2010年最後一天。

再見2010

2010 the year that was...

We've come to the end of another year...

Fandom-wise, 2010 was a fantabulous year

Top highlight of the year was getting to see 五月天 eight times in a span of 2 weeks.. across 2 continents, 3 countries and 5 cities. Now I know what a world tour feels like, minus the glamour

And here are the other highlights of the year:

1. watched 五月天 in concert eight times this year
I am the epitome of overkill when it comes to 五月天 haha

2. attended two 五月天 press conference
I thank my lucky stars for landing me those awesome passes

3. got to see Kula Shaker live in concert
Finally. More than a decade after I bought their debut album. Govinda never sounded better live. Best of all, I won free concert tickets haha

4. visited Anchorage, Alaska

...though it was just a layover. I never knew Alaska is just a 7-hour flight from Taipei. Kinda bummed that I didn't get to leave the airport.. and double bummed that I didn't get to see any polar bear. Not even the one on display at the airport.

5. traveled west coast USA for the first time; Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco
I left my heart in San Francisco. That pretty much sums up what I have to say about the west coast

6. finally stepped foot in Liberty Island, New York City
my first and last time there. Getting in and out of the island took far too long and security was 10X tighter than standard American airport.

7. joined the iPhone club
Finally got my first iPhone (iPhone 4 rocks!)

8. went to Taiwan three times
Taipei has overtaken SG as my second home.

9. attended my first ever movie premiere
who'd thought Wang Leehom would pick his teeth in the cinema.. LOL

10. bought my first ever blu-ray disc
DNA五月天[創造]演唱會影音全紀錄. Nuff said.

11. appeared on a concert DVD/BD
points at #10

12. group photo with 五月天
Did I mention it was twice? XD

And here's to another great fandom year ahead =]

Homeboy's ticket

Look who flew to Changsha today and gave away his signed boarding pass. Mr Alexander Wang Lee Hom - who's apparently almost always in the middle kingdom these days..

「花蓮精彩100」巨星演唱會

Mayday's first concert of the year. They will be part of the line-up for the Hualien concert 「花蓮精彩100」巨星演唱會 on 1 January 2011.

Also performing are Magic Power、黃小琥、張宇、翁立友、卓義峰. Concert will start at 7:00pm and end at 10:00pm

20101224 上海超犀利圣诞趴

Mayday at last night's Christmas Eve 超犀利圣诞趴 concert in Shnaghai with Monster performing seated. The concert also saw Monster and Masa providing onstage support for 龙之家族

[歌單]
1.OAOA
2.香水
3.你是唯一
4.時光機
5.恆心的恆心
6.突然好想你
7.心中無別人
8.麥來亂
9.你不是真正的快樂
10.亂世浮生
11.噢買尬（慢版）+笑忘歌
12.孫悟空
13.聽不到
14.愛上一個不回家的人(阿信)
15.戀愛ing+ 聖誕節快樂快樂很快樂
16.最重要的小事 (瑪莎跟阿信對唱)
17.志明與春嬌
18.離開地球表面
19.擁抱
20.製造浪漫 +墓仔埔也敢去
21.倔強

Santa Shin sharing a seat with Santa Mons

Santa Shin checking Masa's watch if it's time to start the Chistmas countdownthe checkered shirt club band

hohoho Santa Monster wearing Christmas stocking

Xmas

Monster's foot injury

Poor Monster.

Fractured toe injury and wheelchair bound for Shanghai for the 超犀利聖誕趴 concert on 24 and 25 December 2010.

View the e-news here

Hope he recovers soon!

ouch !

Belated 3rd birthday

Dear blog,

I seem to have forgotten your birthday. It was your 3rd birthday on Sunday December 19th and here's a little cupcake for the post celebration

Happy belated 3rd birthday!

Best wishes,
bloodbubble XXX

Angry Birds peace treaty

If you haven't heard of Angry Birds then you must have been living on another planet. It's a highly popular game which was first released on the iPhone and iPod Touch late last year which has since taken the world by storm. The game is now available for the Android market

The video below is from an Israeli comedy show Eretz Nehederet which features the angry birds and the green pigs in a peace treaty attempt - mocking the failed Paletinian-Israeli peace attempts. LOL

‎20101220 五月天 @ 錄製快樂大本營現場

The band minus Monster who's nursing his foot injury appeared on the recording for the tv program Happy Camp [快樂大本營] in the mainland on 20 December, which will be aired in January 2011.

Magic Power were also there


*photos credit as tagged

20101213 中國移動2010 動感地帶音樂動力營年度音槳盛典

Mayday in Yangzhou at 中國移動2010 - 動感地帶音樂動力營年度音槳盛典 last Friday (13 December 2010) and Monster had a bone fracture in his left foot (ouch!) Nevertheless the show must go on..

David Tao was there too

*photos credit as tagged

五月天突然好想你..

Wanna see your picture appear onscreen during the last few minutes of 2010?

Mayday will be ushering in the new year in Taipei - and 2011 being the 100 year anniversary, Mayday are giving opportunity to fans to have their pic appear onscreen :)

Email your pictures to binmusictaipei@gmail.com before 24 December 2010 and please take note of the following:

Picture format: jpg

Picture size: 900 X 650 and not less than 300KB

滾石30 @ Singapore

Looks like I will get to see Mayday live sooner than I thought :)

Updated list of performers for「滾石30」Rock 30 in Singapore on 22 January 2011 includes 五月天、周華健、伍佰、杜德偉、蘇慧倫、順子、張震嶽、潘越雲. Get your tickets from Sistic

It was also announced that the Beijing stop will be in May / June.

石頭 生日快樂

Best wishes and happy birthday to Papa Stone who turns 35 today

My Mints Mayday collectibles update

Further to my last post on the My Mints Mayday iPhone collectibles, here are the latest update from Chastal - thanks to Jen:

Chastal has yet to make an official announcement on the cancellation of the plushies/replacement of the iPhone cover set as they are still avaiting the arrival of the iPhone cover (to avoid any further screw-up haha)

The good news for iPhone users is that the iPhone cover will be available for both the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

Please note that:

- all the iPhone cover comes in only black colour

- all 5 designs are available for iPhone 3GS cover

- only Ashin, Monster and Masa designs are available for iPhone 4 cover

- the iPhone cover comes with a tin box (in either black or pink), a box of My Mint Mayday and EZ Link sticker

- price is $29.90 (if you have previously ordered the plush set you will need to top-up the difference)

I want...

Christmas is just around the corner and it just occured to me that I haven't posted a wishlist here since December 2007

1. Stay Real iPhone 4 cover. when they decide to release it.

2. Angry Birds iPhone 4 cover. Yes, I am obsessed with iPhone 4 covers

3. more storage space for my CDs and fangirl stuffs

4. white earbuds

5. pair of high top chucks

6. 2011 desk calendar. Not the Face Shop one

7. I wanna see Mayday live again but I feel very strongly about Mainland events and am not particularly fond of countdown concert so I will just have to wait till 2011

My Mints Mayday collectibles

After months of waiting and delay, Chastal has announced that it will not be producing the Mayday plushies as originally announced. Phews.. did anyone see how ugly the prototype look??!

Instead, Chastal will be releasing a premium set consisting a phone cover, EZ Link sticker and a tin of My Mints Mayday mints. Disappointing news for Mayday fans who don't own iPhone. Chastal has given fans an option for refund if they do not want the new collectibles set.

The following statement was issued by Chastal:

"As we are still not able to solve the issues that we have with the plush toy manufacturer, thus we came up with another premium, handphone cover. Attached is the advertisement that we are putting up in Teens magazine. In this set, it’s consists of a handphone cover + a tin of My Mint Mayday mints + a pcs of ezlink sticker. The outer packaging is make of tin and you may use it to store things. There are 2 colors for the outer packaging, black and pink. The handphone cover only comes in 1 color, black only.

If you feels that you do not wish to purchase this new premium, we are able to refund the payment back to you. Please indicate the account details so that we can do the refund.

Thank you."

Happy birthday 阿信

Happy 35th birthday Ashin!!

Kim Hyun Joong in KL

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of Kim Hyun Joong. For those who don't know him, he's popularly known as the leader of the Korean group SS501 and is the new spokesperson for The Face Shop.

He was in town this weekend as part of his The Face Shop Asia Tour. Yesterday's event at Pavilion was a fan/signing session for lucky 210 fans. In order to win the privilege pass for the signing, one has to purchase at least RM50 of products from The Face Shop and enter a lucky draw. Only 200 lucky fans were selected. Fans who purchased in excess of RM300 were automatically allowed to enter a special area for the event and 10 lucky ones got to have their photo taken with him.

Kim Hyun Joong fan session at Pavilion

So anyway I was there accompanying Jessie cos she had won a pass for the signing - I bought the products and gave her the lucky draw chance.

I could only manage a spot towards the back of the stage as the entire area surrounding the stage was jam packed by 4PM. It's unbelievable how big the kpop market is in KL. Hordes of Kim Hyun Joong, SS501 and even Bae Yong Jun's (previous The Face Shop spokesperson) FC turned out in huge number to support Kim Hyun Joong.

Event started sharp at 5:00pm and ended rather quickly - after a round of Q&A, photo taking and then signing session.

I could only see his back from where I stood

anyone noticed how alike the two pose are? LOL

Sophisca

This is kinda random.

Gift idea from Taiwan. Looking for personalized gift from Taipei that won't burn a hole in your pocket and take up a chunk of your luggage space?

Well look no further than Sophisca. They are a chain candy store with outlets across Taiwan. They sell a range of cute candies - at very reasonable prices. My personal favourite is the chocolate that comes housed in little boxes with assorted alphabets/characters/design printed on them. I always buy them back for my friends and it never fails to impress them

take your pick

this was for a workmate

this was a request from a friend who wanted it for her friend

田季發爺

And last but not least, this is the 田季發爺 燒肉 [yakiniku] place that Mayday patronises. Where they had one of their post DNA concert dinner/celebration (that would be Monster's fav yakiniku haunt and that's maybe cos he lives in the area)

I didn't take many pictures of the place as it was dark (it was late when we arrived for dinner). And well, frankly, the interior of the restaurant wasn't really very picturesque. It was a bit old to begin with and the furniture has seen better days.

The walls were covered with grafitti, including Mayday's signature (I forgot to take a snapshot!)

The food was nothing to shout about. I love BBQ but they use too much spice in the cooking though it was nice having someone at our table to cook for us throughout the night.

The place was quiet when we arrived and we were the last customer by the time we were finished. I guess the place doesn't see big crowds. It was a weekend night, I had expected a bigger crowd.

If it's yakiniku you're looking for, I would highly recommend going to Hutong instead. Hutong serves the yummiest yakiniku I've ever tasted and the sweet potato in cheese is to die for!

Hutong

田季發爺's address is 台北吉林路181號 and if you're lucky you may catch them dining there ;)

Tin Tom's Cafe

Continuing my Mayday food saga in Taipei...

Tin Tom's Cafe was listed in a Taiwan travel book as Mayday's favourite cafe. It's located just a stone's throw from Stay Real in Dunhua (I forgot the address..)

They serve American food and I was there in the mid-afternoon 2 years ago. I only had a chocolate milkshake and shared the french fries with some friends so I can't really say much about the food.

20101128 滚石30

The final 滚石30 saw more artists including Micheal Wong, Victor Wong, Ping Guan. Rene Liu and Masa who were both in Singapore the night before, appeared in the final show. The show ran into overtime again, incurring over NT$1,000,000 in total for both nights.

七月天

20101127 滚石30

Last night's 滚石30 at Taipei Arena featured Mayday (minus Masa who was in Singapore as Rene Liu's guest performer), Wu Bai & China Blue, A-Yue and Free 9, Emil Chow, Richie Ren and Karen Mok, among others, which ran for 4 hour 45 minutes

怪獸生日快樂

A very Happy 34th birthday to Monster!!

birthday boy

Coincidentally, Monster also shares the same birthday as 小鬼/Alien Huang and they both got to celebrate their birthday last night after 滾石30

Alien and Monster

伍佰&China Blue vs 張震嶽&Free9 vs五月天Mayday

Mayday will be part of the 快樂天堂 滾石30 演唱會/Rock Record 30th Anniversary concert happening on 27 and 28/11 at Taipei Arena starting 7:00pm.

Ashin stated that at the concert he will be singing the original 溫柔 from 10 years ago and will be donning the clothing from back then (LOL!)

鹿港小鎮 by 伍佰&China Blue V.S.張震嶽&Free9 V.S.五月天MAYDAY(彩排版)

五月天5花8門T

自由時報/Liberty Times is having a T charity event featuring 5 X 5 Tees designed by numerous artists: Mayday, Elva Hsiao, Alien Huang, amongst others

五月天5花8門T is M size and you can bid for it at Yahoo Auction. Auction ends November 29

what's with the glum faces and where's the band leader?

五月天5花8門T

2010 Taipei International Flora Expo

Tik and I went to the 2010 臺北國際花卉博覽會/Taipei Flora Expo on the opening day, Saturday November 6th. The Flora Expo is spread out across 4 areas - Yuanshan, Fine Arts, Xinsheng and Dajia Riverside. The sheer size of the combined ground area is overwhelming!

ticket booths

ticket prices

my ticket

The Taiwanese government had spent a lot of time money and effort on the Expo and they've managed to keep the ticket price at a very reasonable price of NT$300 for general public.

Flora Expo mascots (3 of 6)

more Flora Expo mascots (2 of 6)

the last Flora Expo mascot .. my favourite one :)

Our first stop was Yuanshan. About 2 years ago I was there at the exact same spot to attend the 十萬人出頭天 concert. Where the Zhongshan Football Stadium used to stand is now a covered structure for the Flora Expo. I wonder if they'll restore that stadium after the Expo ends next April...

part of the Flora Expo

We quickly covered all areas as quick as we can. Unfortunately it was a wet rainy day which was a hassle being outdoor and most of the Expo's ground area are outdoor

We made a visit to the Celebrity House which is a tribute to the late Teresa Teng. Right at the end of the Celebrity House tour we saw the below:

Mayday :)

Mr. J

We then head over to the Fine Arts and Xinsheng, covering as much ground as we could. In between we stopped for a quick snack. There are many designated food areas if one should get hungry. Food are aplenty to choose from.

this was taken at Xinsheng

Finally we made our way to the Dajie Riverside. We took a shuttle bus to get there. There are complimentary shuttle bus to shuttle visitors to different areas of the Expo.

When we got to the Riverside, there was a huge tent and I could hear music blaring from inside.. it took me awhile to figure out that it was 強辯樂團/Champion playing 轉轉轉運歌! LOL. We went closer and saw 丁噹/Ding Dang and Champion on the list for the 2:00PM slot. Went inside grabbed a seat in the fifth row and caught the remaining of Champion’s performance. Ding Dang then appeared onstage after Champion, and sang a Flora Expo version of 私奔到月球 with 黃牛 before singing her own solo songs. After watching Ding Dang’s performance, we went outside to watch the 3:00PM parade.

Ding Dang, Yellow Cow and Monkey XD

Later that night we went to 大稻埕碼頭/Da Dao Cheng Wharf to watch the Flora Expo fireworks performance. There were 2 fireworks display at 2 different place (Da Jie Wharf and Da Dao Cheng Wharf) that night with only half an hour apart. We decided to head to Da Dao Cheng Wharf as there was a free Flora Expo concert. It was still raining that night and the area was so crowded. Taiwanese must really enjoy watching fireworks as many of them had already gathered in full raingear hours before the fireworks display was due to start.

We went to the stage area and caught part of the concert. Among the more well known artists, we saw 李玖哲/Nicky Lee (oh yeah!) and 吳克群/Kenji Wu. In between the concert we saw a full one hour fireworks display!!!! I have never ever in my life watched such a long fireworks display. You can imagine how polluted the airspace in Taipei was that night after the fireworks XD

Nicky Lee

Kenji Wu