Got this from Friendster bulletin, courtesy of Imanda:
=====
Enjoy!
Understanding Engineers - Take One
Two engineering students were walking
across a university campus when one
said, "Where did you get such a great
bike?"
The second engineer replied, "Well, I
was walking along yesterday, minding my
own business, when a beautiful woman
rode up on this bike, threw it to the
ground, took off all her clothes and
said, "Take what you want."
The first engineer nodded approvingly
and said, "Good choice; the clothes
probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
Understanding Engineers - Take Two
To the optimist, the glass is half
full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half
empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as
big as it needs to be.
Understanding Engineers - Take Three
A priest, a doctor, and an engineer
were waiting one morning for a
particularly slow group of golfers.
The engineer fumed, "What's with those
guys? We must have been waiting for
fifteen minutes!"
The doctor chimed in, "I don't know,
but I've never seen such inept golf!"
The priest said, "Here comes the greens
keeper. Let's have a word with him."
He said, "Hello, George! what's wrong
with that group ahead of us?
They're rather slow, aren't they?"
The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes.
That's a group of blind fire fighters.
They lost their sight saving our
clubhouse from a fire last year, so we
always let them play for free anytime."
The group fell silent for a moment.
The priest said, "That's so sad. I
think I will say a special prayer for
them tonight."
The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going
to contact my ophthalmologist colleague
and see if there's anything he can do
for them."
The engineer said, "Why can't they play
at night?"
Understanding Engineers - Take Four
What is the difference between
mechanical engineers and civil
engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and
civil engineers build targets.
Understanding Engineers - Take Five
Three engineering students were
gathered together discussing the
possible designers of the human body.
One said, "It was a mechanical
engineer. Just look at all the joints."
Another said, "No, it was an electrical
engineer. The nervous system has many
thousands of electrical connections."
The last one said, "No, actually it had
to have been a civil engineer.
Who else would run a toxic waste
pipeline through a recreational area?"
Understanding Engineers - Take Six
Normal people believe that if it ain't
broke, don't fix it.
Engineers believe that if it ain't
broke, it doesn't have enough features
yet.
Understanding Engineers - Take Seven
An engineer was crossing a road one
day, when a frog called out to him and
said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a
beautiful princess."
He bent over, picked up the frog and
put it in his pocket.
The frog spoke up again and said, "If
you kiss me and turn me back into a
beautiful princess, I will stay with
you for one week."
The engineer took the frog out of his
pocket, smiled at it and returned it to
the pocket.
The frog then cried out, "If you kiss
me and turn me back into a Princess,
I'll stay with you for one week and do
ANYTHING you want."
Again, the engineer took the frog out,
smiled at it and put it back into his
pocket.
Finally, the frog asked, "What is the
matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful
princess and that I'll stay with you
for one week and do anything you want.
Why won't you kiss me?"
The engineer said, "Look, I'm an
engineer. I don't have time for a
girlfriend, but a talking frog, now
that's cool."
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
You aren't a Spartan if you aren't a real one ...
Last week, I dropped my Powerbook accidentally. As a result, it had to be sent away for repair. My list of upcoming movies is in that computer, so I can't post anything yet on that topic.
Last week's Video Games Live Concert was great. Although I was a little bit disappointed. Maybe I have been overly excited about it too much that I have looked at all the concert footages in youtube that robbed me of all elements of surprise. Nevertheless, I think the show put their best stuffs at the beginning, not the end, including the MGS and Zelda. The Mario stuffs need to be revised, they need to add tunes from Super Mario 64 (especially Dire Dire Docks theme). ... and Square Enix, what's up with not showing gameplay footage? as for lineup: how about some Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Chronno Trigger, Castlevania, fighting games (SF, Tekken) stuffs? But the highlight of the concert includes seeing video game pianist Martin Leung perform (it was Awesome!!!) and seeing vertexguy performing Contra jungle theme (one of my all time fave) live for the very first time. Koji Kondo, the composer of Mario, Zelda and almost every Nintendo stuffs out there was there and performed too, which was cool (although his performance was kinda off, but nvm). Overall, it was cool, but I wouldn't attend another one unless there's significant new materials.
After the concert was over, I went to Metreon IMAX to watch 300 with a bunch of Spartan friends (ie. San Jose State University students). As I said earlier, my expectation was low for this movie, I wasn't impressed by the hype. However, it turns out to be a good movie. Although, the story is familiar, there was enough substance by the acting and visuals to keep the story going. Props to director Zach Snyder. He is a talented director who also knows how to tell a story besides delivering good looking movies. His previous movie, Dawn of the Dead remake, was also surprisingly good and efficient horror that defied my low expectation. So, Zach Snyder, bring on Watchmen. For the score, 300 gets a solid 3.5/5
300 has been all over the news since its last week box office success. Apparently, it's happening all around me too:
- MSN nicknames full of references about the movie, especially from my "Spartan" friends
- a sudden rise in "Spartan" pride, again, among my "Spartan" friends
- girls liking the movie for different reasons, for example, Tintin never stops talking about the Spartan warriors' body display (which made me consider this movie some kind of gay parade). My sister never stopped gushing over her idol since Dracula 2000, leading man Gerard Butler.
I also finally watched Johnnie To's latest film "Exiled". It's kind of a pseudo-sequel to what many critics and fans consider his best film ever, "The Mission" (1999). It even reunites most of the cast members of "The Mission" including Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung and Johnnie To's regulars Lam Suet and Simon Yam. Expectations run high ... so high, it 's ultimately bound to be disappointing.
One reason why I love Johnnie To's late 90s/early 00s films is because he could successfully deconstruct the whole Gangster/Killer/Guns/Brotherhood Hong Kong film genre successfully, adding his touch of uber-cool style and ironic sense of humour to make them great without making them another worthless entry to the genre. So while father of the genre John Woo started his downslide in Hollywood with MI:2, Johnnie To was keeping HK film industry alive with good films like "Running out of Time", "A Hero Never Dies", "Fulltime Killer" and the aforementioned "The Mission". Now, why am I saying all this? Because in some ways, "Exiled" is like Johnnie To's deconstructing his earlier genre films that I mentioned. It is filled with the same cool shootout moments that as well as absurd, ironic moments of comedy that you would expect from him. Sometimes, it feels so exactly familiar that I swear it's as if the master himself is playing a game with you. However, unlike his better films, his cool shootout actions are hard too watch because most scenes are too DARK and the usual ironic humor is mostly flat. The all familiar premise doesn't help either. So in the end, it wasn't much of a good movie at all.
Johnnie To is still active making movies. However, after this film, I can't help but feel that we won't see anymore likes of "The Mission" from him. This film feels tiringly familiar, it's as if Johnnie To has no more plans to make anymore films like this and deliver this film as the "greatest hits" to his fans. While I am confident Johnnie To can still make good films, I shall miss those films that made me his fans in the first place. Exiled score: 3/5.
============
My schoolmate in Singapore Evelyn just moved to Sunnyvale from LA and she just found a job here too. I'm gonna see her sometime this week and catch up.
This week's movie lineup looks weak, so I'm gonna catch some leftover like Black Snake Moan or Zodiac or maybe newly released The Namesake. or I could continue my Zelda Twilight Princess. or read The Game by Neil Strauss that Eric lent me.
... and oh, is anyone interested in Damien Rice's Concert in Oakland at April 28? let me know
Last week's Video Games Live Concert was great. Although I was a little bit disappointed. Maybe I have been overly excited about it too much that I have looked at all the concert footages in youtube that robbed me of all elements of surprise. Nevertheless, I think the show put their best stuffs at the beginning, not the end, including the MGS and Zelda. The Mario stuffs need to be revised, they need to add tunes from Super Mario 64 (especially Dire Dire Docks theme). ... and Square Enix, what's up with not showing gameplay footage? as for lineup: how about some Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Chronno Trigger, Castlevania, fighting games (SF, Tekken) stuffs? But the highlight of the concert includes seeing video game pianist Martin Leung perform (it was Awesome!!!) and seeing vertexguy performing Contra jungle theme (one of my all time fave) live for the very first time. Koji Kondo, the composer of Mario, Zelda and almost every Nintendo stuffs out there was there and performed too, which was cool (although his performance was kinda off, but nvm). Overall, it was cool, but I wouldn't attend another one unless there's significant new materials.
After the concert was over, I went to Metreon IMAX to watch 300 with a bunch of Spartan friends (ie. San Jose State University students). As I said earlier, my expectation was low for this movie, I wasn't impressed by the hype. However, it turns out to be a good movie. Although, the story is familiar, there was enough substance by the acting and visuals to keep the story going. Props to director Zach Snyder. He is a talented director who also knows how to tell a story besides delivering good looking movies. His previous movie, Dawn of the Dead remake, was also surprisingly good and efficient horror that defied my low expectation. So, Zach Snyder, bring on Watchmen. For the score, 300 gets a solid 3.5/5
300 has been all over the news since its last week box office success. Apparently, it's happening all around me too:
- MSN nicknames full of references about the movie, especially from my "Spartan" friends
- a sudden rise in "Spartan" pride, again, among my "Spartan" friends
- girls liking the movie for different reasons, for example, Tintin never stops talking about the Spartan warriors' body display (which made me consider this movie some kind of gay parade). My sister never stopped gushing over her idol since Dracula 2000, leading man Gerard Butler.
I also finally watched Johnnie To's latest film "Exiled". It's kind of a pseudo-sequel to what many critics and fans consider his best film ever, "The Mission" (1999). It even reunites most of the cast members of "The Mission" including Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Roy Cheung and Johnnie To's regulars Lam Suet and Simon Yam. Expectations run high ... so high, it 's ultimately bound to be disappointing.
One reason why I love Johnnie To's late 90s/early 00s films is because he could successfully deconstruct the whole Gangster/Killer/Guns/Brotherhood Hong Kong film genre successfully, adding his touch of uber-cool style and ironic sense of humour to make them great without making them another worthless entry to the genre. So while father of the genre John Woo started his downslide in Hollywood with MI:2, Johnnie To was keeping HK film industry alive with good films like "Running out of Time", "A Hero Never Dies", "Fulltime Killer" and the aforementioned "The Mission". Now, why am I saying all this? Because in some ways, "Exiled" is like Johnnie To's deconstructing his earlier genre films that I mentioned. It is filled with the same cool shootout moments that as well as absurd, ironic moments of comedy that you would expect from him. Sometimes, it feels so exactly familiar that I swear it's as if the master himself is playing a game with you. However, unlike his better films, his cool shootout actions are hard too watch because most scenes are too DARK and the usual ironic humor is mostly flat. The all familiar premise doesn't help either. So in the end, it wasn't much of a good movie at all.
Johnnie To is still active making movies. However, after this film, I can't help but feel that we won't see anymore likes of "The Mission" from him. This film feels tiringly familiar, it's as if Johnnie To has no more plans to make anymore films like this and deliver this film as the "greatest hits" to his fans. While I am confident Johnnie To can still make good films, I shall miss those films that made me his fans in the first place. Exiled score: 3/5.
============
My schoolmate in Singapore Evelyn just moved to Sunnyvale from LA and she just found a job here too. I'm gonna see her sometime this week and catch up.
This week's movie lineup looks weak, so I'm gonna catch some leftover like Black Snake Moan or Zodiac or maybe newly released The Namesake. or I could continue my Zelda Twilight Princess. or read The Game by Neil Strauss that Eric lent me.
... and oh, is anyone interested in Damien Rice's Concert in Oakland at April 28? let me know
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Samsung SyncMaster931c
I finally got my old Fujitsu Lifebook sent in for repair. They took out the laptop screen and left me with 1/2 the laptop. So, I went to Frys and got myself a brand new 19 inch flat screen monitor to use with my laptop. It's so bright and beautiful. So good, I connected my Powerbook to it too. Too bad I have to return it when I got my laptop all fixed.
The Monitor
The Monitor + Fujitsu Lifebook
The Monitor + Powerbook G4
This Friday, I'm going to Video Games Live concert in SF with Alexander and Adrinata the iguana. I'm really excited about it, can't wait to hear Metal Gear Solid theme in all of its full orchestra glory.
After that, I'm going to catch a midnight show of 300 at The Metreon with kasim dkk. Now, I know I promised my overview of this year's upcoming movie earlier. It's coming soon. But 300 is one of them and I'm just gonna talk abt it now. I can't believe the hype this movie has gotten. From the trailer and story, it just looks like an ancient war spectacle film with great visuals and that's it ... I know it's written by Frank Miller based on a legend. But the story sounds ordinary - nothing interesting, and for me great visuals usually can't save it. I'm gonna see it but I'm not very hopeful.
My friend in Berkeley caught an advance screening and he said it wasn't worth the hype. He even encouraged me to watch it with Booze. Thanks, but I shall watch it with a straight face.
The Monitor
The Monitor + Fujitsu Lifebook
The Monitor + Powerbook G4
This Friday, I'm going to Video Games Live concert in SF with Alexander and Adrinata the iguana. I'm really excited about it, can't wait to hear Metal Gear Solid theme in all of its full orchestra glory.
After that, I'm going to catch a midnight show of 300 at The Metreon with kasim dkk. Now, I know I promised my overview of this year's upcoming movie earlier. It's coming soon. But 300 is one of them and I'm just gonna talk abt it now. I can't believe the hype this movie has gotten. From the trailer and story, it just looks like an ancient war spectacle film with great visuals and that's it ... I know it's written by Frank Miller based on a legend. But the story sounds ordinary - nothing interesting, and for me great visuals usually can't save it. I'm gonna see it but I'm not very hopeful.
My friend in Berkeley caught an advance screening and he said it wasn't worth the hype. He even encouraged me to watch it with Booze. Thanks, but I shall watch it with a straight face.
Sony PS3: The Empire Strikes Back
The Game Developers' Conference has started in San Francisco.and today, Sony had delivered its keynote for PS3. and it looks really good.
PS3 will have an online service called Playstation Home to combat Mii, Xbox Live and ... Second Life. PS Home is like Second Life, where you have this virtual world where you can create your own life-like avatar rendered in next-gen graphic. In the virtual world, you can have your own apartments and futuristic communities where you can do stuffs like hang out with other ppl, play bowling and arcade games, and other stuffs... and you get to own cool electronic devices too like HDTV (all Sony branded, of course). Best of all, all these ... are Free. Well, you have to pay $500-600 for your PS3 first, but still. You can say that Sony rips off everyone, but if Sony could rip them off and execute this successfully, then points to them.
... and Sony has also showed new Killzone PS3 footage. Remember the old, amazing too-good-to-be-rendered-on-PS3 Killzone footage from E3 in 2005 that turned out to be fake? Now, Sony has shown a real one. I haven't seen it, so I can't comment on it. But it was used to showcase the Playstation Edge - a new dev tool to help developers with the very-difficult-to-develop PS3?
... and Sony has also announced a new "cute" and creative game called LittleBigPlanet that got some positive buzz ... definitely an attempt to fight Nintendo on the software front.
All these are Sony's efforts to combat the recent negative buzz about PS3. I will give Sony kudos for this because I'm actually quite impressed. I definitely worry for my dear Nintendo.
BUT ... Sony has done this before, many times - making great, impressive announcements for future products, only not to deliver on its promises. This is particularly true for PS3. All these new features they just announced today will be released in earliest Fall this year. So we'll see if they can keep their promises or not. If they do, which is kinda unlikely, then Nintendo and Microsoft (and 2nd Life too?) better worry.
Gamespot Story on the Keynote.
==================================================================
On M Night Shyamalan:
Pei is definitely one blogger who knows his reader well =). Yesterday, he posted this article on M Night Shyamalan.
M Night isn't doing so well these days. Lady in The Water has just (deservedly) flopped. His off-screen egoistic reputation hasn't helped at all. But he's talented and I know he'll make his comeback especially when he's at his low point; and I'm here to talk about his new project, something that might signal his comeback.
Last month, M Night signed a deal with Paramount to make a live action adaptation of popular cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. That sounds like a really bad idea to me. But that's not the comeback project I am gonna talk about. After the Avatar announcement, it was revealed that M Night has written an original script called The Green Effect. It was a apocalyptic thriller on Global Warming. Apparently, all studios passed on it and asked him to rewrite it before submitting it again to them.
... and then Latino Review got a copy of the script and posted a positive review (beware spoilers) of it.
... and then yesterday, Fox picked the project up and the title has changed to The Happening.
... and I couldn't be more excited.
I have read the positive review of the script and I must say I'm really excited. It has the kind of story that M Night could deliver. Now I'm going to discuss the story from the script review. So, if you don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.
=====SPOILER ALERT=====
The Green Effect is about an environmental crisis that suddenly threatens the existence of humankind. One day, people around the world in big cities started killing themselves one by one mysteriously. As people try to run away from whatever mysterious thing that causing this to happen, they discover that a mysterious toxin has been released from trees around the world and the toxin caused whoever breathes it to have an urge to kill themselves. Then, they also found out that this toxin only affects human, animals are immune to it. This then becomes a story on survival in a new world where apparently, if you don't take care of nature, nature will take care of you.
Wow, unlike that confusing muddled bedtime garbage Lady in the Water, this is actually a good, chilling, effective story worth telling. I also never expected M Night to be an environmental guy. and with the recent popularity of An Inconvenient Truth and Global Warming issues, the timing of this movie couldn't be better.
But I have to say that M Night could do better. Although he could write a good story, some elements are just so flat out wrong/unbelievable/funny (Exhibit 1: everything in Lady in the Water. Exhibit 2: alien defeated by water in Signs) that it harms the story. In The Green Effect story, that thing is ... toxin making people commit suicide. WTF is that? why can't the toxin just kill people directly? M Night probably wants to give himself an opportunity to do some gruesome death scenes. However, I think that harms the story more.
2ndly, another M Night weakness, cardboard white main characters. Since Signs (or even earlier), M Night has become weak on creating memorable characters and this seems to be no exception, from what I read in the script review. also, maybe it's what M Night has to do to be successful in hollywood, but why another white main character? he is Indian, and he probably should start making his main character another race for a change.
Lastly, nothing to do with the script, but M Night has done nothing but horror/thriller since The Sixth Sense. Although all his movies aren't simple horror movies, no one can deny that each one has horror elements in them and this one is no different. I wish that M Night would branch into another genre, like a romantic comedy maybe? lol.
=============
So overall, hopefully everything goes well and M Night doesn't let his ego gets the better of him, he will make his comeback and one damn good film. Suddenly, June 2008 seems so far away.
===============================================================
Yesterday, while browsing asian blogs, I found out that my favourite japanese singer Utada Hikaru has divorced her MV/Movie director Kazuaki Kiriya (director of Casshern). It was as sudden and surprising as the news of their marriage 4.5 years ago. Normally, I wouldn't care much about celebrity gossip. But this one makes me wonder if it's possible for 2 creatively talented people to have a long and meaningful marriage... look at Sofia Copolla and Spike Jonze.
... speaking of Utada Hikaru, if you ever eat at Pepper Lunch USA in Milpitas, you might think that the owner is Utada Hikaru fans. They play her songs everytime I eat ther, from the latest album, even. The food is good, but an audio variety would be better.
... and while browsing the asian blogs, I also learnt that HK music industry is experiencing some creative crisis with new songs plagiarising older, foreign songs and the blogger showed some examples to compare the similar situation with the music industry in US. I thought I have some examples too:
Michelle Branch's Everywhere VS Green Day's Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (The Guitar Opening)
Jojo's A Little Too Late VS Katharine McPhee's Over It
Nickelback's Someday and How You Remind Me (this one is classic)
and this one from the blog I read that I agree with:
The Fray's Over My Head and How To Save A Life (same chorus!!!)
==========
I guess that's it for now, sorry for the longwinded entry
PS3 will have an online service called Playstation Home to combat Mii, Xbox Live and ... Second Life. PS Home is like Second Life, where you have this virtual world where you can create your own life-like avatar rendered in next-gen graphic. In the virtual world, you can have your own apartments and futuristic communities where you can do stuffs like hang out with other ppl, play bowling and arcade games, and other stuffs... and you get to own cool electronic devices too like HDTV (all Sony branded, of course). Best of all, all these ... are Free. Well, you have to pay $500-600 for your PS3 first, but still. You can say that Sony rips off everyone, but if Sony could rip them off and execute this successfully, then points to them.
... and Sony has also showed new Killzone PS3 footage. Remember the old, amazing too-good-to-be-rendered-on-PS3 Killzone footage from E3 in 2005 that turned out to be fake? Now, Sony has shown a real one. I haven't seen it, so I can't comment on it. But it was used to showcase the Playstation Edge - a new dev tool to help developers with the very-difficult-to-develop PS3?
... and Sony has also announced a new "cute" and creative game called LittleBigPlanet that got some positive buzz ... definitely an attempt to fight Nintendo on the software front.
All these are Sony's efforts to combat the recent negative buzz about PS3. I will give Sony kudos for this because I'm actually quite impressed. I definitely worry for my dear Nintendo.
BUT ... Sony has done this before, many times - making great, impressive announcements for future products, only not to deliver on its promises. This is particularly true for PS3. All these new features they just announced today will be released in earliest Fall this year. So we'll see if they can keep their promises or not. If they do, which is kinda unlikely, then Nintendo and Microsoft (and 2nd Life too?) better worry.
Gamespot Story on the Keynote.
==================================================================
On M Night Shyamalan:
Pei is definitely one blogger who knows his reader well =). Yesterday, he posted this article on M Night Shyamalan.
M Night isn't doing so well these days. Lady in The Water has just (deservedly) flopped. His off-screen egoistic reputation hasn't helped at all. But he's talented and I know he'll make his comeback especially when he's at his low point; and I'm here to talk about his new project, something that might signal his comeback.
Last month, M Night signed a deal with Paramount to make a live action adaptation of popular cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender. That sounds like a really bad idea to me. But that's not the comeback project I am gonna talk about. After the Avatar announcement, it was revealed that M Night has written an original script called The Green Effect. It was a apocalyptic thriller on Global Warming. Apparently, all studios passed on it and asked him to rewrite it before submitting it again to them.
... and then Latino Review got a copy of the script and posted a positive review (beware spoilers) of it.
... and then yesterday, Fox picked the project up and the title has changed to The Happening.
... and I couldn't be more excited.
I have read the positive review of the script and I must say I'm really excited. It has the kind of story that M Night could deliver. Now I'm going to discuss the story from the script review. So, if you don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.
=====SPOILER ALERT=====
The Green Effect is about an environmental crisis that suddenly threatens the existence of humankind. One day, people around the world in big cities started killing themselves one by one mysteriously. As people try to run away from whatever mysterious thing that causing this to happen, they discover that a mysterious toxin has been released from trees around the world and the toxin caused whoever breathes it to have an urge to kill themselves. Then, they also found out that this toxin only affects human, animals are immune to it. This then becomes a story on survival in a new world where apparently, if you don't take care of nature, nature will take care of you.
Wow, unlike that confusing muddled bedtime garbage Lady in the Water, this is actually a good, chilling, effective story worth telling. I also never expected M Night to be an environmental guy. and with the recent popularity of An Inconvenient Truth and Global Warming issues, the timing of this movie couldn't be better.
But I have to say that M Night could do better. Although he could write a good story, some elements are just so flat out wrong/unbelievable/funny (Exhibit 1: everything in Lady in the Water. Exhibit 2: alien defeated by water in Signs) that it harms the story. In The Green Effect story, that thing is ... toxin making people commit suicide. WTF is that? why can't the toxin just kill people directly? M Night probably wants to give himself an opportunity to do some gruesome death scenes. However, I think that harms the story more.
2ndly, another M Night weakness, cardboard white main characters. Since Signs (or even earlier), M Night has become weak on creating memorable characters and this seems to be no exception, from what I read in the script review. also, maybe it's what M Night has to do to be successful in hollywood, but why another white main character? he is Indian, and he probably should start making his main character another race for a change.
Lastly, nothing to do with the script, but M Night has done nothing but horror/thriller since The Sixth Sense. Although all his movies aren't simple horror movies, no one can deny that each one has horror elements in them and this one is no different. I wish that M Night would branch into another genre, like a romantic comedy maybe? lol.
=============
So overall, hopefully everything goes well and M Night doesn't let his ego gets the better of him, he will make his comeback and one damn good film. Suddenly, June 2008 seems so far away.
===============================================================
Yesterday, while browsing asian blogs, I found out that my favourite japanese singer Utada Hikaru has divorced her MV/Movie director Kazuaki Kiriya (director of Casshern). It was as sudden and surprising as the news of their marriage 4.5 years ago. Normally, I wouldn't care much about celebrity gossip. But this one makes me wonder if it's possible for 2 creatively talented people to have a long and meaningful marriage... look at Sofia Copolla and Spike Jonze.
... speaking of Utada Hikaru, if you ever eat at Pepper Lunch USA in Milpitas, you might think that the owner is Utada Hikaru fans. They play her songs everytime I eat ther, from the latest album, even. The food is good, but an audio variety would be better.
... and while browsing the asian blogs, I also learnt that HK music industry is experiencing some creative crisis with new songs plagiarising older, foreign songs and the blogger showed some examples to compare the similar situation with the music industry in US. I thought I have some examples too:
Michelle Branch's Everywhere VS Green Day's Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (The Guitar Opening)
Jojo's A Little Too Late VS Katharine McPhee's Over It
Nickelback's Someday and How You Remind Me (this one is classic)
and this one from the blog I read that I agree with:
The Fray's Over My Head and How To Save A Life (same chorus!!!)
==========
I guess that's it for now, sorry for the longwinded entry
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