Caro sent me this link which I found simply amusing... until I came across the following quote which actually rang a bell (not in a religious sense, but as a fuel for why I keep doing what I do).

"Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it," John Paul said.

God or no God, I know I have an obligation not to waste any talent I may think I have. ;)

Project "Scratch Paper" is back in effect now with everyone back and stuff, and just to make sure we're not bored we had a bit of a curve ball thrown at us in a rather unexpected way... Hopefully it's all gonna work out just fine. Phew! At least I have lots of inspirations right now from all these good music I've been able to get my hands on recently! Awwww zeeeyeah! Delivery date is anticipated 2nd quarter 2004! Wish me the best! :)

I'm still debating whether I should get Numark CDX (expected March release) or FinalScratch.... It's gotten even harder to decide now that NI has announced FinalScratch 1.5 (expected February release) which will also work on windows... On the one hand I'm not sure if I can really trust first generation hardware, but then again I've pretty much always bought first generation music hardware and never had problems.... FinalScratch, on the other hand, has had so much bad rep revolving around its stability and such that I'm really not sure.... The price difference is about $300 in favor of FinalScratch.... Then again, price isn't really the major decision making factor in this case since I just want music gear that I can depend on and get quick access to.... Finalscratch certainly is the most flexible solution for me since it lets me play both digital media as well as traditional records... then again, I could use another deck to make my sets more interesting... *SIGH* decisions decisions..

UPDATE: I didn't realize Rane had picked up Serato and are planning to release Serato Scratch as part of their line of products... Interesting... (expected April release)

I brought back 4 Japanese CDs from Tokyo (Shing02, Dabo, Hifana (pronounced High-Fa-Na), and Shuren The Fire ), and the only one worth mentioning is Hifana, and when I say "worth mentioning", I really mean "Holy crap, check these guys out NOW!!!". ^^ They are doing what I really wanted to do. DJs that really perform with every possible tools you can imagine. Much respect to all the DJs of Hifana! Thanks to them my love for breakbeats have been rekindled! I'm also waiting for the realease of Kaminari Kazoku hoping that they'll sound different from the rest of the either American mainstream style Hip hop or the absurdly abstract and underground sound that seem to dominate the trip-hop inspired urban music scene of Japan. Of course, I'm not saying that the other CDs don't warrant a listen. They all have their style, and I've only given them a harsh one fast listen-thru. So all I'm saying is that Hifana was the only group that passed that harsh test. ;) Dabo, actually, gets some props for his rhyme delivery, but I really haven't paid that much attention to the lyrics the first time around. ^^; The other MCs really didn't click with me and neither did their beats... :(

Now as for the 11 LPs I've brought back, I'm quite happy with them. I'm going to have to see how much money it'd cost me to sample from them. ;)