Mucc @ Shanghai Ark Livehouse
Day 0 - 20 Apr
Geez, I've never been so unprepared for a trip before... I had to get to the airport at 11.30pm latest, and I was still rushing work at 9.30pm in the office. =_=; Plus my office has one of those irritating lighting systems that dim themselves every half hour after office-hours... unless you have the remote control... and I was in too much of a rush to look for that @$!remote control that night...

Rushed home, threw clothes and toiletries into my luggage, left the house, but had to return because I forgot my camera ^^; ...

This trip I brought my dad along... am glad i did, because he had an awesome time sweeping books off their shelves, and catching up with his ex-colleagues. We've made a pact that if I ever go another time, I'll bring him along again :) With mum too.

Day 1 - 21 Apr
Reached the airport way early... looked up at the clock in the airport... 6.09am! :)

Called a cab to the hotel... checked in... rested a bit... roamed the streets with dad and had some sort of brunch at a bakery/cafe. Our hotel (which Peggy had helped us book) was at a district that was carved out to the Dutch during the Manchu era, which explained why there were a number of interesting euro-style buildings around.

One part of the hotel 安亭别墅

We came back to the hotel... dad was tired and wanted to take a rest in the room... at that moment, received an sms from yuj saying they're on their way... i better get ready for Ark...

***

Arrived @新天地
First thing we saw that hinted at the coming live... street banners!

Chinese translation for Acid Android is kinda weird.. "幻形乐队"... luckily they translated mucc as '69乐队' which is quite apt, i suppose...

When we finally found Ark, there was already a crowd there...
We collected our tics, then asked whether we could ballot for the meet & greet tics, only to be told: "how many of you? just go up!" 8D! So basically if you turn up, you'll be able to enter.

Up the stairs, into the livehouse... first impressions: narrower than i thought, facing the stage, to the left, is a higher platform, with stairs up to the 2nd floor. Media were seated in front... a group of muckers was holding a mucc banner up front, some were waving self-made flags, but by and large, most of the people there seemed to be coming to see Yukihiro (the Laruku fan base in China is quite large). There were 2 large acid android banners made by the fans, one of which ended up getting hanged at the second floor balcony.

Shanghai fans are tall! Spotted some Muccrew at the back.. finally after some waiting (and there was a false alarm.. my heart was pumping..pumping.. i've never been to any Mucc Meet-the-Press session before! what's gonna happen?).. they arrived! Mucc was represented by Miya and Tatsurou (where's Yukke & Satochi?).. once they sat down I could only see the top of Tatsurou's hat, so I quickly went over to stand on the stairs..

Most of the session consisted of Q&As.. the mike was passed around the audience.. questions asked were quite run-of-the-mill.. except there was a question on the changes in Mucc's albums.. but the two MCs (who obviously did minimal homework on the band -_-;) messed that one up cos they weren't sure what album the question was referring to.. anyway, Tatsurou answered along the lines of how they try to explore something different in each album.. interestingly most of the questions were posed to Mucc..

Some of the questions were posed in Japanese.. the members were trying to see who was posing each question but because the mike travelled quite a far bit in the audience XD, it was difficult to do so at some points...

Above: Tatsurou just doesn't keep still... XD Check out Miya's cool hairdo ;)

Above: This was when Miya replied to the now-famous question on how they find Shanghai, in particular Shanghai girls. He seemed faintly amused by the audience's response to his reply.. Tatsurou's still restless... XD

Then it was Tatsurou's turn to reply to the same question... ;)

At the end they stood up for a photo op... Tatsurou livened up the atmosphere by making hand signals to the audience... Tatsurou also invited Yuki to stand in the middle but he politely declined... but later Tatsurou himself walked over to Yuki's right side so that Yuki will be in the middle. That's really considerate of Tatsurou.. I like his style.

After they left the stage and as we were on our way out, Yuki re-appeared on the 2nd floor and did some fan-service, muahaha... question in my head was still: "where's Yukke and Satochi?"

Oh well... that was pretty much all the exciting things that happened on the 21st... It had started raining when we were at one of the cafes at 新天地... Man... trying to hail a cab in Shanghai during weekday peak hours when it's raining is close to impossible!!! uuurrggghhhh... XD XD XD Thinking back, I suppose it was all just part of the whole experience of "Shanghai, Spring, 2006".

To be continued...

Great! I get to vote! Hey, it's my first time, so I'm excited..
I still can't believe, though, that 2 of my ex-colleagues have suddenly become Members of Parliament literally overnight (because their constituencies were walkovers..)
Next time during Budget Debate, imagine, we'll be running around trying to draft answers to their queries..*shudder*

Spotted on a T-shirt on the way to work today:
"I developed my language abilities because of my inner desire to complain"
Cute.

大家都开始写下memories了！看得我好乐！回忆起当时的情景啊。
刚刚正在忙着看、又回mail ，没时间blog下自己的memories, 不过今早在拥挤的地铁里写下了一些live的东西。
晚上回家途中zen突然播出[友達(カレ)が死んだ日], 我在车厢里自high。。。哈哈哈
回到家，[6]到手了！yay！兴奋！立刻放进hi-fi播！
[空虚な部屋]好熟悉！ i like.
原来[夕紅]是satochi的曲！
[はりぼてのおとな]也很喜欢。。
[遥か]，好久没看到達瑯负责词曲的作品。。（他的[ママ]、[溺れる魚]和22/4表演的[儚くとも]，我都非常喜欢呢）
。。就先comment在live听过的这些新曲。
奇妙呢，在live听了一两次，怎么听CD时好像早已认识这几首曲子了。^^
这张，真的不错。 大多heavy, 不过觉得每首都很鲜明。
啊，话外题。24/4一踏进家门，猜谁立刻来到访了？
是大姨妈啊! XD

回来了~

ムック、梦狂、お疲れ様でした!
你们的努力，大家都感受到了，谢谢!

yuj、emily、奔、利尤, 和初次见面的 渢、Ayame、Mina ，辛苦了!
有一群可以彼此分享live experience的朋友，我感激不尽。。。
（同伴们时常得迁就不懂广东话的我，真不好意思!)
可惜tat-chan, ruri 和BH 无法到场，不然就完美不过了。。。

这次也碰到了不少友善的上海fans (mukkas和non-mukkas都有!) ~ 感谢
说来，好像是第一次在live认识其他livegoers, 因为在日本都不可能啊。。。

很想纪录下来这次live的一些感想。
不过不会很live report format 的（其实我也不怎么会写live report!）
只是纯粹想留下这段回忆。
永远不要忘掉它。

我觉得，我根本没有亏欠你什么。
真的，可以帮的，我已经尽量帮忙了。
延长notice period, 答应在这期间不请假，做好该做的。
我要走了，还为你想得那么周到，是为什么呢？
还不是为了不要burn any bridges。
你不领情，那就罢了。
不过没有想到，一个我这么敬仰的人，现在可以说出那么伤人的话。
而且还是在大家面前。
过后我忍不住，哭了。
我恨我自己被你的话刺伤。
我恨我自己缺乏吞回眼泪的能力。
我心灰意冷。

我也不想离开不错的工作环境，踏进一个还不知会是怎样的新地方啊。
我也不想放弃即将来临的伸职和加薪啊。
我才会犹豫那么久，即使做了决定后还处处为这里的人着想。

所以，我深信，我根本没有亏欠你什么。

这种时候，不想打扰家人朋友，就只有達的歌声给于安慰。
对，不就是这个原因，我才离不了这个团吗。

这个周末来得正是时候。
一定要痛痛快快地玩一番！

Just for the fun of it!

Don't laugh...


Miya's is kinda cute...


Yukke's is too..


But Tatsurou's and Satochi's take the cake!!! XD XD

Rock Maykan standing capacity: 250
Osaka Nishikujo Brand New standing capacity: 350

What are the chances I can get tickets??! Almost close to zero possibility!!! >_<
What would really suck is to be there at that moment and not be able to attend the live.
Knowing my ass luck, that'll probably happen!

Decisions.
Should I:
1) change my airtics and fly back later? (thereby incurring extra cost)
2) request to start work one day later? (thereby inconveniencing some people)

On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure of the ticket balloting procedure... if it's one ID per CD, and it works by using that ID to indicate a preferred venue for the live balloting, then should I disperse my chances amongst the two livehouses (i.e. do 1) and 2)), or put all my baskets into Rock Maykan?

Oh dear... I would rather they do something that's free-for-all like past 69 days... first time I'll be there on 69 day, and it turns out to be a closed live session at a livehouse with such a small capacity... I did mention about my ass luck, didn't i?

A word of advice to anyone thinking of trying out our latest tourism product, the Singapore Jet Boat: do not go for any hair rebonding/treatment before the ride!

me before jet boat ride: ((^_^))
me after jet boat ride: ~~'//(^_^;)\\`~~

But the ride was certainly fun!

Superband contest is quite a letdown... no real sparks came off any of the bands selected...

Then I surfed on to some of the band members' websites...and their friends'... and I got the same vibes as whenever I go to lives... it's like... i can never blend in with these people because... I'm just not like them. Someone who sees me IRL will never believe I am like that URL. I don't feel a strong inclination to mix with people who may like JRock, for example (perhaps because I'm also not really into it?), but I also don't share the interests as people of my... 'profile'.

Maybe I should form a support group with transsexuals.. no serious! It's the "spirit does not feel the same as the body" kinda thing, except it's not about my sex. Am I making any sense?

On a totally separate & highly trivial matter, I tried an epilator for the first time tonight (XD XD XD) Woa... pain. But, after a few minutes at it, the skin numbs towards the sharp pinches and I actually get a kick out of it. (all of a sudden, tonight's Desperate Housewives episode comes to mind..."you never know what you're capable of", hahaha..) It's the same kick as when I pluck the roots out along with them airmpit hair. <-- I can't believe I wrote that!

uuuuuuggghhhh...the GE candidates are getting closer & closer to home...
it's so strange to see these people wearing totally white
& smiling at the media
& reading their bios online

why does it seem like this island is getting smaller & smaller?
it's so... claustrophobic here

There was a flash mob at Raffles Place today!!!

(A flash mob happens when a group of strangers gather at a certain place, do some common act that has no particular meaning, then disperse... a very good explanation of what it is and its history can be found at the all-wonderful Wikipedia... Of course, in this time and day, organizing a flash mob is helped very much by the internet & emailing!)

Pic of Flash Mob in Paris, May 2004

Apparently, today's flash mob started at around 9am... just appear at Raffles Place, then at 9am, everyone starts clapping for something like a minute or so, then disperse!

My brother called me in the afternoon to tell me about it... man... wish I had known about it earlier... I'd have joined in! Why so? Well, I just like the idea... people who don't know each other, coming together to do something, then... leave! No need to say hi! No need to say bye! But we all know we're here for one purpose, muahaha!

Sure, on this island, public demonstrations of 4 bodies or above may warrant an arrest. Where would you place flash mobs then? These are harmless acts, no? Demonstrating nothing but creativity & a sense of fun, no? Not everything that is organized has a political agenda, right? I say, bring them on!

At the end of the day, it's also something that's just plain FUN! I heard that one of the previous flash mobs held in Singapore occured at Citylink a few years ago, titled somewhat suitably: "Matrix Revisited". The idea was to gather at Citylink, wait for this anonymous chap to bounce a basketball 5 times, afterwhich everyone is supposed to FREEZE in their tracks... until that chap starts bouncing the basketball again. muahaha... it must have been fun, siah!

Gonna cho-cho my brother to come up with some hairbrain idea for the next one!!!

Actually, come to think of it... isn't the audience at a live concert somewhat like a flash mob? XD XD XD We gather together at a place (the live venue), do something together (mucc dance! hand actions! shout a previously-agreed encore chant!), then... disperse!

Me Love Flash Mobs! <3

This Post = Ranblings = Random Ramblings...

1. This year's FilmFest selection is a bit the pathetic. Really. (sorry to friends involved in the selection of the movies, but.. these are indeed my honest thoughts..) Only found 4 films I'm interested to watch. Of which there are time clashes because of the Shanghai trip. I have tickets to the Gala Charity Premiere, so will be watching that one as well (dress code for that stated: Casual to Formal. Wahlao eh... what a wide tolerance range... from berms to evening gowns also can ah!). The Japanese films selections is more than pathetic, man... all the films I hope to see are a.b.s.e.n.t! Grr.

2. Geez.. I knew I had at least 3 Points to blog about when I started this, but as usual, my mind starts drifting in front of the laptop when I'm blogging, and whoosh! i have NO idea what I initially wanted to blog about now... talk about old age... oh, maybe one of the topics had to do with the School Superstar finals thingy that just ended... hey, it was the finals but it was the first time I was watching the show... what a total letdown. No oomph factor in any of the contestants at all! The only highlight for me was when the two Malay teachers from KC starting sprouting encouraging words in Mandarin to the KC contestant... of course, it doesn't hurt that the Malay teachers are the PE-types, i.e. tanned and muscular, muahaha... (&... er... this sounds kinda mean, but i was really distracted by the KC contestant's stubble throughout her act.. i mean.. ahem.. couldn't the make-up artist do something about it?? plus all the contestants' eyebrows were really sala... okay, okay, these are teenagers, but it's precisely this mah.. next time they watch back at the show clips and they'll wanna burn all evidence of the show i tellya!)

3. Aha! I do have 3 Points! The third point being... Shanghai trip approaching and I'm DEM EXCITED AH!!! Especially after seeing clips from the new DVD (i won't be getting the DVD until after the 11th, as BH is helping me buy it when she's in Jp)... the mucc live hunger is escalating exponentially ah! (ps to muccers... any idea what's the 'potion' thingy that the members are talking about?? Am a bit lost leh...)

Bought the last (last as in final...so sad..) issue of UV, flipped to the mucc interview pages, and guess what picture sprung out at me?
That pic made my day, hahaha~! :) :) :D
(aiyah..mucc shoulda just hopped into the plane and fly straight to Singapore lah... :P)