Mars Volta, The

I've been listening to this band for almost a straight month now. Oddly enough I listened to them since their debut but now I can't stop. I guess they fit the mood somehow! They are labelled as experimental rock (progressive, jazz, hard rock). I don't particularly care for labels and styles in music so to me it's rock and roll (baby!) I've been wondering why I loved these guys and it must be because simply they blend perfectly more hard rock-ish moments with calm jazzy moments. Cedric Bixler-Zavala's lyrics wraps it all up perfectly for me: they make very little sense at first which forces the listener to find meaning. Often I'm just amazed at the drums, bass and guitars in the songs. Saw them live once and wish to see them again soon... although the chances of them coming to Seoul are slim. Five studio albums in six years and apparently countless songs stored in hard drives somewhere. These guys are inspired to say the least!
Youtube : Toazted.com interview part 1, Toazted.com interview part 2, Toazted.com interview part 3

Youtube: Henry Rollins show - Tetragrammaton part 1, part 2

	De-loused in the Comatorium (2003) Their first album and probably the best one to start listening if new to the band. 8.5/10

	Frances the Mute (2005) Their second album with three of my favorite songs from them: l'via l'viasquez, Cassandra Geminni and Tarantism. 9/10
	Amputechture (2006) They just keep albums rolling! This one for some reason I did not listen to until now and I wonder why I did not appreciate it the first time. The almost 17 minutes long Tetragrammaton is worth a listen! 8/10
	Bedlam in Goliath, The (2008) Probably their heaviest sounding record and wow what a treat. Yet again they manage to blend in jazzy elements with more hardcore moments. Brilliant. 9/10
	Octahedron (2009) Their most commercial effort up to date. You have to listen to Cotopaxi especially the drumming! Very heavy and straight to the point, which is good once in a while! 8/10

www.theauteurs.com

Debile comme site - on peut streamer des films au complets. D'ailleurs en voici un que je vais regarder bientot:
The Housemaid (Kor.1960) - restore en plus!

lien Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Housemaid

Random thoughts part 6 (?_?)

Saw the movie Confucious - total waste of time

Went to Bukchon in Seoul - traditional houses /village in the middle of Seoul. Very nice and I went in the coolest cafe ever!

Best music when traveling: The Grammatics (merci Richard!)
Best music when travelling and its sunny: Bob Marley!
Crossing a bridge in Seoul's Metro on a sunny day while listening to Street Spirit (Radiohead): Priceless

W Burger chain in Gangnam - best burger in Seoul!

Photos Taipei 2010

Et voilà:

link

Finally a post!

Been a while! Well I should've posted my pics of Taipei by now on Facebook or here but it's too tiring to select the best ones so it will have to wait! For now I'll say that Taipei rocked. I'd like to say that Taiwan rocks but I just basically had time to visit the capital city and a nice little village near it called Wulai. So I'll come back to this later. Let's just say that the temperature was crazy (around 29-32) and Taipei is more opened to the world than Seoul (well in the case of Taiwan they don't really have a choice for political reasons). Yet it's clearly Chinese and although I haven't been to communist China, I know that I've experienced Chinese culture at least once :)

Recent movies seen:
Precious (US-2009) - extremely harsh subject, cliche by times, but the director/writer did an amazing job of at least putting on the table a wide variety of social problems in the US right now and it opens up the ground for discussion. The movie goes from bad to worse and then some! But it's somewhat optimistic in the end...

Mother (Kor-2009) - this is my favorite movie since a while now. I'll write more about it later on - I did not finish my analysis!

Fish Story (Jap-2009) - incredibly absurd story spanning a couple of generations with the band behind a song called Fish Story as common thread. Basically a comet will hit earth in the present time and a record shop owner plays the Fish Story album. Common thread is exposed. The story is so crazy you have to just see it! One of the weirdest movies I've seen in a while; but weird in a good way!

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Saw Hurt Locker, was ok but Oscar worthy? let's relax here... wow! Hollywood lost it big time! Politrics win the day.