Sports highlight: Golden Oak climb, rugby weekend

I ride up Alpine Road quite often, either to Portola Valley or to Joaquin Road (one of the steepest climb in the area, max 19%!) I just learned about an interesting "detour" on Alpine called Golden Oak. The entrance to Golden Oak is near the intersection of Alpine and Arastradero. It's 0.8 miles long with quite a steep climb (not as bad as Joaquin but still challenging when I did it) and lead you back to Alpine 0.3 miles further up hill. 

More on sports that I don't play: it's time for Hong Kong Rugby 7 again! Time really flies. I still remember watching it on TV in HK a few Spring Breaks ago. I watch quite a bit of rugby during this break between football and baseball season. The last-minute try scored in the London Wasp vs Northhampton Saints match was really something. A bit off-topic here: as a frequent rugby watcher, scrum means physical confrontation between strong men who fight for control of the ball. It's funny to hear the term also being used to describe meetings for software projects which definitely disallowed any physical contact and hopefully not much confrontation. Another term I learned recently is even worse: daily huddle, obviously borrowed from the sports but simply means a quick daily meeting to provide updates to the management. Whoever invented the term must have fancied himself being an elite athlete which he's unlikely to be. It probably explained why the management type likes to use the term :P

Sports highlight: World Baseball Classic

Not sure if we are one of the very few families in the States that are following this tournament, even after USA was out! Baseball is on the top (tied with several others) of my long long list of favorite sports and I actually paid attention to this "World Cup" for baseball that is played every 4 years. I checked the ticket price when I found out the final 4 will be here in SF but decided $75 was too much (It has been dropped to single digit, reflecting the fact that a lot of American fans simply don't care) We followed both of the last 2 games of USA (in which they just needed to win one and advance to semi) hoping they got some of Giants vibe from last WS (in which they won every elimination game) Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong actually started and lost in the final game that eliminated Team USA. I agree with some writers that the team didn't show enough determination to win like their opponents. Playing baseball for national pride is not in our culture, yet. Oh well, now I'm rooting for a Puerto Rico vs Dominican Republic final. These teams do have some big MLB names on their rosters: Yadier Molina, Alex Rios, Angel Pagan, Robinson Cano, Alejandro De Aza and Jose Reyes. (Pagan is from the Giants while Rios and De Aza are from the White Sox)

My weekend

One of my friend has bought a new road bike. Of course we gotta went for a ride together. Now that I have been riding in the bay area for a few years, I could recommend an interesting route close to most of my friends, in this case, it's the 37-mile Fremont-Sunol-Calaveras loop. We had a good time riding together. Another interesting fact about the ride was that we went through Bradley St and Evans Rd. If you're a fan of the sports, you would notice these are the names of the two most recent Tour De France winners.

And I am finally back to the world of vinyl after my first stint ~15 years ago, during which I collected a whole bunch of classics on LP. I didn't even listen to LP before the digital era began but spinning a record on a turntable simply sounds and feels great. It's a more engaging experience than streaming and more natural sounding than CD. Many are surprised that brand new vinyls are still being manufactured (just bought a copy of jazz organist Larry Young's 1966 album, Unity) I did some research before I made my purchase this time around (my old $1500+ setup consisted of a VPI HW-19 Jr with Audioquest PT-6 tonearm, Benz-Micro MC Silver cartridge and a Creek OBH-8 phono stage) To keep things inexpensive and simple, I opted for a piece of critically-acclaimed "budget" equipment: the USB version of Pro-ject Debut Carbon, which has a "built-in" phono stage that could output both analog and digital signal (via USB) I checked with the distributor for a local dealer and then contacted the local dealer but too bad they don't have any in stock and they are not expecting another shipment soon. So, I have no choice but to buy online. And because of this, I have to partially assemble a turntable for the first time ever! The task sounded intimidating with all those loose parts that I needed to put together, including the counterweight and anti-skating weight for the tonearm/cartridge. After installing the counterweight, I still needed to adjust the tracking force. Well, it's not that complicated after all. Next, I wasn't too sure if the analog output is properly amplified (i.e, to line-level and adjusted with the RIAA curve) because the manual didn't say so (the manual is really for the "regular" instead of the USB version) I tried the USB output first with the recording software I most familiar with, Audacity, but it's not clear to me how to simply playback the audio signal (more on this later) Still uncertain about the level of the signal, I decided to try it with my tube headphone amp, a Qinpu A3 (also capable of powering my speakers but they are shelved, which was another story.) I started with an album by jazz pianist George Shearing. Well, the audio is strong enough and balanced but his playing seemed extremely fast. I'm not too familiar with that album anyway so I put on Sgt Pepper. And Paul McCartney sounded funny. I had a feeling that the speed is wrong: to switch from 45rpm to 33, I needed to manually "pulled" the belt from one pulley to another. Finally it sounded right, actually, fantastic!

BTW, to playback through the computer using Audacity, one simply needed to enable 'software playthrough' under the 'Transport' menu. (Found the instructions here) The sound might be distorted (this is called clipping) before the level of the recording device (i.e., the USB input) is adjusted. This could be checked in Audacity by starting monitoring and making sure the level is not exceeding max. I don't plan to use this often but it comes in handy (e.g., sending the audio from the turntable to the computer then to TV via HDMI)

It has been a rather awful week overall but at least I have something positive to write about.

The iTunes-less way

I prefer not to install iTunes on my PC because Apple is acting more like Real Network these days: it wants you to install Safari, QuickTime and so on. And it has background process unnecessarily running too! My mission is to transfer a few tracks to my daughter's ipod (a hand-me-down) Free ware CopyTrans manager saves the day. Make sure you're downloading and running the right piece of software though because there's another from the same folks simply named CopyTrans (without the word manager) It also needed iPhone/iPad/iPod drivers already installed to work and they kindly provided a CopyTransDriversInstaller for such purpose.

周慧敏Journey of Love

Reno的Peppermill賭場繼去年容祖兒後，今年再接再厲請來另一位我（少有）喜歡的香港女歌手，就是上次我也提過的周慧敏。去年開車用了八個小時才到Peppermill，錯過了一個小時的容祖兒演唱會；今年戰戰兢兢，帶定雪鍊，上午十點就由三藩市啟程，幸好天公造美，陽光普照，全無積雪阻道，三小時左右就到，餘下不少時間賭幾手，再在Silver Legacy酒店內的Sterling扒房吃個豐富的晚餐後才施施然過Peppermill。

當晚Vivian唱了多首她的首本名曲，包括「如果你知我苦衷」、「天荒愛未老」、「愛你多過愛她」、「最愛」，當然還有熱切期待的「美少女戰士」，雖然她沒有穿水手裝或Deep V晚裝，但幾套衫充份展示她性感及高貴的一面，相信fans都會滿意。令人驚喜的是翻唱了梅姐的「壞女孩」及陳潔儀的「等了又等」；作為半退休的歌手，水準縱使未及至高境界，但也勇於挑戰及嘗試，值得一讚！(相link)美中不足的是似乎頗多觀眾拿免費票入場，不是真正fans，只顧飲酒大聲談話，有點破壞氣氛。

演唱會過後才十時多，決定回酒店再玩一會。Silver Legacy和Circus Circus及Eldorado相連，方便在三個賭場游走，玩心水的遊戲。下午已在Circus Circus玩了和賭場對賭的德州樸克，比正常版易玩一點；晚上改改口味，有史以來第一次玩了花旗骰，只作基本投注，倒也不如以往般花多眼亂。後來又玩了最低$15一注的百家樂，總計贏了半個自助餐，當然吃得份外高興！Silver Legacy的Sunday Brunch的確不錯，有champagne (侍應pronounce為jumpin, 聽了一會才搞個明白)

題外話：周慧敏演唱會當晚，在Silver Legacy竟然同時舉行殿堂級Art Rock樂隊Yes的演唱會；我不禁想起周慧敏老公倪震以前搞的Yes雜誌，認真巧合。其實Yes是一隊技術超凡令我十分推崇的樂隊，不過自從車上沒有cassette機之後我也沒有再聽他們兩張傑作：Close to the Edge及Fragile. 回程半途中在Rhapsody找到他們最新live專輯In the Present-Live from Lyon, 竟然一直聽到三藩市。寶刀未老的Yes絕無令我失望，後來才知該碟長兩小時另九分鐘，成員也不是Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe的經典陣容，不過彈keyboard的倒是Rick的兒子Oliver Wakeman, 而主音則是模仿得Ian Anderson極似的前Yes tribute band歌手Benoit David(說不定有朝一日我的舊band也找我兒子頂替我呢！)

The week of new jazz

Listened to a few new albums (to me) on Rhapsody and the radio and would like to recommend them.

Mimi Fox, one of the most well-known bay area jazz guitarist and teacher, has a new album out, called "Standards, Old & New," in which she played all by herself, in the great solo guitar tradition of Joe Pass. The funny thing is my daughter saw me listening to this on my phone and got curious and listened to one of the track, "This Land is Your Land" but she doesn't think it sounded like the original at all. Well, if it's too much like the original, it's not jazz :)

Hiromi, another critically acclaimed female jazz musician (pianist), also has just release a new album "Move." I was really impressed by her previous two albums "Place to be" (solo piano) and "Voice" (which ironically featured no vocal) The compositions don't seem as strong on this latest one but the playing is exciting as usual.

I have listened to part of a track by Nate Najar many times ("Remembering Charlie Byrd") because it was used as the theme on No Idle Frets, a podcast dedicated to jazz guitar, which obviously is my favorite but sadly it was no longer updated since the end of last year. The track could be found on his latest album, "Blues for Night People." It caught my attention when the DJ played "Concierto De Aranjuez" from the album. That tune is adapted from one of the most famous classical guitar pieces.

Transferring Android Apps

This is one thing I like about Android: sometimes you have multiple devices but each of them has access to a different App store so you could get some Apps from one device but not the other. In this case you could still transfer your app from one device to another. Found this guide. ES File Manager is especially useful.

學者論學生

培正校友最推崇的數學家丘成桐近日上報，據報導，他在受訪時慨嘆，部分積極學運的大學生只重爭取權利，卻忽略讀書、做研究的本分，想法本末倒置。他同時警告，歐美青年對知識的追求遠勝本港大學生，若本港大學生繼續視抗爭為首要任務，根本無助社會進步，只會令本港人才質素漸走下坡，最終淪為二等城市。

如此批評當今的大學生，被網民攻擊是意料中事；事實上他這個論調的確有為建制護航之嫌，即使我推崇他的學術成就，也有這個感覺。


但想深一層，他不愧為擅長邏輯的數學家，如果大學生視抗爭為首要任務，學習則為其次，當然影響香港新一代畢業生的水平，這一點毋庸置疑，可謂立於不敗之地。

另一位學術界人士，中大講師邵力競撰文為丘成桐平反，也頗為值得討論。邵力競一方面為搞抗爭的學生說點好話：「香港會關心時事、獨立抗爭的青年應該還是比較會讀書的」，似乎不如丘成桐般擔心搞抗爭的學生荒廢學業；另一方面，他指出更嚴重的是學生態度之懶散：「完全不讀書的，恐怕更多，而丘老的話，就正正點出了這個現象，傷害了年輕人的感情。現實是，目前受納稅人資助的大學裏最盛行的風氣，是hea （無所用心）。」他比丘成桐更不客氣，批評的對象亦比後者廣泛！我相信多機會接觸學生的他，說的會是事實。

我雖然反對打擊學運，支持學生批判社會不公現象；但也認為大學生不能讓任何其他活動凌駕學習之上，一切都應在不影響求學問的情況下進行。

Sports highlight: Daytona 500

Haven't really watched much sports on TV after we cancelled cable. Fortunately, the biggest NASCAR race is on FOX, which I could barely receive over the air with my cheapo antenna. This was the first time I watch NASCAR with my son. Seems like he's getting it. Wish Danica would have done better but she did lead a lap and finished higher than any other women in history (No. 8) Better than Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin! Too bad Toyota had a bad day: engine and drive train problems left Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth out of the race. Toyota made a really bad impression to one future car buyer, my son.

十年

上週女兒十歲生日，才驚覺自己已為人父十年。自問本身性格陽光氣息不重，唯有讓子女早點接觸人性的負面。雖則如此，我相信這十年女兒總曾從我那裡得到一點有用的教誨，我問她有甚麼她特別記得，她告訴我：1）要放鬆，2）要有儀態，3）要嘗試做到最好；看來我的教導也不錯！總結十年，我跟她說：Be open minded and listen to others. However, don't listen blindly. For example, if people tell you something is difficult, still try to find out on your own and think independently. That's how you could tell right from wrong.

Gojira, Pharaoh

Had another long drive (to work in SF) today and blasted my car stereo with metal as usual. Last time Rhapsody recommended Dark Tranquillity's "We are the Void" from 2010. Today it recommended a newer album: Gojira's "L'Enfant Sauvage" from 2012 and it didn't disappoint. I like the Mastodon-esque prog/death metal sound. I've also listened to two other bands/albums: Pharaoh's "Bury the Light" and Grand Magus' "The Hunt." Both are on Rhapsody's 2012 Top Metal album list while the former is also on NPR's list. "Bury the Light" has the type of sound that punches you in the face right off the bat, which is kinda like the best power metal stuff by Iron Maiden yet more progressive. Grand Magus' song "Storm King" and few others from "The Hunt" also had similar feel. The long ballad "Son of the Last Breath" from the same album is not my cup of tea though.

Ingrid Laubrock's Anti-House

The title of this post is the name of a jazz musician and her group. A very interesting name and even more interesting is their brand of avant garde jazz. Check out this review of their latest, Strong Place, which features up-and-coming guitarist Mary Halvorson.

A Song From The East

I am listening to the Trio for Violin, Viola and Guitar, Op. 33 by Sándor Jemnitz, performed by David Starobin (Guitar), Benjamin Hudson (Violin), Kim Kashkashian (Viola) on the titled album. From Wikipedia:

Sándor Jemnitz, also known as Alexander Jemnitz (9 August 1890 in Budapest – 8 August 1963 in Balatonföldvár), was a Hungarian composer, conductor, music critic and author. Jemnitz's musical style is heavily influenced by Reger and Schoenberg.

It was a very unusual chamber music instrument combination but yielding interesting result. The reason I'm listening to it is that I am also reading an interview of violist Kim Kashkashian (whose name reminds me of you-know-who) from the Strings magazine. Sometimes I wonder why I still subscribe to the magazine since I have enough free interesting articles of it to read on the web already. Oh well, the magazine's website needs paid subscriber to survive I suppose.

Something Left Unsaid

This is the name of one of the bands playing at a concert (GATHERING: The new movement for Bay Area heavy metal. Feb 23rd at Oakland Metro) promoted by a flyer I got the other day. The sound of this Pacifica band reminded me of Killswitch Engage, which is a compliment. And the guitar work is good on their 2011 EP Deconstructionism.

香港遊：景點篇

作為土生土長的香港人回港探親，像個遊客般參觀香港的景點，其實也未嘗不可。沒有帶同小朋友，當然不會去海洋公園（他們頗期望看看那對金絲猴）今次首個景點是尖沙咀，今日的TST已不是以前逛得熟得不得了的老尖。上次到過新的大廈The One飲茶，新的美麗華商場之前也去過；iSquare及K11卻是第一次去。每次見到新的建築或店舖，總會問問自己那裡以前是甚麼。老尖雖逛得多，這些建築的前身卻也要在Wiki找找才知到。iSquare以前是舊凱悅酒店（報紙相關文章），以前經過無數次，入面卻印象全無，最記得的算是某套電影一個女配角名為Hyatt :P K11這個名字有點奇怪，原來奇得有道理：那是市區重建局重建項目的編號，代表九龍區第11個項目！因重建被拆的舊樓照片可在維基及這帖找到。名牌店舖林立，本來充滿銅臭，難得發展商特地加入一點藝術元素來平衡一下：商場內外均展出不少現代作品，例如用烘麵包砌出來的仿蒙羅麗沙「廣告」畫，體現Pop art精神。

出國參觀藝術館，是指定動作；不過香港也有一個我差不多次次都去的，就是位於香港公園的茶具文物館，今次看過茶馬古道的展覽方知，原來這條又稱南方絲綢之路的古道，是中國最古老的國際通道之一，在戰國時期就已開發，是中原對馬的需求，和西藏對茶的愛好（幫助消化），所形成的跨越青藏高原的貿易路線。

茶具文物館旁的羅桂祥茶藝館上次去的時候在裝修，現時展覽名為「石語刀痕」(圖片)，好明顯主角是印章，其實同場加映還有羅桂祥博士捐出的古代名窯出產的瓷器。中學時代跟麥老師學過少許篆刻，所以對印章特別有感情。一件印章體積雖小，卻可從三方面欣賞：石本身的色澤花紋，印紐的雕刻，以及印文的書法構圖。

看完兩個「分館」順理成章地到尖沙咀的「主館」香港藝術館，位於海濱的現址在91年落成，那是我出國留學之後的事了。今期的Andy Warhol展固然有趣，想不到香港官方收藏的中國書畫實在不乏珍品，文徵明及沈周等等的山水畫均極具吸引力。另有介紹中國古今瓷器製作及彩繪技術的展覽，十分詳細。我覺得最特別的則是外銷畫展覽，所謂外銷畫是指由中國畫師採用西方媒介及參考西方技法繪製，大量出口的作品，這些畫以中國的民風習俗、地形風貌為主題，滿足了西方對中國的好奇心，深獲歐美人士欣賞。展品包括早期尚在摸索階段以至後期技巧已趨成熟的作品，值得一看。

維多利亞公園絕對是香港一大景點，君不見國內遊客特地到此參加遊行嗎？當然，他們也特地到此處舉行的工展會掃貨。我們去維園也是為了後者（遊行在數天前）記憶中第一次去工展會是2001年，那時還在中環添馬艦舉行，對我來說懷舊味道甚重，皆因懂事之後工展會已停辦，聽老一輩說當年工展會頗受重視，工展小姐選舉是香港最早的選美會呢，去評頭品足一番也是樂事，真正重頭戲卻是看看各種產品的demo。那次買了一種名為「賽鋼」可用作填補裂縫的化學產品。今次在維園，媽媽極力推薦，由於爸爸對維園附近的停車場並不熟悉，我事先搜索一下，發現07年就有人問過同樣問題並已被解答，結果我們泊在興發街維園對面的住宅大廈收費停車場二個半小時，盛惠$65，也不算超貴。很多貨品是睇得過癮但買就非必要（最怕坐飛機多帶行李），例如開酒器暖水瓶等等，結果我買了皮帶，姐姐就買了菜刀，還吃了不少小食如羊架、糖蔥餅、楊枝金露等等，這樣就渡過一個愉快的下午。

最後想提的「景點」是個人「認識香港」計劃的一站：我打算每次訪港都去一個以前未去過的地方。以前我就識得港島朋友從未到過大埔，香港雖小，我未去過的地方卻不少，受之前「無街之城」的討論影響，今次選了將軍澳。其實驟眼看起來也和沙田及馬鞍山等有點相似，記得以前行沙田的店舖車站圖書館也常常倚賴商場的通道，避過日曬雨淋，而沙田新城市及相連廣場本身就沒有幾多好逛的對街地舖。將軍澳對我來說有三個出名地方：一、無線電視城，二、壹傳媒，三、首都。前兩者的環境我覺得和大埔工業村也沒多大分別；後者則是外表「正常」的屋苑，只是名字夠霸氣：香港開埠過百年才首次「定都」！首都每座分左翼及右翼，各設獨立電梯大堂，合共十個部份，稱為「十閣」，各有獨立名稱，以全球知名城市分別命名：（第一座起）班芙、佛羅倫斯、琉森、馬德里、米蘭、蒙特利爾、奧斯陸、威尼斯、維也納及威士拿。諷刺的是，十個之中只有三個是本國的首都！和樓盤名稱同樣騎呢。

「認識香港」的下一站應選那裡好呢？也是時候計劃一下了。

Cyndi Lauper: Memphis Blues

When I thought of Cyndi Lauper, songs like 'Time After Time' and 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' came to my mind immediately. She sang some of the most memorable pop songs ever. I had no idea she did a blues album, actually quite recently (2010. What have I been listening to!?), until I searched for the great blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite on Rhapsody (who has a new album with Ben Harper on Concord, from which I received newsletter) Cyndi Lauper's song that featured Musselwhite came up as the 'Top Matching Track' there. I probably won't listen to the album if it didn't have Cyndi Lauper's name on it, which was not to say that her voice did not match the genre. After all, it's the blues. Everybody has the blues sometime, right? I especially enjoy the track "Down Don't Bother Me." The strange thing is that listening to her, even though by accident, was the continuation of the theme from last week: 80's star revisited. Similar to those bands, I didn't pay attention to any of her music after the 80's even though she kept releasing new albums (3 in the 90s, 4 in the 00s) Her 2008 album actually featured decent dance pop.

星期日音樂檔案

今晚在家吃印度菜，播了些Norah Jones的名曲，實在「應景」。Jones是印度音樂大師Ravi Shankar的女兒；之後又播了Shankar另一個女兒Anoushka的作品，一首Solea揉合Flamenco及印度風情，十分夠味道。

下午去了SF Civic Symphony這個西岸最老牌的社區樂團，在SF Union Square古色古香的Sir Francis Drake Hotel內，舉行的免費音樂會，第一首是小史特勞斯這個我不甚欣賞的作曲家的作品，玩得熱熱鬧鬧，氣氛甚佳；第二首則是學小提琴的朋友不會感到陌生的巴哈Double Concerto。壓軸作品是Cesar Franck的唯一一首交響曲，指揮很用心講解曲中幾個多次出現的主題，我們一家都覺得最後一個movement比頭二個出色。

今早要做柴可夫，週日九時甚少聽古典台KDFC，原來在該時段有Baroque by the Bay專播（理所當然的）Baroque，其實我雖然甚為喜歡該時期風格的音樂，但除了巴哈及韋瓦弟之外卻聽得不多；打頭陣的是Alessandro Marcello的雙簧管協奏曲，現在重温一下。

今日聽左乜？

通常獨自開長途車（包括上SF返工）都會炸機，今早揀了Rhapsody推薦的Dark Tranquillity 2010作品We are the void。DT保持一貫的高水準，正宗melodic death metal。接著把時間推前十年，聽了Miranda Sex Garden最後作品Carnival of Souls，記得九十年代行唱片舖，老闆見我喜歡Dead can Dance同Cocteau Twins向我推薦94年MSG的Fairytales of Slavery，那時反而沒有現在覺得MSG啱聽，十幾年來可能開過一兩次來聽而矣。其實女聲、電子音樂加點弦樂，相當好feel（可能因為早幾年才開始拉小提琴吧）此碟相信還在香港家中唱片架上被塵封。

回到公司，新編排座位附近的同事原來是那位常常要講電話的大忙人，我基本上很怕聽別人用電話傾公事（比自己在電話傾公事更厭惡），講私事又作別論；特登在公司放了一個廉價但隔聲的大headphone，今早再回去十年，播了另一張Rhapsody推薦的八十年代唱片，那是我當年從二手店執到的寶物但後來失蹤的Depeche Mode演唱會現場錄音101。來加州早年，坐車行101，都會想起該碟呢。聽到Strange Love，就會想起沙田新城市廣場以前的賓士滾軸溜冰場，差不多次次去DJ都會播！當然還有Winnie幫我從黑膠dub落cassette的精選；那時幫她錄不少軟硬，真是禮尚往來。

晚上繼續八十年代，播了好些New Order的精選作品，當然包括大學時代去ball必播的Bizarre Love Triangle啦。原來New Order在05年還有新作Waiting for the Siren's call，基本上貫徹樂隊風格，可以一聽。

突然想起，很多以前聽開的樂隊踏入廿一世紀仍有新作（又例如另一隊今天找過的And Also the Trees）不過除了Depeche Mode及The Cure之外，已經沒有再follow了。究竟過去十年我聽甚麼？其實倒也不難查證。看看HD入面自己rip的CD，05年之後推出甚至購入的已沒有幾張，從我在此帖所寫可證實。被ripped的CD以爵士佔大多數，由已作古的殿堂級人馬至當今樂手均有；其次是古典，浪漫派至廿世紀現代作品等等，少數rock band如Testament, Death, Oasis及Tool。而我從04年開始使用Blogger，所發的帖也是圍繞以上genre。

再一次印證，年紀大了，口味會變得固定，現在聽synth pop及goth可能是懷舊成份居多。雖然如此，我很有心地追上時代，未必會捧所有當時得令流行作品，但間中也有心水歌手如Katy Perry或歌曲如Ellie Goulding的Light，連Gangnam Style也覺有可取之處呢；堅持作為音樂人不能活在過去。

口琴五重奏

上文講到在香港聽音樂，想提一提今次回港首天去飲茶，在停車場找車位，我一如既往把爸爸聽開的新聞台轉到香港電台第四台這個音樂台，那時正開始介紹即將播出的一個音樂會，演出的是香港本地的英皇口琴五重奏。我從小就對口琴頗有感情，我媽教過我如何吹音階；以五重奏的形式演奏改編的古典作品，我實在十分好奇，不過演奏未開始就有位飲茶，離開時再上車，節目剛好結束！好在香港電台第四台有節目重温，這是英皇口琴五重奏官網的資料，也可用這連結（用Windows Media Player，試過用VLC但窒窒地）

HMV，你要活下去！

從新聞得知英國老牌唱片連鎖零售店HMV宣佈破產，員工面臨失業，認真傷感。由十幾歲開始，逛唱片舖已成為我最大樂趣之一，旺角到沙田大大小小唱片舖我都逛過不少，記得當年兩個名字有荷李活的商場有多家唱片舖，競爭激烈，卻均門庭若市。我一直有看樂評然後找碟來聽的興趣，很多選擇頗為冷門，在這些唱片舖找到的機會一半半；雖然如此，也常常在那裡花光零用錢。之後第一次去美國，老校友熱情招待，更帶了我們去他至愛的Tower Records，那次經驗對我頗為震撼：皆因一生從未到過面積如此大，選擇如此齊全的店！想來對我選擇留學美國影響不少。如果當年去的是英國和HMV，可能我一生從此改寫也說不定:P

其實後來HMV登陸香港，我每次回港也逛得不少，雖然睇和買不成正比，基本上在其他店舖找得到的都比它便宜，但HMV選擇實在優勝，我喜歡的爵士古典唱片有時只它一家才有，還可試聽，所以也幫襯不少，好些都是因為HMV介紹而認識及購買呢。最近一次，就買了「國寶薈萃」這一張精彩的中樂CD，雖然只是「雜錦」精選碟，選曲頗有心思，小冊子製作亦甚為精美。

可惜時不與唱片舖，今日的HMV，只是比當日倒下的Tower Records慢了幾步吧。連我這樣發燒的樂迷，一年也買不到五隻CD，Rhapsody等網上服務實在太便宜又方便了。新一代更只會上YouTube找歌聽，然後到iTunes買在iPhone播；行唱片舖對他們而言，就像賣飛機欖對我們一代同樣陌生！

今天才知原來Beatles因為HMV介紹才認識George Martin，HMV立此大功，音樂之神應保佑它一百年不倒吧。希望HMV找到白武士打救，不致倒閉。