Blogging in Beijing right now. We've just got our timetable, thereby beginning the 'learning' part of our exchange.


Feeling the need 2 shop. A whole street of music instruments @ Hu Guo Si.

Phrazes for the Young. Addictive and quasi-progressive solo work from Julian Casablancas. This is probably 'it'. Now get the Strokes back for the fourth album!

Good thing that the two albums I hoped to listen before Beijing are completed, namely Raditude and Phrazes. Still quite mixed about Raditude.

Loading up on The Flaming Lips for Beij.

Unexpectedly, I got an A1 for geog which makes my MSG 1.56! Hoping english can pip me into the sub-1.5 range.

Can't think of anything 'meaningful' to do. Games are probably the only thing I can think of doing/playing but after clearing 6 badges on Pokemon Stadium, I felt somewhat empty inside. Like that hour was spent on a 10-year-old game.

Or maybe I'm turning into a mugger.

In a week's time!

I figured that since I'll probably be unable to download anything at a tolerable speed, I should stockpile a semi-massive collection of albums to listen to over those two months:


1. Portishead- Third
2. Portishead- Portishead
3. The Decemberists- Picaresque
4. The Mountain Goats- Sunset Tree
5. My Morning Jacket- Tennessee Fire
6. Beirut- Gulag Orkestar
7. Iron & Wine- The Creek Drank the Cradle
8. Foreign Born- In The Remote Woods
9. Blitzen Trapper- Furr
10. Little Joy
11. Here We Go Magic- Here We Go Magic
12. Little Joy- Little Joy
13. Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
14. Department of Eagles- In Ear Park
15. Yeasayers- All Hour Cymbals

There. Time to go for my flu jab.

In other news, double science A1s!

Somehow, I've started listening to Asian Kung-Fu Generation again. And somehow they still as great and fresh as ever.

Tomorrow is physics. All the best. *Crosses fingers*

To listen to after exams

The Decemberists- Picaresque
Mountain Goats- Sunset Tree
My Morning Jacket- Tennessee Fire
Beirut
Phoenix- It's Never Been Like That/Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Iron & Wine- The Creek Drank the Cradle
Neon Indian
Band of Horses

The strain of my shoulders is killing me so greatly that I need some place to heave a metaphorical sigh.

Am I even tired? I think its more like lethargy. God I'm not even halfway through the exams and I feel dead already. Just need it to be over.

Grateful to have splendid music from Grizzly Bear to soothe my aching bones.

Exams have began! And so has my sudden obsession with garage rock: The Mantles, The Feelies (yes Brave New World) and Girls.

Still lovin' Grizzly Bear tho.

So DocHon has decided to take the whole Mousehunt-Facebook-MaxProductivity shit to the next level: EMB Response Forum!

I love these things. Its like 'Internet forums', except with ten times more fallacious trolls. Here are some excerpts of posts from our intelligent juniors:


- "As for usage of phones in school to play games on the mobile phone, I think that the school should control the amount of smart phones that can easily go online to play games for students."

- "Policing, like the Japanese "Kempetai" can be appointed with the recommendations of the teachers; and students can take turn. They have to remain anonymous in order not to invite hatred amongst others. These "kempetai" students are provided with a closed channel via mail or sms to inform teachers of student offenders playing mobile phones secretly. We can consider incentives ( e.g. merit points, extra sabbatical bidding points) to these "polices". Trust me they are hard earned . The good thing about this policing system is that it can also be apply to facebook games as the students are all "friends" to one another and the activities can be seen by all."
(My personal favorite. Love the postpostpostirony.)

- "I think there is a very simple way to stop facebook games.If you have been playing more than 2 hours, the system will automatically reduce your gains by half.If you are playing more than 3 hours,your gain will be reduced to 0.To prevent this from happening to your gain,you can go offine for 4 hours, then log on again after 4 hours.Then,you will have your full gain back"

- For example,one of my classmates was playing songs very loudy in the morning when most people were still trying to get a last minute rest or "chiong" their homework/mug for exams.When he starts to play the music,he rudely awakens the sleeping people(including me)and distracts the studying students and they will not be able to sleep/do their work anymore.
(Sec 1s need last minute rest?)

-I suggest that the school first discourage students from playing the game by emphasizing on the negative impacts it will bring to our studies. It is very crucial that students wake up from the delusion that it is "ok" to play the game because they can use the application simultaneously while during their work on the internet.
:):):)


"Slow Life" is up on Youtube. It's Grizzly Bear's 'contribution' to the notorious New Moon OST. Lazy to embed.

History! History! History!

Actually, not really.

Before I begin, I'd like to talk about a mainstream breakthrough band that recently has been gaining lots of mainstream appraisal: Owl City.

Defined as 'electronic' by its Facebook fan page, Owl City fits the bill of your 'normal' indie-pysch-pop band: heavy on the synth, faux-autotuned vocals and a generally trippy and upbeat feel. Nothing original here, but worth a listen or two.

On to school. Today was the last lesson with Dr. Merc and Adrian. I'll miss them both.

4 days to go. I can't believe it. All the things to do after the exams.

I didn't exactly go much into detail about Super Mash Bros. So I'll do it now.

Super Mash Bros. is a mash-up duo from LA, USA. As their name suggests, they mash-up multiple songs into a single track. Usually multiple songs are featured in a song. While they've only released two albums, the quality of these albums are up there with some the 'better' mash-up artists like Girl Talk.

Their first album "Fuck Bitches. Get Euros." broke new grounds in the mash-up field, proving that rap and pop had 'much more in common' that we thought (well actually...). They actually pull off some pretty amazing mix-ups, such as

- "Tipsy- J-Kwon" and "Clocks- Coldplay"
- "Dirt Off Your Shoulder- Jay-Z" and "Thousand Miles- Vannessa Carlton"

While some tracks on the album have songs that 'just shouldn't be remixed' (Not even they can save Crank That), there are some pretty 'unoriginal' samples that every DJ has probably mixed (Yes, Daft Punk).

Nevertheless, the true gem of the album would have to be "I Fucking Bleed Purple and Gold", which mixes "Kids" and "Without Me". Mixes like gel.

Some say that mash-ups 'ruin' the original song (usually not the rap ones). After hearing Super Mash Bros., you may reconsider.

Watching Conan's Emmy opening monologue.

Been listening to a lot of Mash-ups recently, which is essentially putting a rap track over a nice song. Well sometimes it works well. Girl Talk is the indie mash-up DJ while Super Mash Bros. is the upbeat radio-friendly version. Of course the best thing about mash-ups is how you can identify with the song so Super Mash Bros. is one up with all the early y2k radio hits I shamefully recognise. Also, great reference to my favorite game.


Only 14 days to go till I'm done with this year.

It is very amusing to go through one's own blog archives to see how 'delightfully immature 'one was in the past. Also reminds me that I need to 'grow up'/enjoy being a 'kid'.

I still need the energy to push through these 20 days of 'revising'. No motivational drive.

things2do:
1. Mug CSC
2. Lit essay
3. Math worksheet x2
4. Physics test papers x2
5. English ACE Essay

by tonight. lol.

Fleet Foxes are producing some of the best tunes of the generation. Fleet Foxes = Musical evolution.

Vamp Weekend and MGMT are also debuting some new songs. Produce two of the best albums of the year again.

So in two weeks time exams will start. Which means in three weeks time exams will be over!

Thingums to doum tomorrowum:

1. Dynamics/ WorkEnergyPower revision
2. Chemistry Paper 2007
3. Math Worksheets

Give me the productivity of a mugger please.

Didn't get much work done today. Supposed to have done two terms worth of geog (lol), lenin and physics. I'm now beginning on the 2nd term of geog.

Julian Casablanca's new single "11th Dimension" from his solo album, leaving behind the gritty garage-rock revival of The Strokes.

Among the bands I've listened to, Julian Casablancas are arguably my favorite vocalist next to Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend and Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT. Grizzly Bear's vocalist is pretty acapella-cool.

"11th Dimension" is pretty a blend '80s synth with Casablancas' 'quirky half-drunk voice' but the two go together rather well. The synth solo (and thumping bassline- I'm a sucker for that) was particularly enjoyable, sounding half-MGMT, half-Daft Punk. Can't wait for the album.

Speaking of Grizzly Bear, I'm completely appalled/shocked/horrified by New Moon's 'soundtrack', which essentially reads 'We're trying to make a movie based on a TWEEN novel uber cool by including tons of indie artists to show that our target audience aren't a bunch of love-hungry fantasy-obsessed girls who were forced to enjoy Band Slam's soundtrack although they found Velvet Underground extremely noisy'. The list of artistes who'll be contributing to the OST include Death Cab, Thom Yorke (I have yet to use 'Radiohead' and 'Twilight' in the same sentence), The Killers (The only logical choice so far) and yeah Grizzly Bear.

Grizzly Bear will be launched into mainstream scene of the mainstream. And even I can't get into their music yet. Hopefully there'll be a backlash and tween girls stay far away from bands that have 'so few lyrics' and music videos that aren't like chick flicks.

Posting about music is so much more relaxing than talking about life.