Three Finger Fret

I caught a French movie called Tell No One. It was a little slow but gripping at the same time. It was slow for the right reasons and done very appropriately although it seemed unnecessary. I’m sure if everything were sped up to Hollywood-like pace, it wouldn’t have made such an impact. The movie reminded me a little bit of Harrison Ford’s The Fugitive. It’s not an art house movie where you see flashes of images and you don’t get what’s happening. It’s a feature length about a guy who lost his wife but was suspected for murdering her.

It’s awesome how international movies are a norm here and one could catch it any time. I mean, there I was, watching a French movie on a normal Tuesday night. It wasn’t a part of a film fest or anything like that. Melbourne is just that artsy and I love it for that.

On another note, I just feel that my last finger on my left hand is very weak. It’s my fretting hand and I mostly use only three fingers to play most single notes when needed. I feel handicapped. The wrist injury doesn’t help either. Every time I practice my pinky, it’ll hurt. It’s abnormal. It’s a big bummer really as I feel very limited with my playing. It frustrates me!

I guess I’m just the type to always cry over split milk. On the other hand I’m the type where I’ll tell myself, what’s done is done, move on and work around the limitations. I’m just at conflict with myself all the time. It frustrates me!

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Connections

Alda and I were talking about Internet connection speeds earlier and we were comparing the speeds between TM’s broadband and my iinet broadband. A friend did a connection speed test on my system and he said that my connection is actually slower than the connection in Malaysia. I believed him because he’s the IT guru! The best I know. Is it surprising though?

Logically, I’m just taking telecommunications as a fair comparison. The telcos in India are more advanced than Malaysia and many other established countries in the world. Why? Because they implemented the technology later than Malaysia. I know this because my colleagues set up a few radio stations in India a while ago. In terms of wireless technology, a good comparison would be between Australia and Malaysia. Our mobile phone network providers are more advanced than the ones here in Australia. Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m signed up with Optus and it’s supposed to be one of the top networks here, but the coverage just isn’t that great. I can’t even hold a decent conversation in my apartment. I mean, this is where I live man! I need to be able to be contacted and have a line clear enough to hold a decent conversation! Maxis however, which I have been loyally subscribed to for almost my whole mobile phone life, has an extensive coverage even if I were to go into a basement, two floors underground. Of course, admittedly Celcom has the best coverage in Malaysia. You could go a few thousand meters above sea level, up a mountain, in the middle of nowhere and you could still get coverage for Celcom. Insane!

Anyway, coming back to Internet. I just thought to myself, why complain? Imagine those times way back when we were on dial up. Things were so different then. Life was much simpler those days. But then again, we won’t be able to do what we do with broadband today. Comparing dial up and broadband just makes me feel very contented with what I currently have.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Can't Be Bothered To Write A Title. How's That For A Title?

I managed to get some writing done in my Moleskine earlier today. I caught up with some friends. I went to a pretty cool gig at Roxanne, which gave me some new ideas and inspiration. I was in two cafes and a new gig venue today. All in all, I'm pretty happy about how I went about my Friday.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Soundwave Festival

This one is for those who will be in Melbourne in Feb 08. There's this awesome music festival coming to the Melbourne Showgrounds and I was wondering whether anyone will be interested to go together? As far as I know, not many of my friends are into this kind of music.
Here's a link to check out what it's all about and have a look at the band list. Half of the bands there are my favourites which makes it worth going even if I were to go on my own.
The early bird price is only $99 for the awesome line up. So yeah, if anyone wants to go, let me know! Cheers!
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Midweek

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already. Where did the weekend go? Where did the first half of the week go? Let me think.

Saturday was the picnic. Sunday was the dance performance at Fed Square. Monday, first half of thesis presentations. Tuesday, second half of presentations and farewell drinks. Looking back, a lot happened and it happened way too quickly. Somehow I still feel a little unproductive, musically.

I finished up the guide tracks for Venus and Hey You last week, but since Saturday I’ve done nothing much music related. Oh well, life has to be balanced out I guess. I just have to remind myself that I can’t have it all. Take one step at a time and just enjoy every moment and have no regrets.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The End Of An Era

It's the end of an era! It is final! Today is probably the last time I'll ever see all my classmates, all at once as today was officially the last day of classes and presentations ever. Six classmates out of sixteen went ahead to finish up their thesis and presented yesterday and today. It's all over for them and they've got a whole load off their chest. The rest have decided not to do the thesis at all and as for me, I'll be presenting my thesis in April because I lost all my work when my hard drive burnt into flames!
We hung out after presentations at the local pub for the longest time! Our lecturer and the external examiner was there too. I had a great time just hanging out. One regret though, was that we should have hung out more as a whole class with our lecturer. I will be seeing some more than others as we normally hang out anyway but I hope we'll be able to have gatherings in future.
Again, another emo moment. Another phase of our lives over and we're all going to move on to different parts of the world and take on separate paths. It's been a great journey. I'll be sticking around for sure to present my thesis in April. So from now till then, I've got to slave on my thesis!
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Notebook






I got myself my very own Moleskine today, along with a Lamy pen that felt and looked really good at the time of testing. I just found out that the pen is too inky and it bleeds through the page! It turns out that the Moleskine paper is very fussy. My favourite gel pens and this Lamy pen just ain't good enough for it. Plus, I hate normal ball pens. So what now?
This purchase was supposed to be one to inspire. New things inspire me but this one has sorta shifted the attention on superficial things, such as pen choice!
Maybe it's back to Parker ball pens? I don't really care about the brand, as long as the pen is comfortable and writes smoothly, I'll be happy.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Nerves

I’ve got my grip back on things now. It’s still overwhelming to look ahead at the tasks that I have to complete but at least things are more manageable in my head now.

You know how some people have a fear of commitment when it comes to relationships? I don’t have that problem but I think I have something quite similar to that, feelings wise. I think I fear making official calls. Maybe it’s because I’m out of practice. I tend to think that official calls are supposed to be very formal but the person on the other end of the line won’t really know who I am anyway, so what am I so nervous about? I used to make around 50 official calls a day and now I’m chicken shit when I have to call up the medical centre to make an appointment for my medical check up.

I never had a problem in making an appointment with the doctor though, if I have a flu or fever. I’d just pick up the phone, make an appointment and go. Maybe the sound of a “medical check up” scares me. Maybe I’m afraid if the results show me that I’ve got some weird disease?

Maybe I’m afraid that the standard procedure requires a blood test. Blood tests scare the daylight out of me. I can’t the fact that they have to draw blood from you. It’s not the needle that I’m afraid of, it’s the blood. I almost died when I saw the nurse put those needles in my dad’s veins when he was in the hospital some time back.

So yeah, I get stressed up easily when it comes to the weirdest things. It runs in the family, I tell you. My dad doesn’t like going to banks because he feels that people might think he’s a robber. I mean, to us, it seems like the most irrational thing to think as he doesn’t even look like anything close to a robber but I guess it’s all in the mind and I understand how that feels like.

Oh well, despite all that drama, I still sorted everything out and I’ve got my appointment tomorrow. So I shall get me some shut eye now and be up fresh for the check up. The good thing is, according to the requirements listed on the medical centres website, they do not require a blood test. Fingers crossed!

What are your fears? I told you mine, now it’s your turn.

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Pictures From Paramore



Mayday Parade - www.myspace.com/maydayparade



Paramore - www.myspace.com/paramore

This one's for you Bryan. Sorry to hear you didn't make it to the show man. It was awesome man! Hayley can really sing live!

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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Self Discovery

I'm the type where I can't seem to keep things to myself. No, I don't mean that I like to gossip. I like sharing stuff. I mean, if I know of something good, I’d pass it on. If I found a new band, I’d like to tell someone about how cool they sound. But then again, not everyone wants to be on the receiving end of my sharing. Different people have different tastes in music and I can’t shove it down their throats. I shouldn’t get upset if they don’t dig what I dig. I can’t help it though because I’m passionate about music. It’s the blood in my veins.

I also found that I need to share my frustration. I can’t keep it inside because if I do, I’d explode and that’ll be a lot worse for the people around me. But hey, if people don’t even want to be on the receiving end of good things, why would they want to lend me their ears so I could release and feel better?

I feel heaps better once I’ve said my share. Then, everything fades away and everything becomes better. It’s as if nothing ever happened.

I also found that I feel inspired when I’m down or angry. That’s when I’d have things to say! So, that’s when I’d end up writing a lot. In some weird way, if I remain pissed off all the time, I’d probably be very productive and write a whole album in a short frame of time. But I can’t be mad all the time. There’s room for the good stuff as well.

Again, different people are inspired in different ways. Different people deal differently. Some keep thoughts deep inside, some scream about them.

Another way to stay inspired is to incorporate change. I need a journal. A hard copy. I need to write. At least, in a private journal, I could say whatever I want to say, when no one wants to listen and no one has to ever read it. It's a win-win situation. That way, the crap songs will not surface. Haha.

There’s no end to self discovery. That’s for sure.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Tribute

I initially wanted to post pictures from my visit to the Pixar exhibition and the Paramore gig but I decided to write about something else instead.
My good friend's brother recently passed away due to liver cancer and it has been a difficult time for him and his family. I attended the funeral last night and it was overwhelming as I didn't really know what to say to my friend. No words can seem to comfort, so I hope by being there was comfort enough.
I was recording with Leon earlier yesterday before the funeral and I told him about it. Leon said that as we grow older, we will see more of these things and we have to just get used to it. It's part and parcel of life. Somehow, it's a very simple concept, yet it's so difficult to fathom.
To us, my friend's brother has gone to a better place to spend eternal life with our Father in heaven. It is not goodbye, but merely a farewell because we will all meet again one day and dance on streets of gold. Rest in peace, Eric.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Broken Drama

This video is Part 3 of Episode 5 from a local tv series by redfilms called Kami. Broken Scar's song, Venus In September appears in this episode at around 5:17 in the above video. I love the series and I think redfilms makes really cool movies and tv programs. You should check them out too.

Click here to check out their website for info and stuff.

The series goes on air every Wednesday at 10pm on 8TV. If you miss it, you can alays check them out on youtube. Enjoy!


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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

The Barbukka Sessions


Notice the double bass in the background. If only Alda was the one playing it.



I had a blast playing at the Barbukka last night. The sound system was so awesome that I was having a concert of my own on the stage within my own space! The lights were brilliant too. They had like 7 moving heads which made it feel even more like a full blown concert. It's times like these that I wish my bandmates were playing with me.

The most important thing though, were the people who showed up! Thanks heaps for coming and singing along to my songs! The lights were so blinding I couldn't see the crowd, but I could definitely hear them loud and clear!

Huge thanks to Pam Hall for having me at the gig. It was a blast!


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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Sticky Post: Broken Scar Live @ Barbukka

Venue: Barbukka. 279, Smith Street. Fitzroy.
If you are taking the tram, take the 86 tram towards Bundoora, on Bourke Street. Get off at stop
18-Hodgson St/Smith St (Fitzroy)

Date: 10 October 2007 (Wednesday)

Time: 8pm

Performers: Broken Scar, Pam and others.

Cost: To be confirmed. It's probably $5.


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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Rollercoaster Weekend

There goes the weekend again and it’s almost the end of Monday already. It was pretty interesting, I guess.

I went to see Paramore and Mayday Parade on Friday which was filled with mixed feelings. I really enjoyed the bands but the venue was a pain.

On Saturday I went had a really nice late breakfast because the food was awesome, but the vibe wasn’t as good as the previous times I went to that particular café. Once of the staff was rude and the overall vibe just wasn’t right. To top it off, two of the patrons seated around us found plastic in their food!

Sunday came and it started off very rocky as I felt I didn’t do such a great job with mixing at church. I was dead tired by Sunday too and that made me really grumpy around lunchtime. Lunch wasn’t too bad although the restaurant was a bit under-staffed and the service wasn’t that great. It really got better when I went to the State Theater to watch a musical called 42nd Street! The lights, music, cast and everything about it was brilliant. It was simply awesome! Plus the coffee there was fantastic!

In the spirit of the arts, I headed to the Pixar 20th Anniversary exhibition earlier today. I wish photography were permitted inside because the displays were really cool. It’s amazing how much work goes into an animation production. It was a little pricy but I guess it’s the experience that counts.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

If It Never Happened

People make mistakes and it can only go two ways. It could either destroy you if you allow it to consume you or it will make you twice as strong if you choose to rise above the situation. Today, I had to make the decision to choose the latter.
Today, I felt like I've made a few mistakes and it almost swallowed me whole. It's not that big a deal though, it would have been forgotten 3 minutes after it happened, but I knew exactly what it was. It eats me up inside to know that I was responsible for a potential disaster.
In the eyes of the multitudes, nothing close to a disaster was even detected but there was a minority who knew what was happening. It doesn't help that I am my biggest critic too. But it's time to stop kicking myself because if these mistakes weren't made now, I would have never learnt.
Like a baby, we trip, we fall but in the following seconds, we pick ourselves up, continue walking in stride and in no time, we'd be running. This doesn't mean that we will never trip again though but when we do, we could look back and realise that we can easily pick ourselves up again. Plus, if it weren't for these little mistakes here and there to keep ourselves in check, we'd never know what to look out for.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Mayday! Venue Stinks!

You know what's the worst thing about gigs? Drunkards! Yes, that's right. Bloody drunkards! It's great that you are having a good time and it really helps the bands play better too with a wild crowd but watch out for people around you. Don't be an idiot and fall over like a dufus. If you can't hold your drink, then don't drink.
There's a line between a "good" wild crowd that is really into a band and a "stupid" wild crowd that is drunk anyway and couldn't careless about the band. The latter distracts the bands.
I have nothing against drinking, drink all you want. Pass out on the floor, look stupid, appear in the news, be the loser that you are for all I care, but don't take innocent people down with you. Simple.
I used to love the Billboard, but after tonight, everything changed. The old bouncers were real cool. Now, they're just like anywhere else, plain crap bouncers. The crowd is crap. The ticketing is crap. Plus, worst of all, the sound wasn't spot on as always. It was just average during Paramore's and Mayday Parade's sets. Despite Paramore's and Mayday Parede's awesome sets, the venue was a big let down.
Oh well, there goes another good venue, gone down the classic, "we're, oh, so cool now, we can treat everyone like crap and slack off" drain.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

Classics

I was watching Def Leppard's, the making of Hysteria DVD from the Classic Albums series earlier today. I love the Classic Albums series simply because of its awesome format.
The DVD is a documentary, taking us through the making of each song on the album and featuring interviews with the band members, producers, managers and various people involved in the making of the classic record. The cool part about this series is that there will always be segments where the band members will show us different parts of a song such as the instrumentation, vocal parts, effects and various nuances in the recording by solo-ing a particular track or raising certain tracks to make them sound more obvious. It's such an eye opener watching them point things out.
I've watched a few DVDs from this series now and I've bought a few more that I have yet to watch. Some of these titles include Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Queen and Nirvana.
It makes me wonder though, do bands make classic albums these days? Are there any albums made today that stand out as a potential classic in ten years to come? I mean, Def Leppard's Hysteria defined the 80's. What defines the 90's and now? There's heaps of great music out there, but at the moment, nothing seems to compare to these great classics, regardless or genre.
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar

I Want It All!

This is a constant struggle of late. When I am really busy, tied up with lots to do, I tell myself that I should take a break, relax and recharge before I re-enter the madness. But the moment I get into that "I shall do nothing" mode, I kick myself for doing nothing and wasting the day away where I could have done something productive.
The weekends are the best examples. When Monday comes, I'd either tell myself, "man, I should have just slept more, watch more DVDs or simply, do nothing more" or "man, why did I sleep the weekend away, I could have done this and that".
So, the conclusion is I want it all. I've probably said this a million times and I'm still struggling with it. I know clearly that I can't have it all, but it doesn't stop me from wanting it all.
The objective and wise way to curb this issue is balance. As an audio engineer and musician, I've always been taught that balance (and communication) is everything. Maybe all this while I've been hearing, but not listening. It's clearer than ever now that I see the balance in its abstract form. I understand the concept now. But I only apply this concept of balance in music and audio. It should be as easy as crossing the concept over to life in general but somehow, I still struggle. Hopefully, in a few years time, when I read this post, I could go, "it is that easy".
So here I am, still thinking whether I should watch a DVD and unwind, or do something more productive. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
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Broken Scar's album, Midnight In St. Kilda is available on www.mytracks.com/brokenscar




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    Who Is Broken Scar:


    Loves Jesus. Singer. Guitarist. Songwriter. Audio Engineer. Producer. Wears band t-shirts. Wears red t-shirts. Based in Melbourne.



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