:+: Fine after rain :+:

My 1st purchase from YesAsia came today & now I usually don't buy anything from YesAsia after hearing lots of complaints on the site but looks like my opinion on it has changed considerably .

The reason why I bought my 1st item from YesAsia is not because I want to but I had to . I bought the OS press of NEWS's Never Ending Wonderful Story DVD for Hui Li because she asked me to since HMV HK unfortunately doesn't sell OS presses of the DVD + there's no way I would be paying $134.90 for a Japan pressing of the DVD which's being sold here :O

YesAsia emailed me on Sun to say that they have shipped out my purchase & the DVD came a few mins ago . I was quite surprised because I thought it will take forever for the DVD to come but guess not & I thought the OS press of ARASHI's Dream"A"live 2 CDs set came :(

Maybe in future , those items that I can't find in HMV HK or ebay , I will consider to get from YesAsia ? since there's free shipping involved depending on what you bought that's .

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I want to blog about something which frankly made me really furious yesterday in the form of the latest LIME magazine which I received in which Levan Wee gave a pretty nasty & not to mention stupid album review of Jesse McCartney's Departure album & naturally being a longtime fan of Jesse since I have listened from his 1st album til now , I can't help but feel insulted on what Levan wrote about Jesse's latest offering .

To summarise without going over the fences , you can't expect Jesse to keep releasing the bubblegum /pop rock stuff that put him in the music business to begin with isn't it ? To me Departure presented a musically different & change of music styles coming from Jesse .

Even though Departure's not my fave album from Jesse in which my fave from him's his 2nd album Right Where You Want Me , Levan should cut Jesse some slack since I know obviously Jesse's music is not for him . It makes me wonder what exactly does he listens to on a daily basis .

Also I can't help but read that he ranked 2 local albums quite highly on the album review list . See this's why I will & cannot be a music critic in the near future . This spells out 1 thing = BIASED . & of course in the eyes of every music critic , that's always the case .

& naturally when he ranked those 2 particular local albums quite high on his list , my reaction's only like that -> ????? on the fact that 1) I have no idea how the bands sounds like 2) who's they to begin with ?

Anyway I can't be bothered about it . The only reason why I decided to extend my LIME subscription is because 2 issues back , they rated FAKIN' POP extremely high on their list but since then , every album review that LIME has put out screams out shit-heads bozo .

Which leads me to consider other alternative magazines/methods to satisfy my entertainment craving . Can someone say Hot magazine ?

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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Talk about a small world . I met Des just now when I was at HMV Heeren . I was shocked when someone called out my name while I was browsing through the stack of jpop albums at level 3 at HMV & turned out it was him .

I know that his workplace's quite nearby Heeren but still I didn't expect to have bumped into him during lunchtime & he still looked the same even though he has changed his hairdo to a more normal & dye free style .

We talked for a while & I asked him details on the new album & yes it has been mastered already . Now what's left is the album sleeves of We Satellites & after that it's good to go !

I think I'm not in a position to reveal more details with regards to We Satellites but let's just say that Des has told me how the tracklisting for the new album is going to be like + what will be the 1st official single to be released from the album .

More official details will be revealed in time to come while for me , I just will keep my lips sealed on this just in case things happen for a reason but during the brief chat with Des , I can't help but to say that I'm really psyched over the release of the upcoming new album especially since this is going to be the 1st album that they will be releasing since Dan's surprise/sudden departure from the band .

OK enough of this , I want to rant on something/s when I was at HMV just now . In a way , screw you Warner & Sony BMG .

Warner - I saw fresh copies/stocks of Anna Tsuchiya's strip me ? album & it's the CD + DVD edition of her album . I was shocked because I know her debut album was released in Japan 2 years ago but I was surprised when I saw that on HMV + it's manfactured in S'pore too ! The cost of it ? $23.95 !

Not sure why Warner decided to put out SG presses of strip me ? only 2 years after Anna released her album in Japan but it's great to see that she's gaining popularity in S'pore . I hope Warner can release her mini album Taste My Beat EP in here though .

Sony BMG - Ken Hirai's Flims Vol9 DVD is now officially sold in here . I think Sony BMG imported it over from Hong Kong . The cost of the DVD's $26.95 .

Bah if I know , I wouldn't have ordered these 2 via HMV HK which can save me the cost of the shipping charges but what the heck , it's already too late to regret since my Flims Vol9 DVD came last week & my strip me ? album has been shipped out 2 days ago .

I also saw the Japan press of KAT-TUN's QUEEN OF PIRATES but it's the regular edition ie. only 11 songs on the album . The price of it ? $44.95 ! I don't mind to pay for it provided if it's the limited edition which comes with the DVD but there's no way I'm willing to pay that amount for a somewhat measly tracklisting of an album .

Too bad there're no distributors to import KAT-TUN or the rest of the bands under Johnny Entertainment , OS presses wise cos I have not seen any OS presses of JE's albums at all , not even for singles too :( .

I was quite tempted to buy ARASHI's Dream"A"live but after I saw the price tag which was $54.95 & it's the regular edition , I thought better order the OS press of it via HMV HK which they're selling both the regular & limited edition at a much cheaper price even when you add shipping into the mix .

The limited edition has 2 discs in which the 2nd disc contains 5 solo songs which're sang separately by each of the members (even though Matsujun's solo song Naked is .... ) + the album cover looks a bit more prettier too . The regular edition looks a bit retarded to me .

Speaking of KAT-TUN , can't wait for tomorrow where the OS presses of QOP are officially released via HMV HK :D since I have preordered the limited CD + DVD edition of QOP via there the moment I found out that OS presses of QOP are announced that I can preorder it yay

Thank god for HMV HK :D . Who says that I need to go to HMV Japan to buy my CDs/DVDs ? HMV HK will do for me !

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Birthday wishes to Hui Li who at long last finally turned the legal age of 18 today & also to 1/5 of ARASHI's Nino who turned 25 today .

At long last , Hui Li is officially legal to do the following in S'pore :

- drink , clubbing , pubbing
- learn how to drive
- watch M18 movies
- gamble outside of S'pore
- apply for debit card
- buy cigarettes haha

but not yet legal to :

- watch R21 movies
- go to IR when it's up & running next year in S'pore
- gamble in Genting
- apply for a credit card

Anyway to celebrate her birthday , the 3 of us went to have lunch at Botak Jones which has opened an outlet in Bukit Batok . I must say that I have heard a lot of hype surrounding Botak Jones but I never got the chance to try out their food til just now .

They're supposed to be famous for their Fish & Chips . While Hui Lin & I ordered that , Hui Li settled for Caijun chicken as she's going to eat fish & chips this coming Fri .

Now , I've never been a fan of fish & chips since young for some weird reasons altogether although just now , the one that I had at Botak Jones was really good . Although it can't beat the homemade/homecooked one that I had last Nov in Aust at the winery , Botak Jones's quite worth it .

Luckily all of us ordered regular portions cos the servings were quite generous & I was full after I was done with my meal . Imagine Hui Lin wanted to order a large portion :O

The fish that was used's dory fish & it's not the puny frozen ones that other places would sell (Mad Jack anyone *cough cough*) & the fries are real crispy too . Also the tartar sauce is pretty divine .

Could see that Botak Jones is worth the hype surrounding the place & not to mention they only cook when an order's placed & it's not like a fast food outlet where they serve their food to you on the spot .

I also like that the side dishes were served separately on its own because when my order came , the side dish was colesaw which's eew to me cos I never like that stuff since young . So I just bring it back to the counter & request whether can they change to another side dish & they gladly did it at no additional charge which's cool .

Thank goodness there's an outlet quite near my house as I don't mind to go back to try out their food again . When we were there , I saw a lot of guys ordering burgers from the stall & it's quite intimidating on 1st sight .

Maybe I should try the burgers next time when I stop by Botak Jones . If not , maybe the Cajun chicken will do for me .

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Monday, June 16, 2008

In the past I had the assumption that music that's being played in bars & the likes is stuffy & boring . I don't know why I assumed that's the case when I was a kid but now I'm glad to say that it's not the case .

Thanks to the fact that I have watched Ken Hirai's Ken's Bar theme concerts where he performs in a bar like setting , he squashed all the assumptions that I used to have on music that you can hear being played in bars where in actual fact it's a pretty cool concept going on in there , be it setting or the type of music you will hear being played in a bar .

In fact just now thanks to Kim , I managed to discover another hidden gem that was waiting to be uncovered which was Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special At Yokohama Arena .

I did not had the chance to watch Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special At Yokohama Arena at all as I only have caught last year's 2007 Winter & this year's Ken's Bar 10th Anniversary Special performances & needless to say I was so happy to have downloaded performance clips of Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special At Yokohama Arena & to be able to view them too !

& I must say that outta the Ken's Bar performances I have seen so far , the Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special is my favourite outta the whole lot at this point in time because of the songs that Ken did 5 years ago at that time because I could tell that the main bulk of songs he did was to promote his Ken's Bar cover album & as much as I like to hear him doing Hitomi wo Tojite , POP STAR now , at least these songs didn't surface on til much later although Ken did the staples like even if (for once that song started & not ended the show) , Love Love Love , gaining through losing & KISS OF LIFE in Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special .

I guess Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special took place during Winter as the setting of the stage was quite Christmas-ish + he sang The Christmas Song after he did even if .

I love the songs that Ken did which was found on his Ken's Bar album like Louis Armstrong's What A Wonderful World (even though this has been covered to death) , Bette Midler's The Rose , Cliff Edwards's What You Wish Upon A Star , The Jackson 5's ABC , George Michael's Faith . Even Crystal Kay made an appearance & duet with Ken on their take on Carole King's You've Got A Friend .

For me I'm quite nit picked if artistes do cover songs as it's quite a task to cover the classics & to be on par if not superior than the originals but I must say that Ken Hirai's takes on classic songs is an exception .

It's surprising to know that even though Eng's not his 1st language but yet the way that he delivers/sings classic Eng songs it's really impressive & to me , his Eng dictation's pretty good & last year at his Ken's Bar '07 Winter , he performed The Eagles's Desperado which was awesome .

Incidentally , his take on Desperado's the B side song on the Hitomi wo Tojite single but still I was happy to hear him performing Desperado live last year .

I only wish that he would have performed Norah Jones's Don't Know Why during Ken's Bar - 5th Anniversary Special . I would love to see him perform Don't Know Why live , I bet it would have been awesome since his rendition of Norah's song was included in his Ken's Bar album .

I also like the outfits that he wore especially the 2nd one with the newsboy cap & trenchcoat . In fact when he entered the stage , he looked a bit nerdy & within secs , he was striking poses in front of the audience which was quite funny but cute .

Heck , I think he's 1 of the rare few who can probably wear a gunny sack but still can carry it off well as from the many pics that I have seen of Ken , he does know how to dress well , be it smart casual , formal , casual & etc .

In fact at the recent Ken's Bar 10th Anniversary Special performance which took place in May 29th which was 2 months ago , he commented that he would love to do another 10 more years of Ken's Bar concerts which's YAY-ness . I do hope that he can continue his Ken's Bar concerts as thanks to him , I came to appericate such good music coming from him , be it bar or non bar inspired .

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Friday, June 13, 2008

I decided that from today onwards , I'm not going to update this blog of mine as frequent as what I did in the past .

The reason is because I figure since no 1 is interested in what's going on in my life now , I thought I put in even more effort to update my music blog in which I have been doing so on a more frequent/daily/regular basis .

Not to mention it gives me a lot more satisfaction & joy after I penned every entry in my music blog since I have definitely more things to say about music as compared to other issues .

+ at this stage I'm beginning to concentrate & study even more on the scope of how the Japanese music market works because as much as I hate to say this but I personally feel that now the English music scene's quite stagnant & very boring .

In fact I would say a good 85% of songs/albums that're found inside my mp3 consists of Japanese music so you can imagine where I stand now , music wise .

If depending on the situation , this main blog of mine will get more updates on a frequent basis but it reminds to be seen since now I'm concentrating more on my music blog now .

To end a happy note , OS press of KAT-TUN's KAT-TUN III QUEEN OF PIRATES is gonna be out next Fri on HMV HK ! YAY :D

I just hope Lovell will be heading to HK next week . If he's , he will definitely save quite a few $ for me when comes to the shipping cost of the album .

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Friday, June 06, 2008

The whole family went out to Central's Grains restaurant to celebrate my mum's birthday yesterday :)

This year I had a bit of a problem to decide on what to get for my mum then I thought why not I ordered a bouquet of roses for her online & get them to be delivered straight to her office in which I did that !

She was caught off guard yesterday morning when the flowers arrived at her office & I must say that the flowers on close inspection are so so pretty ! You can't go wrong with roses , at all .

Last night's dinner at Grains was quite nice . I didn't know what to expect & I went with an open mind cos I never dined at Grains before . My mum went there 2 times already & she commented that the food's good & I must agree with her !

The tofu dish that she ordered was very nice & smooth while for desert , the mango pudding was to die for .

I definitely don't mind to go back to eat at Grains again .

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Monday, June 02, 2008

To say that The Click Five's 1st major concert Modern Minds And Great Times was great is an understatement to begin with !

They played to a sold out crowd of 4,000 people at the indoor stadium last night & I went for it together with Hui Li & her friend Eveline .

This's my 2nd time that I saw The Click Five performed , the lst time was last Oct when they played a showcase at MOS but only this time , it's bigger , better & even more awesome than before .

Before the concert commenced , there was a Click Five store located both in & outside of the stadium where they were selling tour merch where they have your standard fare of T-shirts , posters , autographed copies of the tour edition of Modern Minds & Pastimes , lanyards , stickers , glowsticks .

I only buy 1 item off the rack which was the tour brochure/pamphlet & it's worth buying it as compared to the rest of the items that were on sale . I saw people that buy things like it's for free which's crazy .

To cut a long story short , the concert started at 8.20pm & it ended at about 2 hours later . Songlist was extremely generous with regards to the encore & supposedly 2 NEW SONGS that were played last night YAY

Outta the 3 new songs that were played , my fave I have to say has gotta be There You Are which's like Empty part 2 . The way that Kyle Patrick delivered the song , it sent goosebumps down my spine .

& YES YES they did Long Way To Go :) :) :) which's my fave song off the 2nd album & the lyrics are angsty/angry which's a perfect dig at someone that I'm having a love/hate feeling at this point in time .

The only song that didn't sat well with me was So It Goes . In fact I never like the song even up to now .

Songlist Set :

1) Flipside
2) Happy Birthday
3) Addicted To Me
4) Good Day
5) All I Need Is You
6) Empty
7) Summertime
8) *Don't Let Me Go (acoustic)
9) I'm Getting Over You (acoustic) -- Ben (harmonica) , Joe & Ethan (acoustic guitars) , Joey (drums)
10) The Beatles's I'm Looking For You
11) *There You Are
12) Just The Girl
13) Long Way To Go
14) Elvis Costello's Pump It Up , solo parts from each member
15) When I'm Gone

Encore :

16) Catch Your Wave
17) So It Goes
18) Jenny
19) Headlight Disco

The whole crowd went nuts when Jenny was played & it's only natural seeing that it's Click Five's biggest hit to date .

It was damn cool when Ben Romans wiped out his white keytar & just strut his stuff all over the place but to me , he NEEDS a haircut , BADLY .

All I can say's that just when I thought Click Five couldn't get anymore better , they proved me wrong last night .

The sound was great & the showmanship that the band undertook has spoken for the fact that they're no doubt 1 of my fave bands that I have came across in recent times .

I wonder now , who's next that will come down to S'pore to perform ? JE boybands ARASHI , KAT-TUN , NEWS ? or how about the ever soulful Ken Hirai or the abs boys ?

Only time will tell .

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