What Skateboarding is....

Dieu savez que Je n'aime pas ce dit "intelligent" C'est trop bourgeoise

Thanks to a few Singaporeans who happen to be passing through London, who I had requested that they pass the latest issue of Juice Magazine as I was curious to see what the state of Singapore music was at. Its without question that Singaporeans are well up to date with the latest of fashion trends & changing music scenes that are coming out of Europe & the states. I was amazed to see some familiar faces who were writing small articles, or been interviewed in on the spot quick interviews. I have noticed that the main editor have changed over the years but I am guessing that that for a lot of writers, photographers & contributors, this has been a good stepping stone to other areas of work?

We spent a little while at Rough Trade where I was more than happy to see the latest Joy Orbison 12" that was displayed. I could have spent a little longer digging for tunes the old school way (as appose to MP3 downloading man dem Serato mans Djs out there!) as well as spent a little more cash!! It seems this whole minimal "intelligent"( Dieu savez que Je n'aime pas ce dit "intelligent" C'est trop bourgeoise) sound is properly in the craze?

Anyway this evening we had Nando's where we ended up nearby at some pub in Shoreditch with a lovely fireplace tucked in the corner. We were just chatting away, cracking jokes however my mind has particularly been at my CIMA, Performance management paper this Tuesday which I am rather anxious about. Looking through the past papers I have notice that unlike exams set at university level where the questions can be straight forward, this assumes you have 100% knowledge of this area where you are given an uncompromising problem which requires a level
analytical solving skills to deal with it. Very professional & I do love the course however I am just feeling a little ill-prepared at the moment.















I would like to talk about Hardcore Punk Zines but that would be for later.

Medicine for Melancholy

Sarko's Penis Extension.

So it's been a rainy cold weekend in London town but I feel happy that i did some studies for my forth coming exam which I am rather stressed about it to tell you the truth. I had a nice chat with my mum who is currently in Paris as I often do every few days which which always blissful! However, not forgetting having Skype chats with Amus as well! I was reading in the Herald Tribune about France celebrating the anniversary of the making of the Eiffel towel. But looking there seemed to be question in the air in France as to what actually does the Eiffel Towel presents? Its not the Big Ben or Buckingham Palace to represent the royal family or UK's historical achievement of Empire or the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin celebrating Frederic the Great victories which came to symbolise his personal split personality of art & hunger for military prussian power. For years this would split Berlin for centuries between the left & right or the order & structure with liberal creative artistic views where finally people would rejoice in a historical wall dividing the two to be reconciled for a whole nation. For Paris the Eiffel Tower is strange one to identify but I like to see it as a symbol of forward thinking possibilities that France has come to share with her neighbors & the world. It will never be Sarko's extension of his penis!

Southbank was chillin'. had a nice session as the sun was setting across the river Thames set for another cold night. The corner of banks were wet but there was a nice dry spot to session. There were a few Fixie kids around riding around! Makes me miss my bicycle en France! I did miss out on a good documentary about the sex trade slavery that is currently exist in today's world. I am told, that this form of practice exist in this country and it is an industry that is almost as big as the arms industry! Not good.

Some Campaigning here!

Souls of Mischief

OAKLAND CITY TO LONDON!!

Sitting around in my office drinking a weak cup of coffee having an excel moment trying t to reconcile a certain account where to my distraction, I received a text message from one of the guys from Repent Skateboards/ungodlytimes about Souls of Mischief playing a free gig at the Carhartt shop at convent garden. I was definitely there!

I remember many years ago when I started skating listening to hardcore punk & hip hop, Souls of Mischief would have been played endless in my walkman whilst cruising the streets of Singapore & Perth with my skateboard. The amount of times I had to rewind 93 till infinity was just countless!!! I am just glad that I bought the CD(many years ago) & the 12" repress of that tune! ha ha.

To have seen them tonight is just a dream come through! It was really nice to see a lot of the London Skateboarding community there as well as some of the ex deal real heads present. There were a lot of skateboards and fixies just all around on the Earlham Street which I have not seen for a long time. I was wishing of my mates from Singapore was present as he is such a devout fan of this group. He has often dropped some of their tunes in his nights a few times.

Weekend has been a rather lazy one cleaning the house with my flatmate as the house was in a sad looking state. I had managed to cover a few topics for my exams though I wanted to have at least have done 2 more topics namely Budgets & Finance Variances for all those eager Financial managers out there. I had a nice Mexican meal with Tom Kartel and the rest of the London HC people around central London where we ended up at some alley way behind 12 bar for jokes since it was a Rucktion night and as always Rucktion sticks to Rucktion time when HC bands play so it was all jokes man. I later ended up at Southbank where I had a 20 min skate as I met a gang of crack heads teenagers doing all kinds of hard drugs openly which I was not too comfortable been all alone there. As I was the only one around they were having a chat with me wanting to have a go with my board which I was happy to do so but they got a little aggressive among each other so I decided to split. It really annoyed me that I had such a short skate session though upon reflecting of my days progress over some mad J Dilla beats I did feel sad for these young teenagers. With unemployment amongst the young, living in South London with no outlet to express yourself other than to Blaze some crack living with a single parent struggling to meet ends meet is a rather dark thought. As skinnyman's LP woul suggest, "Council Estate of Mine" yeah just pure fuckupness highly neglected by our politicians.

Today I did have a rather good skate session today at Southbank where there were some familiar heads around skating hard in the cold. For most part of the day was amongst my textbooks & listening to some tunes online. Mainly Rush Hour Records sounds from Holland. Good laid back intelligent sounds from Holland!!!

http://www.samurai.fm/player/index.php?id=5128

Wir sind Ein Volk

A few years ago I traveled to Berlin with a few mates of mine on a week's vacation which just opened my views. The culture, art scene, the different periods of architecture & the history were what amazed most. Despite been an old city, Berlin has been through some of massive historical changes ever since Bismark's iron rule of Prussia. Recently Berlin celebrates 20 years since the wall came down where Germany was again united.

Despite the wall & a Reunified Germany, there were still psychological borders between East Germans & the West. Despite democratic capitalist Western Europe practicing an open market economy, we still close our borders to our Eastern European neighbors with strict EU work visas. It is as though the West is still clinging to the old divisions & attitudes to the East been of a backward, poor & possibly not quite Europe.

Perhaps when we think of the collapse of the Berlin, our attention should be brought to Palestine & North Korea where there is still a great political divide. Like East Germany it was probably the old Soviet Stasi guard that instilled fear into society for many years until the final moments in the late 80s where no journalist or politician of that day would ever imagine thousands of dissident East Germans demonstrating on the streets crying out for freedom. Image if people of both sides of the border of Palestine & Korea were too do the same? Somehow I fear there would be a different circumstance

The Stasi HQ Above.

Reminding me of who I am

Yes I have spent a good half of the day sleeping & trying to revise for my exams coming up at the end of the month for the Performance Management paper for CIMA. I have tried remember certain techniques in dealing in a "financial problem" in an organisation such as the use to Absorption costing versus Marginal where I proceeded to dealing with Process costing used within an large organisation to a more tricky problem of what would be the best optimal price used to transfer a good from one department to another.......

By this time I am playing on Blip Fm, looking for new unheard tunes which I can distract myself. I am planning on going for a cold late night skate in Southbank later after I meet my mate for some quality Mexican food. There is a local all London HC gig at the 12 bar but I think I will give that a miss.

Yeah I sometimes must remind me that on such a beautiful day sunny crisp day, I probably take my board out for a skate in London Bridge or royal oak, bring my camera a long for some shots to take if i decide to take a walk somewhere and listen to J Dilla beats on my mp3 chilling at a cafe in-between all of this reading today's paper.

As much I love Finance, it does leave me cringing at times whenever I read the paper and the Bank of England decides to put a few hundred billions of Taxpayers money into the economy! There is something terribly wrong about this but we will have hundreds of academics arguing it amongst themselves as to the best possibly solution to this financial mess. Till then I am just really happy that I am surviving for now as well as many of my mates and that we are pulling through OK. For now i am just gonna think of some beats!

bless up!












Darren Dubwise Sk8ing in Singapore back in dem days

A quote from the film Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (The Edukators)
"Happy, you think they're happy? Look around, get out of that company car and walk on the street! Anyone look happy? Or more like scared animals? Look into their living rooms, all glued to the TV listening to chic zombies speaking of happiness long gone. Drive around town you'll see all the filth, the overcrowding the masses in department stores up and down like robots on escalators. Nobody knows anybody! They think happiness is an inch away but it's unreachable because you stole it. That's how it is. You know perfectly well. But I have news for you, executive: The system is overheated. We're just the forerunners, your days are almost over. Swim in your shit technology, but others are full of rage. The rage of children living in slums watching American action films. That's one part, let see, Mental illness is rising. Serial killers, shattered souls, senseless violence...You can't sedate them with game shows and shopping. The antidepressants wont work forever either. The people have had enough of your shit system."

TURN THIS ONE UP!

Remember, Remember the fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot, I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.














The gunpowder plot. In 1604, a small group of disgruntled Catholics hatched a cunning plot to kill the reigning monarch King James I during the state opening of Parliament. Their plan was to set off an explosion using 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden under the House of Lords, powerful enough to devastate Westminster, and to destroy the whole Protestant ruling class in a single great explosion, triggering a Catholic uprising in England.


Bonfire Night
The fifth of November is variously called `Firework Night', `Bonfire Night' or `Guy Fawkes Day'. An Act of Parliament was passed to appoint 5th November in each year as a day of thanksgiving for `the joyful day of deliverance' from Robert Catesby & Guy Fawke's attempts to blow up the house of Parliament in 1605 . The Act remained in force until 1859. On 5th November 1605, it is said the populace of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by fires and street festivities. Similar celebrations must have taken place on the anniversary and, over the years, became a tradition - in many places a holiday was observed.
It is still the custom in Britain on, or around, 5th November to let off fireworks. For weeks previously, children have been making guys - effigies supposedly of Fawkes - nowadays usually formed from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and equipped with a grotesque mask, to be burnt on the November 5th bonfire. The word 'guy' came thus in the 19th century to mean a weirdly dressed person (e.g. 'The lady from the provinces who dresses like a guy') and hence in the 20th century in the USA to mean, in slang usage, any male person.
Institutions and towns may hold firework displays and bonfire parties, and the same is done, despite the danger of fireworks, on a smaller scale in back gardens throughout the country. Insome areas, such as Lewes and Battle in Sussex, there are extensive processions and a great bonfire. Children exhibit effigies of Guy Fawkes in the street to collect money for fireworks













Probably a little bit of family history with regards to this.

The Houghton’s of Lancashire England were underground supporters of Catholicism during days when the Catholic Faith was outlawed. They formed a Catholic secret underground society where the likes of William Shakespeare, Thomas Houghton , Alexander Houghton, Richard Houghton, Barthotomew Hesketh, Thomas Jenkins, Father Edmund Compain , John Finch, Debdale, Hunt & Robert Catesby where as you know further were recruited members of this secret society of the gunpowder plotters whose base was at Houghton Tower in the north of England in Lancaster.

Conflict

The lyrics taken from a Conflict track, My mate Darren from Singapore had posted recently posted on Facebook and somehow I felt inspired to listen to some Conflict tunes! Good music and unquestionably good conscience lyrics.


Do you know that at least 70% of the human population of this planet starve and many more do not get enough to eat? You must now be familiar with reports of the famine In Ethiopia, where the weather has been so dry that crops fall, where the people are so hungry they have to walk many miles to the nearest relief station where there might be food If people have been generous. In any one station at least 40 people a day die. totally shrivelled. They haven't the energy to brush away the flies that are waiting for THEIR meal. These people are the victims of our western governments. In Britain alone there are massive great food stores where surplus grain sits, In the EEC there are food mountains, In America farmers are paid to destroy part of their harvest, while big corporations plunder the 3rd world countries at the expense of the natives. Why Is this - economics, the science of greed. That which says people must pay western prices for their food. Natural starving countries can't afford this especially when their government takes the best first. The western government have plenty of money. They tax us on our income, then they tax us on what we buy. They take the money we have worked for and use It to buy arms. They would rather be able to destroy the world 12 instead of 10 times over than transport surplus food to those who die. Indeed, they become ill through obesity. Must we tolerate these obscenities? When soon even we may be starving because of their taxes.

Some people don't see the connections between big business and destruction. The biggest murderers are MacDonald's. Not only do they breed and slaughter millions of cattle, great rain forests are pulled down to make way for grazing ground. This destroys hundreds of unique species each time not to mention the fact that we need trees to produce oxygen for the planet. Many birds In North America migrate to these forests, on arriving and finding no forest they die. The drop In population of birds means more insects and the Americans only answer to this is pesticide. We all know about factories who manufacture pesticide, you know about Union Carbide. They're an American Company who set up dangerous plants. It doesn't matter, nearly 3,000 Indians are now dead due to their callousness, thousands have strokes and injuries that will never heal. Innocent people who had done nothing, whose life is not easy anyway, and why? So America can steal food from the starving millions.

Nearly all big business, is based on explanation of the worst kinds. Cosmetic companies use dead animals to make their products, then poison many more by feeding it to them with the end result of encouraging sexism by convincing men and women to look the same as each other. Advertising promotes this and advertising of any kind usually portrays women as a sex object only, there to be raped. Drug companies (like Roche & ICI) claim to Invent new drugs to cure Imagined diseases. Thousands die at the hands of their useless research. They try to make drugs to cure heart disease which was originally caused by the sufferer eating meat and dairy products to excess. Booker McConnell own everything from butchers to health shops, as long as the cash rolls in who cares? Other companies who make machinery and domestic appliances (like Thorn EMI.) also makes defence gadgetry. British Aerospace specialize In fighters in favour of passenger jets. Governments pay more for weaponry that domestic consumers pay for domestic items. That's why many many companies world wide clamour for defence orders, some would go bankrupt without them. The final Industry, uranium mining, sponsored in Britain by RTZ plunders the landscape, kills the wildlife,exploits the natives and gives them cancer. The product makes bombs to kill all and 15 used for nuclear fuel. The kind of power that produces waste which can be pumped Into the sea In Cumbria. Deformed babies and children dying and leukaemia are coincidences we are told

Drum & Bass - East London

Yeah! I was at this party last Wednesday !!! It was amazing!

http://www.breakbeat.co.uk/dnbtv/watch/dbtv_live_special_east_village_blame_j_majik_wickaman_spy_artificial_intelligence_amc_stamina_eksman.aspx

Watch out for the last tune that A.I played!

Quite an unproductive weekend I have had. I will probably blame on the fact that I went to 3 different parties on a Friday night where I came home at about 7.00am which ruined my whole day. I was quite happy to meet an old friend of mine in Brixton(His house party). Its funny as I use to play cricket with him back at the SCC(as well as both our dads) on the Padang as well as skate with him at memorial in Singapore so it was definitely a trip down memory lane. After the early hours of the night chit chatting along Bob Marley Street (yes there is a street in Brixton by this name), I ended up at Corsica studios for some heavy dubstep followed by some dnb at fabric. My Saturday was gone with just sleep!

Sunday was just spent with my CIMA studies! I can now give you sound advise on your investment if you choose to investment £5 million in a business whilst comparing the performance of the asset management of an organisation. Yeah!

I am really tired mentally. I could write about other things with some trouble!

Bless up!

BTW guess which is Singapore's most famous writer that sold millions around the world?