Decadence!!
Today, at the risk of snubbing my Chinese horoscope reading (Curb your spending: your finances will be unstable!), I did two very decadent things. Not that I haven’t been decadent in the last two weeks travelling Hong Kong and Amsterdam. But today was bordering on irrational, even if I can (and will now proceed to) justify both actions.
The first was to redeem 25,000 Krisflyer miles for a flight to Hongkong this Saturday for the sole purpose of watching David Sylvian in concert at the HITEC Exhibition Hall in Kowloon.
Having never thought that I would be crazy enough a fan to do this, I hesitated for a couple of weeks before confirming the flight. After all, I was only just in Hong Kong two weeks ago, and had pretty much exhausted the shopping and clubbing options. And it really seems ridiculous to travel 4 hours by plane just for a concert… I thought only sign-waving groupies did that.
But even though it was K. who can really lay claim to having discovered Sylvian when we were in JC, I’ve realised that I have over the years become a bigger and bigger fan of his music. I now systematically track down and buy all his output, including his new unfathomable limited edition album with the waves crashing amidst Japanese traditional singing (J.’s reaction upon testing the first few minutes at HMV: “No sound, I thought spoil”) . And where I used to have a largely aesthetic appreciation of tuneless songs packaged in arty arrangements and exquisitely textured paper, many of his songs now genuinely connect now that I’m older.
The news of G.’s death last week also made me think about how short life is. One minute he was cooking soup in the kitchen, the next minute his heart had stopped. The last time I watched Sylvian was 15 years ago in London, and he rarely tours, let alone come out to Asia. Already, he’s cancelled 3 shows after falling ill on the road. Considering either of us might not even be alive 15 years from now, this could be my last chance to catch him in the flesh. So this concert is Limited Edition, I have reasoned to myself, like so many of his heartstoppingly beautiful CDs.
The other hugely decadent thing I did today was buy an Apple iTouch (no need for a picture, surely). I totally don’t need one, of course. Except it is:
- WiFi for “social networking” on the go
- a fairly large-sized screen for porn on the go
- a thing that plays my favorite songs on the go
- unbelievably beautiful
- a much better match than my Nano for those ridiculously-priced Bose earphones.
And my sister says I’m shallow…
The first was to redeem 25,000 Krisflyer miles for a flight to Hongkong this Saturday for the sole purpose of watching David Sylvian in concert at the HITEC Exhibition Hall in Kowloon.
Having never thought that I would be crazy enough a fan to do this, I hesitated for a couple of weeks before confirming the flight. After all, I was only just in Hong Kong two weeks ago, and had pretty much exhausted the shopping and clubbing options. And it really seems ridiculous to travel 4 hours by plane just for a concert… I thought only sign-waving groupies did that.But even though it was K. who can really lay claim to having discovered Sylvian when we were in JC, I’ve realised that I have over the years become a bigger and bigger fan of his music. I now systematically track down and buy all his output, including his new unfathomable limited edition album with the waves crashing amidst Japanese traditional singing (J.’s reaction upon testing the first few minutes at HMV: “No sound, I thought spoil”) . And where I used to have a largely aesthetic appreciation of tuneless songs packaged in arty arrangements and exquisitely textured paper, many of his songs now genuinely connect now that I’m older.
The news of G.’s death last week also made me think about how short life is. One minute he was cooking soup in the kitchen, the next minute his heart had stopped. The last time I watched Sylvian was 15 years ago in London, and he rarely tours, let alone come out to Asia. Already, he’s cancelled 3 shows after falling ill on the road. Considering either of us might not even be alive 15 years from now, this could be my last chance to catch him in the flesh. So this concert is Limited Edition, I have reasoned to myself, like so many of his heartstoppingly beautiful CDs.
The other hugely decadent thing I did today was buy an Apple iTouch (no need for a picture, surely). I totally don’t need one, of course. Except it is:
- WiFi for “social networking” on the go
- a fairly large-sized screen for porn on the go
- a thing that plays my favorite songs on the go
- unbelievably beautiful
- a much better match than my Nano for those ridiculously-priced Bose earphones.
And my sister says I’m shallow…
posted by rookcub at
8:41 AM
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