(Image from www.austinkleon.com.)

I enjoyed reading Austin Kleon’s “How to Steal Like and Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told me)”.

Some things can only be expressed with a fist clap.

I revisit Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes for SCMP. (Click on image for an easier to read version.)

I wish I could have gone to Singapore for the Biennale so that I could check out Ming Wong’s work. I really liked his show in Venice in 2009.

I wrote a review of Against Easy Listening at 1a Space for LEAP.

M sent me this song, “All the Places” by Made In Heights. Love it!

From SCMP:

Final countdown

After 20 years of rapping what many were thinking, controversial collective LMF are bowing out at a farewell show

Doretta Lau
Updated on Apr 03, 2011

The sitting room of Aroom Studio in Sham Shui Po is just big enough to hold seven of the nine members of Hong Kong band LMF, although not everyone can sit. They offer their guest a stool in the shape of an oversized dice.

Someone mutes the flat screen television, which is tuned to a Taiwanese telethon in support of the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. No one is smoking. Now and then someone gets up so another person can sit down on the denim couch.

Present: Prodip, MC Yan, Kit, Phat, DJ Tommy, Jimmy and Davy, who runs Aroom. Absent: Wah and Kevin.

A photo shoot has just wrapped up, and Prodip (the band’s bassist, graphic designer and leader) asks the photographer if he would like a poster (which he designed), and inquires whether the reporter would like something to drink. The other members sip iced tea from plastic takeaway containers, refuelling after a long day. It’s a Friday night, and the musicians have gathered to talk about their last-ever concert together, which takes place on Friday at Kitec’s Star Hall in Kowloon Bay.

The event marks the end of a five-album, 20-year journey for LMF (the acronym stands for Lazy Mutha F***a), whose ethos served as a much-needed counterpoint to commercial Canto-pop. “The band started in about 1991 or 92, when we were putting on underground shows,” says Prodip. “There were about five or six bands on each bill.

Near the end of the night, members from different bands would come together to jam. And that’s how LMF came together.”

In the beginning, they were a loose community, with musicians coming and going, including actor Sam Lee (Made in Hong Kong, Dog Bite Dog). Though LMF’s roots were in Hong Kong’s underground band scene, over time with the additions of emcees Kit and Phat, MC Yan and DJ Tommy (who placed second in the 1996 Technics world DJ championships) they began to fuse rock and metal with hip hop. “Our style hasn’t changed that much over time because we never paid attention to the mass market,” says Davy.

After releasing a debut album independently, the band signed with Warner in 1999, and put out a record with a title that loosely translates as Lazy Hall. One of the singles from the album, Hum Ga Ling was based around a Cantonese curse phrase against family, and the rhyming chorus mixed Chinese and English: “Hum ga ling ’ Hum ga ling ’ Do you know what the f*** I’m saying?”

For many, the swearing overshadowed the other content of the lyrics, even though the track was a critique of local tabloids, taking journalists to task for irresponsible reporting and sensationalism. The knee-jerk response was to dismiss the band’s music as an assemblage of “swear word songs”, rather than to listen to the music and acknowledge that the content dealt with pressing issues of the time. Some critics missed the fact that the songs were social commentary.

“We wanted to write songs that avoided the topic of love,” says MC Yan. “We wanted to discuss life, and examine our society.” LMF were saying - or rapping - what many were thinking, although in a brash and, at times, crude way. They were blunt and honest about their opinions - and they never let that get in the way of making a good song.

Debt, from the LP Crazy Children, explores family and Hong Kong’s post-colonial condition, questioning middle-class parenting decisions and values, and the impact of sending children abroad to be educated. I Love Hong Kong is a jazzy riff on the city’s pros and cons, including the lack of manners and awareness of its citizens. And lyrics aside, the band were capable of writing catchy hooks. At the core of it, the music provided a foundation for the ideas LMF wanted to explore.

“We’d get the music, and then we’d think about topics,” Kit says about the band’s songwriting process. “We’d think about our feelings on certain current events, and decide what to write.” No topic was too small or big to explore: Bruce Lee, education, bird flu, the missteps of politicians, the stock market, war, capitalism.

When their contract with Warner expired in 2003, the band decided to break up. “During our time with Warner, we did a lot,” says Davy.

“We were all tired, and it was the right time to stop. There were a lot of arguments with the label because we couldn’t agree on a direction.

They wanted us to do a lot of promotion, and we didn’t want to do any of it. We wasted a lot of time trying to communicate.” The members moved on to other projects.

Prodip continued with graphic design; MC Yan started a music label, radio station and a clothing line; Kit and Phat formed hip hop group 24 Herbs with other musicians; Davy continued to produce records at Aroom; Jimmy opened a shop selling BMX bikes; and DJ Tommy started his own company and produced tracks for a number of artists.

In 2009, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first album, LMF got together to record and release a single, Hold Your Middle Finger.

The next year, the group reunited for the Wild Lazy Tour, playing concerts in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia. Due to internet exposure, the band have gained a new audience. “There was a new group of young people at our concerts,” says Prodip.

The upcoming show in Hong Kong, called the LMF Finale, marks the end. So why is this the final concert? “We’re old ‘” several members say at the same time, and for about a minute everyone starts talking over one another, explaining why this is the concluding chapter. They reveal that there are two new songs that will be available for free download, but they are not sure when they will be ready.

They joke about titles of the yet to be released songs: The End of the World and The Final Swear Word Song. When asked about how they hoped their music had influenced their listeners, MC Yan says: “We hope that people became more open minded.”

As the interview draws to a close, everyone’s attention is drawn back to the telethon on TV. The band discusses the best way to help the people of Japan, and how money for previous tragedies and disasters has been handled from aid concerts to telethons. Their voices rise in a crescendo of ideas and opinions. “This is how we get our inspiration ‘” someone notes. “If society didn’t have problems, we’d have nothing to say,” says Prodip.

A deliveryman arrives with their dinner, but they politely abstain from opening up the fragrant bags. In the next room, the band Mister are waiting for Davy so they can continue recording their album. The interview is nothing more than a pause in the daily lives of the members of LMF, something now of their past. The group may be disbanding for good, but the community they created and fostered over the years continues to spread through their music, and through the projects they’ve taken on since. It’s not too shabby a legacy for a “lazy” bunch.

LMF Finale, April 8, 8.30pm, Star Hall, Kitec, 1Trademart Drive, Kowloon Bay, HK$280- HK$450 HK Ticketing. Inquiries: 3128 8288

I was writing about Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes for the South China Morning Post when I came across the funniest one-star review of the book:

This is a bad book. It is sad and a horrible book. Do not pick up this book. If you want to read it, now you know it is a bad book. I do not recommend it. If you are thinking of going to the book store and wasting your money on a book like this, forget about it. But I’ll tell you about it anyway. It is about a girl named Sadako who gets very sick. She has a friend named Chizuko. She is Sadako’s best friend. Sadako is a fast runner. She gets leukemia and goes to the hospital. Chizuko tells her that if she makes a thousand cranes, she will not have leukemia. Her brother promises to hang the cranes. Will she make one thousand?

I want this kid to review everything. Hey kid, what did you think of the new Strokes album?

I just noticed that a story I wrote back in 2003 called “Left and Leaving,” which was published in Zen Monster is now online.

The title is taken from the Weakerthans album of the same name. I was listening to “Left and Leaving” a lot when I first moved to New York. At one point the only piece of furniture I had was my mattress, so I wrote the story while sitting on my bed.

I loved this book when I was a kid.