Credits

When someone makes a movie so good that they think of how long the credits should run, then that's baller.

"So how long do you think the credits should be? I think the audience should have at least 5 minutes to think this movie over. "

DAMN

Milestones

Today I have 1985 unread emails in my inbox, the same number as the year I'm born.

[Waves hands in voodoo motion while making ghostly sounds]

KRAVMAGA

Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin are Modernists. This doesn't mean that they walk around damp Parisian streets wearing parkas and listening to The Who. Air embrace the new. Each album is a move away from the last and journey towards something else. Their music is intellectually stimulating and empty-headedly simple; elegaic and triumphal; beyond pop and yet resolutely of it, too.


So that was an excerpt off Air's website. Pretty much a good description of their music.

I went to their concert last night at the Nob Hill Masonic Center and it was pretty much mind-blowing. This was my first time seeing them live, and I kinda just started to listen to their music. My favorite track was "Run" and they played it. I was 'bout to get up and take a jog that song got me so nutty.

But throughout the concert all I was thinking was ROCK ME HARDER. Yes, I had some high expectations, so instead of my mind being blown to the row behind me, I wanted it to be blown to the balconies. Given, Air was playing at the Masonic Center, and I don't know if you have seen the immediate vicinity, but it smells of yuppie. I mean, the venue had assigned seating, and the extent of what Air was thinking was probably, "Is the crowd diggin' us? I can't tell cuz they're sitting down and it's dark in here."

But they probably got the hint after the encore.

So they started a bit off, the band was off beat, and playing slower than the album versions, but it picked up as soon as Air saw the sea of head nods. All I'm going to say now is that I need to see Air in their natural habitat. I want to see them truly rock out.

UC Berkeley PCN 2007

This year's Pilipino Cultural Night was a production masterpiece.

Kevin Asuncion and Jade Bradfish (PCN 2007 co-producers) were able to take the formula of Skits + Traditional + Lyrical + Modern and create something that didn't even seem like it had anything to do with skits, dance, or the tradition of Berkeley PCN's. It felt so fresh.

The traditional dances were something else though. This is where I felt this year's PCN really took a step forward. They were able to show an audience that tinikling wasn't just people trying not to get their ankles to' up, but it was a dance that is able to develop along with the growth of Filipino-American identity. Traditional Filipino dances often drew the line in Filipino-American memory to distinctly define what was old and what was new. Although the costumes and the bamboo evoke a I-think-I-can-only-see-in-sepia-and-I-shouldn't-smile-in-photographs kind of feeling, the dance really felt like "Hey, I think I hear a Neptunes beat in that bamboo."

The skits were also great. Saturated with political commentary, it was also sensitive to many filipinos who comprehend "Philippine Politics" in entirely different ways. I like that. Owen Javellana's skit was fire. It was basically a thought experiment of a moon colony with a population that can barely fill a bus, and yet still have to deal with identity politics. Genius!

Well, I'm tired, hung over, and tired. Thank you PCN 2007 for a great show!

No wonder!

I have been wondering why art history is defined with such stages. Where are the artists that define the 'now'? Do they shun the pompous attitude of those who claim they've found a definition of a time period and proceed to create in the name of it? I swear they're just hiding on top of a skyscraper or somfin', drinking and laughing at the rat race below. While painting on a wall of course. Or mixing some music on the tables.

Fluxus

1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect.
3. Fluxus creators like to mix things up. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
4. Fluxus should be simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
5. Fluxus should be fun. If it isn't fun, it isn't Fluxus.

"Do you know what I found without looking to see?

I found some sounds. Each sound that I found is in my Sound Station. "

Quoted from track 12 of DJ Teeko off his album My Soundstation (I really hope I spelled his name right, I shall correct later) that Gina (Gina Rosales of Funkanometry SF) put me on last night. [Dope party, by the way. I'm guessing a good party = good food + mixed beer + space fuel + good music + (apparently) an extra large and extra violent game of Spoons + another card game called Lucky Motherf*cker (look it up it's fun)]

I will put more research into this newly discovered (well at least I discovered it, for myself) fusion of funk and DJ'ing, and I'll get back to you. I'mma just say that I really really REALLY like what I hear.

"What's the difference between me and you?

It's that I'm real kind show, this rap shit, I'd really do it
My whole life man is really music
Through my bass line, I'm livin' through it
Another expression of life, I couldn't live without it
I like my music pure, not watered down
DAMN!, it felt good to fulfill the dreams of gettin' out the hood
Kept me busy, gave me a chance to stop sellin' drugs
Spinnin' time in the basement kept me from actin' up
Zonin' out, wishin' Dre. could check it out
I'm here now, I can't believe it, Proof in the puddin'
Everything happened for a reason
Through this music I'm able to feed the family
When I'm stressed out, it's my insanity
It's a life style, all in the streets and in Hollywood
Music in my DNA, it's my livelihood.. music"

- Hi-Tek, on Music For Life, Hi-Teknology 2

Speed...I am Speed...

HOKAY

Earl Abon, master Filipino marathon runner, says breath in through yo' mouth and out through yo' nose.
Breath in...
Snort out...

Ready?