Give It To Me - Timbaland

Nuff said. Me like Timba. Posting another song by Nelly Furtado with Timbaland after this one and no, it's not Permiscuous.

Broken Roots

It's 2 am pacific time on 2/28/2007. I am sitting here awake posting an entry partially because I don't have to work in the morning.

I just watched a documentary on the CBC now titled "Broken Roots" and it has really affected my mood. The story takes place in Ottawa where this white family has adopted an 8 year old boy from Korea in the early 90's. When he was 2 years old, his birth father gave him away to the Korean Orphanage because he had an extra marrital affair which resulted with this kid. The Korean birth father chose his own family over this kid.

When this kid was about 10 years old, he developed tourettes, bi-polar disorder, Obessive Compulsive Disorder as well as manic depressions like many of the kids abandoned by their birth family. He has been on medications since then.

To make long story short, the kid went back to reunite with his birth father in 2002 when he was 17 and felt like he belonged in Korea. In the summer of 2003, he was invited to go back to Korea by his birth father for a year. Once in Korea, the relationship between his birth father and him quickly deteriated after 3 months. The 18 year old then was sent away back to Canada for the second time by his birth father (for the kid's own beneifts).

Upon returing to Canada, the kid moved to Thunder Bay to live by himself until June of 2006. He had planned to move back to Ottawa during the summer of 2006. However, before the kid made his way back to Ottawa, he took his own life.

His name was David Jong Hoon Ricketts. He would have turned 21 in 2006.

This documentary has really struck a cord with me, not sure why. I was overjoyed to see him reunite with his birth father, but I was also sad for complicated reasons. For some reason, I thought I could have been David. Anybody could have been in his situation. I am just speechless now.

For more info on Broken Roots, please visit: http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/program_270207.html

Glass Ceiling Hurts All

What are the chances? The week before I posted the last entry. Here's an article from the Georgia Straight by Carlito Pablo.

http://www.straight.com/node/70990

March 2007

Why I love March soo much because it's the begining of Spring in Vancouver. Nevertheless, it is also March Madness time (NCAA bball tournament) along with Anti-Racism month.

I just had a conversation on msn with my cousin in Australia. She was asking me if there's racism in Canada and I told her "of course", but it's known as silent racism.

I really don't think racism will ever go away until we are all a mix of different races. Even then, there will always be arguments about who's "ancestors" are/were superior than the others.

This reminds me of about 5 years ago when I was working in Vancouver between my 3rd and 4th year university. I encountered this mid aged white lady just started yelling at me at this bus stop in Surrey when I was trying to get to work. Her exact words were, "why don't you go back to your own country. You smell!"

Have you ever had something so racist directed at you? I wasn't even mad nor offended; I was just shocked thinking to myself, "did she just said what I think she said?" I then politely asked her to stop and show some respect to other races. She yelled at me again and I just ignored her. I should have told the bus driver and they would have the right to refuse service to any transit patrons whom are physically or verbally abusive towards the bus driver or the other passengers.

Anyways, just last week, I had been emailing a good friend of mine in Toronto. He was commenting about his night classes at this university he'd signed up for. Anyways, the conversation turned to job hunting. I was a bit surprised to learn that he thinks "being white" is already a very marketable trait when job hunting. (at least for the corporate jobs anyways, I think?)

I had never thought about it that way, perhaps I am just too naive. I don't really know what to think about this theory, if I may even call it that. I certainly hope that's not the case, but it's hard to say. Perhaps that's the silent racism/discrimination I have been talking about. Anybody who's taken a human resources course would know what I am talking about when I use the term - glass ceiling, when I speak about minorities at work place.

Anyways, I am not offering any solutions nor am I suggesting anything. I am just saying how I feel. Is it biased? Perhaps, but it's one guy's voice.

On a random thought, here's a video of Nas's new song "Can't Forget About You" with a sample of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable"

Life Comes at You Fast - Nationwide

Just got home from playing bball in White Rock tonight. Saw this guy whom I haven't seen for perhaps 4 years or more. He graduated the same here as me in highschool. I never really liked him much as a ball player.

But something struck me tonight when I saw him play. He looked like he didn't know how to play basketball at all while fumbling the ball and even having a difficult time dribbling. He shot at least 8 air balls all night. He was always a step behind every play and just ran very awkwardly. He hardly understood where to place himself on both offence and defense. It was just shocking, especially knowing how he used to play before. He almost played like a (excuse my language here) retard.

So I found out from some friends at the bball game that this guy fainted on the court a couple of years ago while playing bball. He was unconcious for 20 minutes or so and even stopped breathing at one point in time. Finally the rec center staff called for an ambulence and he was revived and sent to the hospital where he spent a few weeks in coma.

I guess he woke up after that and the brain damage left him a bit slow and uncorrdinated. I didn't really talk to him while playing ball tonight since I was never a big fan of him. But just thinking to myself, "Wow, that could have been any one of us!"

He's lucky to be alive. K-Fed is right.....life comes at you fast.

On a different note, here's a clip from Mad Tv last weekend. My coworker told me about it. It's called "Aren't Asians Great?". A parody of Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" featuring Akon.

There She Goes

So I took my friend out to Chinatown last Saturday. We walked around for about 2 hours just to see what's up in Chinatown. Then we drove to Kits Beach for a 10 minute walk before driving all the way to UBC and stopped by Wreck Beach for another 30 minute walk around.

After that, we went back to my place and hung out with the family for a bit. On Sunday, we checked out another beach in the White Rock area. Well, I guess I should say Crescent Beach. It was sunny and a lot of people were out with their kids and pets.

I got to know this girl pretty good from all the chatting walking and driving everywhere. It was good times. If this was what having a girlfriend feels like, then it's not too bad.

So after we came back from the beach, we went straight to my cousin's place for Chinese New Year dinner. I got to catch up with my cousins and their friends. Great way to spend a Sunday night.
On Monday night, I had a long day at work, but went out to dinner at this Greek restaurant near my house with my boy Dan and this girl. The roasted lamb shoulder and Kalamari were superb. Our waitress was super nice and cute, too. After dinner, we went to check out this German movie downtown called The Lives of Others. Great flick as it really makes me and the crew appreciate freedom of speech more. This girl left today for Calgary for 2 more weeks of vacation before going back home to Asia.

Not many places in the world where freedom of speech actually happens. You really gota watch what you say and who's listening. Freedom of speech is really a privilege, not a right.

Dead Prez "They School"

Another great song by DP called They School. Some of y'all might find this offensive and say that all they are doing is complaining what the White America had and has done to the African Americans. But I think that if you were never looked down based on the colour of your skin for decades. You will never understand the blind hatred.

I think the song is beyond the simple fact of black and white, but more so in regards to the school system in North America.

One can read as much as they could whether it is from the newspaper, history books, or internet. You just can't believe everything you read in prints.

Find the lyrics at http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dead+prez/they+schools_20038339.html.

One of my fav lines......happens to be the main chorus:

They schools cant teach us shit
My people need freedom, we tryin to get all we can get
All my high school teachers can suck my d**k
Tellin me white man lies straight bullshit
They schools aint teachin us, what we need to know to survive
They schools dont educate, all they teach the people is lies

Hip Hop, It's Bigger Than - Dead Prez

I haven't heard this song for a long time, but it was on TV tonight. You can find the lyrics to this song on: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dead+prez/hiphop_20038331.html

One of my fav lines: "Mcs get a little bit of love and think they hot
Talkin bout how much money they got, all yall records sound the same
I sick of that fake thug, r & b, rap scenario all day on the radio
Same scenes in the video, monotonous material, yall dont here me though"

Visitor of the Week

I got a friend of a friend (well, his cousin) visiting Vancouver this and next week. This 25 year old girl from Taiwan. I have never met her before until couple of nights ago. I know her cousin from Calgary when I worked in Calgary during the summer of 2001.

Anyways, my friend in Calgary asked me to show his cousin around Vancouver when I get a chance. I took her out to a beach one night and a Irish pub the next. It's been alright. She will be leaving for Calgary after the Chinese New Years.

This girl and I are very different yet similar in a lot of ways as well. Similar because we are in the similar stages in our lives in terms of done univeristy and working for the last couple fo years. She teaches English at a Kindergarten and a Cram School to elementary school kids. To me, she went on this trip to Canada more to get away from Taiwan, but I could be wrong. As for us being different, I think our values are different from each other. My gut tells me we are just different, which is fine, but that's just what I think.

Before this trip to Canada, she had never been out of Taiwan before. In fact, she didn't know she had to apply for a visa to travel abroad. She missed her flight because she didn't have a visa to Canada, but quickly applied for it and left Taiwan a week later.

Can't really blame her I guess because she never really knew about the whole visa thing. Plus I heard she's not from a well-off family. Unlike most Taiwanese kids I know, she paid for her own rent when she was in University. Most Chinese kids I know, whether in Taiwan or Canada, prett much always had their post secondary education paid for - including myself. So I give her credit for acomplishing this herself....at least for the rent portion anyways. Growing up she never went the ever infamous Taiwanese "Cram School". I have!

Anyways, going back to when we were hanging out together with my friends at the pub, I had a hard time trying to joggle talking to her as well as talking to my friends because I had to constantly go back and forth between Mandarin and English. It's like as if I was playing a host and also a translator. I enjoy playing the host because I try to include everybody in the conversation; I mean it's only courteous to do that anyways! But it sure did get tiring pretty quickly especially my Mandarin isn't as good as it used to be. I had constant brain fart trying to think of a certain word from English to Chinese.

So anyways, she's taking some ESL classess during the day and staying at a lovely old Canadian lady's homestay biz.

She told me that she's glad that I can speak Chinese to her because she actually miss speaking Chinese to somebody even being here for only 4 days now. I constantly spoke English to her because I am just so used to now plus I thought she wanted to practice her English with me. But she wants to speak Mandarin because she spends the whole day in class speaking English. While at the pub, I found myself to be keeping to myself quite often after the hour. I simply just didn't have anything else to say and didn't know what to talk about with her or anybody else. I was bored and may have been preceived to be a boring guy as well.

Then I realized that I may be a nice guy, but Man, am I every boring?! It's taken me 25 years to realize that. Perhaps I just needed to show more interest in people in general. I think most of the time, I do exhibit a healthy amount of interest in people, I am just afraid to be labeled nosy in other's biz. I think I have the tendency to take things to far sometimes! haha.

So that's all for now. Blog you later.

PS. This is a picture of Deer Lake Park in Burnaby when was there by myself yesterday.

D'Angelo - "Untitled"

I have known this song for a long time and have always liked the sensuality of the video. Great song with even a better video. Simple and really forces you to see the details. Here's yours truly:

D'Angelo "Untitled (How Does It Feel)"

More Videos

This is CLASSIFIED Information

More songs and videos from Classified. 1) Find Out (pretty interest video) 2) Unexplainable Hunger feat. Royce da 5'9 and Choclair



Unexplainable Hunger

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to e achieved.”

W.J. Bryan



Find more info on Royce Da 5'9" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royce_Da_5'9%22

All About You - Classified

I love this song by Nova Scotia's rapper aka Classified called "All About You" featuring Chad Hatcher on the guitar. Pretty typical Canadian rap though. Reminds me a lot of Vancouver's own Sweatshop Union under the Battle Axe Record label.

Craving For More Information 24/7

Ever since I came back from China & Taiwan in November, I have had this vast craving for more information about everything and anything. It could be from music, movies, and football all the way to traveling, human rights, and Bay of Pigs invasion.

My friend Nick gave me a copy of a December issue of The Economist titled "Don't Mess with Russia" and I got soo hooked on it so I went out to buy another copy of the The Economist last week. Not gonna lie to you, but a lot of info in there do not make sense to me. Perhaps I just don't understand the significance of it. However, I prefer facts over fictions so it's interesting to read about the world's economy and GDP as well as rankings for economic growth. In addition, the mag also has articles you could expect to see in The Reader's Digest.

I went to the public library for the first time since....um... university to get a book on Australia last week in order to prepare for my trip a year from now. When they swiped my card, apparently I am "Damian Harper". The funniest thing is that the lady behind the desk was surprised that I am not Damian Harper.

She flat out asked me, "Oh, you are not Damian Harper?"

I didn't know what to think though I wanted to laugh, as it is a pretty ridiculous question. (she was actually serious and looked confused)

First, I don't look anything white. Second, I am Chinese (or Taiwanese, same shyte different pile).

She was brown and I am guessing that she could be Fijian, as she didn't have the Punjabi accent in her tone.

On a different subject, it was my sister's bday today and I didn't wish her happy bday. (not until 5 mintues before midnight). My mom got upset at me for not doing that.

It just feels a bit awkward to wish her happy bday because I have never been close to her. We used to fight a lot as kids, but I have barely spoken to her since I left for university about 6.5 years ago. We have different interest in everything. I just got nothing to really say to her, except for when I am upset at her and lash out at her.

I find it hard to say sorry to the people closest to me or express my feelings and thoughts to them. Is it the ego or just a male thing? It's kinda ironic that I am telling the world all this and I don't even know all of you at all, yet I can't say this stuff to the people closest to me. How f'ed up is that???

I am not much of a holiday person or a bday person. I dont really celebrate anything. To me, all those celebrations/days are just another day in a year.

There are more important things out there. Am I so wrong?

I am not a politically correct person, but I am pretty sensitive to people saying Merry Xmas to me. I never say that to others around the holiday season because I know a lot of people don't celebrate it.

I certainly don't really celebrate Xmas. I am just happy to have time off from work. Therefore I always say Happy Holidays to others. You could never be wrong or insensitive that way! I guess I play it safe! The corporate world has taught me well!

Feb 2, 2007 From the Vancouver Sun on The Roots

So I could not have written this better myself and I am not even gonna try. Here's Amy's take from The Vancouver Sun on that great Thursday night in downtown Vancouver.

Roots deliver a high-energy and passionate live show

By AMY O’BRIAN, Vancouver SunPublished: Friday, February 02, 2007

Their entrance alone was a good sign The Roots were going to put on a show above and beyond most shows.
At 11:15 p.m., the distinctive sound of a cowbell rang out from the back of The Commodore. The beat was followed by horns, guitar and a tambourine as the stars of the night wound their way through the mass of 1,000 respectful fans.

Instead of doing the standard untouchable rock-star backstage entrance, the 10 members of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group blended with the audience, setting the stage for what was to be a remarkable night of high-energy musical inclusiveness, innovation and democracy.
The Roots may fall under the hip hop lable, but on Thursday night they incorporated ‘70s rock, a Bob Dylan anti-war anthem, James Brown, Wu Tang Clan, The Police and even Justin Timberlake into their two-hour-plus, non-stop-energy set.

Every band member got a chance to showcase their skills -- from the masterful tuba player to the sometimes Hendrix-esque guitarist to the keyboardist who provided the recognizable hooks to a medley of hip hop songs that was a brilliant live version of what a DJ might spin on his turntables.
The band has a well-deserved reputation for putting on unforgettable live shows, so it was no surprise that Thursday’s show and Friday’s follow-up were both sold out, but it’s not every concert you find scalpers outside asking (and getting) $200 for a ticket.
Those prices are rare, but understandable for a show that had more highlights than can be squeezed into this review.

Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson led the operation, nodding and winking signals to the other band members from behind his drum kit.
In front of him, his old high school class mate and the other original member of the band, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, slammed out lyrics at a furious pace.
Surrounding them, four horns swooned and blared (the sax player was wearing a Ramones tee-shirt), while another percussionist further strengthened the beats, and two guitarists provided the bass line and a healthy dose of electric energy.

Black Thought was glistening with sweat by the end of the first song and was soon rid of his parka and toque, stripped down to just his “Legendary Roots” tee-shirt and jeans.
The first 45 minutes were solid, but when the horns disappeared for a break early in the set, the sound seemed briefly empty.

By midnight though, the horns had returned and the crowd was sufficiently warmed up for a genius medley of other artists’ work. With just a tuba, keyboard, drums and Black Thought’s MC-ing, the band referenced -- in rapid succession -- Nas to Biz Markie’s Just a Friend to Old Dirty Bastard, Wu Tang Clan, Tribe Called Quest, Lil Jon, and finally Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s Push It. (Not that I would have been able to identify all the artists, but I was in the good company of a friend who doubles as something of a hip hop encyclopedia.)

A little later, ?uestlove announced the band would be performing something “a little different” that they had only performed once before at a Bob Dylan tribute concert. He said they wanted to play again because of their feelings towards the war in Iraq.
At that point, the guitarist launched into the lyrics to Dylan’s Masters of War, sung to the tune of the American anthem and accompanied by ?uestlove, who beat his drums rhythmically but gently with his eyes shut.

From there, the songs melded seamlessly from one to the next in a buoyant stream of cohesive -- astounding -- jamming. A flute came out for their Grammy-award winning You Got Me. There was a taste of Don’t Say Nothin’ and the newer track In the Music.
Then at 1:10 a.m., the band said a superficial “goodnight,” sending the unrelentingly eager crowd into an encore frenzy (one girl pulled up her shirt to expose her breasts).

They came back out and played a fantastic -- yet weird -- rendition of The Police hit, Roxanne. (They must have heard the rumour that Sting and the boys are in town rehearsing for their Grammy reunion). They then gave the audience a taste of The Seed -- a fan favourite -- before launching into one last jam that was so passionate I wondered if they weren’t heading off to play some other club until the sun came up.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=f734fc3e-6665-48a8-a477-9a112efa167d

The Roots Concert - Feb 1st, 2007 Commodore

Just got back from seeing The Roots concert last night. It was unreal. A 6 men hip hop band with a total of 10 people on the stage last night just givin'er.

1 bass / electric
1 guitar / electric
1 trumpet
1 drummer (?uestlove)
1 Keyboard
1 vocal (Black Thought)
1 Trumbone
1 electric canned beats /drum?
1 saxophone
1 Tuba

At the end of the show, the crowd started chanting for encore and they came back to play for another 30 minutes starting with their own rendition of Roxanne.

The Roots reminds me a lot of a Canadian band called Pocketdwellers from Toronto. I would love to see Pocketdwellers again!