Rene Liu 刘若英 Singapore Concert 2010

Went to Rene Liu's Singapore concert last night. Probably my favorite artiste after Liang Jing Ru :) It's Rene's first concert in Singapore. Amazing. I bought a balcony seat but got bumped up to a terrace seat! Yay! Although the downside, naturally, is that there weren't a lot of people there. The Indoor Stadium was far from full...hopefully this doesn't affect whether there will be another concert here again in the future.

This was my first ever concert at the Indoor Stadium, and I must say, the venue's pretty good. All the seats up in the terrace had a pretty good view of the stage. The acoustics sound pretty awesome too, although I'm far from being an expert in this field, so I can't really say. Hope there will be more events here in the future where I can go to.

The concert started at around 8.30pm. I had an entire row to myself :) Right from the starting song, which was a combo of 听是谁在唱歌/年华, Rene was in great voice, and she was pretty much faultless in her vocals throughout the entire duration of the concert, which only ended at ~ 11.40pm. We got our money's worth, and then some :)

Rene commented that she had been warned it might be hard to do a concert in Singapore as the audiences tend to be a little more shy. She wasn't kidding. The crowd was pretty muted, especially comparing with the previous Liang Jing Ru concert I had been to in Chengdu. The audience did get more into it as the concert progressed, helped immeasurably by Rene's chiding...she was great at working the crowd, and the interludes between the songs were filled with humorous monologues and banter with the crowd, e.g. confiding the awkward questions she would get at weddings (a Liang Jing Ru shoutout here!!! Yay!! As Rene mentioned a few of her good friends who had gotten married recently) from relatives and friends about when she would get married, and the various nicknames that she had acquired over the years. A special mention has to be made especially for Rene's onstage chemistry with the guest performer for the night, Mayday bandmember Masa. They were great together and their teasing, I'm pretty sure, brought smiles to every one in the audience. They dueted on 舞女 with some great dance moves, and also on a song by Cheer Chen, which I thought was really lovely. I have not heard much music from Cheer Chen previously, but she's so well-regarded and her songs have such a unique, folksy-touch to them that lends them a distinctive charm...will definitely check out more of her songs in the future. See? Coming to Rene's concert has the added benefit of listening to other great music too! Eason Chan's 十年 sounds like a great song too.

One really nice thing was that Rene and the organizers really put in effort to make the concert tailored for Singapore. For instance, the abovementioned interlude with the questions that she would get at weddings was done with very Singaporean-sounding accents as the voices of her relatives and friends. In addition, in the encore portion, Rene sang Stefanie Sun's 遇见! Awesome!

It was a real treat to hear Rene sing so many of her greatest hits and new songs live, especially my favorite songs of hers 我等你, which came pretty early in the concert songlist and her new song 我不想念. Of course, any concert would be remiss without the classics 很爱很爱你 (which closed off the main concert) and 后来, which was the penultimate song of the night. The fast song 到处乱走 was electric and really got the crowd going, and Rene even threw her high-heeled shoes into the crowd! A guy got one and a girl got the other so naturally match-making ensues (hee!) but alas, the guy came with his date :) Another highlight was Rene introducing her band during the song 爱你一万年, with each bandmate singing the signature chorus. It was really an innovative way to do this, and closed with Rene telling the crowd that, now that we've heard how it's sung, we can sing likewise :)

One sentimental moment in the concert was when Rene recounted how she felt a connection to Singapore because it was here that she got noticed by industry veteran Sylvia Chang. Rene was here ten years ago as an assistant to Emil Chua, Chen Sheng, Li Zong Sheng and Zhao Chuan for Rock Records' anniversary concert, and she was carrying all this luggage and checking in at the hotel, and Sylvia Chang noticed this strong girl carrying all this baggage, and invited her to act in her next show. And the rest is, shall we say, history :)

The encore was terrific. The encore chant was pretty insipid, but luckily that did not deter Rene from delivering a great encore performance. It started with 继续-给15岁的自己, a lovely song from her latest album which chronicles the trials and tribulations of growing up. As mentioned, Rene then sang 遇见, and also Sylvia Chang's 爱的代价, which is another favorite song of mine. The crowd really got into it at 后来, singing several lines in good voice (me too!), before Rene's rendition of Mayday's 生命有一种绝对 closed off the evening, with Rene getting into a gravity-defying trapeze performance mid-song too, which was a real treat.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I had a great time at the concert, and from the crowd reactions, everyone else felt pretty much the same way too. Rene's vocals were pitch perfect throughout the evening, and her banter with the audience was terrific throughout. Definitely looking forward to hearing one of my favorite artistes live in concert again, hopefully in the near future.

Jim and Pam...best TV couple ever

Seriously. I'm glad they're living happily ever after :) My favorite fanvid, amongst the millions and billions online

Jim and Pam Tribute - "I'm Amazed By You" The Office @ Yahoo! Video

And yes, I really can't wait till the start of the season!

Favorite moments in Dunder-Mifflin history...go!

How about each and every episode of the second and third seasons, as this great fanvid shows :)

三吋日光

Nice sweet song to start the New Year :)

Golden Potato Awards 2009

Happy New Year, everyone! Rundown of the most memorable TV shows of the year :)

Special Effects: Battlestar Galactica

Opening Titles: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood OP1

Theme Song: "Beautiful World" Hikaru Utada (Evangelion 2.0)

Not a TV show, but the movie was great, and it's a rebuild of a TV show, so that counts too, right? (Rhetorical, don't answer that)

Comedic Performance (tie): Eric Stonestreet "Cameron Tucker" (Modern Family) who also gave us the most memorable quote of the year "I gave her a pair of gorgeous diamond earrings and she gave me a hint." Heh.

Nick Offferman "Ron Swanson" (Parks and Recreation)

Sidekick (tie): Tim DeKay "Agent Peter Burke" (White Collar)

Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett "Phil and Lem" (Better Off Ted)

Villain: In order of their appearance, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Sloth and Pride (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)

Couple: Jason Segal and Alysson Hannigan "Marshall Erickson and Lily Aldrin" (How I Met Your Mother)

Team: Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar and Bruce Campbell "Michael Westen, Fiona Glenanne and Sam Axe" (Burn Notice)

Actress: Cherry Jones "President Allison Taylor" (24)

Actor: Steve Carell "Michael Scott" (The Office)

Ensemble: The voicecast of "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood"

Farewell: ER

New Show: Parks and Recreation

TV Series: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Here's hoping for another great TV year in 2010!

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Watched it last weekend. Quite underwhelming, I'm afraid. I think one really has to watch it in 3D, since it's pretty up set up as that to create an immersive experience. Take that immersive experience away, and we're left with the plot and characters, neither of which are particularly groundbreaking stuff. It's great to see James Cameron back at work though. His "Aliens" is, in my opinion, a masterpiece and yes, I love "Titanic" too.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: "The First Homunculus"; "Battle in Baschool"

FMA:B continues its general awesomeness during its term in the snowy realm of Briggs. The introduction of Sloth a few episodes back was pretty cool, as we finally get some substantial airtime on one of the two homunculi yet to be revealed in the series. This incarnate is markedly different from the version in the first anime, and definitely fits his name better.

The major event in "The First Homunculus", of course, is the reveal of the identity of Pride, ironically the last to be revealed after being the first created. I had been spoiled on who it was beforehand (argh!), but I thought the revelation was very well done, nonetheless. ::shivers:: who knew? It took a lot of courage from Riza to confront the homunculus the way she did, and she even managed to get in a barb at the end. Really gutsy there. Go Riza! Still, I was holding my breath for her throughout that chilling scene. Pride is just scary!

Elsewhere, Winry turns up at Briggs, a not-so-subtle reminder by Bradley and Kimblee to Ed and Al not to try anything funny. Kimblee gets another chance to show off his maniacal psyche when quizzed by Ed as to why he's helping the homunculi, though I'm not sure how advisable it was on Kimblee's part to allow Ed to reveal to Winry that she's actually being used to keep the brothers in check. Still, it was nice to see Winry react affirmatively when she knew of the situation. Another great episode.

The pre-title sequence in "Battle in Baschool" has Riza, visibly shaken, returning to her apartment after her confrontation with Pride. Poor Riza...anyone else would have completely lost their marbles by now...all things considered, she's taking it extremely well. Still, watching her, usually so composed and unfettered, jump at the sight of Hayate and at the sudden ring of the phone, was pretty jarring, and I couldn't help but feel for her situation. Nice subtle touch of Riza refraining from telling Roy the truth when she noticed her shadow and was reminded of how the homunculus might be lurking in the shadows. Affecting moment when Riza hugged Hayate after putting down the phone. Roy, of course, sensed something was wrong in Riza's voice, and it'll be interesting to see where this goes from here.

Absolutely loved the silent movie recap of how Yoki knew Ed and Al, and it was hilarious how the brothers completely forgot who he was, after Yoki had built his backstory up to such monumental proportions. Another highlight was Winry wanting to look Scar in the eye and have a direct conversation with him, and again, the cliffhanger (how'd they get from capturing Scar to him having Winry?!?) has moi eagerly counting down the days to the next episode. Most awesome show on TV.