honeymoon's over

showers. cold shower after a run, warm shower after a cold day's sail, there's always a sense of comfort and relief standing in the shower. slowly you collect and review your thoughts. and somehow engulfed by water all the shit that happened in the last few hours overwhelms you.

this laser worlds was one of the toughest things i've ever done. tougher than getting your head around philosophical questions, tougher than vo2 max tests, tougher than staying awake through a lecture (ok maybe not that, that's real tough), but then my life hasn't really been too tough.

brett said wow, fog again eh, and reminded me of a special radiohead song called fog (again). heh.

There's a little child
Runnin' 'round this house
And he never leaves
He will never leave

i'm longing to get home and sink my fingers into the fretboard and drift into a minor-induced heaven. please may the journey home be peaceful.

there's a first time for everything

first laser worlds,

first time representing the laser blogging team (makes me really not want to let the team down, and i hadn't even known i'd been recruited),

first hurricane,

first time qualifying for silver fleet,

first time sailing in a fog, let alone race in one,

first time being pressured by another blogger into posting something.

i'll try not to make the tillerman wait from now on for fear of losing my place on the team.

wow i've found a new purpose in life. good times.

colin goes to the laser worlds

and finds himself too exhausted to finish this senten

day 9

i had two interesting conversations today.

kwong sent me a link to a youtube video of a song that brett and i had heard on the radio earlier this trip. we had both liked it. but kwong didn't know that. dire straits - sultans of swing. brilliant song, and a brilliant coincidence.

the only person in the world that calls me froggy raised a point.

she says:
don'tyou feel bored when people ask you about races
like i'ld want people to tell me about their non-whateveri'mdoing life

well it's true. sometimes. it does depend.

hmm. i think if i ever got bored telling people about my races, i'd be bored of racing. if i ever got bored of racing, well that would be the sad day that i stopped racing i think. so, no, i don't feel bored. keep asking.

isn't it amazing that after many years of sailing, sailors can still converse about sailing endlessly? that, really, there is still so much to learn, so many stories to be told, and retold? this blog i found recently is an example.

sometimes it's also about who you're talking to. and how long it has been since you talked.

so you think you can think?

let me outline the differences between cruising through canadian top-gear-supercar-video-worthy countryside scenery and singapore.

besides driving on different sides of the road... you don't see traffic lights for ages.

there aren't any macdonald's or burger kings in sight.

you wind down the windows because the air is fresh and cool (and to avoid the smell of petrol in the boot).

you wind down the windows because the view is simply breathtaking.

there isn't a single building more than 2 storeys tall.

you travel at a stately speed of 70km/h because there are twists and turns, because the view is simply breathtaking, because the engine frankly isn't comfortable above that, not to mention that the lorry ahead of you is doing 70, probably because of the same reasons.

and in singapore, when you encounter another vehicle in a situation like that, you flash your high beam to get him out of your lane. in these parts, you lower your high beam.

the radio djs aren't annoying.

you travel for half an hour to dine at a restaurant called lefty's because there isn't a single hawker centre around selling rice and leafy vegetables and toufu and noodles and wanton soup.

it is stress free. so you think more. all the time.



last few days sailing have been splendid. i believe i'm beginning to understand steering the laser on a new level. i've long heard and read about 'letting the boat sail itself' repeatedly, indeed i thought i already knew how to apply the technique. yet now i know 'not steering' doesn't mean keeping the rudder centered, it means letting it do its own thing. there's a difference.

this is now week 2. 15 knots forecast today.

over the past few days:
les paul passed away.
insane boat was absolutely usain.

gossip in the grain

now for the real surprise find. ray lamontagne.

first heard appearing on r.yamagata's 'duet'. thumbs up.

folk, singer-songwriter. but genre names are never of much help. the first song really throws you off because you won't hear another tune as unabashedly joyful until another 7 songs in.

i find it amazing how he feels at home whether he's singing uptempo stuff like 'you are the best thing', touching on country in 'hey me, hey mama', or sounding lovelorn on, well, most of the tracks.

9 very listenable songs out of 10 here. that's truly impressive.

right now the one i'm in love with the most is the ethereal 'i still care for you'. bass, chords and surreal slide guitar chasing a rolling drumbeat, storm clouds brewing in the distance. and the bridge, which seems to swirl around you and your lonely thoughts. morbid as they may be. ha.

the hours grow
heavy and hollow
cruel as a grave
open
me and you'll find only
bones burnt to glass

peggy's cove lighthouse, nova scotia.

oh my gawd

how can you open a song with those words? sigh. 'augustine'.

ok now for the good songs of inland territory.

vienna has another strong album opener here. just a most beautiful piece, 'the last snowfall'. i like the grainy sounding drumbeats, and the subtle 5/4 beat.

st. stephen's cross is impressive. it's kinda post-rockish, but i do like the sound effects in the middle, and the 6 and 9 beat times.

antebellum is classic vt - swelling, uplifting piano scales. lovely tune. the two-part melody towards the end is probably one of the best things alex and vienna have ever done, even if alex sounds a bit weak.

i like kansas. just for the tune. love the brassy in another life. stray italian grayhound would be even greater if the bridge didn't sound like a jap anime theme with the cliched strings. it's good.

grandmother song was really impressive on the first couple of listens. the gypsy feel, handclaps, lyrics flowing straight out of alicia keys' 'a woman's worth' into the bridge. on repeated listens it sounded abrasive and i switched to beirut instead. sorry.

and i'll say right here and now that 'no gringo' deserves a post by itself. it's a gem.

day 3

for 'the rescue', explosions in the sky spent eight straight days writing and finishing one song each day. the songs were imaginatively titled day 1, day 2, day 3...

very tired la. tomorrow then write.

inland territory

it's taken me a long time to think about how to go about writing about vienna teng's latest album. reason is i still can't quite decide whether to love it or to be disappointed.

i remember it was earlier this year when i was standing for my midnight sentry duty, rifle in hand and radio turned to lush 99.5, that i heard the dj gush about 'inland territory' while putting 'white light' on. hearing the words 'vienna teng' jolted me out of my drowsy state, the same reaction i had had when i had heard the same station play 'street spirit (fade out)' on some other previous lonesome mowbray night. 'wow i'd better hear this...' only difference was, i knew 'street spirit' well enough to play it blindfolded; i've never heard any of vienna's new songs yet, let alone this one.

i'd loved how vienna has these enchanting piano-driven melodies, often intertwined with vocals, or, more rarely, some other sweeping melody. cases in point: blue caravan, now three, gravity, harbour, homecoming and recessional. she's ventured into bringing strings, drums, choral voices and oh guitars into the picture, but for most part it's always been about the piano and her. and always so soothing, so mellow.

my first taste of this album via 'white light' was thus a disappointment. a bass groove, synths all over the place, effects-laden guitar, a plodding drum beat, and what's this? an unimpressive tune. it also can't help but remind me of another wilco song, 'what light', which was quite a dud. oh dear, i thought, this might be it, she's lost the plot.

well i got hold of the album anyway, and here's what i think. it's a mishmash of all sorts of different sounds, which can be done well (OK computer!), but here it comes off rather harshly. it is also makes it difficult, and a tad unfair, to treat the album as an entirety, because after averaging between superb songs like 'antebellum', 'no gringo' and 'st. stephen's cross' and stomach-turning ones like 'augustine', 'white light' and 'radio song' in particular, you get, well, an average score. which is harsh on the good ones. sad, because i'm all for treating albums as one piece of work and listening to them in the order the artist had intended, as opposed to the hit-single-driven discs being put out in the mainstream.

ok i've finally decided to do it this way. i shall focus on the spectacular songs. after i finish this bit. i appreciate when artists try to show their ambitions and push the envelope by trying new styles and sounds. it's a good thing! sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. no one said meshing strings, horns, bass, drums, guitar effects and chamber sounds was going to be easy, but no one said you had to. i think it's at it's worst in 'white light' and 'radio song'. the tune suffers. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, the tune suffers, and you decide to scrap it and put in that other haunting piano piece or live 'fields of gold' cover instead. or so i wish.

right now i'm listening to porcupine tree's 'a smart kid', and there's a smart way of merging several musical ideas together seamlessly. i like how at the root of the song there is a nice and simple tune, yet it is a complex piece with several layers overlapping each other. it helps too that i've always admired steven wilson's guitar work and solos. fascinating song.

i'll wait till tomorrow to write about the other inland territory songs. zzz

day 1

after roughly 30hrs+ of travel, i've finally settled down at clifty cove motel, my home for the next 17 days. and yes, traveling round and about north america was rough for both of us - we're still awaiting both our tiller bags from the airport. it's a pretty place nevertheless. here's the view from the room with a view.

thiscomfort

this weekend's pesta sukan regatta was both comforting and an abrupt wake-up call. comforting because things were, for a moment, like 3 years ago; cai and sl, serving as coach, sparring partner and companion all at once. comforting to be able to bounce ideas off each other and to have a post-race discussion seconds after crossing the finish line. comforting to be, perhaps belatedly, pulled out of my comfort zone.

a wake-up call because hey! sl, credit to him, stepped into the laser after being out of it for a year and, following a few sailing sessions, promptly out-sailed me on saturday and more. because i still can't tell how to prioritise current - certainly wasn't as much of a factor as i had made it out to be. i was happier with sunday's performance, where i made decisions that seemed to justify themselves, even though it wasn't a mistake-free day either.

my dad's a champion cuz he did a 3hr triathlon in the morning, cycled to nsc and sailed the last race of the day, winning his first ever regatta in the laser radial, albeit without any other radials around (he did hilariously mistake one of the standard rigs for a radial).