Jay Chou - Exclamation Mark

I bought Jay’s Exclamation Mark album last week but I listened it once and found it disappointing so I discarded it for a while. I put the songs in my ipod this week and on a few additional listens, it’s not bad but the problem I have with this album is that almost each song is like a replica of his previous songs. I don’t know if that was Jay’s intention or not.


For example, Mine Mine, I would love it if it itsn't so similar to 我不配, which was better. 水手怕水 is like a sister song of 牛仔很忙. Now, 公主病 is the twin song of 陽光宅男. I do like 迷魂曲 and 皮影戲 though.

Arrived at last...

So my copy of In Heaven from JYJ has finally arrived! I don’t speak Korean but I still bought this album to support them, especially during the current difficult times. Always keep the faith!

Still looping Get Out the most…


Meaniwhile, Jay Chou's next album will be released next month...Woohoo!

The fun of misheard lyrics

I notice from work that everyone seems to be tired and easily irritated (myself included) lately so I need something to LOL. These two videos never fail to make me ROFLMAO! It's funnier if you know the group members' name...



For the following one, even with the misheard lyrics, the 'story' makes sense...haha! Kudos and credits to the uploader!



Totally unrelated, but since I'm still in City Hunter withdrawal mode, this news made me giddy and happy for about 30 minutes and then there is this and this to burst the bubble...Okay, we'll see...

Hours later, this came out! Yay, it's official that they are dating! Okay, I really have no life...haha!

Fighting, dongsaengs! Wish you the best of luck!

Khalil Fong - 15

Finally got it and I’ve been holding myself from sampling his album in Youtube so I can savor the overly long anticipation of Khalil’s 5th album. The packaging is interesting but I’m having a headache to where to put it since it can not fit in my CD shelves. While the lyrics/picture booklet is nice to look at but the CD is put in a very thin envelope…




The album starts with a track with a long intro in Gotta Make A Change and concluded with a long outro in 好不容易. My first impressions of this album is that the first 2 plugs 因為你 and 好不容易 are considered listener friendly songs of the whole album. It’s not an album for usual Canto pop listeners as it takes time to warm to the songs but it grows on you. I only didn’t like 曇花 and 張永成 because I think they were a bit too "loud".

I already said before that Gotta Make A Change is probably my favorite track currently as I find myself tapping my fingers everytime I listen to it. But lately, I’m frequently repeating Over over and over [he!] again.

無菇朋友 is a cute kiddie song feel about staying away from drugs. For 自以為, the cuteness of this song is more or less enhanced by the MV.

From 四人遊's story of an ex-couple's ambiguity to 三人游's story about the third party self-sacrificing, watching the couple from afar to now 二人遊's story about the one in relationship warning the third party not to butt in. So, I wonder what will be 一人遊's story in the future?

Playlist of early May

- 除下吊帶前 - Fiona Sit => Khalil Fong's composition + Wyman Wong's lyrics. The song title itself can generate a lot of talk. I think that Fiona handled the nice quite nicely and she changed her singing style; more maturity, less cuteness.

- Gotta Make A Change - Khalil Fong => My favorite track of his new album. I’ll post about my comments of the album later…

Playlist of early March

- 無念 - Juno Mak => Juno continues his un-maintream road and this is an interesting song with complex lyrics (which I still don't understand)...

- 六月飛霜 - Eason Chan => I didn't think much of the song at first...until the chorus.

Playlist of early February

- 因為愛情 – Faye Wong & Eason Chan => I had goosebumps when I first heard it, the voices blend so well together...what a heavenly duo!

- 因為你 – Khalil Fong => I like the earnest simplicity of this song. Hope that April comes faster for the release of his new album...

My Top 10 of 2010

It's the time of the year and it was hard to choose 10 songs because 2010 was so...bland...Not in particular order.

美 - 王力宏 --- Album: 十八般武藝

完美孤獨 - 莫文蔚 --- Album: 寶貝

雨下一整晚 - 周杰倫 --- Album: 跨時代

Double Trouble - 張學友 --- Album: Private Corner

LOVE! - Hebe --- Album: To Hebe

吹摯友 - C君 featuring 方大同 --- Album: 奇蹟

無人之境 - 陳奕迅 --- Album: Time Flies

Rock It - 大嘴巴 --- Album: 万凸3

愛不愛 - 郭采潔 --- Album: 煙火

Deadline - 張敬軒 --- Album: N/A

* All pics from Yesasia.com

Khalil Fong @ Toronto

Yeah, within six months, I saw my absolute 2 favs (that is Jay Chou and Khalil Fong) in concert in Toronto. This time for Khalil, I'm fanatic (or crazy) enough to go alone to Toronto for this concert. It's the first time that I travel alone and it's an interesting experience, ah the freedom...

Back to the concert, I'm really happy to be there to support him. It really was a music based concert since most of the time, he was performing acoustic and the stage was simple, without any props. I must say that he was really good live this evening and his voice condition was great. He was really interactive with the crowd, he responded to the crowd making it an intimate concert. He even said "Bonjour" and "Je t'aime"...aw....

My only disappointments were that the concert was really short by my standards. It lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Also, only pictures allowed but no video shooting allowed...Grrr...that sucks! But clips of that evening can found on Youtube...oh well...

The concert venue Roy Thompson Hall

The interior of the venue

The encore part with guest Fiona Sit

Playlist of early April

- 值得流淚 - Raymond Lam => On the first hearing, you have the impression that it's a themesong for an ancient drama and it really is one! There is really no classical fusioned song that I don't like so yeah...

- 披星戴月 - Hins Cheung => Christopher Chak is the hot composer now and there are so many songs composed by him lately. Among them, it's this one that I like the most since it grows on me after each repeat.

* March was relatively better compared to February and I'm still in my reading craze thus the lack of updates. But I will eventually post back the reviews of some movies that I wrote like 2 months ago...:p

Playlist of early March

- 不呼不吸幾多秒 - Fiona Sit => Khalil flavored track, very sweet and old school feel; although I think that Fiona's pronouciation of 呼 a bit too odd.

- 二缺一 - Charlene Choi => Okay, I never thought that I would ever put her name here but I think this song managed to surprise me and I do see improvement here. But why this sounds so like 酷愛?

* Right, I 'disappeared' for a month virtually. I officially label February as my depression month. It's the shortest month according to the calendar but it felt really long and I was really really tired. Results: I was so unmotivated that I didn't watch anything (well, just some episodes of Boom Boom Ba). Instead, I spent my time reading chick lit and contemporary romance novels (lame, I know :=)...Therefore, no updates for I-don't-know-how-long...

Playlist of early February

- 祝英台 - Kay Tse => I was a bit disappointed when I first heard it because it's so typical recent Kay stuff but there's nothing to criticize in terms of performance, melody and lyrics.

- 我的回憶不是我的 - Hai Ming Wei & Vincy Chan => Very 90's duet feel that I found myself humming along...

- Allegro Opus 3.3am - Eason Chan=> A song title that is hard to remember but bravo Eason for something so unordinary!

JSG Awards 2008

Ah...the second HK annual music award ceremony that I do care...Still didn't watch it yet but just scanning the results, I find them a bit odd but acceptable. However, my reaction to some of the winners is "what the...?!" ~~ Apparently, there are some embarrassing moments this year too...err...

十大勁歌金曲獎
- 跑步機上 - 容祖兒
- 囍帖街 - 謝安琪
- 撈月亮的人 - 楊千嬅
- 龐貝.廿一世紀 - 關心妍
- 歌.頌 - 陳奕迅
- 愛不疚 - 林峯
- 韻律泳 - 何韻詩
- 他的故事 - 張敬軒
- 眼睛不能沒眼淚 - 古巨基
- 她慈我悲 - 李克勤

最受歡迎改編歌曲大獎
金：渴求 - 黃伊汶
銀：只要和你在一起 - 孫耀威
銅：千嬌百媚 - 可嵐

最受歡迎華語歌曲獎
金：心裡話 - 孫楠
銀：小酒窩 - 蔡卓妍 / 林俊傑
銅：Sorry - 方大同 <= (?) I thought it was Love Song

最受歡迎廣告歌曲獎
金：Lucky Star - 容祖兒
銀：I Miss You - 陳柏宇
銅：You Are My Best Friend - HotCha

最受歡迎合唱歌曲獎
金：一事無成 - 鄭融 / 周柏豪
銀：逼得寵物太緊 - 吳雨霏 / 小肥
銅：最難過今天 - 胡杏兒 / 王浩信

最受歡迎男新人獎
金：陳偉霆
銀：黃宗澤
銅：狄易達

最受歡迎女新人獎
金：G.E.M.
銀：鍾嘉欣
銅：馮曦妤

新人薦場飆星獎： 胡杏兒

最佳作曲： Eric Kwok (囍帖街 - 謝安琪)

最佳填詞： 黃偉文 (囍帖街 - 謝安琪)

最佳編曲： 王雙駿 (跑步機上 - 容祖兒)

最佳歌曲監製： 金培達 (寫得太多 - 麥浚龍 / 倫永亮)

2008年度傑出表現獎
金：關菊英
銀：麥浚龍
銅：陳柏宇

最受歡迎唱作歌星
金：王菀之
銀：側田
銅：鄧健泓

最受歡迎組合獎
金：農夫
銀：HotCha
銅：Mr.

最受歡迎男歌手： 古巨基

最受歡迎女歌手： 楊千嬅

亞太區最受歡迎香港男歌手： 陳奕迅

亞太區最受歡迎香港女歌手： 容祖兒

金曲金獎： 囍帖街 - 謝安琪

四台聯頒大碟獎： Binary 歌手：謝安琪 監製：周博賢 / Eric Kwok

* Taken from Coolman Forum

Playlist of early January

- 黑白 - Khalil Fong => Okay, I don't have to mention anymore how much I adore this guy...

- 不潮不用花錢 - JJ Lin => Upbeat song that reminds of me of some American songs that I cant name. Anyway, I like it.

- 西太后 - Eric Suen => I usually like chink-out type of music and I've never heard Eric sing this type of song so I'm a bit surprised.

**
- Just saw the very badly edited/cut version of Chik Chak from TVB. I wanted to write how furious I was regarding those cuts but I managed to find [hopefully] the uncut version; so I'll see.

- No matter how many times I watch this clip, I'm still touched. Touched by their friendship, touched by CR's support for him, touched that he's finally getting his long due recognition...All the best for 2009! :)



***
- Oh wow, tomorrow is the JSG Awards too...I expect to see Raymond Lam, Linda Chung, Bosco Wong, Myolie Wu and Wong Cho Lam getting a little something...wanna bet?

Chik Chak 903 Awards

Happy New Year!!!

OMG....AH....I want to scream and cry for good!!! What a surprise when I wake up and check the results...

專業推介 叱咤十大叱咤樂壇至尊歌曲大獎: 囍帖街 - 謝安琪
作曲: Eric Kwok 填詞: 黃偉文 編曲: Eric Kwok 監製: Eric Kwok

專業推介 叱咤十大　第二位: Love Song - 方大同
作曲: 方大同 填詞: 方大同 編曲: 方大同 監製: Edward Chan / Charles Lee / 方大同

專業推介 叱咤十大　第三位: 下次再見 - 古巨基
作曲: 楊鎮邦 填詞: 林夕 編曲: 雷頌德 監製: 雷頌德

專業推介 叱咤十大　第四位: 跑步機上 - 容祖兒
作曲: 王雙駿 填詞: 黃偉文 編曲: 王雙駿 監製: 王雙駿

專業推介 叱咤十大　第五位: 櫻花樹下 - 張敬軒
作曲: 伍卓賢 填詞: 林若寧 編曲: 劉志遠 監製: C. Y. Kong

專業推介 叱咤十大　第六位: ABC - MC Jin
作曲: Allen Sung / Kevin Nishimura / James Roh / Jae Choung / Stefon Taylor 填詞: Jin 編曲: Kevin Nishimura / James Roh / Jae Choung aka Far*East Movement 監製: Kevin Nishimura / James Roh / Jae Choung aka Far*East Movement

專業推介 叱咤十大　第七位: 路...一直都在 - 陳奕迅
作曲: Adrian Fu 填詞: 吳向飛 編曲: Mac Chew 監製: Jim Lee

專業推介 叱咤十大　第八位: 舉高隻手 - 農夫
作曲: DJ Tommy 填詞: 農夫 編曲: DJ Tommy / 咖啡因公園 監製: DJ Tommy

專業推介 叱咤十大　第九位: 撈月亮的人 - 楊千嬅
作曲: 陳台證 填詞: 林若寧 編曲: 陳台證 監製: 陳台證

專業推介 叱咤十大　第十位: 我哋大家 - 林海峰
作曲: 王雙駿 填詞: 林海峰 編曲: 王雙駿 監製: 王雙駿

叱咤樂壇生力軍男歌手
金獎: 陳偉霆
銀獎: 狄易達
銅獎: 徐浩

叱咤樂壇生力軍女歌手
金獎: G.E.M.
銀獎: 胡杏兒
銅獎: 方珈悠

叱咤樂壇生力軍組合
金獎: Rubber Band
銀獎: Mr.
銅獎: 廿四味

叱咤樂壇唱作人大獎
金獎: 方大同
銀獎: 王菀之
銅獎: 林海峰

叱咤樂壇作曲人大獎
方大同

叱咤樂壇填詞人大獎
林夕

叱咤樂壇編曲人大獎
王雙駿

叱咤樂壇監製大獎
雷頌德

叱咤樂壇至尊唱片大獎
《Binary》 歌手: 謝安琪 監製: 周博賢 / Eric Kwok

叱咤樂壇男歌手
金獎: 方大同
銀獎: 古巨基
銅獎: 陳奕迅

叱咤樂壇女歌手
金獎: 容祖兒
銀獎: 謝安琪
銅獎: 王菀之

叱咤樂壇組合
金獎: 農夫
銀獎: at17
銅獎: HotCha

叱咤樂壇我最喜愛的男歌手
陳奕迅

叱咤樂壇我最喜愛的女歌手
謝安琪

叱咤樂壇我最喜愛的組合
農夫

叱咤樂壇我最喜愛的歌曲大獎
囍帖街 - 謝安琪 作曲: Eric Kwok 填詞: 黃偉文 編曲: Eric Kwok 監製: Eric Kwok

四台聯頒音樂大獎 - 歌曲獎
囍帖街 - 謝安琪 作曲: Eric Kwok 填詞: 黃偉文 編曲: Eric Kwok 監製: Eric Kwok

Results taken from UWants Forum

I'm listening back the show via 903 now and I'll write more when I watch the TVB version...I'm so happy happy for Soulboy, you deserve all the awards you get this year. Sigh...I already see him being stabbed (bashed) by angered fans in forums...ah whatever!

My Top 10 of 2008

It's the time of the year! This list is purely based on personal taste and bias and it's not in particular order.

十字架 - 謝安琪 --- Album: Binary

每個人都會 - 方大同 --- Album: Orange Moon

分手要狠 - 吳雨霏 --- Album: Lady K: Transformation

幸福合作社 - 范曉萱 --- Album: They Kiss Again OST

愛不疚 - 林峯 --- Album: Your Love

周大俠 - 周杰倫 --- Album: Jay Chou 2007 World Tour Concert Live

夢非夢 - 容祖兒 --- In Motion (Mandarin version unreleased)

深深愛過你 - 薛之谦 Album: 深深愛過你

不吐不快 - 張敬軒 --- Album: Urban Emotions

復刻回憶 - 薛凱琪 & 方大同 Album: It's My Day

Besides my top 10 of the year, I also compiled my top 4 [fill the blank] songs, for the sake of being mean for once. Suggestions for the blank: scratch-head, what-the-bloody-hell, cringe-worthy, laughable...you name it...

- 中華冷面 - 鄧麗欣 => Stephy is cute, there is nothing wrong for once with her singing and the melody is catchy but the lyrics are WTH. "Where did you get your noodles" bwahaha

- 連帶關係 - Twins => I feel bad to put them here since I don't know if there's a chance to see them back together in the future. Unfortunately, I remember myself rolling eyes at the scratch head lyrics when I heard this song since the beginning of the year. Song written by Jay Chou and it's rapped Jay Chow....hmmm...

- 水果大聯盟 - 裕美 => A song that should not be taken too seriously and it's targeted for kids, fine...but I swear once you hear it, the singing and the lyrics are unforgettable!

- 大開色界 - 劉美君 => It's Prudence Lau's comeback song and it's...cool...BUT I always have chills in a bad way whenever I hear this song. Maybe I still can't accept the boldness of the song...

Khalil Fong - Orange Moon

Wow, it's been a year already since Wonderland! I got my copy of Orange Moon yesterday and I'm still listening while typing this. It's so LOVE! It's so laid-back, smooth, relaxing and romantic, suitable for the holidays mood. Orange Moon didn't give as much surprise compared to Wonderland but I admire its simplicity and the arrangement of each song is worth checking out. I don't have a track that I feel like skipping. I'm 200% positive that there will be a 2nd edition with a bonus DVD...wanna bet anyone?

My 5 favorite tracks (very hard to choose though):

- Singalongsong => A simple and heartfelt song. When I heard the first 2 lines, I thought it will be Love Song's lyrics in English. Khalil singing in English is just so dreamy...

- 小小蟲 => I didn't feel much when I heard it at first but when I read the lyrics, it scores extra points. The lyrics are written by Fama, it's just so cute!

- 黑白 => one of my top 3 favorites of the album, reminds me a bit of 每天每天 but more jazzy. Just listening to the melody is romantic enough.

- 黑洞裡 => Romantic and the lyrics are so beautiful!

- 每個人都會 => I've been listening to this song for half a year and it's easily one of my top 10 of the year. The lyrics are just so heartwarming.

At around 16 minutes of the last track, there's a hidden track called Orange Moon, which is the demo of Eason Chan's 倒帶人生...

Jay Chou concert @ Toronto

I joined the Jay Chou concert tour to Toronto just to watch the show...I do consider this a chance of a lifetime to see him live since I've been a fan for 7 years. It was totally worth it despite that huge snow storm in Ontario that delayed a lot of things and that I have to work the next day...

The concert lasted about 2 1/2 hours and the crowd was pretty high. I was in fangirl mode by screaming and singing along out loud too! I managed to shoot clips of every song and as always, I complain that my camera just sucks at shooting in the dark...so the pictures were not too satisfying; they are either blurry or you see a minuscule Jay...sigh...

Concert ticket, booklet and glowstick...I was part of the 'mountain peak crowd'...

Jay playing GuZheng!!! I wish that the quality of this pic is better!

Concert rundown:

- 黄金甲

- 無雙

- 最後的戰役

- 不能說的秘密

- 安靜

- 聽媽媽的話

- 黑色幽默

- 最長的電影

- 說好的幸福呢

- 牛仔很忙

- 千里之外

- 青花瓷

- 本草綱目

- 夜的第七章

- 夜曲

- 迷迭香

- 稻香

- 雙截棍 (acoustic happy version)

- 彩虹

- 開不了口

- 陽光宅男

* Encore (the best part of the concert!!!):

- 周大侠

- 髮如雪

- 霍元甲 + 雙截棍

***Youtube has lots of clips of the concert, wow, a big thank you to the uploader so I can relive back!

Playlist of early December

- 鑽禧 - Shirley Kwan => Themesong of TVB's Gem of Life, which I'm not watching obviously but as a song, it's just super cool.

- 天國的微笑 - Fiona Sit => A song that sounds like standard pop but it isn't and that needs a few repeats to warm up but I see improvements in Fiona's singing.

- 小酒窩 - JJ Lin & Charlene Choi => A saccharinely sweet karaoke friendly duet but I like it and find myself humming after listening to it once. Surprised at JJ's Canto pronounciation...

- 今夕是何年 - Hacken Lee => The last time that I really like a Hacken song was probably 六呎風雲; although there is still the trademark Hacken singing here, there is a fresh feeling in this song.

Before They Were Famous...

I always wanted to make a post about this topic, but digging clips is pretty time consuming but I had fun searching these treasures...Long live Youtube and Tudou!!!

TVB young talents:

Raymond Lam in At The Threshold of An Era (1999-2000). One of his well known 'extra' role...


Ron Ng in Golden Faith (2002). I really didn't remember him in that drama and you'll probably miss him in this clip since he didn't have a close-up...


Kenneth Ma in A Step Into The Past (2001). I wouldn't know that he appeared in this drama if I didn't wiki him...


Bosco Wong in The Awakening Story (2000). I actually remember his 'extra' role in this drama!


Prepare to spit water watching this:


Others:

Jay Chou in 1998, hard to imagine him with the Aaron Kwok hairstyle...


Dayo Wong in 1987...classic!


Khalil Fong in 2005, it wasn't that long ago but you'll see a long haired Khalil without his trademark huge frame glasses!