MLB All- Blizzard team

This is probably written by an East Coast MLB writer who has nothing better to write about during the snow storm.  

Catcher, Jarrod "Salty" Saltalamacchia
First base, J.T. Snow
Second baseman, Ski Melillo
Shortstop, John Shovlin
Third base, David Freese
Left Field, Coco Crisp
Center field, Devon White
Right field, Cool Papa Bell
Designated hitter, Chili Davis
Starting pitcher, Sandy Koufax
Closer, Tom "Plowboy" Morgan
National Anthem, Frozen's Idina Menzel
Ceremonial first pitch, Vanilla Ice

BTW, J.T. Snow was also the answer to the trivia question on MLB.com: Who was the last Giants first baseman to win a Gold Glove Award?

The age of paper

In the past there were archaeological periods called stone age, middle ages, industrial age...... someone asked on Quora what ours will be known as and the top voted answer was: the age of paper (maybe nearing the end of it) Think of how important these paper-based artifacts were to our civilization in the past few centuries: paper money, birth certificate, stock certificate, contracts, computer punch cards, books, paintings...... etc, just to name a few. I think it's a good point. Found another article about the importance of paper (even in today's digital age where many of the above have been replaced by its digital equivalent) For example, at the very digital company Pixar, well-known for its movies made with computer graphics, a lot of the ideas were actually drawn on paper before they made it to the final product. And there's another reason to stick with paper: a study found those who read ebook before they go to sleep take longer to fall asleep and also have less quality sleep, when compared to those who read paper book! (Side note: I have a love-hate relationship with Quora. I enjoy reading many interesting questions and intelligent/informative answers on it. However, one have to log on to read so I can't really link to its article. Also, it sends weekly emails to the account that I used for logging on and I wasn't able to unsubscribe)

Some books that I've read (and some I haven't)

這幾年我的閱讀口味算相當「穩定」，非小說類以琴棋書畫相關題材為主，2013/14年讀了：

• Chuck Klosterman-Fargo Rock City.主題是作者在美國比較荒蕪的州份長大成為hair metal死忠的經歷。
• Eric Siblin-The Cello suite.作者以中提琴大師Pablo Casal發現巴哈這套無伴奏中提琴傑作手稿為主線，講述兩者生平故事。
• Marilyn Yalom-Birth of the Chess queen.象棋本無皇后（或女皇）一子，作者探討發展出該棋的歷史背景及可能因素，包括歐洲多位權重一時的女皇的故事，老實說有點沉悶。
• 祝君波-藝術品投資指南.作者是藝術品拍賣界老行尊，本書介紹了多個不同類別藝術品市場的特點及歷年變化。
• Sarah Thornton-Seven days in the art world.對於藝術界如何運作,例如拍賣會,Art Fair,博物館,藝術家年度獎,工作室,藝術雜誌社等等,作為行外人的我實在覺得十分神秘,讀完本書後認識增加不少.

小說則仍以日本作家中譯本佔大多數，包括近年產量不多的村上春樹及與之相反的推理小說大師東野圭吾，一位好友讀了不少其作品再轉贈給我（有一本更是他多買的！）：

• 村上春樹-沒有色彩的多崎作和他的巡禮之年
• 東野圭吾-分身、十一字殺人、迴廊亭殺人事件、幻夜、黎明破曉的街道
• 松本清張-寶藏疑雲。松本是比東野早一代的推理小說家，多年前我已讀過他的經典作品點與線及天城山奇案，這是他1960年的作品，同樣引人入勝兼發人深省。

過去幾年的「新」嘗試是找些American Classics來讀讀，包括：

• Truman Capote-Breakfast at Tiffany's
• F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Great Gatsby
• Raymond Chandler-The Lady in the Lake

選擇這些皆因他們都是村上春樹（或書中主角）頗為欣賞的小說家。

14年底借了買了好幾本書將於本年頭讀完（過去幾年返港買落不少書都只是開了頭！）包括：

• 東野圭吾-聖女的救贖
• 吳樹-誰在收藏中國.作者以一個藝術愛好者及記者的身份探究中國藝術品買家賣家種種不尋常的現象。
• Marc Myers-Why Jazz Happened.認識爵士樂歷史的樂迷相信都知道爵士樂各種風格的演變，不過就未必知道和音樂本身無關但促成這些演變背後的重要因素，那就是本書的主題。
• 葉漢良-談玄述異(1)作者曾是頗為有名的廣播人，後習術數，這是他寫的一系列紫微斗數書籍的第一本，其實是雜論，引述了不少思想家、畫家、作家、心理學家等等對命運人性的論述，也是我比較有興趣的課題。

最後想講的是年度最佳書籍，我跟從Best of 2013讀了Stanley Crouch寫Charlie Parker的Kansas City Lightning，另一本頗有興趣的是以IT為背景的小說The Circle；看過Best of 2014 tech books，也有提及The Circle：指其作者不曾嘗試接觸IT人及行業，純屬老作！以上連結介紹的幾本書似乎頗有趣，打算去圖書館找找。

Stephen Hough and his page turner

This was an interesting article written by classical pianist Stephen Hough from 2009 and I wanted to recommend it back then. For those not familiar with classical music performances, when there are many pages of sheet music for the piece being performed (mostly happens for chamber music or accompanists. Soloists are required to memorize the whole piece no matter how many pages) the performers would be too busy to turn the page when it ends for themselves so this would be done by someone called, well, the page turner. His article mentioned novel/movies using the (destructive) relationship between a musician and a page turner as the theme. He actually has a positive/constructive page turner experience: the young music student who turned the page for him during a recording session noticed one note was wrong and pointed it out to him!

Blues playlist

I was feeling the blues the other day and realized I haven't written about it for a while. In fact, I haven't listened to much other than Johnny Winter's "Nothing But the Blues" when he passed away last year :( I also like the album "Badlands" by Trampled Under Foot earlier in the year. Found this list of award winners from May 2014 and decided to check some of them out:

• Lurrie Bell carries the torch of Chicago Blues passed down by musicians like his dad Carrie Bell. "Blues in my Soul" is the name of his album from 2013.
• Another electric Blues guitarist that I have been listening to is Toronzo Cannon, who released "John the Conquer Root" in 2013.
• Also in 2013, folk rocker Ben Harper teamed up with Blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite for the awesome album "Get Up!" 
• Speaking of harmonica, the tribute album to Little Walter by Musselwhite and other harmonica greats like Mark Hummel was getting a lot of attention in 2014. Here is a video that features Billy Boy Arnold from the album:

I have never heard of this album

... yet I agree with the writer of this article "The Most Important Album You've Never Heard." No exaggeration here. Check out the "All-star" lineup listed! $25 in 1949 was probably quite a lot of money, even for a set of six 78-rpm albums with photo. Of course it's collectible items (there were 5000 of them signed and numbered by famed producer Norman Granz) and I confirmed on ebay: one set was listed for $699. Even the reissued CD is hard to find: a "Deluxe version" of 2 CDs are available on Amazon for $211.99. Can't go wrong with tracks from jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker ... etc. You could actually listen to some of them on YouTube:

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.