Sunday, February 26, 2006

昨天看Ben Folds Five的DVD时,表演"Underground"的时候突然感觉到members真情流露。
是刚好触碰到他们当时的心情吗?
三人唱到最后,都在看着对方。
可见团员之间彼此的共同感触,完全表露在歌词里了。
That knowing look between them was really hard to ignore.
如果是歌迷,看到一定会觉得欣慰的。
我觉得,这样才算是一首团员写关于自己的歌。
歌词是否说到每个团员心理想的,现场表演一看就显得很明显了。

当然,这个post还是离不了MUCC。
我真的不该想太多关于他们的事了。
果然blog 跟sex 一样,要靠一时冲动的。- -;
现在想补写星期五的心情,觉得有心无力。。。
算了,自己心里记得就行了!
Ever since Yakun went down the franchising route, the quality of its kopi has been going down, down, down. sigh.. Today i was at the Raffles City outlet having a cuppa and when I asked the counter lady for a serviette, she said they don't provide any, but if I want some, I can buy a packet of tissues from them for 30 cents.

O_O!!!

I couldn't believe my ears. An eating place that doesn't provide serviettes?! A bit the too much, right? Why am I paying so much for my kopi then?! Even Macs provides serviettes! Heck, even the yakitori counter at Taka provides them! And everyone knows that when you drink kopi, sure spill one!! Eat kaya toast the kaya also sure to ooze out one mah, where got people eat kaya toast without ending up with sticky hands one, I ask you? (sorry, can't help but lapse into Singlish cos of the topic lah... ^^;)

Plus, the kopi turned out to be mega-sweet even though I asked for xiu-dai (less sugar). That's it lah.. think I'll stop patronizing Yakun.. give me good'ol kopitiam kopi anytime, man... :)

Saturday, February 25, 2006

最终列车
看旧MUCC

太累了,明天再补写。

Friday, February 24, 2006

I really enjoy my weekly translation classes... language is such a beautiful thing!
Learnt last evening that although the origin of kanji was from the Chinese language, subsequently some Japanese terms formed from kanji were adopted by the Chinese language. Many of these terms are used quite frequently, like “概念”,“抽象”and“政党”. But there are also a number of terms, as expected, that are under contention... cos there are differing arguments about their actual origin. For example, “民主” was present in ancient Chinese language, although the meaning then was quite different from its current usage. Historical records show that the Japanese language then used the term to convey the meaning of "democracy", while the Chinese language used a direct sound translation of "democracy" in the beginning, before later using “民主”. Thus there are still differing opinions on the origin of the current usage of the term--was it the Chinese, who first came up with the term per se, or was it the Japanese, who used it to represent its current meaning?

My take on it is, there'll always be differing views on history, but it's interesting how the usage of a similar "alphabet" system has brought about such an exchange in language and culture. And that exchange is still on-going...with words like “人气” and...haha, at least for the CD-buying friends around me, “初回盘”and “特典”. ^_^

Thursday, February 23, 2006

好累。。刚刚才回到家。。吃饱晚饭就去睡,不胖才怪!
不过今天总算把一样重要的事情做好了。。
续星期一的announcement,明天又会有一个很有趣的。。新加坡越来越精彩了! :)

TatsuYukke combi at Fukuoka LoveFM

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

每个人都身处在同一个世界,不过每个人也都活在不同的世界里。。。
Just watched the HK-based Phoenix TV news where there was a report about Brokeback Mountain winning 4 prizes at the British Academy Film Awards. Ang Lee in the interview said that when he first came across the short story by E Annie Proulx, even though he wasn't that familiar with the theme/setting, he found himself deeply moved by the story.

If he had sought to bring about that same effect to his viewers, then I say, he's done just that to me.

And really, that, to me, is the essence of a true masterpiece. When you may not think you can truly relate to it, but still, it touches you deeply.

At work, I was recommending the movie to a fellow colleague, when she muttered some broad statement about how she did not think much of Hollywood movies, as they tend to throw things into your face, rather than let you decipher them out. It was only then that I realized I had naively spoken to the wrong person, duh. Cos I forgot that she's someone who'd only watch foreign language movies, best if they're French. I think it's quite pretentious to make such sweeping statements about Hollywood movies! In Singlish, I'd call that attitude simply atas! Just like people who say they listen only to indie music and not pop music cos oh nononoooo...pop music's for the.. masses. Wake up already. That's nothing more than just trying to have your own style for the sake of having one.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Did I forget to add in the last entry that all in all, I really like [Gerbera] the single? :) Although the caveat would be that I have yet to look into the lyrics carefully.

But if we talk about lyrics, The Back Horn (TBH)'s recent single, [初めての呼吸で], is yet again a pleasant surprise. I still haven't gotten over how good their last single was, and now they've got another winner on their hands. This band's amazing. Melody-wise, I prefer the first and third tracks, but I read the chinese translation of the second track's lyrics on tat-chan's website, and was deeply impressed (by both the quality of the translation and the lyrics themselves ^^). Quite simply put, 栄純san's lyrics display acuteness in observation and a sense of direction (wisdom?) which, I'm not very sure if the latest mucc songs still possess (at least with their last album).

As for TBH's First PV Collection DVD, 栄純san's self-directed [アカイヤミ] was...erm...intriguing, to say the least!!??! I'm...not quite sure I get it, to be frank!! (O_o;;).. (^_^)
[空、星、海の夜] PV is still my all-time favourite, and [花びら] was a refreshing change (the first time I'm seeing this PV). Kinda nice to see 将司 playing the Dreamboy role :).. and some ordinary life shots of the boys.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

It's been madness at work this week, but..
Received my Feb order from CDJapan today! 8)!
I really shouldn't have opened any of them today, as I've got a deadline to meet tomorrow, but..
I convinced myself I have to listen to Mucc's single first! 8)!

Anyway, [ガーベラ] debuted at No 7 on Oricon, おめでと~
Title track's catchy, especially the chorus, and again it's another single title track arranged by 岡野ハジメ..
I like this PV.. most memorable scene at first watch was Yukke 'pining look' scene :)
& if not for the Making Of, I really would have thought that tall long-haired person holding the flower in the fields was a girl ^^;
Tatsurou, by the way, is truly, completely, absolutely, undoubtedly, a SADIST. >_>
And, er.. what's with the 撞胸ing!??

I like the single's second track, which they had played live on both the 19 Dec Houyoku Finale live and the Xmas Day Danger Crue event. Wonder why this song was chosen to be played live to an audience first, and not the title track.

As for the bonus third track, when the first few bars sounded, my first thought was "Miya style!" ..Lyrics by Miya, Melody by Satochi & Miya. Recently, Tatsurou's lyrics have been pushed to the fore while Miya's lyrics, especially those reminiscent of his older works, have been pushed to bonus tracks.. could it be because the bonus tracks themselves are older compositions? (Eg. this single's bonus third track was recorded in 2003)

But we're seeing more of Satochi's compositions, which is cool :)

After my deadline tomorrow, it's TBH's turn! Especially the DVD, I can't wait to watch it, will need a good 2-3 hrs to truly absorb it!!! :)

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Hurray for the return of two cool series on TV tonight! They're as different as night & day, but both are equally fun to watch-- Season 2 of both Desperate Housewives & 大奥.

You'll find me returning home early on Mon nights :P

Sunday, February 05, 2006


new toy~ Creative Vision:M

after deliberating for some time, i finally succumbed over the weekend.. :)
was hesitant about which vids would be accepted by the player (cos i have a whole load of rubbish vids-which i unfortunately love), so my heart was pumping when i chose some 'trial' vids and transferred them into the player.

first vid i played on the player was mucc's 2005 69day dvd clip where they performed ame.
when the vid images came on and the music streamed through the headphones, woa, 激動!!!
yup, was really excited.

then i tried out all the other vids.. almost all could be accepted! the minority few which had unacceptable formats merely needed a simple conversion step that came along w the software. simple as pie. screen was excellent quality.. so just these two points (ability to support most video formats + screen quality) were enough to convince me i've made the correct choice :)

am still terribly excited.. don't get the same kind of excitement with other forms of instant gratification like clothes and stuff.. yeah i think i'm definitely a geek at heart XD