"And that's where I was found, five days after I hit the ground."
Listening to Hayden always makes me think of two things. Hamilton and my song writing.
Not twenty minutes ago I said goodbye to a new friend, whom I'll likely never see again in my life. I was meant to meet Crystal last night, forgetting that I already had a date with kit ming, to go to temple street night market, I had to cancel our plans. We managed to reschedual another meeting today for lunch, which I've just returned from.
I ate before meeting her, as I was a bit shaky, having not eaten all morning, and we weren't meant to meet in quarry bay 'til quarter past one. After a quick pasta lunch with an iced cappacino with rob, I took the train with plenty of time to spare. I found a nice spot outside to sit and read my book, Norwegian Wood, by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Murakami does an excellent job of interpretting the lives of slightly askew young adults. Being with crystal seemed like one of those slightly odd meetings that I sometimes read about in novels. Norwegian Wood is full of those encounters. I'm not sure if I was nervous. Maybe it was a combination of a lack of alcohol, and a little too much coffee.
When we met I was sitting outside reading my book, and enjoying a good loud song by, every time I die. She said that she wasn't very hungry, and asked if I wouldn't mind grabbing a coffee with her from a nearby shop.
We spoke of relationships for a short while, but we had to change to something else, as I'm not sure where I stand on the topic. And she seemed to not understand my semi developed philosophy either. She said that I sounded like a man a couple of times. I'm not sure what was meant be that. I really don't know.
I told her about my highschool graduation, and how I wound up in the hospital with a bad case of alcohol posioning. To this day, my stomach is still really sensitive when I drink. If I stick to wine, or beer then I'm alright, but anything else leaves me in pain for the next couple of days.
I had mentioned last thursday that I have a big thing for asian girls, and she seemed pretty interested in discussing the topic today. Again, I wasn't able to give her a satisfactory explanation. Maybe it's the skin colour, maybe the hair. I told her I knew for certain that it wasn't the docile, compliant, sort of nature that's highly evident in alot of asian women. I like to be challenged. I don't want someone who'll always do what I feel like doing, and relys on me for comfort and company. I need flavour in my conversations, or else my life just glides into a too comfortable state, and my mind drifts away to other matters that aren't productive to think about. I think that's why I love meeting new people so much. Every time I go out drinking with friends, I meet new people with complete ease, and have a great time getting to know someone for just one evening. I've met so many people in Hong Kong, and for one evening shared with them nothing but fun and games, through a wide array conversations.
I was on lamma yesterday visiting my sister, Steph. She really wanted to go for a walk, but I was feeling pretty fatigued because a lack of sleep, so we went down to a small beach that hardly anyone visits. We sat in the sand looking out at the water, watching the occasional fish jump out of the water, probably trying to escape a larger, hungry fish. I'm not sure when it started, but for the past several meetings with Steph we've had some really great talks, that we never had before. Maybe the opportunity just wasn't there before; maybe it's due to what we've been reading lately. My mind was mainly occupied with identity.
We have so many identities, that seem to only restrict freedoms. I'm so used to saying, "I'm a Canadian; I'm an artist; I'm a teacher; I'm a musician." But I'm not any of these things. These are just things that I happen to do, or happen to appently be part of. What does it matter if I called a Canadian, or an American? It seems strange to me to say that I belong to a certain chunk of the earth, just because I happened to be born there. I know this is pretty fucking obvious, but in all ariel views of the earth I've ever seen, not once did I notice big black lines carving up the ground according to whatever government happens to be in place. These titles don't matter.....they're useless to whatever it means to be and exist. There are so many boundries and areas around the world that don't really make much sense. Does anyone really consider Russia as being part of asia? Europe, Asia, Africa, the middle east.... it's all connected.
Anyway, I'm loosing my train of thought now.
There are so many titles and questions from childhood, like, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"......It would be great if I had the clarity, and sense of understanding that I think I have now. I would have said something like this to the teacher, "Sorry miss, I don't understand.... What do I want to be? Well, I'm me already, so why do I have to be something else when I get bigger?"
My job isn't who I am, it's just what I do. There's a great bit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, when having been through a long series of dramatic changes in size, she's not sure what or who she is. She questions whether she's else from school, but says that she couldn't possibly be, because that other girl has such terribly long, curly hair. Anyway, it's a really funny scene.
I'd really like to continue a friendship with crystal, but I don't think she's so interested. There's something attractive about having a conversation with someone, when you really have to push to speak. I'm not sure how to express it....I didn't feel bored, tense, or awkward in any way...it was just interesting.
It was simply, different for me. Any I'd like to have the opportunity to look into it more.
This will likely be my last post in Hong Kong for a while, as I have a flight to return back to canada this friday. I should be back for about six weeks, in which time I'll complete a tefl course, and catch up with some old friends.
I look forward to seeing everyone again.
booya
brendan
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
See reverse side for details
The internet at my work has been down for a while, so this is the first opportunity I've had to write a new entry. I really enjoy writing, but it's easy to fall out of habit, even when concerning things I favour. So, I'm going to keep trying to update this here blog-o-mine in hopes that it keeps my fingers moving, and my pen scrawling.
Where to start?..... ah yes...
Thursday turned out to be a wonderful day. I spent the morning sleeping, because I had been up so late, and then headed to kit ming's place in ma on shan, for about five o'clock. She needed my help with a school project that her, and a few classmates had been working on. My job was to read over most of a 3000 word paper, and correct any errors should there be any. Oh yeah, there were errors alright. It took me a while but I really had fun doing homework again. For those of you who've known me since highschool, you probably remember that my grammer and spelling abilities were terrible. Well, it seems that two years of teaching english to chinese kids has done wonders for my grammer skills. I finished up at kit ming's around ten o'clock, and headed off for the train station. Whilst working on rewriting a few pages I was surprised to get several phone calls, from friends asking me if I wanted to come out for a drink. I don't usually get unexpected invitations to socialize. I ended meeting my lovely sis, steph, at c-club in lan kwai fong, but on the way there I ran into a new friend who I had only met one time previously.
I met Crystal a couple of weeks ago at the fringe club. I was there with a few others checking out my mate luke's solo act. Crystal is a friend of my mate Greg, thus we were loosely introduced. We seemed to get along really well that night, so we exchanged phone numbers under the guise of going out to do some street art. I actually didn't even notice her, though I walked right by her and her friend Bram. They were apparently waiting for someone, who turned out to be a no show, so they came along to c-club to join the gang. The gang being, the three of us plus, steph josh amra jill and her boyfriend adam. Drinks were cheap, and it wasn't too busy at all. Generally a great atmosphere. After about an hour Crystal and I both needed to go to 7-11, and by the time she finished a couple of cigs, the folks in c-club were taking off to dragon i. Crystal bram and I stood around on the street for a while, talking about music and whatever else happened to develope. Bram having an early morning meeting the next day, had to take off home, which left my new compadre and I standing about, thinking of how to entertain the evening. At that point I was inclined to cheap wine, and she to chain smoking. So, we went back down to sev's, bought the cheapest bottle of red, and a pack of marlborough lights.
Not too far off, we found a darkened niche of a closed cosmetics shop. It had comfortable enough steps, a wall to lean against, and nearby construction lights flashing out of sync provided the ambiance. It had been so long since I last bummed it out with some cheap booze, with someone I barely knew. I've always loved that sort of situation, where conversation has no end because you've anything and everything to discuss. The timeline at this point gets a little lost, as we both jabbered on (once again) about music, life direction, and a slew of authors. At some point during the night Crystal asked me if she could stain my jeans with some red wine, which surprised me a bit. Her wanting to pour wine on my pants didn't surprise me though, it was that she actually asked if she could do it. Rob and I, once upon a time, poured beer over each other's heads, and ming on a few occasions has poured champange all over my shirt. Clearly I had no objection to her request. Sadly, however, there's barely a stain on me. The only visible reminder of the act is a slightly darkened patch on my right pant leg. I was hopeing for much more.
After an unmeasurable amount of time we started wandering around towards sheung wan, looking for a more scenic place to carry out the night's festivities.
-----------------------------------------------
This is a good time to mention that I've been reading and writing more than ever, and I think the result is my dragging out every detail of an evening into the sunlight, and beating it over the head 'til it confesses it's sins.
This would also be a good time to mention an interesting little fact, that I learned from my good friend Osho, the other day. The root of the word, 'sin' means, forgetfullness, and the original meaning of the word, 'paradise' means, walled garden.
-------------------------
Realizing that no one will likely read this far into my blog, I'm going to cut the story short, and not go into every last detail.
Back to the story......
Crystal and I ended up sobering up, talking in complete honestly along the beautiful sheung wan harbour front. With our legs dangling over the water, we realized that it was nearly 6am and just about time to go home. I wasn't even tired actually. I felt obligated to sleep though, seeing as I had to work the next day.
Friday marked the beginning of the end. I finished my last friday ever at interkids, and celebrated by having a few pints at the whiskey priest, with rob and dave. We played jenga, and I actually got home at the resonable hour of one o'clock.
Saturday was easy breezy lemon squeezy. All seven of my classes went famously. I was in a good mood all day, thinking about how I'd never see any of my naughty students again. The one's I like are young enough, that they'll never remember I ever taught them. Some of the older ones asked for my canadian contact info, and my email address, which I gladly supplied.
Saturday night Rob and I chose to rally the troops at the woodstone. A lot of our friends showed up, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Sunday was spent in a very relaxing manor. Kit Ming and I woke up, had another pillow fight, and then we watched 'I heart huckabees' with shaun. We were both starving after the movie, so we headed out for something to eat. We ended up walking around, eating indian samosas and banana parathas for ages before we settled into a lovely/inexpensive soup noodle shop.
The band got together for three hours in the evening to make some noise in the studio. Ander's made great use of his new iriver, with the help of a great little recording mic, we put down some nice live material, and worked on a few beats that sounded awesome. We'll have one last practice, and then a gig this coming wednesday at the Wanch in wan chai.
Today is my last monday, and I've only one more lesson to go. My next class is good fun. The kids are only enough that we can just talk, and work on achieveing a natural, confident flow with their english.
It must be so hard to be a student in Hong Kong. There's so much pressure on children to go beyond all parental, and social expectations. I wish parents would realise that not every child can, or should be a doctor or a lawyer. Things would go seriously rye if such became the case.
Tonight should be good. Rob and I are meeting our old friend Nancy, whom we rarely see for dinner. Then.........oh yes.......then........we go to bonkers.
That's right!! It's been ages since I last went to bonkers. It was the first place all the elta's ever got properly pissed at, when we came to hong kong. I'll be sure to have a moment of silence before tasting my first pint.
Cheers!
brendan (the warrior geek) harrington
Where to start?..... ah yes...
Thursday turned out to be a wonderful day. I spent the morning sleeping, because I had been up so late, and then headed to kit ming's place in ma on shan, for about five o'clock. She needed my help with a school project that her, and a few classmates had been working on. My job was to read over most of a 3000 word paper, and correct any errors should there be any. Oh yeah, there were errors alright. It took me a while but I really had fun doing homework again. For those of you who've known me since highschool, you probably remember that my grammer and spelling abilities were terrible. Well, it seems that two years of teaching english to chinese kids has done wonders for my grammer skills. I finished up at kit ming's around ten o'clock, and headed off for the train station. Whilst working on rewriting a few pages I was surprised to get several phone calls, from friends asking me if I wanted to come out for a drink. I don't usually get unexpected invitations to socialize. I ended meeting my lovely sis, steph, at c-club in lan kwai fong, but on the way there I ran into a new friend who I had only met one time previously.
I met Crystal a couple of weeks ago at the fringe club. I was there with a few others checking out my mate luke's solo act. Crystal is a friend of my mate Greg, thus we were loosely introduced. We seemed to get along really well that night, so we exchanged phone numbers under the guise of going out to do some street art. I actually didn't even notice her, though I walked right by her and her friend Bram. They were apparently waiting for someone, who turned out to be a no show, so they came along to c-club to join the gang. The gang being, the three of us plus, steph josh amra jill and her boyfriend adam. Drinks were cheap, and it wasn't too busy at all. Generally a great atmosphere. After about an hour Crystal and I both needed to go to 7-11, and by the time she finished a couple of cigs, the folks in c-club were taking off to dragon i. Crystal bram and I stood around on the street for a while, talking about music and whatever else happened to develope. Bram having an early morning meeting the next day, had to take off home, which left my new compadre and I standing about, thinking of how to entertain the evening. At that point I was inclined to cheap wine, and she to chain smoking. So, we went back down to sev's, bought the cheapest bottle of red, and a pack of marlborough lights.
Not too far off, we found a darkened niche of a closed cosmetics shop. It had comfortable enough steps, a wall to lean against, and nearby construction lights flashing out of sync provided the ambiance. It had been so long since I last bummed it out with some cheap booze, with someone I barely knew. I've always loved that sort of situation, where conversation has no end because you've anything and everything to discuss. The timeline at this point gets a little lost, as we both jabbered on (once again) about music, life direction, and a slew of authors. At some point during the night Crystal asked me if she could stain my jeans with some red wine, which surprised me a bit. Her wanting to pour wine on my pants didn't surprise me though, it was that she actually asked if she could do it. Rob and I, once upon a time, poured beer over each other's heads, and ming on a few occasions has poured champange all over my shirt. Clearly I had no objection to her request. Sadly, however, there's barely a stain on me. The only visible reminder of the act is a slightly darkened patch on my right pant leg. I was hopeing for much more.
After an unmeasurable amount of time we started wandering around towards sheung wan, looking for a more scenic place to carry out the night's festivities.
-----------------------------------------------
This is a good time to mention that I've been reading and writing more than ever, and I think the result is my dragging out every detail of an evening into the sunlight, and beating it over the head 'til it confesses it's sins.
This would also be a good time to mention an interesting little fact, that I learned from my good friend Osho, the other day. The root of the word, 'sin' means, forgetfullness, and the original meaning of the word, 'paradise' means, walled garden.
-------------------------
Realizing that no one will likely read this far into my blog, I'm going to cut the story short, and not go into every last detail.
Back to the story......
Crystal and I ended up sobering up, talking in complete honestly along the beautiful sheung wan harbour front. With our legs dangling over the water, we realized that it was nearly 6am and just about time to go home. I wasn't even tired actually. I felt obligated to sleep though, seeing as I had to work the next day.
Friday marked the beginning of the end. I finished my last friday ever at interkids, and celebrated by having a few pints at the whiskey priest, with rob and dave. We played jenga, and I actually got home at the resonable hour of one o'clock.
Saturday was easy breezy lemon squeezy. All seven of my classes went famously. I was in a good mood all day, thinking about how I'd never see any of my naughty students again. The one's I like are young enough, that they'll never remember I ever taught them. Some of the older ones asked for my canadian contact info, and my email address, which I gladly supplied.
Saturday night Rob and I chose to rally the troops at the woodstone. A lot of our friends showed up, and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Sunday was spent in a very relaxing manor. Kit Ming and I woke up, had another pillow fight, and then we watched 'I heart huckabees' with shaun. We were both starving after the movie, so we headed out for something to eat. We ended up walking around, eating indian samosas and banana parathas for ages before we settled into a lovely/inexpensive soup noodle shop.
The band got together for three hours in the evening to make some noise in the studio. Ander's made great use of his new iriver, with the help of a great little recording mic, we put down some nice live material, and worked on a few beats that sounded awesome. We'll have one last practice, and then a gig this coming wednesday at the Wanch in wan chai.
Today is my last monday, and I've only one more lesson to go. My next class is good fun. The kids are only enough that we can just talk, and work on achieveing a natural, confident flow with their english.
It must be so hard to be a student in Hong Kong. There's so much pressure on children to go beyond all parental, and social expectations. I wish parents would realise that not every child can, or should be a doctor or a lawyer. Things would go seriously rye if such became the case.
Tonight should be good. Rob and I are meeting our old friend Nancy, whom we rarely see for dinner. Then.........oh yes.......then........we go to bonkers.
That's right!! It's been ages since I last went to bonkers. It was the first place all the elta's ever got properly pissed at, when we came to hong kong. I'll be sure to have a moment of silence before tasting my first pint.
Cheers!
brendan (the warrior geek) harrington
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Captain's Log: stardate 49361.5
Doublethinks' Yellow Ruby is now available for download at.....
www.doublethinks.com
Introduction:
This entry took place over two days, as I wasn't able to post yesterday because of sudden internet problem at work.
wednesday 22nd: A day of music and relaxation
I did very well for myself yesterday. I hung around all morning at the flat, reading various books, listening to music, and playing a lot of guitar. I had to go to wanchai at about half three to withdraw what was left in my LCH account.......once again things went wrong, but I don't really feel the need to dwell on it, because I needn't go back there for a long while.
Before I left for the bank I stuffed myself full of noodles and soup, and strapped on my acoustic, named Ho Wing Ka, after a funny little girl I used to teach ages ago.
So, off I went listening to music, reading my Osho book, Freedom (which I'm now nearly finished) to find a nice, quiet spot to play guitar for a while.
Luckily the spot I had in mind was, as per usual, not at all busy, and to my delightful surprise new benches were actually in place. For anyone who knows their way around hong kong island (especially those interested in performance theater) you'll probably know the spot I'm on about. It's just on the side of the Hong Kong Performance Arts centre, which is quite near the HKCEC running along the harbour front.
Anyway, as I was saying.... this place is quiet, with scarce few people passing through. There are a variety of trees poking up around the place, and every so often, you can find a lovely piece of bronze sculpture from a variety of artists. All around, a good little spot, that's easy to get to, and there's surprisingly little noise from the not too far off traffic below.
thursday 24: running down hill with a forest fire at my side
Last night after work, Rob and I decided to hit up our favourite little karaoke bar, Dundas. Dundas is by far the best watering hole we've found in Hong Kong yet. It's got everything we could ever want.....bad music, horrible singers, sociable locals, dice cups, a dart board, and it's all you can drink. Typically when we go to dundas, it's with the intent of drinking all we can, via drinking games such as russian roulet, liar, and the ever classic, internationally acclaimed JISH.
Jish is such a great game. All you need are some dice, some cups, and three or four willing participants. This is a game that Rob, Rod, Anders and I devised after a long night of careful deliberation at KK pub and cafe. It'd take far too much effort on my part (and I think my written explanation would lack the nessecary clarity to fully convey the beauty of the game) to do Jish any justice, so I'll just leave it at this... Jish is an awesome game. fun fun fun.
Rob and I ended up making our way back to sally and gabe's flat in sha tin, at around four in the morning. We took the mini bus home, which is always fun. I really do love mini buses. Their so cheap and the drivers are always a bit crazy with their driving.
After making it up to the flat, we decided it would be a great idea to drink all of gabe's delicious, Green Goodness juice and watch the first epsiode of Cowboy bebop. Definately a good idea.
Oh yeah, I only just remembered.... when we were drinking last night, rob and I got on the topic of what everything's going to be like, when we settle back into things in our respective countries. I mentioned something about how, from my perspective everyone back home (circle of friends) is still just as they were since the last time I was back, but that's clearly not going to be the case. People develope and change. This is obvious. Everyone is off doing their own thing, at various uni's, in a smattering of different towns and cities.
ahhh...
I'm having a bit of a communication breakdown here, which is expected because I'm trying to recall how this conversation unfolded last night, and writing from memory is a difficult task having just woken up not twenty minutes ago.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, all my friends back home, are still my really good friends, but I've been out of the picture for so long, that to them I must just be an old friend coming back home for a quick visit.
--------------------------------------
Actually, I don't care. Whatever has changed can not be such an obsticle that friendship is hindered. Relationships are part of the conventions of being.........they're meant to evolve. I need to stop looking for old familiarities and just do what I always do...go with the flow!
uble huble toil in bubbles
Signing off
Brendan (the warrior geek) harrington
www.doublethinks.com
Introduction:
This entry took place over two days, as I wasn't able to post yesterday because of sudden internet problem at work.
wednesday 22nd: A day of music and relaxation
I did very well for myself yesterday. I hung around all morning at the flat, reading various books, listening to music, and playing a lot of guitar. I had to go to wanchai at about half three to withdraw what was left in my LCH account.......once again things went wrong, but I don't really feel the need to dwell on it, because I needn't go back there for a long while.
Before I left for the bank I stuffed myself full of noodles and soup, and strapped on my acoustic, named Ho Wing Ka, after a funny little girl I used to teach ages ago.
So, off I went listening to music, reading my Osho book, Freedom (which I'm now nearly finished) to find a nice, quiet spot to play guitar for a while.
Luckily the spot I had in mind was, as per usual, not at all busy, and to my delightful surprise new benches were actually in place. For anyone who knows their way around hong kong island (especially those interested in performance theater) you'll probably know the spot I'm on about. It's just on the side of the Hong Kong Performance Arts centre, which is quite near the HKCEC running along the harbour front.
Anyway, as I was saying.... this place is quiet, with scarce few people passing through. There are a variety of trees poking up around the place, and every so often, you can find a lovely piece of bronze sculpture from a variety of artists. All around, a good little spot, that's easy to get to, and there's surprisingly little noise from the not too far off traffic below.
thursday 24: running down hill with a forest fire at my side
Last night after work, Rob and I decided to hit up our favourite little karaoke bar, Dundas. Dundas is by far the best watering hole we've found in Hong Kong yet. It's got everything we could ever want.....bad music, horrible singers, sociable locals, dice cups, a dart board, and it's all you can drink. Typically when we go to dundas, it's with the intent of drinking all we can, via drinking games such as russian roulet, liar, and the ever classic, internationally acclaimed JISH.
Jish is such a great game. All you need are some dice, some cups, and three or four willing participants. This is a game that Rob, Rod, Anders and I devised after a long night of careful deliberation at KK pub and cafe. It'd take far too much effort on my part (and I think my written explanation would lack the nessecary clarity to fully convey the beauty of the game) to do Jish any justice, so I'll just leave it at this... Jish is an awesome game. fun fun fun.
Rob and I ended up making our way back to sally and gabe's flat in sha tin, at around four in the morning. We took the mini bus home, which is always fun. I really do love mini buses. Their so cheap and the drivers are always a bit crazy with their driving.
After making it up to the flat, we decided it would be a great idea to drink all of gabe's delicious, Green Goodness juice and watch the first epsiode of Cowboy bebop. Definately a good idea.
Oh yeah, I only just remembered.... when we were drinking last night, rob and I got on the topic of what everything's going to be like, when we settle back into things in our respective countries. I mentioned something about how, from my perspective everyone back home (circle of friends) is still just as they were since the last time I was back, but that's clearly not going to be the case. People develope and change. This is obvious. Everyone is off doing their own thing, at various uni's, in a smattering of different towns and cities.
ahhh...
I'm having a bit of a communication breakdown here, which is expected because I'm trying to recall how this conversation unfolded last night, and writing from memory is a difficult task having just woken up not twenty minutes ago.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, all my friends back home, are still my really good friends, but I've been out of the picture for so long, that to them I must just be an old friend coming back home for a quick visit.
--------------------------------------
Actually, I don't care. Whatever has changed can not be such an obsticle that friendship is hindered. Relationships are part of the conventions of being.........they're meant to evolve. I need to stop looking for old familiarities and just do what I always do...go with the flow!
uble huble toil in bubbles
Signing off
Brendan (the warrior geek) harrington
Monday, November 21, 2005
I'm eating focaccio!
Well, Friday night's show turned out to be really fun, and it was actually our first paying gig. Seeing as Luke Chow organized the show, all earnings from the door were split equaly between the four groups.
The whole night was chalk full of confusion though. We were among the first to show up, though the guys from natural city were already there, they didn't take any initiative to get anything on stage organized. So, when we got there we had to sort out everything on stage, because all the equipment was completly disorganized. The drum kit particularly, was in three different piles....and that's just what we could find of it... I was pretty surprised that gabe didn't lose his temper at all, seeing as there was no ride stand, one of the tom's had a big hole it in, and during the show, the bass drum keep moving forward.
Anyway, because everything was such a mess we didn't get around to starting our first song til eleven o'clock. Luke looked a bit concerned because everything was so obviously behind schedual, and I'm sure we took a bit too long getting our volumns sorted; considering how unfamiliar we were with amnesia (we had never played there before) I think we did well enough.
I felt badly for Luke because there wasn't much of a turn out, and everything started off later than expected, but these things happen.......and i think it's safe to say that those who did stick around to the end of the night (about 1:30 in the morn') had a great time. Amnesia is a pretty good gig. It looks cool, decked out in black and red, the drinks are cheap enough, and there's actually a large enough stage to swing my bass around on....without knocking out kachun's front teeth.
Generally, friday night was fun. People were relaxed, and patient, which are two good attributes to have in an audience when things aren't going smoothly.
Three cheers for some girl name May as well. She's the first person to ever notice that we stole our name straight from George Orwell's famous novel, 1984. No one else had ever made the connection before.
For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of reading 1984, I highly recommend it.....it's easy to see why it's such a classic, especially when you consider that it was written in 1948.
Saturday's usual overly hectic schedual of back to back lessons was....very surprisingly, Easy.
I can't even remember the last time I had seven lessons pass by with such ease. It's fairly likely though that the only reason they went so well is because, I only have to do it one more time. Oh, how good it feels to say that I'm nearly finished teaching little hyper active, energy draining children.
After an easy day's work I spent much of the night at my mate chris' flat. He's just recently wrangled up a new flat mate, a talented photographer, and all around nice fella, Patrick. Even though the flat wasn't new to Chris, he never did have a house warming party untill Saturday evening. The theme was beach wear, but not many people adhered to that idea at all. Myself, Rob, and Shaun were all showing our sexy white legs with beach shorts and accompanying dress shrits. I opted for a pink scarf and my leapord skin cowboy hat to up the funky ante a bit.
I didn't stay too long. I left with kit ming around one o'clock, as we were both tired and wanted to relax back in central for a while.
Yesterday I was happy to wake up without a hangover, and had a pillow fight with kit ming. Then, i spent the day lazing about, went to lamma with nat and anders, and moved a load more of my stuff from steph's flat. Another easy, great day.
Cheers
Brendan
The whole night was chalk full of confusion though. We were among the first to show up, though the guys from natural city were already there, they didn't take any initiative to get anything on stage organized. So, when we got there we had to sort out everything on stage, because all the equipment was completly disorganized. The drum kit particularly, was in three different piles....and that's just what we could find of it... I was pretty surprised that gabe didn't lose his temper at all, seeing as there was no ride stand, one of the tom's had a big hole it in, and during the show, the bass drum keep moving forward.
Anyway, because everything was such a mess we didn't get around to starting our first song til eleven o'clock. Luke looked a bit concerned because everything was so obviously behind schedual, and I'm sure we took a bit too long getting our volumns sorted; considering how unfamiliar we were with amnesia (we had never played there before) I think we did well enough.
I felt badly for Luke because there wasn't much of a turn out, and everything started off later than expected, but these things happen.......and i think it's safe to say that those who did stick around to the end of the night (about 1:30 in the morn') had a great time. Amnesia is a pretty good gig. It looks cool, decked out in black and red, the drinks are cheap enough, and there's actually a large enough stage to swing my bass around on....without knocking out kachun's front teeth.
Generally, friday night was fun. People were relaxed, and patient, which are two good attributes to have in an audience when things aren't going smoothly.
Three cheers for some girl name May as well. She's the first person to ever notice that we stole our name straight from George Orwell's famous novel, 1984. No one else had ever made the connection before.
For anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of reading 1984, I highly recommend it.....it's easy to see why it's such a classic, especially when you consider that it was written in 1948.
Saturday's usual overly hectic schedual of back to back lessons was....very surprisingly, Easy.
I can't even remember the last time I had seven lessons pass by with such ease. It's fairly likely though that the only reason they went so well is because, I only have to do it one more time. Oh, how good it feels to say that I'm nearly finished teaching little hyper active, energy draining children.
After an easy day's work I spent much of the night at my mate chris' flat. He's just recently wrangled up a new flat mate, a talented photographer, and all around nice fella, Patrick. Even though the flat wasn't new to Chris, he never did have a house warming party untill Saturday evening. The theme was beach wear, but not many people adhered to that idea at all. Myself, Rob, and Shaun were all showing our sexy white legs with beach shorts and accompanying dress shrits. I opted for a pink scarf and my leapord skin cowboy hat to up the funky ante a bit.
I didn't stay too long. I left with kit ming around one o'clock, as we were both tired and wanted to relax back in central for a while.
Yesterday I was happy to wake up without a hangover, and had a pillow fight with kit ming. Then, i spent the day lazing about, went to lamma with nat and anders, and moved a load more of my stuff from steph's flat. Another easy, great day.
Cheers
Brendan
Friday, November 18, 2005
Dragon i, and Amnesia
We played a show on wednesday night at the Wanch, and for whatever reason I felt great. I was jumping around more than usual and had a great time. We met two fella's staying with our mutual friend/ musician Luke Chow, and I was really impressed with their stuff. All acoustic, up tempo sort of songs...a few originals, and a couple of brilliant covers. One, which I really enjoyed was a cover of Elvis Costello's, Watching the Detectives. Superb.
We played after they did and I suppose things went fairly well because just last night Luke rang me up and asked if we could play a show together.......friday night!
So, I called up the the fella's and I guess we're all ready to play for a good forty minutes tonight, at Amnesia in Central.
This place is literally a two minute walk down the hill from where I am now, which is very very nice.
Right after I got off the phone with Luke, yet another pleasant invitation appeared. Ming gave me ten minutes to get out of the flat and meet him and a few others outside Hong Kong's main vip club, Dragan i.
Normally I wouldn't have a single chance getting into dragon i but seeing as Ming knows the right people it wasn't much a problem.
Lane Crawford was hosting some private party for........something.....i don't actually know. Anywho, the whole thing ended up being free. Naturally, we all left several hours later, drunk.
All I can say really is that it's not my sort of place. There are way too many rich, model types, and aside from private parties the cost of a drink is through the roof, usuall about 60-70 for a glass of wine.
Well, I wish I had more time to go into detail but my breaks nearly over, and it's time to go.
Hopefully everything goes well tonight!
DOUBLETHINKS!!!
brendan
We played after they did and I suppose things went fairly well because just last night Luke rang me up and asked if we could play a show together.......friday night!
So, I called up the the fella's and I guess we're all ready to play for a good forty minutes tonight, at Amnesia in Central.
This place is literally a two minute walk down the hill from where I am now, which is very very nice.
Right after I got off the phone with Luke, yet another pleasant invitation appeared. Ming gave me ten minutes to get out of the flat and meet him and a few others outside Hong Kong's main vip club, Dragan i.
Normally I wouldn't have a single chance getting into dragon i but seeing as Ming knows the right people it wasn't much a problem.
Lane Crawford was hosting some private party for........something.....i don't actually know. Anywho, the whole thing ended up being free. Naturally, we all left several hours later, drunk.
All I can say really is that it's not my sort of place. There are way too many rich, model types, and aside from private parties the cost of a drink is through the roof, usuall about 60-70 for a glass of wine.
Well, I wish I had more time to go into detail but my breaks nearly over, and it's time to go.
Hopefully everything goes well tonight!
DOUBLETHINKS!!!
brendan
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Mosquitos...Why? Why? WHY!?
Last night, I thought I'd be a smart cookie and actually get a full night's rest, for work this morning. Yeah, that didn't happen at all...
For the first time in longer than i can recall, I was in bed just before midnight, and to be honest I wasn't even that tired. I was planning on just laying in bed and possibly watching an episode of Full Metal Alchemist on my iriver (which I did) and then simply rest until I fell asleep.
The last time I looked at the time on my mobile it read, 1:33am and I thought.....eh not bad, I usualy go to bed late anyway. I must have fallen asleep not long after that, though for only about ten minutes. Apparently a family of mosquitos had been hiding in my room......waiting.......waiting.....and waiting for the right moment to attack.
Oh, did they ever attack.
I strongly dislike mosquitos. However, they seem to be really like me, or at least just my blood. I'm sure they have no idea what 'me' is.
Anyway, between 1:33am and ten past five in the morning I must have got, at the most, about half an hour's worth of shut eye. By the time five something rolled around I completly snapped at not being able to kill the little blood sucking basterds, that repeatedly assulted my body and went out into the main room.
I threw down a big heavy duvet on the tiled floor, brought out two pillows and a thin blanket and thankfully got a solid three hours of sleep.
I was pretty out of it this morning on the train to work, having not much rest I very reluctantly got out of bed not long before. Actually, when I woke up my eyes were stuck shut with sticky sleep, that persisted well into my MTR ride. I must have looked like I was just dumped by my girlfriend and had been crying for hours past.
Luckily one student that I really wish would never show up to class again, was sick today. As such, my two morning lessons went really well and I felt great. I don't feel so hot now though. I'm starting to get really lathargic, and generally just reluctant to move about very much.
Rob and I were just on break together, and I had to go down to causeway bay to talk to some nutter named Piano. I've worked with her company before (they're a casting agency) and they've gotten me a couple of easy, well paying jobs doing a commercial and a magizine shoot. Anyway, they wanted myself and Rob to do a bit of a profile, which is pretty much us standing in front of some blue backdrop in a white room (big lights shining) saying our name, height, hobby, nationality, and then doing a spin. Fairly easy. Hopefully some more work will come out of it.
Lui Chong Hing is ragingly incompetant. LCH is my chinese bank and I hate them. On numerous occasions they're driven me to the brink of my patience, with their sheer stupidity. I remember one time a few months ago, when it took me over an hour to get them to make me one cheque......a process that should take about five to ten minutes. Anyway, today's ordeal was them not knowing how to deposite a cheque into my regular chequing account. Fools.
Once I get my visa sorted out I'm going to switch banks, and promptly empty my LCH account and give them the finger.
Well....I probably won't flip them the bird, but I'd happily never step foot in any LCH building again for as long as I live.
Tartar
Brendan
For the first time in longer than i can recall, I was in bed just before midnight, and to be honest I wasn't even that tired. I was planning on just laying in bed and possibly watching an episode of Full Metal Alchemist on my iriver (which I did) and then simply rest until I fell asleep.
The last time I looked at the time on my mobile it read, 1:33am and I thought.....eh not bad, I usualy go to bed late anyway. I must have fallen asleep not long after that, though for only about ten minutes. Apparently a family of mosquitos had been hiding in my room......waiting.......waiting.....and waiting for the right moment to attack.
Oh, did they ever attack.
I strongly dislike mosquitos. However, they seem to be really like me, or at least just my blood. I'm sure they have no idea what 'me' is.
Anyway, between 1:33am and ten past five in the morning I must have got, at the most, about half an hour's worth of shut eye. By the time five something rolled around I completly snapped at not being able to kill the little blood sucking basterds, that repeatedly assulted my body and went out into the main room.
I threw down a big heavy duvet on the tiled floor, brought out two pillows and a thin blanket and thankfully got a solid three hours of sleep.
I was pretty out of it this morning on the train to work, having not much rest I very reluctantly got out of bed not long before. Actually, when I woke up my eyes were stuck shut with sticky sleep, that persisted well into my MTR ride. I must have looked like I was just dumped by my girlfriend and had been crying for hours past.
Luckily one student that I really wish would never show up to class again, was sick today. As such, my two morning lessons went really well and I felt great. I don't feel so hot now though. I'm starting to get really lathargic, and generally just reluctant to move about very much.
Rob and I were just on break together, and I had to go down to causeway bay to talk to some nutter named Piano. I've worked with her company before (they're a casting agency) and they've gotten me a couple of easy, well paying jobs doing a commercial and a magizine shoot. Anyway, they wanted myself and Rob to do a bit of a profile, which is pretty much us standing in front of some blue backdrop in a white room (big lights shining) saying our name, height, hobby, nationality, and then doing a spin. Fairly easy. Hopefully some more work will come out of it.
Lui Chong Hing is ragingly incompetant. LCH is my chinese bank and I hate them. On numerous occasions they're driven me to the brink of my patience, with their sheer stupidity. I remember one time a few months ago, when it took me over an hour to get them to make me one cheque......a process that should take about five to ten minutes. Anyway, today's ordeal was them not knowing how to deposite a cheque into my regular chequing account. Fools.
Once I get my visa sorted out I'm going to switch banks, and promptly empty my LCH account and give them the finger.
Well....I probably won't flip them the bird, but I'd happily never step foot in any LCH building again for as long as I live.
Tartar
Brendan
Monday, November 14, 2005
Doublethinks, Rockit, Alice, Daredevil, Burrito
Doublethinks' last gig went off fairly well, though I could have done with a taller mic stand and a much better keyboard for Kachun. (Kachun is my good friend/band mate named Anders. I've been trying to remember to use his chinese name instead of his english one, but I always forget)
We managed to play for just under an hour, and we had a really good response from a lot of the people there. I'm not sure on the actual number, but it was somewhere in the 150-170 range.........which would make it one of our biggest gigs, attendence wise.
There was a bit of a problem with the opening act showing up really late, and we in doublethinks couldn't help but feel we were getting screwed over a bit..........but I don't really feel like getting into now.
I've been trying to extend our band contacts lately, meeting new people and (as you do) put the name doublethinks out there as much as possible, and i think it may be working. Once I get back from holiday in canada we should have a few gigs lined up, so i can jump right back into the live bit again. It's so much fun jumping around on stage, being really loud and generally just messing about.
Kachun and I were talking the other day about getting a few acoustic gigs lined up. And seeing as Kachun has his fancy acoustic bass I could play......why the hell not.
We'll speak to the owner of gecko lounge soon to see what he has to say. Who knows, maybe he'll have an opening within the next couple of weeks.
-----------------------
Twas Pat's 21st birthday saturday night. So, naturally a cosy, dark cafe was rented out and the words, "all you can drink for two hundred bucks" were thrown out there somewhere......it turned out to be a fun night. Somewhere near the end of it Kachun and I had a sword fight, with real (unsharpened) swords. That was fun. I drank wine for most of the night, and played a lot of chess, russian roulett, and ring of fire. It had been so long since I last played chinese chess, so I lost every game against my fearless bandmate, Mr. K. I think I was getting better after a few games, though it may have just been the wine getting to me.
Yesterday, after not having slept much, I made my way to the practice studio with shaun........an hour and a half late. I had a great practice. Aside from feeling a bit nausious/
naucious....(sp) everything went smoothly.
After the studio I headed down to causeway bay to meet steph, and check out rockit festival. Rockit is hong kong's only music festival and it's really not that great, especially considering that Feeder was the main act of the night........not exactly a very rockin band. Some of the supporting acts however, like hong kong's The Academy put on a great show. I felt badly for the fella's in The Academy though, because the sound quality was pretty piss poor for their first few songs. Through no fault of their own though. The singers mic kept cutting in and out, so half of the time the crowd could only here his monitor, and the guitars weren't nearly loud enough. It almost seems like it was done on purpose because they kicked so much more ass than lousy Feeder. The only thing that kept me watching feeder (which i only did for about half their set) was the lighting job. The lights acted just like flipping channels on tv, constantly jolting my gaze towards the stage.
At this point in the day I was feeling really weak, as I hadn't eaten much and was running on little sleep. So, as soon as feeder finished up I dragged my fatigued bag of bones home, with a massive burrito from Taco Loco to fill the void.
I'm still waiting for the latest translation of Full Metal Alchemists' forth menga. Hopefully it will be available before I head home. I plan on getting on my plane with a bag full of books, my mp3 player and a lot of snack food. If I've learned anything from international flgihts, it's that I can't sleep on planes, the movies are usually gash, and (this is for all traveling vegetarians out there) never rely on airplane food!! so........I'm packing my own little picnic!
I've already begun buying a load of books to bring with me, but....I keep reading them! I just finished Louis Carol's, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Both of which are excellent novels! and I'm nearly finished Osho's, Freedom, and Ram Dass', Learning the Baghavarta Gita. I also picked up a neat little book by George Orwell called, Why I write. It's a very short read, and it's very interesting. I highly recommend any of these novels.
What I don't recommend however, is the movie Daredevil. I had the misfortune of being tired and bored last night whilst eating my giant burrito, and caught it on Pearl (I never would have rented it) My only question for Daredevil is, how the hell do you suddenly go from being nearly dead to fighting bad guys, and jumping from roof to roof with a stab wound going clear through your shoulder??? Get Lost.
He should have been left in the comic book shop along side batman's magic belt, and the penguin's impossible umbrella.
Lastly, for anyone in the hk area, Doublethinks will be playing this wednesday at the Wanch in Wan Chai. It's Free. Thanks to everyone who came out to the last show. If you've any comments or suggestions send them to brendan@doublethinks.com
Cheers
Brendan
We managed to play for just under an hour, and we had a really good response from a lot of the people there. I'm not sure on the actual number, but it was somewhere in the 150-170 range.........which would make it one of our biggest gigs, attendence wise.
There was a bit of a problem with the opening act showing up really late, and we in doublethinks couldn't help but feel we were getting screwed over a bit..........but I don't really feel like getting into now.
I've been trying to extend our band contacts lately, meeting new people and (as you do) put the name doublethinks out there as much as possible, and i think it may be working. Once I get back from holiday in canada we should have a few gigs lined up, so i can jump right back into the live bit again. It's so much fun jumping around on stage, being really loud and generally just messing about.
Kachun and I were talking the other day about getting a few acoustic gigs lined up. And seeing as Kachun has his fancy acoustic bass I could play......why the hell not.
We'll speak to the owner of gecko lounge soon to see what he has to say. Who knows, maybe he'll have an opening within the next couple of weeks.
-----------------------
Twas Pat's 21st birthday saturday night. So, naturally a cosy, dark cafe was rented out and the words, "all you can drink for two hundred bucks" were thrown out there somewhere......it turned out to be a fun night. Somewhere near the end of it Kachun and I had a sword fight, with real (unsharpened) swords. That was fun. I drank wine for most of the night, and played a lot of chess, russian roulett, and ring of fire. It had been so long since I last played chinese chess, so I lost every game against my fearless bandmate, Mr. K. I think I was getting better after a few games, though it may have just been the wine getting to me.
Yesterday, after not having slept much, I made my way to the practice studio with shaun........an hour and a half late. I had a great practice. Aside from feeling a bit nausious/
naucious....(sp) everything went smoothly.
After the studio I headed down to causeway bay to meet steph, and check out rockit festival. Rockit is hong kong's only music festival and it's really not that great, especially considering that Feeder was the main act of the night........not exactly a very rockin band. Some of the supporting acts however, like hong kong's The Academy put on a great show. I felt badly for the fella's in The Academy though, because the sound quality was pretty piss poor for their first few songs. Through no fault of their own though. The singers mic kept cutting in and out, so half of the time the crowd could only here his monitor, and the guitars weren't nearly loud enough. It almost seems like it was done on purpose because they kicked so much more ass than lousy Feeder. The only thing that kept me watching feeder (which i only did for about half their set) was the lighting job. The lights acted just like flipping channels on tv, constantly jolting my gaze towards the stage.
At this point in the day I was feeling really weak, as I hadn't eaten much and was running on little sleep. So, as soon as feeder finished up I dragged my fatigued bag of bones home, with a massive burrito from Taco Loco to fill the void.
I'm still waiting for the latest translation of Full Metal Alchemists' forth menga. Hopefully it will be available before I head home. I plan on getting on my plane with a bag full of books, my mp3 player and a lot of snack food. If I've learned anything from international flgihts, it's that I can't sleep on planes, the movies are usually gash, and (this is for all traveling vegetarians out there) never rely on airplane food!! so........I'm packing my own little picnic!
I've already begun buying a load of books to bring with me, but....I keep reading them! I just finished Louis Carol's, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Both of which are excellent novels! and I'm nearly finished Osho's, Freedom, and Ram Dass', Learning the Baghavarta Gita. I also picked up a neat little book by George Orwell called, Why I write. It's a very short read, and it's very interesting. I highly recommend any of these novels.
What I don't recommend however, is the movie Daredevil. I had the misfortune of being tired and bored last night whilst eating my giant burrito, and caught it on Pearl (I never would have rented it) My only question for Daredevil is, how the hell do you suddenly go from being nearly dead to fighting bad guys, and jumping from roof to roof with a stab wound going clear through your shoulder??? Get Lost.
He should have been left in the comic book shop along side batman's magic belt, and the penguin's impossible umbrella.
Lastly, for anyone in the hk area, Doublethinks will be playing this wednesday at the Wanch in Wan Chai. It's Free. Thanks to everyone who came out to the last show. If you've any comments or suggestions send them to brendan@doublethinks.com
Cheers
Brendan
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