My favorite song right now

My favorite song of the moment:
Kanye West's "The Good, the bad, the ugly." Check it out

http://www.geocities.com/kennethjgo/goodbadandugly.wma

"Kanye you a genius!"

Infernal Affairs - amazing hong kong film!

If you haven't heard of or seen "Infernal Affairs " go check it out now...
The story, acting, and cinematography just kick major bootie.
Here is a good write up: http://metrolife.chinadaily.com.cn/2003/1222/lmovie.html

There are 3 parts to this hong kong gangster flick. Although most will say that the first one is the only one worth watching. I've seen the 1st and 3rd now, I'd recommend seeing both.

So the gist of the plot line is that a triad boss implants young guys put into the police academy. Years and years after police academy they have all risen to various ranks in the force and give the mob boss information to help his businesses. That is, except for one young man (Yan, Tony Leung) who is kicked out of the academy and returns to the triad eventually becoming a high ranking henchman as well. But the triad is unaware that Yan is actually a mole for the police force as well. Many years into the undercover assignments the respective moles' character/morality is blurred. You are unsure who is really a good guy and who is the bad guy.
Drama and action ensues... but the main draw for me to this movie is the quality of the story-line, character development, and themes of blurring the lines between good and evil.

Tony Leung gives another awe-inspiring performance (just as in Hero). He plays the gritty dark likeable anti-hero better than anyone could imagine. Andy Lau plays, Ming, the corresponding player on the other side... pretty boy teacher's pet villain.

Check out this movie if you can find it on dvd or vcd somewhere. The dvd has the director's intended ending as well as the watered-down theatrical version. If you didn't get to see the directors ending, you are missing out.

Oh yeah, rumor has it that Martin Scorcese is signing on to do an american version with Brad Pitts production company... I guess i could see brad or johnny depp as the Tony Leung character. I'd vote for ed norton or Guy Pearce from momento to play the Andy Lau character.

Rants on iTunes and the Music industry

RIAA is suing its customers...
Kazaa sells your computer's extra processing power
and Apple!?!
Don't get me wrong u apple zombie's...
The itunes software is incredible and the ipod is a work of art...
BUT...
Apple had (i guess still has) the opportunity to do something great... a chance to re-invent the entire music industry. The chance to create a system where an artist is rewarded for his creativity/talent instead of his marketability/promotability.

Apple has failed the artists. Apple has always been artist-friendly, from the graphic designer to the painter-glassblower. But, Out of the $1 you spend to download a song, only 11 cents goes to the artist. Goodness... There are no distribution costs and for the independent artist there are no promotion costs.

Apple is in the driver's seat here. Sure, the record industry owns the rights to all the songs. But even without the rights to the songs, Apple and the ipod would still be extremely popular. People would still find their favorite songs somewhere and would look to itunes for fresh new artists they really WANT to support. The Record industry on the other hand would be left with continuosly decreasing cd sales and its most promising cash cow of litigating its customers.

Instead Apple has given an extra crutch to the RIAA and the music industry to remain in the status quo.

If Apple wasn't in such a corporate-mode it could support the garage band. Take a bigger piece of the pie for itself and give more of it to the artists and consumers.
1) Allow only artist owned material on itunes (until RIAA agrees to take less)
2) lower prices to download - would you really spend the time looking for places to pirate a song if it only cost 50 cents?

3) Empower people to become creative entreprenuers --
a) artists promote themselves and each other
b) enable easier licensing of songs and samples for dj's and mixologists.
c) enable licensed re-selling for areas lacking internet and computers

Eventually the RIAA becomes unnecessary. All those folks in their offices would lose their jobs, hopefully they could start bands to support themselves.

A more eloquent version (http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/)

Until this all happens (don't) use these sites to find mp3s:
http://fionasforum.com/Stairway/

MP3 SEARCH SITES
Exploseek
Google
Alltheweb
Zoekmp3
Italia Online Search
Sharetraxx
Audiofind
SingingFish Media Search
Altavista Search

Yoshitomo Nara

I stumbled upon this artist while in japantown this weekend. I did some research and this is what I found... Apparently Nara is one of the most famous japanese artists today. He, along with Takashi Murakami, are at the fore-front of an influential Japanese pop art movement.

"Using a style combining the effect of Japanese prints and Pop Art cartoons, he paints solitary, doll-like children to comment upon the decline of society, East and West. To Nara, children symbolize a world marked by confusion and anxiety about an unknown future. " -- AskArt.com


I dunno about all that commenting on the decline of society stuff... but damn his stuff looks hott.

Read more here:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2004/07/30/nara.DTL&type=entertainment
http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/itoi/itoi10-22-01.asp

Oh yeah there's a free exhibit currently running at the san jose musuem of art (til end of oct)
http://www.sanjosemuseumofart.org/

blog beginning

My first post to my new blog. I will use this blog as a way to share some of my thoughts and some fun stuff with all the peoples.

I'll try to be interesting, but I wont promise anything.