Tat Ming Party

Currently my favourite MV.
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Lawrence & Louis

What? Not Rolls & Royce? I guess having two leads named after a luxury car seems a bit funny. Oh well.

So. My five days in Hong Kong has come and gone. The seven performances of 梁祝下世傳奇 has also come and gone. And I have to say that I am deeply privileged and lucky to have caught one show.

Granted the musical wasn't what I expected, it was a gallant effort by all those involved, and this could be felt throughout the whole performance. Everyone gave their all. It was definitely a good show.

Having only watched one HK musical before this - that being the 'legendary' Snow Wolf Lake by Jacky Cheung - I had to go into this one with absolutely no expectations. Snow Wolf Lake is one show that's really hard to top. No expectations = no disappointment and maybe even some surprises.

True enough.

梁祝下世傳奇 is nothing like Snow Wolf Lake. In terms of production, in terms of bigness, in terms of it being a 'real' musical.

Honestly, 梁祝下世傳奇 for me, felt like a mini HOCC concert (not that I'm complaining much). Ah C sang almost every song (well, every song really with the exception of one and a half songs). There were no new/extra pieces except for one. Every single piece she has on her latest album is in the musical (only to be expected, of course). But I expected more than the songs on the album at the musical. After all, well...if you've watched or listened to Snow Wolf Lake, you'd understand what I mean.

Storywise, 梁祝下世傳奇 is pretty confusing. I was totally confused right from the start (ok, I didn't read the programme book before it started, but one shouldn't need to, to understand the story!) At the interval, I just turned to my friend and meekly whispered to her, "I don't understand..." Well, she wasn't too sure either but had her theories, which in the end turn out sorta correct. I also found Joe's (the second male lead - who is also Ah C's afterlife) sudden love for LoSi (Endy Chow) a bit unbelievable 'cos at the start of the play, he had doubts about loving another man and kept questioning what true love is.

But.

Story aside. Play aside. Musical aside. Ah C can really sing.

She can really, really, really sing. She sounds sooooo good live. Not that I doubted her once. But to hear her. Live. What an experience it is.

My heart swells with pride just to hear her perform so well. Crazy, isn't it? Someone I don't know, yet feel a connection with 'cos I've sorta seen her through it all since day one. Seeing her do so well for herself, seeing her achieve her dreams, seeing her reach one goal after the other - the feeling is just indescribable...I feel so happy, so very very happy.

She's cool, she's hot, she can sing, she can compose, she plays the guitar. 梁祝下世傳奇 the album is a sure-winner. 梁祝下世傳奇 the musical was a sell-out. There's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't get the Female Singer Award this year (well, ok, Joey's in her way of Gold. But there's still Silver and Bronze and Gold will eventually one day be ah C's).

Oh. One other good thing about the musical: Kate Yeung.

My, my. What a hottie! That pixie nose of hers, sooooooo cute! I sure won't mind seeing more of her.

The other surprise was seeing Veegay on stage, not once but three times! When she first appeared as the librarian, I was like, oh my gawd, that's Veegay, if only Rebecca was here! Hahaha. Then she appeared again playing the theremin with ah C, so cool! And once more with her accordion (is there no where she can go without her accordion?)

And on a totally different topic altogether... it was so funny to see all the field staff at Disneyland so tanned - everyone was burnt brown, from the street sweepers to the photographers to the ride guides. Poor things. I don't know how they do it, standing out under the hot, burning sun every day. Me, a few hours there, can die already. But Hong Kong Disneyland isn't as bad as all the reviews say it is. Really.

Yogi-killer-lates

That'll teach me not to overestimate myself.

I went for the same class last week, but it didn't feel as bad as yesterday's! Sure, I was all tired out but at least I could do, maybe about three-quarters of the stuff. But. Yesterday. Gawd. I think I couldn't do more than half the stuff!

I lack the stamina. I really, really lack the stamina.

Non-stop pose to pose. Can die.

That wasn't the worst though.

W.O.D was in the same class! And me not being able to do more than half the poses, me out of breath and nearly collapsing - sooooo NOT COOL.

On top of that, the instructor kept calling my name.

Gawd. As if not shy enough. Some more, in front of W.O.D. Where to go hide? Ran straight out of class as soon as it finished. But not before glancing back to see W.O.D staying back for the second class. (Hahaha. Ok, I couldn't resist, no matter how anxious I was to get out of there.)

Needless to say, my body ached like hell today. Even the simplest poses and the ones I could normally do in my usual Power Yoga class today felt really difficult.

But it was worth it. Going to class again today even though I was aching all over, that is.

Bumped into W.O.D again. And had dinner together after.

All worth it.

Hahahaha.

A cup of coffee, a glass of wine

The anal-retentive me lives by that rule.

What is coffee without the mug or cup? What is wine without a wine glass? How can one possibly drink coffee out of a glass? How can one drink wine out of a paper cup or mug?

They just don't taste the same.

Coffee has to be drunk out of a mug or a proper cup with saucer. And wine, needless to say, has to be drunk out of a proper wine glass.

My friends just don't understand this obsession of mine.

It's still coffee. It's still wine. What's the difference, they ask?

The difference is in the whole act of drinking.

You pick up a coffee mug and you cradle it with your hands, savouring the aroma as it drifts up from the wide brimmed mug. Now, if it was a glass, you'd probably burn your hand as you try to cradle it. This is one of the reasons I prefer Starbucks over Coffee Bean. If Coffee Bean started serving their coffee in mugs/cups instead of in glasses, I might reconsider ordering coffee from them.

With wine, you lift the glass at its stem, swirl it about, letting the air mix with the wine, you lift it towards your nose and take a sniff, savouring the bouquet before drinking it. If the wine was in a paper cup...gawd, it's too horrible to even write it here.

OK, I'm really not that particular when it comes to coffee. Really. As long as it's in a mug or cup, I'm happy to drink it.

But when it comes to wine, I tend to be more picky. Crystal over ordinary glass. Trust me, it makes a whole lot of difference to the taste. Wine just tastes better drunk out of crystal than it does out of glass. Also, the type of wine glass - tall and wider glasses for red wine, and smaller ones for white. Drinking out of the wrong glass destroys the whole pleasure of a good bottle of wine. If I don't have the right glass, I'd rather not open the bottle.

What? Fussy? Me?

Where gottttt? Leetle bit only...

Wait la...

Just got back from a shoot about half an hour ago. A shoot which started at 9am Monday morning. (Yes, I'm pretty much tired out but I have to wait for my hair to dry).

Some people (actually, most people who aren't in the production industry) have this tendency to think, wow, a shoot, how glam. In fact, it's anything but glam. It's tiring, it's a lot of waiting, it's hot, it's a lot of waiting, sometimes it's terribly frustrating, it's a lot of waiting, it's boring, it's a lot of waiting, and have I said, it's a lot of waiting?

You wait for the crew to set up the equipment, you wait for them to prep the place, you wait for the props, you wait for them to adjust the lighting, you wait for them to adjust the framing of the camera, you wait for the make-up and hair, you wait for the rehersal, you wait, you wait. A good three-quarters of the time, you spend waiting - just sitting there doing nothing, being bored to death, most of the time in the sweltering heat.

The smart ones bring books, mp3 players and even a PSP set. But there's only so much you can read, so much music you can listen to and the PSP does run out of battery eventually.

Anyway, ours today was a hair shoot. Which meant it took extra longer to prep the hair. And after each take, the hair had to be prepped again and again and again. Agency already had it good. Of the lot of people there, we were probably the ones who were there the least amount of time. Our call was at 9am. I'm sure for the rest, it would have been some ungodly 7am.

Patience is a real virtue when you work in production. Also, the ability to go a few days without sleep.

I doubt very much I'll miss any of this when I'm no longer working.

Even the camera has to wait

Prepping the shot

Finally, the camera rolls...for just ONE scene!

每日一首歌 x 14x

One same song, burnt onto a CD 14 times - 14 different versions - the same song sung by the original singer, sung by other singers, sung techno-style, jazz-style etc:

Candy Lo's 好心分手.

Yes, that's what I've been listening to for the past week, courtesy of a crazy friend who insisted I take the CD which she had burnt.

The year was 2002 and what a year it was for Candy Lo. 好心分手 was on every chart in Hong Kong, it catapulted her to the forefront of the Hong Kong music industry, everybody was singing it - from the man on the street to almost every Hong Kong singer you can think of, every karaoke joint was playing it, everybody's mobile phone had it as their ringtone.

In short, 好心分手 was a commercial hit.

Listening to the CD, it occured to me that a lot of singers have actually attempted their own versions. Candy herself, banking on the song's popularity, released a few different versions too - a Canto/Mandarin duet with Wang Lee Hom, a harmonica version and 2 up-tempo versions. Based on the collection in my CD, other singers who have performed the song include Barry Yip, Joey Yung, Leo Ku and even Teresa Carpio.

It got me wondering...has any song actually been that popular the last 10 years or so? Has there been any one song that has been performed numerous times by different singers and is still being performed 3 years since it peaked?

A nice, easy to embrace melody and heartfelt lyrics makes 好心分手 a classic which is still sung till today.

Which is why I was rather surprised and annoyed that TVB JSG that year didn't give it the Best Song award, instead preferring to bestow that title upon Eason Chan's 'This Day Next Year'. I felt that 好心分手 was robbed of the award that it truly deserved and I think many people felt that way too. 3 years down the road, which is the song that people are still singing, that other singers are still singing?

It's not 'This Day Next Year', it's 好心分手.

So what if it's commercial pop? So what if it was unCandy-like? Which other Hong Kong artist of late can boast of a song like that?

Thank you Candy, Mark, Wyman and Ted.

好心分手
歌手：盧巧音 | 作曲：雷頌德
填詞：黃偉文 | 編曲：Ted Lo, 雷頌德

是否很驚訝　講不出說話
沒錯我是說　你想分手嗎
曾給你馴服到　就像綿羊
何解會反咬你一下　你知嗎

＊回頭望　伴你走　從來未曾幸福過
　赴過湯　蹈過火　沿途為何沒愛河
　下半生　陪住你　懷疑快樂也不多
　沒有心　別再拖　好心一早放開我＊

＃重頭努力也坎坷　統統不要好過
　來年歲月那麼多　為繼續而繼續
　沒有好處還是我　若注定有一點苦楚
　不如自己親手割破＃

是否不甘心　首先給撇下
換了你是我　你忍得到嗎
捱得過無限次　寂寞凌遲
人生太早已看得化　也可怕

REPEAT＊

重頭努力也坎坷　統統不要好過
來年歲月那麼多　為繼續而繼續
直接不過承認錯　若勉強也分到不多
不如甚麼也摔破

難行就無謂再拖　好心一早放開我

REPEAT＃