Pain

“Lib” just won 2-0, so it's the time for the late pre-match interview again :)

Martin Skrtel: I'll make Everton feel pain
“Pain is part of being a footballer. If you don’t like it then you are in the wrong job. When you play in the centre of defence you have to be prepared for pain.”

It's not that I like pain very much. No, it's totally the opposite. But the mention of it by MS is just befitting with the Naruto story right now. One of the major antagonists is named Pain, and he/they/she/? has/have been getting a major screentime for these last couple of months. His goal? That's right, to bring pain into his (manga) world (here and here).

In the meantime, we're top of the league (at least, for a very short moment until the 10pm SGT matches kick off).

Victory!

Of course, this blog won't have been here had we not beat the devil deservedly just now!

Journalist: Some comments were made by Alex Ferguson about Robbie Keane and the price you paid for him — were they ill-timed?

RB: I think he was surprised about the price because he was cheap. They paid around £30m for Berbatov, Rooney or Ferdinand — or even £35m for Tevez. That is maybe where the surprise came from. [pre-match interview from the official site]

It's not unusual for RB to be “ji-ji-hi-hi” when responding to journalists. This certainly adds to his repertoire, along with “crystal ball” and “rushing to hospital”.
[“ji-ji-hi-hi” is a hakka phrase. (Un)Fortunately I've no idea what the English translation looks like. If you want to know the meaning, go learn hakka :P]

I was late by 10 minutes after buying my dinner, and already the score was 0-1! Which made me so anxious and finishing my meal like crazy in just a few big scopes. But everything is now so so rosy :D. Because it's 2-1 — yeah yeah I know that burying THE most important information is NOT a good writing style. But heck, who cares, at least for now...

It's just a joy to see wave-after-wave of attacks from our left side. Yep, left side, which was the weakest point up until the prior match two weeks ago. No LFC fan would have dreamed to say this before. And what's more is the sight of seeing SG, FT, and (the little) RB warming up! Just show how strong we're now (boasting mode on). And DK, despite all the critics, was involved in several LFC's most dangerous attacks — his assist is obvious and need not be mentioned anymore!

And the Monster. A special paragraph for him who was just on the mission; probably to pay back his red-card contribution in the last season's match against the devil in OT.

It's music time

[Original Post at my Blogs | My Blogs]

Title	:	Classical Music for Dummies
Authors	:	David Pogue and Scott Speck
Preface by	:	Zarin Mehta (Zubin Mehta's brother; Zubin is a well-known conductor who happened to lead a performance at Singapore in 2005, IIRC)
Foreword by	:	Glenn Dicterow (violinist and concert master)
ISBN	:	978-0764550096

This book is by far the most hilarious title of the “For Dummies” series, out of ones I've read. Which implies it's the best “For Dummies” for me, to date.

Iyep, that's right, pu(1) chuo(4). Perhaps the authors want to dispel the impression that classical music is boring, difficult to understand, and not fun. Or even sadistic — ever watch movies on Sicilian mafia where godfathers seem to have a penchant for this kind of music?

Here are some examples from the book.

On when to clap:

• the conductor puts down his hands and keep them down
• all the players onstage put down their instruments
• everyone around you starts clapping
• the concert hall lights come up
• the players exit the stage, carrying their instruments
• the entire audience leaves the auditorium
• the cleaning crew comes in and begins to mop the stage

On why conductors occasionally ignore the tempo specified by composers:

As a result, in the past century, conductors have felt free to treat the metronome marking only as a starting point — or even to ignore it completely. Beethoven's symphonies, for example, are virtually always played at a slower tempo than Beethoven himself specified. Tradition, along with various theories about the condition of the old man's metronome (not to mention his brain cells), has had generations of musicians to contradict poor Ludwig's specifications.

There's another one on violin: of course you want to play it with the accompany of X. Except that X is dead. [Can't recall X's name, but X is supposed to be a famous pianist.]

Other jokes are thrown here-and-there too, though some feels a bit “crispy” (Indonesian slang for rather-dry jokes). Like these ones on violin vs viola (note: a viola is simply a slightly larger version of a violin):

• Q: what's the difference between violins and violas?
  A: violas can burn longer
  
• Q: how many vioalas are needed to change a lightbulb?
  A: none, they can't reach that high.

Oh, you can find the book at Pageone@vivocity. Disclaimer: I'm in no way associated with the bookstore.