北野 武 & 志村 健
Takeshi Kitano & Ken Shimura - Tap & Shamisen

W810i 20060728

魩仔魚

http://news.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/newslist/newslist-content/0,3546,110501+112006063000651,00.html

魩仔魚 可長到15公分


魩仔魚是迷你魚，剛孵化時不到一公分，一般發育到五公分左右就不長了，但若有機會繼續發育，逃過人類捕撈，也有長到十五公分的紀錄。因此，民間認為魩仔魚是「長不大的魚」的說法，是不正確的。

魩仔魚是民間俗名，是「群數集合」名稱，不是單一魚種。在動物分類上，魩仔魚分為鯷科、鯡科兩大類，再細分有不同的屬、種。台灣常見的魩仔魚群至少包含一百多種特徵相近卻不完全相同的迷你魚，有時也會混入其他魚種。

魩仔魚在食物鏈的位階是「低能階」魚，應是鯖魚和鰹魚等的主食，沒想到人類跳過吃大魚的階段，直接吃牠們，讓靠牠們維生的魚兒面臨「斷炊」命運。

愛在近海釣魚的民眾都會發現，當專門捕撈魩仔魚的漁船出現時，附近海域絕對釣不到魚，因為魚網太密，擋住海水形成阻力，大魚察覺海流出現異狀的警訊，當然就躲得遠遠的。

SONY 820A

Wang rescues Yanks again

New York Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Texas Rangers, Wednesday, May 17, 2006, at Yankee Stadium in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

W4-1 IP8.0 6H 3R 2ER 1BB 3SO 1HR ERA 3.79

Wang rescues Yanks again

Right-hander gives 'pen a breather with eight strong frames

By Mark Feinsand / MLB.com

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20060517&content_id=1458786&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

EW YORK -- In each of Chien-Ming Wang's last two starts, he has pitched one night after the Yankees had endured grueling four-hour games.

Last Friday, Wang responded with eight shutout innings against the A's. Wednesday, he didn't hold the Rangers off the scoreboard, but his eight solid innings were enough to lead the Yankees to a 4-3 win over Texas.

Wang (4-1) overcame three Yankees errors to hold the Rangers to three runs (two earned) on six hits, winning his third straight start.

"He's feeling pretty good about himself right now," said manager Joe Torre. "We could have helped him, defensively, a bit more than we did tonight, but we got through it."

Jorge Posada, whose walk-off homer on Tuesday lifted the Yankees to the biggest comeback in team history, continued his torrid streak at the plate, going 2-for-2 with two RBIs. Posada is 11-for-25 on the current homestand, a .444 average.

"I feel comfortable, like I'm doing a lot of good things," Posada said. "I'm staying behind the ball and getting the big hit. Hopefully I can continue that the whole year."

"He had some great at-bats tonight," Torre said. "We needed everything we could get."

With Boston's loss to Baltimore, the Yankees (23-15) are now in a first-place tie with the Red Sox in the American League East.

New York used a two-out rally in the fifth inning to snap a 1-1 tie, as Posada, Robinson Cano and Bernie Williams each had RBI singles, giving the Yanks a three-run lead.

Mariano Rivera, who allowed the go-ahead run in the ninth inning on Tuesday, setting up Posada's dramatic homer, held on to a one-run lead on Wednesday to earn his eighth save.

"I wanted to get Mo in there after last night," Torre said. "He seemed to be a little sharper tonight with location. He didn't have any breathing room; it was vintage Mo."

Wang looked sharp early, but the Yankees' defense didn't do much to help its starter out. Andy Phillips committed an error in the first, coming off the bag to take a throw from Alex Rodriguez, but Wang got through the inning without allowing a run.

Two innings later, Cano made the first of his two errors, receiving a potential double-play relay from A-Rod away from second base. Phil Nevin was safe at second on the play, and he went on to score on the next play, an RBI single by Kevin Mench.

Wang pounded the strike zone with sinkers and sliders, getting one ground ball after another. Cano committed another error in the sixth, but Wang erased the baserunner with a double play. Wang induced another twin-killing in the sixth, making up for a Mark Teixeira single.

"It didn't seem to bother him, because we got a double play," Torre said of Wang. "We understand that we're going to be busy in the infield when he has his game going. He's fun to watch pitch for our side, because we get a lot of quick innings."

"He doesn't get rattled by the things that are happening behind him," Posada said. "He just keeps coming. He seemed to get more comfortable as the game went along."

Texas starter Kameron Loe (2-4) got out of jams in the second and third, but he couldn't do the same in the fifth, as the Yankees put together five consecutive two-out hits to break the game open.

Wang retired the side in order in the seventh, but after retiring the first hitter in the eighth, he gave up a double to Gerald Laird and a two-run homer to Gary Matthews, pulling Texas within a run.

Cano helped Wang make it through the frame, making a nice play on a hard grounder hit by Michael Young for the second out.

"I never put my head down," Cano said. "You're going to make some mistakes, but sometimes, you'll make the right play. I made the right play at the right time."

"When he needed to make a play in the eighth inning, he made one," Torre said. "The kid is tough, but sometimes his mind wanders when he doesn't get a couple of hits."

Rivera closed it out with a scoreless ninth, throwing a perfect inning against the middle of the Rangers' lineup.

"I wanted to be in there," Rivera said. "These are the situations I always pitch in, so I expected it. I expected a good outing."

So did the Yankees. And they got one.

Mark Feinsand is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Maddux improves to 4-0 as Cubs dominate Cardinals

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260423124

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Greg Maddux is turning back the clock for a team missing its offensive star and two of its best pitchers.

The four-time NL Cy Young Award winner, who turned 40 earlier this month, threw seven scoreless innings on Sunday to help the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3. He has won his first four starts for the first time in his career, to go with a miniscule 0.99 ERA.

Maddux's big start is helping rescue a team that doesn't have Derrek Lee, Mark Prior or Kerry Wood.

"It's just amazing what he does because he's not throwing 94, 93 mph," outfielder Juan Pierre said. "You watch Greg Maddux, that's an art."

Maddux (4-0) held the Cardinals to five hits and also singled and scored, helping the Cubs avert a three-game sweep and win for the first time in three games since losing Lee for at least two months with a broken wrist. This is the first 4-0 start for Maddux since 2000 with the Braves when he needed six starts, and it's his first four-game winning streak since July 17-Aug. 7, 2004.

All month, Maddux has insisted that he's doing nothing different and not trying to fill the void.

"I wish I could explain it," Maddux said. "Personally, I'm just getting ready to pitch like I always have, I'm just catching a lot of breaks.

"Sometimes you catch a few breaks in this game, and right now I am," he said.

Jacque Jones hit his second homer, and second against the Cardinals, leading off the fourth against Jason Marquis (3-1).

Aramis Ramirez, who entered the game in a 3-for-18 slump, hit a two-run shot into the visitor's bullpen beyond the left-field wall in the fifth.

Todd Walker batted in Lee's third slot for the third straight game and had two hits and three RBI to raise his average to .408 for the Cubs, who completed a 5-4 road trip.

"It's nice to get a win without Derrek," Walker said. "We can start believing we can do it."

Albert Pujols, who had six RBI the first two games of the series and entered with the major-league lead in homers (11) and RBI (26), was 0-for-4.

Maddux, the only 40-plus right-handed starter in the major leagues, struck out four and his only walk came to the first batter he faced, David Eckstein. He threw a season-high 93 pitches and lowered his ERA 34 points, mastering the Cardinals for the second time.

"He's not coming with heat; he's never coming with heat," manager Tony La Russa said. "He's coming with a lot of intelligence and a great feel for pitching."

In two starts against the Cardinals, he's 2-0 and has given up one run on nine hits in 13 1/3 innings. Since turning 40 on April 14, he's surrendered one run on eight hits in 15 innings.

Marquis struggled for the first time in four starts this season while facing Maddux, his old mentor from the Braves. He left after the first three batters reached in the seventh, one on his fielding error on Pierre's sacrifice bunt and gave up seven runs -- four earned -- and seven hits.

"I don't know if I struggled all day. I just got away from my game plan and left a few pitches up in the zone," Marquis said. "Some days the mistakes are going be hit out and some days you get away with them."

All four of Marquis' career starts against the Cubs have come against Maddux. He's 1-2 with a 3.90 ERA.

Pierre doubled to lead off the third, advanced on a sacrifice and scored on Walker's infield hit to give the Cubs the lead and Jones' homer in the fourth made it 2-0.

Pierre reached on second baseman Aaron Miles' fielding error on a routine grounder to start the fifth, leading to Ramirez's homer and a pair of unearned runs that put Chicago ahead 4-0.

The Cubs extended the lead to 7-0 in the seventh on Ronny Cedeno's RBI double and Walker's two-run single.

St. Louis got a run in the eighth on Hector Luna's RBI double off Roberto Novoa.

Gary Bennett's two-run double in the ninth ended Ryan Dempster's run of 32 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run. Dempster, who has converted 23 straight saves, last gave up an earned run on Aug. 12, 2005, at home against the Cardinals in a streak that lasted 31 1/3 innings.

Game notes
Cardinals reliever Brad Thompson had to make a quick jump to his side to avoid getting hit by a bat when Michael Barrett lost his grip while striking out in the seventh. ... The Cardinals haven't swept the Cubs at home since 2002. ... The Cardinals have sold out all nine games at new Busch Stadium, including paid attendance of 41,373 on Sunday.


http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20060423&content_id=1414578&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer, Jacque Jones added a solo shot and Todd Walker drove in three runs to back Maddux (4-0), who gave most of the bullpen a much-needed day off and stopped a two-game losing streak.

"He's been awesome all year, and today we really needed a stopper," Walker said.

"He gave us the innings, he gave us the quality, he gave us a hit to start a rally, gave us baserunning -- he gave us anything you could get from a position player and a pitcher," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "We needed it badly."

This is the first time in his career that Maddux has won each of his first four starts. Not bad for a pitcher who turned 40 on April 14. He opened the 2000 season 4-0 with Atlanta, but achieved that record after six starts. He downplayed the feat.

"We've been scoring a lot of runs, too, so that helps," Maddux said. "Guys swung the bats well. Ramy got the big hit and put us ahead. Defense and runs goes a long way."

On Sunday, the Cubs right-hander struck out four and gave up one walk and five hits -- including three by Scott Rolen -- over seven scoreless innings. The four-time Cy Young winner appears to be turning back the clock. His lowest ERA in a single season was 1.56 in 1994 with Atlanta. Is he a better pitcher now?

"I wish I could explain it," Maddux said of tapping into the fountain of youth. "Personally, I"m just getting ready to pitch like I always have and catching a lot of breaks."

Like having one of Rolen's doubles hit the top of the center-field fence and not go over.

"Sometimes you catch a lot of breaks in this game, and right now I think I am," Maddux said.

"It was vintage Maddux," catcher Michael Barrett said. "He's been able to locate the ball really well early in the count. He's getting the ball down and away. Late in the count, he's keeping guys off balance by mixing his pitches. You can't say much more than vintage Maddux. He did today what he's been doing the last couple starts -- not trying to do too much."

Cardinals starter Jason Marquis (3-1) has seen Maddux's magic act before. The two were teammates in Atlanta, and this is the fourth time they've gone head-to-head.

"The guy is a special player," Marquis said. "He knows what he's doing out there. He's been baffling hitters for a long time, so it's not surprising to see what he's doing."

The good news is the Cubs now know they can win without Derrek Lee.

"We need all the help we can get since we lost our big guy," Walker said. "It was nice to get a win without Derrek. You start believing you can do it."

They still miss Lee, who will see his teammates Monday at Wrigley Field for the first time since he was hurt last week.

"It's tough losing D-Lee because he's such a good person, let alone a good player," Maddux said. "When you play with 24 other guys, some guys are really easy to root for and some you could care less. I think D-Lee is one of those guys who is really easy to root for."

Juan Pierre doubled to open the Cubs' third against Marquis, advanced on Ronny Cedeno's sacrifice and scored on Walker's infield single.

Jones, who entered the game batting .194, made it 2-0 with a leadoff homer in the fourth, his second of the year. In the Chicago fifth, Pierre reached on a fielding error by second baseman David Eckstein and two outs later, Ramirez belted his third homer to go ahead, 4-0. Ramirez also had been scuffling and came into the game batting .189.

"Aramis has been flirting with that fence for awhile," Baker said. "I'm just glad he caught one."

Maddux helped himself in the seventh when he singled, advanced on a wild pitch and on a sacrifice by Pierre before scoring on Cedeno's double. Marquis was pulled, and Walker greeted Brad Thompson with a two-run single. The three RBIs raised Walker's career total to 500.

"A few days ago, I got triple digits in homers," Walker said. "You look back in your career, it's stuff you'll remember."

Pinch-hitter Hector Luna hit an RBI double in the Cardinals' eighth off Roberto Novoa, and Gary Bennett hit a two-run double off Ryan Dempster in the ninth.

Maddux is the only Cubs starter who has pitched into the seventh inning this season.

"It says a lot for experience," Baker said. "He's not doing any more than what his Hall of Fame career has indicated."

This is the last year of the pitcher's contract with the Cubs. Would he like to talk about an extension?

"Let's just play," Maddux said. "It's not the time for that right now. The Cubs have a lot more problems than worrying about me right now. Let's take care of what we need to do to get better quicker and cross that bridge when we get to it."

2006 MLB Maddux 開幕2連勝

4/7 Stl G Maddux (W, 1-0) IP 6.1 H4 R1 ER1 HR1 BB2 SO1 87-52 ERA 1.42
4/12 Cin G Maddux (W, 2-0) IP 6.0 H3 R1 ER1 HR0 BB2 SO7 86-57 ERA 1.46

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=kurkjian_tim&id=2408010
Maddux's success driven by his impeccable control

When Greg Maddux made his major league debut in 1986, he was 20 years old, then the youngest pitcher in baseball.

"I've always thought it would be cool,'' he said a few years ago, "to leave as the oldest.''

Someday, he might get his wish. He turns 40 today, and based on how well he has thrown in his first two starts of this season, he might have several good years left.

This comes as no surprise to one of the men who knows him best, Orioles' pitching coach Leo Mazzone, who was Maddux's pitching coach for 11 years in Atlanta. Mazzone had the pleasure of working with the master craftsman of pitching, one of the greatest control pitchers of all time, and by our unofficial count, the sixth-best pitcher of all time. Mazzone was with Maddux in the bullpen in between starts and before games, in the weight room, on the bench during games and in conferences on the mound. He knows the secret to Maddux's remarkable success and longevity. And there's nothing complicated about it.

Greg Maddux isn't overpowering, but he's been overwhelmingly successful during his pitching career.
"He is so smart, he makes everything so simple,'' Mazzone said. "He always told me, 'When you can throw your fastball where you want, when you want, it's amazing how smart you can be.' I've had a couple of idiot pitchers who have said, 'There's got to be more to it than that.' He's the smartest pitcher I've ever seen. He's the greatest pitcher I've ever seen. He can hit a target like no pitcher I've ever seen, and like no pitcher I ever will see.''

Maddux's brother, Mike, the pitching coach for the Brewers, says that he and his little brother get ready for spring training by throwing to each other in January. They begin by playing catch, then, after a few minutes, Mike will get in a catcher's crouch, and Greg -- in his first throwing session in nearly three months -- will hit his glove every time.


Happy 40th, Greg Maddux!
Most wins before turning 40 ...

436 Cy Young
417 Walter Johnson
373 Christy Mathewson
361 Pud Galvin
360 Kid Nichols
341 Tim Keefe
327 Grover Alexander
327 John Clarkson
320 Greg Maddux

"The first time he threw for me in the bullpen [in 1993],'' Mazzone said, "he threw 80 percent of his pitches from the stretch. I asked him why he did that, and he said, 'The biggest pitches I make in every game come from the stretch.' It's so simple, but I'd never seen another pitcher do that. He always told me the hardest pitch for a right-handed pitcher to throw is a fastball down and away to a right-handed hitter. That's the one he practices all the time. He's always practicing, he's always thinking about what he'll do next.''
Maddux has the game planned out before it begins.

"I've had him tell me, 'In the third inning, I'm going to get that guy to pop out to third base,' and then he does it,'' Mazzone said. "I've seen us score five or six runs in the fifth inning to put the game away, and he'll come up to me and say, 'How far do you want me to go? Do you want nine? Or does the bullpen need the work, and I'll go seven?' His game plan is going to be different if he's going nine or seven. I've never seen a pitcher think the way he does.''

That philosophy relates directly to wins. Maddux holds the major league record with 17 straight seasons of at least 15 wins, a streak that ended last year. But with a 13-win season this year, he will tie Cy Young's major league record of 19 consecutive seasons with 13 or more wins. Two years ago, Maddux became the oldest non-knuckleball pitcher to lead his league in starts. This week, Maddux became the second pitcher since 1900 to get to 320 wins before he turned 40.

Maddux isn't big or strong, he doesn't even look like a baseball player or even an athlete. But looks don't tell the entire story, because he is a great athlete. He has won 15 consecutive Gold Gloves, has 248 hits in his career and is one of the game's best bunters. Despite having a soft-looking body, he has been incredibly durable -- he has been on the disabled list just once in his 20-plus-year career.

"He has great mechanics,'' Mazzone said. "He's very compact, very uncomplicated in his delivery. He never gets overextended. He's not a maximum effort guy on every pitch. His workouts are all baseball-related -- lots of running and throwing. There are a lot of days when he feels lousy, but he always goes out there. I know a lot of pitchers who won't go out there when they don't feel good.''


“He is so smart, he makes everything so simple. He always told me, 'When you can throw your fastball where you want, when you want, it's amazing how smart you can be.' ”
— Leo Mazzone on Greg Maddux
Despite Maddux's compact, uncomplicated approach, an approach that has no need for strikeouts except in strikeout situations, Maddux surpassed the 3,000-strikeout mark last year. This season, he likely will pass Bob Gibson into 12th place on the all-time strikeout list (Maddux presently has 3,060 strikeouts, while Gibson finished his career with 3,117). He has one 200-strikeout season in his career -- Phil Niekro has three among those in the 3,000-strikeout club, and everyone else has at least five. Maddux has only 16 10-strikeout games, 199 fewer than Nolan Ryan.

But even without the strikeouts, Maddux has been dominating in his own way for nearly 20 years, thanks in part to his incredible competitiveness. Several years ago, Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton invited Maddux to go out to dinner with him. Maddux politely declined, saying, "I've got a pizza that I didn't finish from last night, and I've got a video game that I can't beat, but tonight, I'm going to beat that game."

And, of course, he did. He's Greg Maddux.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.

Asus N6200 256MB & A9550GE/TD Series

Edguy - Rocket Ride World Tour 2006!

Rocket Ride World Tour 2006!

Date: Location: Venue: (tickets)

Jan 27.06 Manchester (UK) MDH
Jan 29.06 Nottingham (UK) Nottingham Rock City
Jan 30.06 Leeds (UK) University
Jan 31.06 Glascow (UK) Glascow Academy
Feb 01.06 Newcastle (UK) University
Feb 03.06 London (UK) Astoria
Feb 04.06 Vosselaar (B) Biebop *+
Feb 06.06 Pratteln (CH) Z7
Feb 07.06 Milan (I) Rolling Stone
Feb 09.06 Madrid (E) Aqualung
Feb 10.06 Porto (P) Hard Club
Feb 11.06 Bergara (E) Sala Jam
Feb 12.06 Barcelona (E) Razzmatazz 2
Feb 14.06 Lyon (F) Transbordeur
Feb 15.06 Paris (F) Elysee Mont Martre
Feb 17.06 Stuttgart (D) LKA
Feb 18.06 Kaufbeuren (D) All-Karthalle
Feb 20.06 Langen (D) Stadthalle
Feb 21.06 Koln (D) Live Music Hall
Feb 22.06 Oberhausen (D) Turbinenhalle
Feb 24.06 Lichtenfels (D) Stadthalle
Feb 25.06 Osnabruck (D) Halle Gartlage
Feb 26.06 Hamburg (D) Markthalle
Feb 28.06 Goteborg (S) Trädgarn
Mar 01.06 Stockholm (S) Arenan
Mar 02.06 Lund (S) Mejeriet
Mar 04.06 Fulda (D) Wartenberg-Oval
Mar 15.06 Osaka (JP) Quattro
Mar 16.06 Tokyo, (JP) Ebisu Liquid Room
Mar 17.06 Tokyo, (JP) Ebisu Liquid Room
Mar 19.06 Taipei (TW) Family Theater
Mar 21.06 Hong Kong (CHI) Hitec Auditorium
Mar 24.06 Peking (CHI) Red Hall
July 16.06 Vizovice (CZ) Masters of Rock



http://jukebo.cx/archives/2006/03/22/edguy-rocket-ride/

Edguy’s brilliant new album, Rocket Ride, gets a review with a difference; the band’s very own nutty vocalist Tobias Sammet helps us give a complete track-by-track rundown of the whole album. Why? Well, because we asked him to.

Edguy began this year with the release of Rocket Ride and a support tour of the UK with Dragonforce. They then took Dragonforce with them for a Europe-wide headlining tour before going to Japan. They’re now in China. The new album is a perfect power metal album. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, makes jokes in the right places, handles important issues in the right way and does the whole thing with superb vocals, excellent musicianship and most importantly, variety. It’s exactly what you’d want from a power metal album.

Myself and Tobias did this a long time ago now, over a lunchtime drink at a hotel lounge in London, before the album was even out, but I decided not to spoil the surprise for any Edguy fans out there, as Tobias was quite revealing about the album’s content, and kept it under wraps for a time. The album’s been out a little while now, so the fans have had a while to live with it. We therefore think it’s about time, we share with you Tobias’ thoughts on each track and maybe shed some light on some of the meanings of the songs for you. We might also inspire some new people to check out the album, who knows?

Sacrifice
“It’s a long song and probably the most complicated song on the album, which is why many people think it’s strange to have it on the album as the opening track, but my opinion is it doesn’t matter to a metalhead how long the opening track is. Nobody sits there with a watch checking the running time of the song, you know. Metalheads are bright enough to cope with an eight minute opening track. They don’t need a hit single as the opening track. So it doesn’t make a difference.

“It has everything Edguy is about. It has aggressive passages, it has very calmed down passages, it has aggressive guitar riffing, it has anthemic melodies, everything. So it sums up the whole range of Edguy and the whole diversity. Lyrically it’s a very serious song, which is very funny because the cover artwork is really funny and of course there’s a few funny jokes, but Sacrifice has some very serious lyrics. It’s just writing down feelings. There’s a lot of things going on around me, and it has been like that for ten years. My life is constantly moving in the fast lane, which is a good thing! Travelling around, meeting a lot of people, and being on stage all the time, being in the studio writing songs. So there’s really not a lot of time to think, for me. Not a lot of time on my own. But when you’re on your own, especially in a hotel room, and everything starts to calm down and then you have time to think, so it’s just about how sometimes you’re really irritated by when you’ve got time to think on your own that everything starts to slow down and starts to happen in slow motion. It’s really to cope with the situation, to face a situation that you don’t know, that you’re not so familiar with, and that sacrifice I have to make is when you have so much going on around you that you’re facing an unreal, a surreal situation when you finally have time on your own. It’s a sacrifice not being able to cope with just normal situations.”

Rocket Ride
“There have been periods in my life where I’ve been spending a lot time thinking about the meaning of life and trying to find a deeper meaning in everything, but then on the other hand it will lead you to nowhere spending a lot of time thinking about conspiracy theories and the meaning of life and religion and philosophy. It’s a great thing to think a lot, but it can really drive you nuts, so there has to be some point where you just have to accept that we are just animals as any other animal. So Rocket Ride is just about embracing the profanity of life. Sometimes you’ve just got to switch off your brain and just live. Enjoy being a human being with all it’s lower needs. There are some!”

Wasted Time
“Wasted Time is a classic mid-tempo track for Edguy. It’s got some Scorpions in it, especially the riffing in the verse. That’s really funny because I’ve just come from Spain and they said they just did an interview with, like Classic Rock Spain, or something, where Rudolph Schenker said Edguy are the new Scorpions of Germany. The younger generation Scorpions. I felt really honoured, because I like the Scorpions, I gotta admit, especially the ’80s stuff they did. So I think Wasted Time has got a Scorpions touch, but still it’s more bombastic, and a heavier track. Lyrically it’s about a situation where you look back at a failed relationship and you just wonder if it all was wasted. Of course it’s not, but somehow we tend to be self-destructive and we tend to be self-sympathetic, so it was just all a waste of time. It’s a nice idea to think like that and just tell the World “it was all a waste of time”, and that’s what the song is about.”

Matrix
“Matrix is nothing to do with the movie. I don’t even know the movie, I know about the movie, but I’ve never seen it, I’m not too much into movies. Musically I’ve gotta say it’s a little bit different. It used to start like a normal Dio song. Dio meets modern keyboards. Sascha (Paeth) really produced it into a different direction. We were about three minutes into the song and he came up and said “Hey, I’ve heard this song!” So he was adding a lot of keyboards and rearranging everything and finally he liked it. I don’t know if it’s a typical Edguy song, but on the other hand you’ve got to surprise people at times, just to keep it interesting and exciting. And we were fine with the song, we said “OK, let’s do it this way, let’s take the song like that.”

“Lyrically, it’s kind of like Sacrifice, it’s when you discover there are two totally controlling sides to your personality somewhere inside. I’ve always felt like a real family kind of person, you know? Being very, very close to my family and being tightly bound to my home and to where I come from. Being a touring musician, with all those temptations that you have to face, it’s a very controlled thing. The first lines have been inspired by the feeling when you wake up in morning, looking in the mirror looking like shit, remembering the Jack Daniel’s bottle you had the night before, not remembering the name of the one who’s lying in bed next to you, and just asking, like, “what am I, really? It’s really time to reboot myself and try to find out what is right and what is wrong.” But, you know, finally when the song was written, one of the backing vocalists in the studio, Amanda, she is American and she was reading the lyrics in a different way totally. She said “it looks like you’re struggling with a fucked up relationship to a girl”. And I said “oh, that’s the way you can read as well?” She said “Yeah, I think that’s what it’s about.” “Oh good, so, it’s not at all about that, but if it works like that too, cool!”

Return To The Tribe
“Return To The Tribe is a typical Edguy song, speed metal, very easy going. We have a vocal guitar solo in there, I was singing the guitar solo. We were having a few beers in the studio and I told Sascha how I sing some solos to the others to give them an idea of what I think. He said “Oh, we should record that” and I said “yeah, cool!” We ran it through an amplifier with distortion and I was singing like a guitar solo and it sounded real! So we left it like that on the album. I think it’s the first time a vocalist sings a guitar solo, but I don’t know. Lyrically it’s just about the feeling you have when you’ve been on tour for months and no matter how much you like touring, really you’re just looking forward to, and remembering, people at home, you’re looking forward to meeting them and looking forward to going back to your shelter. Just looking forward to all sorts, “I enjoy what I’m doing, and I’m looking forward to doing it again next time, but now I’m going home to the great PlayStation evenings with my friends and drinking white wine and smoking a pipe and just enjoying a great evening at home.”

The Asylum
“Asylum is a classic Edguy track. It starts as a ballad, you know, really calm, and then it explodes, which is something I really like in our songs. We do that a lot of times, when we really calm down the whole mood of the song to make it explode afterwards. That’s a typical thing that Richard Wagner did as well in his music. He always had these huge, huge, huge explosions after it had calmed down. It’s classic Dio meets Edguy bombastic stuff. It’s got a very nice guitar solo, I think, I really appreciate it. Jens did a terrific job, especially the clean guitar solo. A very, very calm guitar solo. And lyrically it’s a political song, in a way, but it was never meant to be because I don’t think it makes sense to write political songs. I don’t think a war will end just because Bob Dylan sings about anti-tank missile silos and shit. It’s really stupid for bands to do that. It should be entertaining first. If it’s entertaining then it’s OK to be political as well. This song is just exploring the roots of evil, because everybody sees evil as something different. Controlling opinions, controlling ways of life, we tend to see that as evil. Or like this whole terrorism thing. I mean, of course it’s evil to fly a plane into a building and kill innocent people. That’s evil. And to blow up bombs in a subway station. There’s no way of calling something like that not evil. But, let’s put it this way. A snake. If you corner it, it will bite you. But if you leave it alone, give it space, give it a chance to find it’s food in the forest, there’s no snake in the World that will go “ooh, a human, that’s nice pray, let’s eat it!” That’s why I think sometimes we make it too easy for ourselves to call something else evil, without understanding the position. And I think that’s what happens globally at the moment. We corner some people, and we corner certain countries. If it’s their last chance to bite back, they will bite back.”

Save Me
“Save Me is a very, very kitschy love song. I love kitsch. Maybe some people call it embarrassing, but it’s cool, we are an embarrassing band! That’s what we’re supposed to be, that’s what heavy metal is supposed to be. I mean, I wonder what Dee Snider would say if someone came up and said “you look ridiculous, you look embarrassing”. He’d say “of course! That’s what it’s intended to be like.” So, Save Me is just a typical love ballad. Of course some people say that this topic has been really, really overdone. I don’t think so much about what is needed and what is overdone and what is not overdone, you just have to have feelings, and that is what I had in mind. It’s a beautiful song, I think. It’s a classic ballad, but again Sascha produced it into a very modern direction, production wise. Some people say it sounds like Nickelback. I think it’s still just an Edguy ballad. Some other people said it sounds like Matchbox 20.”

Catch of The Century
“Dokken meets Edguy meets Van Halen! I’m really proud of that song. It’s one of my favourites because it’s a good package as a whole. It’s a song about being turned down by a woman that you don’t want to be turned down by. It’s not so much the topic itself that makes it so funny and interesting and gives it the right attitude, I think it’s more the words. “I’m going down with flying colours before I go down on someone else” and stuff like that. “You’ve got your catch going down the drain, you’re dumping the catch of the century, Lady Luck’s got her ass in pain, you’re dumping the catch of the century.” It’s just the best way to get over a situation like that, just to say “hey, you don’t want me, you don’t deserve me!” That’s what I have to tell myself several times a day. There are many people in the World who don’t deserve me, I can tell you!”

Out of Vogue
“It’s all in the title itself, pretty much. It’s a real out of vogue song, it sounds like an ’80s rock song. Jens wrote it actually, almost everything. Ironically I wrote the solo and our guitar player wrote all the rest! Which is really stupid, but it is what it is. And I wrote the lyrics. It’s just about being out of vogue, and being out of vogue is the greatest thing in the World because if you try to be in vogue you will always be late. I just don’t understand that. Even if you manage to be fashionable, you just manage to be fashionable for a short time. And that’s the stupid thing, you should stick with what you really are and what you really want to do. And that’s what we do. Many people say “oh, that’s unfashionable and that’s old fashioned” and we say “yeah! And we’re damn proud of it! We are totally out of vogue!” Some people say we suck. Some people only listen to fashionable stuff, therefore Elvis is old fashioned shit and it sucks. Well, maybe we suck, but we sound quite good sucking!”

Superheroes
“Some people say we’re going pop, just because that was the first single. Well, it was the softest song. It doesn’t make sense to take the heaviest track, or the longest track, or the most complicated track and make it the single. It reminds me of the heavier version of old Bon Jovi. And that’s a good thing, we’ve always had that hard rock appeal to it.”

Trinidad
“Trinidad was supposed to be one of two bonus tracks. But it turned out to be so funny; it has no meaning. The meaning is I’m pulling fun out of my height. I’m not the tallest guy. I’ve been with a girlfriend and she was taller than me. It was like I had to walk on the sidewalk and she had to walk in the street so we were the same size. Again, it’s not so much the topic that is funny, but I think it’s the choice of words that makes it funny. Like “I’m a sight for sore eyes if your eyes could only see, I’ve been born on tiptoes, still you look like a lighthouse next to me,” and stuff like that. The song is just about a man who’s made fun of and while his wife is sleeping he decides to go out to grab some food and goes out and departs to Trinidad and never comes back and hangs out at the beach with girls. Some people may say this is really bullshit, but I say yeah, it is, but at least it’s entertaining and interesting and funny. And the song turned out to be so good; it’s anthemic, so we said “hey, let’s put it on the album.”

Fucking With Fire
“Our goal was to write a real ludicrous ’80s cock-rock anthem. And I think we did that. Every single syllable is cliché. “I saw her coming in high heels, moving like a queen”, I mean that’s so stupid it’s embarrassing, but again, we are an embarrassing band! Hairforce One is the subtitle, which refers to hair metal, of course. We thought it was funny and in the end we thought this is an anthem and some people may think we’re nuts, and that’s good, so let’s put it on the album. And I think it should work pretty well live.”

Standing In The Rain
“Erm, Standing In The Rain isn’t going to be a bonus track at all. I mean, Standing In The Rain has been recorded and it’s completed, but we decided, because it was so strong, to take it as a song and use it for another single. At the moment there’s no plan to release another single, so we’re listening to it at home.”

Watch for the rest of our exclusive interview with Tobias coming soon.

BLIND GUARDIAN - Fly

BLIND GUARDIAN - Fly

等了四年 BLIND GUARDIAN 終於發了新單曲 Fly

Tracklist
Fly
Skalds And Shadows (acoustic version)
In A Gadda Da Vida (cover version)

曲風還是維持上一張專輯 A Night At The Opera 的味道
我自己覺得有些失望
他們似乎脫離了之前的 Tales From The Twilight World 和Somewhere Far Beyond的風格
thrash & speedy heavy metal stuff 似乎少了點 多了些搖滾味和progressive的東西

難怪Thomen Stauch要離團 另組SAVAGE CIRCU
反而現在SAVAGE CIRCU 還比BLIND GUARDIAN更像BLIND GUARDIAN

雖然如此 新專輯還是讓我非常期待
畢竟讓人喜愛的金屬專輯 越來越少了
希望能聽到等待四年後 BLIND GUARDIAN所帶來的完整專輯

2006 -> Fly
2003 -> Live
2003 -> The Bard´s Song (In The Forest)
2002 -> A Night At The Opera
2001 -> And Then There Was Silence
1998 -> Nightfall In Middle-Earth
1998 -> Mirror Mirror
1996 -> The Forgotten Tales
1996 -> Mr. Sandman
1995 -> Imaginations From The Other Side
1995 -> A Past And Future Secret
1993 -> Tokyo Tales
1992 -> Somewhere Far Beyond
1990 -> Tales From The Twilight World
1989 -> Follow The Blind
1988 -> Battalions Of Fear

時間的賊&鬼使神偷

收到了臉譜的信件 告知有優惠折扣的書可買
臉譜推理一年一度閱讀盛事
這次是和金石堂合作的79折優惠
剛好等這本 Tony Hillerman 時間的賊 等很久了

一直想照他的出書順序看下來
這本第8本的書 A Thief of Time 1988
中文版反而是延後到第10本才出的
連帶的之前買的兩本 說話的神 凱歐狼總是等著
也都沒看 一直放著
趁這個機會趕快買下來

另外也買了鬼使神偷The Velvet Touch 這本書
這是因為網站上介紹的

愛德華．霍克 Edward D. Hoch
當代短篇推理小說之王
2001年美國愛倫坡獎大師獎得主
世界短篇推理之王愛德華．霍克
最受歡迎的神偷費爾威系列正式登場

看到這標題 而想買來看看 希望不會讓人失望

WoW UI

最近玩WoW時 一直不定時的出現當機 困腦了許久
直到今天才想到是不是因為裝了太多的UI 才會發生這樣的情形
雖然把UI的記憶體加大到56MB 但還是一直發生當機
利用今晚的當班 把自己較常用的整理一下
打算用些單體的UI 不再用整合的UI包 回去試驗看看 是否可以改善當機的情況

目標如下:

Titan Titan面板

CooldownCount(技能冷卻時間)
提供清楚的技能冷卻時間資訊 執行/cc顯示參數命令

MyBank(整合銀行包包)
可整合銀行包包由單一視窗顯示 執行/mb顯示參數命令

MobInfo2(怪物資料)
顯示並紀錄怪物的血量、魔法值、掉落物品等資料
執行/mi2設定

QuickLoot(快速拾取)
撿取視窗自動對應滑鼠位置 按下Shift鍵拾取可直接取得所有物品

AF_Tooltip(訊息提示)
滑鼠移到玩家或 NPC 出現的提示會跟著指標移動 不再固定右下角 執行/aftt設定

Auctioneerpack(拍賣、附魔、物品助手)
拍賣場價格紀錄、拍賣紀錄等 執行/auctioneer顯示參數命令
裝備分解材料機率顯示 執行/enchantrix顯示參數命令
物品買賣價、NPC販賣等 執行/informant顯示參數命令
物品,拍賣,附魔助手 初次使用請先輸入
/informant load always
/auctioneer load always
/Enchantrix load always
保持永遠開啟
/informant embed on
/auctioneer embed on
/Enchantrix embed on
可整合視窗

ImprovedErrorFrame
錯誤收集視窗,避免擋到遊戲進行 v3.0
執行/ief顯示設定參數

ItemRack (更換裝備)

Super Marco

CT_RaidAssist 1.5411
幫助你觀察團隊的詳細狀態

CT_RABossMods 1.24 Multi v1.534
Boss警報器，需配合RaidAssist使用

先整理出這些 要等實際玩後才能確定 能否夠用
國外的UI資訊 真的非常豐富
http://ui.worldofwar.net/
光是這個網站的東西就看不完了...

這個中文網站也很符合我的需求
http://vega.cs.tku.edu.tw/~u8197228/blog/item/795