Banksy x Hirst

Doing a bit of research on contemporary art, found this piece of old news:

Title: “Keep it Spotless”
Artist: Banksy x Damien Hirst
Date: Valentine's Day, 2008
Venue: Sotheby’s NYC
Cause: (AUCTION) RED for AIDS relief
Sold: $1,870,000 USD

Overheard Hirst:
"Deface my art. Sell millions. For the good cause. Fooking Brilliant Idea!"...
"What can you do with my Sharks? Mate."

Viva La Vida

Now, millions worldwide have listened to it and thousands of review have been written. It's topping Billboard 200 album chart with over 720,000 copies sold in its first week. Can't be too bad. No British music has done that for a long while.

I'm no music expert or critics. I will just tell what touches me musically, and I think that's what music is all about.



I believe most people would agree, the climax of the album has to be Viva La Vida. Today on my way to work, my iPod was playing it just when the bus hit the highway. Fantastic! Do you have the same feeling that some songs are made for listening on a car or a train? Everything you see outside seems like beats and sounds materialized. Cars drum the same beat. Trees harmonize with the chords. Birds soar with the vocal. Your personal music video in the making. Viva La Vida is exactly this kind of song. Escalating. Enthralling. Exhilarating. While the lyrics is about the dethroning of a king, it makes you feel the exact opposite – you are the king of the world!

I like the acoustic version of both "Lost?" and "Lovers in Japan" more. Not sure why. These few lines warm my heart:

"Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross..." (Lost?)

"Lovers, keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've got to soldier on..." (Lovers in Japan)

The album starts off with "LIFE in Technicolor", ends with "DEATH and All His Friends". Title wise, it's an obvious choice. But more magically (even spiritually), at the end of "Death and All His Friends", It has this extension track "The Escapist". Here we come back full circle to the same tune of "Life in Technicolor", just this time instead of purely instrumental, Chris Martin sings,

"And in the end
We lie awake, and we dream of making our escape"

It's a masterstroke.

Not a collection of songs. But a symphony of Life with 10 movements. Bravo!

Staple it the wrong way

This was the "freak statement" made the other day by my usual trusted Staple who is happily going about his business normally. My first reaction was one of amazement with a cry out, "what's wrong with you?"

I showed it to my colleagues. Everyone was puzzled. Until there is always one Mr. Knowhow who came along and explained everything. My staple is actually one of a kind possessing built-in function that can change gears from the normal staple's ends in to the advanced version of ends out. This makes a pile of documents less bulky at the stapled ends. Wow! What a revelation! (Excuse me for my ignorance if you knew this mystery long ago.)

This incident alone made me feel that day was worth while living. A simple design solution was found in the wrong place. That's an enlightenment. A lesson worth remembering.

"Wrong can be the other way right."

Ok, I know what you mean, Staple.

Extra and Ordinary

An extra named Extra
who felt his existence an extra
to everybody and this world
on his way to a film set,
met an ordinary looking girl
named Ordinary
who felt like everybody else that
she's just very ordinary.
Nonetheless, Extra thought
she's the most beautiful girl he ever met.
They fell in love.
One day,
Extra said to Ordinary,
Marry me.
Let's make our life
extraordinary.

- To my Ordinary -

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

The final note of Steve Jobs' June 2005 Stanford University commencement address.

A lot of people may have read it before, but still, I want to put it here.

I wish I could have heard it on my graduation.

I wish I would have always said the same.

There were days when I said to myself, "I have enough."

But now, give me back my crayons and paper, please.