Song Recommendation For April 2009: 《好好走》by 梁咏琪 Gigi Leung

好好走
演唱：梁咏琪

难堪的话不用说
你的眼神打败我的沉默
我闭住了笑容 虚伪了宽容
应该不会太做作

坦白的你痛了我
装作若无其事不能说
难受是让我看到她之后明白
她比我优秀

爱你爱到这 我只想好好走
总要有一个人先放手
笑着让眼泪流才会有将来怀念的理由

爱你爱到这 我想你好好走
最后关头别拉着我的手
加快一点节奏
这样才是分手才能让我自由

(Interlude)

坦白的你痛了我
装作若无其事不能说
难受是让我看到她之后明白
她比我优秀

爱你爱到这 我只想好好走
总要有一个人先放手
笑着让眼泪流才会有将来怀念的理由

爱你爱到这 我想你好好走
最后关头别拉着我的手
加快一点节奏
这样才是分手才能让我自由

看日出到日落
爱过就明亮过
谁都离不开夜的寂寞
爱的勇气我会把它寄托给下一个对的人

爱你爱到这 我想你好好走
最后关头别拉着我的手
加快一点节奏
这样才是分手才能让我自由

我会快乐活着
让你的心自由

我好喜欢这首歌那纯厚，浓浓的韵味。
带着的是咏琪的成熟，感情的成长。

唱着爱情那无奈的万变
说着人性那无边的坚强

分手，分开，分情，分心
若想懂得相爱相恋，就要懂得聚散离别...

Burning In The Heat of Singapore

Movie Review: Taken (2009)



Watched the movie "Taken" today and I thought the movie was nice because it had really realistic action scenes throughout a heart-stopping journey where a father (who retired voluntarily from some secret service job) had reluctantly gave his permission for his teenage daughter to go to Europe for a holiday, only to discover to his dismay that she was kidnapped by a vicious group of Albanians who ran drugs and prostitution rings.

Determined not to lose his daughter, he embarked on a one-man mission to save his daughter within a window of 96 hours before she would be forever lost in the human-trafficking businesses in Europe. The movie was an eye-opener about how insidious such crimes were in hoodwinking unsuspecting young girls on holidays and then whisking them off to sedate them with drugs to be sold for prostitution and the movie culminated when the father finally came face to face with the crime lords responsible for such illegal businesses, whom the former deal with harshly. As what one movie reviewer on yahoo said, you won't even notice the movie's 90+ minutes because it was one well-paced, hard-action movie mixed with ingenuity and quite some violence. It's NC16 because of the violence so for those blog readers wanting to go catch this movie, do take heart before stepping in.

It's really warm - I am literally cooked by the stifling heat that has permeated Singapore for the past week. Trying to enjoy the break after Campus Superstars 3 competition but the country has more or less transformed itself into a sweltering furnace to burn the rest.

Still I have managed to grab some entertainment here and there to take my mind off from those performance commentaries nights. Here are some of the games that have been keeping me happy.

Restaurant City - Facebook Game Application
I have always been intrigued by cooking and this is one game I really enjoyed because as an owner of a restaurant, you are to answer daily food quizzes (within 10 seconds) to gain precious ingredients to make new starter, main or dessert dishes for your ever-hungry customers. Alternatively, you can try exchanging ingredients with your friends. With those ingredients, your assigned cooks and waiters will start serving those dishes (visible from the screen) and starting collecting bills for you to upgrade and renovate your restaurant.

Money is hard to come by so I was trying my best to give my restaurant a posh look without spending too much since after every 3 hours, the assigned cooks and waiters will be exhausted and you either have to let them sleep or feed them really expensive sandwiches (each costing $200!). I still have many dishes to learn and I am hunting for ingredients everyday. Anyone has eggs and cheese to exchange? Hahaha.

Civony - Free Browser-Based City-Building Game


Pardon the small screenshot because most of the icons in the game are small. Although very similar to the earlier Imperial Ages game that I played a few months back, this one is even more complicated with valleys on the map screen for your armies to capture for increased production of lumber, stone, iron or food. The valleys (grasslands, hills, lakes, deserts, swamps) are constantly changing their levels, which determine the number of defenders guarding the valleys. The game also features heroes whom you can either hire from the inn or capture from valleys. You can grow these heros through an experience system and reward them with money or medals which can increase their popularity, experience and skills in helping you to manage your cities or lead your armies.

Another main drawing point is the alliance that I am in - most of them are actually working adults or graduates from various universities across the world from USA, Australia, Canada and we have been bantering and chatting about various issues across cultures whilst waiting for our buildings in the cities to be completed. The jokes are fast and witty so I am having just reading and laughing at how they are hurling those jokes across the alliance chat.

Going back to my civony and restaurant game now! Will update again soon! ^__^

Reply To Tags About CSS 3 Grand Finals Performance Commentaries, Gathering with University Orientation Group, Tai Tai Coffee with SC @ East Coast

Reply To Tags About CSS 3 Grand Finals Performance Commentaries:

Stella: woo u are all prepared for tonight~ hahs.

- Of course, since I have been writing since Episode 1 all the way till the Grand Finals, I must make sure that I am all prepared during the most important Grand Finals. ^__^

^^~: Omg I think Jaws is really under rated in the 2nd round =.=

- Joselin deserved a better grade indeed. =)

leraine: True, Aijia performed the best this round =)

- I agonized over a 9.5 which might seemed too high but I made my decision - if that kind of performance cannot secure a 9.5, then too few performances will ever made it. Aijia scored deeply for sincerity and a new level of emoting breakthrough to earn my best grade for Grand Finals.

hmm: jarod was better.. anyway they should be on par since they got the same score.

- No offence to Jarod but he had it easy because he was singing only the easier portions of 千言万语 and circumvented the harder portions with R & B instead, which was strategically wise but exposed his technical inability to handle older songs compared to Aijia and Jiamin. Joselin completely changed the song to a full rock and roll, which took out some grades too.

css3: wat u tink of weilian judging and performance ?

- Weilian was playing real safe and politically correct with his judging. I could not mention about his performance because I was too busy typing the performance commentaries.

Stella: oo u done a great job too 接下来 any commentaries for other programs?

- Thank you for your compliment! I might take a break from performance commentaries for a couple of weeks because I need to clear my head for other tasks beyond my blogging life and I wanted to go get some singing done on my own since I had been delaying it since the start of CSS 3 blog series.

Passerby: Joselin is th most unrrated ones in css3. Judges are just very biased towards her. Really dissapointed wif th judges. I felt her Yue guang was nicer den others! I think u even agreed! Joselin ROCKS! :

- As mentioned, I thought Joselin did well. She was still the weakest when it comes to vocal command but I recognized her unique stage presence. I can only hope someday she can finally align her skills alongside with her stage presence. There's still potential in her to be tapped somehow.

ee: now that css3 has come to an end, i guess i wont visit this place frequently anymore. nevertheless, you did a great job sean! it has been a pleasure reading your commentries (:

- Thank you for your compliment! It's been quite a tough blog series for the past few months because I had to crack my head often to try and be as accurate as possible in my performance commentaries. Hope you do pop in to check out my blogging once in a while. ^__^

- My thanks to the thousands of readers who thronged my humble blog for the past few months to take a peep at my performance commentaries. Confirmations of contestants reading them and correcting them upon my advice also helped me to continue writing and with prominent music figures even popping by to look around surely boosted my morale in keeping the commentaries as tidy as I can be. Gratis~~

- I will probably go back to my personal blogging with sporadic write-ups on any followup events for the graduates of CSS 3, if any, until I can finally settle on a new blog series. Meanwhile, a series of photos that were delayed because I was so busy with the CSS 3 blog series are finally seeing light on my blog. Hahaha.

Library Trip and Bubble Tea with The Confused M60 at Toa Payoh Hub:

Went to the library with the Confused M60 who wanted to borrow some books to reeducate herself for her new job applications. I took the opportunity to quickly return the nearly due library books as well. We settled down for bubble tea at a bubble tea house inside one of the entertainment hubs of Toa Payoh (the one with the cinemas) and I saw this very interesting plaque about steadfastness and wisdom.

It said something about having to learn and use both in a complementary way to survive the world around us and gain fulfilment and contentment. I supposed it rings true to quite a good extent - if we are not steadfast, we will lose our way. If we are not wise, we will not be able to differentiate the real light at the end of the tunnel from the neon ones decorating the tunnel.
This is a random game screenshot of a very old game known as Stronghold, a castle building game. In that scenario, I think I was supposed to build and encircle my castle encampment with wooden palisade walls and prevent roaming wolves from eating my lord (the blue caped guy atop of the large wooden building called a keep).

Why am I playing such a game? I am still trying to design a medieval-theme castle building game on my own so I needed to refresh myself on medieval games. It's already been more than one month of research and refreshing of such games but the game is still at its write-up stage. I still have a long way to go...hahaha.

Gathering with University Orientation Group:
This is one of the sandwich ordered and shared around by a handful of my university orientation group who managed to meet up after being separated for years. Although only four out of a twenty-four were present, it was still a heartwarming gathering where we shared out common adventures during the four-day orientation camp in those days - the exciting ice-breaking games that we played, the orientation game stations that we conquered with wit and bravado, the sleepless nights spent talking away.
A night shot of the Merlion after it was healed from the lightning strike on its head. It was spraying water happily that night as the group strolled from Raffles City to the Singapore Flyer to the Merlion. Such a memorable gathering after so many years. ^__^

Tai Tai Coffee with SC @ East Coast:
I love to take some afternoons real slow and easy, over a nice slice of cake with a nice chocolate ice-blended, and watch the world go by with a friend or two. So last Saturday, I went off with SC to East Coast Park Coffee Bean to have a session of tai tai coffee and spent a good three hours over there, watching the park-goers' activities.
The view of East Coast Park from where we are seated. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we even caught sight of a huge rabbit on a leash, hopping happily around to sniff the grass and the roots of the trees until it began to rain in the mid-afternoon.
The rain came in hard but there were people who never wanted to stay out. A group of three friends were dancing in the rain and a couple shared an umbrella and stared out into the sea until the rain stopped.
The rain got heavier but both of us were dry and happy with an extremely packed Coffee Bean as the people rushed in to take shelter. We had the best seats to watch the raindrops fall though.
The rain peltered away and East Coast Park came back to life again. This shot was taken on our way back to Parkway Parade for dinner. In the distance, the thunderclouds still rumbled away but they could not keep the children away from playing on the beach with the waves. This is the share rustic feel one can probably only catch at a mere fistful of places left in Singapore.

Campus Superstars 3 Grand Finals Performance Commentaries

第一回合: 金曲高手大测验
(参赛同学与本地选秀比赛前辈搭档演出，挑战60年代至今的经典歌曲)

C1 李奕贤＋陈迪雅《千言万语》/《小薇》（钢琴伴奏、不插电）
- 不 （吐字过重）
- 掠过 （音被压过）
- 有明显的歌唱进步
- 可惜只唱比较保守的几句词，不敢真正投入难度更高的部份
- Judges' scores were totaled at 64.0/80.0 (Average 8.0/10.0)
- I would have given Jarod a 8.5 because he managed to combine the two songs into a smooth medley within his vocal capabilities. There was marked improvements in his confidence in portraying the song and there was good interaction between himself and Diya.

C2 蔡艾珈＋Juz B《情人的眼泪》 /《Stand By Me》（无音乐伴奏）
- background accompaniment was a little too loud against Aijia's singing
- 么 （吃字）
- there were gaps in making full use of the song to parallel acapella accompaniment
- Aijia was able to focus and still make her singing distinctive against the backdrop of six different voices and six sets of tempo without being distracted
- Judges' scores were 58.5/80.0 (Average 7.3125/10.0)
- I would have given Aijia a 9.0 because of the sheer difficulty of combining the classic song alongside with acapella. I disagreed with Wu Jiaming Laoshi and Deng Miaohua because I thought it was a very difficult task for Aijia to keep her tempo steady against six different voices with six different tempos.

C3 叶嘉敏＋曾咏霖《红豆词2000》（吉他伴奏、二重唱）
- 满 （吃字）
- 悠 （音拉得不够）
- 喔 (某部份偏音了些）
- 气势不如前两参赛者，创意不足
- 舞台，镜头的沟通都太僵硬，不够放
- Judges' scores were totaled at 59.0/80.0 (Average of 7.375/10.0)
- I would have given Jiamin a 8.0 because given the vocal abilities of both Jiamin and Teresa, they could have afforded a little bit more experimentation. I concur with the comments of the three judges - they were quite stiff in portraying the song and played too safe when they are fully capable trying something more refreshing to add more creativity points to the performance.

C4 黄慧婷＋大风吹《梦醒时分》（乐团伴奏）
- 伤心 （走音多次）
- 总是 （走音）
- 不 （吃字）
- 被乐队的拍子赶着，没跟好拍子
- 你说 （唱得太低）
- 对唱接歌不够流顺
- Judges' scores were totaled at 52.5/80.0 (Average of 6.562/10.0)
- I would have given Joselin a 7.0 because she sang off-key at least four times during her performance and she was being led on by the band instead of she leading the live band so the overall feel was quite rushed. Admittedly, singing with a live rock band is not easy at all but considering she made more obvious technical mistakes than the other three contestants, she could only score so much on my commentaries.

--------------------------------------------------
第二回合 ：战友对决大会考
( 同学与同学相互挑战，同唱节奏由慢转快的《月光》)

C1 李奕贤 Jarod《月光》
- 湾湾 （唱得不稳）
- 蒲公英 （抖音过重了）
- Judges' scores were 57.0/80.0 (Average of 7.125/10.0)
- I would have given Jarod a 7.5 because his expression and gesticulation was looking pretty robotic to me and I felt that he seemed to have too much on his mind to be truly enjoying the song.

C2 蔡艾珈 Rachel《月光》
- 赶拍子
- 的地方 （吞字）
- Judges' scores were 59.0/80.0 (Average of 7.325/10.0)
- I would have given Aijia a 7.5 because she was in the same mode of dancing and singing as per her previous performances and I could not see a newer or upgraded version of her stage presence. Surprisingly, I expected her to do better in Round 2 but the key was not suitable enough and she was playing too safe to be throwing her maximum potential in.

C3 叶嘉敏 Jiamin《月光》
- 光 （唱得不够亮）
- 泪 （唱得不够稳）
- Judges' scores were 58.5/80.0 (Average of 7.312/10.0)
- I would have given Jiamin a 7.0 because she still could not truly overcome her stage stiffness. Although her facial expression was much more relaxed, her stage gesticulation was still not up to expectations for this relatively fun-filled song.

C4 黄慧婷 Joselin《月光》
- 悲 （走音）
- 伤，眼 （走音）
- Judges' scores were 48.5/80.0 (Average 6.062/10.0)
- I would have given Joselin a 8.0 because she seemed to be the only one who could blend into the song even though her singing was the most unstable of the four. Maybe the pressure from Round 1 was over, and thus releasing her to give everything all out which helps in Round 2 to give her portions the relaxed performance feel compared to the others.

Good luck to all the four finalists for the voting rounds! My commentaries for these two rounds are over so I can only wait for the Final Top 2 to be announced.
-------------------------------------------------
第三回合：自我挑战总联考
(同学演唱自选歌曲，感动最亲的人、感动观众，震撼全场！)
(前两回合成绩总结，淘汰两位，剩下的两位才有机会唱自选曲。)

C1 李奕贤《下一个天亮》（郭静）
- 挡，听，近 （唱得不稳）
- 复歌唱得不够嘹亮
- 桥段唱得过于平淡
- 最后复歌音准不对
- 最后的 “喔” 骠得很幽美
- Judges' scores were 65.0/80.0 (Average of 8.125/10.0)
- I would have given Jarod a 8.0 because Jarod finally reached a new level of emoting his songs, which was unheard of and unfelt of before. Although he made quite a lot of mistakes in his singing, he was able to hold those mistakes off and not let these affect his performance throughout. By concentrating only on singing, he was able to finish the song with a reasonable touch to the listeners.

C2 蔡艾珈《星星I’m Not a Star》（顺子）
- 窗外的天 （赶拍子）
- 只想 （哽咽）
- can feel （哽咽到稍微走音）
- 唱得真情流露
- Judges' scores were 65.0/80.0 (Average of 8.125/10.0)
- I would have given Aijia a 9.5 because I could see her putting her heart and soul into singing the song. She truly believed the song and its meaning behind the lyrics and was the only one tonight who could sing until she was genuinely tearing away until the final chorus to the point of breaking her singing but she held on anyway to the last note. Her high notes were spectacularly clear and her control of the song was done close to flawlessness. I was barely writing anything down during her rendition of the song because there was too little to pick fault on.


Campus Superstars Season 3 Grand Champion is....*drum rolls*......

李奕贤 Jarod!!! Congratulations! ^__^

Tips For 第一回合: 金曲高手大测验

C1 李奕贤 - 要唱好《千言万语》就要明白邓丽君是以怎样的心情来诠释此经典名曲。虽非我年代，可是我对此歌蛮熟悉的，加油！

C2 蔡艾珈 - 《情人的眼泪》要唱出味道就要明白痴情中的无奈的感觉。要多痴情，要多无奈才适合而不腻呢？ 想想吧，加油！

C3 叶嘉敏 - 《红豆词 2000》 是我在中学时帮参赛同学训练的歌曲，你和咏霖可要把歌曲神髓抓住呀！想想梁文福老师到底想在歌曲里描述何物和所属心境。加油！

C4 黄慧婷 - 陈淑桦的《梦醒时分》带着劝意参悟意来形容爱情的执著和悔恨。你得想想要如何把歌曲中的领悟情怀唱得动听而不乏层次感。加油！

好了，我不想说太多了。参赛者们，你们要自己想办法琢磨歌曲的其它细节，了解了才能唱得更好。加油加油！期待喔！^__^

In Memory of 阿桑 《叶子》

叶子

叶子是不会飞翔的翅膀
翅膀是落在天上的叶子
天堂原来应该不是妄想
只是我早已经遗忘当初怎么开始飞翔

孤单是一个人的狂欢
狂欢是一群人的孤单
爱情原来的开始是陪伴
但我也渐渐地遗忘当时是怎样有人陪伴

我一个人吃饭旅行到处走走停停
也一个人看书写信自己对话谈心
只是心又飘到了哪里就连自己看也看不清
我想我不仅仅是失去你

叶子是不会飞翔的翅膀
翅膀是落在天上的叶子

叶子终于飘到云端了...
阿桑，一路好走...