Beautiful Crochet

Courtesy of Kristen, the Crochet Artist

 

Papa Roach, 'Time for Annihilation' -- Album Preview

Ross Robinson, No Pro Tooles - KoRn III

新金名器KoRn的名氣大得臭人，可能也是唯一一支從1990年代還能保持連續發片量的名團了（如果不算Linkin Park的話）。時光荏苒歲月嗟咄，當初VCD時代中滿街吐口水兒的5個髒小夥子只留下3個繼續髒著，1個追隨了耶穌1個在2007年和KoRn斷絕了關係。KoRn的五人黃金時代一去不返，在Untitle時期更是靠租賃鼓手度日。3年過去，Ray這個打臨時工的轉了正，Munky依然在臺上绝然一身，東家換了的四人官方版的KoRn做出一張沒有Pro Tools幫忙的KoRn III - Remember Who You Are.

 

如果提起製作人Ross Robinson有人問"誰？"的，以後麻煩就不要跟別人說是聽搖滾的了，回去補補搖滾101的課先。這個能讓整整一代金屬吉他手不許彈SOLO的黃金製作人捧紅了Limp Bizkit和KoRn，就這兩項成績就絕屄能令其載入史冊了。這是九張錄音柵專輯中的第三次合作，一反常態的使用了24軌全模擬錄音機而未使用任何Pro Tools加工，錄音間只有10平方，最不可思議的是只有一個吉他手編制的KoRn仍舊保持了往日的魔力，變態的吉他聲音結合美麗的工業鼓點，結合Davis Joanthan在黑嗓和旋律之間運用自如的嗓音，絲毫讓人感覺不到7弦吉他之偶像Head及鼓手Davis的離開。

 

但是說實話，就現場來說，少一個人的KoRn絕屄讓人痛心，沒有Head的KoRn不管Munky怎麽賣力還是少了點什麽，加上新鼓手Ray有點太乾淨了，跟大髒辮兒胡子上挂殘碴的標準KoRn形象還有一定距離。不過人不可貌象，丫兩小槌兒一揮，完全是David附體。

 

這張專輯本來是抱著隨便聽聽的心態來聽的，結果聽認真了，這絕對是近期來能整張聽下來沒覺得有廢歌的唯一一張專輯。沒有過度的製作和吉他牆，就像樂隊早期的作品一樣充滿了扭曲黑暗卻嚴絲合縫兒的配合，而Davis的歌唱比起KoRn和Peach時代已經有了一個非常大的提升。如以往一樣，黑暗的主題和封面設計，歌詞裏絕對不會有飛得更高式這種自我麻醉式的主旋律，有的只是對黑暗充滿感情和激情的人們的自我狂歡和愉悅，這對於好好學習天天向上的人們來講是那麽的晦涩而難以理喻。

 

"I write about all of the fake people around us and how I always try to fix other people's problems. I write what I feel, and it comes out naturally. I've got a lot of shit built up inside me; that doesn't go away."       - Jonahtan Davis

Trip to Dalian and Lv Shun

"Every fucking city looks the same." - Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly's lyrics may suit Dalian city well - where the less-than-10-year-old buildings are seen everywhere and pedestrians just walked pass the street when the light is red, and cars just passed the crosswalk when the light is still green - that is the definition of another 100 cities. Yeh, it feels like just another city in the China, or as what I insisted - 3rd tier city in the PRC. It may not be the kinda city you are going to miss or return after first-time visit, yet it fortunately still provide something, if not that much, for an amateur photorgrapher to record with camera and words.

The first day after we arrived, we were impressed by the messness of the railway station and abortion advertisements posted everywhere in the every possible place (no photos as I really did not want my lens smoke the soot from the kebab stalls) .

We settled down and changed a room immediately in a hotel nearby the 38 Square (city also has 27 square fyi) before heading to Laohutan Ocean Park (老虎灘海洋公園). The local taxi service is cheaper compared to Beijing, with 8 bucks to kick-start and 1.6 yuan per km to add up. It was early afternoon when we arrived the park. As I expected the ticket at the gate is a rip-off, so I took as many as photos to exploit the ticket's marginal value!

   

 

 

 

The park is consisted of a series of individual aquarium and entertainment facilities, carnivals, shops and restaurants blah blah, just like another city in this nation. One thing we found bit strange was there were many stalls selling squid kebabs(魷魚串兒) everyfuckingwhere. It was not a new thing to see squid kebab, but selling it besides tanks in which the fish was still alive? It is bit cruel and ridiclous - just picture chowing the chunk of the fish kebab besides a fish tank, what could a child learn from visiting this place? "Fish looks nice and tastes good too!"

 

 

Anyhow speaking of the best part of the park, Polar Animal area is one of best honestly- regardless of sleeping polar beer and fish kebab - seeing a real Dugong swimming in front of you is still an experience that hard to forget - considered before that the biggest "fish" I ever saw were Chinese sturgeon. Also the size of shark is much larger compared to the ones live in Beijing ocean park. Except for sea mammals, the park has a quite nice birds garden built besides the sea shore. The enclosure inside is not bad since they adopted the nest instead of the cage to keep the birds, so most birds can do whatever they like except for hawks and one vulture, whose claws were cuffed to the pole.

We went to Russian Street afterwards, IMHO, it is a crap.

 

Next day we decided to give a try on Lv Shun. We had a good gossip on the bus with a Dalian local who was also heading to LS, from which we learnt he believes Dalian is a city largely influenced by Japanes colonial culture and the "2nd home town" to the Japanesem. The tramcar and colonial bank buildings we saw in city may explained where his allegation came from. However this Dalian local truely thought the time when japanese ruled Dalian city was not bad - at least the buildings are still lasting and tramcar and railroad are still working - no comments. 

   

 

So we got there nearlly by the middle of the day and couple of hours later we already draw a mutual conclusion that there are nothing much to see! We had a mountain view from the top of White Jade mountain (白玉山 or kown as 203 Hill in terms of war history), it was nice and yeah that is it. The biggest thing about this mountain is the bullet-shape tower built on its top. By the time it was built the name was 表忠塔 (Devotion Tower) , and the name was changed to White Jade tower in 1980s. This change was understood as due to the negative meaning the original name has suggested - Devotion to Japan army. Made of disposals from after-war garbage, the tower was used for commemorating the dead Jpanaese armies killed in the war. There is a blog article well explained in detail about the origin of the tower: http://hejianjushi.blog.hexun.com/17831866_d.html I am surprised the tower has survived untouchly for over a hundread year, when it is mostly a humiliation symbol to glorify the horrors of war. Another dominator of Lv Shun in historywas Russians, opposited to the White Jade mountain we found the russian tower, built for commorating the friendship between Russian and Chinese, or Russian fucked here once.

After back to Dalian, we came across a Subway shop and felt lucky to finally have some decent food to eat! Xinghai park and square made our day finally, as we at least found a place can define Dalian as a habour city.

The last day we paid a short but most unforgettable trip to Shi Cao Village, one of recent Chinese spy movie was said had some shoots there. Its own beauty is defined by the steep cliffs and boiling billows, by the sea it was totally overcasted with thick mist saturated in the air, made us feel like walking in a real scene from the movie Twilight Saga or Harry Potter, only difference is you would not expect to come across either werewolf or vampire or some geeky kids riding on a rough broom. I felt glad we made it to Shi Cao before left Dalian, so did K, least this one single spot stood out and differentiated it from other spots of the cities - but it may not last very long, as the cranes and migrant workers have already begun taking over this area - they are turning it to another tourist site, another fucking the same tourist site as elsewhere in China.