Party Like It's 1989

God fucking damn I love YouTube sometimes:

I've Choked Bitches Out for Less

I think I finally became part of the club at training Monday night. Pedro was teaching us noobs how to do rear control (lol gay jokes). Then, soon after, we moved on to a submission from that position - something I'm sure you're all familiar with, the sleeper hold.

Now this guy I was training with, as Sinclair noted, clearly has some issues with his fight or flight reflex; that is to say, he doesn't seem to have one. First couple of times we practiced, he got a good hold on and I tapped quickly, but then after I tried it a couple of times, I'm holding it there, waiting for the tap, when suddenly he just spasms for a moment, then Pedro leaps up and pulls me off him.

I now understand why they call it a sleeper.

This guy had not only passed out, he actually began snoring, and not just nasally grunty type snoring, but Looney Tunes-esque, cheeks flapping around type snoring.

Pedro sorted him out quick, and we tried again. A couple of tries later and boom, same result. Right down to the snoring. Seriously, it's not that hard to figure out when to tap - when you start feeling a headrush, it's time to pussy out.

Strange Things are Afoot at the Circle K

One of the latest mysteries of Taiwan - and presumably other countries, but I'm not in other countries - to rear its head and occupy my mind is this:

Why do convenience stores advertise on TV?



What's the point? No-one has and brand loyalty to any particular convenience store; if I want to go buy a Coke or whatever, I go to the nearest store, I don't home in on, say, 7-Eleven. The only times anyone specifically goes to store x are when that store has a particular thing others don't - for instance, as far as I know Family Mart is the only one that sells SkypeOut credit - or, for some people, if you want to collect that rubbish they give away.

I know it must serve some purpose, surely. There has to be some effect. But I don't see it. I just don't get it. I understand why fast food chains advertise - there's a genuine preference issue there; some people prefer Burger King, others prefer McDonalds, and the role of advertising is essentially conversion. But that doesn't work for convenience stores.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm

Been working most of the night on an article for Taiwan Panorama and came across what might be the single most unexpected cultural (or rather, cross-cultural) reference in any Chinese-language text I have ever read. A section heading in the article reads:

馬蓋先的養成 (ma3gai4xian1 de yang3cheng2)

I read that and figured Ma Gaixian must be some dude's name. I googled it to be sure, and found out what it is. It is a dude. Very much a dude. And a dude that was apparently huge in Taiwan back in the day. That dude? See if this rings any bells:



(For those of you either too senile to remember that theme or jonesing for the original: here you go. And the clip's even rocking the old-school 2.)

Eight-year-olds, Dude.

Link

OMG MY MUSIC'S BETTER THAN YOURS

So for the past few days I've been on a major jazz kick, after being driven by Jolin and her ilk to the point where I was about ready to fucking give up on music altogether. I was sorting through my CDs the other day and found my copy of A Love Supreme, and after throwing it into iTunes I remembered why I enjoy that shit. So since then I've been trying to find a decent record store around here with a good selection of jazz (IN BEFORE "lol download it"), and managed to grab a copy of The Blues and the Abstract Truth on an Intarwebs recommendation, with a good half-dozen other CDs lined up for the next few weeks. Also finally realized that Blue Note is like 1km up the road from the new apartment, so that's a large serving of win too.

To close, enjoy this shit - Miles Davis and John Coltrane performing So What from the album Kind of Blue:

MP3 downloads:
John Coltrane - Acknowledgment (track 1 from A Love Supreme)
Miles Davis - So What (track 1 from Kind of Blue)