Archive for August, 2009
Harmonies From Hell
The Birthday Party
Yesterday, I attended a birthday party of some sort. It was all a quite simple and comfortable affair, though there weren’t really many people around that I actually knew. The highlight for me was the birthday song, which in these events tend to be about a lot of clapping and a bunch of strangers trying to come together to sing a 30-second song in tune. It didn’t quite work, though there did seem to be some conscientious effort on all of our parts to not embarrass ourselves. In the end, it turned out to be some humdrum humming and then some harmonies from hell. Very lovely stuff.
I also realise that when I begin to space out, I tend to slip into this mode where I try to turn everything into a story. I’d always wanted to write a slightly sad (the total darkness sort) or maybe slightly horrific (the nightmarish sort) story about a party of some kind and call it The Birthday Party, although that title has long been taken by the Pinter play, and then I’d have to live with the pressure that I could never ever write anything even remotely as brilliant as that, so I’ve always thought that I’d just forget it.
In any case, happy birthday again to the birthday girl, who it seems is fast catching up with me. We are all old people.
Catch-Up
Speaking of catching up, there’s quite a bit of work that I’ve got to catch up with. I didn’t imagine that I would be this far behind at this stage off the semester (well, it’s not that bad, but I kind of didn’t expect being behind at all), but I’m sure I’ll be able to work it out in the next couple of weeks.
Which is not to say that I’ve been doing nothing all week. I mean, the lab report alone took me twice as long as I thought it would. I did an assignment too, and then whatever time I had between my other commitments were devoted to the project. Brr.
September
But look at time go, with all the speed and swagger of a roadrunner, all the ferocity of a shoryuken. It didn’t seem that long ago when I’d just finished the first draft of Bukit Merah, and it’s been some two or three months since. School plows ahead like a Malmsteen solo and I’m just floating around trying my best to get a firm grasp of everything. It’s really kind of the best I can hope for right now.
But September is a great month. It always is. For instance, this page is going to turn one in September. That’s supposed to make it a good month.
Anyway, I’m determined to see that this week ends spectacularly (in a good way) so, fingers crossed.
Molecular Pictures
And to end off, scientists have imaged a molecule. [via PhysOrg]
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Prawns
District 9
I watched District 9 yesterday. I thought it was quite decent. Reminded me of his old Halo stuff, mostly. It was a competent human drama, and definitely one of the better science fiction movies in recent years. I thought the plot was a little… predictable (I think?), but it was still great to watch. It was otherwise pretty original and a thrilling ride. I think the racism themes run the risk of being interpreted as a tasteless take on the actual issues by the more uptight audiences, but I guess you can’t please everyone.
Friends In Strange Places
While I was doing a lab session on Wednesday afternoon, one of the teaching assistants popped in and borrowed me from my lab officer for a while and I was introduced to three new students who had come in from one of the polytechnics. I had initially thought that I’d done something wrong. And well, I suppose you get to make acquaintances in the strangest fashions.
I knew a couple of other engineering students who came in from polytechnics too, and they sort of struggled a bit initially because it seemed that the syllabus in polytechnic (and maybe the style in which it was taught) didn’t quite tally with the university’s imagination, so they had to pick up on some things themselves. It overall made it it hard to adapt. So I’m hoping that these three new acquaintances don’t have to suffer the same thing, and I’ll try to help them as much as I can.
Zoo Done
I finished putting up all my zoo pictures (I went there on June 11), and you’ll find them over at the flickr set. [via Flickr]
Something Random
And I suppose this is sort of random, but look, a Domo bento. [via AnnaTheRed's bento factory]
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Romantic Dogs, Retro Ditties
The Romantic Dogs
Yesterday, I read Roberto Bolaño’s The Romantic Dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I tend to think I have unhealthily narrow tastes in poetry, it seemed to push all the right buttons for me. I think I can easily consider it one of my favourite collections.
And now I have to pick another book.
Unfriendly
There is an unusual sense that the individual subjects that I’m doing this semester aren’t particularly bad, and yet, when taken together, might prove fatal. The weeks go by very slowly, and yet too quickly. It’s a funny feeling. The deadlines are starting to come in, and the work is beginning to take on the countenance of a mountain, but I reckon you could simply say that it comes with the job.
Starman
For no particular reason, here’s David Bowie with Starman.
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Bah, Humbug.
I got my hands on the new Arctic Monkeys album Humbug a couple of days ago. Since then, I’ve had a couple of listens, and here are some impressions.
My first thought was that Humbug definitely has a bit more weight about it than the earlier albums. Perhaps not keen to stick with the streetwise lyrics and furious showmanship of the two preceding albums, the Arctic Monkeys have put out a piece of work that exhibits a level of artistic maturity that to me is very welcome, but might alienate fans who fell in love with them with their debut album.
To me, it feels like a natural progression from Favourite Worst Nightmare, which at times took darker turns than one would have expected of a band that started life with the pop poetry of adolescence. No longer caught in that transition, Humbug embraces the Arctic Monkeys’ new, shall we say, world-view with quite some aplomb. There is drama to be found in the wicked characters, the cryptic and clever lyrics, and the inherent strangeness of this new album.
Certainly, the arithmetic, hook-based nature of their earlier work can scarcely be found here, and in its place is a clear attempt to produce a more cohesive album. Most tracks don’t come across as attempts to craft catchy singles. Instead, the entire experience has more layers and nuance than anything that they’ve ever done before. I will say that admittedly, no song quite hooked me in the way that some of their earlier songs did, but between a catchy three-minute ditty and a more well-balanced experience, I’d gladly pick the latter.
The album opens with My Propeller, which, compared to their last two outings, proves to be quite restrained, perhaps a sign of the recognition that there’s no longer hit the ground with something loud and flashy, or perhaps a declaration of intent, because it leads perfectly into the leading single Crying Lightning. A more cohesive album, as I was saying. Crying Lightning proves to be the perfect lead-in to an album with a dark and yet carnival atmosphere. The fuzzy guitar and unusual lyrics set the tone really quickly.
I remember thinking on my first listen that the two opening tracks also highlighted the band’s blossoming musicianship; and Alex Turner also showed that despite trading little street observations for darker, stranger things, he’s still quite capable of lyrics ranging from clever and oblique (“With folded arms you occupy the bench like toothache/Stood and puffed your chest out like you never lost a war”) to the inventively crude (“My propeller won’t spin and I can’t get it started on my own/When are you arriving?”).
I really like Dangerous Animals. The lyrics are quite spot-on, the performance of the band is quite remarkable, and the spelling game makes it one of the catchiest songs on the album. It’s like an old Arctic Monkeys song infused with a little more maturity, a little more wisdom and a little more imagination. It takes a more poignant turn with Secret Door, which I must say has a fantastic melody. Potion Approaching then provides more of their impressive musicianship, although admittedly Fire And The Thud didn’t catch me.
Cornerstone is probably one of the most brilliant things they’ve ever done, or just a decent ballad that fills the space of Fluorescent Adolescent on this album, depending on which side of the fence you’re on. The lyrics are achingly good, the tune itself is beautiful, and Alex Turner’s ever-maturing abilities as a singer are on full display here. I’m pretty sure you could easily make a case for it being the strongest piece in Humbug. This is the way love songs ought to be done, and it’s moments like these that sets the Arctic Monkeys apart from their contemporaries.
Dance Little Liar didn’t do much for me, like it was always wanting to be more than it actually was. I have a feeling it’ll grow on me later though. Pretty Visitors, full of force and intensity, struck me as classically Arctic Monkeys. It is however tinged with the darkness of Humbug, evident in the imaginative lyrics. There is also a vicious sense of humour to be found here. (“Which came first?/The chicken or the dickhead?”)
The album ends with the evocative The Jeweller’s Hands, something of a punk-era Alice In Wonderland tune. It’s a fitting conclusion to an album that is in turns clever, dark, expansive and filthy.
Overall, it’s an interesting direction, and while it has its problems (mainly that some of the songs really didn’t seem to hook me), it’s great to see the band appearing to have less of a need to impress and more of a desire to produce something more artistically complete. As a result, it’s nowhere near as accessible as their earlier works, but it’s probably going to outlive either of their first albums. The Arctic Monkeys have always showed a love a classic film in their music, but this is the first time that they’ve stopped framing scenes and started putting together a motion picture.
Humbug is a very competent album, and quite the experience. It has some startlingly brilliant moments, and some humdrum ones too. And perhaps its greatest problem might turn out to be the band’s reinvention and the risk of alienating their fans. Artistically, it bodes well for the band. The sense of ambition suggests that even at this remarkable level, the best is yet to come.
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These Are My Twisted Words
New Music
Radiohead have yet another new song, this one called These Are My Twisted Words. [via dead air space] They have put it up for free here.
Shopping
Yesterday, I made a couple of small purchases, including Distant Star by Bolaño.I now have three Bolaño books in my book queue (Distant Star, Last Evenings On Earth and The Romantic Dogs).
Long Weekend Too Short
So my weekend starts here on this Friday morning, but I have plenty of things to sort out over the weekend, so I’ve a feeling it’ll all go by too quickly. Primarily, I want to figure out the Thermodynamics assignment, start on my lab report, and sort out the things for a surgeon consultation. It’s not actually a lot of work, but they’re tricky and potentially take a lot of time. Besides, there are other commitments that I’ve got to attend to as well.
The NLB Sale
The NLB is having a book sale over the weekend. The details are:
Date: Saturday, 22 Aug 2009 to Sunday, 23 Aug 2009
Time: 9.30am – 8pm
Venue: Singapore Expo Hall 6A
Free Admission
Price of books:
Books in all four official languages will be on sale.
* English and Chinese books will cost $2 per copy;
* Malay and Tamil books will cost $1 per copy;
* English and Chinese magazines will cost $5 for a pack of 10 issues; and
* Malay and Tamil magazines will cost $5 for a pack of 20 issues.
Limit of purchase:
Each customer can buy up to a maximum of 60 items (a pack of 10 or 20 issues of magazines is considered as one item).
[via National Library Board Singapore] (Thanks, Jolie!)
I want to go, but I have things to do and it’s so far away.
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Time: 9.30am – 8pm
Venue: Singapore Expo Hall 6A
Free Admission
