Understanding Rap/R&B/Hip-Hop 101.....I don't get it!!

Its hard to come up with something to talk about in your daily life especially since most of my days are spent at home. Either playing games of reading comic book scans. So hey, add some variety to my life. Take up classes for something. Infact thats what I did. Just sat for my first Mandarin class today. A lil' difficult in meeting the teacher's expectations, but I believe this time I should be able to pull it off. Enough that I don't look like a damn fool infront of all the Chinese-speaking people I will meet in years to come. Its never a good impression if you don't speak their language. So much for using Hakka.

The title of today's rant was inspired by an article that I read in the local papers. What is it with the music industry these days? Tune into radio, chances are there will be a hip hop song playing, or an artist that has changed their style to suit the desire of the masses. E.g. Mariah Carey, if any of us remember the songs she sung in the late 90s, and now, its totally different. Her style has moved to predominately hip hop/ R&B. Honestly speaking, I cannot differentiate between the 2. I cannot help but feel that some artists are conforming to the most prominent style.

With that said, I cannot understand the pull of Rap/ Hip-Hop. Much of the lyrics focuses on bling-bling (whatever that means), money, success, fame and getting laid with as many girls as possible. Oh, lets not forget sport cars and fancy mansions. If you've watched one generic Rap music video, chances are, you've seen them all. They prominently display women strutting their "assets" around, while acting as slutty as possible around the rapper. Putting their hands all over him, worshipping him even. Gosh, its no wonder nut jobs, like a certain former drug dealer turned rapper, can get away with success. Hey, their lives are so full of shit, why not make it into a movie? Whats that show again? Something about getting rich or dying? If not for the fact that I don't get any of the lyrics at all, I'm utterly turned off by the focus on materialism of this particular music genre.

Now, thats not to say that other genre's are spared. They are not sparkling clean and white that you can't spot a black dot in any of their lyrics, but at least they are not promoting it all out like the aforementioned genre.

Judging this, its probably best to listen to music by itself. Without the cumbersome lyrics getting in the way. Appreciate the score, tones, whatever that makes a certain tune good. When I get tired of listening to lyrics, I listen to game music. Now, thats totally unheard off. Most people are unlikely to come across this rather rare and unheard of genre if they have not played any games or have been exposed to it (again depending on whether they've played a game). They are blops, and blips as most people think of. Many sites point out that this genre has moved way beyond the common misconception that people have in their minds. The genre often takes up full orchestras to make up the soundtrack of a game. Take into account the mood swings: peaceful, suspenseful, battle sequences and there's plenty of variety there itself.

Woah, looks like I have worned out my keyboard. Haven't typed this much since.....last week I guess. Here's to more pointless topics and a more active blog!!

Zathura, Spatula? Whats the relation?

First of all, a very happy bday to Jim. Today's his bday, though its already late in the day. Better late than never, as I would say. In anycase, I went to One U today to meet up with him and whoever else was present. Yong Ting, definitely a permanent fixture in most meetings with him. Sad to hear that she would have to leave for Australia as early as January. Never the less, I was no less amused to see her around this often. I mean, 3 times in 3 weeks at one U? Heh, their frequency of outings never fails to surprise me.

Played a game of pool at next to the bowling alley on the top floor. This time there was no smoke to get in the way of our game, just my messy shots and lousy aim. Either way, score one, lose one. Lost in a rather sucky manner. The worse way to lose in a game of pool....sinking the 8 ball prematurely.

Watched Zathura at GSC. For the first time, we were brought to one of the cinema's on the upper deck. Technically though, the upper deck was more of an extension to allow people to get in from the top and make their way to their respective seats downwards...think lecture theater and you can't go wrong. Remember all those late classes and sneaking in from the back? Its kinda the same.

Anyways, Zathura....from the makers of Jumanji, does not stray very far from the formula presented by the said movie. The aforementioned formula goes like this, picture some squabling siblings ready to tear each other apart. One stumbles across a mysterious magical board game. Out of curiosity, they start the, seemingly, harmless game. Now....when the last time any of us played a board game? I can't remember seriously....been playing videogames mostly....Heck! That's an idea!! An enchanted videogame!!Oh wait...could have been taken up by those cheesy cartoons of the 1980s....sheesh...think there was one about Nintendo games...one with a giant Gameboy if I remember correctly....

Oh my, that change in thought is certainly more interesthing than the movie itself.... Thus, demonstrating tha family orientated direction of the movie. Relatively "clean" stuff...no violence (save for domestic violence), some mild foul language (like "shut up" and most recent edition, "you dick!"). But yes, all seems relatively clean for the kids, with some frowns on the negative points mentioned.

That being said, Zathura seems to tie in very loose story...too loose for my taste...The most annoying thing is Danny the "screaming kid". He is way too whiny and "screamy" for my liking. In trying to potray the innocent lil' brother who only wants recognition, he often comes off as annoying. There are cute points in his books, since the audience was mildly entertained by some his antics.

Wow, ok that seems quite enough for a review. Seems like a large part is focused on the movie...bleh...oh well. Can't find other stuff to talk about. Thats it for tonight.

Days go by

Woah, it was a friday and I didn't even know it. Yeah, its been a week since the exams ended. Its the season of boring yourself to death or otherwise start doing something useful. Sigh, the week passes over so fast.

First I was enjoying the sun, the ocean breeze at the beach. Then I'm back on Monday. A few days later, I'm out with Kat at One U shopping around and the next day I'm there again with Jim, James, G & MY and Phillip.

It really feels too short to be a week. Plus I got most of next week lined up. Just finish clearing my room too, or more like sweeping dirt under my carpet. I've got massive mounds of paper around my room that was used throughout the sem. Time to get them cleared so I no longer have to swim to my door.

In any case here are a few random pictures taken over the course of the past few days.

Penang Roadtrip!!

I seem to have acquired a writer's block upon starting this blog entry. The recent trip to Penang is certainly hard to describe. So many things had happened over the course of the 3 days spent there. Honestly though, the trip was planned on short notice. Given that, there were bumps in the program such as improper allocation of time and lack of site seeing activities. But what is a trip without imperfections? Still, there were sufficient positive points about the trip that overshadowed some of the negative ones.

In any case this is an account of the whole trip, bear with me if some of you fall asleep halfway through this post.

Day One:

Started the day early at around 7.30. A quick breakfast and I was set to go to the Perhentian Duta bus terminal at 8.20am. Reached there at about 8.45, first bunch of people I came across at the terminal was Grace, Kai Fung, Mun Yin and Yuan Chuan. Kat was there too with her dad and sis, but there were a little further down the terminal cafeteria that I didn't see them.

Sue Ann and Ivy were the last to arrive. Good thing they came in the nick of time, as they were holding on to some very important tickets. We boarded the bus a little later than the intended 9.15 time frame stipulated on our tickets, but we got off to a slow start none the less.



We spent most of the journey sleeping as any would be traveler would do. Its an awfully boring ride save for the few moments when we passed through these gigantic mountains and under a tunnel. But even those weren't enough to fuel my attention. There was just one sole rest stop during the course of the trip, couldn't have come a moment sooner as my bladder was waiting to burst. Was there for about half an hour so some of us took the opportunity to grab some treats to eat.

We only got to Penang at around 2pm at best, crossing the famous Penang bridge. As we approached Penang, rain drops grew heavier as we closed in. It was raining heavily when we got to the bus terminal. We retreated to the shelter of the terminal's resident mamak stall, which did not provide us with options of lunch. So we settled for some junk food and drinks.

The van finally arrived at 3pm, made our way to a drier part of town to grab some choy at a coffee shop. I later learned by my parents that there was a supposed famous char keow teow (CKT) stall manned by 2 old sisters. I guessing that we ate there as there were 2 sisters cooking and by the fact that we were charged RM5 for one plate of normal CKT. Worse still, we waited for a long while not realising that we were suppose to line up to get the food. What a rip and even worse, stuck up way of running a shop!

Once lunch was taken care of, we checked in at the hotel (Bayview Beach Resort) which was located rather far from the city. After trashing the room, some of us went out for a short excursion to a near by portion of the beach. Ivy, Kat and myself managed to climb up a rock to get a better view of the place, though I got my pants abit wet during the course of the journey.


In the evening we drove into town to sample of taste of Gurney Drive. I must say though, I was worried that I might contract some stomach problems over the course of the trip due to the cleanliness of the restaurants and Gurney Drive was reported to have a reputation among rodents. But in any case, the food was good. Fried oysters, noodles and fried rice all were good. Must have the been the zhi yuk oil. A little bit too much though.


As we were driving back to the hotel we decided to pay the local pasar malam a visit, it was a little too late as by 11pm the stalls started closing. Never the less the girls did managed to find some things to buy admist the rush.

Upon returning to the hotel, it seemed only Kat and myself had intentions of turning in for the night. The rest were more intent on spending the whole night awake. And so closed the first day of the trip.

Day Two:

Woke up rather early, seemed that the crazy lunatics last night had left for some other place while we were sleeping. Kat and myself were just about to have some cup noodles for breakfast when Carmen called in to let us know that we were entitled to have the complimentary buffet breakfast downstairs along with Ivy and Sue Ann. The buffet was good, with plenty of stuff to choose from. Surprisingly I managed to control my intake so I wasn't too full for the beach activities later that morning.

The beach was full of activity by 10am. Lots of people with a bunch of tourist leaving for a scuba diving excursion. Horses with riders offering rides to ppl on the beach. Wave riders and boats looking for passengers. Ivy, Sue Ann, Kat and myself were mostly content with writing/drawing stuff in the sand and taking pictures at the beach.



Funny thing happened on the beach, as we were taking photos in the beach, Wan Jin appeared out of nowhere, riding a horse. It was only then that we started taking up stuff like horse riding and riding a banana boat.

Was really a fun filled morning at the beach, never would have partaken in any of the stuff that was set out on the beach had we not met Wan Jin at the beach. Stayed until 12pm before we decided to call it quits for the morning.

Originally, the group had decided to head over to some famous temple in Penang while savouring some Penang Laksa. We savoured the laksa but didn't go to the temple. Instead, we bought some Heong Peng to take back home. Wonder how they taste.......

Ending up back at the hotel, most of us decided to laze around not doing much. It was only later that we set out for the beach once again. This time we walked along the shore beyond the bounds of the hotel, collecting sea shells along the way. At first it was just Kat and myself, later the rest joined up. The only unfortunate event during this outing was that Kat had lost her glasses while we were at the beach....we couldn't find it in the end as the sun was setting by then.


Dinner was later at a place called Tai Tong sea food restaurant, the major complaint (and I'm sure everyone on the trip would recall) was that the crab wasn't fresh. So ppl, don't go to Tai Tong in Penang!!

Day Three:

Woke up early in the morning to search for Kat's glasses, hoping that we could find it washed ashore. Unfortunately our search turned up fruitless. At least I managed to snap some good pics along the beach side while we were at it. Explored more of the beach too.

Pretty soon it was time to pack up and head over to the bus terminal. Most of us were tired and probably hungry from the lack of a proper breakfast.

Waited at the bus terminal for an agonizing 3 hours. Playing Cho Tai Tee all the way and eating. We were complete slobs really... On top of that we almost got on the wrong bus to KL!! Haha...good thing Yuan Chuan pointed that out to us and we made our way to the same bus that brought us to Penang. The journey back was shorter than the one up to Penang. Before we knew it, we were back in KL by 8pm. Sent Kat back to her place later (finally know how to get to her place!).

Well thats the whole trip in a nut shell. I hope the pics speak better than my accounts of the trip. Overall, the trip was fun albiet some minor, some major events that caused it to be less enjoyable. But nonetheless, it was good to get to see the beach with friends!!

First day of freedom

Well, well. The finals are finally over. That doesn't sound right....but right now it doesn't matter, its over and I'm glad I don't have to go through the stress that runs through my head during the exam season. It alls seems so weird, one moment you are exious to get the exams over, then they are over. The sudden rush of euphoria is great while it lasts. But thats all it is, a short period of emotional joy. It never lasts long, but I guess after all the pressure and repression you put yourself through, one cannot help but feel relieved.

Of course that was yesterday. Wasn't too bad, save for the fact that I soooo wanted to get out of the exam all. I so wanted to be done with it. Finally got out of the exam hall about 25 minutes early. Met Kat at the foyer doing her last minute revision. Was starting to feel worried about being the first one going out of the exam hall, fotunately Phillip came along. Chatted and hung around for about half and hour before heading back. Later returned to fetch Kat and take her out to Pyramid to watch Corpse Bride.

Today went to uni at 11, was late because of the stupid jam. Can you believe that the highway is still jam at 10.30 in the morning. Where the heck are all these people going? Nevertheless, got there and waited for my charges (Shooks, Kat and Shermaine) to arrive. Once everyone was together, we made our way to One U. Managed to get parking without much difficulty. Went to GSC in the new wing, Sabs and Yuan Kuan were already there. Funny thing happened, met Jim and Yong Ting there. Hahaah, both of them had just watched Exorcism of Emily Rose, and both of them wore blue. Quite a matching shade of blue I must say. Later most of the group had already assembeled at GSC and we were face with a very difficult question......where to have lunch. Though Sabrina so graciously brought list of all the restaurants in One U, we had made our mind to go for something simple..........Burger King. Yeah, it all boils down to fast food.

On the way down we met Phillip and Ronson, who were equally surprised to see us. Seems that One U were teeming with alot Monash people. And as if to justify that statement, Jaimee, Lydia and Ju Lee were present too later after the movie. Jac and Aaron weren't left out of the action and even Danny popped into the pic as the girls looked through ear rings at the end of the excursion.

Oh and before all this boils down to "Spot the Monash Student @ One U" , we watched Chicken Little at GSC. Pretty funny movie. Lots of action and crazy stuff happening on the screen all at once. But one too many references to old songs. Heck, even the song by the Spice Girls is considered old....man I'm starting to feel old now.

Looks like it getting late, got to sleep early for the trip I've got coming up tomorrow. Trip to Penang. Pretty rushed for a road trip, but its sort of a now or never thing, best not to think about the costs and just do it. Whee...