Life.Love.Regret

This evening I will be seeing X unbroken X, and later at night DJ Krush & Prefuse 73!!! I am terribly excited by this! I am trying to study at the moment with some difficulty as I am just too excited by this evening. As one of my Japanese mates said, Just too much! (Not to forget there is a metalheadz night as well!!)

As know the weekend could not have better ended with seeing Ramadanman set with his minimal techno to 2 step dubstep ending with a Calibre tune. This week was London Design week which for the most of it I did not attend much of the events due to work commitments and what not but I did get to see the opening of some Norwegian avant garde gallery, mainly of fashion. Although the one I did particularly enjoy was Anti Design which was mainly held around Red Church Street in Shoreditch.. I firmly believe now that I am attracted to anything that has the word " anti". ha ha. I managed to get a quick 20 min skate on my board today but as it was raining and windy I decided to go home! I was too please to play my Teebs/Daedelus split 10" I bought at Rough Trade!!! Yeah you got to love this LA sound!!!

Of some distinction

"Whenever serious & competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition & protocol fly out of the window" an extract in Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson

The past few weeks has been pretty crazy in terms of work which has been in overdrive as I have been covering for 2 members of staff as well as occasional help this older lady with her work. Yeah an Interesting character who as a Young English girl in her 20s lived before & after the Iran Revolution during the late 70s & early 80s as well as Belgium so we always never fail to strike an interesting conversation. Sounds like the Bond girl of the 70s ehh!! ha ha. I have also been very busy helping y dearest Amus with some of her work, which has nothing to do with Fashion but bits & pieces which are related. I have enjoyed the work and has gave me some great insight into the fashion world. She has a few projects she is doing on hand, one of which is a collaboration with a dutch artist & academic so I will be watching out as to how that turns out!

I have not been going out or partying although I sense that this week will be a busy one! There is this really cool minimal techno dubstep party around Angel which I look forward plus this stag do which I am going in the middle of the week which involves late night skateboarding & paint balling!! ha ha Speaking of Skateboarding! I still enjoy it despite my age and all but fuck it! I know a few guys who are in same league. Its my quick get away from reality, although just last week I had ago at my friends drums whilst doing their HC band practice along Charing Cross Rd. Probably the oddest scene of a guy in pin strips suits walking into a "LBU" London HC jam session!! ha ha Anyway this is what I love about Hardcore Punk! You can be just anyone! Speaking of which UNBROKEN will be playing soon!

Life.Love.Regret

Here is some good UK sounding 2-step techno dubstep!!!

What is it about Japanese Skateboarding !!!

Know this fact that you dont know.

Every few days or so I would buy a copy of the Herald Tribune so as to get a full summary of the world's affair for the week. The weekend issue made me a little disappointed to read about how Brittany is facing a lot of toxic seaweed which have killed much of the wild life. The problem been due to the waste from a lot of surrounding farms mainly from Pig farms which if you ever been to one in Brittany stinks as fuck!!! For reasons for the other these waste from the pig farms are not disposed properly and consequently are dumped in the sea. Very sad since the foreshores of Brittany is at the heart of it's soul.

Its interesting whenever you flick through the business section of any newspaper these days all reporting of the world economic crisis & the future of the world markets that will somehow save our society from chaos, all of which we must thank our over the paid bankers, finance minsters & politicians who are defenders all economic policies. What makes it very curious are who actually are the policy elite society of the developed world? Who ever they were, weren't they suppose to predict what would the Lehman Brothers, housing market crash, banking crisis & the near bankruptcy of Greece? Maybe it was the magnitude of over confidence which betrayed their judgment of things that were to come? Perhaps there is real simple reason why this occurs in individuals where reading Tony Robbins will probably make you feel better than average but really we are also miscalibrated. That is to say that are sense of probability of events does not line up with reality. i.e we are only right half of the time when we say that we are certain of a certain fact. Perhaps the bond vigilantes will agree to this fact when it comes to economic policy elite of this world where decisions and brief discussions are made after a game of tennis game at a private city club when really, the real sign of trade & business affairs are reflected in your docks, the fruits markets of Kowloon etc. Then again if one's lifework were reading figures & statistical facts to bring about a judgment then yeah carry on, but if bad forecasting continues then it will only lead to something worse? The unusually uncertain economic outlook??? Perhaps they need a different method?

Funny that today I was going through my variance analysis notes for CIMA. The idea of variances is to identify favorable or adverse factors in a business's general production or sales based on budgets. Fairly scientific & theoretical which does best tries to cover all aspects of the modern business world but there are always the unknown and exceptions to the rule. Anyway after spending the morning & afternoon reading through these notes I decided to go to Southbank yet again for more escapism.. yeah I had a good skate despite the rain coming from the side.

Monday today. lets hope its a good week!

In the last few months my father has been commissioned by the Singapore Cricket Association to write the history of Singapore/Malaysian Cricket. This itself can be quite a task as there is at least well over 100 years of cricket that has been played in that region which is full of many interesting facts. He is under a bit of pressure as there is a similar book written in Hong Kong which had a lot of research to it as well. It is a Monmouth but I think my dad is doing ok with it. As for me, I am just concentrating of my CIMA studies to which I have enjoyed, but it has been a struggle! My father & I have decided to come up with a new family motto as a result. It is family motto of a mixture of unholy French, East End English & Aquinian Latin.


QUI BASHERE SANS CONSIDERER TOUJOURS VINCIT.

The meaning of this bee, "He who bashes away regardless conquers". Yeah quite appropriate I think. In fact I do like our new family motto. Its has certain tone of weight & seriousness yet witty. Probably what defines the Male side of the family. I think my grandfather would agree to this!!! ha ha.

Just been skating this evening with a mate of mine around Southbank after a hard day at work . Yeah slightly injured my ankle but it should be OK. That's Skateboarding init!

Anyway I would like to share this amazing tune. I think UK Hip Hop is amazingly on a different level!!!

Work work work & work

It's been quite mad with what has been happening with the Fires in Russia & the various floods in Pakistan & China. It is just disturbing to read & see images of members of families loosing loved one amongst the Chaos. My prayers go out to all the lost one.

Yeah when my boss is not around, it was made official that I was to be in charge of a whole section of staff within the Finance department. As much as I do like been given the responsibly I do find the pressure can be a little overwhelming for areas that I have not grasps fully from my Boss. Still I do love the nature of the work. Lately I have been given the task of investigating transactions based on deposits on commercial leases that go back as far as 2005 or 1996 as well as vast sums of monies from an unknown sources relating to joint venture partnerships to calculating various interest charges at certain periods going back as far as 3-4 years. I was telling my colleague that we should change our roles to "Consulting Finance Detective" Lately I have been quite intrigued by these bunch of software engineers working in the Marine department who have developed this Geographic Information System covering areas of the UK coast. Its interesting as it is creating a visual tool based on various consolidated data collected of everything based on a particular area of coast line. Ok enough of work!!! I need to get back to my studies!!!

Singapore

Sherlock Holmes

I have glued to watching the new Sherlock Holmes that is currently on BBC. The new Sherlock Holmes is surprisingly set in modern London which made it even more interesting as there are many scenes of London which are all too recognisable such as Soho, Southbank & parts of Southwark. Too bad that there has only been 3 series so far but I am glad to hear that they have continued filming, so expect more! The conversations between Holmes & Watson are witty & quintessentially English, making it quite funny at times! I can't wait for more!

Shoreditch Artwork

Flaneuring around London, one cannot help but observe the amazing street art that magically just appears on an old street wall whilst espically around the East End. It is an area that has changed dramatically particularly Shoreditch & parts of Hoxton & Hackney where it has become a lot smarter these days, although there are still spots which remind us a little of what this area use to be like such as the photo below. This use to be an old market place where an old rail line ran above. This photo was taken just off Bricklane.

There have been many photo opprotunities to take some interesting artwork around this area, but I hardly bring my camera out. So far these are the most recent ones that I have come across. I just love this sort of artwork!

Maybe its me, but I found this little piece to be a little disturbing. Maybe beacause of what the subject is doing? Terrible! Anyway I have never supported the idea of Drugs but people are free to do what they wish? It appears that we will never win the drug trade! The photo to the right is an old shot I took a few years ago. Interesting subject matter. I think the artist/Photographer is from Paris by the name of "JR"?

Asian Values

The very notion of Asian Value is without question very offensive by Chris Pattern (Last Governor General of Hong Kong).

Asian Values was a term I believed used by the late Singapore PM to express the Confucian view of loyalty towards Country, family & corporation over individual needs. Although sounds very gracious & wise, it was probably a concept justify authoritarian governments in Asia. Funny that successful developed countries such as South Korea & Tawain do not in generally "kow tow "to this concept but rather criticise it.

The time I have spent in Singapore, I constantly received harsh criticism about he flaws of Asian Values as expressed in this video but I too was seen as some Western ignorant post colonist! Well if it pleases them my father is a born and bred Singapore of mix Asian/European background HK/Macau origin where for years too found this idea to be crass.

I could draw your attention to the elderly British journalist Alan Shadrake who was recently arrested in Singapore for a book he wrote of the legal structure of the country, but I think that could be for another day.......

Melodic Hardcore Punk.

The Movielife.
The other day a friend of mine of Singapore who was been pretty involved in the Singapore Hardcore scene (LCHC) doing various bands etc was telling me about this band called The movielife from New York who broke up in 2003. They sound actually like a favorite band of mine called Lifetime and I am wondering how on earth did I manage not to come across this amazing band??? ha ha ha. Goes to show that there are a lot of good music if only you search hard! Very feel good energetic sound! Perfect way track to start a skate session! which is in fact what I did today! after having a late night the previous day at some BBQ & a farewell party to a mate of mine going to Tokyo. The night had a lot of god nu-jazz/brokenbeat/Chicago sounding House /Bossanova/Afro Beat to Jungle music which was really enjoyable, but I had to wake up to more Hardcore Punk for the day!!! ha ha

Today My girlfriend & I were playing on the H&M online. I personally had a go at it but honestly mine was a pretty rubbish selection! Check out the styles that Amus choose below on the H&M site. Photos were taken from;

Fashion Amusement

Nikki NTU Vs Brainfeeder.

Yeah its definitely reminds me of those 90's experimental hip hop days of Krush, Spooky and to an extent, Prefuse 73. Warpy sound hip hop gone nu -soul is such a bliss to listen too especially during this hot spell we are having. A def good traveling music to stick on your pod.

Download this shit here!!!

For the 14th of July! Vive La France! Vive la liberte!

14th of July March down Champs Elysees.

Well Done Spain!!

Yes I was supporting the Dutch team in the finals but honestly speaking the way the played, Spain definitely deserved to win!! Well done to all my Spanish Friends out there!

Look at these fucking hipsters

This site made me laugh!!!
http://www.latfh.com/

As a resident of the United Kingdom, I do find such news slightly worrying for our present state of the Economy. The moral of the nation is at all time low with our newly elected co-allocation government making huge cuts to its public sector as well as increases of personal taxation & indirect taxes to increases.

Despite corporation tax & other incentive tax allowances given to the business sector for the purposes of growth as promised by the Government, I cannot honestly see how there will be a surge of growth within the economy despite the attractive corporation & other tax incentive allowances given to the business sector. After all we have lost the infrastructure for the banking industry to lend capital to our much delicate economy & since we will be in a period of cutting down on personal expense, will there be any consumer demand in the general economy in the first.

I would like to love to get a few answers to a few basic questions as to what is the current employment rate, that is to say “real employment” in the sense of Full time permanent members of the consumer population & not part timers working on a minimum wage putting their trade & skill to waste?

Furthermore it is argued that Britain nowadays is a “serviced economy” as oppose to its once glorious industrial days. With the advent of Technology & the online world, such Services are probably not needed in the UK when they can easily be outsourced outside ?

Just like our disappointing National football team, It appears that we will have to re-invent our economy which I am sure we are very capable of. In mean time I think I will continue buying the “Brixton Pound” to buy local produce around Brixton!

In Blake’s words , The Human Abstract

“Pity would be no more,
If we did not make somebody Poor:
And Mercy no more could be,
If all were as happy as we”

RIP - Harris

On a hot sweaty late Friday afternoon around Memorial would you find Harris skating away happily most remembered for his charming smile. Fluent in Hokkian, Mandarin & Malay, he was a person who was very friendly and respectful to his fellow skaters around him but not only will he be remembered for his remarkable skating but definitely for his good sense of humor. He was such a laugh around Memo/CBD. On one of those late night skate sessions in Singapore, I would remember seeing Harris sessioning some rails at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station at some silly early hour in the morning. He is definitely a skateboarding legacy of S'pore.

Peace.

UK Budget

Just recently the new coalition government announced their emergency amended budget to tackle UK's growing deficit. There has been a mix reaction in the UK in the sense that it will be tough but it is fair with with VAT been raised to 20%, personal income tax to be increased & much of lower income benefits to be further cut as well as the public sector to be cut by 25%. The many executives in the city seem to welcome this news with a drop in Corporation Tax, to be the lowest in Europe as what I gathered from my brother in law who is a tax consultant at PWC.

In first instance it appears that there will be great hardship for a lot of the low single income earners especially for single mothers since child benefit is to be scraped. At the same time, the idea of dropping corporation tax will attract business growth particularly these multi-nationals in the finance sector! Similarly this will compensate many companies for the drop for local demand since the UK will be saving & spending less. Overall yield for operational income for business's may increase slightly which is theory should mean that employment should increase?

Yes employment should increase in theory but with the advent of technology as well as the cheap outsourcing that takes its roots in early conservative traditions of privatisation, & Individual greed from upper managers, I hardly think we will live through a period of job security. In fact this will probably create a culture of short term-ism in the workforce?

According to the New Economic Foundation, there is a pamphlet from Keynes from the 1920's 0r 30's which has scribbles of ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘insanity’ as written by officials of HM Treasury department as the idea in those days was for society to save their money in banks in order for the banking system to lend out. Problem is as what an article pointed out on NEF which I tend to agree is that there are hardly any banks left and that there is hardly any infrastructure for "lending" to corporations who would wish to raise capital for their business interest. True the crisis started with the banks & it will end with the banks but surely a government must create a responsible moral enterprising banking system in order to get the economy working again?

Tabula Rasa Banking - Break it up & build it again.

Overall its an interesting budget and we certainly do live in interesting times and as someone who is a straight edge skateboarder (ohh labels labels!!) I found it ridiculous that taxes on alcohol & spirits did not go up?? I thought part of addressing Cameron's Broken Britain would be to tackle some of UK's fundamental social problems? Not that we should go down to the hardcore Cromwellian approach but rather discouraging a simple social problem that is understood especially in the North.

and lets not mention BP.

Bless up!