All Posts by ‘George Chen’
Florida 2.0 in Taiwan
I actually thought this is pretty hilarious… Florida 2.0 in Taiwan.
This is a big deal for most ethnic Chinese around the world since Shui-bian Chen and his party DPP, in most minds, stand for the independent movement of Taiwan. If he truly got re-elected (as the current count goes), things could turn nasty down the road for the Taiwanese.
I clearly have my own opinion and point of view that might piss off a few Taiwanese…
My mom was born in Taiwan but she’s being consider as the “outsider” since my grandparents moved over to Taiwan after WWII with the Nationalist Party. Taiwan was once a colony of Japan during the war, but post WWII it has been consider as a part of China and now the “native Taiwanese” is expressing their interest of “independence”. I say, let them have it:
Just make sure they stop speaking Chinese, stop writing Chinese, stop celebrate all the wonderful Chinese seasonal holidays, stop teaching your kids Chinese culture as well. And oh, good luck of starting a new nation identity in the mean time, which most likely to be Japanese.
My proposal sounds ridiculous, huh? That’s exactly the same issue with the the whole “Taiwan Independence movement”. Disagreement with the mainland (now powerful-econical-force-only-by-name-Commie-pty) on “who’s the boss” is one thing, but claim yourself as non-Chinese that’s another issue.
I wonder if Québec, Canada got the same issue?
Anthony Wong Live 03 DVD
No, he’s not William Hung. It’s a shame that mainstream America only has limited exposure to some really talented Chinese/Hong Kong Pop Stars… One of the artist that I love over the years is Anthony Wong. He’s been around since the mid 80s’ as the front man of the synth-pop duo DatMing-Pair. Back then, with their clever lyrics and heavy use of synth, they were the closest thing you can get in terms of “Hong Kong Alternative”… Songs that talk about gay culture, social problems and endanger teens were not that hard to find in Western music, but DatMaing-Pair was the first group that bring the theme to the scene.
After DatMing broke up in early 90s, Anthony has a mildly successful solo career… Be honest, not all of his songs are that great and some of them I would even consider boring… haha… but once in a while, he and his creative team (People Mountain People Sea) can still deliver…
Now I am regretting I didn’t go back to Hong Kong last year and check out his 03 live show. The costumes were outrageous and um… what can I say “GREAT”…. They remind me of early Juan Paul Gaultier outfits with heavy mixture of raw punk… To my surprise, the new music arrangement at the concert was also heavily synthed to the 70’s and 80’s snyth sound…the original Moog sound, Kraftwerk you know…. Having 4 people dressed in red and standing in front of the stage playing keyboard motionlessly is also oh-so-YMO and oh-so-Pet Shop Boys.
Tears could come down from my eyes. lol.
DatMing-Pair will be back together one more time and release a new album later this year, and a concert is also promised. I’ll probably go back and check out the show later this year.
Keep up the good work, Anthony. We’re still listening and watching.
Yosemite
Heading to Yosemite National Park tomorrow morning… Camping with Alison’s friend. This will my first trip to Yosemite. I have heard so much about this place I really don’t know what to expect. Coming back on Sunday and I am sure I will have plenty of pictures to show. Wish me a fun and safe trip.
The Exorcist in 30 Seconds
Might as well, damn it… 4th post of the day. I am actually on deadline with my work stuff… but this is a good way of breaking up my work… haha… tell that to people that I work with. 😉
The Exorcist in 30 Seconds (with Bunnies). Pretty cute.
Kawabunga
Wow… my 3rd post/topic of the day… Brian’s blog is also up as well. He’s not only a funny guy, but also an excellent designer… not to mention we both share the common interest in Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music.
Cool toys
I’ve finally found her. Utterly Crap. It’s so good.
Not a recent discovery really, but Sophie Ellis Bextor is exactly the kind of utterly crappy music that I love. She has the voice similar to Sheryl Crow, and mix with a little bit of Deborah Harry, and the look of Kylie Minogue… and her style of music is clearly influenced by Pet Shop Boys, Saint Etienne, 80s Pop, Disco, Euro Dance… What can you ask for more?!!
Check it out. She rules.
Beautiful pictures of Hong Kong
This is actually from my old blog. Want to blog it here so it won’t get lost…
I ran into this interesting photo essay book at the local Kinokuniya Book Store. You can say, this is the portrait of Hong Kong in the “alternative” sort of way. What’s interesting is that, the photographer’s image of Hong Kong is exactly how my impression of Hong Kong is like in the artiz-fratiz saturated style… All night shots too.
The name of the book is SHADOWS by Japanese photographer Masataka Nakano ISBN4-89815-079-0. It’s 3,000 Yen and you shouldn’t have any problem finding it… Larger image of the cover can be found here. Some details of the book can be found here.
Final Fantasy XI and I
So my online avatar on Final Fantasy XI is Lopezxl on Cerberus Server/World. No specific reason for the name. As some of you might know, it’s also my Yahoo! Messenger ID… Once in a while, people would ask me what it means… well, Lopez is actually an 808 State song, XL just looks cool rounding out the typepography… so there really is no mean to it… Anyhoo…, some screens of me being the Samurai in the game. 1 2 3
I just acquired the job as Bard. That should be fun starting at lvl 1 again. Instead of being the warrior type, Bard, play music in the game… I know it sounds weird, but it’s actually a lot of fun.
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