Take That Busy Week

Ever since this event was confirmed from international head office, my colleagues in Promo Department literally were damned to hell. Whenever there are foreign artists visiting Taiwan, they would be the first victims at the battlefront. And this time, we have Take That.

Generally considered the ancestor of British/European boy bands in early 90s, Take That sold more than 25 millions albums worldwide in 6 years; 3 of their 5 albums topped No.1 on UK Chart, and the other 2 won the second place. When they split in 1996, The Samaritans, a British registered charity, set up a dedicated helpline for their heart-broken fans. 10 years later, they came back to the public, initially with a documentary pulling in 7 millions households of audience, then a nationwide tour of 24 gigs, of which 500,000 tickets sold out within 70 minutes, and now their whole new 6-weeks No.1 album “Beautiful World” and a Taiwan tour.

I don’t exactly know why the UK act chose Taiwan to be the one and only promo spot among all the Asian countries. Maybe the reason is that, compared to others, we do have a better marketing success, also a better local market share than other international record companies, or simply they like Taiwan more. I heard from my colleagues that the leading member Gary Barlow remembers the exact dates and places he has been to during his solo promo tours in Taiwan. Anyway, they are coming, and this will turn my office upside down.

Take That have a lot of loyal fans here. Ever since the news of tour leaked out, we received countless calls for further information. My colleagues dealt with all the requirements and the flip-flop of deals from UK and also those from the local press and media. My colleagues followed the schedule previously approved by UK office to confirm one entertainment show expose on a popular local cable channel, and then the next day UK decided to cancel it. Things keep coming back and forth this way. The amount of visiting crew grew from 12 to 17 to finally 22; artists, managers, musicians, choreographer…I am pretty sure, in some mysterious way, Taiwan must be attractive to them!

Right now, I sit in the office alone with my manager. All the others are waiting in the airport for them to come through the Customs. There will be an Asian press conference, a showcase, a public autograph session, and several media interviews in this tight 5-days schedule. I am glad I can be almost out of this big chunk of chore and worry about my own production routines and advertisements, though I was the executive of the production and marketing of their latest album. To pop music, I still have a bizarre complex. Among all those pop songs, if you take the time to listen to them patiently, you would hear the difference between commercial manipulation and original creation. That’s how I recognised Take That as a truly great pop band.

My first impression about the first single “Patience” came quite strong, “Wow! Check out this catchy chorus!” It is undoubtedly a repeatable sing-a-long tune with Gary’s remarkable falsetto. That is not easy at all. Usually I would get sick of one song after listen to it too frequently in a short time for making the ads, but I just don’t get tired with this one. It consists of a standard also beautiful guitar opening and smooth strings arrangement. Even though you can figure out how the song would develope to the end once you just hear it, it doesn’t spoil the joy at all. Being such a powerful ballad, it promised to conquer the charts and fans once again. The music video set them a perfect visual stage to announce their coming back: rough British coast line, 4 lads dragging the mic stands, singing towards the unmanned sea…(what are those explosive water pillars doing there?)

The polls of your favorite Take That memebr showed British people still favors Mark Owen after one decade. I personally find Howard Donald obsessively attractive. Maybe it’s his chin…

Let’s play with the 79th Oscars

All the movie goers in Taiwan may never realize how much they rely on Chinese subtitles until they face this: Movie Quotes Game.

I had this game with my boy at the dinner table on his mom’s birthday. I remember my quotes were “Good sir? I heard you were a poet,” and “I’ll never let go. I’ll never let go, Jack.” Aren’t they easy to guess? This year, the 79th Annual Academy Awards plays it to all you movie buffs. From OBLIQUITY, I read that the Academy paid homage to memorable quotes of the films it has honored. Check out the poster!

Among those listed 105 quotes, my boy and I could recognise the following ones. Go to OBLIQUITY to find out the rest. Let’s have a game!

1. “It was beauty killed the beast.”
6. “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”
8. “Rosebud.”
9. “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
14. “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
20. “STELLA!”
37. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
44. “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”
53. “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
58. “Rocky!”
62. “The Force is strong with this one!”
63. “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.”
64. “May the Force be with you.”
65. “My name is Bond. James Bond.”
69. “I am not an animal. I am a human being. I am a man.”
71. “E.T. phone home.”
84. “Good evening, Clarice.”
85. “You can’t handle the truth!”
88. “My Momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
89. “That’ll do pig. That’ll do.”
90. “Show me the money!”
91. “You had me at hello.”
92. “I’m the king of the world!”
95. “Off The Records, on the QT, and very Hush-Hush.”
97. “Remember those posters that said ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life’? Well, that’s true of every day except one - the day you die.”
98. “My name is Gladiator.”
99. “Wilson!”
100. “Frodo!”
101. “Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle.”
105. “I wish I knew how to quit you.”

At least, we all vividly remember the last quote, don’t we?

Size Matters

Oh yes, time to get naughty.

I had this chat with my female friend Ella (it’s a fake name by her request) on MSN this afternoon. She shared her latest fling to me. According to her side of story, that guy could be the one she is ready to fall in love with. Besides the honest conversation and confessions they just shared to each other made her feel sweet (straight guys, talk to her!), he is apparently a handsome man who can easily get girls. He is so gorgeous that Ella could not stop looking at him. I totally agree with her. I don’t want to wake up some day and suddenly find the guy sleeping beside me is actually, not suitable to look at. Though at the very beginning, my Libra part of personality would stop it from happening anyway.

Last night, they had sex for the second time ever. The experience was smooth and comfy to her. It seemed the guy considered more about her feelings than she expected. He was very gentle. While the magic moment came, he asked Ella if she would feel pain or uncomfortable. And after the orgasm, she slept in his arm, with her head on his chest. That was really lovely. I know she was sharing this to express her growing feelings about this guy, but I just can’t stop being naughty.

“Tell me the size of his thing,” I said.

“He is big…”

After stalling for a while, she got the scientific fact about it. 8 inches by length and 6.1 inches by girth: he did a thorough measurement for her. I did a little math and found out the diameter of his penis would be around 4.9 cm. She is a lucky girl! I think it is a pretty good size, for men and women both.

We always say “Don’t judge a book by its appearance.” But when it comes to sex, we all do. Maybe not really the size, but the unspeakable chemistry during sex, for that cause, size matters more or less. Wait a minute. I started to talk like Carrie Bradshaw. If she can write about her friends into the column articles, why can’t I expose my friends? Hmm…Reality and drama still have a fine line in between.

I haven’t dumped anymore really for the size issue, but I have declined some guys for that reason. Two of them happened while I was still in the army. I met W online. He had a car, and wanted to drive me back to the camp. I agreed, and that was kind of our first date. He was a dance teacher, also a nice guy, but did not qualify as good looking. While I was in the car, he kissed and licked my thigh through the tears of my jeans, which excited me. That made me willing to go out again with him. I went to his place for the second date. We watched Madonna’s live DVD then started to fool around in the bed. He had a nice chest to touch, but his dick was comparatively not so “impressive”. I could barely feel anything down there while he began to thrust. That shocked me, literary. That’s what happens when you have sex with someone whose cock is actually a “wee-wee” . The other guy, Mr. O, was a friend’s friend. We met on a gathering, and found each other cute. There came several dates. He was a really sweet guy, kind of dorky but cute, but we only nearly had sex once. His willy was not spectacular either. However, what really turned me off was he didn’t seem to know what lubricant is. That could really end up all the possibilities two people might have: not being considerate.

So, my experience told me that size does matter somehow. My boy agreed with me too. As to how we agreed on that, I don’t think it’s time to bring up yet. (smiles)

By the way, do you know how many slangs are there for PENIS in your language? Check out the mighty Wikitionary! It seems Spanish-speaking people win for all!

The Fall of record industry (not music business, yet)

For a long time I have hated commercial mainstream record industry. That’s correct. I mean Universal, Sony, BMG, Warner, and EMI, these former Big Five record labels. (They became Big Four after Sony and BMG jointed in 2004.) Those global business companies which dominated over 80% of music market, still in 2005.

Except some labels they owned or purchased, I thought they only produce crappy popular music, and sometimes it doesn’t even qualify as music; pure products, that’s what they are. That was when I was still in the university, just made my initial contact to indie music and indie labels, 4AD and Rough Trade and so on, which I immediately fell in love with. I was having my own show on campus radio, Voice of NCCU FM88.7. I played indie bands, such as Belle and Sebastian and Cocteau Twins, and “educated” my audience to open up their mind to get to the other side of so-called mainstream music. I was bold and naive. Who was I to decide what music people should listen to? But so is the market. Why should we listen to the market? Nevertheless, that’s the prerogative of youth, to be somewhat smug and have some ego tripping. And I did enjoy the experience of sharing music to people.

After more years of observations of international music market and commercial system, and also being more aware of freedom (free will) and the natural law of this world, I realized that business system itself does no harm to music, and is also somehow necessary. First, people(consumers) can learn to choose the access to the information they need, especially with the internet nowadays. They can choose to be exposed to commercials from mass media, just like talented musicians and artists can choose to earn the money by selling music and rights, and maybe making a big fortune if they are really that “good”. Some artists will choose the non-profit way to spread their work, and that’s their choices too. The laws and the marketing mechanism should protect this freedom of people. Secondly, being part of pop culture, popular music is supposed to offer more than “pure music”. It is awkwardly excluded from art but meanwhile being part of the art of time. I mean, the basic definition of art should be something can arouse your emotions, invoke your memories, or bring out your resonance. If someone is willing to be pleased by a pop star, why criticize or look down on him/her just because you like different things? At last, I believe everything comes in comparisons. If there is no profit-oriented music, how do we get stimulated to find other art-crafted work? If there is no mainstream, how would indie music originate? And to be honest, indie labels would follow the marketing examples of mainstream labels, also the latter would find artistic inspirations from the former. Get rid of the boundary. Take it as what it is, and find your own favorite.

However, with the current format of music changing from physical records to digital files and live streams, Big Four know they can not hold on to their traditional method to make profit anymore. They adapted to the current and managed to give impetus to legal (commercial) digital downloads, and also the accessional value of music, including ringtone and ringback tone downloads. This move seems working but not efficient enough to save the massive drop of revenue. As working in Universal Music Taiwan, I get the chance to see and practice how international pop music markets locally. What I see is the apparent downgrading. Some big labels keep reducing the staff to an extremely tight condition, and some even let the mandarin division (local department) to do the work. Today, not surprisingly, on CMJ, I read the news about EMI fires two top executives. Herald Tribune covered much detailed news about it. I have to say it is not optimistic at all, to shake the balance of market. Without virtuous competition, this industry would not make progress. Also, lack of options, consumers would become estranged to the field.

So why are you still sitting here? Go to the record stores and purchase some music you like. Do it here is ok too. Ooops. I still dream about working for indie labels.

Aura electro

Aura electro

Originally uploaded by Brightsoul Photography.

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Flickr always amases me.

Brightsoul is a self-taught photographer. He had an extremely dramatic growing background, with the death haunting. He has been impoverished and struggled his way to art through his despair. His B/W portraits, usually in a ghostly yet elegantly blossoming style, reflect the cold solitude with fascinating lighting. He learned how to play the piano and his solo session CD will be out soon. He is Francis A Willey.

Here is his website: Brightsoul Photography. Go see the incredibly delicate and beautiful portraits and still photos of his. Smell that slightly rotten humanity in fresh fabric.

His myspace proves he is a truly multi-talented artist. Be amazed. And enjoy the sonic poetry of silence.