Peter Hoflich

Hey ho, it’s Sunday again. It was an interesting weekend. I wrote two reports, mixed two DVDs, dragged and dropped together two songs. Went swimming twice, went shopping twice, and rode the train and bus twice. Went out for dinner once and drank beer three nights, but hey – nobody’s perfect. What did we do? Saturday night I tried to watch “Road To Singapore,” but I got to sleepy. Saturday we woke up, finished watching “Road To Singaore” as we did finger paints, cleaned the house, then went off to West mall. Naoko returned our movies and Zen and I went off to ride on the LRT train. Met Naoko at the West Mall again and we bought a 10-pack of Studio Ghibli movies – Totoro, Laputa, Nausicaa, Orco Rosso, Pompoko, Monoke Hime, and a few others. Watched Totoro when we got back, and Zen is hooked!! He thought we were going to buy the Incredibles, but boy was he wrong!! Got back home and went to sleep. I napped for an hour. Tried to get some work done, but it was difficult… Hung out, then when Zen woke up we went off to eat dinner at this famous chicken rice place. Got there to discover that it was a real craphole. Weird people hanging out, and some crazy middle-aged lady speaking really horrible Singlish telling us that they were sold out of chicken rice. Got out of there and went next door to the Thai restaurant to eat so-so Thai food. Cheap. Went home, watched Totoro until it was time to sleeeeeep… Sunday Zen woke up at 7, I looked after him, ate breakfast, watched Totoro, I did some work, went off to buy coffee from the coffee man. Got there to discover I had no cash, so I went back. Drove around, saw where our HSBC used to be. No more. Went home, did more work, read Green Eggs And Ham and The Cat In The Hat to Zen, he went to sleep, it rained, I got my work done. Composed some songs, went for a swim alone, it rained, Zen watched Totoro 4 or 5 times, he refused to watch Laputa, more fussing. Played guitar in the evening, and now here I am updating my blog.

Video review – Road To Singapore: The first of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby films, with Dorothy Lamour, of two “confirmed bachelors” who make googly eyes at every woman they see. Weird responsibility fleeing, and the film isn’t really set in Singapore – it’s more like somewhere in the Philippines. Funny mating dance with sexy Malay woman, but otherwise not really interesting.

Here are some pics of Zen and my new haircut:

Hey, another weekend, except this one is a LONG weekend – Good Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Zen is in the kitchen crying about his strawberry milk. Today was a mellow day – we hung out in the house, I finished up the April to August 2003 family video on DVD, and went swimming for a long time. I got red arms. Zen and I got haircuts! While Zen slept I watched Episodes 2 and 3 of the original Star Trek series while fighting off sleepiness… What happened on other days this week? Tuesday was work and stuff. I flaked out a lot, I think, and did some administrative-like stuff. In the evening Naoko watched movies while I finished up the Half Japanese DVDWednesday I got down to some real writing, left late. Thursday met a friend for burgers riverside to talk about life, the universe, everything. Left at 6:30 and went home to wait for Auntie Susan to come by so we could have a nice dinner. Yes – ate gratin, drank beer, and chatted while watching DVDs – Half Japanese, Love Beach, They Might Be Giants, Black Sabbath, and parts of the film They Saved Hitler’s Brain. Fun. Naoko was nice by looking after the cooking and then showering Zene and reading him to sleep while I kept Susan company. Then worked on a new DVD late into the night.

Zen, Naoko and Auntie Susan

Zen – before haircut

Zen – after haircut

Zen Superman pose

Some old pictures I found while making the family DVD…

a good look at Zen’s last short haircut

Zen concentrating

Zen and Naoko pointing

Zen and Naoko

Zen and Yuping

Zen attacking Ailing

Signature Park Sunset

DVD review – Star Trek, the original series: Episodes 1 and 2, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and “the Corbomite Maneuver.” Old episodes like this make me remember what a good series Star Trek was. For a while I thought that Space 1999 was a better show, but now I know better. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” has a hunky Sally Kellerman (what else was she in?) and some slack-jawed yokel attaining the powers of gods and then having a showdown on an alien planet. Spock’s eyebrows are really fake-looking, and the uniforms are funny looking. No Uhuru or McCoy yet in this episode. Good action, interestitng buildup, suspense, everything. Also neat ethical dilemmas – if you had the power of a god, would you remember you were once human? “The Corbomite Maneuver” is interesting in the way it shows Kirk’s leadership abilities in outwitting a condescending enemy. Nice ending.

DVD review – They Saved Hitler’s Brain: Terrible old movie with near-porn film level acting. Terrible sound quality and lack of subtitles (sometimes you need subtitles to understand English-language films!!!) meant that I skipped through the film. The Nazis don’t even bother to have German accents, and Hitler’s disembodied head is featured in a few scenes, mostly grimacing although he did have a line or two.

DVD review – Black Sabbath – the Black Sabbath Story, Volume One: Good early 1970 live performances of N.I.B. and Paranoid with a cute young Ozzy sounding great. War Pigs, from 1970 is good too, mostly to see Bill Ward attack the drums. Children Of The Grave was filmed in the afternoon at a California festival under a big rainbow prop, kind of anti-climatic. Some 1978 footage from the Hammersmith Odeon is terrible – Ozzy’s voice is breaking up. Cool fringe shirts and tassled jackets. Tony Iommi is like a British version of my old friend Paul. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath “conceptual video” is laughable – Ozzy’s voice barely ever matches up with the audio, and he’s grinning like a madman – stoned? Never Say Die filmed on Top of the Pops with British teenagers boogying around is also quite silly. But a good overall look at the original line-up (there is no mention of Ronny James Dio at all) with some cool clips of their early demo songs (that also had “conceptual videos” attached to them!!).

Hey ho, nice night. Took a look a look at John and Mika Frostad’s family pics, so nice. Little Kai is a handsome little boy with long blonde hair. Sweeeet… Sunday was a relatively mellow day, but still busy. We “slept in” until 8:00 – at least that is when Zen woke us all up – and then went downtown to my place of work where we helped my colleague Elena shoot a short film, which is part of a film school class that she is taking. Yay, fun. There was a scene when I met my “love interest” in the office where she works. Naoko was the secretary at work. Zen came along just to be with us. It was nice for him to see where I work, Naoko also saw it for the first time. She thinks our office is really big! I guess it is, actually. Nice people, especially the actress – gorgeous! Elena took us out to lunch, which was nice, so we had prata again. Went home, Zen was cranky and sleepy. Got home, he fell asleep, then Mitchan and Manae came along. We let Zen sleep for an hour, then woke him up so that he could play with Mana-chan. Nice. They had a great time, playing Play-Doh, on the toy-trucks riding around, and other fun stuff. Went for a swim at 5, which was nice, although Zen was cranky and cried at times. Naoko went off to her work meeting and Mitchan and Manae and Zen and I went on the bus with her and got out at the hawker center for food. Yummy. I made new friends, and we took the bus back. Manae and Mitchan went away soon after we got back, Zen cried, then I gave him a quick shower and a teeth-brush, then got to work preparing for my Monday. Sheesh – preparation! Monday was a busier Monday than most – two hour meeting, 30 minute interview, some writing, some prep for a big intervieiw, the big interview for an hour with my boss and three others, back to work, tidying, a meeting, some more writing and re-writing, then writing a long article about the big meeting. Interesting. Tested the new iPod – it’s nice. One gigabyte fits nearly 20 hours of music, more than enough for me, really. A 60 gb iPod would have only cost 4 or 5 times as much, for 60 times the memory, but who wants to lug around one of those big things? Got home and Zen was already asleep, so sad. Did some blogging (now), and will watch Black Sabbath DVD later. Maybe some video editing (the Half Japanese live show of April 18, 2003). Listening to “Cassiel’s Song” by Nick Cave. Lovely.

In the iPod: Simpsons music

Wow, a wild week. We had our big conference here in Singapore, and I was actively involved in it. Crazy. Monday was a hellish day – getting lots of stuff done, then at 3 we started a meeting that stretched and stretched and stretched. I finally finished around 11:00 PM, and then stuck around util past 1:00 doing other work. Crazy. Tuesday the conference started in the afternoon, but we were there from 11:00 onwards. Fantastic speakers, and it was really interesting. Went back to the office to write an e-newsletter about it, left around 9:30 or so, my earliest night of the week as it turned out. Wednesday I went onto BBC ini the morning to talk about Chinese banks. Very convenient, since in one of the presentations on Tuesday I learned about just that topic, so that was a breeze (sorta). Went on to the converence and ran around incessantly for the next 8 hours or so taking care of people, making sure that things were smoothe. The big speaker of the morning was Al Gore, former vice-precident of the United States. Yes, a very big man! BIG! He gave a really good speech, and proved that he doesn’t deserve the reputation of “boring speaker” that he has – he was very interesting, relevant, and had good presentation. In the afternoon I had my own session to look after, so that was fun, and I learned a lot more about corporate governance and risk management. Went to the office and wrote up the e-newlsetter, was there until after midnight again and took a cab home. The hard work did pay off, though, because my boss really liked the e-newsletter, so that was good… Thursday, the last day of the conference, all went well and we had a great session, a nice lunch, I met lots of cool people, and the closing session went well also. Busy busy busy busy busy busy. I had no time to hang out, drink coffee, talk with bankers about banking, or collect freebies. Oh well. Other people got the pocket knives (don’t take it through customs, though), pens, badges, and laster pistsols (just kidding). One of the exhibitors took their name from Star Wars, which I thought was quite funny. Then, five minutes after the end of the last session, the place was cleared out. Not a banker was to be seen anywhere! We had our post-conference session where we congratulated each other and felt good, then off for drinks at Balaclava, a really funky pub on the ground floor of the place. Very very nice. Lots of attractive people. Great interior design with shrouds hanging and stuff, great lighting. Cool sofa sets. Big pints of Hoergaardner beer. There was this guitarist singing songs, clearly enamoured with Eddie Vedder. He sang “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam even, and some other stuff. He came by and we chatted with him for a while, nice guy. Talked guitars. Unfortunately, I had to tear myself away at 8:00 and I went back to the office to write e-newlsetters about the last day. That was a lot of fun. Yes. A lot. Took a cab home, stopped at a 7-11 to get a beer, then then then… back home to flake out in front of the TV for a while. Saw some Michael Buble videos – Kissing A Fool is OK, but his first song Feelin’ Good was TERRIBLE!!! Probably one of the worst videos I’ve ever seen. Friday was OK – I slept until about 7:15 and then woke up and hung out with Naoko and Zen for a while. It was like the first time I had seen Zen awake in a few days, so sad… I took him to school by bicycle, it was lovely. Then I went back and slept a little more. Boss had given us all the morning off!! I looked at the computer for a while, then went in to work. Yay! Read from Shogun, got there, did a lot of work – busy, very productive, all good. Cool, OK. At 6:00 we all went off to have a congratulatory dinner, it was very nice. We discovered that the fourth floor of our building has an activity room where we could all chill out and eat catered food, drink beer, there were two tables on the garden patio where we could all talk and guard our food from blowing away from the gale-force winds. Some wine bottles were opened. Good fun was had by all. I can’t remember some of the things we were talking about, but I proabably laughed more than I have in the last 10 years. It was a fantastic stress reliever. Yay! People drifted away slowly until there were only four of us there. Then I got a call lfrom Susan Strickland, she was in town. I went off to meet her at 10 and we had a few drinks at CHJIMES. First we went to a pub that was playing music, but then when the pub band started up we had to get out of there – too noisy to talk! Too bad, though, they were good – the main dude was even playing a 6-string bass! Then off to a Mexican-flavoured spot where we were tolerated by the snooty staff and talked about a bunch of fun and cool stuff. Yay. She convinced me to stay on past the last train, so I had a few more beers… and a few more shots of whiskey. Feeling groovey when I pulled in to home at 2 AM. Saturday we drifted in to town. Naoko had to work. I had to meet Aunty Susan with Zen at the Esplanade. We got off at one point. Walked along the sidewalk… but it was shattered and blocked off by construction. It was terrible. There were no routes for pedestrians to take! Got to her hotel, she wasn’t in her room, so we walked off to our rendezvous spot at the Esplanade, met on time at 10:30, went up to the roof to chill out, then at 11 checked out the DVD library. We wanted to rent They Might Be Giants, the 1971 movie with George C. Scott as a guy who thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes that the band took their name from, but it was out!! Who in Singapore would be watching They Might Be Giants!!! I think we had terrible luck, it seems like it was checked out five minutes before we got there. What a shame! Oh well. I got Black Sabbath, Star Trek episodes, They Saved Hitler’s Brain, and the Road to Singapore. Hope I actually have time to see these films this week. Should do – Friday is a holiday at least. Good Friday. Went off to Wheelock Place to buy shoes, shorts, a shirt, and an iPod Shuffle (1 gigabyte). All things starting with “sh.” Went off for some food, after Zen was hypnotized for a while by the Incredibles DVD that was playing. Found a nice place to have sandwiches, that was fun, and stayed there a while until Naoko came by. Then we got a cab to go home. Zen fell asleep in the car. Susan and I looked at stuff on the computer – movies in the editing mode, and also some music, and the Star Wars trailers. Turns out that there is a newer trailer, which is is interesting, so that contradicts what I put in the last posting, but actually the earlier trailer is a bit better. I like how the Alec Guiness stuff goes over the new stuff. Very good. Susan went off at 4, and we chilled out a lot, went for a swim, had dinner, and then sleep. I better rest soon. I am not getting good rest these days, and this is my best opportunity.

Hey, nothing much new this week. Trying to remember if there was something… Saw the “new” Episode III trailer, after reading all the hype about it on the net, only to see that it wasn’t new at all, it’s been up on the new for a few months now. Weird. Trying to remember if anything significant happened this week… nothing. Around mid-week, Zen started yelling out my name in the middle of the night, and wouldn’t stop unless I went over and slept with him for a while. This is not so great for me – besides breaking up my sleep multiple times, sometimes I fall asleep on his single foam matress, which isn’t so comfortable for a big guy like me. Grumble, grumble… I tried explaining to him “Zen, this is your room, that is Mama and Papa’s room, so you sleep here, OK? No crying!” I think he understands – last night he cried out fewer times than otherwise these past few days. Hope we can weed out that activity. Otherwise he had been doing it more occasionally, and usually Naoko would go with him, on rare occasion me. Wonder what’s happening. Recently Zen always want us to read him The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. I wonder if the Cat in the Hat gives him nightmares – he loves both books, but the Cat in the Hat makes him gasp as he sees the action. OH! there’s the Cat in the Hat. OH! there’s Thing One and Thing Two. OH! there’s the super car picking up all the mess! OH! there’s the fish in the pot! Saturday Naoko had to work, so I looked after Zen. We stayed at home at first, while the landlord came to look after our living room light. Then we went swimming in the pool for a while, then a nap, then a bunch of Superman VCDs later, and Naoko came home. A simple dinner of garlic bread and greek salad and potato sticks, then a bottle of wine and lots of tidying and chores. A boring day. After Zen was sleeping, we watched half of “Hana and Alice.” Very nice so far. Iwai Shunji is a genius. Played a bit of guitar. Saturdays are nice – lots of chores, usually, but no need to think of Monday just yet… Checked my SMS messages at midnight – found three from a colleague inviting me out w ith other colleagues, including one just flown in from China. Nice of him to think of me, but why doesn’t he try to reach me on my land line?

In the walkman: eX-Girl, Lolita No. 18, America Youth, 3.6 Milk, At the Drive-in, Go Real Slow, the Witness Protection Program, tribute to Sammy Davis Junior, the Smiths.

DVD review – the Curse of the Jade Scorpion: One of those weird cases of seeing a movie for a second time because you forgot you had already seen it. Happened before with “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” there was also a book of Martin Amis short stories I read twice for the same reason… Woody Allen is not so great as a tough insurance comany detective, and Helen Hunt is not so convincing as his hate-at-first-sight love interest, but the gags are good enough, for the most part, and it’s funny to see Elizabeth “Showgirls” Berkeley in a small role again. Good lines. “Don’t feel threatened immediagely.” To a blind man “keep eating carrots, I think they’re working.” “I love where you live. It’s just what I thought it would be – a grungy hellhole.” “Many a man’s gone to the gaqllows on circumstantial evidence.” “You’re going to take your word over mine?”

DVD review – Little Caesar: Edward G. Robinson as the apochrycal gangster, a movie filled to the brim with Scarface/Al Capone cliches. Nothing is known about Rico, little Caesar, his background, past, or family. But there he is, the vicious gangster flying to the top of the flesh heap of gangsterdom. Weird, wily, I want to watch it again some time now that I know what it is. I should see “Public Enemy” too… “Maybe we can get away with it this time… if we tried…”

VCD review – Hana and Alice: A tender film about two girls falling in love with the same guy… who has amnesia. Or does he? Will he remember which of the two he really loves? And does this matter to the here and now? Great story, great characters, pleasant moods and tones. Naturally, this could erupt into a psychotic love affair, lots of sex and plots and murder, but in the hands of Iwai Shunji, it’s just a simple little thing. Riding trains in the countryside, funny rakugo, sakura, hit head – bright colourts, CAT scan, reading and walking, mirror manipulation very clever. “I dream about you all the time. I dream the police come and take you away.” Hana also slug dream! Waling in the rain, or dancing in the rain. Strange girl Fu. Open air ballet and fun pics, meeting her father. “Make yourself at home,” says mom in underwear walking in on the sick guy. Kano Mika. He’s figuring out what we’ve figured out, what with the cards and the lies and the jellyfish allergies. Bound to slip up sooner or later. Nice flourished – giant Atomu balloon peering in on them through the window…

Hey, I drew such a blank on my activities of last week I totally forgot that I spent Wednesday evening with Scott Bug and his lovely lady friend Farah. We hung out in Chinatown on the open street for dinner drinking beer (or at least I was drinking beer – Scott was on Cola, Farrah was on OJ) and eating stingray, black pepper beef, and deep fried mini-squids. Yummy. Stopped a waiter to ask why Chinatown is called that (redundant) and he explained that it was just marketing – “Chinatown” was more like the Cantonese part of town historically. OK. Walked around a bit, saw some hookers hanging out on one street, then walked over to Neal Road to check out some pubs. We walked into one that Scott figured for a gay bar. Asked the guy who came to show us the seats what kind of a pub it is, he said right from the start “it’s a gay bar. But you can stay even if you’re not gay.” I didn’t look so great, so we went to another place – a shop house with a nice garden seating in front called Tantric. Walked in and saw the cool decor, Scott asked again what type of pub it was, and they said the same thing. So we settled outside for beers and soft drinks, enjoying the cool music, hanging out. Very nice. Then I caught the last train home. Whew!

This week has been OK. Yesterday, Monday, was your typical busy start to the week. I was a wee bit aimless, getting a bit of work done, but not too much. Met up with our friend who does PR for a European bank for lunch, which was nice – Vietnamese food at Siem Reap on the Singapore Riiver at Boat Quay. The food was pretty good, but the service was lousy – so hard to get the waiter’s attention. Oh well. Got home late, watched Caveman. So tired, went to sleep at midnight… Today I started the day late because there was a 10:00 event I had to attend, so I took Zen to school by bicycle. He was good today – slept in until 7:45 or so, then got up. He enjoyed the bycicle ride. I got back home, took a shower, did some computer, then took the bus to the event. Walking around Suntec, got to thinking that next week we’re going to have OUR event here! We’re gong to OWN the ballroom. Got to work, nobody wanted to have a meeting, noboddy wanted to have lunch with me, I was feeling bad as I went off to get my solo Subway sandwich. Sniff Oh well. Found out that one of my colleagues had his birthday today – happy birthday, Bhav! Had a meeting in the afternoon, horsed around with colleagues, went home at 8:00. Busy. Should be busier, but somehow it all gets streeeeeetched out.

Been checking out Scott Bug’s new website, and I must say it’s pretty cool. I like the floating bug accompanied to music by the brilliant Yi Paksa. I posted a message on the board, along with a picture of Maggie Cheung. Why Maggie Cheung? Well – why not!!! Check out cialis mg sizes.

In the Walkman: the Butthole Surfers

DVD review – This Is Spinal Tap (bonus material): The disc has a bunch of bonus material, namely a new piece by Rob Reiner (looking old) playing Marty DeBergi and saying a few irrelevant things, mostly acting like the Tap no longer talk to him, that they’ve had a parting of ways. Oh, sure, whatever. And then it struck me – Michael Moore is the new Marty DeBergi. Like you don’t know if his documentaries are real… or they just seem real. Kind of… surreal somehow. Anyway, the bonus material is quite funny. Billy Crystal doing mime-waiter stuff, and explaining his schtick – he wanted to be an actor, but couldn’t remember his lines… so he became a mime. Ha ha ha ha. “The Sun Never Sweats” concept album. It’s their final tour, but it’s more like a reunion tour. “It’s a constant party, just sometimes we’re not invited.” Stupid radio spots. Charles and Diana stash boc, with limo driver Bruce Kirby, doing Sinatra in his briefs. All have cold sores. Can’t open the child-proof cap. Butt plaster caster. “Roma means love – it’s the root or ‘romance,’ not the city of Rome.” “Why don’t they make grave stones cheerier?” Baseball stats drummer.

DVD Review – Caveman: Caveman is a film about cavemen, set on October 9th, one zillion B.C. It stars Ringo Starr, and a very young Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long (even in caveman grunt language she sounds annoying and uptight). It also has in it someone called “Barbaba Bach,” whose claim to fame is that Ringo Starr married her. She’s also very easy on the eyes. See Starr, as wimpy caveman Atouk, discover how to walk upright, invent the wheel, discover fire, learn how to cook food and play music, and a bunch of other things. I guess he’s a kind of forgotten prehistoric genius of sorts. Funny how only one person in the whole movie speaks English. Of course, there are plenty of pot jokes and sex gags – it was the ’80s after all.

Here, off season, are the lovely lyrics to the happy Christmas song called Grandma got run over by a reindeer:

Grandma got run over by a reindeer
Walking home from our house Christmas eve.
You can say there’s no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and Grandpa, we believe.

She’d been drinkin’ too much egg nog,
And we’d begged her not to go.
But she’d left her medication,
So she stumbled out the door into the snow.

When they found her Christmas mornin’,
At the scene of the attack.
There were hoof prints on her forehead,
And incriminatin’ Claus marks on her back.

Grandma go run over by a reindeer,
Walkin’ home from our house Christmas eve.
You can say there’s no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and Grandpa, we believe.

Now were all so proud of Grandpa,
He’s been takin’ this so well.
See him in there watchin’ football,
Drinkin’ beer and playin’ cards with cousin Belle.

It’s not Christmas without Grandma.
All the family’s dressed in black.
And we just can’t help but wonder:
Should we open up her gifts or send them back?

Grandma got run over by a reindeer,
Walkin’ home from our house Christmas eve.
You can say there’s no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and Grandpa, we believe.

Now the goose is on the table
And the pudding made of pig.
And a blue and silver candle,
That would just have matched the hair in Grandma’s wig.

I’ve warned all my friends and neighbours.
Better watch out for yourselves.”
They should never give a license,
To a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves.

Grandma got run over by a reindeer,
Walkin’ home from our house, Christmas eve.
You can say there’s no such thing as Santa,
But as for me and Grandpa, we believe

Well, it’s a mellow Sunday. We had a mellow day – although Zen crawled into bed three times last night and rolled around kicking and elbowing, broke up my sleep… Farted around all morning, dusting and cleaning, then poking around on the computer. Now here I am gearing up to do all the annoying work for the day – should consume my afternoon and evening. Fun.

In the Walman: the Smiths, Skrew, Malhavoc, Soulstorm.

Hey, if you liked the Big Bottom lyrics yesterday, how about “Pencil Neck Geek” by Fred Vlassey:

Well when I was a kid, life was going swell.
Till something happened, blew every thing to hell.
That night my daddy stumbled in, all pale and weak,
Said ‘A woman up the block just gave birth to a geek.’

Mom said, ‘Sell it to the circus, what the heck.’
Dad said, ‘Nope, this one’s a pencil neck.
And if there’s one thing lower than a side show freak,
It’s a grit eatin’, scum suckin’, pencil neck geek.’

You see if you take a pencil that won’t hold lead,
Looks like a pipe cleaner atached to a head,
Add a buggy whip body with a brain that leaks,
You got yourself a grit eatin’, pencil neck geek.

(chorus)
Pencil neck geek, grit eatin’ freak,
scum suckin’, pea head with a lousy physique.
He’s a one man, no gut, loosing streak.
Nothin’ but a pencil neck geek.

Soon the geeks were poppin’ up all over town.
You couldn’t hardly sneeze without knockin’ one down.
After a nice juicy steak, if you need a toothpick,
Just reach for a geek, they’ll do the trick.

One day we cut one up for fish bait.
Learned our lesson just a little bit late.
Soon as the geek hit the drink, the water turned red.
Next day, sure enough, all the fish were dead.

chorus

Most any night you know where I can be found.
Yeah, stomping some geek’s head into the ground.
So keep the faith ’cause in Blassie you can trust,
I won’t give up ’til the last geek bites the dust.

chorus

They say, ‘these geeks come a dime a dozen.’
I’m lookin’ for the guy who’s supplyin’ the dimes.
Its gonna be real hard times for all of these
grit eatin’,
scum suckin’,
boot lickin’,
drop kickin’,
gut grindin’,
nail bitin’,
glue sniffin’,
scab pickin’,
butt scratchin’,
egg hatchin’,
sleezy,
smelly,
pepper bellied,
dirty, lousy, rotten, stinkin’, freaks.
Nothing but a pencil neck geek

What a week. Got material finished for the new Journal, and also some other stuff for the research projects. Nice. Did something else significant, but I can’t really remember what it was. Today is Saturday, and Naoko had to work, so I looked after Zen. Everybody slept until 8, which was nice, then a long slow breakfast. Zen and I went with Naoko on the bus to work, then we went oward to other things, like wandering around Orchard Road. Went through Borders Books a few times, munched on fruit bread, drank Ribena drink, walked around, went into HMV, found some Low CDs, but was amazed at the price – $35 for a single CD!! $125 for a pack of 3!!! Yoiks – CDs should always be under 20, or at least offer something extra with them (stickers, a DVD, anything…), so I didn’t buy them. Bummer. Went onto the MRT and back to Clementi and the bus. Two odd things happened downtown – we spotted transvestites riding discretely on the public transport system – once into town, once on the way home – and I saw two people I knew through work… but didn’t like, so I didn’t stop to say hello, just kept walking. Weird how that happens. Got home, ate macaroni and cheese. Had to put in a lot of the flavor powder, and then it still didn’t taste right. Definitely not the macaroni and cheese flavour I remember from my childhood… or any other flavour for that matter. Orange-coloured flour, I guess, bought from a bulk bin. Bummer. Zen napped for a while, and I flaked out, but then he woke just as I was trying to start watching a DVD, which was a bummer, so nothing got done. Then, as Zen was watching Superman cartoons on VCD, I got the MS Word installed – hooray! Now I am in editing mode again finally… Got on the bus, was late to meet Naoko in Holland Village, but we got there and caught up for a yummy dinner at Crystal Jade. Although the seat was not in a good spot (it’s a busy place on weekends), the food was great. Walked around a bit, bought a nice potted orchid for $12 (yellow), then settled in at Harry’s for beers. Noticed that Wala Wala next door is a younger crowd, Harry’s is families and mellow people. Cool – that means us! Went to the bus stop. Zen spotted “Coffee Time,” and said something like “that’s where Oma and Opa and Papa and Mama and Zen ate dinner last week.” Smart kid, he remembers. I wonder if he remembers the lousy service?

DVD review – Tales From Gimly Hospital: freaky weird Canadian movie that is clearly influenced by David Lynch, Jean Cocteau, and Nordic myths, as well as early Fritz Lang films and such. Weird ideosyncratic spots – like old 1920s make-up and stylization, with a 7-11 Big Gulp thrown in. Always SOMETHING very strange in each scene. King Kong music, angel above, shaving monobrow, otherworldls, fish shampoo, sexy nurses, scarred doctor, uppet play, black face outrageous, more outrageous gore on the operating table, three drifting coffins, a framing story, something
similar to the tragic horror of Tetsuo – the Iron Man. She died on their wedding night. “Einar, you did not let me finish my story!” Followed by “the Dead Father, a short film by Guy Maddin that has weird textures, strange families, torment in a small room. “Brief recoveries from death became common.” Spooning up stomach stuff. This type of surrealism reminds me of something, but I’m not sure what exactly, it will come to mind later on I bet…

DVD review – Schoolhouse Rock: naturally Zen loves Conjunction Junction (it has trains) and the tune of Lolly Lolly. I remembered a lot verbatim from my childhood, especially “the Premble to the Constitution.” Good songs, although some of them – like the one about prepositions – were a bit too way out there. Weird how they need to use complicated language to explain grammar to kids – if they can’t understand predicates, and they can’t understand the language needed to explain what a predicate is, then what do they gain from it?

DVD review – 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould: literally that. Idyllic beginning, stock still sitting, the artist must operate in secret – intellectual dialogue by Don McKellar, the master of intellectual dialogue (see “Roadkill”). Talk of “vertical pan-culturalism (huh?). “Coffee with cream” cnverstaion. Seque3nce of “interviews” with people about Glenn. He is never shown actually playing the piano. Super ugly Ray Scheider glasses. Cool overhead camera angle. Swimming with the music. Unmusical music. Each “Story” done in a very creative way (except for the stock interviews). Arctic interview. “Classical musical music,” interviewers suitee, trippy animation by Norman McLaren. Sotex stock rumour story, x-ray sequence, pills, telephones.

DVD review – This Is Spinal Tap: The best thing about it is the hilarous dialogue: “The New Originals.” “Gimme Some Money” skiffle. “Best leave it unsolved, really,” about the death of their first drummer. “Choked on somebody else’s vomit.” Mime waiters (Billy Crystal “mime is money”), Sir Eton-Hogg. “Big Bottom,” “the bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’.” Double bass guitarr. “Intravenus de Milo,” “what’s the difference between golf and miniature golf?” Howard Hessman. “There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” “We toured the world we toured the States.” “I’m sure I’d feel much worse if I w asn’t under such heavy sedation.” “I envy us.” “I believe virtually everything I read.” “As long as there’s sex and drugs, I can do without the rock ‘n’ roll.” Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Godzilla. Lucky us – the DVD has 1 hour of new or unreleased material!!

The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’
That’s what I said
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand
Or so I have read

My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo
I’d like to sink her with my pink torpedo

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about bum cakes, my girl’s got ‘em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?

I met her on Monday, twas my lucky bun day
You know what I mean
I love her each weekday, each velvety cheek day
You know what I mean

My love gun’s loaded and she’s in my sights
Big game is waiting there inside her tights, yeah

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about mud flaps, my girl’s got ‘em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?