In what has become close to a yearly tradition for my blog (2007 and 2008), here are the 20 albums of 2009 I enjoyed this past year.


A Fine Frenzy - Bomb in a Birdcage


Barcelona - Absolutes


The Fray - The Fray


Jack Savoretti - Harder Than Easy


John Mayer - Battle Studies


Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted


Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence


Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You


Mat Kearney - City of Black & White


Metric - Fantasies


Miike Snow - Miike Snow


Mika - The Boy Who Knew Too Much


Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk


Norah Jones - The Fall


Paolo Nutini - Sunny Side Up


Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms


Regina Spektor - Far


The Swell Season - Strict Joy


Uninhabitable Mansions - Nature is a Taker


Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Onward to the sounds of 2010! Have a happy new year.

If there was one thing I wished I was good at, it is to be more musically inclined, be it in playing an instrument, singing well, having a good sense of rhythm, or understanding music theory. Growing up, the only exposure to music instruments I had was the simplistic recorder that all primary school kids were allowed to fiddle with during Music period. It is a pity my family did not push us beyond what was required; but who can blame them - the arts and music scene in Southeast Asia years back were not particularly the supplier of bountiful jobs with promising, long-lasting careers.

In 2006, the last time my brother and I were back in Kuala Lumpur, my aunts enrolled us in a guitar course for beginners with a one-on-one private tutor. I remember the classes being fun but nerve-wrecking. We invested in a handmade classical guitar from Romania (to my embarrassment, an acoustic guitar was what I thought we had up until recently), which we brought over to Toronto when we returned from our summer vacation. Even though I had meant to continue with guitar classes here and build on this one musical skill whose seeds have been sown, the instrument had been in the storeroom ever since our return. Until now.

One of the To-Do item this free semester off from school was to dust out the guitar. The year is almost at an end and school starts in a couple weeks, while the guitar is only making its way out. I purchased new strings, a tuner and a capo, and I am happy to report that I have successfully strung and tuned the guitar for the first time. I have also been reviewing the lessons I did 3 years ago, and to my surprise some of them are coming back to me easily. All I have to do now is practice, practice, practice. "Practice makes perfect" - we will see about that. Maybe for once, I can become adept with a music instrument if I keep up with this...

My brother loves replaying this clip from The Kids in the Hall, a Canadian comedy show from the 1980s. Not going to lie, I usually get annoyed with the videos/music he plays on loop (it's an underlying brother-rivalry thing on my part), but some of them are actually good, like this one.