Goodbye 2008

Last post of the year, bidding farewell to 2008 tonight.

Here's hoping for a better year in 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here comes Mogwai

Mogwai are coming to town! Not that cute furry little Gizmo, I'm referring to the Scottish indie post-rock band :)

They are playing a one night show at the KL Convention Centre on 21 January 2009. Tickets are on sale and costs only RM128 (early bird price)

I will be sitting out this one. Not that I don't like them. It's just that I'm not used to listening to vocal-less songs and not being able to sing along at concert :P And I was thinking of saving up money for Jason Mraz's KL gig in March..

Tis the season for holidays

I don’t know why I even bother coming to work today. The office is deader than a mortuary and I have nothing to do except surf the internet. Ran out of interesting things to do on Facebook. Maybe tomorrow I’ll bring the DS to work.

I’ve just started to play “Contra 4” on the DS. I remember playing “Contra” when I was in school on the original Gameboy and it was one of those arcade type game that I suck at. Nothing much has changed since then, the DS version of Contra 4 look almost like the original version that I used to play and I still suck terribly at it LOL.

gung-ho arcade action game

A couple of nights ago, through Net I discovered a pretty neat blog ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ C-Pop Blog ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ where one can download latest Cpop albums for free. It has a rather comprehensive catalogue of Cpop albums [though Cheer Chen and A-yue failed to make the list :( I was hoping to download them]

Cape No. 7

The movie Cape No. 7 which was released in Taiwan in late August this year has finally reached our shores. For a movie this successful, I wonder why its release outside Taiwan is so late.

I managed to catch it onboard when I flew to Taipei - my flight was overbooked and I got an upgrade to business class so I got to watch it on a personal not-so-small TV screen :)

Cape No. 7 has been really successful in its native country. It won six awards at the 2008 Golden Horse Awards and became Taiwan's second top grossing film in the country's cinematic history.

I enjoyed the film, particularly the music but found the film a tad bit overrated. The film is set in a rural town with more than half of in Taiwanese dialect and sadly, I find the chemistry between the male [Aga played by Van Fan] and female protagonist [Tomoko played by Chie Tanaka] lacking but the good music more than make up for it.

I Only Want To Be With You

When I was in Taipei last week I saw a commercial for a beer (was it Heineken?) that featured Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want To be With You" song. I think it's a new commercial(?) Alcohol commercials on TV are a no-no here so we only get to watch them when we go to the cinema. I haven't been to the cinema in ages, so I definitely have not seen the commercial.

When I heard the song on TV, Ash's cover version immediately came to mind ;)

14 year old (LOL) Tim Wheeler singing I Only Want To Be With You on Last Chance Lottery

The year that was..

The year 2008 has been a fun-filled year. In the past 12 months, I made 7 trips to Singapore and there were also trips to Jakarta, Hong Kong and Taipei.

2008 is also the year I saw Mayday 10 times at various concerts and events here, in Singapore, HK and Taiwan. A busy year indeed for us fangirls :P

various Mayday 2008 event tickets

1. JUMP! concert promo at Sg Wang, KL on 1 March 2008

2. Down To Earth concert promo at Bugis Junction on 4 March 2008

3. JUMP! concert at Genting Arena on 19 April 2008

4. Down To Earth concert at Singapore Indoor Stadium on 26 April 2008

5. Ashin & Stone book signing sessions at IMM, Singapore on 27 April 2008

6. Down To Earth concert at HK Expo, Hong Kong on 31 May 2008

7. Superband Grand Finals at Mediacorp Studio on 5 October 2008

8. Lee Guitars All-Star concert at Singapore Indoor Stadium 29 November 2008

9. 50,000人出頭天 [Green Day] concert at Zhongshan Football Stadium, Taipei Taiwan on 13 December 2008

10. 50,000人出頭天 [Blue Day] concert at Zhongshan Football Stadium, Taipei Taiwan on 14 December 2008

Christmas cleaning

Over the years, I've amassed almost 600 CDs in my collection and I had to throw out my other stuffs to make room to house my collection. Every now and then, I find myself having to rearrange my shelves to find room for new CDs. So if it's not too late, I'd like Santa to bring me a new CD shelf ;)

my Mayday CD/DVD/VCD collection

my Leehom CD/DVD/VCD collection

various Britpop CDs

more Britpop (and DT) CDs

Joyeux Noël

photo by bloodbubble 2008

Wishing everyone

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

make life stereo!

Stay Real was the one and only place I planned to visit after the weekend 十萬人出頭天 concerts.

Getting to the Stay Real shop in Taipei is easy. Take the metro train to Zhongxiao Dunhua station. It's on the blue Bannan line. Find your way to Exit 2 once alight from the train.

Zhongxiao Dunhua station Exit 2

When you step out of Exit 2, you will see California Fitness on your left, occupying the few corner lots at the end of the block. In between California Fitness and Watson (on the corner of the next block) is Lane 205. Walk down that lane and after a 3-minute walk, you will see the Stay Real shop on your right.

Though Stay Real has been around for over a year, the shop only officially opened on 6 December 2008 (on Ashin's birthday). Prior to the official Stay Real opening, that shop was used by Mayday as the 'BEe Happy' store for a month, before Ashin took over the lease for his Stay Real at a monthly rental of USD5,000. 

The Stay Real shop is fairly spacious inside and the tees are displayed on the rack aligned on both sides of the wall. There is also a fitting room (yes only one) by the cashier's counter. Make sure you ask the cashier or the friendly sales assistant before you try out any of the tees. Only one piece is allowed each time and they don't allow you to try the white coloured tees. Hmm..

The clothing on display are not for sale, so you have to ask the sales assistant when you want to make a purchase. The poor sale assistant was bombarded with 1001 requests when we went in a large group LOL. He was pretty impressive cos he could remember which design had what colour and sizes in stock!

Not all items are on display so make sure you ask if you don't see the item that you want. The Let's Rock lanyard was stored behind the counter, below the cashier machine! Stay Real caps were also not on display but since I didn't buy any, I guess you'd have to ask if you wanna buy them.

The shopping experience is akin to going to a fancy boutique. When you go, make sure you bring enough $$ (or your creditcard) The cheapest tee costs NT$680 and the most expensive is around NT$1480.

exterior of the shop

the stockroom is in the basement

Stay Real is located at:
No. 39 Lane 205 Zhongxiao East Road Section 4
台北市忠孝東路四段205巷39號1樓
and is open from 2PM to 9PM daily

My Stay Real haul

It took me 4 days to finally clear my all luggage that was sitting on my floor, cos I was too lazy to unpack. And I had to find a place to stash all the Stay Real bags (looks like I'm starting a Stay Real paper/recycle bag collection) I wonder how Shirley brought her Stay Real haul back cos she bought a lot more than me. She spent in excess of S$1,000 on more than 20 Stay Real tees, and they were all for herself. She can wear them to work everyday for a month LOL

I have the first edition Stay Real paperbag with Ashin on it ;)

collectible Stay Real label tags

I've been listening to Teddy's "Tu-Be, or Not Tu-Be". It's on an EP which was given away free with a magazine that I bought in Taipei. I only bought it cos the song was composed by Stone ;) Maybe I should also buy Fahrenheit's new album when it comes out cos Monster composed a song for them...

Teddy's EP

Taiwanese delight

Last Monday in Taipei Alex and Lily took us to Hutong Yakiniku restaurant which came highly recommended by their friend. We ended up walking round and round in circle and none of the locals could tell us where the shop was. Fortunately we found the place just as we were about to give up hunting for the restaurant.

It was 7PM when we arrived and the place was buzzing with diners. Thankfully the very friendly waitress found a table for us. The restaurant was small & cozy and they had closet and lockers by the entrance, where we left our jackets and haul from Stay Real.

Hutong Yakiniku bar

The food was fantastically delicious!! *drools* The beef was tender and juicy and so were the lamb chops. And the sweet potato in cheese was absolutely heavenly.

the beef is soooo yummy

lamb chops for me, me and me :P

even Vivian Hsu loves the food there!

Mayday's favourite cafe

The next day we went to try out Tin Tom's Cafe (Mayday's favourite cafe). Their specialty is the home made burger but we didn't try it that day as we were still full from our teatime snack so we ordered light snacks, salad and drinks. The food wasn't too bad and the portion was fairly generous.

The night before I left Taipei we went night shopping at Shilin and I was craving for ice dessert. Taiwanese ice desserts are the best cos the shaved ice are so fine they taste almost like snow (I don't like crunchy shaved ice)

yummy shaved ice dessert

I'm not particularly fond of beef noodles but Shirley recommended this one, which we had a Jiufen. The portion was a little small and there were too much tendon on the beef but it filled my tummy just nice that cool winter morning.

beef noodle

The girls were crazy over the below snack. They told me that it's like roti canai and it really does! We had ours with bacon, corn and fried egg wrapped up like crepe. Best eaten hot on a chilly winter day :)

The girls were also crazy over mala hot pot and we ate at Fei Tian restaurant twice in one weekend! It costs NT$499 per person and they serve big portions of meat with unlimited seafood, drinks, ice-cream and fruits.

Happy belated birthday to my blog!

I spent the last few days recovering from my Taiwan trip that I forgot that my blog turned one 2 days ago. LOL

It's amazing to think a year has gone by since I started this blog. I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading this blog and for leaving me messages. Over the past year I've also made some wonderful friends through my blog (you guys know who you are) =] Thank you all!

Mayday 100,000 People 出頭天 concert - Blue Day

Like the thousands of crazy Mayday fans, we left the stadium immediately after Green Day ended and headed straight for Rock zone C to queue up for Blue Day. This time we decided to queue at zone C (rather than zone A) cos some of the gals who are Monster fans wanted to stand on the left side of the stage and also cos zone C meant we could sleep with a roof over our head as the queue ran along the stadium which was sheltered, unlike zone A which you have sleep by the main road. Weather forecast predicted rain that weekend and we didn't wanna get caught in the rain.

Rock zone A overnight queue

Rock zone C overnight queue

By the time we got to zone C, there was already a long queue. Right in front of the queue were the fans who had queued up since days before (they left placards to reserve their spot). We laid our stuff and tried to get sleep but ended up chatting and giggling so hard (much to our neighbours' annoyance) For the first time in my life, I felt like a homeless person sleeping by the sidewalk :P I had a cozy hotel room in Xi Men Ding but there I was camping out in the cold along with hundreds of other strangers.

Saturday was a fairly warm and sunny day but overnight the temperature dipped. %$^&! I had only my fleece jacket on and still I was shivering. It was far too uncomfortable to sleep so in the end I got up and 'patrolled' the stadium several times.

By the break of dawn, we were relieved of our overnight duty. We took a cab back to the hotel. I took a very much needed hot shower and was ready to collapse into bed. Managed a quick 1 hour nap. By 8am we had to be up and ready to get back to the stadium for the 9am ticket redemption.

Ticket redemption was really quick on Blue Day (cos we were far ahead in the queue compared to the day before) By 9:15am we got our tickets and made it within the first 500! Only the first 500 fans were allowed in the stadium first.

Since it was still early, we went around to snap photos and bought the new Stay Real lanyard which was just released. Then we took the metro train to Xi Men Ding for brunch before heading back to the hotel for a quick catnap. On the way back, we saw a massive Q for Xiao Zhu's autograph session right in the heart of Xi Men Ding.

brisk business at Stay Real

Stay Real's Kitty Robot tee was released on Green Day and sold like hotcakes!

more merchandise - Be Happy and Be Rock

Mayday's signature model Lee Guitars was available for pre-order at the stadium

Back in the hotel, we managed a quick 45-minute nap before heading back to Zhongshan Football Stadium. The queue to enter the stadium starts at 3pm. Weather was fairly chilly that Sunday and we were all shivering in the cold while waiting to be let inside the stadium.

While queueing up we could hear Mayday rehearsing and I couldn't believe it when I heard them playing "有你的將來"!! I love each and every single one of Mayday's Hokkien song and this is certainly one that I haven't heard them sing live (only on CD).

Not long after they finished rehearsing/soundchecking, they let the first 500 fans into the stadium ground. When I saw that the little entrance into the enclosed VIP zone was open, I was overjoyed! (on Green Day that area was only open to people with tickets from the sponsors) Yay!! Camping out on Saturday night really paid off.

the main stage

in the enclosed rock zone area!! 

We waited a good 90 minutes or so before the concert started. When the fireworks display came on, we couldn't really see it clearly cos this time we were standing right in front of the stage and the massive pyramid stage blocked our view. Mayday appeared after the fireworks, on the mini stage playing "戀愛ing". What a great song to kick start the concert :)

I thought Green Day was amazing but Blue Day was even better!!! Mayday really do rock and they are so friggin' amazing live! They talked a lot more on Sunday and there was a part when Ashin spoke to Monster about whether given a choice, he'd still be a guitarist for Mayday. Monster's reply was a rather ferocious "yes" yell :D Right before they sang "笑忘歌", Ashin talked about friendship and it was really touching. Everyone in the crowd held hands as we sang along to "笑忘歌".

Merry Christmas from Mayday!

They had two guest artistes on Blue Day - Yoga Lin and Sandee Chan (who?? Till today I still have no idea who she is). Yoga look really umm 'weird' in person LOL. He sang "有你的將來" and he sang it really well. I rather enjoyed their "透露" duet (Crowd also did a "透露" duet with Mayday on Green Day).

They played "纯真" and "金色大街" on Blue Day. "志明與春嬌" was the final song! It's been so long since I last heard that live :)

When we first arrived at Zhongshan Stadium on Saturday, my friends and I vowed never again to attend such a concert but by the end of Blue Day we made a pact to come back for the next shows and to bring a tent the next time. Heck, we wouldn't mind camping there for a week if we have to =D

Mayday 100,000 People 出頭天 concert - Green Day

It was almost four years ago when I first saw Mayday live in concert on their first ever world tour 'Final Home' and leaving the stadium that night, I was really impressed how good they sound live. Someone once said that to truly apreciate Mayday, you have to watch them live. When I stepped out of Zhongshan Football Stadium last Sunday night, once again I was completely in awe! Two amazing Mayday concerts in their homeground. It was definitely the biggest, most touching and grandest Mayday concert I've ever attended and the number of fans who turned up totalled 100,000! Whoa!

Tickets for both Green Day [13.12 concert] and Blue Day [14.12 concert] were given away free (don't you just love Mayday?) with every purchase of their latest studio album, "Poetry of the Day After". Ticket redemption starts at 9AM at the stadium on the morning of the concert, where you'll be given a wristband to wear in order to enter the stadium.

My friend sent me a text message the day before I left for Taipei informing me that the local fans have already started camping out at the stadium since early that week. WTH!! I then packed my sleeping bag along with me to camp out on Saturday night after Green Day for Blue Day tickets. According to news report, some 5,000 fans were already at the stadium the night before Green Day *faints*

When we arrived at Yuanshan Metro station that Saturday morning at around 6:30AM, I almost passed out when I saw the massive crowd outside the stadium! It was a sight to behold.. I have never ever seen so many people at a concert venue, 13 hours before the start of the concert. Many tents had been set up by the main road and those who didn't have tents were snuggled up in their sleeping bag. Holy crap!

Zhongshan Football Stadium, Taipei

Finding the end of the queue was a major headache. The place was so overcrowded we couldn't tell which was the Rock zone A or Rock zone C queue! Though ticket redemption started at 9AM, we were stuck in the queue for over 8 hours cos apparently the A and C queue got mixed up and it took the workers some time to sort out the problem. By the time I got my ticket, my legs were so numb I could barely feel them!

At Green Day, the rock zone in front of the main stage (the runway and mini stage enclosed area) was off limits to the public. Only those who had VIP tickets from the sponsors (BenQ and Sarsaparilla) were allowed in that area so we stood at the side of the stage. The pyramid stage is really massive! It was at least 4 or 5 storey high.

Concert started at about 7:20PM and it kicked off with a spectacular NT$600,000 five-minute fireworks display (which is why I've always preferred outdoor concerts) Mayday sang for 3 hours and they had a guest artist, Crowd Lu who was really funny and geeky. They sang all the songs from the new album with their old catalogue thrown in. My main disappointment was that they didn't sing "後青春期的詩[Poetry of The Day After]" but I was really happy that Ashin sang "私奔到月球[Elope To the Moon]" and "超人[Superman]". Superman sounded so good live!

The pyramid stage which took 3000 technicians over a week to set up has LED screens on it and at one point it turned into a giant Christmas tree! Ashin should have sang a Christmas song when he presented the tree to the fans hehe

Despite the concert being free, it was far better and longer than many paying concerts I've attended.

Will continue Blue Day entry in the next post ;)

Missing Taipei :(

I'm back today from Taipei. Sadly, my extended Friday flight was still on the waitlist up till yesterday afternoon so I had to catch this morning's early flight from Taipei. My friends are still in Taipei, some are staying till Thursday and a few are staying till Friday.

I had a blast in Taipei!!! It was a truly enjoyable trip and I cannot wait for my next trip there ;) And OMG the Mayday 十萬人出頭天 concerts were so friggin' amazing!! I've seen them live numerous times, but never in their homeground and it was truly an unforgetable experience (when I got to the stadium at 630AM last Saturday, there were already hundreds, if not thousands of local fans who had been camping at the stadium for the tickets!! OMG!!) Will post a review of the concerts very soon

I got to visit Stay Real's official store - yay!! A week after it's official opening ;) and bought a little more tees than I had planned. I couldn't resist - Stay Real tees are not available outside Taiwan and buying them online is expensive. I finally got my Hello Kitty limited edition tee which went on sale on concert day last Saturday.

look what I got from Taipei

Evil eye

Why do I have the feeling that my suitcase will be full of tees when I return from Taiwan?

First there was Be Happy. Now there's Be Rock, featuring the same (now sinister looking) Bee mascot with an evil eye. I was gonna pass on buying it since I've already the first version but seeing that it's printed exclusively for this weekend's Taipei concert, it's gonna be hard to pass up on this one

Too many Umbrellas

I never liked Rihanna's 'Umbrella'. It was another one of those songs that was played to death on radio. Little did I know that 'Umbrella' has been covered by Linkin Park, Plain White T's and Mandy Moore. And not forgetting, the Manic Street Preachers (much to the fans' dismay).

As much as I hated the Rihanna version, I absolutely adore the Manics' cover version! Maybe Manics do have the gift of redeeming terrible songs heh heh

"you can stand under my umbrella..ella ella..." (hmm.. how will James [Mr Carbohydrate] find an umbrella big enough to share? ha ha ha!!!)

Britpop invasion

I haven't heard Placebo in ages. In fact in almost 10 years.. I thought they had disbanded but how ignorant and wrong I was! Brian Molko (I remember him.. Mr dark eyeliner) and the lads played at a MTV gig last weekend in Cambodia's Angkow Wat.

It was an anti-human trafficking gig held at the 12th century ruins (transforming it into a rock concert venue) and featured The Click Five alongside other Cambodian artists.

Notice how Britpop bands from the golden era are starting to make appearances in Asia? They probably got fed-up of trying to break into the American market LOL. And it's about time. A decade late but nevertheless, better late than never :)

Heart.Wreck

Somehow or rather I knew this was gonna happen.

Pu, my HK buddy (fellow Mayday and Leehom fan) who I'll be meeting this Saturday at the Mayday concert in Taipei sent me a message on Facebook today asking if I will be attending Leehom's pre-order event on December 13. I had no idea Leehom had an event that day!! Leehom will be having a Heart.Beat pre-order signing session in Xi Men Ding at 1:00pm that Saturday. *sigh* How will I make it to both event? (Need to split myself into two LOL)

I have to be at Zhongshan Football Stadium early that Saturday to Q up to redeem my Mayday concert ticket then Q for a second round to get into the stadium. Thankfully, there is a window of opportunity after the first Q cos Leehom's event starts at 1:00pm, though leaving Zhongshan Stadium after ticket redemption would mean I won't get to the front by the time I arrive in Xi Men Ding. (hmm.. will have to ask Net if I can cut the Leehom signing Q and join her friend :P)

The last time I saw Leehom at last year's Taiwan signing session, he spoke to me and asked about my YouTube account!

grinning like a silly monkey whilst staring at Leehom signing my CDs 

that's Leehom and me at Taipei "Change Me" album signing session July 2007 [delivering Anett's gift to LH] ;) he's smiling at me! LOL

Seeing Leehom and Mayday on the same day in Taipei is a rare treat (oh wait.. I saw them onstage together in Taipei back in 2006!) This is all too exciting hehe!

Freebie lanyard

When I attended the Lee Guitars All-Star concert in Singapore late last month, I got a freebie official Lee Guitars All-Star concert lanyard. It was a pleasant surprise, as there weren't many sponsors for the gig so I wasn't expecting any freebie.

They placed the lanyard on the cupholder of the premiere seats and thank goodness they got rid of those awful chairs draped in black/white cloth! They've replaced them with much better and comfortable plastic chairs (no more rubbing thighs with the stranger next to you LOL) complete with cup holder.

Buff homeboy

Leehom has gone shirtless for the promotional pictures for his upcoming album 'Heart.Beat' (心‧跳), due for release in Taiwan on 26 December. And why wouldn't he? Skin sells and clearly he's got a very solid six-pack to show off :P

the glowing heart is almost like Ironman's movie poster

The new song which premiered on the airwaves today sound so distinctively Leehom. It sounds like another trademark ballad (has been his bread and butter for many years)

Pre-order in Taiwan begins on Friday 12 December, which coincidentally is the day I'll be arriving in Taipei. I wonder if there'll be any promotional activities on the launch of the pre-order. I'm not holding my breath, my flight is arriving late in the evening so it's not very likely that I'll be in time for any promotional activity.. and over the weekend I'll probably be stuck at the Zhongshan Football Stadium.