Happy Australia Day!!

As it was Australia Day I had to watch this.

It is interesting to note that at the start of this youtube clip features Andrew Symonds an Australian Test cricketer who wears the Baggy green with pride. He is actually a Birmingham born lad of English & West Indian Background which in the laws of the England Wales Cricket is an England-qualified player but choose his loyalty to the Australian team, his new adoptive country. This is probably what best sums Australia as how I experienced and come learn of during my few years (10 years) in Perth, West Australia, A young laid back forward thinking nation that is up and ready for any sitution that is faced with.

Watching Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona for the second was such a blissful way to spend the Sunday evening after a rather good skate session at Southbank. It just reminded of how beautiful Spain is being partly the energy of the city, the live vibrant colours and the warmth of its people. A rather far away experience from the Grey streets of London City, but it is still the city I love. I noticed that that there has been a lot of Fashion photography primarily by student looking photographers at Southbank. I can see why it would be a good place as it does have this uncanny grimey look to the pleasures of your hardcore deconstructive architect out there with all the sharp edges, pillers and banks which are all seriously graffed.

Speaking of Fashion photograph, there is one name by the name of Norman Parkinson where I manage to check out a display of his work at Somerset House. As a photographer I felt he enjoyed using a lot of outside everyday scenes as his background sometimes giving it a big twist as will see below.

















For the first time I managed to go into Fabric night club on a Saturday night which a friend of mine had free guess pass. The story of this was that on the Saturday evening after another skate session somewhere in London I met up with this Singaporean mate who I use to skate back in the days for a dinner around town where we ended up have drinks at some HK Cafe. Yeah glad to hear he is really settled with this Norwegian girl he met some time ago. By the end of our little meet up I did just want to go home that night but I thought I would just meet up with another friend or mine near by who I knew was at some pub before he was going to Fabric for the Saturday night of cheesy Techno house music. As there was a free guest pass going, i thought it would be worth a look. Yes I did find it to be quite a bore except for the small room which played Broken Beats/Deep House. Saturday night at Fabric reminded me so much of a bad night out at Zouk. (Fabric is much better) I was just hoping there was a prata waiting for me at river valley somewhere??

Right, its Monday. I got an early one tomorrow. I have to look for a college to do my CIMA course which I have to make a decision by this Wednesday at least. Its all hard work from now! Lets hope this week goes well. My dearest Girlfriend is watching an opening to the new Chow Yun Fat film, "Confucius". I hope she enjoys it!

Bless Up!

Choice of Music : Rush Hour Records.nl

In response to Britain doesn't have "cafe culture"

Yeah my initial impression is that the UK has only recently discovered that European cafe lifestyle which is a little odd considering that first coffee house in Christendom was Oxford around the middle 17th Century where it was slowly made popular in London only a few years later. The London Coffee Houses (notice i did not use the european word, cafe) were places where one could sit and discuss a wide range of topics from personal, business, general news as well as some public debate. I am also lead to believe that in some of the London Coffee houses there use to be a news reader speaker for someone to catch up with the news. Interestingly enough these coffee houses mainly catered to the London merchants of the hey day such as the Lloyds of London, where they would meet up near Fenchurch to have a coffee and talk business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_Coffee_House... See More

The problem is that at the same time Ale & Gin(an import from Holland) became very popular especially among the Working class community since water could not be drank before Victorian pipes infected with lead were built. As you may know this nation was addicted to Gin some 200 years ago which I believe somehow in the English culture there is this prevalent need for drunkenness and some public dishonor & Riots (Probably a healthy sign at that time of the liberal movement)

Anyhow the story goes that A lot of coffee houses in London towards the late 19th closed or converted to pubs. I am guessing the real issue here is a class gap in the UK, another issue which I believe has only recently been addressed in the last 20 years.

Maybe Nicholas I of Russia was right when he refereed the west as "The Sick Man of Europe". However, we are this happy breed of men who live on his earth of Majesty, this seat of Mars, demi-paradise, this fortress, built by nature for herself, against infection, and the hand of war, This England. ha ha ha... ok thats enuff crap from me...

What more can I say? This is inspiring!!

The other day I was Kevin' McCloud's documentary if Slumming It on Channel 4. Its a documentary of where he spends most of his time studying the slums of Mumbai against the wealth and prosperity of the city. What amazed me was the fact that just about half of the city are living in slums which are literally unfit of human living. Even rats die in such conditions. However what was extraordinary was of how well educated the locals of Mubai slums were. They spoke both good English and Hindi. They worked hard recycling nearly 90% of all plastic they had collected from the city's waste land and they lived in a tight spirited community. There was this sad scene of a recent redeveloped area of tall dilapidated buildings which were built so close to each other which was apparently a solution to the slums. Apparently The rooms of these buildings very small and there is hardly any light. Very depressive and inclusive from the community of the slums. It was scene similar to Kowloon Wall City which as you know was destroyed in the 90s. Again urban planning which was probably miscalculated misinterpreted by local architects who very likely never visited these slums? I will spare my harsh criticism as it seems like delicate problem in loving Mumbai's slums. The real issue is that people of living of Mumbai desperately need clean water, good drains and sewage pipes. Funny i remember seeing similar scenes in Jakarta of small slummed out cities under freeways right in the heart of the city. Amazing that you can find a lavish shopping centre, hotel and private clubs right next to such places. Probably my western guilt that feels uncomfortable by this as no one seems bothered by this?


So from what I hear, Singapore has only donated a laughable sum of $50,000(US) to aid earthquake victims of Haiti which I am guessing is only just seen as a kind gesture. I guess this is better than nothing. Today was such a downtempo rainy day. I was stupid enough to go to southbank to see if there was any dry spot to skate which i was not surprise of my disappointment. I did just end up at Fopp records to buy dvds. One of them been Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Yes a chick flic though I just love Woody Allen flics. There's a few parties around London tonight but for some reason I am quiet comfortable staying at home. I just feel like clearing my mind after a hard week at the office which don't get me wrong I love the work! It's just been a mentality challenging! I do want to wake up early and just go skateboarding and take some photos with my lomo fish eye camera which my beautiful GF had bought for me in Hong kong.

Some nice cheering up music!!

Mass burials after Haiti quake

It seems that Haiti is such an unlucky country from the wounds of 17th Century French Slave port to its uprising to Independence, countless civil wars and years of dictatorship together with a share of drug related political gang war fares whilst remaining one of poorest nation on the word. This would have been the another dark chapter that its people will have to endure. My prayers too all those in Haiti.

I love MP3s but...

Photo: Rasadave

What a week it has been for the start of 2010. It was mainly catching for the days not worked during the Christmas Break as well as doing the month end closure within the finance department. Nevertheless we managed to get through with some difficulties. I was happy to get on a guess list for Fabric to see Hudson Mohaw, instrumental, D Bridge, 25-65 as well as other deep dnb, 2-step, wonkie garage, Wonky artist. Strange that the whole night every room was dedicated to a type of listener who are into these genres. Wonky is quite a strange term to use as a genre to describe electronic music of mid range unstable synths to the technical listener out there where by this artist by the name of Flying Lotus came to be greatly associated with. I remember in 2005 when Flying Lotus came to play a show at deal real, it was still just called Hip Hop music and that producers such as Flying Lotus of Dr Who Dat aka Janerio Jarel were merely out shoots of the J Dilla Detroit sound. Anyway the night was great except for the pushing and shoving of a lot of middle class kids who were on something nasty that they bought from the doggie looking drug dealer outside Farringdon station. I think Jump up kids are more "safe" when it comes to moving about in a crowd! ha ha!

I wanted to skate today but I spend the day chatting with my Girl Friend in Hong Kong who I miss dearly plus it was super cold! I will make a point to go tomorrow! A friend from London now living in Japan took this shot of me skating the bank! ha ha! Yeah was really cool meeting up as we just went down memory lane of the old southbank & deal real days!! Ah those days!



Photo by: Adrian (www.flickr.com/photos/broken_rhythm)

Sunday

Woke up late as how I have been for the last 10 days where I made a quick cheapo instant coffee since I ran out of the good fresh coffee I bought from Vienna. I am thinking what I should buy? I guess this is what people buying hand bags must go through when they next buy the latest LV bag? My mother was telling of a funny incident in Singapore where she was with some ladies having tea in the afternoon where she met this one lady in particular who was well keeled with LV, and it was not just the massive looking bag with the vulgar bright colours. Anyway she asked my mum as to how to pronounce this word LV in French to which my mum refused to tell her on the grounds that she has never heard of the brand as she probably cannot afford it( of course she knows the brand).

What Economic Crisis?



Anyway, I made my way to Southbank again for another quick skate before I ended up at Cafe 1001 around Shoreditch where I met up with a mate. The back room was playing some nice minimal Tech that sounded very Paul Kalkbrenner or Delsin. The coffee there was disappointing but I can't blame them for the 100's of people they serve on the weekend. We ended up at another mate's place for dinner for some good chats and music.

Its the new year and it has been a great one for the last few days. I managed to go over to Paris to see my mum where I spent Christmas of which for 8 days I spent my time with my mum. There was a day where I did catch up with some mates of mine around East Paris for a Pre NYE party which I find to be the most laid back area of the city. Similar to Shoreditch/Dalston of London. On the NYE eve I came back to London which I wished I stayed in Paris but it did not matter as I was with some good people around me on NYE Eve!! Its been quite terrible year for a some people and on a global scale as well. I just pray for that this year will be a much better one for everyone.

Bless Up!




I just Love Paris!

Happy Christmas

Hong Kong

My 10 days in Hong Kong was just amazing. Again I stayed at a modest 3 star guest house around Robinson Road in Midlevels where Amus & I stayed for this duration of time. She was lucky enough to get at least a week off work which was pleasing to know that the 5 days will not come off her offical holiday paid leave since she has been doing some extraodinary hours since the Fashion industry as it seems requires this. Amus did have to go to Kowloon to buy some huge stocks of Materials to be delivered to China. I was most amazed at the culture of how business is conducted in Hong Kong. You would go to some small office, look at their sample where you would place an order where you can be 100% sure that the deliverly will go smoothly. I was amazed to see old ledger bookeeping method of accounting. I honestly thought this was long gone but I guess not. Its probably one of the few minor points that lead me to find HK to be that much more fastinating. Image standing on any given Street to see the endless amount of commerical banking branches to be found knowling where once stood the HK Cricket Club (up till the late 70s?) Anyhow during this time we visited a few tourist attractions
such as the Hakka wall village, The Peak and Temple Street. Again I wished I brought my skateboard along with me but since I was mostly with Amus, I just did not have the time. Anyway HK looks like an amazing place to skate but I just did not see anyone skating, Probably due to the fact that the people who live & work there are too caught up with making money.

Going to Hong Kong

Its about 5.30pm on a Thursday evening Regent Street where I was sitting in my office just waiting to knock off work where I went directly to Heathrow Airport to catch the late flight to Hong Kong to see spend time with my girlfriend. On my flight I had met this Finish guy who too was visiting his GF in Australia. I believe he had a 5-6 hour stopover in HK before his 10 hour flight to the far ends of the world (Australia). Yeah we talked about about life in Europe, death metal in Finland and about Eco-friendly engineering which I believe he is wishing to study further. As we we approaching Russian airspace we both wondered if it would ever be possible to ever achieve an Eco-megapolis city and who would be the first to ever create this? By this stage I am thinking of Singapore, but looking at how much electricty is wasted, air-condition & unclean water would not want to rule them as been very sustainable. I am happy to be wrong here if there are any willing Singaporeans out there.

At this point, Cathay Pacific is flying into the morning sun. A beautiful scene although I just could not be fucked looking for my camera in my bag. I turn to my entertainment system where I watched In the Loop. It's such a hilarious film! I just love the Scottish PM! as he portrays a Scottish shrewd character typical of a no bullshit Businessman or a Politician.

"Where the fuck do you think you are? in some regency costume drama? This is a fucking government department! Not a fucking Jane Fucking Austin novel!!!

By this stage I am passed out and the Sun is setting in the East.

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.