June 21st, 2007
It was my first live classical concert and the London Philharmonic Orchestra made it all very memorable. As part of Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown, The Music of John Barry included some of the best known pieces composed by John Barry in the last five decades such as the James Bond theme, the scores for Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves.
It was definitely an enjoyable experience to hear some of the most impressive film tunes at the newly reopened Royal Festival Hall, especially because of the £91M refurbishment. I do recommend hanging out in the area in and around the building (with trendy restaurants, funky shops and lots of performance space) on a hot summer evening.
Will I go to see another live classical concert? Yes, but it will probably be another classical performance with a modern element.
Posted in London, Music, Performance | No Comments »
June 16th, 2007
The Grand Tour by The National Gallery has brought 45 paintings, which are full-size reproductions from the gallery’s permanent collection, to the streets of London. The collection includes masterpieces by artists like Van Gogh, Rosseau and Stubbs.
If you are interested in discovering all 45 of them, you can print out an interactive map, along with information about each of the paintings.
I love the fact that there is also a Grand Tour Flickr group!
Posted in Art, Exhibitions, London | No Comments »
June 13th, 2007
I saw this very interesting article in The Times today.
If all the Wangs in China seceded — all 93 million — they would become the world’s 12th-most-populous nation. The 88 million Zhangs could eat every crumb of the UN’s World Food Programme, distributed annually to people in 82 countries.
China needs more names — double-quick, The Times, 13 June 2007
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
June 12th, 2007
Nowadays, advertising executives not only have to be creative when developing content, but also have to be innovative about the media they use to present ads. I’ve come across the following two examples that have recently generated a lot of discussion.
- We7 allows free music downloads but only if you can put up with an ad (of up to 10 seconds) attached to your music tracks.
- A new novel, The Average American Male, chose to reach its target audience via YouTube. A series of low budget videos were produced and placed on one of the most popular video sharing web sites. Apparently, it has had more than a million views and a hugely positive impact on sales; during the course of two weeks, they have gone to press three times and have doubled their initial print-run. Sounds like a viral marketing dream come true for the publishers.
Posted in Advertising, Viral Marketing | 1 Comment »
June 4th, 2007
There is no present,
No laughter or celebration.
Memories are still fresh;
Whilst others are made to believe:
It was only imagination!
It is not meant to be discussed;
It is a topic to be banned.
But something was born
While hundreds were sacrificed:
A realisation that brought a beginning.
Written: 4th June 2007
Posted in Poetry | No Comments »
May 19th, 2007
Dan Rhodes‘ fourth book (including The Little White Car - writing as Danuta de Rhodes).
Gold is easy to read and well written, but I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as Timoleon Vieta Come Home, which brought tears to my eyes in places. Gold is a good read if you are looking for something to kill time on long journeys but it’s hard to put it in the same league as Dan’s impressive but depressing story of a dog.
I liked the way the characters were crafted; realistic, imperfect but lovable. I especially admired Dan’s attention to detail of the background characters. I warmed to Mr. Edwards even though he was a man of few words and ‘Holy Mackerel
‘ was the only line he had. Sceptic Barry’s dental nurse girlfriend had slightly more lines than Mr. Edwards and was often just a smiley face behind the bar, but I liked her all the same simply because of the clever dialogue Dan created.
Lastly, if Timoleon Vieta Come Home is a five-star novel, Gold probably deserves three stars as I like it for its realistic and charming characters.
Posted in Books | No Comments »
May 14th, 2007
My new favourite camera that I carry with me everyday.
Don’t get me wrong. I still think the Lomo LCA is really cool, but it’s getting expensive to buy slide film and difficult to find decent places which do a good cross-processing job without charging a small fortune.
My friend Bono introduced me to this brilliant piece of kit at my birthday party. Like Oscar Wilde, I can resist everything except temptation.
The next day, I went to different shops to check out the camera, and the day after I ordered it for less than £250. I was well chuffed about getting it.
I know a lot of people complain about the noise when it’s above 200 ISO, which is actually a fair point. But I don’t like my Lomo LCA because it takes accurate photos, I like my camera because it takes interesting photos. The 28mm wide angle is so handy as it’s the same my LCA and I love the macro capability, which works really well in black and white. Of course, the Ricoh GR Digital looks great in black and the magnesium alloy body feels just right.
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
April 26th, 2007
I was still testing my Ricoh GR Digital and was surprised at the result of this documentary-type photo. There is no reason why it wouldn’t do a good job; just that I normally used it for more moody photos.
Anyway, back to the fire. I was shopping on the second floor of Borders and suddenly see a big group of people all pointing their phone cameras at the same direction. It wasn’t until five or ten minutes later I saw the black smoke. Not long after that, we were asked to leave the premises due to the fire at M&S. It turned out to be quite a serious fire at New Look (next to M&S). I could still smell the smoke three hours later when walking along Regent’s Street.
Posted in London | No Comments »
April 16th, 2007
Getting up at 5am only to see some auctions at a fish market isn’t really my cup of green tea, but we did manage to catch some action when we arrived at the market just before 7am. The Japanese seemed to have forgotten all their manners when it came to business - the usual bowing and smiling were replaced by lots of shouting and pushing. Don’t wear your best clothes and shoes is the obvious advice.
After an hour of photographing massive tuna, giantic octopi, and king crabs with super long legs, my parents and Brad headed to a sushi restaurant for their breakfast, while I had a wander around a nearly temple for fishermen.
Travel Tip: The Tsukiji Market doesn’t open on Sundays. It’s alwasy a good idea to check the calendar before you go.
Suggested schedules drafted by a friend who knows Japan really well (times are approximate):
- 5:00 - taxi to Tsukiji Fish Market
- Have a wander around Tokyo before our flight in the evening
Posted in Japan, Travel | No Comments »
April 15th, 2007
Our only full day in Tokyo and we decided to have a little adventure without following the schedule drafted by my mum’s friend. Brad and I spent the best part of our morning in ITO-YA, a 9-storey stationery shop with some of the most peculiar products, for example, a leather pouch for your tin of mints.
Our next destination was the paradise for all geeks: Akihabara, Tokyo’s famous electric town. It was one of the busiest parts of town on a Sunday. We walked into a shop with rows and rows of toy vending machines and some of them contained pornography plastic figures! With Japanese Yen being quite strong, we didn’t see much point in buying gadgets there. So we ventured to another bizarre part of town, Harajuku.
We were hoping to take some interesting photos at Harajuku’s Cos-play-zoku (or Costume Play Gangs) that assemble in Jingu-bashi (the bridge linking Meiji-jingu with Omote-sando), but found that the whole thing was just another touristy trap. We quickly moved on and were more fascinated by some girl dressing up like a French maid doing some shopping nearby.
Mum and dad met us for dinner at a Korean BBQ place, where they spoke no English at all. We managed to stay away from anything that is too authentic by pointing, nodding and smiling (like a bunch of idiots).
After dinner, Brad and I went to do some night photography at Shibuya, which Brad insisted on seeing as it was heavily featured in Lost in Translation.
Posted in Japan, Travel | No Comments »