) after the heart-breaking 2nd place overall finish last year (he led Peter Sagan up til the finish line when the latter barely grabbed the few bonus seconds) I'm looking forward to the next tour. Hopefully there will be a stage closer to home or office that I could watch in person!

Sports highlights: the youngest F1 winner ever, NASCAR at Dover, Tour of California Stage 1-4

What a dream week for racing fans (I mean, the kind of racing junkies who enjoy all formula one, "stock" car and bicycle races) To be honest, I have a hard time calling myself a fan of F1 as I almost stopped watching (or fast-forward through) most of the races since it's either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg from the same Mercedes team winning it (Lewis had the upper hand in the past and won 2 championship during that run but now it's over. It's Rosberg's time) I have been relying on updates from my buddy on WhatsApp to decide whether to watch the recorded race these days but this Spanish GP was different: my buddy told me I should watch it as it was won by Max Verstappen. I couldn't believe what I heard. I saw this guy racing in Macau 2 years ago (he didn't do much that race except crashing out) I thought he was still with the "junior" Red Bull team. Turns out Red Bull has decided to swap him with another young driver on the "senior" team just before this race (thus promoting him and demoting his replacement) What a decision it turned out to be! Well, there was definitely an element of luck too: the two Mercedes driver took out each other at turn 4 of lap 1! (As a HAM fan, my description was that ROS blocked HAM and caused the crash) However, for some reason, the 2 cars from the next fastest team, Ferrari, driven by 2 former world champ, couldn't take advantage and let the younger driver (in fact, the youngest winner ever) of the 3rd fastest team, Red Bull, win the race! Oh well, I'm sure this was just a rare deviation from the norm: the subsequent races will all be won by Rosberg again. :P

There was another young vs established driver (former champ) showdown at the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover on the same day too but this time the latter prevailed. What a close finish of that race with Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliot in that order. Kenseth showed why he was a championship level driver by holding off Larson whose car actually ran better. Don't get me wrong: Larson did a great job too. He was actually overtaken by Elliot for a while but got his position back later. I hope Larson would get his big break-through in the top series soon by winning his first race after these many 2nd place finishes. 

The Tour of California also started on the same day down in San Diego. As of now 4 stages have completed and all of them featured very exciting finishes: Stage 1 was a sprinter's stage. Among the favorites were pure sprinters like Mark Cavendish and Alexander Kristoff. Eventually it was the not-so-pure-but-could-also-sprint Peter Sagan who did it again. He is the all-time winners of most stages of this tour and also won the overall last year. Stage 2 we saw 2 men in the breakaway survived the chase by the peloton and the duel at the finish line was won by former US National Road Race champ Ben King (My newest cycling friend, Alex Candelario of Big Island Bike Tours, finished 2nd to him in 2010!) Stage 3 was another mountain top finish at Gibraltar Road in Santa Barbara, which was well-known as a tough tough climb in the area but was chosen by the Tour for the first time! Julian Alaphilippe patiently waited for the right moment near the end of the race to attack and won it and also took over the overall lead. Stage 4, started in Morro Bay, was a special one for all of us who rode Sea Otter Gran Fondo before: the last Cat-2 climb of the stage was the Laurel Grade. I still remember how hard it was. I must have stopped 2 or 3 times on that not-too-long but steep stretch. Then after the super-fast decent there was another climb into the Laguna Seca raceway (famous for its big drop as seen in old Indy car races. MotoGP still races there) which was the finish of the stage. What was interesting about the race was that the previously mentioned pure sprinter Mark Cavendish actually joined the breakaway and didn't get caught until the Laurel Grade! After the chase group caught the breakaway, it became a group sprint finish and won by none other than Peter "the Great" Sagan, who was so good at "unorganized" group sprint (i.e., in which the lead-out train didn't get a chance to form properly and sprinters have to improvise on who to follow and when to take off) Hope the rest of the tour would be as exciting for me to write about. 

The "leaked" Queen's comment on the recent visit by the Chinese leader

If you follow world/Chinese news, you should recall the high profile visit of the Chinese leader to the UK last year. It was a big deal that he was able to meet the Queen. Normally that wouldn't have happened but they made an exception because of the large amount of money that would brought to the country by doing businesses with the Chinese. This was supposed to be the evidence of the changing of the guard: a used-to-be-world-dominating country kow-tow to the latest "super power." Well, the British people were known for having their say in a subtle fashion. BBC just leaked a comment by the Queen related to this visit: it happened at an annual party that let her people to meet her Majesty. One of the participant mentioned to the Queen that she was an official from the police department that handled the visit.  And the Queen's response?  Two simple words that implied a lot:  "Bad luck! " Then she went on to comment that the group was "rude. " The beauty of this was that no one could rebut on these comments as they were unofficial!  Is this an intentional leak or what?  One has to remember the British politicians were very good at their game. 

[Update:] Even more details were leaked afterwards, according to those sources, the Chinese leader was very picky: down to the color of the closet, the location of the bathroom and the menu of the official dinners.

桃園結義拜關公像

最近很多FB朋友轉貼一張強國膠劇的截圖：情節是三國劉關張桃園結義，竟然對著關公像來拜，據聞這就是原片，看來是一個搞笑節目多於正經劇集，如果是導演故意安排這一幕的話，此君認真有幽默感!

The best ice hockey player that hasn't won the cup yet

Yes, I am talking about Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. I consider him one of the most dangerous player in the game ever since he arrived in NHL. He is such a prolific scorer and led the Capitals to several President's trophy (the team with the best regular season record) However, in North American sports, it's all about the playoffs. The importance of this trophy pale in comparison to the Stanley Cup! To be honest, I have so many other teams to root for that I never feel sorry for the Caps when they bowed out to lowly seeded teams in the past. For this season, I am actually glad that they lost to the Pens. Ovechkin played quite well and his supporting cast has never been better. For some reason they just cannot get over the hump. As my son said, Ovechkin is the hockey version of Dan Marino.

FM 98.1 format change

I have written about my radio listening experience a lot,  mostly about jazz,  rock or sports talk.  I actually listen to 98.1 a lot too.  It's one of my top 6 presets!  So, what does this station play? Well, it was called Kiss FM in the past decade or so and played mostly 70s and 80s hits. A month ago it quietly changed its format to 96.5 KOIT-ish soft music. And it's got a new name: the Breeze. The transition was so smooth that I didn't find out until a week after! I missed those old upbeat stuff they used to play. I could be in cheesy disco mood once in a while too. After all, for old soft music I could go to 96.5. I guess the Breeze is trying to pick up the listeners who totally refuse to listen to newer hits, which KOIT is playing more often these days. Anyway, looks like the Breeze will remain on my top 6 after I heard them playing "Holding back the years" and "Don't dream this over" These 2 were among my favorites in the 80s!

直寫中文及兩字並排

由高中開始，我已接觸中文文書處理，在DOS的年代已練習倉頡輸入法，用熟來自台灣的國喬及倚天等外掛中文系統打歌詞冧女。老實說，那段學習之路值得回味，雖然印象已極之模糊，只記得在台灣閱讀當地電腦雜誌，對這類軟件的成熟程度，相當驚嘆。（多得這位仁兄撰文，大家可以懷舊一番） 到Windows年代，改用南極星，現在還保留不少用其proprietary格式的文書檔案呢！事實上，電腦系統在國際化的漫長道路上已變得頗為成熟，從以下種種可見一班：Windows 10內置中文輸入法免費亦頗好用，由要特別選取Big5(繁體）或GB（殘體）encoding否則見亂碼發展至今日兼容多國文字的Unicode，而一般文書處理軟件也適用於中文。在此想分享一次最近學用特別中文功能的經驗：話說早幾天要打一篇訃聞，需要兩種功能：
1)直寫，而且由右至左。這當然有別於西方文字橫寫及由左至右。
2)兩字並排。傳統訃聞包括農曆及西曆日子，格式上是並排。
Googled了一會，不覺得平時最常用的Google Docs有支援。於是再research一下我的「次選」Libreoffice，就找到不少來自台灣的網頁（可見該國人始終是中文文書處理方面的專家）這些指南都是以中文UI作示範，我嘗試在已裝的Libreoffice 4使用英文的UI找尋那些對應的選項，選用後打出來的字卻顯示得不對勁，索性重新安裝，裝了Libreoffice 5並特地同時加裝繁體中文UI，再重覆以上網頁指示，終於成功！在此列出步驟:
1)從top menu選格式->頁面->頁面(tab)->文字方向:從右向左(直書)
2)mouse-select要並排的字, 從top menu選格式->字元->亞洲語言版面設置(tab)->雙行, check分為雙行寫入
(這個功能相信頗為冷門,找到這個網頁,其實是OpenOffice的步驟,不過Libreoffice也不多吧,只是tab名為亞洲語言版面設置而不是中日韓版式.)

Contemporary Art in San Jose

When one think of art museums in the Bay Area, the top names come to the mind are probably SFMOMA, De Young, ... etc. However, there are also many lesser known "hidden gems." My favorite free art museum is Cantor Art Center (and the Anderson Collection next to it) in Stanford. Another free museum that I frequently visit is Triton in Sunnyvale. It showed works from local photography competitions, for example. I needed to run some errands in San Jose downtown this Saturday and used this opportunity to visit  SJ Institute of Contemporary Art (also free admission)

One series of works featured pages from old magazines with faces covered up faces. I can understand the meaning but to be honest I think it's just too "easy". Another "easy" work was related to geography: it's the US map with state and state capital names switched around. Sometimes "easy" could also be "interesting"

井山裕太獨攬日本七大圍棋賽冠軍

日前日本棋手井山裕太成功贏得「十段」圍棋賽冠軍，完成了日本棋壇前無古人的壯舉，那就是同時手執七大賽冠軍獎座！想想日本棋壇多年人才輩出，高手如雲，武宮正樹、加藤正夫、趙治勳、林海峰（後兩位雖來自韓台，但為日本棋院成員）卻從無人有此成就，因此這在棋界可說是一則震撼性不少的新聞。可惜的是，今時今日的日本棋壇已不再手執牛耳，和以上高手叱咤風雲的年代水準有一大段距離，要知道那時代及更早前日本冠軍即是世界冠軍！而過去十多年世界冠軍一直是中韓棋手的天下。井山裕太七冠獲得傳媒的關注，也遠低於多次贏得韓國及世界冠軍的李世石和AlphaGo之戰。從未在世界賽奪冠的井山裕太，相信會有更多日本棋迷期望他作出零的突破。 這篇來自中國媒體的文章，可能有少少偏見，但某一程度上對井山七冠含金量的評估也有點代表性。

Kenny Barron and his string playing friends

One thing great about going to a jazz concert is that you never know what to expect. For rock or pop concerts, the band/musician would usually be playing the hit singles from their new albums plus a few old big hits. For jazz, you might hear the compositions that the musician was famous for (or some standards that s/he is well-known for covering), or not. For tonight's Kenny Barron concert@SFJAZZ, there is yet another unknown: how is the "drum-less" lineup of a piano, a cello, a violin and a bass gonna work? It turned out to be all duets between piano and a string player except the last big jam. And the set list was a great mix of standards and his original compositions. What I enjoyed the most about the performance was how naturally they flow from one chorus to another. As much as improv is an important part of jazz, sometimes one could feel the player solo for the sake of it without much else really to say.

I am actually quite familiar with and admire Kenny Barron's piano playing in a duet setting from his album with Stan Getz. My sis loves that 2 Disc set too. He started the concert with the cellist Mark Summer who was the founding member of  the famous jazz string group, Turtle Island Quartet. I could hear him very comfortable in playing the role of a walking bassist. After all, he played the only instrument in that range in a string quartet! I would say his sound leaned more towards the European classical tradition than American jazz. Still, I enjoy the brief improv solo he played. The more memorable tunes from this set included a Thelonius Monk cover: San Francisco holiday (Worry later) and Barron's original: Concentric circles. This was actually the longest set.

The next set featured the main reason I went to the concert: violinist Regina Carter. I think the first time jazz violin really caught my attention was from the Kenny Barron album "Things Unseen" And of course, Carter and Barron did an album together way back in 2001. They played 2 tunes from that album: a Latin arrangement of "Softly as in the morning sunrise" and Monk's cover: Misterioso. (As I am writing I am listening their cover of Sting's "Fragile" from the same album. Very emotional!)

Last but not least was bassist Dave Holland. Piano-bass duo was actually more common than you think. I could easily think of many such collaborations by bassists Charlie Haden or Ron Carter. I have seen Holland led his "big band" (an octet) and quartet before. Now I really want to see him perform flamenco live!

All 4 of them closed the concert with a big jam of another Barron's original "What If." This is definitely the most memorable concert I have been to in 2016 (could be one of my all-time-best!)

RIP Prince

Cello and Vodka

I heard this musician story on the radio last Friday morning:

In 1958 , five years after Joseph Stalin's death, the Congress of Soviet Composers' Party Resolution, which had for a decade censured Russian musicians, was finally lifted. Forced to withhold his best works for so long, Dmitri Shostakovich was at last freed to compose his first cello concerto. On August Second of 1959, he gave the completed manuscript to his friend, cello virtuoso Mstistlav Rostropovich. Just four days later, Rostropovich, accompanied by Shostakovich on piano, performed the four-movement work from memory three times. Recalling the occasion, Rostropovich said, "We were so happy, we drank a little vodka together. We then played it again, not so perfectly, and drank more vodka. The third time, I think I played the Saint-Saens Concerto while he accompanied his own concerto. We were very happy."

There is a reason that their music is so good :P

Sports highlights: NHL and another John Scott story

I wrote about the feel-good story of the NHL season: journeyman enforcer John Scott played in the All-star game this year and won the MVP (and fan supports!) Yeah, he was actually in the minor league but he got called up at the end of the season. It's the right thing to do to honor a player towards the end of his career (and the team is already out of playoff hunt) Speaking of playoff, it's sad to see all Canadian teams were eliminated from this year's Stanley Cup playoff (and it's not even the last week of the season!)

香港電影金像獎最佳電影十年

十分具爭議性的香港電影十年被香港電影金像獎評審選為最佳電影，再添爭議！首先，我未有機會欣賞，也不會像那班向主子獻媚的電影業商界奴才般說本片有否資格得獎，不過其中一單元由母校培正高一屆的師兄監製，多少有點虛榮地感到興奮，也為他們努力獲得認同而高興。老老實實，就算我看了本片，也未有資格評論它應否獨佔鰲頭，一來我未看過其他候選電影，二來我也不是電影藝術專家；不過，我有理由相信本片得獎並非因為護主奴說的所謂黑手支配賽果，可能他們對主子操控選舉太習以為常吧。至於另一批評指最佳電影何以沒有獲得其他獎項如最佳導演、編劇及男女主角等等，一位資深電影人解釋得很清楚：因為十年一片分數個單元，拿某單元的導演、編劇及男女主角和其他「長片」的比較，並不恰當。一個頒獎禮竟變成一塊照妖鏡，甚至帶挈譯名和十年相同的美國片在強國成為常被下載電影，實在很有強國特色。

荒謬世界香港篇之帶著特權去旅行

上月689女兒由香港機場飛三藩市,在禁區內發現行李遺留在出面大堂,於是一家向機場人員施壓,要破例由第三者帶該行李通過安檢.據聞689與機場人員通話時說了一句:叫我梁特首.認真霸氣十足.

老老實實，如果是肥彭其中一個女，不用老巴打電話，(肥彭亦肯定不會說call my Governor Patten!) 機場工作人員都自動會幫手，幫完之後亦不會傳出來.但689一家神僧鬼厭,知情人士當然不會為他們守秘.

已退休官員王永平說得好,作為特首及家人,這種事應該避嫌,明示(或即使暗示)他們特別身份,實為極低劣行為.

荒謬世界香港篇之亞視永恆

亞視一而再再而三欠薪，已不再是新聞，月初債權人德勤會計師樓指公司現金僅餘二十萬港幣，需要遣散員工及提早熄機，等不及到四月一日廣播牌照期滿，新股東司榮彬的代表急急召開記者會晒冷：展示一篋五百萬現金再加五百萬支票，認真（土）豪氣；還說要在熄機前搞一次亞姐呢！且看會否兌現。老老實實，雖然家人係亞視忠實觀眾，我自己就算不上；但當年少數會用錄影機錄下來的劇集，竟然多數都是亞視作品，計有郎心如鐵，萬家燈火，我和殭屍有個約會。有沒有發現三劇的共通點？對，萬綺雯均有份參演:P 前兩套特別是萬劇，就是有一股亞視劇集娘到kitsch的味道。

Big Island單車團員

上次寫Big Island 單車遊，之所以如此好玩，也多得領隊有一個相當能幹的助手Jeremy.  此君在Big Island 土生土長，由他介紹當地風土人情，例如當地生長相當有特色的植物，或者歷史掌故等等，特別感覺地道。他介紹過西面Kohala coast 乾旱環境也能生長的頑強Kiawe樹，木可用作BBQ; 而我在火山旅館窗外看到好幾棵枝上帶有紅花的樹,Jeremy告訴我們樹名Ohia而花則叫Lehua,在當地故老相傳,乃係一對情侶化身,樹原為一美男子,被當地女神Pele看中,但Ohia為愛人Lehua拒絕Pele的愛,結果中後者之咒慘變為樹,其他神祗無力解Pele之咒,唯有幫Lehua化為寄身於Ohia樹之紅花,詳見此文.

他其實才加入Alex 公司個多月，這次是他首次負責multi-day tour,  每朝除了把單車搬上搬落，亦要準備sports drinks等等飲品，裝滿幾個cooler及零食補給盒，還有開車尾隨單車隨時支援。之前他也做過多份不同的工作，和旅遊業有關的是酒店concierge,  和單車業有關的是在Oahu帶mountain biking 團，也做過汽車及建築器材公司服務部等等工作。現在Alex 公司後山有機會用建築器材開發mountain biking trails,  又多一項專長！
另兩位團友是一對物理治療師夫婦,開設自家診所,辛苦經營廿年以上,現今仔大女大,公司亦上了軌道,才多點機會出外把臂同遊.可能因為工作健康意識高,兩位都是很fit之人,亦是單車高手,今次特地帶了自己的Tandem bike來踩(另一位團友和我則踩提供的Giant Defy Advanced, 和我踩開的單車差不多級數,只是disc brake不覺有多大好處)見他們合拍地發力收力,十分欣賞,的確是老夫老妻的典範.
最後一位團友是比我年輕一個generation的米高(我又比物理治療師夫婦年輕一個generation吧)此君iPhone不離手,自拍乃係高手,又是fit人一名:玩過Iron man.在著名個人衛生產品公司負責產品推廣,工作包括計劃如何為公司產品在合作的百貨公司有效地展示等等,他們人生經驗都相當豐富,全程天南地北講過不停,全無冷場!

Big Island單車遊

我對單車環島這類活動有很大的興趣，今年春假參加了Big Island Bike Tours這間公司舉辦的一星期夏威夷Big Island環島遊，東主兼領隊是前職業車手Alex Candelario，有多年在Big Island練車的經驗，對島上有挑戰性、風景優美又安全的路線可謂相當熟悉，在他精心安排下，團友們可以踩單車認識這個環境及氣候多變的地方，實在是不一樣的旅遊。 

Big Island如何多變？從該團住宿點可見一斑：Hapuna Prince Hotel位於陽光普照渡假村林立的Kohala，海灘水清沙幼且白，即使不用器材，游泳也可見到海中一羣羣美麗的熱帶魚，沿著海岸線踩車不時可見鯨蹤；島南住的Airbnb渡假屋則在清幽寧靜的Woodvalley，四週被樹林和綠草包圍，可謂洗滌心靈，有置身世外桃源之感；至於火山區，氣候有如熱帶雨林，早上天朗氣清，下午又有零散驟雨，晚上適宜在Jagger museum觀看火山爆發，火紅的烈焰壯麗雄奇，令人深感大自然的威力。我們住的Volcano house, 就正正對著火山，晚飯時可欣賞之前提到的壯觀場面。

另外還有幾個景點令我印象特別深刻：

－Crater rim trail: 這條行山徑橫跨火山口，可算非常難得的經驗。

－Pololu valley hike：這條行山徑沿著懸崖直落到海邊，頗有挑戰性。

－Ahalanui hot pond:  這是一個靠海的地熱温泉，一邊浸一邊觀看潮水不斷進出，實是快事。

－Big Island Brewhaus: 特別介紹他們的White Mountain Porter

－Kau coffee mill: 有咖啡及夏威夷果tasting, 亦有tour介紹種植方法過程。

就算不是hardcore單車友，如果想遊Big Island, 我也會建議參加Big Island Bike Tours的day tour, 加上以上景點，還有我今次沒有機會去的Green sand beach at South Point，該處不適宜駕車，只能hike下去，十分期待下一次再去!

有圖有真相

千瘡百孔

好一陣子沒有寫香港時事，不幸地，今次想寫的幾宗都不是好消息。
1）一位7-11店東被南亞刧匪用刀刺傷後傷重不治。7-11公司呼籲市民到各7-11捐款幫助死者家人，香港人不少慷慨解囊，值得Like。

2）近日香港多名學生自殺，去年九月學年開始至今超過20人，可說驚人。相比和教育不太相關的政治事件，局長似乎不覺迫切性，之後只說了加把勁這種廢話。倒是FB上的討論及文章分享比較有建設性：大家以為有用的一句加油，其實有反效果：因為意指對方本身未盡力做好；大家以為多餘的一紙不自殺協議書，原來只是counselling方法的一步。

3）這邊廂立會強行通過追加對本地市民用途不大的高鐵撥款，那邊廂政府削減醫療開支，而近日政府醫院因為流感潮爆滿，醫護人員疲於奔命。

這個年代的香港，千瘡百孔。

AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol Game 1

A new chapter in the history of the mankind has been written yesterday: the hardest game to beat invented by the human being has finally been beaten by Artificial Intelligence. One of the best Go player in the world, 18 time world champ Lee Sedol, dubbed by Google as the Roger Federer of Go, started a 5 game series against Google's AI machine AlphaGo yesterday and lost game one. I watched the game live on YoutTube, along with 80k+ users all over the world. I thought Lee started well and built up some solid territories but AlphaGo slowly ate into all those and Lee resigned. Note: I am not a very strong player. According to this (seems to be) professional analysis, Lee actually overplayed in the beginning (which I as an amateur thought were strong move) and only caught up in the middle game but then eventually lost it. Basically, Lee made a few mistakes. AlphaGo did too but its play was closer to perfect.

(Side note: was listening to the classical channel this morning and the host mentioned something from a Scientific journal. I thought it has to do with this match but it's not. It was about researchers came up with a model to predict the gender, the age group and income level based on the apps on that person's phone. And it was way-off for that radio host :P So, machine learning still have a long way to go. On the other hand, I doubt human could predict much better either)

Sports highlights: Daytona 500, Supercross at Texas, a new Man U rising star

NASCAR is unique among North American sports in many ways. It starts the season with the biggest race of the year: the Daytona 500. I guess it's too big a tradition to move it so that it's more like other sports, where the big events happen later in the season. And I think the 2016 Daytona 500 finish was one of the best I have watched in my short history of being a NASCAR fan. I certainly remember those tandem-drafting races won by Trevor Bayne and JJ. This one was more exciting and showcased how good a race car driver Denny Hamlin was: he weaved through the traffic after the final restart to get to the front, was passed by Martin Truex Jr briefly but he took the lead back at the last second for a photo finish!

The night before there was an equally exciting race in Texas: it was the 450 class of Supercross. Defending series champ Ryan Dungey has been dominating since the beginning of the season in January. This was the first time that he got to the front but lost the lead, to the German star Ken Roczen, who showed flashes of brilliance ever since he moved from Europe to race here in US but injury stalled his progress last season. Roczen was able to fend off Dungey at the end and won the race.

Another star in making was the 18 year old Marcus Rashford. I watched the Europa League match between Man U and Midtjylland, the 2015 Danish league champ. Rashford's name was on Man U's lineup and I had no idea who he was. I thought Van Gaul intentionally put in some rookies because it's a easy game that he wanted to rest his regulars. Wrong! It's the 2nd leg and Man U lost 1-2 in the 1st leg so it's pretty much do-or-die. Van Gaul had no choice because the regulars were injured! And they got to a poor start for this 2nd leg by giving up one more goal to Midtjylland so they needed 2 goals just to force overtime. I was glad to see Memphis got his form back and scored. Then it's Rashford time! He scored 2 in the 2nd half to help Man U to advance. Then he shined some more in the Premier league match against Arsenal by scoring 2 goals! What an incredible start in his young career. I hope he develops in the right way and doesn't become another Man U "1-hit wonder." (I remember Januzaj. My friend reminded me Macheda was another)

GoDaddy MySQL Server changes

I have been hosting one of my website at GoDaddy for a long time (too long that I couldn't remember) and I setup my own instance of WordPress 1.5 back then (now it's a feature of GoDaddy web hosting and it's so much easier) and I seldom make any change unless it's broken. I visited my site just now and got a helpful error message saying WordPress cannot connect to the database (I used a host name in the secureserver.net domain) And I (re)discovered where the db server name was stored: it's wp-config.php. So I opened the database manager from GoDaddy to figure out the IP address of the db server and replace the one in wp-config.php. Voila! My site is back.

A weekend of concerts

One of the biggest attraction of New York City to me was the jazz scene. I used to live in the village and went to several shows per week. And some times on the same night as I would go to an early show. Then walked around the village to attend a 10pm-ish show. And finished off at the all-night jazz jam at the Small's. It's harder to do that in the Bay Area as places are more scattered. And there are not as many notable performances per night anyway. Well, 2/5 was an exception: guitarist Rez Abbasi and his acoustic quartet (RAAQ) played at the California Jazz Conservatory (formerly known as the Jazzschool) in Berkeley and smooth jazz veteran Euge Groove played at Yoshi's in Oakland. RAAQ's show started at 8pm while Euge's show time was 10pm. I could only leave home at 6:30 and the traffic on a Friday night was usually bad (~1.5hr to the Oakland/Berkeley area) And it seemed rather unpredictable for this Super Bowl weekend in the "host city" so my "strategy" was buying the Yoshi's ticket in advance and take a chance with the Jazzschool concert. It was a lucky day for me though as I arrived ~7:50. Found no street parking so I pulled into a nearby garage quickly and got to the concert at 8. The quartet was almost done with setting up at that time. It was perfect! (Turned out their flight from JFK was delayed by 4 hr and they rushed from the airport straight to Jazzschool!) I guess the school is good at booking great guitarists: I saw the "Seasons" quartet performed there before too. RAAQ got a lot of praises for their recent effort in "Intents and Purposes": an album-ful of fusion classics. To me, they did a double-twist by adopting those pieces to an acoustic setting but they were also "rocking" hard with their acoustic instruments! Then I headed to Oakland, which was a 20-min drive for the Euge Groove show. Gotta admit the atmosphere was completely different here. While the music of RAAQ sounded quite intellectual, Euge's music was very accessible with heavy pop, funk and some R&B elements. Very danceable too. To be honest, I was surprised by the large amount of black folks in the audience. After all, smooth jazz was a genre where "white guys" commercialized original black music and made good money with it. I guess all people care was enjoyable music: Euge was a very entertaining show man. And of course he's got his sax chops too. I have so much to learn! What a great evening with two of my favorite instruments :)

Then we attended the El Camino Youth Symphony's Chinese New Year concert. The program was a good mixture of "Western" (e.g. Chopin concerto) and Chinese music. Those with traditional CNY folk sound were fortunately not too cheesy. Even the "Yellow River" concerto from the Cultural revolution-era sounded semi-exciting, thanks to the extraordinary technique of the pianist Gwhyneth Chen. Her playing was so great that I had to buy her CD after the concert. 

Sports highlights: Super Bowl 50 surprises, Caribbean World Series, Phoenix Open

This Super Bowl Sunday is quite different from the ones before: it's actually held in the "neighborhood" (less than 15 miles away) The traffic was expected to be real bad before and after the game. Also, it's the Chinese New Year's eve. So we ended up not able to invite anyone to party at our place. After lunch, there were still 3 hours 'til kickoff so we watched a bit of the Caribbean World Series, between the Winter league champions from Venezuela and Mexico. Former White Sox great Freddie Garcia (who pitched the world series-clinching game 4) pitched his final game for the Venezuelan team. It was kinda exciting. Mexico came back to tie while down 2-4 and got a walk-off HR at bottom of the 9th. I also watched a tie-breaking playoff at the end of the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament between Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama. The American Fowler is becoming one of the "Big 4" of this new generation of world golfers and that's why I tuned in. Matsuyama is the highest ranked Japanese player too. They remained tied after first 3 playoff holes. The tie was not broken until Fowler hit his tee shot into the water and practically gave away the victory. And that happened while Lady Gaga was singing the national anthem during the Super Bowl opening ceremony. I jumped in right at the kickoff! The game featured 3 players from my schools: Panther's kicker and kick returner/RB Fozzy Whitaker (Texas) and Punter Brad Nortman (Wisconsin) as well as the star TE of the Broncos, Owen Daniels (Wisconsin) My coworker was so convinced that the Panther would blow out the Broncos unless the latter could somehow force some turnovers into scores. That was what exactly happened. I knew the Broncos defense would be the most important factor to the "watchability" of the game and they stood up to the challenge. Normally I prefer offensive fireworks but I was glad that it was a defense dominated tight game instead. It's not a bad thing that a good player like Peyton Manning could go out on top. Also, long-time Cowboy-turned Bronco LB DeMarcus Ware deserved his super bowl ring.

So, that's how the sports world wrapped up the year of the sheep. I am looking forward to a great year of the monkey! (Yay to Euro 2016 and World Cup of Hockey!!!)

Jazz movies

I wrote this post 1.5 years ago and mentioned the lack of biopics about jazz giants like Coltrane and Miles. Well, it turns out new films were made or announced in 2015: one for Coltrane and one for Miles called "Miles Ahead" written, directed by and starring Don Cheadle. He looked real cool in the released photos. A lot of it was fictional though and was set against the period when Miles was near his creative low point ~50 years old. In addition, there was another recent release about the greatest electric jazz bassist ever, Jaco Pastorius, simply titled Jaco. It was made with the contribution of former Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, who was a true fan and a sincere guy. The January issue of Bassplayer had a special feature about this project and how he got involved. It was an interesting read. (Coincidentally I re-read the part of Alex Skolnick's autobiography about how the Pastorius family was not doing well financially while fighting for the rights of Jaco's music recently. Trujillo acquired Jaco's famed bass of doom so that it could return to the family. Isn't it funny that two metal guys both had something about Jaco to talk about?)

Super Bowl 50

美式足球係我最最喜歡睇既運動,  年年聽傳媒報導，大量球迷會湧去super bowl主辦城市朝聖，究竟實際上有乜活動？我一直唔知，因為未去過。今年在自己地頭，無理由唔去踩場，結論係四個字：不外如是。(好聽一點，或者講：點都應去，好過唔去：p)

睇過NFL頻道播出既地圖，整個三藩市灣區都有相關活動，除左比賽當日既球場，SF金融區Embarcadero被營造為重頭戲Super Bowl City,  Justin Herman Plaza附近封左好幾條街，進入"City"要過金屬探測器，保安嚴密程度僅次於機場，"City"內有乜呢？除左飲品(掠水酒) 食物㰙位，就係一間間贊助商既檔口，展示一點旗下和足球及SF 拉得上關係的產品；唔好睇少呢啲，都幾多人排隊，我估遠度而來既遊客也唔會介意花少少時間掛？當然也見有好似我講明一定唔等既本地友。我唯一等既係入去Levi's 睇佢賣啲球隊球賽logo衫，真係設計得幾好睇。

最後一提：有無留意舊史Super Bowl講係邊一屆一定用羅馬數字，但今年就變左阿拉伯數目字？我個陰謀論朋友可以會話個league打壓歐洲文化，不過官方透露羅馬字50係L, 俾人覺得好Loser(香港人用親L 都唔係好野啦), 明年會轉番羅馬字喎。無論如何，今屆就係金禧，我送一個字：撐！

All-star games

Gotta admit I haven't been paying much attention to the NHL All-star break even though I have NHL games on TV almost every night after the football season is over (sans Super Bowl) as a non-basketball fan. Then I found out it was on the same day as NFL's "All-star game" aka Pro-bowl. I was curious about the decision of putting both games on the same day by the two leagues but couldn't find much info on the net. Most articles ridicule the mere existence of these games as both have low TV ratings. In fact, NFL have indeed consider getting rid of the game a few years ago. I think the game went downhill after it was moved to the week before the Superbowl (for filling the void between the 2-week break from conference championship weekend) which prevented players from SB teams to play in the game to avoid injury, which is obviously the right thing to do but it significantly lowers the star power of the game. To be fair, the SB stars didn't play much during the "old" Pro-bowls that were held after SB either. And this new format of teams chosen by two former stars and HOFer (Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice) which was copied from NHL mixing players from different conference was confusing too. Nevertheless, I recorded and watched the game, which proved how hardcore a football fan I am! Oh yeah, the former Cowboy's team beat the former Niner's.

Ironically,  this is the year NHL moved away from the 2-opposing-all-star-team-drafting-own-player format and went back to conference/division competing with each other. However, instead of one 60 minute game, they played 3x20 min game. Each game pits one division against another in 3-on-3 format! The two winners play against each other in the last game to determine the winning division. This season was the first one that NHL uses 3-on-3 during overtime. And it was controversial: players don't like it but I do. I think it's easier to score this way without going into shootout. However, this wasn't even the controversy of this game! It has to do with one player: John Scott. BTW, I watched the pro-bowl first and the bottom ticker had already shown me him winning the MVP honor :( So, who is John Scott? I haven't followed the NHL like I used to so I only know the biggest of the biggest stars like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Quick, Sidney Crosby, and local players like Joe Pavelski...etc. Turns out John Scott plays the role of an enforcer (whom teams put on ice to fight rather than playing the puck!) most recently for the Coyotes. Why was he controversial? He was voted in by fans who wanna showcase the fan-vote loophole of the NHL All-star game. And he was traded to the minor league just before the game. Some in the league management actually tried to dissuade him to play but he refused to back down. He was chosen as the Pacific division team captain and scored twice in the game (his career total was 5 goals :) and as I mentioned already he won the MVP with real fan support at the game. It became a feel-good story and actually shed some positive light on the game drawing attentions from NPR and Wall Street Journal. The NHL got a lucky break from a potential publicity disaster.

二度香港（續）

前文提到上星期日香港氣溫急降至二度引起的幾個爭論,其實多得一篇也寫不完!本文繼續:
4)教育局在星期日急凍後,宣佈幼稚園及小學星期一停課一天,又惹起議論紛紛,這邊廂有中學大學生也要求停課,那邊廂有名咀如陶傑指政苦多此一舉,過份保護新一代,讓他們成為東亞病夫!至於家中沒有工人的上班一族,臨急臨忙要找托兒也有難處.其實作為家長,怎能不擔心孩子冷病?(不知陶才子家中有沒有小孩)不過學校可以彈性一點,就此一天讓家長決定孩子上學與否,及可穿非校褸的禦寒衣物回校,那就皆大歡喜(雖然可以預見某些被逼上學的小朋友會向父母投訴他的好友可以留家為何他不能:)
5)這次寒流也引起了對香港露宿者問題的關注:梁特首去探訪避寒中心就無謂多講,反而一向關心露宿者的Benson Tsang去探訪兼派發物資就被阻甚至被報警收場,又是政苦機構處事殭化之過.又有報導指政苦此時派員噴水洗隧道,實為乘機趕走露宿者.更帶出禮義廉數位議員均以趕絕露宿者為己任.平心而論,在街上走,又有誰喜歡見到露宿者?但一個人成為露宿者總有其難處,推動高地價政策的政苦就算不是元兇也是幫兇.

二度香港

本文標題有否令讀者聯想到甚麼異度空間，心底升起一股寒意呢？事實上，話題的確和寒意有關，不過是天氣的。1/24（星期日）是香港自1957年以來最凍的一天，很多朋友貼了攝氏二度或三度的screen cap。好幾個朋友說穿了兩件羽絨也不夠，有一個還病倒了，真慘慘豬。一次反常的天氣，卻帶出多項爭議：
1)縱使多個外國天文台早前預測該週末香港氣溫會勁跌，警告有降雪雨之可能，香港天文台依然力排眾議將預測定為六度，高山最壞情況只會結霜。當然，天文台在當日改口，但又用了類似蝗語的冰丸一詞，後來才改稱冰粒。有論者指近年香港天文台往往向商界傾斜，今次刻意避開提起雪，更有政治考慮之嫌；皆因翻查曆史，每逢廣東地區下雪，都是政權遭殃之時。
2)HK100這個具有國際地位，有多位本地外地高手參加的山地賽碰巧就在這個急凍週末舉行，結果有多位選手在接近終點的大帽山因為地下結冰被困，繼而出現低溫症徵狀，勞動消防及救護員救援。坊間頗有聲音指責參賽者浪費警力，主辦單位亦不夠果斷取消賽事。其實後者是否也受了天文台的誤導呢？無論如何，看過一眾跑友的發言，都認為今次實屬突發事件，主辦單位已盡全力準備，況且比賽早在星期六開始，當時雖冷卻不至於不適合進行比賽，如果今後HK100因為坊間這些負面意見而不再繼續舉行，實在可惜；到時可能又有言論批評香港人不懂又不肯舉辦國際級賽事了。
3)這邊廂一眾跑手出事，那邊廂又有大量趁「熱鬧」想觀看雪雨/冰粒的市民上山，結果警方封山，旨在疏導交通以助救援人員拯救被凍傷之人士，亦減少更多因路滑導致的意外發生。網上熱傳一對堅持要上山的男女和封山警爭論的片段，該女聲言他們有上山的自由，救護人員自有其救人的責任，兩者無關係。網民幾乎一面倒鬧爆該女，連100毛也諷刺他們「風雪中抱緊自由」其實我倒覺得沒有一方是全錯或全對，山上多他兩個人也不多吧，不過文明世界沒有甚麼簽生死狀讓上山者後果自負的機制，讓步似乎更為合理罷了。想起當年我媽也很喜歡在冬天最寒冷山頂結霜時要我爸和她上山觀霜，那個年代倒沒有太多問題。

Farewell to many 60-something musicians

What a poor start for the music scene in 2016! I simply cannot remember so many greats pass away in such a short period of time. It's as if the "other world" is trying to form an all-star band with David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Lemmy (they will take care of vocal, guitar and bass) and Dale Griffin of Mott the Hoople would play the drums. "Tower of Power" founder and trumpeter Mic Gillette could join them too. :( And the new band could be managed by the legendary Malcolm McLaren. Wish they all RIP.

Guitars at Yoshi's

It has been a good 2 month-ful of live (guitar) music for me, including 3 at Yoshi's (and the Memorial concert for my friend that I played in) I took my sis to Yoshi's for Mike Stern's concert last December (also featuring Randy Brecker on trumpet and Dennis Chamber on drums) I bet she has never seen such a powerful drummer. One thing I like about him is his moves were not flashy for flashy sake. On the other hand, they just seem natural for the stuff he played. And Mike Stern was vintage Mike Stern with his unmistakable sound on his Tele.

Then I got to see another great drummer on my first visit to Yoshi's on 2016: Simon Phillips, whom I last saw playing with Hiromi. This time he led his own fusion quartet: Protocol, with Danger Danger's Andy Timmons on guitar. Their sound reminded me of Cassiopeia, a legendary Japanese group with guitar/keys/bass/drums that I really enjoy. Their music had rich melodies and also showcase their great skills on their instruments.

And I saw two of my most admired musicians/instrumentalists last night at Yoshi's: Testament's Alex Skolnick on guitar and Stu Hamm on bass, 25 years after seeing them played together in Austin. I became interested in their music even before listening to Hamm and Testament (via the Hong Kong indie music publication 音樂一週, 還記得樂評人戲稱Hamm's Kings of Sleep為昏君！Very creative) For a jazz and metal head like me, it's hard not to like Skol: a guitarist equally excel in the legendary thrash metal band Testament as well as his own jazz trio and world music group! He also wrote well, in magazines, his blogs and his bio. I bet he got some of that from his PhD parents. And I started playing bass around the time Hamm released his ground-breaking Kings of Sleep, with his melodic and harmonically rich original compositions. His bass licks and accompaniment distinguished his music from those who merely "noodles" with their technical chops. From what I read in Skol's bio, they went separate ways after their tour in the early 90s. Skol soon recorded with another bass legend Michael Manring. I was so glad to be at this "reunion" show, which also celebrated Hamm's latest release, the Book of Lies. In addition to new tunes from the album, like the solo bass piece from his suite, they also played quite a few covers: "We will rock you", "Misty Mountain Hop" (with Skol on slide guitar!), "Lucy in the Sky with Diamond" (Hamm played it as a solo piece 6 years ago at Bassplayer Live in Livermore) and "Red house" (with Skol on vocal) The encore piece sounds like a Joe Satriani (Hamm's long time collaborator) tune and Skol showed his "lineage" to the mastro. Now, time for some criticisms: there were way too many covers! When I was a kid, I couldn't stand "Misty Mountain Hop" :P (but it's one of the few tunes that I completely changed my mind after I grew up) Hamm's playing sounded a bit muddy too. And finally, it's a personal thing but I am not a big fan of vocalizing with guitar solo (like what Skol did last night. Coincidentally, Stern also did it in his show! I do know it's a good practice routine for improv)

Looking forward to a great year of live music in 2016!

Time series database

Most application developers are probably familiar with good old relational databases (Yes, I am a certified Oracle DBA) as well as the new breed of NoSQL database like MongoDB. I deal with quite a bit of metric data at work, which is time-based. I have been playing with InfluxDB which is optimized for such data and is part of a TICK stack for collecting, managing and visualizing time series data. Compared to Oracle and SQL Server, installing InfluxDB is a piece of cake: just do a yum install, then start it and it's ready for inserting data! To interact with it, it has a command-line interface, influx, just like Oracle has SQLPlus. Programmatically, all you need to do is making use of its HTTP API: 'get' to query and 'post' to insert. No complicated database driver configurations. Of course, you could use one of the available client library for your language to make things even easier. My next step would be trying to time the queries using something like Influx-cli to evaluate its performance.

Do you know what songs you played the most in 2015?

Well, with the help of technology, your music service could actually compile the stat and give you the answer. Before showing her the email, I asked my daughter to guess. The song she thought she played the most came in as #4. Her brother actually guessed correctly her #1 song, by "One Direction." He also got it right about her most played female singer, Meghan Trainor!

收音機鬧鐘與遊客經濟

聽電台廣播，有人可能覺得老土，但其實不只是廿世紀出生的「老餅」會做，連我家中生於廿一世紀那位也喜歡，收音機鬧鐘是常見得很的電子產品，各大電器舖應該有售，對嗎？在香港就不是。

話說家姐想買一個給在香港的爸爸，海外買的Volt數不合（比較老式的電器不如電腦電話用的都是universal power adapter），我建議在香港買，不過兩家香港最大型連鎖電器舖的多間分店均沒有售賣，他們的對象也是以強國遊客為主吧。提議在香港買的我當然要再想辦法：想到「街坊」式電器舖較有機會出售這種「街坊」式電器，在今時今日香港以遊客消費主導零售舖位租金高企的情況下，這類電器舖的生存空間已大不如前，商場往往都已被「兩大」進駐，唯有在一些屋邨商場二樓角落才可能找到。最後我們在昌運站一家兼賣影碟的舖頭找到一部收音機鬧鐘，售價才HK＄100，時間顯示還很巨型，而且是「名牌」山水牌（這是小時候頗有名氣的音響品牌，雖然今已轉手，屬強國集團旗下）其實「現代化」收音機鬧鐘很多都是iPhone accessory，可以連接iPhone，播放其中之音樂及叉電，這部也是，如此便宜相信因為支援的是舊款30pin接口而不是Lightning. 這個任務總算完成（比家姐原本買的還要便宜呀！）

唐詩入樂 畫作及書法

今次香港之旅每晚睡得很差，一早家人未起床自己一個人的節目多數是看電視，亞視那些重播又重播的反正我未睇過，也照單全收。CCTVB新聞也看了不少，不要太認真看待就是了。其實週末早上，有一些節目實在不錯，例如9am播出的文化廣場，我看了一集，主持人朱翁訪問藝術家鄺啟濤博士，他畫及寫了一些以唐詩為主題的作品，配合文化中心舉行的唐詩入樂音樂會展出，實在很有意思。

不一樣的大除夕

近排喜歡在SF bay area行山，其實香港的行山徑也「甚有名氣」，小時候團體旅行遠足行過一些，成年後反而甚少，除了兩年前行過一點馬屎州，以及小西灣至馬塘坳，六年前也從昂坪市集和六歲的女兒行到心經簡林。今次約定家姐在香港行山，事先研究過幾條在大埔家附近的路線,包括九龍坑山徑及大埔滘(又稱松仔園),在爸爸建議下選擇了後者.由停車場開始往上走是一條大斜馬路,可見教育徑的入口,入口後是長長的石級,由於兩個大人的膝蓋皆屬有限公司,決定bypass所有梯級,從入口退出,繼續沿著馬路上,經過大埔滘林徑的起點(及終點)牌,又是本人止步的石級,不過另一邊則是一條美麗小溪,十分適合拍照,之後我們返回起點,到松仔園往九龍方向的巴士站等車,目的地是又一城,不過我也知道走這樣山卡拉的車站的巴士路線班次不會很密,所以一見有車即上,隨緣看看可在那裡轉車,結果上了73A,途經火炭及第一城均可轉車出九龍塘,第一城是我們長大的地方,不如一訪兼吃個午餐!

於是在舊稱第一城中心的商場下車,發現已改名置富第一城;而我們小時候逛得最多的銀城商場則已改名樂薈!記得以前銀城有一間茶餐廳好像叫大黃蜂,我家傳統是從來不光顧任何茶餐廳(我第一次吃西多士飲港式奶茶是在美加),那時也從沒想過用自己零用錢去幫襯,今天去同一舖位當然不見大黃蜂,現址是一粥麵,之前一天幫襯過油塘分店的早餐,算過得去,午餐一於來個奶茶炸兩魚蛋牛腩河,也不錯,食飽飽才出發到下一站又一城.

由第一城到九龍塘對我們來說可算是十分熟悉的路程,皆因當年上學,由第一城往返培正,總會在九龍塘轉車,坐城巴(兩年前寫過相關文章),今次坐的則是281A,以前的街邊巴士站已被大規模擴充,在又一城的Haagen Daz用了coupon買雪糕(店員本來因為日期拒受,亦不願提供多一隻杯讓我們分開來吃,不過經理肯通融)拿了Cova生日蛋糕就回家小休,準備下一場.

晚餐既是慶祝新年,也是提早為媽媽慶祝生日,之前想找家餐廳訂座,都說沒有,不過去開馬鞍山海澄軒的天澄閣則可以walk-in,五時半到達,才知原來有街坊團體包下全場搞大除夕派對,僅餘一兩張枱給熟客,我爸媽有幸算是.街坊團體的派對雖未開席,舞池已有一大班街坊(以大媽為主)聞歌起舞,播放的不少是八九十年代香港名曲,來自林憶蓮,梅艷芳,關淑怡等等我們喜愛的女歌手,只聽不看,總算氣氛不俗,幾道菜也味道甚佳.

飯後無甚心情再出街,一個人看有線播葉問2,倒數時刻大家回到大廳看大台的煙花(近年傳媒稱之為煙火,英文是pyrotechnics),踏入2016再繼續葉問2,將來的大除夕看葉問3也說不定.

史上最差勁的網上訂購

從事IT業的我對於購物網站,當然頗有要求,但另一方面也覺得很難做得完美,小小問題一般都會體諒,不過今次在香港Haagen Daz外賣fondue,真是想說四個字:豈有此理(雖然另外四字也適用)話說我們見到雪糕fondue外賣的廣告，記得早幾年試過堂食，今次想在家回味，兼慶祝家姐生日。於是致電沙田分店打算預訂，發現必須先到分店買Voucher，那天我經過蘭桂坊的分店，買了voucher才知預訂必須上網。回家後打開其網站，在主頁找了很久才找到預訂fondue的網頁，該頁又有幾個問題：我們買的voucher是有特定雪糕球數目及fondue爐款式，既然預訂網頁需要輸入voucher號碼，要再輸入以上資料是多餘的吧！難道他們的電腦系統沒有把voucher號碼和雪糕球數目及爐款聯結一起嗎？另一個問題發生在選擇取貨日期：規則說可以三天前預訂，但三天後的日子是greyed out，結果我亂選了其他幾個取貨地點後，三天後的日子才能被選。幸好最後在家姐生日那天順利取貨，其實fondue爐以至整體包裝造得不錯，當然也十分美味，只是作為國際知名品牌，這樣的網購介面實在太失禮吧。

The beauty of sax

Having been playing for a few months, of course I am very biased. I have just picked up soprano and fell in love immediately. George Coleman played it in this tune:
If you want a whole album of soprano sax, check out Jane Ira Bloom's work. I am listening to the sweet and surreal sound of the ballad "Tell Me Your Diamonds" from her album "The Red Quartets."

Another female saxophonist (alto) I recommend is Caroline Davis. Her "Live Work & Play" from 2012 was in a jazz quartet format but with guitar instead of piano. It's good to see some varieties.

Finally, check out "Breakaway" by smooth jazz saxophonist Elizabeth Mis. Yes, she's holding a soprano on the album cover.

Best metal of 2015

收到The Rolling Stones雜誌的Newsletter電郵，有連結到本年20大重金屬唱片榜，也是時候重溫或認識一下今年的佳作。榜上有好些老字號：Iron Maiden, Slayer, Napalm Death, Faith No More及Lamb of God;其他聽過的名字還有Marilyn Manson, Killing Joke及Ghost。

Lamb of God的新作512(還以為是area code，原來是他在捷克的監倉號碼）早已欣賞過，由第一首Still Echoes的第一分鐘已感到一如以往的壓迫感，到Overlord一曲開始慢下來及靜下來，起初聽略感沉悶，但多聽幾次才發現該6分鐘長之曲的深度，由2分鐘起慢慢推向高潮。全碟結他solo不多但皆有畫龍點睛之效。

至於Iron Maiden的新作，一聽主打歌曲Speed of Light及10分鐘長的大碟同名epic歌曲The Book of Souls，就感到他們延續了80年代重金屬正宗的精神。

Slayer自結他手Jeff Hanneman過身再加上原鼓手Dave Lombardo離隊後首次推出新作Repentless，事前不被看好，皆因餘下的結他手Kerry King似乎遠不及Hanneman及Lombardo受死硬派擁躉歡迎，（讀了此文才知原來歌手Tom Araya也是和Hanneman比較交心，King的人緣真是...）事實上新碟的結他聲稍為不同，卻不是壞的轉變，死忠們即管給他們機會吧。

作為The Mephistopheles（SPS舊名）of Hong Kong的成員，當然要聽聽包括一曲名為The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles的Marilyn Manson新作The Pale Emperor，其實Manson的音樂水平一向不低，只是很諷刺地被其刻意誇張的形象所遮蔽。除了以上一曲夠catchy，其餘作品頗有goth另類金屬味。

聲音更另類更goth/post-punk的則是Killing Joke，今年新作總共有15首歌，每首皆份量十足。像我一樣喜歡Fields of the Nephilim及Sister of Mercy等goth band的朋友不容錯過，絕對是2015重型音樂top choices之一。

榜上無名但也要一提的有Huntress今年的新作Static，基本上風格相當統一（負面講法則是有點千篇一律），不過憑著Static及Sorrow兩首catchy作品，再加上有點Neoclassical味道的結他，此碟還是值得一聽。

相機推介

朋友是攝影專家，我經常向他請教及和他討論攝影，當今主流想法是「器材先決」，自然成為常見話題。我雖然不常旅遊，但拍攝旅遊照片是我相機的頭號目的；另有朋友主要是想方便拍攝小朋友演出，於是朋友介紹了這個指南，在此和大家分享下。

根據這個指南，Fuji的定焦相機X100T輕巧畫質高，是旅遊攝影首選，作者並不推薦時下女士喜歡的無反，原因我同意：配件實在太貴！我為朋友找一支18-200mm的Sony E mount鏡頭，要$800！Tamron制為Nikon單反用的18-200mm才$250左右，Sigma的也只是貴少少。事實上該作者推介的另一部旅遊相機是Canon的單反SL1，此機也適合拍攝小朋友演出。

荒謬世界香港篇之「尊貴」議員歧視病人

建制派議員失言，在今日香港已經不算新鮮事，皆因金句王鍾Treegun久不久就會發功，為市民帶來不少歡樂，也有點功勞。不過今次蔣元秋因為泛民對抗網絡23條之惡法拉布而發牢騷，提到精神病人，明顯帶歧視成份，不單只精神料醫學院發聲明指責，連她黨友精神科醫生也要求道歉，她這次比鍾議員失言更令人反感！ 講開又講，其實鍾議員花名Treegun固然來自其本名，但更和黐根這個罵人精神病的俗語諧音有關，似乎也有點歧視性，我想以後不如用根樹做花名，反而更反映其說話特色呢。

IT經驗

不知不覺從事這一行已廿年，算是老古董了，現在新一代的熱門科技公司似乎喜歡請剛畢業的新人，可能因為有衝勁有新思維而且便宜一點。作為老古董的我當然要為老古董發聲：今年公司軟件出現了一個問題，我就覺得處理得好全因那一位人兄經驗夠豐富。話說公司有一個軟件自動根據來自其他系統的資料更新，主要是地區性資料，包括時區；今天有一部份和亞利桑那州Flagstaff市相關的更新失敗，因為系統沒有America/Arizona這個特別的時區：該時區基本上和US/Mountain一樣，只是不用夏令時間而已。那位人兄用了最快的方法暫時解決問題：就是把資料暫時改成US/Mountain！反正現在並非夏令時間生效期。（BTW，有朋友剛搬到Flagstaff，祝他們生活愉快！）

Some jazz guitar music

I am listening to the track "What Goes Around" from the album "The Mystery of Life" by jazz guitarist Karen Segal and her trio right now. The first time I listen to it was during my drive to SF earlier this morning on the radio. It caught my attention immediately. Why? It sounds very similar to the style of jazz played by Alex Skolnick Trio (In case you don't know. Skolnick is the guitarist of the legendary metal band Testament) including the tones of the guitar, the arrangement and even the "middle-east" modes used! I googled and this is probably the first time anyone linked them together :P I shouldn't be too surprised by her rock tendency though 'coz she mentioned she would be a rock musician if she isn't a jazz musician in her interview from 2009.

Another album I would like to write about is "The Test of Time" by Ken Navarro. (The Cool Jazz countdown podcast played his latest album in the 12/4 episode, BTW) His music is classified as smooth jazz. Gotta admit I was attracted by the album cover that showed him holding a Godin MultiAc Nylon guitar (yeah, no wonder there's this term guitar-porn) Surprisingly (or maybe I shouldn't), the whole album is all acoustic solo guitar music. Better yet, it features several pop cover as well as some standards, including Imagine, Police's Message in a bottle and another Beatles' medley. I have been attempting to play some pop covers these days (mostly on sax) and appreciate the difficulty in making them sound interesting musically. Navarro didn't play much lengthy improvised solo but instead rely on harmonically-rich arrangement.   

How It's Made

It was one of those woke-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-nothing-better-to-do night so I watched the recorded shows on my DVR (not a lot yet 'coz I set it up just one week ago) After finished watching the exciting 2015 Tournament of Champions (of women 9-ball pool. Ga-Young Kim defeated the "veteran" Allison Fisher. Can't believe I have been watching her playing for 20 years! And she's 47 now), the TV showed the end of "How It's Made" from the Science channel, which caught my attention and I rewinded and ended up watching for ~1 hr of how the following products were made:
- wafer rolls: from raw materials like flour, sugar and chocolate to finish packaging in cans
- championship rings: from the metal mold cut with computer based on 3D design, to the molded wax, and then the plaster mold enclosing the wax model, melted metal poured in, mold dissolved and finally polishing the finished product.
- packaged cooked chicken and turkey
- wood pellet: from wood chips to pellets that could be burnt for heating
- NASCAR engine

The channel has some videos online too. Like this one for making champagne:

Sports highlights: football and more "football" plus some auto racing

The first football game I watched on the new Xfinity X1 box was the Monday night game between the Cowboys and the Redskins. Da Boys haven't won any game without Tony Romo as QB for a long time. The last game with Matt Cassel as QB on Thanksgiving against the Carolina Panthers was disastrous. I didn't have high hope for them against the division-rival Skins. And there wasn't much action: tied with 3 FGs each 'til late in the 4th quarter. Dejean Jackson fumbled a kickoff return near their own endzone and the Cowboys seized the opportunity to score a TD with less than 2 min left. Then the Skins marched down the field and Jackson scored a TD to tie. Only to see the Cowboys' kicker Bailey kicked a long FG with seconds left to win the game. What a win! And the 4-8 Cowboys was just one game behind the first place teams (which are all other NFC East teams) Unbelievable. Even though I still have low hope on the team winning the division or making the playoff, it's good to see them having the fighting spirit with such a horrible start after Romo was injured in week 2.

Last weekend was mostly "reserved" for watching college football as several important conference championship games were played on Saturday, which would decide who got in the 4-team national championship playoff. For SEC, #3 Alabama vs #18 Floria. For ACC, #1 Clemson vs #10 North Carolina. For Big 10, #4 Iowa vs #5 Michigan St. For Pac 12, #7 Stanford vs #20 USC. And before all this, there was an unimportant Big 12 conference non-championship game between Texas and #12 Baylor in the morning. So glad to see the Longhorns upset the Bears. They got to a quick start which was proven too much for Baylor to overcome. Well, maybe beating Oklahoma earlier in the year and this win saved coach Charlie Strong's job. Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing for the 2016 season. However, the team started several younger players in this game and they did pretty well. We'll see.

Next was the Bama-Florida game, which actually started out much less exciting but eventually Bama showed its strength (and the Florida offense wasn't able to do much) And the next 3 championship games all started ~5pm PST! I ordered take out at 4:30 so I won't miss any action :) The Iowa-MSU game was dominated by the defense with the teams trading FGs. The #1 team looked vulnerable against UNC's offense. And USC initially couldn't do anything against Stanford. I was hoping all 3 games would have been decided ~7:30 so I could head to a concert by the local orchestra. However, the teams went back-and-fro and I stayed instead. The last minute TD by MSU was an exciting one (even though I'd rather see Iowa to win) It would have been quite interesting as far as the national championship picture is concerned if UNC upsetted Clemson: who should get that 4th spot? Maybe Stanford leapfrogging Ohio St? Or maybe UNC leapfrogged them all? Well, it was a moot point though. My prediction: another national championship for the Bama (beating MSU and then Clemson) When is Nick Saban gonna leave Bama for Texas? Maybe after winning another one?

The weekend actually started with the other type of football: I woke up at 6:30 to watch Bayern Munich losing to Monchengladbach (can't believe I spelled it correctly the first time!) I am a fan of Bayern but don't mind the result too much as this is only their first loss of the season. Next was the boring 0-0 draw between Man United and West Ham but I was happy to see the defending champ Chelsea suffered another loss, this time to the newly promoted Bournemouth! How low can they go? :P Anyway, the biggest soccer match of the week to me was the MLS cup (yeah. I care enough to record it while attending my kid's orchestra performance) I have been rooting for the Portland Timbers since they beat KC in a thrilling first-round playoff game (Tied 1-1 in regulation. Tied 2-2 after OT and the PK shootout was decided by two goalies shooting against each other!) They got the best start ever against the Eastern conf champ Columbus Crew in this final because the Crew's goalie failed to clear the ball cleanly in the first minutes of the game. And they never surrender the lead since then. Congrat to them!

Speaking of champions, it's sad to see that owners of the San Jose Sabercats, the reigning Arena Bowl champ, has decided to quit the business. I hope another owner pick them up before next season.

While I was preparing for switching to X1, I binge-watched many recorded shows on my "old" DVR, including some Formula E, Pirelli World Challenge and AMA Endurocross races. Congrat to the 3 respective champ of 2015: Nelson Piquet Jr, Michael Cooper (WC GTS division) and Cody Webb.

Tech of the day: Slingbox and Xfinity X1

It's deja vu all over again! I wrote about configuring the Comcast remote in Slingbox in 2010 :) I just upgraded to X1, Comcast's latest and greatest internet-based TV set top box, as a reward for signing a 2-year contract (and "locked" into a lower rate than the "regular" rate of $150+ for cable+internet as the "discounted" rate has expired at the end of my previous 2-year contract) The hardware installation is easy: I just swapped out the old box with the new box they delivered to my doorstep, literally. However, no channel above 719 (i.e., stuff I watch, like ESPN, which was showing MNF Cowboys vs Redskins) was available. We had to call Comcast support and have 3 of them looked into this (the last guy seems to be a Tier 3 who knows more about "the code" needed to get those "preferred" channels going) The last hurdle was to reconfigure my "ancient" Slingbox. According to "official" Slingbox support, I could configure my Slingbox's on-screen remote control via the web app on watch.slingbox.com. When I accessed it on Chrome, it says the setup is only supported on Firefox and IE. My PC doesn't even have Firefox. However, on IE the web app was stucked with "Locating slingbox" prompt forever so I finally gave in and installed Firefox. And the web app does work on Firefox (with extension installed) and I got to choose a model of my set top box, which is an Arris XG1-A (according to Comcast.com) and not available as a choice. The only choice seems appropriate was the "generic" Comcast X1. Fortunately Comcast is pretty good with remote control compatibility between different versions of their boxes. (As a side note, I could have chosen Comcast X1 from the unsupported desktop client but the way to confirm in that setup assistant was using the "Power" button, which was disabled)

荒謬世界香港篇之電視台又無糧出

我的一位不相熟的FB朋友是我中學師兄，也是一位藍絲，倒不算是大問題，比較有趣的是他經常comment on亞視揸fit人葉家寶的博客post，令我除了從港聞之外多了另一個渠道認識這位近年曝光率甚高的傳媒人，也是我的老師兄（和王晶黃杏秀同屆）一直以為葉是亞視CEO，原來該職位數年前已懸空，葉的official title是高級副總裁兼執行董事，主管市場營業部，該部門應該負責出糧吧。事實上，他也是在去年亞視欠糧風波後才廣為人識，曾發起一人一萬入股救亞視（其實此舉有法律問題）最近又因欠糧一事被檢控及罪成，雖無需坐監但被罸款。網民反應不一，有些指他為虎作倀抵罰，也有人同情他只是打工，做了老闆的代罪羔羊，為他感到不值。個人意見傾向後者（當然也因為一場師兄弟有點biased）事件並未告一段落：亞視又再欠薪，葉家寶在其博客公開他已向亞視辭去執董一職，以免再負上刑事責任。從維基百科得知，葉家寶從事香港傳媒界多年，資歷深厚，似乎是有料之人，非亞視以前那些靠裙帶關係掌權者可比，他總算為建制派作出一點犧牲，前途應不成問題。比較令人感到遺憾的是曾經屢有佳作的亞視淪為笑柄，明年更將失去廣播牌照！究竟亞視永恆的神話能否延續？大家且拭目以待。

達聞西真跡？

近兩個月我在本網誌潛水，皆因正在上藝術史課，每週功課已經寫了不少，再無餘力。今週重出江湖，講講一個和藝術有關的話題，以前寫過強國電視台有一個名為「尋寶」的節目，該節目請來專家鑑定觀眾帶去電視台的藏品，有些貨真價實，當然亦有很多只是複製品或普通貨色（據聞有些所謂專家在這些節目造假，所以當娛樂好了）。言歸正傳，教授介紹這條片有點相似，話說1998年拍賣會上出現了一幅拍賣行歸類為19世紀德國畫家作品的女士側身肖像，2007年轉手到目前的主人，這位收藏家認為作品風格不似19世紀德國畫，反而接近意大利文藝復興，可能出自大師之手！提到文藝復興大師，第一個當然想起達聞西，英國一位達聞西研究權威Martin Kemp出手，再加上其他鑑證專家幫忙，結果得出以下結論：
1）作畫的羊皮經碳14鑑定，極可能來自達聞西的年代。
2）畫家是左撇子（達聞西也是）
3）達聞西曾經效力的米蘭統治者家族一位女士出嫁時做了一本羊皮書冊，為波蘭國家收藏，當中缺了一頁，釘裝的孔和畫邊的孔痕跡吻合
4）畫中人服飾和該統治者太太帶來的衣著風格相符。
5）粉筆顏科不易在羊皮上色，需特別處理，例如混合蛋白。達聞西以喜歡試驗聞名。

詳情可看以下錄像：

不過也有很多專家大潑冷水，指完全不似達聞西風格，以我的皮毛認識，也覺不像：畫中人90度側望，與觀眾零交流，和達聞西流傳下來的罕有油畫以及較為大量的肖像drawings中感覺mysterious的女性皆很不同；換句話說，此畫境界低得多了。是真也好，是假也好，畫主自稱有人出價八千萬美元向他收購（他的買入價是二萬二千元），他已把該畫好好藏於某間瑞士銀行的夾萬。

Hair metal power ballad

One of the biggest clichés of the late 80s hair metal scene is that every album has to have a power ballad. It was dissed by the critics a lot. Well, it happened for a reason: fans like them. That's my guilty pleasure too. I was reading the 50 Greatest Hair Metal albums from the Rolling Stone magazine and came across this song:
Man, Alice Cooper sounded so much like Aerosmith (Well, Steven Tyler was indeed featured on it)! Liked the video because of the gal.

篆書

最近買了一支Fine italic nib的墨水筆,師兄建議用來寫篆書甲骨文之類,尤其是鐵線篆,找到這個自動轉換(簡體->篆體)的網站,很好用.

荒謬世界香港篇之地鐵禁古箏

早前傳媒流傳一張背著古箏的學生在大圍站被地鐵職員留難最後無法上車的照片，網民指出帶著比古箏更大件如電器傢俱的乘客（疑似水貨客）卻在地鐵進出自如，相當不公平。後來有報導指曾有祖國學生欲攜古箏乘港鐵來港參賽被拒，以及大提琴也在被禁之列，可見受害者不只本地人，也有祖國人；不單中樂器，亦有西樂器，總之音樂人不分彼此。

蕭才子撰文從經濟學：執法成本分析此現象，其實道理極簡單：職員捨難取易也！和水貨客糾纏既費時又費勁，拿著樂器的學生哥如何相比？早幾天又流傳一張城管留難拾荒老婆婆的照片，說為何被趕的從來不是有枱有櫈阻街的電訊公司電視台推銷員？道理也差不多吧。


熱愛中樂的我在中學時代也學過兩種中樂器，幸好笛子和二胡皆方便攜帶，其實我不知有學生會背著體積重量不小的古箏乘搭公共交通工具，這股熱誠實在值得尊重。

Bass music

I heard that some people have the tendency to hum the bass line when trying to sing-a-long and I doubt I'm one of them but I do enjoy bass-centric music a lot. I recommended "The Bridge" by Charnett Moffett and "About Now" by Mark Egan before. The former is a bass solo album. I listened to another today: "Ones All" by Dave Holland. Any non-bass fan should give this a listen: Holland's melodic playing will change your mind. One bass is all you need, but sometimes it's also good to have a saxophone, as in the case of bassist Heiri Kanzig's duet with Chico Freeman named "The Arrival." You would hear the intimacy between two voices, and the listener, which is a very special feeling, especially on the ballads. Last but not least, another album with Dave Holland was his collaboration with flamenco master Pepe Habichuela named "Hands" It started with a producer invited both of them to play in Spain. That's when Dave Holland learned the art of flamenco. And it proves that really talented musicians are capable of mastering multiple styles. It's actually quite rare to hear flamenco music featuring bass (here is a study on this topic by a music school student) I think all instrumental flamenco music lovers will enjoy this work a lot as Dave Holland has added an extra dimension to the style.

E-MU 0404 USB on Windows 8

I bought a E-MU 0404 USB for its DAC (decoding digital music from PC for playback) and headphone amp capability years ago. (Also briefly tried using it as an audio interface of my guitar from the input for recording and guitar amp simulation) Since I had to move it around when using it which was not very convenient, it went out of favor for years until I dug it out last week. My current PC runs Windows 8. And E-MU doesn't officially support it. In fact, the product has already been end-of-life-ed. Well, it's still worthy to give it a try. So I downloaded its "latest" beta driver for Windows 7 64 bit. I "Run as Administrator" on the downloaded executable and clicked through the errors. Voila! The driver is up and running! The output was fed to my Qinpu A3 amp which drives a pair of Paradigm monitor as my bedroom system.

I am curious about the current status of the E-MU line of products and found some discussions that are not very favorable to it, for example, the reliability, which actually matches my experience: my 0404's input 1 started to introduce some noises not too long after I used with my guitars and I gave up on that purpose (When used with Audacity, input 2 is mono, which is still technically usable.) I had a better USB audio interface in my Korg Pandora anyway. From Creative's official pages, it seems that all development has stopped after 2011. So my next DAC will not be a E-MU. 

Back to Ubuntu 14.04

I have been experimenting with different OS on this old Toshiba Core i5 15" laptop since its HD with the original Win7 image became unstable last year. I started with Ubuntu 14.04 (installed via a bootable USB flash drive) Then moved on to Ubuntu Kylin 14.10, which targets Chinese but has quite a bit of errors/crashes for some unknown reasons (the pop-up dialog became annoying!) The Chinese functionality doesn't seem too useful anyway. So I decided to wipe it clean. Ubuntu offers 14.04.3 LTS (The Long Term Support version comes with five years of security and maintenance updates, guaranteed) It's basically usable out-of-the-box but of course I need to install Flash separately: WatchESPN links to Adobe which links to Ubuntu Software Center which cannot find the plugin. Command line is still the way to do (follow these steps)

My weekend

It's that time of the year (free cake, free cake) again. We had a night-out the weekend before at the Mission Street in SF (foreigncinema for drink and Lolinda for Argentinian steak) already. So this weekend was to be with friends and family. The Saturday started with EPL as usual: very happy to see Chelsea fell to Crystal Place. Then it's time for the San Francisco International Pen Show. I arrived ~10:15 and immediately headed to Susan Wirth's seminar. Very educational and entertaining (checking out other people's pen testing samples) After playing with many pens and ink, we left for K&L Wines. The excuse was to pick up my 3 bottles ordered last year. And of course we didn't miss the Sat afternoon tasting there. The theme was Chilean and Argentinian wine. Some were surprisingly good. Dinner time was all to myself. I originally wanted to try the Habit burger and picked the one in Daly City (Serramonte) The line was way long (not expected) so I had Boston Market instead (also had a line! But not as long) Next, it's party at my friends place (thanks to the Tangs!) Awesome ribs :) And we all had fun trying out new bottles of ink (with the cheap plastic pen branded "Dollar", rightfully so)

The Sunday started with EPL as well: very pissed to see Man U fell to Swansea. Also watched the pre-recorded Arena bowl victory of the mighty San Jose Sabercats (which was 17-1 in regular season. We went to one of those 17!) I finally got to try the Habit burger at lunch time. It's indeed pretty good (and not pricey) Glad that we beat the line by arriving before 11:45. The next activity was people (and new products) watching at the Valley Fair mall (when it's so hot, no one wanna play outdoors with me) I often told my son that as much as we don't enjoy shopping, we don't wanna be ignorant about what's out there either. Then it's preparation for cooking the celebration dinner ("So steak" and "So shrimp", named after my cooking instructor!) And watched more sports of course: Juan Pablo Montoya let the IndyCar title slipped away by crashing with teammate (and defending champ) Will Power. "Mr. Consistent" Scott Dixon ended up winning his 4th title. The MotoGP race at Silverstone was also won by an veteran driver and former champ, Valentino Rossi. It was close between him and Marc Marquez for many laps but the latter fell. This season of MotoGP has been good so far with lots of competitions, lead changes, and polesitter being overtaken at the start! What a happy ending to the relaxing weekend.

Guitar music

I felt that I wrote too much about saxophone music lately. I actually still play my guitar and still love guitar-centric music. Here are a few I listened to recently (some during those July trips)

• Rüdiger Krause: A Guitar Named Carla. Not sure if the guitarist really named one of his guitar Carla (referring to pianist/composer Carla Bley here) but the songs on this album were written by Carla and re-arranged for various instrumentations (solo acoustic or electric guitar, guitar + bass, or guitar/bass/piano.) Carla Bley herself played on the last piece.  
• Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic: Blackmail. This was reviewed by an old (2013) guitar magazine that I "gave away" during the trip. Both are (nylon) acoustic guitarists with awesome techniques and it's a treat for all fans of guitar, especially those all enjoy world music. You can find more music of Ivanovic here. He has collaborated with other great guitarists like Fareed Haque as well.
• Nick Colionne: Influences. I first learned about this smooth jazz guitarist from the Epiphone newsletter (so I guess it's always good to be associated with a big brand name) Compared to saxophonists, there aren't as many smooth jazz guitarists out there (other than Norman Brown or George Benson) And Colionne is a versatile one judging by the last blues rock tune (Sting Like a King B) on this album and his videos demo-ing Epiphone Broadway guitar.
• Mark Egan: About Now. Saw the ad from an old jazz magazine about this release by a jazz bass guitarist. If you enjoy fusion and melodic bass playing (as lead and accompaniment) like I do, you must check it out.

I Wished on the Moon

The local jazz station played Billie Holiday's version yesterday morning and grabbed my attention immediately. To be honest, I usually switch away from the channel as soon as I hear one syllable of vocal (of course, there are exceptions, when the singer sounds anything like Billie, Ella, Patricia Barber.......) Very simple yet elegant lyrics (even though I don't completely understand what they meant: something to do with wishing beautiful things to happen. Who doesn't?) Added more to it was the superb instrumentalists playing on it, especially the saxophonist. Turns out it's from the Verve Silver collection. Now my next question was: what was the original Verve release that contained the song? And after a little bit of research, I found out it's from "All or Nothing at All," (MGV 8329) a studio album recorded in 1956 and 1957 and released by Verve Records in 1958. Turned out the saxophonist was Ben Webster. And the other musicians included guitarist Barney Kessel (his playing was tasteful as usual) and trumpter Harry "Sweet" Edison. The same lineup had recorded several sessions and the tracks were released by Verve many time. Another album from the sessions was "Songs For Distingué Lovers," which contained 6 tunes originally. This 15-song digital edition (also containing "I Wished on the Moon") is offered by Amazon for only $5.99. What a great deal (even though some reviewers thought the extra tunes added by the 1997 re-release didn't fit in with the original 6 in terms of the mood and style)

荒謬世界三藩市篇之鬼祟加價

早一排很少出三藩市金融區，最近連出兩次，感覺實在一般：幾條街道及部份建築物在進行維修，嘈吵又塞車。東西越來越貴，反而是意料中事；今時今日在SF吃個午餐，budget是十元或以上。要便宜最好去唐人街，十二年前吃越南（牛角）包三元有找，對上一次吃是$3.75，早幾天去見餐牌還是寫同一價錢，但老闆收我$4，抱歉地說餐牌還未更新價錢。今天外賣印度飯盒，餐牌也是舊價$8.75，收銀收我$10.4，我想稅沒有那麼重吧，原來餐牌上新加：所有食品均加收10% service charge! 那應該把餐牌全部加10%才對呀，老實說明碼實價$9.6也不算過份，巧立名目更令人反感。其實SF街頭的流動餐車（香港政府說要引入那種）很多午餐都標價$10。講開又講，這種餐車好像越來越多，今天發現一架賣雞的，以前未見過。