Music of the day: Bay Area Thrash

I had a post about my 1990 experience earlier this month and I'm writing another one again :P Those years were indeed special to me. I learned about my favourite bands then, e.g. Metallica, Testament, Slayer (yeah, there were some non-metal bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode and Pink Floyd) I could still remember my first metal concert, Slayer and Testament, at Austin City Coliseum 20 years ago. I headbangged all night and the neck was sore the next day :P I tried to catch Testament's concert whenever I can in the last 20 years and I've listened to every album they released (I haven't done that for any other band, not even Pink Floyd and the Beatles :P) I guess it's because of their consistency: they released a new album every few years (except 99-08 when the vocalist Chuck Billy was recovering from health issue) and they stick with their original root and never abandon their fan base by selling out like Metallica did (I mean, it's OK to experiment. OK to have a fun album like Garage Days but songs from Loaded are just lame. Even the most commercial album of Testament sounded heavy) I went to Testament's concert at Warfield last night and it was special (yeah, every concert is special :P) because it symbolized the revival of thrash metal, at its birthplace (SF Bay Area) no less! The opening bands included Death Angel, who also hailed from the Bay Area like Testament did. (BTW, they closed their set with a song, Relentless Revolution, which was indeed a reflection of our time)
Even though Testament's co-headliner Anthrax was not from the Bay Area, they talked about the heydays of thrash metal when they had concerts at Kabuki (now became a restaurant) in SF. Of course, the Warfield Theatre had its share of fame in thrash metal too: Slayer's classic concert video was shot there. If I remember correctly, this was the first time I saw Anthrax live. I actually had bought only one of their album, State of Euphoria from 1988, on a cassette (heavy metal on cassette was hard to find in HK. I didn't listen to any Testament and Slayer until my dad bought me a CD player. My classmate's older brother recorded his LP of Metallica's And Justice for All... for us.) I gotta admit I didn't enjoy Anthrax at first but a US$5 cassette was a lot of money to me and I'm willing to listen to it a few times before I put it aside forever (It's sad that in the US$0.99-per-MP3 era, music doesn't get 2nd chance) Even after a few times, I only liked the song Antisocial, which was a cover version ironically. (Yes, I learned the word from this song) I sang the loudest when Anthrax played Antisocial last night! It's also a reflection of our time: the lyric is all about greed of the riches. They are the ones that are antisocial! (BTW, the original lyric by Trust was in French and was even more critical of the dehumanizing pace of modern life and work in large cities.)
These guys are not afraid of speaking the truth and that's why I am a thrash metalhead for life!

[Update: I was wrong about the first time seeing Anthrax live. I forgot I saw the Anthrax with John Bush as vocalist live at the Roxy's in NY back in 2000]

Sports lowlights: Goodbye Dan Wheldon

I have been following the IndyCar season all year long. It was an up-and-down season for me because I hoped to see Will Power successfully challenged the 2-time defending (3-time overall) champ Dario Franchitti. Will Power had a good lead during the 1st half. Then he had a bad stretch until Franchitti suffered the same fate. Power regained his lead after the last few road courses and lost it again on oval. The race at Las Vegas on Sunday was supposed to bring the whole series to a new height by having yet another title decided on the very last race of the season. Unfortunately, 2-time Indy 500 winner and former series champ Dan Wheldon died from a 15-car crash during this race. He was a well-liked fellow on and off the track. It was a great loss of the motorsport community. For a skillful driver like him, it's strange that he didn't get to compete the full schedule of IndyCar. While he wasn't racing, he worked as an announcer for IndyCar broadcast and also helped testing the next generation chasis. Ironically, this new chasis tested by him and will be used next year is supposed to be safer in the sense that it is harder for a car hitting the end of another car and got airborned (which cause Wheldon's death) The chasis will be named after Wheldon. And he will surely be remembered by motorsports fans. RIP.

巨星隕落

我想大家都知我指的是Steve Jobs，他去世後，連日來一大堆人吹捧他為天才甚至偉人，略嫌誇張。不過以他的星級魅力，稱他為巨星，絕對實至名歸。雖然我不欣賞他公司旗下大部份產品，但一部Apple][就已贏得我對他一份尊敬。今早踩單車我特地繞道到他家憑弔，街邊已放了防止泊車及禁止汽車駛入橫街的圍欄，相信周末場面會更墟冚。以前我們為蘋果日報寫矽谷手記專欄的日子，必定會寫這單大新聞。想不到今天竟然倒過來被蘋果日報記者採訪！

My Rodeway Inn Story

Most of you knew that I've recently participated in the Levi Leipheimer's King Ridge Gran Fondo, a biking event in Santa Rosa. Thank you all for your support and advices. What I'd like to share in this post though, is a little story about the motel I stayed at before the ride (Santa Rosa is 3 hours from where I live so I decided to stay at a motel nearby the night before instead of getting up at 3am in the morning to drive there from home :P) The budget (i.e., cheap) motel chain has very special meaning to me even though I've never stay in any Rodeway Inn before last weekend. The story went way back to 1990, the year I came to University of Texas for undergrad. My family has decided to allow/sponsor me to study in US a little bit less than a year before. When I got admitted to UT and decided to study there, it was only 2-3 months before the school started (Aug 1990) Almost no one in my family and circle of friends knew much about studying in US and we pretty much prepared the whole thing on our own, based on the info/suggestion from the foreign student office of UT. Regarding housing, I found out I had way passed the deadline to apply for domitory so that was out of the equation. Foreign student office recommended me to contact the Hong Kong Student association (HKSA) immediately for help with temporary accomodation (e.g., staying at one of fellow student's place) There was also a list of motels in case I couldn't get any help. That was the days before internet was popular. I had to write a letter and mailed to the address of the chairman of HKSA. I got no reply before I boarded my flight so I was prepared for Plan B (take a cab when I touchdown to the first motel on the list, Rodeway Inn Austin)

View Larger Map In fact, I've practiced what to say to the cab driver and the motel reception in my head many times on and before the flight!

So, how come I said earlier I've never stayed at Rodeway Inn? Well, it's all because of the curiosity of one gal named Angel (Hello if you read this) It turned out the chairman was out of town and never get to read the letter. His apartment was subletted out to another dude. Angel was his girlfriend and saw the letter lying around his apt, a few hours before I arrived. For some reason (sixth sense?), she thought it might be a good idea to open and read the letter in case it has any importance (maybe because it's addressed to HKSA) They decided to help but they didn't have a car so they called another dude (nicknamed 周昌) and 周昌 arrived literally seconds before I got off the plane and heading to the taxi stand! So instead of taking cab and staying at Rodeway, I was picked up by fellow HK student and stayed at their place. Not only did I save some money, but also I got a ton of advices from them. They were so kind to even take me around to look for long-term apartment. I'm still thankful to their help after all these years.

Bye Ozzie

Referring to former Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who is expected to be "traded" from Chicago to Florida Marlins. As a White Sox fan, I'll miss him for his rants (Ozzie always has something to say no matter right or wrong) Any manager who could lead a team to win the World Series gotta be pretty good at it but I also think it's time for the Sox to part way with Ozzie. Ozzie's way has proven not working in Chicago in the past 2 seasons. Looking forward to an improved Sox in 2012!

Music of the day: Dr. Sun Yat-sen

I would have never heard of this opera if its scheduled performance in Beijing was not cancelled. Well, why did it make the news headline? This work was actually sponsored by the Hong Kong government and commissioned by its cultural department to commemerate the 100th anniversary of the revolution in China that led to the demolition of monarchy. You would think such an "official" piece must have passed all the political censors. Surprise surprise! Now I really want to hear it (maybe on CD or DVD?) The cast of the performance in Hong Kong (next month, not cancelled :P) will include the #1 tenor in HK, Warren Mok. And the story itself seems interesting (a love story in disguise!) enough.

Sports highlights: Football, NASCAR Championship Chase #1, last IndyCar race in Japan

My Texas Longhorns had a down year last year. Losing to UCLA at home was a low-light. Fortunately we won the rematch this year convincingly. Coupled with a few upsets at the top, Texas has finally returned to Top 20. I know it's a long road for us to climb all the way back up but this is good progress. Our new QB is Colt McCoy's brother. I hope he's the real deal. There were actually quite a few Texas-California matchup this weekend. Another big game was of course Dallas Cowboys visiting 49ers in SF. I didn't have too much faith in Da Boys based on the poor performance last season as well as this season's opener. On the other hand, 49ers were supposed to be improving. And the new coach Jim Harbaugh, who had success in college, certainly brought the team some positive vibes. I was so glad to see Cowboys overcoming adversity to beat the Niners.
I didn't watch either game though. My only available time was spent on the 2 races. First, IndyCar in Japan was expected to be the race where Will Power could finally overtaken the point lead from Dario Franchitti and this was indeed the case. And this was actually indirectly affected by the earthquake earlier this year! When IndyCar races at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, it usually races at the oval track rather than the road course (Yes, Motegi has a special design that features 2 tracks). However, the oval track was damaged by the earthquake so the race was held on the road course instead, where Will Power usually performed well. In fact, he won the (Mario Andretti) trophy for being the best IndyCar road course driver 2 years in a row! Now there are only 2 more races left this season. I still think Franchitti has a better chance to win the overall championship because he outperforms Power on oval more than Power outperforms him on road courses. And both races left are on oval :(
There are nine more races left this season for NASCAR, after the 1st race of the chase completed on Monday (it was postponed from Sunday because of the rain) Just when it looked like Jimmie Johnson was gonna win and had a good headstart for his sixth consecutive championship (BORING!), there was a caution (It almost seemed like all cautions benefitted JJ but this one didn't) Tony Stewart got to the front and won this race that was decided by fuel mileage. JJ actually ran out of gas and got a bad finish. I was also glad to see that Dale Earnhardt Jr. got on the podium and improved his position in the championship chase from last to 6th. Can't wait to watch the next race!

Musicians of the day: Arch Enemy

I've recommended their music before. I'm a big fan but this post is beyond music.

Arch Enemy has joined forces with the worldwide human rights organization Amnesty International to help raise awareness of social injustices around the world. Amnesty International booths will be present at many of the upcoming dates on Arch Enemy’s headlining US tour, “North American Khaos 2011,” to hand out flyers and accept fans’ signatures in support of the cause.

Arch Enemy vocalist, Angela Gossow, stated, “We have invited Amnesty International to join us on the ‘North American Khaos’ tour to help raise awareness for defending human rights, freedom of speech, and saving lives. We are living in very extreme and turbulent times and it is important to take a stand. We hope one day everybody is allowed to freely say what they think, that no government has the right to punish and kill those who do not conform and that those who are oppressing the masses will be brought to justice. It will be a long and hard struggle, but it’s a goal worth fighting for. The metal scene is non-conformist, alternative and revolutionary – We know how to practice what others preach. So let’s go out there and support the cause!

Here is the link.

Greatest guitarists of all time

I have been hearing this term a lot lately because the local jazz (and a little bit blues) radio station is planning for an all-day tribute to B.B.King soon. It keeps mentioning B.B. as the #3 Greatest guitarists of all time. So I got really curious and wonder who else would be on the list, especially #1 and #2. (I googled and found that "the list" being referred to was published by the Rolling Stones magazine in 2003) I could easily think of Hendrix being #1. However, who should be between Hendrix and BB? To me, Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page are all great guitarists but I won't put them higher than BB. I thought of Wes Montgomery or Paul McCartney. (BTW, George Harrison was #21 on the list. I should have thought of him as the representative for the Beatles. Sir Paul's main role was bassist and certainly belongs to the Top 10 bassists of all time. He did play lead guitar on a few Beatle's songs.) So, who's #2 according to the magazine? Duane Allman (of The Allman Brothers Band!) I gotta admit I don't know enough about Southern rock to tell whether he deserves it or not but this choice was definitely controversial (e.g. this post)

While researching the topic, I came across a post regarding top overrated guitarists. This list has Slash on #5 (I agree. Both him and Axl Roses didn't do much after Appetite for Destruction) and Jimmy Page on #1. The latter was a bit shocking to me but that writer had a point: Led Zeppelin's biggest hit, Stairway to Heaven, might not be all that original.

Sports highlights: IndyCar at Sonoma

I watched the NASCAR race at the same track (Infineon) earlier this year and I thought I watched enough live racing this year. I hate to admit this but I enjoyed watching races on TV more than live because TV has better coverage of the race and has different angles. It was a pleasant surprise when Infineon raceway sent me a free ticket to the IndyCar race as a gift (maybe because of me attending the NASCAR race?) When I arrived, I actually got to choose my seat and I just told the ticket lady to give me a good one. My seat was at Turn 9, which was indeed about as good as you could get at Infineon (even better than the grandstand where you can't see the uphill battle at the first turns.) There were a few things notable about this race: (1) it's the last IndyCar race for Danica at Infineon before she jumps to NASCAR next year (and I don't expect her to be racing on a road course that she's not good at next year for NASCAR too)

Danica didn't do well during the race and got lapped. (2) it's the first IndyCar race featuring a Chinese driver, Ho-Pin Tung. His day was not bad until he crashed near the end of the race.

It was actually a kinda boring race. The Top 5 starting cars ended the race in the same order (in fact, the order almost remained the same throughout the race other than during pit cycles) The race was similar to the one last year which #12 Will Power also led from the beginning to the end. I was glad that the winner was the driver I rooted for.

My week in Maui

0 post here for 2 weeks! Well, I have not abandoned my 00zine blog but I have been busy blogging over at http://bigmaui.blogspot.com/ Please check it out.

RIP Jani Lane

From the biggest hit song of Jani Lane's old band, Warrant:

Heaven isn't too far away
Closer to it everyday
No matter what your friends might say

Lies that bands tell

That's the topic of a blog post by Alex Skolnick. To be honest, I would not have read it if it's not written by Skolnick, who is my guitar hero (He plays lead in the legendary metal band Testament. And BTW, he also plays jazz) I'm glad that I read it because it's insightful, coming from someone who has been in the music business for so long. What he said makes a lot of sense: bands craft their image carefully and always show you the side they want you to see that would advance their career. I mean, it would be strange if that's not the case!

Sports highlights: Aussies ruled

I'm not talking about Aussie Rule Football but the 3 winners of 3 races during the past weekend, all Australians! First we saw Cadel Evans edged out Andy Schleck during the time trial stage to win the Tour De France. He was in the third place behind both Schleck brothers but erased the deficit by his exceptional performance during this stage. Then I saw Casey Stoner winning the MotoGP US Grand Prix live at Laguna Seca raceway (near Monterey)! The track was long and it was hard to watch live. I basically hiked back and forth the hilltop to follow the frontrunners but it was great seeing Stoner making two passes to claim victory. Finally, another Aussie, Will Power, won the IndyCar race at Edmonton. Power has always been good on IndyCar's road races but it is still tough for him to bounce back from his poor result at the previous race (also on road course. His rival Dario Franchitti ran into him and ruined his race)

California Audio Show

I took last Friday off to attend this show. Audio equipments always have a special place in my life, all the way back from the days I listened to mono earphone out from a portable cassette player. During my glorious audiophile days in late 90s, I had a turntable, vacuum tube amps setup with a decent pair of speakers. That was the first time I attended a Hifi show, hosted by the biggest name in audio business, the Stereophile magazine, in St. Francis Hotel in downtown San Francisco. That show only comes to SF every few years and I went to another in 2003. This California Audio show is hosted by a lesser known company at a less fancy hotel (Crowne Plaza in Burlingame) but there was no lack of big names. There are a few things I like about hifi show: 1) I get to listen to extremely expensive equipments, 2) the shows usually feature live performances, 3) audiophile-grade CD were being demo-ed and promoted. No exception this time. The usual suspect of outrageously expensive speakers like Wilson Audio and MBL were all there. A pair of Acappala speakers (with horns) went for $80k. On the other hand, I also listened to some very reaonably priced speakers like the small bookshelf Martin Logan ($800 a pair) and Audio Space LS3/5A ($1800/pr) and everything in between, like Anthony Gallo and Sony. The latter was a big surprise. Even though Sony has a good reputation in terms of sound quality for their consumer products, they are only well-known for their CD players among high-end audiophiles. The Sony speakers at the show did its job of making a statement: Sony is capable of playing the high-end game too (just that they don't play it often, especially outside Japan) Another observation I had is that digital file-based media is on the rise. It was non-existent at the 97 show and barely present at the 03 show but it is getting its share (a smaller one) alongside CD and vinyl. Many demo-ed solutions with iPod docks or harddrives for music storage, and iPad as controller. The highlights for me were Blue Coast Record's room and 2 live recording demo sessions. During these sessions, they recorded live musicians playing there and playback the recordings to the audiences right after. It was very educational. And I enjoyed guitarist Greg James' playing a lot.

Musicians of the day: The Great Guitars!

That's the name of the trio of jazz guitarists Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd. Of course, they lived up to the high standard of that name. I enjoyed the DVD of their concert a lot. Guitar Player, the magazine, has made available theirinterview dated back to 1974 from the archive. It was a good read.

Local sports radio newcomer FM95.7

I found this station when I was looking for Oakland A's radio broadcast this season (like the Raiders, these team changes radio station almost every season, which is not the case of their crosstown neighbours, the Giants and 49ers) Surprisingly it's a full-time sports radio station and it's on FM, not an usual combination! And it's growing on me. I used to listen to AM680 or 1050 (when they do not simulcast) a lot but they have lost quite a bit of my time to the newcomer. I enjoy the shows featuring Dan Dibley (formerly 680) and Chris Townsend covering A's. It's always good to have competitions.

Sports highlights: NASCAR at Sonoma

There are a few interesting sport events in the weekend: Super 15 Rugby playoff began its first round, the wildcard round. Those follow NFL would be familiar with this format: top 2 seeds get a bye week with the next 4 seeds playing each other. Both the Crusaders (they are like the recent years' Patriots of NFL) and the Blues advanced. The next weekend will be even more exciting. It was also fun watching the Giants swept the Indians despite their low-scoring offense.
The biggest highlight for me though, is watching NASCAR Sprint Cup race live at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, for the first time in my life :D Here were a few of my observations:
- The most popular driver seems to be Jeff Gordon, who was born in Vallejo, a city nearby. He got a tons of cheer, especially near the end of the race, where he reeled in cars in front of him one-by-one and eventually finished 2nd, after not being that competitive most part of the race.
- The least popular driver is definitely Kyle Busch. He was boo-ed during introduction. And when his car hit Montoya's and sent both spinning right in front of our section (turn 3) late in the race, lots of people cheered :P
- These cars are powerful and required tons of skills to drive. Even for a slight turn (like those described on mapping websites) that seems to be a no-brainer to go through, some lines were better than others. In fact, most drivers picked a particular line, which apparently is a good one.

蘑菇山遊記

前幾天再闖Stevens Creek水塘，今次不環塘，而是一嘗本地著名斜路Montebello Rd（不知為何該路名總令我想起蘑菇，其實portobello才是一種蘑菇的名稱！）感覺上該路比我以前踩過的都要辛苦，因為既長且斜。4.5英里上斜有3英里都很斜！翻查斜路排行榜，原來Montebello排名比大名鼎鼎的Old La Honda要高，卻稍遜於早前上過的Mt Hamilton（雖然我覺得今次上Montebello斜一點，可能Mt Hamilton從另一邊上更斜，或者排名和路的長度有關，從SJ上Mt Hamilton超過11英里）上到一半，往下一望，水塘已小得像面盆；忽然想起曾經爬過我頭的車手應該是時候下山吧，為甚麼沒見到？心中不禁一寒，唯有唱唱歌壯膽，立時想到：
獨自在山坡　高處未算高
命運在冷笑　暗示前無路
浮雲遊身邊　發出警告
我高視闊步

雖知此山頭　猛虎滿佈
膽小非英雄　決不願停步
冷眼對血路　寂寞是命途
明月映山岡　倍覺孤高

Musicians of the day: Stan Killian and David Binney

Both are jazz saxophonists. Killian plays tenor while Binney plays alto. I found this good review on Stan Killian's recent album, Unifed. David Binney plays alto on three of the tracks. While on Rhapsody, I also checked out a CD with David Binney as leader called Cities and Desires from 2006. It's a very interesting concept: each tune is about a different city, including LA, Rome, Montreal, London, Lisbon... etc.