Look at Me, I'm a Running Blade

Shave my head and carve a symbol
Am I cool, or am I feeble
Look at me, look at me, do I look different?

Eyes widening, jaws dropping
They could remember my name, the first time calling
I'm so cool, I'm so happs, I'm a freak.

They're scaremongering now
Afraid of pale stereotypes and Hollywood kung-paos
The Orient loses its mystic, they speak English, from the dictionary.

You shake your hips, twirl your hair, I don't care
You shut up, just this once, I'll ask you dance
You puncture yourself with holes, paint yourself with ink
You desecrete God's temple, what is your mantle?

Look at me, look at me, look while I'm still around
I follow Mother Nature, you tail the Metro Hound
Be afraid of what you can't see, terror's biting from the front
Use your brain, feel the heart, the moon turns to sun.

"There's always something waiting at the end of the road. If you're not willing to see what it is, you probably shouldn't be out there in the first place."
- The Follow, BMW commercial directed by WKW

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"Sushi. That's what my ex-wife called me - cold fish." - Blade Runner Rick Deckard

Being an ardent Star Wars fan, I can't believe I haven't watch the other sci-fi flick that made Harrison Ford famous. Blade Runner was out-of-this-world. A typical storyline: future humans literally make human-like "friends" called replicants. Bad replicants rebel, our hero Deckard is assigned to wipe them out. What is different about this film is the emotional element, and life-probing questions it poses. The manufacturer's motto is "More human than human". But what defines human? Emotional responses? Goodness? Quest for survival? Director Ridley Scott created a superbly detailed futuristic Earth, dark and murky because of pollution, where technology cannot repair nature. Which mirrors the concept where replicants cannot change the nature of man. Harrison Ford turns in a wonderful performance, deeply troubled with his killer's life, but still exudes his Han Solo/Indy Jones charm when a social situation calls for it. The supporting casts were solid, each displaying the 'pei'-ness of their pathetic existence. However, the standing ovation goes to Scott, for integrating an intriguing drama into a simple sci-fi action flick, without the use of CGI. 10/10.

"Accelerated decrepitude." - replicant Pris' blunt description of her mortality
"Can the maker repair what he makes?" - Roy Batty meets his maker
"If we gift them with a past, we create a cushion or a pillow for their emotions, and consequently, we can control them better." - God to us. I mean, the maker Tyrell to Batty
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." - the more human Batty

Deft and Peppered

Freakin' exhausting, yet max satisfaction back-to-back gigs.

Deftones@Manchester Academy 100706

Me being the smart alec, we were 9 mins late for the concert!! Missed Hexagram, but the rest of the songs were just so brilliantly executed that made my night an unforgettable one. Been my dream to see the real Chino (Moreno) since I first heard Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) 8 yrs ago. Chi creating the dark atmosphere, Abe's pounding beats, Steph's vicious riff-raffing. But above all, Chino's melodic screams and gibberish really brought the house down. The varied setlist was also impressive: crowd-pleaser My Own Summer (Shove It), heavy metal Korea, threatening Bloody Cape, moody Change (In the House of Flies), Sade cover No Ordinary Love, and the 'sucky' ending 7words. At the end of the show, me and Phing hung around for some celeb-spotting, except that I wasn't wearing specs and she doesn't know how Defts look like!! Long story short, Chino WALKED PAST US!!! and we were too dungu to do anything bout it. Nevertheless, simply wonderful gig for one of my all-time fave bands. Too bad they didn't play Digital Bath or Teething (all-time fave 'noisy' song).


Red Hot Chili Peppers@MEN Arena 120706

Simmering anticipation from the very start after we collected our tickets from the box office. Sitting around, chick-y Nando's staff were distributing (advertising) free wings, wearing t-shirts printed "Red Hot Peri-peri Peppers", and the amusing captions "give it away, give it away, give it away...now" haha. More laughs ensured after the doors opened and we were seating in front of the stage, with 4 inflatables bouncing around the crowd, or onto the 'beer guy'. A really bad group with a horribly gay frontman were opening, I thank them for spoiling the mood quite abit. Flea and John started jamming around 8.45pm, to mark a pleasant entrance to a fantastic opening set. Can't Stop, Dani California, Charlie, Scar Tissue, 21st Century, Otherside..as if that wasn't high enough, they followed with some more happening jams, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, then Me and my, me and my, me and my Friends. Any remaining gig chi left from the Defts gig was now totally gone and sapped to my bone's core. For the next hour, I was basically trying to keep my balance, wipe other ppl's sweat off my brow, and enjoy a musical journey with the Peppers. Blue-cap Chad and pixie-suit Flea were at their pumping best, and soulful John dishes out his orgasmic solos with careless abandon. The dissapointment of the night was Anthony though, he looked fatigued throughout and was unable to complete most of the popular choruses. Still, it was an insignificant letdown by the time By the Way came around, where the crowd was at its absolute rowdy madcap. The sing/dance-along encore of Under the Bridge and Give It Away was awesome, and tired Anthony left the stage early for the rest to round off the gig. A crowd-pleaser and fantastic concert from the legends, how proud I am to say I've seen them twice.