Feng's Distorted World : 鋒言鋒語

Here's one for all of you Hikki fans out there. It is promotional picture for her latest single "Flavor of Life". Yeah, the latest news is that she recently divorced with her husband Kiriya Kazuaki after 4 years of marriage. I just hope that Kiriya can continue to do some of her PVs, her videos like the ones of Hikari, Final Distance, Sakura Drops, and Colors were all so cool!


courtesy of utada-online.net

You might also want to read a detailed post about "Flavor of life" here:
Hikki's New Single - Flavor of Life

My Little Airport has again released a new track on their site after 2 months!! It seems that the rumour is true - they might be releasing a new EP soon. The track entitled "悲傷的採購" literally translates to "purchase of sadness". The track is heavy loaded with synths (casio by p) and has a overall lingering electronic but light feel to it.

My Little Airport的新歌"悲傷的採購"延續了上一首歌"畢業變成失業"的主題，即係時下香港年輕人對工作的觀念和一些社會的現實事情。在這一首歌里，Nicole的聲音和阿p的casio電子鋼琴非常合拍，聽起來有一份好輕鬆，煩惱抛諸腦後的感覺。



Download:
My Little Airport - 悲傷的採購 (mp3)

〈悲傷的採購〉

唱: nicole
曲/詞/編/ programming/ casio : 阿p
監製: my little airport

訂了一季 又到下季
為何人大了就要成為工作的奴隸
最愛作的不可發揮

我的感覺 逐漸流逝
從前曾話過要如何欣賞世界的美麗
現在只懂得放假去消費

如果繼續這樣 我還是我嗎？我還喜歡我嗎？
或者我應該死去吧 總好過變得更差
如果繼續這樣 你還願意嗎？和我奏著結他？
日子不應該這樣吧 而現實就是這樣可怕

You can download more of My Little Airport's tracks from their official site and also read about their past tracks on my posts below:
My Little Airport - 畢業變成失業
我愛官恩娜，都不及愛你的哨牙

Here's a track that I was sent to me by Kevin from Big Scary Monsters Records. The artist featured below is none other than Richard Walters, an indie/folk rock artist, although the track below leans more towards the minimal genre.



While this is not exactly a genre-breaking track of any sort, the track is quite special in the sense that Walter's melancholic singing style blends in surprisingly well with the distinct shoegazing background of repetitive guitars and gentle piano sections. If you're a fan of shoegaze or chillout music, then this is an artist you should try listening to.

Richard Walter's EP "The Pilot Lights" has just released in February and was recorded in part by David Kosten (producer for Air Traffic, Iain Archer, Bat For Lashes and many more) and in part by Guy Sigsworth (ex-member of Frou Frou (along with Imogen Heap) and producer for Björk, Madonna, Lamb and others).

Richard Walters - We Have Your Head (mp3)


You can check out Richard Walters' myspace here and also buy his latest EP at http://www.bsmrocks.com

林憶蓮 - 詞不達意

4’24
OT: Communication (2003) – The Cardigans
曲：Peter Svensson 詞：小寒 編：劉志遠 監：Jim Lee/Sandy Lam
Recorded & Mixed by Jim Lee
Guitar & Bass Solo: 劉志遠
Drums: Melchior Sarreal
Background Vocal Arrangement: Jim Lee/Sandy Lam
Background Vocal: Sandy Lam
Pro-Tools Editing: Jim Lee
Recording Studio: 唐樓錄音室 (HK)/上赫錄音室 (Taipei)
Mixing Studio: 上赫錄音室 (Taipei)

有些人用一輩子去學習
化解溝通的難題
為你我也可以
我的快樂與恐懼猜疑
很想都翻譯成言語
帶你進我心底

我們就像隔著一層玻璃
看得見卻觸不及
雖然我離你幾毫米
你不會知道我有多著急
無心的坐視不理
我尷尬的沉默裡
淚水在滴

我無法傳達我自己
從何說起
要如何翻譯我愛你
寂寞不已
我也想　能與你
搭起橋梁
建立默契
卻詞不達意

在你的盲點裡寸步不移
不論天晴或下雨
陪著你悲傷歡喜
你難道從來不覺得好奇
你身旁冷清擁擠
我一直在這裡
不說一句

我無法傳達我自己
從何說起
要如何翻譯我愛你
遺憾不已
我也想　能與你
搭起橋梁　建立默契

我必須得先看明白我自己
翻譯成一句我愛你
我也想　能與你
搭起橋梁　建立默契
卻詞不達意　詞不達意

Thanks to re-sandy-lam.com for the lyrics

Cranes is a shoegazing band formed in the mid 1980s in UK. They play mostly alt rock, dream pop, and also sometimes gothic rock. This is a track from their band's 1997 EP entitled "Can't Get Free". The band's style leans heavily towards ambient and ethereal sounds. The shoegaze "feel" is further amplified with the calm, gentle strumming of a solo guitar as well as lead singer Alison Shaw's ever prominent child-like vocals.



Cranes - Perfect World (mp3)

Visit Crane's official site on dadaphonic.com for further details of the band's latest gigs and downloads.

"14 message ～every ballad songs 2～" is the title of Every Little Thing's 4th "Best Of" Albums. It was just released on Valentines Day 2007 and is currently No. 2 on Oricon's Album chart. It is a collection of some of Every Little Thing's best songs and celebrates the tenth anniversary of the group's debut. Includes all their singles, live recordings, and fan-selected tracks spanning their complete history of ballads!

14 message ～every ballad songs 2～（フォティーン・メッセージ～エヴリ・バラード・ソング・ツー～）全曲原音で収録されており、ヒット曲「UNTITLED 4 ballads」収録曲、「恋文」、「また あした」といった前作ベスト以降の14曲が収録されている。



収録内容:
1. UNSPEAKABLE
2. キヲク
3. 雨の鳴る夜、しずくを君に
4. ソラアイ
5. nostalgia
6. しあわせの風景
7. azure moon
8. ルーム
9. 恋文
10. 五月雨
11. 帰り道
12. good night
13. また あした
14. 愛の謳

I'm listening to the album now and I really like what I'm listening to so far. I'll probably submit some lyrics once I'm done translating them. In the meantime, you can view the PV of ELT's song UNSPEAKABLE from Oricon here. You can also read about the interview with ELT regarding their new album (sorry it is in Japanese only).

Open Office is a suite of office applications developed by Sun Microsystems. It is an open-source alternative to Microsoft's Office Suite and for this reason, it is often bundled together with various Linux distros such as Knoppix, Ubuntu and MEPIS. It also has the ability to save the documents in native Microsoft Office formats so that you can continue to work with your document even though the computer doesn't have Open Office installed.

Of course, there are several setbacks to Open Office. Firstly, its the incompatibility of the formatting Open Office with Microsoft Office. Of course, as time advances, compatibility between the two offices have increased by leaps and bounds and formatting is now a small problem for Open Office. The next issue is printing problems with Open Office in Linux. This is a problem that I have personally faced numerous times. Most users overcome this problem by either exporting their document as a PDF file and print them or take the drastic measure, ie. to reinstall their printer in Open Office.

Of all the problems mentioned above, the most common problem faced by Open Office users is of course the program's slow loading time. I've tested some methods to speed up Open Office's loading time and here's a list of methods I've found useful for my machine. I'm running a P4 with 256MB of RAM and Open Office takes almost 30 seconds to load. After applying the changes, Open Office now loads about 30% faster!! (thankfully!)


1. Increase Memory Cache
This is a method to decrease the loading time by tweaking the memory settings.
Go to:
Applications-->OpenOffice.org Writer-->Tools-->Options
Under the OpenOffice.org heading, select Memory,
Under Graphics Cache, change the "Use for OpenOffice.org" to 30 MB (or more if you have >512MB RAM)
Change "Memory per Object" to 2.0 MB
Close OpenOffice.org

2. Reduce Number of Undo Steps
Go to:
Applications-->OpenOffice.org Writer-->Tools-->Options
Under the OpenOffice.org heading, select Memory,
Now change these settings:
Undo:Number of steps = 25

3. Disable Java Runtime Environment
Apparently Open Office also loads the Java Runtime Environment at startup to handle databases. If you don't use database, you can disable the feature.
Applications-->OpenOffice.org Writer-->Tools-->Options
Click on Java, and deselect “Use Java Runtime Environment.”


Restart the program and and this should give you a much faster Open Office!

祝大家在豬年，豬肥屋潤，事事順利, 風調雨順！！
Happy Chinese New Year!!

"...We go tonight..."

This is the official Prison Break flash game on the Prison Break DVD special site. In this game, you play the role of prison inmate Michael Scofield trying to breakout to save his brother Lincoln Burrows from a death sentence. You have to make your way through tunnels and secret rooms to ultimately steal across the yard and over the wall. Breakout your way towards freedom!

As Micheal Scofield said, breaking out is just the beginning!



Tips:
Sneak up behind guards to knock them out. But be really careful when you're doing this, they'll hear you if you run. Avoid search lights by hiding in the shadows. Use the left and right arrow keys to walk, holding SHIFT to run. Use the up arrow key to reach above. Use the down arrow key to crouch or climb down. Press space bar to jump.

Play it now


You might also want to know how to fold the paper crane from Prison Break.

Magyar Posse is a six piece band, capable of conjuring up sounds that are surprisingly fun to listen to. The band is from Finland, and specializes in post rock. The track "International Hussle" below is performed live in Oulu, Finland on 17/04/2005 and is part of a larger liveset performed by Magyar Posse. The track is somewhat progressive and builds upon the steady melody and background. Towards the second hald of the track, a solo violin plays - giving the track some much needed elegance. Towards the end of the track however, the track is extremely distorted sounding, providing a stark contrast of mood as compared to the progression and solo violins.



Magyar Posse - Intercontinental Hussle (mp3)

You might also want to check out Magyar Posse's official site.

The Postal Service is electronic indie band which is popular among the worldwide underground music community. The track featured here "Such Great Heights" has been featured in many various TV series and films such as Grey's Anatomy, and the trailer for the film "Garden State".



In this special remix by house/techno DJ and electronic music artist John Tejada, the track "Such Great Heights" is presented as a rendition of electronic music closer to likes of tech house and electro clash. Light enough to be listened on its own, yet still mixable into house sets, the track is made up of simple beats and light synths - groovy and ideal for mixing into intros of sets.

The Postal Service - Such Great Heights (John Tejada Remix) (mp3)


You may want to also visit postalservicemusic.net and paletterecordings for more info on "The Postal Service"

Kid's Return (キッズ・リターン) was one of Takeshi Kitano's greatest films. Like many of Kitano's films, Kid's Return is centred around the yakuza (Japanese gangster) theme. The movie is about two high school dropouts who try to find a direction and meaning in their lives—one by becoming a yakuza lieutenant, the other by becoming a boxer.



As usual, Joe Hisaishi (久石譲), the composer of film scores for many of Takeshi Kitano's movies, gets to write for Kid's Return as well. The track is has many traditional sounds such as drums and also manipulates vocal samples to infuse that native Japanese folk rhythm into the track.

And here's the piano scores for Kid's Return.
[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Page 4] [Page 5] [Page 6]


Credits to joehisaishi.net for providing the scores.

You might also want these other scores by Joe Hisaishi:
Laputa: Castle in the Sky's Piano Score
Kikujiro no Natsu Piano Score

Been listening to alot of Scandinavian music lately - Bjork, Efterklang, Sigur Ros, and now Lars Horntveth - musical leader of Norwegian ten-man band Jaga Jazzist.



Over the last ten years, he has crafted a truly unique and innovative body of work. While Lars' style is remarkably similar to his works in Jaga Jazzist (of course, they're the same person involved in different projects) but the tracks released under Lars Horntveth's own name are a far more personal piece of work. His track were recorded entirely with real instruments and a nine-piece string ensemble on board to supply some extra textures, with the exception of programmed beats. In the tracks "Tics", strings (in both simple, short bows and pizzicatos) are the instruments of choice chosen by Lars to give the track a curious, playful, yet relaxing mood to it.

If you're a fan of Jaga Jazzist or the like, don't wait anymore. Download the track featured below on Lars Horntveth's official site now! You won't be disappointed.

Lars Horntveth - Tics (mp3)

This is the soundtrack for CASSHERN, a Japanese film released in 2004. I know its a bit late for this post but I just couldn't resist writting about it. Apart from The Myth OST and Requiem for a Dream OST, this album is another of the best OSTs released in recent times. The soundtrack consists of 2 CDs, CD1 being a collection of tracks inspired by the movie and CD 2 the tracks that make up the background music in the movie.

The music in these 2 CDs are extremely varied and ranges from j-rock (Hyde, The Back Horn, GLAY), house (Satoshi Tomiie, Towa Tei), lovely ballads (Onitsuka Chihiro, Shiina Ringo, Utada Hikaru) and plain instrumental (Shiro Sagisu in CD2) as well. The track "Requiem" by The Back Horn which is featured in the fight scene between Tetsuya and Burai has become quite a cult favourite and helped boost The Back Horn's popularity worldwide immensely. "Borderline" by Onitsuka Chihiro is also a great track with hauntingly beautiful vocals. The track "誰かの願いが叶うころ (Dare ka no negai kanau koro) by Hikki is the ending theme for the movie. Coupled with a piano solo, the track has a certain melancholic aura to it. As for CD2, my favourite tracks by Shiro Sagisu are "軌道" which is the music for Tetsuya's revival and "The Last Day" during the final scene. Shiro Sagisu's talent combined with his fine use of orchestra and simple strings help make the music both dramatic and emotional in each and every aspect.

Simply put, ther's never a filler or a boring moment in this soundtrack. Instrumental or not, every track is great in its own special way and that's what that makes Our Last Day a great soundtrack.



Our Last Day - Casshern Offical Album

CD1
1. 椎名林檎 / 『茎(ステム)』
2. MONDO GROSSO / 『LIKE NO ONE'S LOOKING』 [Listen Realplayer] [Listen WMP]
3. HYDE / 『MASQUERADE』
4. TOWA TEI / 『ORIGINAL HUMAN』
5. ACIDMAN / 『水写』
6. SS:ST（Shiro SAGISU & Satoshi TOMIIE）[Listen Realplayer] [Listen WMP]
7. 鬼束ちひろ / 『BORDERLINE』 [Listen Realplayer] [Listen WMP]
8. THE BACK HORN / 『レクイエム』
9. GLAY / 『無限のdeja vuから~Peaceful Session~』
10. 宇多田ヒカル / 『誰かの願いが叶うころ』 [Listen Realplayer] [Listen WMP]

CD2
1. 荒廃
2. 暗影
3. 胎動
4. 眩暈
5. 神意
6. 軌道
7. 復活
8. 足音
9. 祈り
10. 幻影
11. 叫び
12. 記憶
13. 輪廻
14. THE LAST DAY

CD2 Composed and Arranged by Shiro SAGISU, Except:
[M-8] Composed by Tomohiko GONDO , Arranged by Tomohiko GONDO and Yuichiro HONDA
[M-9] Composed by Yuichiro HONDA and Tomohiko GONDO , Arranged by Yuichiro HONDA
[M-11] Composed and Arranged by Shiro SAGISU , Additional Production: Yuichiro HONDA
[M-14] Composed and Arranged by Tomohiko GONDO


The film is brilliant, and the soundtrack just blows your mind off, what else can you ask for?



Casshern OST's official site from toshiba-emi

Here's a great game that is similar to the style of Risk board games except it has simpler rules. Your armies are dice, and when you attack another country, all the dice involved are rolled. In this game, you start off with a predetermined amount of dice and make strategic decisions to attack and claim enemy territory. One wrong move and that could be your last!!



Play it now

This game is developed by the great folks at gamedesign.jp.