Dreams live forever

Christl new MV!

Radiohead' album pricing

Ed Felton explains why Radiohead's new album may be a financial success despite the fact that 62% did not pay anything for the download

The Trouble With Love Is

As told by Kelly Clarkson, the first American Idol,

The trouble with love is
It can tear you up inside
Make your heart believe a lie
It's stronger than your pride

另，原來Kelly Clarkson 新碟My December 出了。
在official web site聽了兩首，感覺不錯，不像Avril Lavigne、Fall Out Boy、Gwen Stefani 等全部07年大倒退。加上封面影得不錯，買得過。

更新：買左喇買左喇！88蚊

悼：ZARD主音坂井泉水意外身故

同事告知ZARD主音坂井泉水於2007年5月27日意外身故。高中與大學期間，ZARD的歌都是我經常聽的。家中還有ZARD的大碟、single十多張，惜近年覺得她的歌out，一年都聽不了一次。


坂井泉水，原名蒲池幸子，生於1967年二月六日，也就是剛四十歲了。年輕時做過racing queen也拍過露點寫真。九十年代的日本八卦雜誌有登過當年的相片，家中好像也有一本這樣的雜誌。九十年代『從良』組成樂隊ZARD，但其他成員的相片在十多張大碟裡只有兩張，明顯只賣女主音。較為港人認識的歌曲有SLAM DUNK動畫版片尾曲MY FRIEND以及幾隻保礦力廣告歌。

她最hit的歌應算揺れる想い吧，不過負けないで比較好聽，所以…以下是ZARD的負けないで，請細心欣賞。

Life for Rent

I've always thought
that I would love to live by the sea
To travel the world alone
and live more simply
I have no idea what's happened to that dream
Cos there's really nothing left here to stop me

"Christina Superstar"

「在奧地利有條黃金定律：當Christina Stürmer出新歌，下周必定在流行榜佔高位。試過五次直達榜首，可見我所言非虛。」 -- Gustav Götz (Hitradio Ö3 DJ)

四月的Nie Genug之後，新的細碟叫Um bei mir zu sein。

與你在一起
與你在一起
往後的任何日子
甚麼都可以放棄
只要能與你一起

"Never Enough"

Christina Stürmer的奧地利官網公佈了新消息：四月推出的新single "Nie Genug"定於八月十八日在德國公開發售，而新大碟也將九月中在德國、奧地利、瑞士發售。想聽新歌只要到官網一走就可以聽到，也可以下載MP3或MV。

以下為上半部份歌詞翻譯：

I live in this moment
I never get enough
Don't ask me how and when
the summer comes
No matter how fast the Earth rotates
it is never fast enough for me
It is unthinkable to just watch
Clearly it is

I won't yield
Will go even further
I will stay simply like what I am now

[Chorus]
I never get enough of life
I never get enough - there can be more
I want everything all at once and nothing less
I will not just sit and wait for things to happen

I never get enough of life
I never get enough - are you with me?
I will risk everything
I want to win, not to lose
Always more, always more, always more

Punk; random thoughts through the eyes of an amateur

As someone who have absolutely no knowledge of the punk culture, I love listening to punk music.

Or so I thought.

When I buy a CD, it is often more about buying than using. After I ripped them to MP3 files or downloaded music from the net, (yes I am a pirate, as are about 10 million others; sue me) usually I just play them a few times and stash them away. There are some songs that I seem to prefer over the others, songs that I keep playing from time to time, again and again. Most of them (loosely) punk.

Or so I thought.

So who are they? What have I listened to since the last month that has something to do with punk?

Avril Lavigne
Kuroyume (黒夢)
LUNA SEA
Simple Plan
System of a down

Some are true pop/rock punk bands. Some are J-Rock / Visual Kei groups with punk/goth influence. Some are probably just teen-pop singers posing punk looks.

Let's just say... I love pop punk music, or punk wannabes who joined major record labels.

Or so I thought. I do not know anymore.

I know nothing... ™


The Wolf, again

Above is the Anarcho-punk symbol which is also embedded in the Damage Control banner. Fellow boardgamer readers, (as if I had any) does this symbol ring any bells? Guess not. What if we rotate the symbol by 180 degrees and erase a few pixels at the center? Does it look familiar now?

The inversed symbol is a clan symbol in White Wolf's now defunct Vampire: the Masquerade RPG and associated products. What seemed like a distorted feline face in a gothic make-up is the symbol of clan Brujah, the muscle of the Camarilla. It is good to know the punk warrior symbol had a deep history - even with some misconception. I know punks used to be poor, jobless, dumpster-diving dropouts unacccepted by the society, but anarcho-punks are not the angry warriors as Brujahs are portrayed in the story, or are they?

I wonder if any other seemingly meaningless symbols have meaningful real-life origins. Say, why did they choose the Egyptian Ankh, symbol of life, as the Caitiff clan symbol?

Favourite song of the day, Aimee Mann, gender studies(!)

My favourite song of the day is "One".

As I have previously mentioned, I have vastly enjoyed the Fox TV series House when it was showing on AXN. When I knew TVB Pearl bought the show's local broadcasting rights, I followed closely and made sure I will not miss what I previously missed. Last Tuesday, season 1 episode 3 "Occam's Razor" was aired. What was Occam's Razor? According to Wikipedia:

... in explaining a phenomenon, one should make as few assumptions as possible, trimming away all unnecessary ones. ... Furthermore, if multiple theories or subtheories have equal predictive power, the simplest one — the one with the fewest unnecessary assumptions — should be chosen.

The liberal interpretation of the term "One" in the episode was probably as interesting as the show itself. It was being applied to medical explanations, with the simplest being the best. It was also somehow related to Dr House, who was always seen alone and disassociated. At the end of the show, we could see him, by himself again, searching through the drug cabinet for the one colchicine tablet that resembled the shape of Brandon's round yellow cough medicine. When we were seeing House's victorious smile, the background music was a song by Three Dog Night. While I certainly have not heard of this band before, I have listened to this song once. 7 years ago. In the cinema. I even have the soundtrack. The movie was Magnolia. Written by Harry Nilsson in 1968, renewed and sung by one of my favourite singers of all time, Aimee Mann, the name of the song was "One".

While most pop songs talk about the same problems in life, Aimee's songs has a slightly different attitude. By listening to her soothing voice, it makes me feel relieved of whatever problems I previously had. One can fall asleep and have good dreams even in the most depressing moments. It is magical in the sense that she looks more like a New Age healer than a singer.

But there are always things that I missed. Forrest Gump said "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." The Schödinger's cat experiment told us that the cat is neither living nor dead until you open the box. (this is my interpretation as a non-phyicist) I would never have known what I was going to find until I clicked the Google search button either. On the net I found an article discussing Aimee Mann Lyrics And Gendered Language Patterns:

Tannen believes that men and women often go about asking for things in different ways. While men speak directly in order to obtain a desired goal, women may tend to indirectly refer to what they want in hopes that the listener will then ask her about what she wants.
...
Gossip is a fear mainly among women, who like to share details of their life with close friends but are very hurt when they realize that these details have been shared with others.

Is it possible that one talks about different matters using a different language? Looking back I might be using a masculine language on professional matters related to jobs, studies and gaming, and a different feminine tongue otherwise. Sometimes I would be blunt and direct, and sometimes I would be so subtle that I confuse myself. I am a Gemini afterall.


Finally, lyrics to the song One, which was what this post was originally about:

One is the loneliest number
That you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one, it's the loneliest number since the number one
"No" is the saddest experience you'll ever know
Yes, it's the saddest experience you'll ever know
Because one is the loneliest number
That you'll ever do
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever know

Favourite song of the day

... is "Welcome to My Life" by the Canadian band Simple Plan (quicktime video)

Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more
Before your life is over?

Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you're bleeding

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels alright
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

P.S. I succumbed to another evil power and have become one of the 145000 Feedburner users. It offers lots of funny features. Now aggregators with no Atom 0.3 capabilities can also read the feed. I will also know how (un)popular my blog is....

Please update your feed subscription if you are using the old one! The new location is http://feeds.feedburner.com/MoviesAndThings

(Thanks dino for pointing out the link error)

Songtexte von Christina Stürmer / Hannes Strasser

Lyrics of an unfamiliar language always give you an exotic feeling, even when the songs are about the same old stuff in a central european langauge which resembles what we read and write every day.

Engel fliegen einsam (video)

Weißt Du wie die Dichter schreiben, hast Du je einen gesehen?
Dichter schreiben einsam
Weißt Du wie die Maler malen, hast Du je einen gesehen?
Maler melen einsam
Weißt Du wie die Engel fliegen, hast Du je einen gesehen?
Engel fliegen einsam
Und weißt Du wie ich mich jetzt fühle, hast Du je daran gedacht?

Do you know how the poets write, have you ever seen one?
Poets write alone (*)
Do you know how the painters paint, have you ever seen one?
Painters paint alone
Do you know how the angels fly, have you ever seen one?
Angels fly alone
And you do know how I feel right now, have you ever thought about that?

E.T.

Ich bin ein Freak, ein Alien, ich komm von weit weit her,
ich kenn die Sprache die Ihr sprecht,
doch ich weiß nie was Ihr mir sagen wollt.
...
ich seh' die Träume die Ihr träumt,
doch Euer Leben wird ich nie verstehn.

I am a freak, an alien, I come from far, far away,
I know the languages you speak,
though I never know what you want to tell me.
...
I see the dreams you make,
though your lives I will never understand.

(*) From my understanding, "lonely" is the more appropriate translation, but it is too sad to write that way, is it not?

賀

賀Kelly Clarkson 在48th Grammy Awards 取得Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Since U Been Gone) 與Best Pop Vocal Album (Breakaway) 兩獎, 及System of a Down 以B.Y.O.B. 取得Best Hard Rock Performance 一獎

Christina Stürmer

The blog is not only for movies. If time allows I will also write about the games I played and music I listened to. I have written a little bit about Denise Ho. I believe I should also write about Christina Stürmer, to whom I listen almost every day.

Stürmer is an Austrian singer. Only 25 years old, she had already won twice in the Austrian Music Award, as the best Pop/Rock female singer. Brilliant, is she not? She does not have a pretty face, but she sings quite well. Reminds me of Denise Ho in the old days.

If you know me in real life you should have known that I have been learning German for more than 2 years. I think it helps if I listen to german songs, so I went searching at Amazon.de. There I found names such as Nena, Juli, 2raumwohnung, and of course Christina Stürmer. One of her CD covers look quite nice so I went to get mp3 of some of her old CDs at The Torrent Galaxy. Quickly I grow addicted to her music. Unfortunately her best CDs are already sold out.

She is now having a Germany tour. I would have gone there if not for the recent events! (Above: she doing soundcheck with her band before a show)


To the Official homepage (Germany)
More about Christina Stürmer at Wikipedia
At Yahoo! Musik you can find some of her music videos.
(all in german)

梁祝下世傳奇 by 何韻詩

何韻詩的新大碟終於出了。我這個小蕃薯知道後當然立即買一張。89大元，很貴。

何韻詩在自己的blog上說是自己最滿意的大碟。總的來說也是不錯－－最主要還是其他人的歌太過慘不忍睹。不過我還是覺得她在華星年代的歌比較精彩，可能因為我骨子裡還是比較喜歡Pop/Rock音樂吧。

對近來在香港流行的故事式概念大碟不太喜歡，因我其實都只是將CD 轉成mp3 來放，一段一段半分鐘的音樂放在library 裡很難辦！還好，這張CD壓成128kbps的音樂檔還可以放得下一張64MB 的SD card，否則要將一張CD 分兩次聽實在太可憐了。

哪首歌比較好呢？我覺得『長不大』比較好，『有人跟蹤我』也不錯。『化碟』的鋼琴版聽起來也是很順耳。

評分：自知聽的歌種實在有限，評分也不會中肯。所以不評算了

「舊愛」講完了，「新歡」要數來自奧地利的Christina Stürmer。走的也是Pop/Rock 路線。我開始聽何韻詩的時候她剛25歲，今年Christina Stürmer 也是25歲，真巧。