Soundscape #45: "I (Fucking) Quit!"

Justindc. Quitting Time (#2), 2005.

I've just left my job of 3 years and 3 months (exact). I do have something lined up but right now, it's me-time (for a little over a week at least). I'm going to try and read more, watch less tv and write this short story that's been playing around in my head. I'm (still) trying to set up the new website for this; hopefully it'd be up soon. Any suggestions or comments? You know where to send them to.

It's not that I try to be random, but damn I'm absolutely fixated on this. How great would it be to bring a lunchbox to work everyday and not have to face the "what to eat" black hole at lunchtime! And to be honest, I'm not *that* particular about food. I can eat the same thing everyday for days on end, I kid you not. I do like to feel healthy about what I'm eating (or at least not guilty) though, so a lunchbox would be great! Now, if only I know how to cook...



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Superdrag - Sucked Out (Regretfully Yours)
2. (2:44) The National - Baby We'll Be Fine (Alligator)
3. (6:07) Matt Pond PA - A Million Middle Fingers (The Nature Of Maps)
4. (8:08) Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (Remain In Light)
5. (12:23) Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tick Motion Of The Head To The Left (Andrew Bird And The Mysterious Production Of Eggs)
6. (17:23) Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better (You Could Have It So Much Better)
7. (20:04) Camera Obscura - If Looks Could Kill (Let's Get Out Of This Country)
8. (23:35) Headlights - Words Make You Tired (Kill Them With Kindness)
9. (27:24) Aimee Mann - Calling It Quits (Bachelor No. 2)
10. (31:35) Dialogue From Pulp Fiction (Pulp Fiction OST)
11. (32:38) Belle And Sebastian - It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
12. (35:03) Spoon - Lines In The Suit (Girls Can Tell)
13. (38:52) The Martinis - Free (Empire Records OST)

Soundscape #44: "Save The Cheerleader, Save The World"

Heroes, the show that has held me hostage for 23 Wednesday nights, has just finished its run on tv and the final episode was absolutely crap. I'm so disappointed! What a cop-out ending! Where's the action? Where's the promised drama? The final episode was suffocated by really bad acting and oh, the lines! They were so cheesy I was cringeing through them, hoping, no, praying, for some spark of originality.

I should have known better. Originality in a TV series? What is Heroes if not a big pot of the issues and problems that occupied—and is still occupying—man since the dawn of human consciousness? Sure, it's updated for the modern ADD audience but you don't have to dig too deep into the packaging to see the characters trying to grapple with the issues of good vs evil, the hero and his hubris, the notion of the journey, the problem of the Outsider/Other in each episode. And if you stir into that mix the childhood fantasies we all had—super powers that noone knew about, the conspiracy, the excitement of it all, the inner kid in me is happily willing to come straight back home on Wednesday nights just to watch TV.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (Black Sheep Boy)
2. (1:21) Pixies - Debaser (Waves Of Mutilation)
3. (4:13) The Organ - Brother (Grab That Gun)
4. (8:14) Voxtrot - Firecracker (S/T)
5. (11:56)The Flaming Lips - Fight Test (Fight Test EP)
6. (16:05) Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly (There Is Nothing Left To Lose)
7. (16:05) Sufjan Stevens - The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (Illinois)
8. (20:01) Josh Ritter - Good Man (The Animal Years)
9. (25:47) The Arcade Fire - Intervention (Neon Bible)
10. (29:55) Beulah - A Good Man Is Easy To Kill (The Coast Is Never Clear)
11. (34:11) Bloc Party - Hunting For Witches (A Weekend In The City)
12. (38:31) Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-Snake (Mr Beast)
13. (42:05) M83 - Don't Save Us From The Flames (Before The Dawn Heals Us)
14. (45:37) The Thermals - Here's Your Future (The Body The Blood The Machine)
15. (49:53) Radiohead - There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere) (Hail To The Thief)

Soundscape #43: I Want One And I Want It Now!

Good god! Can Steve Jobs do no wrong!?? I feel like a little kid captivated by this magician pulling rabbits out of his hat. Steve Jobs has a way of making you realise needs that you've never known you had and by the time he's done, you couldn't imagine how on god's earth you had existed till now without it. And he does it with such ease and elegance almost, you'd have to ask: why didn't anyone figure this out before? 5000 songs in your pocket? 5000 songs in your pocket the size of your credit card?! Goddamn!

Steve Jobs's latest is of course the iPhone. I remember watching the webcast where he first introduced it and he goes: "phone. ipod. internet"..... and repeats the 3 words until the audience start realising that it's just one machine and goes wild cheering. The vibe was rapturous, as if Steve Jobs had just saved the world. Actually, maybe he did! The sale of iPhones started last week and it's made about 600,000 people happy. I think it's a tribute (albeit a whacked one) that OEM models are beginning to appear on auction sites. If the bloody phone weren't hardwired to work only with AT&T networks, I would have gotten one already.

Come, Steve, please, take my money! 2008 cannot come early enough.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Is This Love? (S/T)
2. (3:13) The Streets - Fit But You Know It (A Grand Don't Come For Free)
3. (7:25) Malajube - Montreal -40 (Trompe-L'oeil)
4. (10:45) Tegan & Sara - I Know I Know I Know (So Jealous)
5. (14:29) Robbers On High Street - Love Underground (Tree City)
6. (17:03) Apples In Stereo - I Want (Velocity Of Sound)
7. (19:08) The Mendoza Line - It's A Long Line (But It Moves Quickly) (Fortune)
8. (22:35) We Are Scientists - Worth The Wait (With Love And Squalor)
9. (25:19) The Smiths - I Want The One I Can't Have (Meat Is Murder)
10. (28:32) The Decemberists - Angel, Won't You Call Me (5 Songs EP)
11. (31:10) The White Stripes - I Cant Wait (White Blood Cells)
12. (34:49) Lucky Soul - Ever Yours I Remain (Add Your Light To Mine Baby)
13. (37:51) M. Ward - Eyes On The Prize (Post-War)

Soundscape #42: "Tell Me You Feel This Fire"

Hughes Leglise. Part Of L'autre Passerelle, November 2006.

Why do we meet the people we meet? How much of it is design and how much is chance? For most of us, the most common places we meet new people is either school or work, no? You would probably start smiling at the uncle at the coffeeshop you frequent but that's still considered your comfort zone. In fact, as we get older, we'd practically go out of our way to not make any eye contact with strangers at all. We block out the external world with our earphones and sunglasses and we walk from Point A to B without seeing anything in between.

But for some reason, I let this wall down the other day and asked a backpacker if he needed help with directions as he looked mighty lost. I made a new friend and became the tour guide (people who know me will seriously laugh at this) for 2 days. And just like that, a connection is made and even as it's so new and fragile, it felt like something worth preserving somehow. In a big soul-less city—where people are self-absorbed, indifferent and disconnected from one another—a connection between 2 strangers is hard to come by. It feels a bit weird when you realise that when we were younger, we thought that connections would be many and easy to come by but as we get older we realise that we only get a few shots at it in life.

To me, these connections among strangers transcend language and all other superficial barriers. Yes, it'd probably be ideal if we understand what the other party is saying but I'm speaking of the moments where you are so comfortable sitting in silence with the person and you know he/she is feeling the same way.

And even, even if I'm imagining this whole thing up, I think I will have someone to show me around in France next year :D



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Norah Jones - Don't Know Why (Come Away With Me)
2. (3:04) Athlete - Chances (Tourist)
3. (7:55) Tegan & Sara - You Wouldn't Like Me (So Jealous)
4. (10:51) Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life (I'm Wide Awake It's Morning)
5. (13:54) Gene - Your Love, It Lies (Olympian)
6. (17:12) Margot And The Nuclear So And Sos - Talking In Code (The Dust Of Retreat)
7. (20:57) Bloc Party - This Modern Love (Silent Alarm)
8. (25:23) Snow Patrol - Spitting Games (Final Straw)
9. (29:10) Spoon - Stay, Don't Go (Kill The Moonlight)
10. (32:42) Wheat - Don't I Hold You (Hope And Adams)
11. (36:30) Wilco - Say You Miss Me (Being There)
12. (40:38) Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending (The Photo Album)

Soundscape #41: "God Doesn't Want Me To Write, But I...I Must" — Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka, 1883—1924. New Jewish Cemetery,
Stranice, Prague. May 2007.

It is said that when Thomas Mann lent his friend, Albert Einstein, a copy of Kafka's works, it was returned to him with the following remarks "I cannot read this; the human mind is not complicated enough." Albert Camus phrased it in another way: "The whole of Kafka's art consists in compelling the reader to re-read him." Indeed there are so many levels at which one can read Kafka. You can read The Trial as an absurdist satire on the workings of law or you can read The Castle as a portrayal of the inefficacy of the beaurocracy. But no matter how hard you try to stay to the reading you've chosen, it would never stick; Kafka has a way of steering you through unchartered waters. As a friend puts it, his stories lead you into a labyrinth which then peters out and becomes indistinguishable from the real world, which of course is understandably disturbing.

But the beauty of Kafka, to me at least, is precisely because he unsettles you. Through his stories, you realise that not all roads should or have to lead to a destination; not all goals can be fulfilled and therein the beauty lies: for what will we do after we get what we want? It is the struggle that is the most important, even if, no, especially if, it's futile. There is hope only in an unfulfilled goal.

I went to Kafka's grave by myself in Prague and even though I had previously arranged for someone to bring me there, the deal fell through. So I asked for directions, found the station, figured out how to work the tickets and where the right platform is, I arrived at Zelivskeho only to find the station dead quiet with hardly anyone around. And stupid me realised at this point that my rubbish guidebook did not have the area mapped out at all. Noone I asked knew the slightest English. After half an hour, I decided to fuck it and walked right out of the exit (there were 3, I just picked the one in front of me with the most light flooding into the station). It was hot and bright and I asked the guy who was selling flowers where the cemetery is and it was just next to him (hence the flowers, duh). And the nice old man at the cemetery told me where to find Kafka's grave.

I think I must have sat at his grave for at least 2 hours; just sitting there and drinking hot tea (I brought a thermos!) and eating day-old bagel and a muffin. and smoking. copiously. Just sitting there and not thinking about anything. Just sitting there and listening to Beirut (and later bright eyes) and writing and smoking and sitting. I was getting eaten up by mosquitoes but still I sat there until I had to leave, and it's only because I realised I can't sit there forever, even if I had wanted to. And I was glad that the arrangement for someone to bring me here fell through cos there was no way I could have stayed there for 2 hours. And I've never been more glad to be alone.

One of the main reasons for my going to Prague was to visit Kafka's grave and just say hi. It was on my top 10 things to do before I die. Now that I've done it, whatever will I do next?



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Portishead - Mysterons (Dummy)
2. (5:05) Joanna Newsom - Colleen (Joanna Newsom And The Ys Street Band EP)
3. (11:47) Beirut - Mount Wroclai (Idle Days) (Gulag Orkestar)
4. (15:01) Elliott Smith - Bled White (XO)
5. (18:19) Jenny Lewis And The Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists! (Rabbit Fur Coat)
6. (21:57) The National - Abel (Alligator)
7. (25:36) The Arcade Fire - The Well And The Lighthouse (Neon Bible)
8. (29:36) Iron And Wine/Calexico - He Lays In The Reins (In The Reins)
9. (33:16) Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt (Grand Prix)
10. (36:04) The Cinematic Orchestra - To Build A Home (Ma Fleur)
11. (42:12) The Clientele - Isn't Life Strange (God Save The Clientele)
12. (46:00) Wheat - Be Brave (Hope And Adams)
13. (50:16) Mogwai - I Chose Horses (Mr Beast)

Soundscape #40: "When A Man Is Tired Of London, He Is Tired Of Life"

Phone booths on some street, May 2007.

There is something inherently incredible about London. On the surface it's like every other big city on the planet: busy, overcrowded, indifferent, paranoid. People are always in a rush and it seems that everyone's only looking out for number 1. London's tube is a joke; The trains are old and rickety and there's no aircon in the carriages. I try to make it a point to go to the toilet before getting on the trains just in case of signal delays. And they happen often enough too. I'm always coming across service announcements and updates. Once, the train I was in actually bypassed a station because "it was too crowded." Similarly, the entire Northern line service was actually cancelled one sunday for "engineering works." I can imagine how people back at home would go apeshit at something like that but Londoners seem to take it in their stride.

People always talk about the dreariness of London but it didn't rain much the entire 8 days we were there. I was pretty disappointed. Everyone else was so grateful for the "pleasant" weather; the hotel staff were telling us that we brought the singapore sun with us...we didn't find that funny at all.

I like that people in London are polite to a fault (most are, anyways). They actually smile back when you smile at them and are probably not thinking that you are mad. People queue up to take the bus here (by the road, not an interchange) and there's a disturbing sense of order on the escalators: everyone stands to the right and let others pass them on the left. I like that it's relatively easy to just talk to a stranger on the tube or the bus. I like the free papers in the tube stations and how people will leave them in the trains for other people. I like how walking down Oxford/Bond street, I'd find 3 different branches of the same shop on the same street. It's crazy deja vu and as I've learnt the hard way, not a good landmark to find your way back!

I'm going to sound like a travel catalog if I don't stop; let's just say that the ludicrously expensive prices of everything in London—a can of coke light diet coke is about S$4.50 and you have to pay 60p (S$1.80!) to go to the toilet—are not going to stop me from going back a third time.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Interpol - C'mere (Antics)
2. (3:10) Belle & Sebastian - Another Sunny Day (The Life Pursuit)
3. (7:14) The Clash - London Calling (London Calling)
4. (10:33) The Go! Team - The Power Is On! (Thunder, Lightning, Strike)
5. (13:47) Malajube - Ton Plat Favori (Tromp L'oeil)
6. (16:19) Spoon - The Way We Get By (Kill The Moonlight)
7. (19:00) Jason Collett - I'll Bring The Sun (Idols Of Exile)
8. (22:32) Of Montreal - My British Tour Diary (Satanic Panic In The Attic)
9. (24:40) White Stripes - Hotel Yorba (White Blood Cells)
10. (26:50) The Raveonettes - Heartbreak Stroll (Chain Gang Of Love)
11. (29:17) Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The U.K. (Born In The U.K.)
12. (31:54) The Mendoza Line - Will You Be Here Tomorrow? (Fortune)
13. (35:05) Yo La Tengo - My Little Corner Of The World (I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One)
14. (37:30) Gene - London, Can You Wait? (Olympian)

Soundscape #39: Sometimes You Have To Walk Alone

May 2007. New Jewish Cemetery, Prague-Stranice.

There is an instinctual aversion to standing out in the collective unconsciousness of us humans, both physically and mentally. To stand out is to be alone and shunning from a fear of the unknown, we seek warmth and comfort in crowds, willingly giving up our individualities and be one with the majority. We are so used to it that a preference for solitude is likely to brand one as a loner or a social outcast. The one thing I realised from the trip is that there are some things one has to do alone; some feelings and experiences are just not meant to be shared.

I liked being alone with myself, with this side of me I rarely get to see at home; I never even knew it existed. It's a wonderful feeling to be walking around and on and on with no destination in mind but you know that you'd get somewhere. You don't have any expectations but you know you won't be disappointed even if you try.

I've never walked more in my life. Every morning after breakfast in Prague for example, I'd start walking from Point A to B. There is always public transport but the journey is sometimes more interesting than the destination itself. More often than not, I'd discover something more interesting en route; it's like a treasure hunt. If I don't have somewhere I want to be for that day, I'd pick a direction and just walk. It's magical to be walking in a foreign city and be held in wonder at everything. It's hard not to be treated like a tourist in Prague because I'm forever looking up at the gorgeous buildings and its sculptures of angels and saints and gargoyles and I'd be furiously clicking away. Besides, all the asians I see in Prague (there aren't many to begin with) are in tour groups and I'm conspicuously alone. And I got lost a lot. But even when I don't know where I am, I'd just walk along anyway (there was a tourist who approached me for directions and I'd never felt more honoured), fascinated by the new area I'm in, knowing that I'd just walk back the same way I came, so I don't really fit into the cliche of a lost tourist either.

I guess what I'm saying is although I am definitely not a resident here, I'm not strictly a tourist either. It's the in-between, the interstitial, and the feeling begins the moment you start to watch yourself just walking, a movie begins to play in your head of you just walking and the first chords of the soundtrack of your imaginary movie begin to fall into step with your own and it's so apt that you smile to yourself and someone across the street happened to be looking your way and smiled back.

But no matter how many times I replay these scenes in my head of the streets I've walked, the things I've seen and the people that I've met, I know that my eyes have seen more than my mind will ever remember and I feel nostalgic for the lost memories that I wouldn't even know I had.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Bright Eyes - Old Soul Song (For The New World Order) (I'm Wide Awake It's Morning)
2. (4:30) Badly Drawn Boy - Magic In The Air (The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast)
3. (8:15) The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (Give Up)
4. (12:58) Wilco - Walken (Sky Blue Sky)
5. (17:24) The Organ - Memorize The City (Grab That Gun)
6. (20:22) Teenage Fanclub - Don't Look Back (Grand Prix)
7. (24:04) The National - Fake Empire (Boxer)
8. (27:30) Josh Ritter - Here At The Right Time (The Animal Years)
9. (31:07) Cat Power - Lived In Bars (The Greatest)
10. (34:54) The Clientele - Step Into The Light (Strange Geometry)
11. (38:55) M. Ward - To Go Home (Post-War)
12. (42:45) Elliott Smith - A Fond Farewell (From A Basement On The Hill)
13. (46:44) The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely (Get Lonely)

Soundscape #38: "Did You Forget That Yellow Bird?"

Boccacinofoto.Valises Oubliees, 2006.

The yellow bird in the title refers to a canary and mine workers in the past used them to go down the mines first to test for poisonous gases. Cruel, sure, but that was how they work. The title is also taken off a Bright Eyes track ("We Are Nowhere And It's Now"), something I listened to over and over again on the 6-hour coach ride from Manchester to London 2 years ago. My ipod was running low on batteries and I had to listen to the same album over and over because I didn't want to risk changing the tracks and have my ipod remember that it's out of juice and die on me—you know how it is. It's funny how listening to that particular track immediately conjures up memories of that trip.

And I'm going again! I'll be going back to London and also embarking on my Kafka pilgrimage in Prague next week. This has been a long time coming and I've been planning and planning so much that I'm about to go nuts with maps and places to go, plane tickets, rail tickets, hotels, everything. I'd have like 15 tabs open in my browser and getting increasingly confused with the details (Transport Pass or the Oyster? It's a harder decision that you'd think it is); it's hard to keep that big picture in your head. Then when you get home, through your mail come the brochures you've requested and you see all the gorgeous pictures of landscapes, of neon lights and the city, of the people so deliriously happy. The concreteness of the trip and the everything just hit you and you have to sit down and take it all in. Slowly but surely, you start smiling to yourself, thinking "man, I'm really gonna go!" and you know that everything will be alright.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Pink Martini - Sympathique (Sympathique)
2. (2:48) Lloyd Cole - Travelling Light (Antidepressant)
3. (6:32) Gene - London, Can You Wait (Olympian)
4. (9:42) Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (In The Aeroplane Over The Sea)
5. (13:05) Teenage Fanclub - Fear Of Flying (Thirteen)
6. (18:28) Bright Eyes - We Are Nowhere And It's Now (I'm Wide Awake It's Morning)
7. (22:40) Gomez - See The World (How We Operate)
8. (26:45) Trespassers Williams - Different Stars (Different Stars)
9. (31:31) The Clientele - These Days Nothing But Sunshine (God Save The Clientele)
10. (34:55) The Wrens - She Sends Kisses (The Meadowlands)

Soundscape #37: This Too Shall Pass

Hugo Leglise. La Defense, Late Afternoon, 2006.

If you really think about it, we don't live our life by the hour nor the day. If I were to ask you what you had for lunch last Tuesday, would you know? In contrast, some days are forever marked by past events. I realised that for me, I live my life quite half-arsedly half the time. All the self-improvement "gurus" would tell me that I'd have to really grab the bull by its horns. Carpe Diem. Live each day as if it were your last. But can we really do that? It's a bitch to even wake up some mornings, much less make it through the day. Think about it, if it were my last day today, would I really be at work right now? I hardly think so.

It's more likely that we live our lives through moments, through the interstitials. We only know we are alive when we catch ourselves being ourselves in the spaces that were never intended to be such; a different context, perhaps. We only know we are alive when we are about to die. And it's not easy to lie to yourself about something as fundamental as that. If your mind doesn't believe you are going to die today, the harsh reality of it is that you'd still have to be at work earning your keep.

It's those moments that you live for that make life worth living. Looking forward to something and living for it; nothing else would matter. Have you ever looked forward to something so much it hurts, right at the pit of your stomach? Hoping and praying that the planets will align just for you as that cynical voice at the back of your head keeps telling you that it will all be over soon and you'd come crushing down from a great height.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Badly Drawn Boy - The Shining (The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast)
2. (5:20) 18th Dye - Poolhouse Blue (Tribute To A Bus)
3. (12:12) Bloc Party - Waiting For The 7.18 (A Weekend In The City)
4. (16:29) Iron And Wine/Calexico - He Lays In The Reins (In The Reins)
5. (20:08) M. Ward - Deep Dark Well (Transistor Radio)
6. (22:39) Beirut - After The Curtain (KEXP Live)
7. (25:42) Tindersticks - The Not Knowing (Tindersticks)
8. (30:43) Bedhead - The Rest Of The Day (Beheaded)
9. (37:05) Portishead - Wandering Star (Dummy)
10. (41:57) Mogwai - Helicon 1 (Ten Rapid)

*there seems to be something wrong with the font size but i cant figure out what the problem is. if you do, drop me an email, please. I got it! Stupid mistake

Soundscape #36: "What Are You Rebelling Against?"... "Whatever You've Got"

The other night I watched American Hardcore with a bunch of friends. It's a documentary about the american hardcore punk scene in the late 70s. What really struck me is not the riots and the violence that ensued during some of the gigs or the strong community that surrounded these badass pioneers of the punk scene. Instead, it was their conviction—some of them as young as 14-15—that the mainstream music at that time was not for them and they felt this need to rebel against the status quo of their times. And they gave it their all too. They embody the very first indie spirit if you think about it: making their own records, flyers, organising gigs and as Ian Mackaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) said, sitting there and literally cutting, folding and gluing thousands of cd sleeves.

But if you think about it, youth is like that regardless of place or time; there is a single-mindedness that you have to admire. It made me think about what I was doing when I was 14-15... probably nothing much. My parents put me in a good school and I was expected to do well, go to university, find a good job, get married, have kids, grow old and die. These are the very same things that the hardcore punks of the 70s were rebelling against. Some things just never change.

For a while, I thought that was what I wanted too. I mean, it's so easy! I wanted a good cushy job that doesn't demand much, you know? Go to work, gossip a little with your colleagues, do a bit of work, email, have lunch and about 4pm, your boy/girlfriend calls and asks if you want to have dinner, you have dinner with said bf/gf, go home to watch some crap korean drama that you just can't miss, sleep, wake up, repeat.

But I can't. And I don't know why. Maybe I'm not wired that way. I did try that for a while (not the korean dramas though, please) and I can feel my mind slowly rotting away; I literally felt stupid. People ask me why? what the hell is your problem? And I don't know what to say. Thing is, I don't know what I want; I only know what I don't want. But that's another topic for a soundscapes episode altogether.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - The Sons Of Cain (Living With The Living)
2. (3:59) Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Smells Like Teen Spirit)
3. (8:58) Nada Surf - Popular (High/Low)
4. (12:48) Jimmy Eat World - If You Don't, Don't (Bleed American)
5. (17:21) The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend (Separation Sunday)
6. (21:14) The Go! Team - The Power Is On (Thunder, Lightning, Strike)
7. (24:31) Green Day - F.O.D. (Dookie)
8. (27:22) The Thermals - How We Know (Fuckin A)
9. (30:42) Longwave - We're Not Gonna Crack (There's A Fire)
10. (33:12) And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead - Mistakes And Regrets (Madonna)
11. (37:05) Finch - What It Is To Burn (What It Is To Burn)

Soundscape #35: "Hello Moto"

Richard Stine. Get That Will You, (Year Unknown).

We are all so used to the mobile lifestyle that not having a mobile seems almost inconceivable. Text messaging too opens a whole new dimension of communication. From a simple "Oy, I'm here. Where are you?" to breakups to cries for help*, text messages eliminate face-to-face interaction; you don't even need to hear the person's voice!

Gone also are the days when people fix a place and time to meet—and keep to it. Nowadays I'm hardly on time for anything. If I don't think I'll make it on time, I'll text ahead to say I'll be late. If I'm early, I'll just roam around until I get a "Oy, I'm here. Where are you" message. It's weird to meet someone without a mobile. A friend forgot hers the other day and I actually had to stay at the agreed spot for a good 15 minutes. It felt really weird.

Being able to reach someone at any time you want also means that one cannot simply switch the mobile off. Hell, my mobile is also my alarm clock so I can't even switch it off at night. We are all so plugged in and it can only get worse from here. How are we to live our lives when life keeps barging in!?



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Saturday Looks Good To Me - Call Me
2. (3:27) Weezer - The World Has Turned And Left Me Here (Weezer Blue)
3. (7:49) The Strokes - The Modern Age (Is This It?)
4. (11:18) Ash - Angel Interceptor (1977)
5. (15:23) Mobius Band - The Loving Sounds Of Static (The Loving Sounds Of Static)
6. (19:29) Crooked Fingers - Call To Love (Dignity And Shame)
7. (22:52) Badly Drawn Boy - The Way Things Used To Be (Born In The U.K.)
8. (27:40) Dean & Britta - Say Goodnight (Back Numbers)
9. (31:32) Earlimart - Nevermind The Phonecalls
10. (35:11) Keane - We Might As Well Be Strangers (Hopes And Fears)
11. (38:22) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (Transatlanticism)

*if any of you should ever receive a "please save my sorry ass" text from me, drop everything, call me immediately and get me out of whatever situation I'm in!!

Soundscape #34: "Darkness, And Nothing More"

Lucian Freud. Reflection (Self-Portrait), 1985.

We all love a horror story once in a while to scare us out of our wits; stories about ghosts, aliens and ominous signs of evil to come. But have we asked ourselves what exactly is evil? It's not just the opposite of all that's good; that would be too passive a definition. It's something more and yet if you think about it, you can't really quantify it either: like a void or a black hole. On the flip side: what is good? Goodness is not just not doing bad things. The notion of good, like that of evil, cannot be defined by its opposition.

People say that reading horror stories or watching horror movies has a cathartic effect. We scream our frustrations out in the process and this shakes us out from the inside. But the downside to this is that people get desensitised by all the portrayal of evil we read or see on screen (be it the big or the small one). We all think evil is so far away but you only have to look into a mirror to see pure unadulterated evil waiting to surface. What is truly evil is the fact that noone seems to acknowledge the fact that evil has to be in this world for good to exist. The line between good and evil is a tenuous one; one cannot exist without the other.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now (S/T)
2. (3:25) The Thermals - A Stare Like Yours (Fuckin A)
3. (6:11) Smashing Pumpkins - Bodies (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)
4. (10:23) Interpol - Evil (Antics)
5. (13:59) Arcade Fire - Black Mirror (Neon Bible)
6. (18:14) Bloc Party - Song For Clay (Disappear Here) (A Weekend In The City)
7. (23:05) Manic Street Preachers - Faster (Holy Bible)
8. (26:59) Nine Inch Nails - You Know What You Are? (With Teeth)
9. (30:43) Okkervil River - For Real (Black Sheep Boy)
10. (35:25) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness (I See A Darkness)

Soundscape #33: The Devil Is In The Details

Georges-Pierre Seurat. Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte, 1884—1886.

In this increasingly complicated world, everyone's got his/her eyes on the prize, all looking out for No. 1. Everyone gets swept along by the pace of city life. We all want that big promotion, that new car and that cottage by the loch. In the race to be top rat, we had assimilated all the differences that made us individual and unique. Creativity, the sense of adventure and risk, the pioneering spirit to go into the unknown for its own sake—all the qualities that would stick out in a sea of John Malkoviches—have all been sandpapered down.

It's almost like we are robots programmed to do a certain set of tasks in a certain amount of time. We all think that the hard work we put in will be justified by the big reward, the big destination at the end of it all. But what about the journey itself? We all want the fastest and easiest way to get to where we want to go but often forget that the journey itself has a lot of things to teach us, and they are all just the little things in life. Like that cup of coffee you need to get through the day. Or the smell of the grass and the colour of the sky just before it's about to rain. The cup of tea right beside the book you're reading and the music that's playing in the background.

You know what? Fuck the big picture. Live for the moment, live for the now.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Belle & Sebastian - Is It Wicked Not To Care? (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
2. (3:22) Teenage Fanclub - It's All In My Mind (Man-Made)
3. (7:02) The Broken West - Down In The Valley (I Can't Go On, I'll Go On)
4. (10:54) Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots)
5. (14:27) Death Cab For Cutie - The Sound Of Settling (Transatlanticism)
6. (16:41) Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want (Fear)
7. (20:00) Wilco - It's Just That Simple (A.M.)
8. (23:44) The New Year - Simple Life (Newness Ends)
9. (27:13) 18th Dye - Easy (& How We Got There First) (Tribute To A Bus)
10. (32:06) Earlimart - Nevermind The Phonecalls
11. (35:43) Evan Dando - All My Life (Baby I'm Bored)

Soundscape #32: "Life Is Too Short For Chess"

Protopito. Una Partidita, 2006.

It's often been said that it takes mere hours to learn the moves of chess but a lifetime to master the game. And it's true too. Even now, years after I've been playing, I still make stupid mistakes and lose more times than I win. But I love the game; I love sitting down at some quiet cafe and just play chess. I've even played a chess marathon that lasted almost 6 hours till 2 in the morning. There's so much going on in a game that it's impossible to keep track of all your 16 chessmen. Before you know it, you're staring down directly at your opponent's queen flanked by a rook (or bishop or knight or even a pawn) on the other side and wondering where all your pieces are.

Chess is both predictable and not. Each piece can only move in predefined rules but the whole world of possibilities opens up precisely because of the rules. I love that the rules are predictable but the game is not. It is so much like life and also so much unlike it. Both need careful planning and strategising; you not only need to know where your pieces are, you need to know where your opponent's ones are as well. Often, one gets carried away in the game and start making mistakes right, left and centre.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) We Are Scientists - Can't Lose (With Love And Squalor)
2. (3:34) Pete Yorn - Black (Music For The Morning After)
3. (7:42) Elliott Smith - Bled White (XO)
4. (10:59) Centro-Matic - To Unleash The Horses Now (Distance And Clime)
5. (14:50) Tom Petty - It's Good To Be King (Wildflowers)
6. (20:03) The Decemberists - Bandit Queen (Picaresque Bsides)
7. (24:39) Beulah - You Are Only King Once (Yoko)
8. (27:49) Okkervil River - A King And A Queen (Black Sheep Boy)
9. (31:11) Death Cab For Cutie - Bend To Squares (Something About Airplanes)
10. (35:49) Delgados - Make Your Move (The Great Eastern)

Soundscape #31: "Rage, Rage Against The Dying Of The Light"

Blakes 7. Dark Light, 2006.

Goethe's final words: "More light." By extension, if there were no light, there will be no life. It was fire that first brought light—and life—to our ancestors. Light more than leads the way to food and water; it shows us the faces of our friends and families—and enemies. We often take light for granted because you know, it’s always been there. If you are in a room so dark that you can’t see your fingers right in front of you, you wouldn’t know if you are in a big ballroom or a small attic (let’s leave the sense of touch and echoes out). When you really think about it, light is a context within which we all function. Light literally shows us our limits and boundaries and gives us a choice whether to overcome it or not. That’s why our ancestors were able to go on quests and explorations and thus banishing the darkness from our lands.

Our gift of sight is synonymous with light: we won’t be able to see what’s right in front of us if there were no light. But often the tragic thing is that we refuse to see what’s in our faces even when there is light.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Wolf Parade - Shine A Light (Apologies To The Queen Mary)
2. (3:44) Teenage Fanclub - Speed Of Light (Songs From Northern Britain)
3. (7:33) Athlete - Half Light (Tourist)
4. (11:13) Travis - Follow The Light (The Invisible Band)
5. (14:24) Dean & Britta - The Sun Is Still Sunny (Back Numbers)
6. (18:51) Magnolia Electric Co - The Dark Don't Hide It (What Comes After The Blues)
7. (23:04) Arcade Fire - Une Annee Sans Lumiere (Funeral)
8. (26:46) Interpol - Obstacle 1 (Turn On The Bright Lights)
9. (30:59) David Gray - Nightblindness (White Ladder)
10. (35:22) Yo La Tengo - Shadows (I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One)

Soundscape #30: "Julie Christie, The Rumors Are True"

When I first read the news on Pitchfork that Yo La Tengo is coming to Singapore back in December 2006, I spilled the coffee I was drinking. And because I couldn't find any information in Singapore, I actually emailed the band to verify (no, I'm not kidding, and they actually replied!). I remember giving the Sistic people shit because they didn't know anything about the gig. I remember shouting, pleading etc with my friend to get the most expensive tickets (we got the $90 ones in the end). I remember standing by the Sistic website, refreshing every 2 seconds, at 8:52 January 11 to get the best tickets available. Even though the seats I got were less than ideal, I kept telling myself that at least I'm going.

From the very beginning where the riffs of "From A Motel 6" began—which, incidentally, I had requested via the email to the band. Whether or not they did it for me, I don't know but that's my story and I'm sticking to it—I knew it's gonna be a real good show. I love the 3rd track ("The Crying Of Lot G") and only a band as accomplished and confident as Yo La Tengo can pull off playing such a soft and quiet track. I thought I could hear a pin drop but when I looked around, I was almost embarrassed to find everyone else dead as a fish. They were just sitting still in their seats; I even saw someone sleeping! The audience do not justify the pure electric energy that the band puts into the gig. There were times when I thought that Ira Kaplan was going to implode and at one point, I could have sworn that he was about to smash his guitar. This is a (late) 40-something man we are talking about.

The chemistry among the band members was amazing, particularly the drums (Georgia Hubley) and bass (James McNew) when lead guitarist Ira Kaplan seemed to have gone nuts on screaming guitar solos. At first glance, the setlist may seem rather inconsistent (from "The Crying Of Lot G" to "Pass The Hatchet" to "Little Eyes"?) but the quality of the performance is always top-notch. Ira Kaplan even took the time to chat with the audience, answering questions ("where are you having dinner" and "who cuts your hair") and asking for song requests (I think I must have shouted myself hoarse with "Blue Line Swinger").

You know how they say that when the gods wanted to be cruel, they'd grant your wishes? I think something bad is going to happen to me soon, because I don't see how anything else can top this.



Setlist, Yo La Tengo Live In Singapore, March 12, 2007:
1. (0:00) From A Motel 6
2. (4:07) The Crying Of Lot G
3. (8:49) Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind
4. (19:36) Little Eyes
5. (23:57) The Weakest Part
6. (27:00) Beanbag Chair
7. (30:02) Mr. Tough
8. (34:07) I Feel Like Going Home
9. (38:21) Big Day Coming
10. (42:40) Tom Courtenay
11. (46:17) Deeper Into Movies*
12. (51:34) You Can Have It All

Painful: #1, 9
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out: #2, 12
IANAOYAIWBYA: #3, 5, 6, 7, 8
Summer Sun: #4
Electr-O-Pura: #10
I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One: #11

*This is not the official setlist. I merely saved each track into a playlist on my ipod as they come on. The Straits Times Life (March 14) has the track "We Are An American Band" listed... but I think they've got it wrong.

Soundscape #29: Just You And Me And $5

Ahhh friends... what will we do without them? It's true that you can't choose your family but how do you tell a "friend" that you no longer want to be friends? Simple. You just don't. It's not a relationship that requires a "we need to talk" session. There's no official breakup that can be initiated, no secret code to be invoked. Slowly but surely, you just drift apart. You don't really quarrel with a friend either. The last time I had one was er... a long time ago. Not that I'm the nicest person around or anything, but between friends, a quarrel means you just exchange a few "wtfs" and you laugh about it, maybe it takes a while, but you move on. Even if the quarrel gets real bad, all you have to do is... drift apart. There will be no late-night sessions on the phone sobbing about the "bastard" to your (other) friend.

Friends are people you bounce your ideas on. They are your tethers to earth when you get too excited about something, and even when you are so excited that you can't contain yourself, they don't judge you at all, not out loud anyway (even if they do, it just leads to a quarrel and that results in... read the preceding paragraph). Friends are people you ask random questions of (see comic). But the best friend that you will ever have is the person who goes to the supermarket with you to buy a couple of rows of sushi and Coke Lights and just sit at the staircase landing somewhere, sharing the food and you won't even need to say a word.

Talk about serendipity! I just came across a Friendship Intelligence Quiz. I've got 72, what about you?



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Rosie Thomas - Say Hello (Buy These Friends Of Mine)*
2. (2:19) The White Stripes - We Are Going To Be Friends (Buy White Blood Cells)
3. (4:40) Spoon - The Way We Get By (Buy Kill The Moonlight)
4. (7:21) Belle & Sebastian - We Are Sleepyheads (Buy The Life Pursuit)
5. (10:52) Luna - Friendly Advice (Buy Bewitched)
6. (17:27) Camera Obscura - I Need All The Friends I Can Get (Buy Let's Get Out Of This Country)
7. (20:44) Bright Eyes - I'll Be Your Friend (Buy One Jug Of Wine, Two Vessels)
8. (24:53) The National - Friend Of Mine (Buy Alligator)
9. (28:19) Jason Collett - Hangover Days (Buy Idols Of Exile)
10. (32:42) Morrissey - There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends
11. (35:04) The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend (Buy Separation Sunday)

*Guess who the male vocal is.. go on!

Soundscape #28: "The Secret To Happiness Is Good Health And A Bad Memory"

Salvador Dali. The Disintegration Of The Persistence Of Memory, 1952/54.

I think my memory is getting from bad to worse, and I don't mean things like forgetting faces or things like phones or ipods (that one I will remember). Apparently entire episodes of my life have mysteriously disappeared without a trace. From small annoying things like buying the same cd/book twice (happens quite a bit) to not remembering a particularly meaningful conversation or experience with a friend. That saddens me alot. It makes me wonder about all those lost conversations I had. Since I don't remember the conversation, does it matter that it took place at all? Have I changed in any way because of the conversation if I don't remember it happening? Does this mean that it didn't mean anything to me at all but it must have, otherwise why would I feel sad?

I don't know if it's a case of time taking its natural course, diluting the intensity of experiences and feelings in its path. Or perhaps that particular memory has atrophied seeing how we no longer have the time—nor the inclination—to revisit the past. Or more likely, we ourselves are getting old and the cup that was once eager for new experiences and new things has overflowed with both weariness and wariness.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Mountain Goats - You Or Your Memory (Buy The Sunset Tree)
2. (2:21) Bloc Party - I Still Remember (Buy A Weekend In The City)
3. (6:47) Spoon - Something To Look Forward To (Buy Kill The Moonlight)
4. (9:06) The Strokes - What Ever Happened (Buy Room On Fire)
5. (11:55) Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger (Buy (What's The Story) Morning Glory?)
6. (16:45) Bedhead - Losing Memories (Buy Beheaded)
7. (19:37) Beulah - Don't Forget To Breathe (Buy Yoko)
8. (22:84) Palo Alto - Going Going Gone (Buy Heroes And Villains)
9. (27:55) Wilco - When You Wake Up Feeling Old (Buy Summer Teeth)
10. (31:50) Cat Power - Remember Me