Radiohead Live!

What a night, what a night. And I don’t just mean music-wise.

It was a rainy, rainy outdoor concert, here in Vancouver, with an English band……how typical. I was literally soaked to my knickers by the time I finally got into my car after the night.

And my glasses frame got screwed up by a crowd surfer – believe it or not, she was in fact a topless woman. How disturbing. But let’s not dwell on that imagery…

This was definitely the best concert I have been to thus far. Not only because of the stage presence of Thom Yorke and the band, or the amazing riffs and effects and lights and atmosphere, etc., but because I actually know and love almost every single song on the setlist. I can’t say that about most bands.

By the end of the night, he gave us a choice of either “Idioteque” (the song we did DRIME to in Halifax!) or “Paranoid Android” to end the whole set……no need for me to tell you which one got more screams and support. By the time they got to the bridge, when everyone in the stadium sang along, it literally sent shivers down my spine:

“Rain down, rain down, come on rain down on me, from a great height, from a great height…”

How fitting.

Another great song that sent shivers down my spine was, of course, “Karma Police”, as noted in one of my previous posts. Great song. Also one where everyone just sang along. I was surprised that I still remember all the words from learning it back in, what was it now, grade 10?

I was actually quite close to the stage for the first 4 songs or so, but I really couldn’t stand the “moshing” (not really moshing, more just whole crowd leaning from one side to another…). Still, I got the chance to jump around a bit (albeit on the same spot LOL) for most of the songs off Kid A.

“National Anthem” was definitely one of the most badass tunes, with “Sit Down. Stand Up.” closely in second place. But the thing is, there was no horn section in National Anthem, but that’s my favourite part……

“Just” and “Everything in its Right Place” both got tons of screams from me, haha. Shame they never did “My Iron Lung” or “High and Dry” or “Creep”. Weird thing about “Creep” is that Radiohead themselves actually don’t like it, and they never understood why it has been such a hit. If anything, “Anyone Can Play Guitar” should be the hit from that same album.

I have to say overall it was a great night, everything from the music to the band to the crowd. They definitely suck at letting people out of the stadium, and shame it was raining, but other than that, a memorable night for sure.

Now I can tell my grandchildren I saw Radiohead, my favourite band.

Appreciation

I have definitely been sulking for way too long. I took off my ranting post because I remembered that when I first started this blog, I had promised myself that I wouldn’t post anything that is not edifying.

And, it took me a while……but I just discovered that I am actually so, so amazingly blessed. All the things I ranted about and wished I could do, I basically got to do them all in the past 3 days.

I had a nice little dinner with a real kindred spirit friend of mine. Listening in to her conversation with her sister and bosom friend (whose parents adopted like 3 kids, amazing) helped me to see how life can just be so much better if you learn to appreciate the smallest moments. Like being able to drive into the sunset, or being able to walk barefoot around your frontyard while having a sandwich dinner, or being able to dream about getting married and having kids, or being able to listen to great music like Sufjan Stevens.

Inspired by this kindred spirit friend, I took the time this morning to bike a couple of blocks around Richmond, hoping to catch the sunrise. Sadly though, being in Vancouver, the rain clouds were of course in the way. Nonetheless, it was still a very refreshing bike ride. Definitely first of many more bike rides to come.

Plus, last Friday I actually had a proper jam session for once. Yeah, like a real jam session, where we didn’t have any format or agenda. Just start a riff, and follow along. And I am pretty certain that a big chunk of my first paycheque is going into investing in either a MicroKorg or a Korg R3. They are such nifty little synths. I’m tired of carrying around my 88 key.

And then, tonight, I went to a friend’s birthday party, which really was a friends appreciation night. He decided that birthdays aren’t about the birthday boys, but about his friends, so he actually got everyone of us a gift. How thoughtful. And the gifts that the friends got him were mostly homemade, too. The creativity, the thoughtfulness, the beauty of friendship.

One of his friends actually made him a potato canon, how cool is that!

Actually, all this reminds me of the two Girls Appreciation nights we managed to pull off for the C4C girls. I suppose I was once part of something thoughtful, too.

And tomorrow I get to go see Radiohead.

Great.

Oh, and a friend suggested that for all of us guys’ bachelors party, we’re gonna have to wear the Borat swimsuit. Now that would take some balls……

Kids born in the 60s, 70s, 80s

Found this off a forum, the conclusion might be a bit iffy, but an interesting post nonetheless:

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According to today’s regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s probably shouldn’t have survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was regularly chewed and licked.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles or latches on doors or cabinets, and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent ’spokey dokeys’ on our wheels.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags and riding in the front passenger seat – or the boot – was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle, and it tasted the same.

We ate chips, bread and butter pudding, and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it, but were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends – from one bottle or can – and no one actually died from it.

We would spend several hours building go-carts out of scraps, then go top speed down the hill, only to find out we’d forgotten the brakes. After running into a patch of stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back before dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.

We didn’t have Playstations or Xboxes – no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape films, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no internet chatrooms.

We had friends – we went outside and found them. We played cowboys & indians and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones, but there were no law suits.

We played Knock Down Ginger and were actually afraid of the owners catching us. We walked to friends’ homes. We also, believe it or not, walked to school; we didn’t rely on Mummy to take us to school in great big 4 wheel drive vehicles that they can’t fucking drive.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of seven and wore our coats by only the hood. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of they actually sided with the law.

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem-solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
And you’re one of them. Congratulations to all those who had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers and the government regulated our lives for “our own good”.

Sick of Canadians moaning

I am sick of these “Canadians” (I don’t think they really qualify as Canadians) moaning and groaning about Canada not having won any medals until just yesterday or the day before.

You keep hearing people saying things like “Oh have we even won a medal yet?” or “Even [obscure country] has won a medal, we suck!”.

Honestly, can you imagine a proper fan of, say, the Canucks, saying things like that?  Saying things like “Oh have we even won a game yet?” 10 games into the season?  Or saying “man, we suck, even the NY Islanders have won a game”?

It’s ridiculous.

If you were truly a Canadian and actually care about the Olympics, first off, you would at least know the athletes by name.  If you are Canadian, then you and the athletes come from the same nation, and you ought to at least know them by name and support them.  And not refer to them as if it’s a entertainment show on the tele (“have the team even won yet?”).

Secondly, if you were truly Canadian and actually care about the Olympics, you would cheer and support your nation whether we won jack squat or not, and not whine and moan like a pre-school kid (“Oh have we won anything yet?”).  Reminds me of those hiking trips in grade 7 when that annoying kid always asked “are we there yet?”.

How hard is it for people to understand that supporting a cause has nothing to do with how successful it is right now?  You support it because it is the only thing you could possibly do.

I mean this bugs me as much as kids telling me “why do you care about the Whitecaps, they suck”.

I support them because I have got no choice – I live in Vancouver, and I love soccer.  And of course now I have grown attached as well.

Anyways if you were to ask me I would rather the Olympics were to go away completely.  I mean there are already World Cups and world championships for most of the sports that people actually care about.

Why I am excited about Radiohead

RADIOHEADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Radiohead in 3 days!! YES, JUST 3 MORE DAYS UNTIL I SEE THEM IN THE FLESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you think I was excited about seeing Becks back when he came to Seattle and then Vancouver, well, I’m gonna tell you that I’m at least 2.89 times more excited about seeing Radiohead.

Let me put this into context, so you don’t think I’m just some random teenage So Cal girl or something.

You see, the first ever song – and I do mean first ever – I “jammed” with anyone was a Radiohead tune. It was “Karma Police” off their OK Computer album.  Yeah, that little piano riff in the intro still sticks with me today.

Before downloading their tunes off Napster (yes, I’m talking about the Napster days, when I was still only in grade 9 or 10), I had always just listened to Canto-pop.  Was probably a bit obsessed with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” too, but then again everyone was back in those days.

But then my friend – the same friend I eventually jammed “Karma Police” with – introduced me to “My Iron Lung”, and the name Radiohead just stuck with me ever since.

They are pretty much the first “band” I listened to, and they are still most definitely at the top of my list today.

Admittedly, there was a spell when I couldn’t stand them, when I thought that Kid A was too pretentious.  Thought you had to be high on drugs to appreciate them. But albums like Kid A and Amnesiac definitely grew on me, so much so that I prefer them over the more “normal” stuff like The Bends and Pablo Honey these days.

Not to mention that even while on the Halifax Project last summer, when we did D.R.I.M.E. (this dance/skit thing for street evangelism), we did it to a tune off the Kid A album.

Not to mention that my whole conversion from being a “God-believing” kid to a churchgoer to a Christian all started from that jamming experience with the friend, who eventually led me to the church that I still attend now.

If you don’t know Radiohead, then you mustn’t waste your time listening to pop bands like Coldplay.

Go listen to the proper stuff.

HERE I COME THUNDERBIRD STADIUM!!!!!!!!!!!

A bit of a crazy day

I woke up around 6AM this morning to watch the US markets open and bought stocks for the first time ever in my life.

I then proceeded downstairs around 7AM, hoping to get some Olympics soccer highlights, when I heard these errie, wild screams from my backyard. Then I saw it:

The 3 raccoons who frequently pay visits to the fish pond in my backyard were there. Only, they are supposed to be gone by then. I mean, the sun was up. Raccoons only move around at night, I learned on wikipedia.

Anyways, so I screamed English obscenities at them. Two of them left, but there was still one – the smallest one – screaming and struggling in the pond.

Note: the reason they can crawl around the pond is because we have a net set up on the surface of the pond, to prevent animals like these things from eating all of our fishes in the water.

Then I realized why: one of its tiny foot was stuck in the net. It must have been stuck there since 2, 3AM at night, and it was shivering.

As much as I hate animals, even I felt sorry for the little guy.

So we tried pushing the net around with a stick (which the thing attacked very aggressively, THANKS for appreciating my help you little thing), throwing a soccer ball at him (LOL, that was before I realized he was stuck), and making a million phone calls to every animal shelter related agencies I could find on the phonebook.

Even the RIchmond City workers working the back alley way heard the thing’s screams and came for a look.

I eventually had to go in for work (my first day making espressos, btw), and fortunately my brother was able to find some pest control dude who was willing to set the poor guy free at no cost (my bro did end up paying him though).

The biggest thing of note was when the dude’s family (the other 2 raccoons) came back for him.  They tried to help, gave him hugs……basically did the kinda things us humans do.

Well, what a day that was.

And while my manager insisted on me just learning how to make Americano, Latte, and Cappuccinos, after she left I ended up getting straight into the war zone and even got to make the latest addition to the drinks menu, the Vivanno.

It was a fun day all round.

And now I am at my second job working till 10:30PM.

Yeah, I usually hate it when bloggers just outline events without giving much thoughts, but I think today’s events speak for themselves.

Olympics? What?

I was watching the swim events today and noticed that they KEEP FRICKING BREAKING WORLD RECORDS. I mean, heck, they pretty much set new records for every event.

I really don’t get it. You look at the real sports and you see prodigies popping up only once every few decades. Folks like Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher, Pele, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, etc. And I can’t see anyone being able to repeat what, say, Pele has done.

Yet at these silly Olympics, you get new record holders almost every 4 years now. What the heck?!

Some claim it’s due to advances in training methods, diet, Blah blah blah. Yeah, as if the athletes from 4 years ago somehow were just lazier and ate McDonald’s everyday? As if that little piece of suit the swimmers put on can make that much of a difference?

I hate to say it but I think it’s all just good scientists making drugs that are better and better at going under the radar.

I can’t even see myself taking the Olympics seriously.

The other thing is, I firmly adhere to the school of thought that “players come and go, but clubs stay forever”. A simple analogy is to treat clubs/teams as religions, whilst their players only deacons or priests or what have you.

Clubs will never go away. They will remain in people’s hearts. On the other hand, players do wither and fade, but for the faithful, they couldn’t really care less. It’s the clubs that matter.

These Olympics, however, are all about the players, and that just does not sit right with me. They might raise flags and all but I don’t see how any ordinary person can get too attached to them.

Initial Thoughts

I am editing my post on the few days in Europe. Though, to be honest, I don’t have that many interesting things to say about the trip. It wasn’t a spectacular trip, just kinda nice to see the world, I suppose.

I envy how white folks can travel for 4, 5 weeks at a time, when us Chinese folks can only muster 3, 4 days in a city as massive as London or Paris.

Initial thoughts of Europe is simply this: that Germany, at least from the small sample I observed in my time in Dusseldorf, produce the most attractive ladies.

In fact, last night I went to a dinner full of some of the finest students UBC has produced in recent years (I mean, they must be since most of them were med school students), and one of the med students who recently spent time in Europe gave a ’second opinion’ and confirmed my conclusion.

Still though, the English girls absolutely kill me. I walked into a shop while I was there in England and the lady there greeted me with a beautiful smile and a “Hi” (you might think the phoneme hi cannot be that different no matter England or North America, but you would be so wrong), and it totally made my day. Imagine if I actually had a conversation with her.

I did however meetup with an English guy but I chose in the end not to take a picture with him because the last thing I need is to give evidence that I’m obsessed with the English – even their men (a la Becks).

Arsenal, London, and what not

I have to say it was a disappointment.

So much for coming all the way here to see a football match, the atmosphere was absolutely shit at the Emirates.  There was the occasional chant, but nothing much more than what we get at the Southside in Swangard.

I would say it was quiet as a church but at least we sing in churches.

I did however meet up with an “internet friend” of mine who only lived a couple hundred yards away from the stadium for dinner.  It was real neat meeting a real English bloke.

I took his few pieces of advice to heart:

- London is the only place worth going to in England, everywhere else is pretty shit

- The prettiness of girls decreases exponentially the distance between you and London increases

I had my little London moment tonight, too.  I put on the Libertines on my iPod while I took the Tube back to our hotel by myself.  I think I would absolutely love it if I got to live here for good.

Really expensive though.  I mean REALLY.