22-27) If you think Pink Floyd's music is edgy and non-commercial in general, think again. True-to-the-bone die hard fans will tell you that there's the commercial 'Floyd, with breakthrough albums like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall which sets them on the same level with Gods like Led Zeppelin, and then there's the not so commercial 'Floyd, namely the earlier stuff with old bandmate Sid Barrartt who eventually went mad (this is way way before the admission of Dave Gilmour, present guitarist); in fact, there are some fans who will tell you that there is in fact no Pink Floyd ever since the day Sid Barratt went mad.
For me though, this album, although not made with Sid Barratt, sits happily in the non-commercial zone. To me, this album knocked Dark Side of the Moon off the second best Pink Floyd Album spot (the first is always The Wall and the movie starring Bob Geldof).
There are 5 songs in this album, may sound like an EP for some, but this album has a total length equals that of Dark side of the Moon - about 40 minutes. So the first indication that this album isn't mainstream is the length of each of the individual songs which, when first released in 1978, can't be played on the radio at all because it's too long. This also ties in with the fact that it's the 70s we are talking about, when punk movement was at it's peak in the UK, and 3 minutes was the normal length of a song then.
Apart from that, there's also an indication that Pink Floyd as a whole was changing direction, from a 4 piece band to Roger Water and the Pink Floyd - Water is dominating the whole band, and relationship-wise the whole band is falling apart. One can see that when examining the credit and the flavour of the album, Water wrote pretty much everything, and the album is more united and conceptualised than say Dark Side of the Moon or Wish you were here. Concept-wise Animals isn't the best album, The Wall is, but nevertheless this album is great in the sense that it's a pioneer for latter day Floyd music.
The music and the lyrics are also quite different from what they made earlier. While Dark Side of the Moon is a masterpiece it's beautifully simple, Animals saw Gilmour both injecting more aggressive guitar riffs, great blinding solos, and thick-as-milkshake textures into each song. One can safely say that he had come a long way since his debut days, and established himself not only as a prominent guitar god but a prolific song writer.
The Water Lyrics though, are what struck me the most. If you remember their previous two albums, what Water wrote are social observations of the British society, but in Animals it's not that anymore, it's a vicious attack on the state of the British society, represented by three types of animals - dog, pigs and sheeps; meanwhile Pigs on the wings part 1 and 2 are two side of a simple short love song, eerie but ties in well with the other three songs, like a coat.
First there's the 17 minute epic Dogs. It fucking scare me when I saw the length of the song, it's certainly as long as one of the live songs that Jimmy Page played in his live gigs. Dogs are your businessmen - back stabbing, money loving, simply evil bastards, and no no, Water doesn't like them much; then there's Pigs (three different ones) - my personal favourite because of that angry guitar solo at the end. This song is iconised (at least to me) by a South Park episode when Eric Cartman sings, "Haha! Charade you are!". Pigs are righteous, unforgiving, egoistic bastards with sky high moral standards, and with this song there's no holding back for Water, attacking Mary Whitehouse, some sort of moral standard campaigner at that time, an old hag now; finally there's Sheep, well, basically the masses, with no sense of direction or their own opinion, therefore easily manipulated.
Basically speaking, this album isn't an album that you can listen to easily. It's neither happy or melancholic like their usual stuff, but an album full of rage and spitefulness. It's so alternative that mainstream Pink Floyd fans don't know much about it, or even don't like it; I certainly didn't realise that such an album was made by Pink Floyd when I first heard it. What's even more sad about this album, however, is how little the British society changed since the volatile 70s. I recommend this album to you, but not wishing that you will like it, but in hoping that you will also appreciate the consciousness we should all have in social issues locally, and around the world, which I believe HK youths are lacking.
Featured songs: Pigs on the Wings part 1, Dogs, Pigs (three different ones), Sheeps, Pigs on the Wings part 2.
(picture from www.amazon.com)|W|P|112245676911961221|W|P|I can't help but to share with you...|W|P|
You may not have heard of Marc Bolan or/and T-Rex, but you've probably heard of the song 20th Century Boy, the song that was played repetitively in a Nokia Advert a couple of years back. This is an even more famous song, that riff, with the arrangements, is just so fucking massive that it's unforgettable! You will definitely remember this song after you've heard it for the first time. For those of you who knows T-Rex inside out - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Featured song: Children of the Revolution.
21) 
Manics, Manics...this is the last song on their 18 track debut, and it's my favourite song in the whole album because as I've said before, this song is just so mature it sets itself immediately apart from the rest of the songs, both lyrically and musically. Enough said, now enjoy.
Featured song: Condemned to Rock N' Roll.|W|P|112179789673744483|W|P|More songs on the Radioblog!|W|P|
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Which British Band Are You?
This picture I received from an email, so I don't know who the source is. Anyway, the sole purpose of this picture is to lighten everybody up (except the French) who were shocked after the London Terror attack.
Yes, despite the attack, we shouldn't forget that LONDON HAD WON THE 2012 OLYMPICS! IN YOUR FACE PARIS! HOW DID YOUR OWN FAILURE TASTE? MAYBE BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME....MEANWHILE, US BRITS WILL CARRY ON LAUGHING.|W|P|112159779829427714|W|P|OMG, check this picture out...|W|P|
According to figures published by the Guardian (registration required), as of April 2003, average daily circulation figures for mainstream paid newspapers (excluding local newspapers and free ones) are about 12.1 million copies; according to UNESCAP's (United Nations Economic and Socialcommissionn for Asia and the Pacific) published figures, as of 1995, daily newspaper circulation in HK amounts to 4.5 million (it's the closest complete figures I can find ). By circulation, HK's newspaper industry is about 2-3 times as small as UK's.
However there are data issues. I cannot find out where the UNESCAP based their figures on, and my UK figures had only counted the 11 most widely read newspapers in the country, given UK's geographic size compared to HK, the amount of local newspapers and their circulation could add to a substantial amount, so 4-5 times are a safer bet for me. I have tried to use more recent figures from the HKABC, however since Oriental Daily and Sing Tao, the 2 largest news companies in terms of circulation, had not joined this non-profit organisation, therefore I cannot gather enough figures (omitting those 2 missing news companies, daily newspaper for paid newspapers stands at about 810 000, which isn't a lot; either there are huge discrepencies between the UN and HKABC figures, or the market had shrunk since then).
Given that UK's population is about 60.4 million (from Google, just type UK population), and HK's population is 6.8 million (from People's daily Online), without even doing any mathematics, and ignoring factors such as multiple newspaper buying, one can safely say that the HK newspaper industry is very strained already, thus with a higher risk of saturation.
So, will it work? Well, if this question was based purely on circulation figures, then I can say that free newspapers DO work. Take Metropolis Daily for example, 300,000 per day circulation is a very impressive figure, ok so it's only 1/3 of Metro, but locally that's still as much as the number of papers Apply Daily sells per day, even if the newspapers are free, with that amount of circulation, advertising revenue can be quite substantial to make the business worthwhile. Therefore, if Sing Tao's free newspaper can actually distribute the same number of newspapers, then it works.
I believe that there's a market, even in HK (however strained it is now), for free newspapers, but I also believe that other news companies will quickly follow suit. The only thing HK entrepreneurs are good at are fucking copying each other, or copy strategies from abroad. Remember, Metro (corrected 17/7/05) is the company that kicked started the free newspaper trend in Hong Kong, but in the foreseeable future, when all the other company follow the trend, I believe that either:
a) The traditional paper market will shrink, or;
b) The free paper market itself will shrink, or;
c) Both markets shrinks, or;
d) Nothing happens, people happily absorbs the fact that they now have more choices, and will buy multiple newspapers.
Surprisingly, like tabloid newspapers, free newspapers in the UK and Europe can fit in well into the newspaper industry because not only from my observations, but researches had shown that readers do indeed get more than one newspaper - the one free/tabloid, one quality newspaper combination being the most common. It is this multiple paper buying that allowed the free newspaper market to develop. Pick up a quality newspaper, pick up a tabloid one, and pick up a free one; essentially they are two different entities (what they report on are quite disimilar), therefore there's a higher chance that people will buy both the quality and free paper due to difference in content, and most of all, the other one is free. Again, it's the 'harmless' factor.
However, I would like to state that in HK's case (especially This Sing Tao free paper) it's a little different. Metro (or Metropolis Daily) is one company that dedicates solely to publish free newspapers, however Sing Tao already has a paid newspaper, therefore for them doing another newspaper is like expanding the company - well, Sing Tao's CEO claimed that the free newspaper is independent from their flagship paper, however, upon reading Florence's blog I see something different - because as far as she knows, they didn't actually hire anyone, just kicking people from one paper to the other. That's hardly expanding the company is it? How independent can it be, if you get the same journalists who wrote Sing Tao Daily to write the free paper?
Also, countries like UK has clearly defined market for different classes/target groups, that's how Metro fit in - it has a clearly defined target group, and it's aims and objectives are clear. In Hong Kong this isn't the case - the Tabloid market IS the traditional market, or their boundaries are so blurred that one cannot clearly define the two separately - so who are they aiming the free paper at really? Their own readers? But the contents are no different! Readers of other papers? If they are reading the other papers, what makes them want to read this watered-down version of a paper that they don't like now? People who doesn't read newspapers? It may lure them because it's free.
Also, their marketing stratagy becomes important as well, since HK is a very small place - Metropolis Daily suceeded because they chose to distribute within MTR, the biggest train network in HK where millions ride it twice a day; however this right to distribute is exclusive, therefore Sing Tao and future papers have to go somewhere else - rumour has it that anthoer upcoming free paper am730 had already negotiated their exclusive distribution rights with KCR, the train company with network half the size of MTR. The 2 most lucrative distribution channels had already been taken, so if you don't know already, Sing Tao distribute their free paper the traditional way - newsagents (convenience store for you Americans) throughout Hong Kong. I'm afraid that's the best they can do so far, but it seems strange to me that they haven't tried on buses, minibuses or their stations at all; those two distribution methods can be very lucrative as well.
Interestingly, the opening statement of Sing Tao's new paper, they claimed that this paper won't rely on their only source of income - advertising revenues! What a load of bullshit, without even shit to eat, how will that paper survive? I wonder, I will just have to wait and see - sooner or later they have to start putting up more advertisments, or just scrap the whole thing; I believe that's just gimmick to try to lure the masses in because most of them probably wouldn't understand the reason for doing free newspaper is for the advertising revenue, informativeness only comes second.
I have stressed before that traditional newspapers in HK have absolutely everything in it, this is not a good sign, and in this case, when the free newspapers are not much differences, or even no difference from their traditional counterpart - it's basically the traditional Sing Tao Daily and it's free, watered down version - I believe that consumers will choose to buy either one of the other, especially when they share the same distribution method (this is point a); if we also take into account the credibility of free papers is that they are free, then there's a possibility that people will only get the free one in the future - if the contents of the free papers are no different from the paid ones, why bother buying the paid ones? Free ones are free!
Points b & c are simpler to explain - if the market becomes so saturated after the emergence of these free newspapers (I assume that other companies will follow this trend), and massive profit loss incurred because of heavy competition, and where their own products are mutually conflicting, then the companies may end up not bothering with free papers anymore. This may or may not cause ripples within the free paper market itself, effecting independent papers like Metropolis Daily, depending on the loyalty of their readership.
Point d is what already happened to the newspaper market in the UK, Europe and the US, but since HK's case is different, therefore if Sing Tao really wants this free market to become a worthwhile source of future revenue, then what the company must do, is to revolutionise their traditional counterpart (to give it a bit more quality) at the same time as they publish their free papers; otherwise when others also publishes their free counterparts, the whole market will only go downhill. Either way, the free market won't be here, in Hong Kong, for very long, and will be eaten by these locusts.
According to this blogger, there's not much difference between the paid Sing Tao and their new free paper (Chinesee only). That's a worrying sight.
Finally, one thing that interests me is the fact that how do you have competition when the product is already free? You can't slash prices anymore, if the competition gets so big that revenues/profits shrinks to the point of oblivion (due to higher costs like advertising etc.), then how can profits be made in such environment? Cutting advertising costs for customers? Cutting the only form of revenue? Then this is surely a vicious circle that is doomed to failure.
(This was written in quite a hurry as you may or may not gather, so I didn't think it through that much. Anyone who wants to correct me, or have anything to say, please feel free to leave a comment)
Update 15/7/05 0947 GMT - I reviewed this piece, and made a few amendments to it. By the way, most of the links of other blogs I posted here are in chinese, so if you can't read them, it's best if you don't bother.
Update 17/7/07 1102 GMT - Thank you Spacehunt again for correcting me, and I have also added more points into the article, they are in blue for your convenience.|W|P|112135151394431072|W|P|Sing Tao newspaper (HK) is following the footsteps of Europe and the US (likes of Metro)|W|P|This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.
Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.
All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.
And if, as your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds.
Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.
And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.
So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.
(source: London News review)|W|P|112081289787262328|W|P|A letter to the terrorists, from London...|W|P|
(1st picture from bbc.co.uk, 2nd picture from reuters.co.uk)
I phoned all my classmates, everyone I know who is in London is fine, thank God for that, it took me about 2 hours just to get through to everybody, the networks were jammed pretty badly.
There's no doubt that this is s a terrorist attack, but who? That Al-Qaeda in Europe claim doesn't make much sense to me - Al-Qaeda is Al-Qaeda, what's with the seperate name? And they weren't heard of previously at all, and their statement, shown below, sounds kind of weird as well -
In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God's peace be upon him. Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.
We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.
We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.
God says: "You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly."
This website had all the english translations of the statements released by Al-Qaeda - speeches by Osama Bin Laden. Update 15.23 pm 7/7/05:
This is a map (source bbc.co.uk) of the blast this morning in London, 6 blasts in 4 locations (the BBC news article containing the map is here), I was trying to find a pattern from this, but gave up after a while because it really is unimportant where they strike, as along as it's in central London and near the Financial District (Old Street is near the London Stock Exchange, all the investment banks are out on Canary Wharf), so market had nosedived, and all transort in London is off. If this is what they want, then they suceeded. Bloody bastards.
Damn it!! my wife is coming to London on Sunday, well looks like that she won't be able to get into the country, we will just have to wait and see...
God bless all who were involved, even though I'm an athiest.
More on this later...
Update 15.33 pm 7/7/05:
From the blogs I read, Simon, Phil, coming Anarchy and Nikita had commented, come on! where's the rest of us? HKers or not, please show that you care about these things!
Update 16.28pm 7/7/05 - death count rises to 30 and 350 injured, and rising...Jesus Christ!
update 19.59pm 7/7/05 - confirmed death toll 38, 750 injured, and still rising. Transport is still very much disrupted...|W|P|112074457743366515|W|P|Ok, I regained my composure..|W|P|
(Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, picture from http://www.bbc.co.uk)
If you can totally ignore the starving children in Africa, then Live 8 was definitely the biggest show on Earth - Elton John, U2, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Madonna, Pink Floyd (OMFG!!!!), Velvet Revolver...and that was just the London gig, there are countless others across the globe - Berlin, Tokyo, South Africa...you get the idea.
They banned all auctioning (hoax or real) on the internet, arrested anyone who tried to tout the tickets, and you can't buy these tickets, you can only enter a draw to get them. Still I tried, however unsuccessful that seemed...and of course I didn't fucking get one!
You know, I would have killed (literally!) for that ticket. Don't even talk to me about the effective price of that fucking ticket...watching Pink Floyd already gurantees a good show, and worths all the money one pays.
I kept telling people this - there are four bands I would destroy the universe to see - Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix Experience (or Gypsy Sun u& Rainbows), Nirvana, and Pink Floyd, and Pink Floyd is the only one left that I might still be able to see before they all die!!
The gig was broadcasted live last saturday on the BBC, but since I was busy doing something else, I missed it altogether...if I knew that Pink Floyd was playing that day (I didn't really pay any attention to the set list, apart from U2 and Elton John), my arse would have stuck to the sofa like shit on a blanket, and never left the fucking house in the first place!!!
Damn it! May have to wait another 20 years for the DVD to come out...I really want to cry...
See the line up here, and weep like the world is going to end tomorrow.|W|P|112065935997599937|W|P|I missed the live 8 concert...|W|P|
Yeah!!!!!!!!!! In your face Chirac!!! We are hosting the Olympics!
54:50...that was a pretty close vote, considering paris was the favourite all the way.
Now, the next question is: Can we pull it off?|W|P|112065204737969640|W|P|London is hosting the 2012 Olympics!!!|W|P|
(Freedom Tower this is to replace the attacked Twin Tower of NYC)
Since when did us HKers turned into Americans?|W|P|112050640675488777|W|P|The symbolism of democracy?|W|P|
GOD!!! WHAT A LOAD OF SHIT! TOTAL WASTE OF MY PRECIOUS MONEY!
I mean, the prospect of Alien invasion isn't as scary as it used to be anymore, given that we had a lot of Hollywood hit movies like ID4:Independence day, MIB and all that crap, but if one can make a movie as thought provoking as HG Well's original novel, it can still be scary...but NO! Instead Spielberg focused on animated graphics, and merely USED A REALLY SHALLOW AND SHIT SCRIPT!!!
Ok, so Spielberg changed the backgroubd to suit America and the 21st century, however it soon became clear that he was bogged down on the fucking details - too much effects, and the script totally missed the mark. He didn't even bother rewriting the script try and make it stand close to the well known HG Wells masterpiece, and he omitted some of the most vital details, which pissed me off very much.
Below are a few thoughts after I watched the movie:
1) Those are meant to be fucking Martians, they came straight from Mars and didn't plant those machines there a million fucking years ago! I don't know why Spielberg decided to leave that out, the fact that he did made the storyline really really shit because now it just doesn't make logical sense - if they planted those things there already, why didn't they come earlier? I hope it's just the people in the movies' wrong perception, but he should have explained it as well.
2) Make the movie fucking longer! Apart from the Martian invasion, the novel also focused a lot of the protagonist's psychological state, and the state of the people he met from start to finish. The psychological grip of the characters, their descend into madness upon seeing the Martians, the despair of how technological advance they are compare to us, are what makes War of the Worlds so good, and Spielberg completely missed that.
3) There are also real practical problems like water and food. I never saw that psychological struggle at all from either Tom Cruise or Dokota Fanning - don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that the little girl is a good actress, but the problem comes from the script, so fucking shallow and didn't get to the main point.
4) A lot of other details were also missed out - like why there are those red plants spreading? Where did they come from? - those are meant to be plants on Mars...now, ok, so we know that there are no apparent lifeforms on Mars since that landing, but who knows? Maybe they are from under the fucking ground, or maybe that fact that they behave like amoeba - they can lay dorment until there are nutritions for them to grow. Spielberg is fucking lame without even trying to provide visual explanations for these aspects.
5) From the above points, the movie ends with the fact that the seemingly indestructable Martians were destroyed by bacteria - same as the novel? Come on!!! You think that having butchered the whole story like that, you can use the same ending as HG Wells did? It's just a fucking joke, and Morgan Freeman's narrative when the film starts and ends can hardly be convincing by any standards...
Whoever wrote that script should be shot on the spot, along with the movie executives; so should Spielberg in that respect because he film the fucking script - given his prestige, he can do anything he wants! Why this load of shit?
Conclusion? Don't waste your money watching it, stick to the novel instead, and maybe the 1953 movie.|W|P|112048394802902064|W|P|That's not War of the Worlds! That's just a pile of crap!|W|P|| Your dating personality profile: Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate. Athletic - Physical fitness is one of your priorities. You find the time to work athletic pursuits into your schedule. You enjoy being active. Sensual - You are not particularly shy when it comes to your sexuality. You know what you like and do not feel inhibited. | Your date match profile: Intellectual - You seek out intelligence. Idle chit-chat is not what you are after. You prefer your date who can stimulate your mind. Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living. Athletic - You aren't looking for a couch potato. You seek someone who is active and who keeps her body in top shape. |
Your Top Ten Traits
1. Liberal
2. Athletic
3. Sensual
4. Wealthy/Ambitious
5. Adventurous
6. Outgoing
7. Intellectual
8. Stylish
9. Big-Hearted
10. Funny
| Your Top Ten Match Traits
1. Intellectual
2. Practical
3. Athletic
4. Romantic
5. Adventurous
6. Big-Hearted
7. Sensual
8. Traditional
9. Wealthy/Ambitious
10. Funny
|