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!

Like two lovers looking at each others deep eyes one night realising that we would be apart for weeks months. However we were both content for the fact that we still had each other. Yes it was a rather emotional day yesterday at Heathrow Airport yesterday afternoon as Amus had to go back to Hong Kong. She had come to Europe for a few weeks where we went to Paris & spent a few days train hopping around Belgium. We had both discovered that Antwerp was probably one of our favorite livable cities in Western Europe. Its so chilled out and so accessible to other cities like Amsterdam & Brussels. But last yesterday I only wished to be aboard a Flight bound for Hong Kong! Later in the afternoon after coming back home knowing that I had just had 3 hours sleep, I managed to have a lazy skate around Southbank.

Defiantly Congo's Numero un!



Yeah! Just got to love this! There has been a lot of articles & documentaries on Africa in the last past few months mainly in light of the current football world cup. It is interesting to see where this continent, so rich with culture & resources so raped by previous colonial powers will head in the future. With currently 1 million Chinese citizens in Africa who are in great eager to mine rich resources for their construction & manufacturing back in their mother land, this would unusually be an unnatural disposition for communist China to be labeled the new colonial masters of Africa? Nevertheless, from what i read, Africa does not seek pity for its past but rather respect & fair treatment that it should received rather than food aids which are so easily given in the past from West. Still there are many problems from Aids, hunger, piracy, child soldiers, illegal mining concessions & a few unstable government regimes that I feel need to be addressed. Football won't merely resolve this.

Its nearly 4.00am & I need to wake up fairly early. Amus & I will be off to see a close friend of ours in Hertfordshire in the early evening after a round of roaming around Shoreditch/Hoxton/Whitechapel, gallery & shop hoping. a very Saturday affair, but no skateboarding this weekend.
Bless up!

holidays

Gosh so much has happened over the last few weeks. Mainly my exams and work!
I will be back to Paris & a short visit to Belgium with Amus! Nice! BTW I know I should be more concerned with what happen in Gaza & the BP crisis but I found the story with regards to the graffiti train to be funny! ha ha. Never mine, that's Singapore for you.

Bless Up!

Bank Holiday

Bank Holiday weekend and it has to rain most of it! How typical is that! for the past 2 days I have been pretty much home ridden and just wanting to have the urge to skate somewhere. Hopefully if it drys up I will later. I having been speaking a very good mate of mine in S'pore. Yeah I just love getting updates of whats new on the island. I think I will be in for a great shock the next time I am around not that it surprises me.

This is such a beautiful tune. Good minimal tunes are just so perfect!

What another beautiful weekend, although it was a little sad that a friend of mine had packed and left Holiday to go back to his kampong for a rather long period of time leaving his newly wed wife and 8 month year old daughter. Yeah unfortunately it economic reasons was the cause of it and I suppose he had done the right reason in order to push start his carrier a bit. Hopefully his wife will join him back in his Kampong. It is lovely out there after all?

I am guessing a lot of young families from different cross cultures must face similar issues. I know my father went to Australia when I was 10 where my mother and I stayed back in Singapore, again for economic financial reasons why he had to move from S'pore. I guessing this is to be quite acceptable these days??

Stories such as these makes me want to listen to bands such as Postbox from Singapore. I must say, This is pretty decent production and music that is coming out of the island. Still Moderates, Still & 4-Sides will always be my choice of bands from SINgapore.



All of a sudden I just wanted to write some Woody Allen Flic

Weekend was just as beautiful if not lazy. I did manage to have a decent skate around Southbank on the saturday and wished for another skate again today but i ended up chilling around Stoke Newington with some mates of mine as well as hang out at some park near by. One of the friends hanging out is currently working for Reuters(Singapore) who did a swap with another English colleague of his based in London for 3-4 weeks who went to S'pore. Yeah a rather interesting conversation struck with regards to Malaysian & Singaporean girls who happen to be dating or are either in a steady relationship with English/French Guys (Europeans/ang mohs..... whatever makes u happy) where they met them on Holidays. Either way the story goes like this where some S'porean/M'sian girl would on holiday to Europe or some English lad would go on vacation to S'pore/M'sia for a month except this won't be the extreme drama rama of a Woody Allen flic such as Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Although I do find if rather tempting to write some chessy cliche script on this subject. In fact I am wondering if this Reuters guy form London working in S'pore for 3-4 weeks have hooked up with a local girl out there?? Anyway its all good!
I think its such a beautiful experience to fall in love on vacation! ha ha.



Chavin' up Parks in London during Spring.

Canal Saint Martin Vibes

Amazed to find myself walking around this warehouse area near Old Street where I ended up at someone's warehouse studio party right along the canal. Ad to this bizarre location was the fact that 90% of the people were French speakers mostly of that Parisian accent. I was pleased that I could still converse in French as I hardly practice speaking french unless it is with my mother. Strange that someone said that I have a bit of French Belgium accent to which I don't mind as French Belgium does make more sense to me. Its spoken at the right pace at least and not as though in that 120bpm Drum n Bass version. Anyway it was really chilled out a laid back BBQ party. I am really glad I got my ass out of the house. The whole place does have that Canal Saint Martin vibe in the eastern part of Paris. Strange how it feels so dissociated from London. I am sure i have read an extract of disassociated locations in cities somewhere in S.M.L.XL by Rem Koolhas?

Yeah one night I was lying in bed sick as a dog due to some virus I probably caught on the London Central Line when I received a call from a friend I had not heard for maybe 2-3 years? Yes a familiar voice which did not quite registered as first though clicked after recalling about 12-15 years I have known this person through a very close group of friends I knew in a far distant land I once lived. She called me wanting some advice over something terrible that had occurred over some scandal that occurred over some website about some photos of her. At first it was hard to fully comprehend the full scale of a her situation until it was later reveled. I wont actually go into the full scale of the story but what occurred was a couple of private photos probably taken by a ex partner that somehow got into the wrong hand of the media and someone has taken the opportunity to write some slanderous comments of her. I really could not really give good advice but just to remind cool headed, delete any photos on facebook, tweeter, etc and bring this matter with a lawyer to see if such material can be taken off.

In summary I was a little shock that this shit went on. I mean there are really some opportunist lurking around the net looking to start a scandal out of nothing. I mean fuck, whats some nude photos gonna do, but to write and publish material which is out to discredit someone's good name?? Its slanderous.

Anyway this whole week I have been feeling rather sick. I was glad it was friday where I ended up chilling with some of my old mates around at the Dutch pub near China Town. Yeah it was good just standing outside chatting and joking amount. We were planning on going to a £4 trashcore gig somewhere (ala DRI) but i knew that was starting really late and I was not feeling too well so I gladly retired home! On the good news I was speaking to my dearest Amus in HK where we plan on going to a few cities around Europe, mainly to visit a friend in Paris who is getting married! I am really excited! Don't you love planning on holidays!? However let me get through my CIMA exams first! Ja!

Bless Up & never trust a Tory!

Engrenages

I have just finished watching the first series of Engrenages(Spiral) which is a French police drama set in Paris. Yeah quite an edgy version as compared to NYPD blue and CSI with the head the police been a woman. I did also find this drama to be quite thought provoking with the different levels of conspiracies & cover ups between the criminals, solicitors and the police. Mind you there was the one cliche street wise coke angry police officer as a character.

Today was such a beautiful spring day. I woke up a little late as usual where I had a late breakfast and continued with my studies. I was pleased to speak to my mum for a little while over Skype then back to my studies where I then Skyped again with my girl in Hong Kong. Yeah I was pleased she went out to see some old college friends of hers after a hard week she had at work! Hopefully she did some good catching up.

I did ended up at Southbank with the pre-warning from another Southbank skater earlier in the day that it would have been full of tourist around. Yeah it was the case thought I just ignored the fact that there were all these eyes looking inside Southbank. I should have gone to London Bridge! Nevertheless it was a nice short skate!