My blog

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• falling in love all over again

  Tuesday, Mar 10, 2009 4:27PM / Standard Entry

  
  

  

  i woke up this morning with a new sense of purpose. and unusual sense of it.  normaly on a monday, i would be made grumpy by the realisation that i would have to be starting another week at work as a slave of the corporate world.

  however today, was differnet.  there was a sudden jolt of excitement.  as today when i open the doors to my studio, it will be opening a whole new world for me.

  i have spent time as a full time musician before, but i have never considered this place as a viable solution to monetary needs.  however, the more i sat around a desk thinking of what song i could be playing the drums, i decided that it was fine time that i get off my ass and get over here.

  now that i am here though, i am pretty happy.  it is a starnge time to be doing this.  to leave the comfort of a steady paycheck, to enter a world that i haven’t officially been a part of for about two and a half years now.

  however having said that, i do relish this opportunity to do what i have always wanted.  and i hope that in the coming days, weeks, months, or years.  you will stop by and see me.

  it don’t need to use the studio to just come up.  this week is the only week where there will be drinks and snacks…

  cheers,
  jon

  
  
  

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• no line on the horizon

  Monday, Mar 9, 2009 1:19PM / Standard Entry

  
  

  

  

  

  there are only a handful of bands, that i would drop whatever i am doing and buy a cd of:  rush, green day, coldplay, nine inch nails, and u2.  there are others, but those are the big ones.  the last one i have been a fan every since i listened to my sister’s cassette tape of joshua tree, and  learned to sing “i still haven’t found what i’m looking for”.

  it also houses two of my favorite all time songs of all time: “with or without you” and “where the streets have no name”. i was 7 then i believe, but those songs spoke to me.  even then.

  last week, u2 released a new album. so far early opinions are that it is a really experimental album but also really interesting in a way.  and i tend to agree.  the stuff i have heard has to my ears, sonically has been brilliant.  just a feast for my ears.

  well, to promote their album this past week, they spent 5 nights on the late show with david letterman.  they played a few songs from “no line” and also beautiful day.  it was a brilliant move by letterman, celebrating music and and a career that has spanned lamost 3 decades.

  http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=820ABD3BF4CCD4CD

  the above link has all 5 performances including their interview with letterman. this is a great year for music with coldplay, u2, eminem, and green day releasing a new album in may, there should be some interesting in store with the world music scene…

  definitely, go and grab a copy of this album and see why after so many years, u2 still can rock it really hard.

  cheers,

  
  
  

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• playing music again

  Sunday, Mar 8, 2009 1:56AM / Standard Entry

  
  

  i’m back to doing what i love best.  playing music.  not that i have not been doing it at church all the years i’ve been a corporate hack, but i feel like that i am going to start doing this a little more regularly now.

  i played a show, i guess it would be last night, and it wasn’t the best of shows.  but nevertheless it was brilliant fun.  it was for a friend’s annual dinner, and i got to ship my drums over, and i generally had a great time playing.

  we had high hopes going into the set cause everything was set up… i brought a mixer, bass amp, and three monitors to get everything all going, but when we actually played, we didn’t do too good.  we might have actually blown the house speakers, cause they over cranked the connections.

  but it was all good. for me it was just the pure elation of playing regular shows again, and getting match fit.  the last show i played was in december or maybe even later, so i need to get out there, play some more shows and get match fit again.

  the next show, is with jeff caylor  (http://jeffcaylor.com/)  (http://www.alivenotdead.com/jeffcaylor) and on may 2nd.  fringe club. check it out if you can… should be a pretty good show.

  ok time to head off, i look forward to seeing some/a few of you guys next week as the studio officially opens its doors to the public…

  cheers,

  
  
  

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• a sign of things to come

  Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 3:57PM / Standard Entry

  
  

  here’s a quirky little story for you.  us president barack obama has started a fewpeople talking about the strange way he signed the 750 billion dollar stimulus package.  to the highly unbservant person, obama signs left handed and he hands gets contorted into this strange twisted curl of his wrist.  i never thought too much of it but then you can see he’s definitely curling his wrist.

  to me, the average left hander, when signing or writing, i believe their knuckls are facing about 10 o’clock.  however if you look closely you can see his knuckles are pointing straight forward at the 12 o’clock position.  which even to us righthanders who’s knuckles are closer to 1 o’clock do find it a little weird.

  

  he actually also closes his eyes too when he signs things, which is strange.  cause i was always thought to keep my eyes open when i had to write things down.  especially when i had to sign sheets of paper. but obama is made of magic so i think he could do anything with his eyes closed. 

  this story, highlighted by the brilliant jeanie moos from cnn in the following package.

  Embedded video from CNN Video

  i don’t know if this is a strange phomenon of obama, or do most left handed people do it to avoid smudging the ink.  i have a few friends who are left handed and to my memory they do not write in such a manner.  i used to remark as a child how i felt it was strange that they would write with theirs left handed not knowing that there are people in this world who write left handed.  but i never felt it to be as unique as president obama’s

  this was also an excuse for me to put up waaay too many photos of obama.  i’m alright with the way he signs i guess, but jeannie moos always has a great way to telling the quirkier stories on cnn.  check it out

  cheers,

  
  
  

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• something is brewing

  Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009 10:22AM / Standard Entry

  
  

  

  Starbucks Gonna Try Instant Coffee

  it’s no secret the recession has hit everyone pretty hard.  no industry here in hong kong and around the world is immune from the effects of the economic downturn, except for maybe karaoke.  karaoke always does well.  however, big companies are laying people off, losing money and some are even going bankrupt.  which is no surprise that a even a global conglomerate like starbucks is also taking a huge hit.  i always thought that people loved to pay for over priced sub quality coffee they could make better at home… sad facit is, i know i did and so do you.

  starbucks has been hit pretty hard, and noone feels it more than their stores and the staff. since the downturn, over 7000 staff have been given their marching orders and over 300 stores have closed.  that is pretty close to the amount of starbucks stores we have just in central alone.

  so any company in trouble would try their best to avoid going down.  like a football team making a specific signing to boost their defence or adding a striker so they can win games and avoid relegation, starbucks has a super sub for their troubles:  instant coffee. 

  read: (source article here)

  yes you read that right.  instant coffee.  now in my sudden geek excitement, i thought that they had specific machines that produced each order instantly.  as in, lets say someone orders a grande chai tea latte.  they will walk up to some machine push a button, and boom,  grande chai tea latte instantly.  but that was me being naive and thinking too far (thought that would be cool).  they are actually selling packets of instant coffee. so that you can go home and make the same crap coffee at home for a fraction of the price of buying it at the store.

  now i know most of you will argue that it’s the experience of starbucks that is popular and non necesarrily the coffee.  i for one drink the tea there only (cause tea is hard to screw up), but there is something about having a good drink and a good setting. so the question is, would you want to experience sub standard coffee at their stores, or at home?

  will this work? CEO Howard Shultz obviously thinks so, but i am pretty sure that most people would disagree with this idea.  would you wanna be sitting at home, drinking instant coffee made from a starbucks sachet?  The bottled frappecino didn’t seem to do incredibly well when they were sold in stores and supermarkets. i think 7-11 in Hong Kong is styll trying to sell their first issues of bottles (it tasted neither frozen nor like a frappecino)

  next thing you’re gonna tell me is that starbucks are going to do breakfast combos to steal people from mcdonalds. uh wait a second, i spoke too soon.

  i’ll leave the discussion up to you.  my verdict, the novelty of it will fly for a few weeks where some people who are way too lazy to go out for that starbucks taste. but i don’t think it is going to be a hit. i avoided the use of a cheesy joke by not inserting the word instant there but it was highly tempting.  

  cheers,

  
  
  

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