Guitar diplomacy

40 years after the historic ping-pong (a.k.a. table tennis for American) diplomacy between US and China, John Kerry wrote a new chapter: guitar diplomacy. Check out this article with a video showing John Kerry playing guitar after his big meeting with Chinese officials. The article also included reviews of his playing by some experts, including THE instructional video guru Esteban! I agree that he played at the level of an amateur who were once a competent player. In any case, that's gutsy.

BTW, this is post #700 on this blog!

More metal. RIP Robin Williams

I checked out the MyRadio feature on Rhapsody today. So it basically plays tracks that I recently listened to, e.g. Overkill's new 2014 album "White Devil Armory" They never disappoint and always stay true to their thrash metal root. That set me in the mood for more metal: Morgengrau's "Extrinsic Pathway" and Pentacle's "Under the Black Cross" Both captured the classic death metal sound and they will be playing at Thee Parkside this month.

This is kinda metal-related: I read an article about Ozzy Osbourne thanking the late Robin Williams for visiting his wife when she got cancer. Sad to see a great actor leaving us.

The MMA Experience

I have been a fan of fight sports for years but I saw my first fight live (boxing) only last year and my first MMA event, Dragon House 17, last weekend. Kezar Pavillion was a small venue and we bought VIP seats so we got real close to the actions. I knew it won't be like watching on TV with many different angles and replays but I didn't miss much of it. 13 fights were on the card. 9 of them were KO or submission. And none of them was boring. I'm surprised by the quality of the fights given these are not big names from UFC. We were impressed by the victory of Robert Prakhantree who was taken to the ground by Alex Uribe but got on top later and ground-and-pounded to win. The Light Heavyweight Championship fight between Marcel Fortuna and Mike Ortega was another good one: Fortuna seized the opportunity to summit Ortega via rear-naked choke. Definitely looking forward to attending more local MMA events.

沒女=蝗語

想不到一星期內要鬧TVB兩鑊，我在此呼籲大家不要使用沒女一詞，老實說，用普通話讀還算語帶雙關玩字音，在香港說就真是低俗不堪了。何況有幾多人真正百無？樣貌天生無得說，但身材勻稱可靠運動，學識更是努力可得；不過有缺點不肯改善的人也多的是，電視台硬要無限放大爭取收視，實在缺德。

Sports highlights: International Champions Cup, MLB, NASCAR

I stayed home quite a bit this weekend and thus watched quite a bit of sports. First of all, MLB trading deadline was passed last week, which kinda grabbed my attention and I watched a bit of these 3 series during the weekend:
SF vs NY Mets: the Jake Peavy deal hasn't helped the team yet as he went 0-2 in the first 2 games with the Giants (he did pitch a few perfect innings in his 2nd game) Hopefully he still have something left in his tank. And ironically SF won all the other 3 games showing quite a bit of offense and power.
Oakland vs KC: the A's lost the series. Maybe trading away the All-star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes hurt them after all. The only game they won was started by Jon Lester (the pitcher they traded Cespedes for) so it's still not that bad.
Yankees vs Red Sox: Red Sox traded Stephen Drew to the Yanks at the deadline. Drew got 4 RBIs on the series finale while Cespedes hit .143 with 0 HR and 0 RBI in 2 games with the Red Sox. Enuff Said.

Even though the World Cup is over, the fever has not totally subsided. EPL is starting in 2 weeks anyway. 
Man U vs Real Madrid: I know it's a meaningless pre-season game. Still, a win is a win. (A US-record setting attendance means something too) No complaint.
SJ Earthquake vs Seattle Sounders: another record set: it's the first ever game played at the new Levi's stadium in Santa Clara. And it's won by the local team (and the underdog)  Victories would not be something I look forward to there.

I usually watch my NASCAR races tape-delayed by days. Well, finally I had time to watch all 3 on Sat and Sun! What an exciting finish of the Sprint Cup race at the Poconos! The leaders were trying different strategies: Biffle was in fuel-saving mode. Gordon got 4 new tires. Jr got no new tire. Jr managed past Biffle after the restart. Gordon was not able to get back in front while Harvick was charging hard to the front. Then another restart. I thought Harvick might be able to win it but at the end Jr held on.

俾個like陳校長，俾個dislike CCTVB

香港的電視劇，我好少承認我有睇（除左今年那些年情懷爆燈的《女人俱樂部》）期望既然不高，就算再差也懶理；但今次這套《我們的天空》離譜得令我不能不「幫港發聲」

話說香港一位陳葒校長義務為學生補習，傳媒表揚他實在應該；但無線這集《我們的天空》之《非常校長》標明以陳校長真人真事為藍本卻歪曲事實，必須譴責！劇中校長被香港人業主迫遷，受內地富商捐助支持，陳校長出post證實純屬捏造，甚麼人被刻意醜化及美化，明顯不過。

Free admission to museums

Growing up I am used to paying admission fees to get into popular museums like the Space Museum in Hong Kong or the MET in New York. Then I found out a lot of museums have free admission days (like every Wed in most museums in HK or some Sundays in SF) so I would plan my visits accordingly. Finally, there are museums that are free all the time, like the Smithsonian in Washington DC, Cantor Arts Center in Stanford, Triton in Santa Clara (which I just visited yesterday for the exhibition of 10 artists inspired by John Lennon's "Imagine" and 2014 Photography competition) BTW, the $25 admission fee people paid at the MET is actually the "recommended" amount only. I could have paid $0.01 to get in :(

What started this post though, was the HK government backed "Sport For All" day: all government-run sports facilities (e.g. public swimming pool) were open free-of-charge to the public yesterday. Inspired by this, one newspaper columnist suggested that the government should offer full-time free admission to all museums in HK to encourage creativity of its people. At a first glance this seems to be a great idea but then I read the comment sections and saw a ton of naysayers: most think such policy would be abused: those free museums would have been "occupied" by the elders or tourists who simply enjoy free A/C and also kids treating the places as playgrounds (and the displayed pieces as toys!) This is sad but true: a reflection of the quality of the people (or the lack thereof.) There's no such problem with the free museums in the US from my limited experiences.

Using Oracle SQL Developer with MySQL database

I have been using the free Oracle SQL Developer as my main "alternative" to the text-based SQL Plus client for a while. I have used TOAD before. My co-w's favorite was Golden32. Even though I work with the database quite a bit, I am actually not too picky about what client to use. After all, there are times I have to get on to the database server itself and use SQL Plus. Any GUI is a luxury compared to that. Recently I needed to work on a MySQL database so I wonder if I could "re-use" SQL Developer. I didn't have high-hope to begin with (the alternative would have been the free MySQL Workbench from MySQL.) After all, it's from Oracle and might work with Oracle DB only. MySQL was acquired by Sun which was acquired by Oracle though. It turns out Oracle SQL Developer does work with MySQL (since 2007) I learned from this page that all it takes is opening Tools > Preferences > Databases and there is a third party JDBC driver. Simply add the MySQL Connector JAR. I also opened Help > Check for updates and get the MySQL related update. Not sure if it's really necessary. These links (1,2) did not mention this step. Another MySQL tip I learned today was how to limit the number of rows it queries. In M$ SQL Server, you simply add TOP [N] after SELECT. For MySQL, it's adding LIMIT [N] at the end.

Some new (and old music)

Some of the albums mentioned here actually came from a post that I started last year but never finished :P I couldn't believe I missed the SFJAZZ concert by Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood last month (what else better could I have done instead?)Well, there's another funky group featuring guitar and organ called Organissimo that I "discovered" last year. I must have been in the mood of trio when I started that post because I was also listening to the avant-garde Tin Hat Trio's "Book of Silk" (love the instrumentation with violin and accordion) as well as the Steve Kuhn Trio's "Life's Magic" (Very interested in listening to his 2009 release of "Mostly Coltrane" with Joe Lovano on sax)

I have listened to some more old music of the recently passed away blues rock guitar great Johnny Winter. Alex Skolnick from Testament recommended "Nothing but the Blues" while "Live Johnny Winter And" (what an interesting album name!) topped the Guitar Player's Reader Poll.

Finally, time for more metal: I found Suicide Silence's brand new 2014 album "You Can't Stop Me" on the top of the Billboard's Hard rock album chart. Definitely doesn't sound like commercial B.S. though. Highly recommended.

Live Metal

After reading so much metal history and hearing my friend talked about his trip to Gothenburg (the birthplace of melodic death metal in Sweden), I started to research where to see live metal, especially in Gothenburg. Well, there has been an annual MetalTown festival but it has been cancelled this year. And there is a more melodeath specific festival called Gothenburg Sound in January. Next year the festival will feature Dark Tranquility (just released a new album "Construct" in 2013) and Dimension Zero (founded by former members of In Flames. I listened to their 2007 release "He Who Shall Not Bleed" and I am impressed) I also found an online Metal Travel Guide that lists some interesting clubs/stores in Gothenburg. And I am curious what places it lists nearby and found Thee Parkside, which seems to feature local hardcore/metal bands regularly. It reminds me of the club Metro in Oakland (both websites are very similar too!), which was surprisingly NOT listed on Metal Travel Guide. Finally, there's nothing under Palo Alto, which is sad. There used to be a good club named The Edge (check out the big names that performed there before) I have been there once or twice in the 90s (forgot who performed) and it was gone while I was away (Summer 2000, the heydays of Nu Metal. Papa Roach played the last show)

Carleton Watkins, 吳冠中, Rodin's hands @ Cantor Arts Center, Stanford

炎熱的週日下午歎免費冷氣，除了去mall，還可以去免費museums，例如Stanford的Cantor Arts Center。數月沒去，多了不少吸引的新展品展覽，最意外驚喜是攝影家Carleton Watkins：
坦白說，和油畫相比，我對攝影作品的熱情相差很遠，可能因為我經常被批評技術不濟的關係。除Ansel Adams之外，差不多無一認識；曾經在SFMOMA欣賞過Adams的原作，尤其喜歡他在Yosemite的作品；原來倒不是前無古人！這位Carleton Watkins是最早期的Yosemite攝影家，1860年代他帶著重達2000磅的自製攝影器材（包括大塊感光玻璃板，流動黑房及沖灑用品），由騾隊運載入谷兩度，認真艱巨。其成績與付出成正比，他的作品出色地展現大自然雄奇之美。除了Yosemite，影展還有兩個我都不感陌生的主題：一是三藩市的自然景觀及建築，包括Farallon Islands, Alcatraz, Cliff House等等，二是上月才去過的Columbia River Gorge，他成功地捕捉了Multnomah Falls, Castle Rock等地的神態，"Cape Horn, Near Celilo"的構圖更是特別巧妙。

"Cape Horn, near Celilo" (public domain, linked from Wikimedia commons)

另一個吸引我的是中國藝術部的山水展，既有古代傳統手法的水墨畫，也有新派如吳冠中引入西畫技巧的作品，以及最新一代的攝影及數碼圖像；世界日報原來有介紹此展覽。

最後想提的展覽是從醫學角度探究Rodin雕像中出現的各種病態之手。看過Rodin雕塑作品的朋友相信都會對其人物的獨特姿勢包括手部動作留下深刻印象，其實有部份是因為手部有病而扭曲。該展覽解釋幾種病的成因及治療方法，甚為有趣。

How to toggle input language on iPad when using external keyboard

I bought a Bluetooth keyboard to use with my old Android tablet some time ago. I didn't have a need to switch between Chinese and English because the 3rd party input method natively takes care of that. Now I am using it with the iPad and it's even easier: simply hit Command-Space to toggle between the languages that were previously enabled under Settings. Nice!

Louder than hell: 口述重金屬歷史

作為重金屬fans超過廿年，其歷史算頗為熟悉，由最早期Black Sabbath到今期流行的prog metal band如Mastodon都會留意；讀過相關書籍包括Ian Christe十年前出版的名作Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, Chuck Klosterman的Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota等等，亦看過2011年的Metal Evolution系列紀錄片。今次讀這本700頁厚的Louder than Hell又有甚麼特色呢？

其一，全書主要是節錄音樂人口述，相當authentic，只有少量「旁白」作串連，不致欠缺連貫性。

其二，全書大致以時期及風格分章，包括的範圍甚廣，連冷門風格如Industrial metal及hardcore樂隊都有提及。

其三，本書提及不少金屬樂隊荒唐生活的細節，成員之間的恩恩怨怨，很多我都聞所未聞。
希望能在圖書館到期還書前讀完！

十年棋事幾番新

由細到大，圍棋都是我十分推崇的遊戲，且在十年前有過一段頗為沉迷的日子：看漫畫，緊貼棋壇發展，當然也有下棋。不知怎的突然完全脫節，連2010年亞運會史無前例後無來者唯一一次的比賽也毫無印象！記得當時中日韓最強棋手包括常昊李世石張栩等等，最重要賽事有豐田杯富士通杯；多年沒有留意棋壇新聞，原來早已面目全非：豐田杯及有廿四年歷史的富士通杯分別於2009年及11年停辦！以上著名棋手亦不及當年雄霸國內棋壇之勇。新一代的冠軍人物如朴廷桓（韓）芈昱廷（中）都是相當陌生的名字，似乎這一代再難出到當年那些棋壇巨人如吳清源趙治勳藤澤秀行小林光一李昌鎬聶衛平。可喜的是「上一代」強手李世石依然屢有佳作，他和中國古力對下的十番棋（十盤目前只下了一半）仍然引人注目。

霍氏新聞 事事旦旦?

見到霍氏新聞標題為維珍尼亞洲教授為女兒成為公主而宣稱在非洲成立王國，以為可能是某學者翻查族譜得悉自己為某非洲皇族後人去取得繼承權之類趣聞，原來只是一名美國白人到非洲某地插旗的鬧劇。撇開此舉如何無謂，令我更驚嘆的是，據後者連結及網上資料顯示，「國王」Jeremiah Heaton是礦業從業員，不是霍氏新聞指的維珍尼亞洲教授。

不過，由於該個標題總算學了一些新知識：
1)「國王」插旗之地Bir Tawil為何不屬相鄰任何一國，即蘇丹及埃及？參考此文，原來該不毛之地側面還有一塊更大更肥沃的Hala'ib triangle，兩國曾兩度訂立條約劃國界，分別把Bir Tawil判給一國及Hala'ib triangle判給另一國，兩國皆想擁有Hala'ib triangle而只承認對自己有利的條約，所以兩國均不願意承認擁有Bir Tawil的條約！

2)美國媒體一直沿用boomer(1943-60), gen-X(60-80), millennials(80-2000)那今年七歲的「公主」所屬世代應如何稱呼？原來並無共識，有所謂generation Z，或homeland generation，現時出生的小朋友均屬此代；似乎比起millennials更被寵壞。

The Winery Dogs

本人算是Jazz Club Yoshi's的常客，雖然近年流失了不少big names給SFJAZZ center，總有不少驚喜，例如父親節的Ginger Baker band（傳奇樂隊Cream鼓手改玩充滿非洲味道的Jazz, 令我有點想看看那套關於他的電影）以及咋天的Hard rock組合The Winery Dogs。這麼多年倒是首次在Yoshi's看非爵士藍調的音樂會。

宣傳資料稱之為超級組合(supergroup)絕不為過，皆因三位成員均大有來頭。大家可能不知早在我玩結他之前我是玩bass，學生時代的bass guitar hero是Billy Sheehan（另一位是Stu Hamm）還記得當年踏遍九龍尋找極度冷門的Billy Sheehan前樂隊Talas的作品（結集成"The Talas Year"，包括名作Sink your teeth into that和Shy Boy)他被香港音樂雜誌譽為King of two-hand tapping。結他手Richie Kotzen在80年代末在專推技術型結他手的Shrapnel Records推出純器樂的處女作一鳴驚人（也在我當年搜索之列），其後加入Poison取代原本的結他手，作曲能力備受賞識。至於鼓手Mike Portnoy（我的Berklee校友:P)，乃係殿堂級前衞金屬樂隊Dream Theater始創成員，也不用多作介紹。

老實說，超級組合往往有雷聲大雨點小的問題，Sheehan和Kotzen兩位均曾為Mr. Big成員，和該樂隊同期誕生的supergroups還有Blue Murder及Bad Land，成績皆強差人意，和期望有一段距離。當然，當時正值金屬沒落Grunge興起，可謂生不逢時; 但另一方面，過份強調技術及樂手名氣而忽略樂曲可聽性亦是一個原因。可喜的是The Winery Dogs全無此問題， 當日我在由新界到小西灣的長途巴士上聽他們首張大碟，就已十分欣賞全碟充滿著回到基本搖擺的精神，而Billy Sheehan複雜的bass line盡顯技術之餘又不會喧賓奪主，襯托歌曲豐富的旋律感恰到好處。有趣的是Richie Kotzen唱主音彈結他，模樣有點像Chris Cornell，其實The Winery Dogs的音樂既有classic rock元素，也似受Soundgarden等grunge band影響。在Yoshi's看live，感覺又更上一層；移走平日最近舞台那排枱作舞池，我和其他觀眾站得離表演者不遠，伸手可及（事實上也和Sheehan握了手）音樂會又cover了Jimi Hendrix名作Hey Joe及encore時段Talas的Shy Boy。

Metallica and good sense of humor

Metallica is one of those band that I really really like before they made a huge hit, i.e, the commercial "Black" album. I just don't care for anything they released after "And Justice for all" I did listen to St Anger and Death Magnetic a few times.  While the former didn't sound anything like their original stuff, and the latter did, I don't particularly dislike one way or the other. To quote one of their song title: "nothing else matters." And their hard stance against Napster only made things worse. It is easy to imagine the negative reaction they got from the fans of the UK Glastonbury Fest (traditionally a metal-less event) It IS surprising to me that Metallica responded with selling a T-shirt with quotes from their haters on their own webstore. I guess any opportunity to make money, even off the haters, work for them. Still, I respect them as a hard working band without too much nonsense. 

The most emotion provoking roll of toiler paper

... other than the time I need to use one and it ran out, is this:

Martin Lubner, Last of the Toilet Paper, 2011-14, oil on canvas, 11 x 14" 

 

Saw it from the gallery exhibition promotion page.

丹尼士巨龍巴士退役

這個型號的巴士絕對是我們年代長大人士的集體回憶！這款巴士特色為「3+2」座位（一邊是三座位緊靠，另一邊則是雙座）全港僅餘三輛，於6月25日完成歷史使命，正式退役。

圖片來自香港巴士大典

頗有印象在初中年代常坐這款巴士往返九龍塘站及沙田第一城，路線好像是82M（請看此帖介紹九巴行走沙田路線的歷史），後來高中多坐火車從沙田站轉乘巴士回第一城；之前小學則是坐城巴62R，那時城巴還只提供「邨巴」尚未成為專營巴士公司呢，原來該線是促成後來城巴大幅度擴充業務的功臣！此路線至2013年9月30日方停辦，由於對沙田第一城的居民意義重大，因此第一城業主委員會特地舉行歡送活動，當日早上城巴免收此路線乘客車資，並派發朱古力批及紙包飲品答謝乘客支持，更安排最後一班開往九龍塘站的巴士（07:45由第一城開出，由車隊編號179「大食鬼」行走）在抵達九龍塘後額外免費接載乘客返回第一城。而因當日為公益金服飾日，駕駛該車的車長更穿上舊款城巴制服，令最後一天服務更添特色，可見香港有人情味的一面。

Sports high and lowlights: MLB, WC, Stanley Cup and NBA Final

First of all, may MLB hall of famer Tony Gwynn rest in peace. It's sad to see him leaving at such a young age (54) probably due to chewing tobacco usages. I saw his Padres playing against the SF Giants many times during his playing year. What an exciting player to watch as he always seem to find a way to get on base. Even after retirement from pro-ball, he still contributed to the sports by coaching his Alma Mater (San Diego State)

Speaking of the Giants, I took the kids to the park and witnessed Giants' gigantic collapse in the 9th inning (led 4-2 and ended up letting the Rockies to score 5 in that half inning) Closer Sergio Romo was not in his usual "shut-you-down" mode. Who knows if this might be the turning point of the season (which I expected the LA Dodgers would catch up and win the division hands down with their star-studded lineup)? The Giants haven't won a game since then. (And lost 6 out of 7)

As usual, this world cup is full of drama, including the surprising landslide defeat of Spain (to Holland and Chile) and Portugal (to Germany.) However, the biggest story here is of course USA beating their nemesis from the last 2 cups, Ghana, 2-1 (Even the sports radio host Jim Rome who is known for bashing soccer mentioned the game in his promo!) The USA's first goal came way too fast (< 1 min) and seemed too easy. Then their players went down one-by-one (weather, physical play) and finally gave up the equalizer to Ghana. At that point a lot of fans would be happy with a draw but that's obviously not what the team thought and they fought back with the game winning goal.

World Cup fever obviously overshadowed the Stanley Cup final (yeah, LA Kings, the team I really dislike, beat NY Rangers, the team I really like and won the cup 2-times in the last 3 years. Still remember watching LA beating NJ for the cup in a Dallas hotel on that rare biz-trip 2 years ago) and to a certain extent, the NBA final (San Antonio Spurs, the team I really respect, beat Miami Heats, the team I really don't care, and won the championship for the 5th time while the latter went 2-for-4 in the finals during the last 4 years. Gotta be considered as a disappointment given the Miami "Big 3" made it such a big deal joining force 4 years ago)