4-Time NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon's retirement

The 43 year old Gordon just announced 2015 will be his last season. I'm surprised 'coz he's still very competitive in 2014 and could easily race 10 more years. Well, I guess he prefers to go out when he's still that good. For a moment I wanted to write going out on the top but to be honest the years that #24 dominated the field have been behind him for a while even though he's still winning races. I expect to see him winning a few more this season.

The GRAMMY Museum Went Metal

I was at the GRAMMY Museum last X'mas. Took my daughter to see the Taylor Swift exhibition on the 2nd floor. It would have been "Golden Gods: The History Of Heavy Metal" if we went in 2012! Well, when "GRAMMY" and "metal" appeared in the same sentence, the first thing I thought of was the inaugural GRAMMY metal award debacle: given to a band (Jethro Tull) that didn't even play metal.

Action camera pioneer, and Apple

Did Apple computer invented the first smartphone, the first MP3 player, and the first Windows GUI? Some people would like to make you think so. Add action camera to the list. Apple has been granted patents for wearable camera. It's a matter of time that you see GoPro listed alongside Handspring, MPMan and Xerox.

肯肯定

我在香港的朋友很很喜歡用這一句潮語，已有大半年，我也不為意，起初還以為是輸入錯誤呢。原來這話大有來頭，乃係經典金句王鍾樹根博士2013之作。

French Music at Noontime concerts

I went to St. Mary cathedral 2 weeks in a row. January is French Music fest for Noontime Concerts. I skipped the first one because not too interested in music that featured recorders. However, last week's spotlight was clarinet while this week was viola. These 2 rank high on my favorite instrument list! I enjoyed the French clarinet sonatas a whole lot last week and this week we got to listen to "Harold in Italy," probably the most famous viola-centric piece ever. Since it is program music (which has a "story" behind unlike the "abstract" ones), the violist Jennifer Stumm spent a lot of time explaining it, including the Harold motif. She did a great job. It was originally an orchestral piece as composed by Hector Berlioz (who was French and thus "qualified" this piece for the French Music fest) but the great pianist/composer Franz Liszt transcribed it for viola + piano (It was the orchestral version that I've heard before.) And guess who "commission" the composition in the first place? The great violinist Paganini! He got a Strad viola but didn't think there was any suitable piece for him to show it off so he asked Berlioz to write one. After it was written, Paganini was not happy because of too much rest in the viola part! However, his attitude changed 180 degrees after hearing a performance of the piece and started singing its praises (and paid Berlioz :)

The mystery of a 132-year-old Winchester rifle

It was found in a National park in Nevada recently, after leaning against a tree for years untouched! Check out the pic in the link. It looked so "blended" in to the surrounding (i.e., the big old tree) Amazing huh?

Yet another dramatic finish for a football game

Even though the NFC championship game played between Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks last weekend didn't qualify as the "comeback of the year" (so far, 3 weeks into 2015. That belonged to the Houston Cougars who came back from a 25-pt deficit to beat Pitt in the Armed Force Bowl 2 weekends ago) The Packers are my #2 favorite team after the Cowboys. Didn't have high hope on them after them beating the Cowboys a weekend ago (They kept their perfect home record vs the Cowboys who lost their first road game of the season then) as the Seahawks had the home field. I was surprised they got to a 16-0 lead (in a hindsight they missed several opportunities to score TD instead of FGs, which would have given them a 20+ point lead) I actually felt bad for former Wisconsin QB Russell Wilson's poor performance (multiple interceptions with a QB rating of 0 in the first half) and was rooting for him to make a few good plays in the 2nd half. Well, not just him but the whole team made more than a few good plays (including a recovered onside kick) to get ahead of the Packers by 3. The Packers tied it with another FG at the end of the game to force OT. And the rest is history: Wilson threw another long TD to take the team to the Superbowl.

The AFC championship was the complete opposite: the Pats were so dominating that I switched to a NHL game before it's over. Andrew used up his good luck for Indy this season, I guess. The most exciting part of the 2014/15 season was over before this game started (Superbowl games are usually more hype than substance compared to the previous 2 rounds of playoff!)

Another tech company acquisition

Another proof that good tech startup is in demand: Facebook just bought one called QuickFire networks, who is specialized in technology that helps viewing high-quality video with low bandwidth. Yes, I want to use that technology too, probably some sort of advanced compression algorithms?

日本棋壇

繼上一篇講中日名人對決，本文也和中日棋壇有一點關係。剛讀了一篇題為「日本業餘段位可花錢買，前棋聖指導棋收費260元」的文章，本以為又是中國傳媒立場偏頗之作，不過文中受訪曾經留學日本並在當地業餘棋賽勝出的王劭，不只態度謙虛，其意見亦甚為中肯。他指日本棋壇今不如昔主因是棋迷太少，高棋力沒有甚麼經濟效益（在道場下指導棋只收人民幣260的是羽根直樹，真想有機會跟他學習學習！）我看兩者互為惡性循環呢。王劭指羽根直樹其實也不是為了這一點錢，主要還是推動圍棋，下得十分認真，這是日本人值得尊敬的地方。

該文又提到日本棋院如何提供段位證書，原來是把考試題目登在棋院刊物，申請者只需郵寄作答並付費，雖然不知有幾多人為了一紙請槍，相信總也會有吧。日本棋院收費實在不低，此文提到東京一位76歲老棋迷為了業餘8段所收的100萬賣掉祖傳土地，認真熱心！

The inaugural College Football Playoff championship game

Yes, there's playoff in the 2014/2015 season, first time ever! Even though it's a 4-team playoff such that good teams like TCU was left out, the 3 games were good and headline-generating. As a Wisconsin Badger, a lot of my friends/schoolmates are Buckeye haters (except for two of my best friends who are Buckeyes themselves) I tried to convince them a Buckeye victory could potentially lift up the image of the whole Big 10 conference (this article said the same thing) So I was glad that they won, convincingly, over the mighty (pun intended) Oregon Ducks with the Heisman winning QB "Super Mario."

霧之音樂

昨天在大霧中拍了一張相，貼的時候懶感性加幾句歌詞，腦海第一首浮現的當然是霧之戀！今天繼續大霧，想想還有甚麼歌好貼？原來不是想像中那麼多歌和霧有關，只想到爵士低音大師Charles Mingus的Pithecanthropus Erectus碟中有一首A Foggy Day。翻查一下方知那是Gershwin的作品，Rhapsody上有極多不同版本，包括Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan唱的版本，純器樂的也有極多選擇，剛聽過的是我最推崇的結他手Grant Green Cool Blues收錄那首。

再Google songs about fog，除了A Foggy Day，沒有那一首聽過，真有點意外。其實中文歌關於雨的名曲多的是，相比之下，以霧為題又出名的，似乎僅此一首霧之戀，我還以為林子祥有一首，Google似霧迷離，找到的是王靖雯未改回本名王菲時代一首可否抱緊我（由家駒作曲，十分Beyond流行曲feel，唱片公司新藝寶照顧自己友，歌詞中有這麼一句：書中翻看古今的記載 愛恨似霧迷離）

阿Lam那首是似夢迷離才對，不查不知那是改編自Michel Legrand為法國電影The Umbrellas of Cherbourg的配樂，故事老土得來也不算太差：小情侶攪大肚、因戰事分別、各自結婚多年後重逢......片名提到的雨傘是女角家開的店賣的貨品，和霧也沒有關係:P

ATV and its die-hard fans

For those who don't know, Hong Kong currently has 2 companies that broadcast TV over the air: TVB and ATV. TVB has been the dominant one all these years while ATV got worse and worse, rating-wise as well as financially. The result of its most recent financial trouble is that it is still owing its employee salaries from November and December 2014 as of 1/12/2015. I guess being pro-government has its perks: the company is still not shutdown for its violation of labor practices. The amazing thing is: one of the helping hand surprisingly comes from its rival TVB! TVB has paid ATV a few millions (HK$) for rights to some old/historical black-and-white movies. And when ATV's folks appeared at a local charity walk event, some onlookers actually shouted words of support. (I wonder if my dad was there)

世界圍棋名人爭霸戰

顧名思義，是由世界各地（中日韓）圍棋名人戰冠軍對戰。原來已辦了四屆，今年決賽由中國陳耀燁執黑以3/4目險勝日本井山裕太。
值得一提的是比賽採用中國規則而非井山名人較熟悉的日本規則，局中一處雙活黑算一目，可能井山沒有計在內，說不定就因此成為了勝負關鍵，讓聶老有機可乘抽水說陳贏得不夠光彩。

Justice is served, by EA Sports

Well, it's more like a PR thing. Here's the story: a kid won the grand prize of a copy of Madden 15 for PS4 given out by a radio station in Texas but he was denied the prize. Why? Some said it's because he wore a Detroit Lions jersey while the show was clearly geared towards the local Dallas Cowboys fans. Anyway, they had him replayed the game and ended up giving him another prize (DVDs of the first season of the 60s Batman TV series. And they threw in a Led Zeppelin CD after the family talked to them. I guess I would enjoy these prizes more but not sure about that kid) EA learned of this and sent the kid not only the Madden 15 he deserved but also a PS4 and a mini-Lions helmet signed by Calvin "the Megatron" Johnson. Nice touch. 

Metal playlist

Now that 2014 is over, I gotta say it was a pretty good year for metal fans. Arch Enemy, At the Gates, Overkill, Exodus and Obituary have all released new albums last year and are definitely my top choices for best of 2014 (you could also see the lists by Loudwire and the Rollingstone. Gotta give credit to Rhapsody for compiling a list "that metal critics embraced in 2014 that were not included" in Rhapsody's own top 25) Why? An album from an established band (i.e., all of the above) that I consider as good either sounds just like what they are at their best or breaking new grounds on par with their best efforts ever. To be honest, the latter is rare and I would be extremely happy when my favorite bands achieve the former, which they all did. It's especially difficult for Arch Enemy, who has replaced their front lady Angela Gossow with the equally amazing Alissa White-Gluz (not only does she has a pretty face but also great voice/capability) and At the Gates, who has not made a new album for 19 years. Tomas Lindberg maintained his unique style of melodic-death vocal with lots of urgency and clarity.

More on Arch Enemy: I saw them at SF in November and was really impressed. Alissa pretty much stuck by Angela Gossow's vocal style and nailed the classic Arch Enemy tunes. I gotta admit fans are really hard to please: I read some criticisms on the band's first album with Alissa that they played it safe instead of taking advantage of her different voice (which she demonstrated with her previous band) I bet there will be tons of naysayer if that was the case. Anyway, the openers for the show were equally awesome, featuring Huntress (another band with a front woman. Jill Janus is my goddess), Kreator (the legendary Thrash band) and Starkill (a up-and-coming melodic death band)
      
More on band with a front woman: the band Flyleaf was probably brought to my attention by one of the "ladies in metal" special from metal mag/sites. I wanted to write about them after listening to their 2012 album "New Horizons" (the post has been in draft status for a long time) The band certainly rocked (with alternative sound instead of traditional metal) but the major talking point about this band was actually them being Christians but kinda resisted to being labelled as a Christian band. Well, I guess there's a reason for such a label. (I mean, there are lots of Americans that are Christians who have formed bands and were not labelled as such) And the label might have helped their career. To be honest, I won't even write about them without this talking point (the current and former front ladies were not hot enough :P)

More on band that I wanted to write about in 2012: Japanese metal pioneer Loudness' "Soldier of Fortune" got a ton of air play in late 80s as I recalled. It was indeed a very catchy tune. A bit too catchy for the rest of the album to "catch up" I must say. I guess that's why they fell off my radar after that album (the cassette cost me HKD40 back in the days which was a lot of money so my expectations were always high.) I think their record company had really high hope for the band to succeed in US during that period with a replacement of the original Japanese vocalist by an American one and hiring Fates Warning's producer to co-produce this hair metal-oriented album. 13 years later I came across an ad of its 2012 release "Eve to Dawn" and got me interested again. The reviews were quite good and I learned that they went back to the original Japanese root (reunited with the original vocalist) In hindsight it's probably bad timing for them to come to US and join the hair metal scene when it was about to end. They are certainly more adapted and capable of playing heavier songs. Another 2012 release titled "2.0.1.2" proved my point.   

Chinese food is everywhere, even in Peru

We were discussing whether my son could survive traveling and I brought up the fact that everywhere in the world has Chinese restaurants (It's because you could find Chinese immigrants everywhere in the world as evident by the TV series 尋找他鄉的故事. And Chinese are good at opening restaurants.) Our boss will move to Peru and he told me Peru has a localized version of Chinese food called Chifa. This style came from Chinese (Guangzhou) immigrants moved there in late 19th and early 20th century. I'm curious what it's like as I actually enjoy Americanized Chinese food.

2015 Class of MLB Hall of Fame

I found out I wrote about the same topic on the 1st week last year and couldn't resist to write the same this year because it's special: 4 players were inducted in 2015, which hasn't happened for a long time. And one of them played for the Giants (and finished the career with them!) That is, of course, the "Big Unit" Randy Johnson. The rest are Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio (I was rooting for him to get in last year! Hopefully Piazza will make it next year) All excellent choices.

I came across an interesting article that listed the stats of matchups between these Hall of Famers. It's hard to get decent results against great players! Biggio actually hit over .300 against Pedro. The surprising fact is that considering the length of their careers -- Johnson never played against Martinez and only faced Smoltz once!

Another interesting topic is what caps they will wear at the hall. I'm especially curious about Big Unit's choice (which is unlikely to be the Giants :P) I remember he rose to stardom as a Mariner but found out he actually had his best years with the D-Backs so I bet he will be wearing that cap.

Traveling with Musical Instruments

My general rule is: don't, because the airlines like to pick on you when you do. Well, not in US anymore after the Department of Transportation ruled on this. The DOT has decided that musical instruments, such as violins and guitars, are considered a carry-on item the same as other luggage. These instruments can be stored in overhead storage and under seats as long as they meet requirements for commercial passenger flights. (Billboard's article has a nice pic of 2 Fender Jazzmasters) Kinda wish I brought my Jaguar back to HK to play at the school reunion dinner last year but then international flights are not regulated by DOT.

Calendar Event Custom alert time

I have been a detractor of iOS products for years with mixed (more negative than positive) experiences on early generations of iPod, iPhone and iPad. Gotta admit I became more mellow these days and actually think it might be possible to live in an iWorld without other OS. I mean, there are enough things to do on an iPad to occupy all 24 hours of a day in your life (if you have an electrical outlet nearby or an external battery :P) But then there are moments that reminded me I still need a non-iOS device to achieve some very simple goals, like setting a "3 week before" reminder of an event on the calendar (You can't do that with the builtin Calendar app of iOS8) which I had to perform with my Android phone.

Christmas jazz

I went to two jazz shows last December and (surprise surprise!) both played quite a bit of X'mas music. The first one was the great organist Joey DeFrancesco and his trio playing at Cafe Stritch right in the heart of downtown San Jose. He also played the night before at the Yoshi's (Oakland) and I missed it so I was glad that he played another show in the Bay Area (and it's even closer!) Joey DeFrancesco carried the great tradition of funky and soulful organ jazz (think Jimmy Smith and Dr. Lonnie Smith) Even though the venue is kinda small (compared to the big SFJAZZ center where I saw him play with Bobby Hutcherson and David Sanborn last time) and still have a few empty spaces (I got a table on the balcony all by myself), he definitely brought his A-game. Nothing beats catching a performance by a player like Joey D in his prime. This show is actually part of a regular Hammond B3 organ series organized by local jazz radio DJ Pete Fallico at Cafe Stritch. I also saw a performance by the great Tammy Hall (I consider her the first lady in jazz organ in the area) earlier.

And I finally went to Yoshi's to see smooth jazz guitarist Peter White's show (featuring guest saxophonist Mindi Abair and trumpeter Rick Braun) All three are arguably the biggest name in the smooth jazz scene this year (check out the 2014 Smooth jazz charts and you will see their current albums respectively) Even though I normally prefer performances with more artistic than entertainment value, I gotta say I enjoyed the show and had lots of fun watching them playing familiar holiday tunes (Abair was a decent vocalist as well) and their own pieces. You could hear great techniques and creativity "under the cover" so to speak.

Before ending this post I just wanna mention one more piece of (sad) news regarding Yoshi's: I wouldn't need to qualify the venue with the city where it is located anymore because there's only one Yoshi's left, the one in Oakland. Yoshi's SF has officially changed hands in November and it's called the Addition now. I felt quite disappointed as a jazz fan since THE premiere SF jazz club is gone (the Addition is said to be focused on world music and more. Here is another detailed analysis by SFWeekly.) I had fond memories of great performances by Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, Pharoah Sanders, Mads Tolling... etc at Yoshi's SF. It seems that the "new" ownership group (which was formed by formerly minority owners) blamed the financial failure on low attendance (because of the music genre?) and the menu with high-priced Japanese food. In addition to different styles of music, the Addition will feature a different type of cuisine and a different seating model (assigned seat vs first-come-first-serve) The new system sounds like an improvement (to be honest I don't miss the old way of getting my seat.) And I hope the new menu works out for them. (even though I thought the pricey Japanese food on the old menu actually deserved it because of the quality and the location. Hey, it's SF after all) The writing was kinda on the wall about its demise though since it filed bankruptcy a few years ago and also SFJAZZ opening its door. RIP Yoshi's SF. You will be missed alongside other formerly awesome SF jazz clubs like Jazz At Pearl's.