Riders on the storm

Sorry to all the Doors-fans out there, ending up on my blog hoping to find some info on their favorite band, but this has got nothing to do with the Doors. I just needed to nice title to go with the subject on hand. You see, the other day I read an article in the newspaper about those appendixes to contracts you need to sign when you want to hire a band or artist, the so called "riders". When you want to have a band or an artist performing for you, they will show up for their gig only if certain demands have been met. Those demands are all written in the riders, and can vary from funny to damn-right outragious. One of the most famous ones is of course the one from the legendary rockband Van Halen, who demanded a big bowl of M&M's, with ALL the brown ones removed!
When I first heard it, I thought it was a bit excessive, although funny. I already was picturing the stage-hand going through an huge pile of bags, manually removing (and maybe even eating) all the brown M&M's, till he won't be eating them for the rest of his life.
Now I just read that this demand had served a purpose. Since the band always toured with complicated and some sensitive equipment, it needed some expert set-up. After one of the roadies almost got electrocuted, due to a bad connection, they needed something to be able to check if their conditions were met. That's were the big bowl came in. Whenever they found a big bowl with M&M's they knew the other part had read their contract. Pretty smart, huh?

And how about miss Britney Spears? She wants an UNLISTED OUTGOING ONLY telephone line (note the capitals). If the number of that phone line is published, the promoter gets a $5.000 fine. "Sorry, wrong number!".

And you all might know that Amy WINEhouse does her name justice. So, it may not come as a surprise that her dressing room demands is filled with alcoholics or coctail ingredients. Just a few items: 2 bottles of red Rioja wine, 1 case of beer (NO STELL OR CARLING!), 1 large (what else?) bottle of vodka, 1 bottle of champagne, 1 bottle of Courvoisier. I sure hope it's not for her alone, but considering her reputation, I fear the worst.
And she is not the only one requires alcohol. On each rider there is some alcoholic beverages.But the one from Sheryl Crow cuts the cake. She orders a drink specifically for that day, i.e. on tuesday 1 bottle of Bombay Gin and a large bottle of Schweppes Tonic.

Another funny one. Legendary hardrock band Guns 'n' Roses has listed on their wanted list "1 assortment of adult magazines (i.e. Playboy, Penthouse)

Did I mention any Diva's here already (besides Amy Vodkahouse)? Don't think so. Well, for starters there is the ever so lovely Christina Aguilera. Contact the local police station before booking her to perfomr for you, as she requests a police escort from and to her hotel.

As you already might have noticed, all links end up on the same place on the net, and that is The Smoking Gun. Here you can find a whole list of riders of all sorts of artists. Go and check it out. One tip, DO check out the one from Iggy Pop! That one is just hilarious!
Just a small fragment on his rider on how his dressing room should look like: " You know what really would be nice? If you could make his room look less like a typical rock & roll dressing room and more sort of......Interesting? Are you with me? Just let someone loose with a little bit of artistic flair..er, do you know any homosexuals?"

Music makes the world go round (again)!

With my new job, also comes everything that goes with it, of course. Like colleagues, goofing around with them, and listening to the radio. However, that last thing I have a little problem with that. Don't get me wrong, I love to have the radio on as background, and the radio-station isn't that bad either. But what I DON'T get is the fact that when you listen to a radio-station (especially the popular ones), you hear the same songs over and over and over again. Like, you hear a song playing, and think to yourself:"funny song". An hour later you hear the same song, and you still think it's a nice song.....but hearing it eight times a day, 5 days a week! The think I don't get here is , that those guys who are playing that song again and again, or those guys plugging it (paying for airtime) don't realise that they are completely killing the songs. If you hear a song 3 times, you still like it, and might even run to the store to actually buy it. But after hearing it eight times a day, five days a week, I start to have the urge to throw the radio out of the window. Or myself!

Music makes the world go round!

I haven't posted here in over 2 weeks already, and I feel a bit ashamed about it. I don't have any excuse, other than being lazy. I could also have said that I didn't have any inspiration or something like that, but that wouldn't be true, I got plenty of inspiration. Just like the other day. I was listening to some music, and BOOM!...had inspiration. The only thing was how to start it. I was thinking about starting with"I am getting old". Sure, I am getting old....aren't we all? And what does it have to do with music? So.....I am just trying a different approach.
The other day I was driving the car, and was listening to City FM finally again. This radiostation is playing all rock classics, just the kind of music I like. And when I listened, I was amazed how my music changed. Music I wouldn't dream of listening ever, I am now singing along with at the top of my longs. Music I used to love now just doesn't do anything to me.
Also songs or bands I have never have given a second thought is now constantly in my mind.
let me give you an example. I used to go crazy with the music of UB40, and had the whole collection of CD's available. Now I hardly play it anymore. And I have a little confession to make here. I was crazy about them when I was about 17 - 18 and started to go out and stuff. And (here is my confession:) also starting to experiment with hasj and weed. And I must admit, it felt great being high, sitting in the bus back home, with UB40 on the headphones of my walkman. It was "groovy".

Lateron my choice changed to a little bit more the rough side,...Metallica, Guns 'n' Roses, just about anything that has a bit of a guitar and a bit of a kick. Actually this started a bit when I went to a concert of Toto with a friend of mine. Wow....Those guys where good. Come to think of it...KFC has a slogan: "We know what to do with chicken". Well....Steve Lukather knew what to do with a guitar! Check this out! He is not playing the guitar, he making love to her and she is LOVING it!. That is what got my juices flowing at the time. And from there it "got worse". Guns 'n' Roses, Metallica. Funny thing is actually, that in my UB40-time, a friend of mine was crazy about G'n'R, and I always hated the music, and always had a "battle" with him about it. And before that I had a friend who was crazy about Metallica, Megadeth (no link here, I don't wanna scare you off) and much heavier than that. And again, same story.

Nowadays, I just listen to about anything that CityFM plays on the radio. Well, that is when I got the chance. We have aCD from Alec in the player, and it has been in there for about 2 months already, and has to be in there when His Royal Naughtyness is sitting in the car and played as well. I can sing along with all the songs by now.
Anyway, they are usually playing music from the '80's, which is the time when I start to develop a taste (or maybe lack of taste) in music. And the funny part is, like I mentioned earlier, that my taste has changed so much that a lot of songs I can really appreciate. Like Joe Jackson,...I never really thought about his music. Well, still not actually, I would never buy a CD, but the song above and this song, just keep playing in your mind, once you heard it.

Hmm....I also wanted to write about how singers could also dissappoint you. There is this song, it's one of my favorites, "One night in Bangkok" by Murray Head. It is so perfectly balanced, so massive and powerfull. So, I went searching for some other songs by him, and came across this. This voice wasn't at all as I heard in the song. Maybe he'd changed it or something, but it was kinda dissapointing.
But just earlier I went searching for it again, and came across other songs, like this one. It is so delicate, so subtile. I think I heard it once or twice, but never really payed attention to it.

"Is there a point to your story?", you might wonder? Not really, just wanted to write about this. But, if you insist, here is my point: Not only the style of the music chances, your choice in music also may chance over the years. Don't fight it, go with the flow. I remember that when I was kid I always made fun of my dad and his love for "The Platters", "The Carpenters" and so on. Now I realize, probably Alec will do the same with me in due time, as punishment for me making fun of my dad. And it probably will be something like this:"HAHAHA, you and your music, that music where they actually had to PLAY a guitar or drums! HAHAHAHA!!! So out of date!!!"

Just a cute pinguin dancing

I just wanted to share these video's with you guys. This is especially funny for kids, Alec is crazy about it. Enjoy!

Pinguin Reggae


Pigloo - Moi J'aime Skier



Le pappa pinguin

Rockin' all over the world!

Well, guys, today I got confirmed what I already knew. You guys can say anything about Alec: he got his mother's eyes, his mother's smile, his mother's good looks, I don't care! Because the most important thing he got from me: his love for good old fashioned Rock 'n' Roll!! So, honey, you can trow away those cd-s from Mozart and Beethoven, because from now on it'll be Guns 'n' Roses, Status Quo, Iron Maiden, Toto. I will teach him all about REAL culture!

Today, I heard a song of Status Quo on the radio, and I wanted to hear it again. And as you know, that isn't really possible when you are listening to the radio. But it so happens that I had this song right here on the comp. So, I started it up, and guess what? Alec was rockin' even harder than his old man! And with every song I played he was dancing along with the music. So, now I know......he is definitely MY kid !! :)

The english language in music and movies

The things I wrote in "The Taiwanese and the English language" matches perfectly with the following. The English language is used on every occasion possible in music. You might say, that this is nothing special. Well....it is, considering I am talking about Chinese songs. When I was there, there were 3 lovely ladies called S.H.E. and they had a hit with a song called "Superstar". A very lovely song, but the title was about the only English that was used in that song. The song was completely in Chinese, except for that sentence. And that is a very strange thing to hear. You hear a lot of Chinese mambo-jambo, woven together to form a nice song, and all of a sudden you hear something that sounded like English. Until you hear it more often, and then you hear the title.

This isn't really an exception. I have heard quite some songs, where there is English used, to "spice it up a bit". Somehow I have the feeling, that they think that if there is some English in the song, it automatically becomes a hit.
And it's not only Taiwanese and/or Chinese who do this, but the other day, YuMei was watching a Korean serie, and she loved the music. So she downloaded it. And there are also a few songs that has only one English sentence in it.

And when you consider the way they are trying to put English in their songs, they must use the English names of American and English artists. But no.....all English names are being translated into Chinese form. And not only in music, but also in films. And even more strange is that they might never heard of the English names. Like the time I asked YuMei something about the Beatles. She never heard of them before. Until I named a song of them, and played it to her. Then she knew who I was talking about. So, you can ask someone who is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they will be looking at you, like you are asking about the devil himself (well, some might say you are). Until you mention a movie (in Chinese).

This might be a nice game to play on those cold winter evenings, in front of the fireplace. One of you mention an artist in your mother language, and the other one must guess who you are talking about.