<!-- --><!-- --><style type="text/css">@import url(http://www.blogger.com/static/v1/v-css/navbar/697174003-classic.css);
div.b-mobile {display:none;}
</style>
</head><body><script type="text/javascript">
function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) {
if(window.addEventListener) {
window.addEventListener("load",
function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false);
} else {
window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; });
}
}
</script>
<iframe src="http://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID=9818346&blogName=Publicly+ZihWye&publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&navbarType=BLACK&layoutType=CLASSIC&homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fycroxmyworld.blogspot.com%2F&blogLocale=en_US&searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Fycroxmyworld.blogspot.com%2Fsearch" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" height="30px" width="100%" id="navbar-iframe" title="Blogger Navigation and Search"></iframe>
<div></div>
That which we call a rose(l) by any other name would smell as sweet.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
8:12 AM
I AM FINALLY DONE WITH MOONLIGHT RESONANCE.
for some reason i took more than a week to finish 40 episodes of it, which is the longest ever for any show i've watched this hols. but first, let me just conclude that im terribly impressed with kate tsui's acting. all along i thought her acting was not bad, following her role as man ching in on the first beat, sze man in steps and lam ping in price of greed. but this one is a major breakthrough for her: http://v.ku6.com/show/3UZGfiXo4Qm_vWzH.html from 36:00 onwards, but you really have to see how two-faced her character is from episode 20 thereabout, unfortunately.
i liked the start and the end of the show, essentially. it got a bit draggy and boring midway, but the ending was totally worth it: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTgyMjAzMTI=.html watch the reconciliation scene between linda chung and raymond lam (though their love story drama was SO STUPID; bosco wong was some random distraction that shouldnt have existed) from 20:00 onwards, and then watch from after 40:00 where they all start singing 月亮代表我的心 -I LOVE THE FLASHBACKS.
the last point i have to make is the fact that susanna kwan's chinese is damn good. i am speechless. i really wonder how a cantonese-speaking lady like her can speak impeccable mandarin without the typical cantonese-accent. what 我说你行你就行，我说你不行你就不行，...
yay. rayda ftw.
they should make another blockbuster drama (but stick to 40 eps because 82 is stupid and too long) starring the usual seniors, but trade chris lai for ron ng (because chris lai is not versatile enough). then again, chris lai has the sidekick look whereas ron ng just has to be the young hero. so its between ron ng and raymond lam, and for blockbusters unfortunately it just has to be raymond lam. ):
OH YEAH. almost forgot. throughout this entire show tavia yeung (hairstyle and character) kept reminding me of ron ng's chung lap-man in e.u.! its disturbing cos tavia yeung once played chung lap-man's first girlfriend (ho fa) in the academy.
yay! im done with moonlight resonance! yay yay yay!
overall: 9/10 (+2 for the awesome stage and impressive special effects)
i loved... + 第一天，咕唧咕唧，逆光，风筝，梦游，遇见, 神奇 ... + anonymous dancers + her voice + THE STAGE.
i didn't love... + cramped seats + peter chen & nathan hartuno. wtf. + those songs i don't know + the absence of 我要的幸福
she could have improved on... + the breaks in between costume changes were filled with weird grey images on the backdrop bearing random questions like "what should i do now". WTH?! this is notwaiting for godot! + so... what is the answer?
in a word, surprising. i truthfully didn't expect a singaporean to be able to hold such a concert. the stage alone beat Jay Chou's hands-down (and i mean Jay Chou's 2004 无与伦比 center-stage concert). i cannot describe it so im just going to use photos:the entire concert had this unofficial 'under the sea' theme, with the backdrop looking a bit like crustaceans. especially when midway she appeared in this moving shell-shaped thing in a dress with dark orange details, looking very much like a piece of shelled meat.
but it was certainly more than just a underwater world-meets-little mermaid feeling, since the backdrop was very well-utilised:that was for 神奇, her second song after 梦游, which i thought was a good choice for an opening act. beats jay's 黄金甲 for sure. essentially the beginning bit of the concert was very exciting. her appearance amidst the messy backdrop was entertainment on its own.that was when i kind of realised jay chou wasn't the only person capable of such 花样.
i thought her costumes were average though. typical gaudy and bling, but not ugly.i thought only jolin would wear something like that. this was very angela zhang-ish. the following's my favourite:just that bling, midriff-baring top with black 3/4s. very sammi chan, no?SHELLED MEAT!
the highlight of the concert though, apart from the usual stuff like dancing (which was average, but they did a good job in making the dancers anonymous - their faces were covered up all the time - cos dancers can be quite distracting for the audience especially if the artiste is not physically large enough or doesn't have the stage presence), and her singing (which was brilliant), was the amazing use of special effects such as:can you tell that's not really her? just a moving image made of light beams. 'she' sang most of 风筝 like that, without losing the audience's attention, before reappearing suddenly in the same dress:that, in addition to the moving 'shells' i mentioned earlier (below) was what made the otherwise regular concert extraordinary. her next costume was simply the white dress stripped down to a gladiator-inspired outfitwhich i thought was bad, until i saw the last outfit, which was simply her "The Answer Is" concert t-shirt and jeans.
WHAT is it with female artistes ending their concerts dressed in jeans?! angela zhang did that (though i wasn't surprised cos her costumes were awful and her concert generally seemed low-budget), but i was expecting stefanie sun to end it off with something impressive considering the rest of her wardrobe. the guys dont seem to be in that habit though- all of Show Luo, Jay Chou and Yoga Lin finished their concerts attired in no less than a blazer-suit.
anyhow, her dancers were well-dressed too: and i was, in general, impressed with the concert as a whole. 9/10 is 0.5 lower than Jay's, and only because...
her guest stars screwed up and her guest stars' screwed up.
i don't know if it was because aska yang was poorly received at her taiwan concert, but as much as i no longer like aska yang, i think he would have been much better than peter chen and nathan hartuno. whotheshitisnathanhartuno! i do know who he is, but i don't think hes good enough for a concert which sold almost as well as jay's (they had to add extra seats which made the whole place damn cramped and stuffy)! plus, peter chen seemed like he was there to 1) publicise his music school and 2) engage in PC talk with stefanie on stage. BORRRING. but otherwise! i would give Stefanie Sun a standing ovation and say, Singapore's Pride!
9/10 in 3 hours on 11 July 2009 for $171. (super expensive tickets but the view was worth every cent)
ps: this is my first concert review with photos. mainly cos im too tired for words. but also cos i finally own a laptop with a built-in sd card reader which i can easily use to transfer photos without connection wires.
i have finally settled on five modules. after more than a week of stressing over trying to balance interests, exam dates and a 3day timetable. if all goes well, exams end 28 nov and i get my 3-day week. i am not majorly interested in my modules though.
for one, im back to taking philo. NO CHOICE. everything else sounds damn boring/ has exams that end late, even if i take 4 soci mods and fill up most of my level2000 quota, which i won't do cos i don't want to start year 3 with pure 3000 mods. i am actually ok with taking 'major moral philosophers', except i really don't know whether i'll be able to understand hume and kant.
HUME AND KANT. :/
names i havent heard in a long time.
anyway,
stefanie sun's concert tonight.
*rolls eyes*
WHY AM I EVEN GOING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! i don't even have her songs in my itunes.
i hate the way ive been damn impulsive for such purchases this year.
but as it is with hk stars who come to town, they usually kenna mobbed by crazy singaporeans. it'll probably be worse when it is @ jurong point (!!!) and autograph's literally free for all as long as they buy two packets of some random brand of coffee i've never even heard of.
lin feng!
i patiently await the day ron ng comes to town. i dont think he has ever been here before.
-goes back to moonlight resonance-
* im terribly annoyed again cos there seems to be nothing to do in singapore other than eat and walk around (or stay at home). im tired of eating and walking around the same old places and i am determined to do something different, like go out to sea (sailing's fine, canoeing's good, kayaking's good too, anything to do with water other than swimming's good!) or do something i've not done before, like shooting, or visit some place i havent been in a long time like pulau ubin.
i need a yacht.
im keen on shooting cos of all the cop dramas (HAHA) but its all the way in yishun. i already spent this morning @ bukit batok, im not attempting another faraway place tomorrow! talking about bukit batok, i took a longer time to get there than to do my btt. i finished it in 4 minutes :D
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
4:01 PM
i've been mildly pissed off since the end of wimbledon due to several factors that just keep accumulating. random stuff like the way federer won wimbledon (i still think it was damn unconvincing - sole break point was championship point? two out of three sets he won were tie-breakers?), important stuff like modules, and silly things like how i cant sign into msn, how theres no one website which has the whole ga hou yuet yun series (ive been hopping from tudou to youku to ku6 and more), etc.
the one that pisses me off the most is modules. nevermind that with each passing sem i take more modules on my own cos my uni friends are all in other majors like theatre studies, econs, psych. but ive been lucky cos i meet random people along the way and its been quite ok so far cos at least ive had people to hang out with even if we're not that close.
this time, i have problems finding 5 modules, not to mention 5 which fit my interest, desired 3-day timetable and exam dates. current dates are: 21 nov, 25 nov, 26 nov, 2 dec, 3 dec. basically spread out over 3 weeks. thats with 4 soci modules, and a 4-day timetable. maybe cos the past 2 sems i only had to decide on 4 modules cos there was french.
ive been on excel (timetable builder's still stuck at AY2008-2009) and cors every night for the past 5 days. plus sending ethel a lot of emails cos shesthe only other soci major i really talk to. MPE is frickin' on friday. (MPE = this god-given exercise which helps soci majors get their courses at 1 point without bidding. i heard it doesnt work for econs and psych!)
i have btt tomorrow. it has been 2 weeks since i passed my evaluation (100% and i did it in something like 7mins - basically memorized the answers from the practices) so i need to study.
im also really sleepy.
on a lighter note altogether, ga hou yuet yun really rocks. its LOADS better than tang xin feng bao although i really hope saying this will not jinx it cos i've just hit the halfway mark. its partially cos im skipping all the parts with the veteran actresses (louise lee, michelle yim, susanna kwan), i skim through parts with tavia yeung and moses chan, and only watch properly parts with fala chen, raymond lam, linda chung and bosco wong.
this entry's gonna be terribly incoherent cos i can't be bothered to phrase my sentences nicely, i just want to rant.
i think roger federer should stop winning grand slams just based on how he treats his opponents after beating them. if he remembered how he bawled like a baby after you lost to Nadal at AO'09 -it has barely been 6 months- he certainly doesn't seem like he remembers what Nadal did to him thereafter. just to refresh your memory, roger, he gave you a hug and gave away most of his thank you speech to talking about what an awesome player you are/were. all that considering your loss to him was barely unexpected.
today, roger federer barely won that match. it was less than convincing. andy roddick played much better he could've won tonight. unfortunately he didn't, but the least you could do was y'know, show him some respect, give him a hug, give him his due credit in your interviews etc etc, but you did none of those. you barely looked at him at the trophy ceremony.
ANYWAY.
despite roger's post-match actions i think the match was really awesome. truthfully even though we had two ex-number 1s lined up for a wimbledon final i never expected it would be a five setter, much less a score like 7-5, 6-7, 6-7. 6-3, 14-16. yes, 14-freaking-16 in the last set which lasted more than an hour. the standard of tennis played was undeniably high, definitely not lower than what was played last year (just that last year there was more drama with the rain interruptions) especially because federer finally played better this year. he could've won. as is typical of wimbledon finals, it was certainly the match of the year. roddick played amazing tennis, probably his best game in a long time, yet still remains a one-slam wonder.
sigh.
now: 1) Nadal becomes #2, again, after barely a year of being world no. 1 (major wth) 2) Nadal and Borg's back-to-back Roland Garros & Wimbledon titles record has once again been broken by federer, of all people 3) Roddick's H2H against federer is now 19-2 (SAD CASE!) 4) federer now holds the record for winning the most number of grand slams - 15.
i have finally started watching 家好月圆. after one entire year of deliberating over it, because its a typical draggy tvb blockbuster. 溏心风暴 was really bad so naturally i wasn't too interested in watching the "part two" (ie same cast).
i've only finished the first and last episode (common practise of mine to watch last episode first cos the ending determines how worthy the entire show is of my time). im not terribly impressed with the ending BUT i will watch it, at least for this song.
you know how sometimes you like certain theme songs from shows only cos of the show (like alfalean's 可不可以爱我 in pp2) i used to like raymond lam a lot, then he got overrated and took on lousy roles like that of a unfaithful lawyer in 溏心风暴 so i started hating him and i went on to liking other stars his generation like RON NG. thankfully he's the main hero in this show, and he finally ends up with linda chung. for all that hype!
i like very much how he's back to playing 呆呆 characters. i know his acting is better than that but i like 皇甫少华 of zsy very much, thank you.
tavia yeung seems a lot more bearable in this series! no more crying (she cried in every scene in 溏心风暴 where she played bosco wong's wife) and looking pathetic. unfortunately bosco wong's role is very small and chris lai/ kate tsui play awful people who turn good later on, i think.
we'll see how it goes. hopefully its better than on the first beat.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on'
+No smoking
+A career in AM
+LLB/JD
+UPenn
+Safina as world #1 (achieved, 13/4/09)
+Nadal as world #1 (achieved, 2008)
+Nadal for wimbledon champion (achieved, 2008)
+Jay Chou concert (achieved, 2008)
the entire concert had this unofficial 'under the sea' theme, with the backdrop looking a bit like crustaceans. especially when midway she appeared in this moving shell-shaped thing in a dress with dark orange details, looking very much like a piece of shelled meat.
that was for 神奇, her second song after 梦游, which i thought was a good choice for an opening act. beats jay's 黄金甲 for sure. essentially the beginning bit of the concert was very exciting. her appearance amidst the messy backdrop was entertainment on its own.
that was when i kind of realised jay chou wasn't the only person capable of such 花样.
i thought only jolin would wear something like that. 
this was very angela zhang-ish. the following's my favourite:
just that bling, midriff-baring top with black 3/4s. very sammi chan, no?
SHELLED MEAT!
can you tell that's not really her? just a moving image made of light beams. 'she' sang most of 风筝 like that, without losing the audience's attention, before reappearing suddenly in the same dress:
that, in addition to the moving 'shells' i mentioned earlier (below) was what made the otherwise regular concert extraordinary. 
her next costume was simply the white dress stripped down to a gladiator-inspired outfit
which i thought was bad, until i saw the last outfit, which was simply her "The Answer Is" concert t-shirt and jeans.
and i was, in general, impressed with the concert as a whole. 9/10 is 0.5 lower than Jay's, and only because...