All time favorite singer, 譚詠麟 (Alan).
Photoshop CS5 Content-Aware Fill – Super Cool!
The following video shows off some amazing features in new Photoshop CS5. Adobe does listen to what users need the most. Retouching photos becomes so easy. “Your imagination is the only limit”, that seems more real than before.
Here is one Youtube user said about the feature,
What the crap?!?!? That is just amazing… I’m sure by CS10, you won’t even have to take pictures or download them… all you have to do is type ‘beach’ and a beach will appear in 3D…
European Champions League Final – Bayern vs. Inter
It’s quite a boring game indeed. The excitements, Inter’s regain of European Champion after 45 years, the magic of Mourinho, are outside the court. Inter basically gave up the ball control to Bayern and Bayern had no way, or talent, to break Inter’s defence. Without Ribéry, Robben was the only one who could threat Inter’s goal. Those German players, who are always much more powerful in their national team than in the club, just passed the ball around but couldn’t making any meaningful penetration. Their defenders are no match to Milito, who played no trick, just fast and calm. Argentina’s forward lineup are unbelievably strong this year for the world cup.
Nike’s “Write the Future” commercial is awesome.
Rach 3 Live!
It’s my first time to list to the live performance of Rach 3 two days ago. Known for its difficulty and ferocious movements, Rach 3 is considered as one of most demanding pieces by many virtuosos. The music never disappoints me. My hand is compulsive to move with the player’s fingers during the rampaging parts, but the romantic parts open up like the fresh sky. To me, listening to Rach 3 is a healing process.
However, I couldn’t enjoy Shostakovich‘s Symphony No. 15. Very low and slow. People deem it as subtle and full of puzzles, but I couldn’t understand it.
Conductor/Performers
Valery Gergiev, conductor
Denis Matsuev, piano
Mariinsky Orchestra, formerly Kirov OrchestraProgram
Berlioz: Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15
如果你也听说 – 张惠妹
A-mei is my favorite female singer. This is not a new song, but it’s new to me. So powerful, so beautiful.
Avatar
Avatar not only won the best picture of the Golden Globes, it has surpassed Titanic and is setting the new world-wide box-office record every day. Looks like it will conquer the Oscar as well. James Cameron will stand on the top of the world again.
It’s a spectacular movie to watch when you put the 3-D glasses on. It is first movie that truly delivers the photo-real computer graphic. The world of Pandora is stunning scene by scene. The interaction between the characters and the environments are so believable, and you don’t realized the their world only exists in the computer. Besides the technical supreme, the film is brilliantly directed. It’s tight, balanced and fills the two and half hours with ceaseless actions.
However, it is also lucky for Cameron that there is no other movie this year can really challenge him. Putting Avatar in recent 10-year’s competition, its advantage would be pretty much diminished. (although I never thought Crash as a good movie, the nominations of 2005 was not bad). In terms of novelty and creativity, The Matrix challenges the audience visually at the same level and physiologically more. You can also see many similarities of other movies in Avatar. For example, both Titanic and Avatar can be divided into the first half of perfect and romantic theme, and the second half of conflicting and action theme. The turning points are exactly same, the two main characters make love. More creative people even merged Avatar trailer into Pocahontas. Comparing them side by side, it is really a piece of work.
Poor Kangaroo
I can’t help sharing this. The Poor kangaroo is certainly caught by surprise.
Sydney – Day 6 (2009/12/31)
It’s our last day in Sydney. At the morning, I had a walk in the Royal Botanic Garden in the area we didn’t visited last time. The garden is very big with a lot of exotic plants, and it’s free. I was frightened when I stepped into one corner of the garden. Hundreds of Flying Foxes hanging on the tree. They are the largest bats in the world. Although they are necessary for spreading seeds for plants, many palm trees have been destroyed by these over-populated bats. The Garden is planing to use noise disturbance to drive them away.
Half of the garden was blocked to prepare for the New Year Eve event. At 10AM, a lot of people have already waiting there in order to get the best spots. Too bad the following video is not shot by us, but the video is a good way to conclude my travel log of Sydney trip.
A Cool CCTV Commercial
Although I think it learns the idea from Harry Potter’s trailer, it is still very creative in the way of bringing in a lot of elements in Chinese culture.
Sarah Chang’s Concert in Napa
Sarah Chang, although not as well-known as Itzhak Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma, is recognized as one of the most talented and influential performers of the world. She earned her celebrity status in classic music since she was 10. By age 15, she has already collaborated with most major orchestras. Her album that plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto recorded with London Symphony Orchestra is one of first several classic music albums I bought and still remains as one of my favorite. I like her romantic interpretation of these master pieces. She played Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in Napa Valley Festival del Sole.
The following video was recorded when she was 15, playing the same piece.
