yung's potpourri: March 2006

Buzzing

Have you ever had times when a song keeps repeating itself in your head?

I've experienced it loads of times and it usually drives me nuts! It's worse when you don't even like the song, but thankfully most of the time I do.

Recently, the chorus of 愛你變成恨你 by Kary has been 'buzzing' me. I didn't like the first couple of solo plugs by 吳雨霏 (this name takes some getting used to!) but finally here is a song of hers that I like. I still prefer her songs with Ping Pung tho, the rocking and a bit sexy Kary.

This morning, for a short while, the song in my head changed to 摩登時代 by Joey, which I now find quite likeable. But I've still not made up my mind to buy 'Ten Most Wanted'. Somehow it doesn't fulfil my criteria for buying an album (to stop myself buying indiscriminately):

1. Anything by or related to Sammi or Hocc
2. Certain albums of Anita, Candy and a couple of Japanese artists
3. Best selections (e.g. Joey, Andy Hui, Edmond etc)
4. Good albums (e.g. U87 by Eason, Love and Hate by Ping Pung etc)
5. Albums containing songs I like very much (e.g. 越唱越強 in Bi-Heart by Joey etc)

Yeah, I think that's about it. Need to try and save money.

Ouch!

Yesterday I went for my company annual health screening. It's very basic stuff...height and weight, blood pressure and blood sugar. I have never been afraid of blood tests because usually things go very smoothly, but yesterday was the worst experience I ever had...

I stuck out my left arm as usual for the nurse to take blood. Once the needle poked into my skin, I knew something wasn't right cos it was more painful than usual. And no blood was coming out into the collection tube. Then she started poking the needle around to try and coax the blood out. Nothing. She tap tap near the place she poked. Nothing. She moved the needle a bit more. Still nothing. She pressed my skin. Nothing! By then the pain had become almost unbearable and I didn't want her pushing the thing around to 'search for my vein' anymore. I told her, "Very painful! Can you try my other arm?"

I guess she had no choice so she withdrew her needle from my poor arm and proceeded to take blood from my right one. Aiyo...still painful but at least some blood was coming out. But it was flowing very slowly so she just kept pulling at the syringe! Oi! Painful leh!

Finally my ordeal was over...terrible...and she had the cheek to tell me that my vein was not very visible. So why didn't the previous nurses ever have any problems huh? And I later found out from my colleagues that I wasn't the only who encountered this. Yikes...

A Few Songs...

圓滿 (Hocc)
Strictly speaking this was released very late last year but I count it as 2006 anyway...So far this year I still love this song best. Nice arrangement and meaningful song.

December Rain (Rain Lee)
Until very recently, I had been quite nonchalant about her. Didn't remember a single song of hers and didn't like her much. But I like this one. People say that she sounds like Miriam here and I agreed the first time I heard the song. But last week I listened to it again and found that she didn't really sound like Miriam after all, though the music style is quite like the latter's early songs.

獨角獸 (Fiona Sit)
She (or maybe her producers) has a knack for snapping up good songs eg 奇洛李維斯回信, 男孩像你 and 麥當娜一吻. And now I find that I quite like 獨角獸 too. Slightly mystical and magical...

粉筆字 (Jade Kwan)
This is probably only the 3rd song of hers that I like, after 你有心 and 挪亞方舟. I thought it was quite bland the first time I heard it, but after a couple more listens I thought it was pretty good, with some sort of an elegant feel and special 氣質.

當玫瑰遇上真愛 (Yumiko Cheng)
Ok, I don't like her very much but I think this song is quite nice. Different from her previous type of songs.

羅曼蒂克 (Edmond Leung)
Finally Edmond is back...I like his come-back song...makes me look forward to his new album.

最佳損友 (Eason Chan)
Lots of people love this, but I don't know...I find it ok. Quite nice but not really excellent...Perhaps my expectations too high?

花見 (Hocc)
I like the guitar intro but overall the song didn't really catch me the way 迷你與我 or 艷光四射 did. I think this is another one that takes a bit of time to grow on me...Still, I like her to be challenging different styles and I'm looking forward to her new EP.

Demo Project

I bought a new CD on Monday, called "自作自樂" (Demo Project) by HK composers, a collection of demo versions of songs that has already been released, many of them major hits.

Even though the arrangements may be quite simple for most of the songs, the composers or demo singers really did a great job, singing much better than some so-called singers.

My faves and songs of the moment include:
苦撐 by 張佳添 (Published version 明目張膽 by Hocc)
今非昔比 by 陳詠瑜, composed by Edmond Tsang (天之驕女 by Joey)
名種愛人 by Eunice, composed by 方樹樑 (奇洛李維斯回信 by Fiona)
終身學習 by 謝杰(same title by Stephanie Cheng)
空肩膊 by 徐偉賢 (兄妹 by Eason)

Btw, 謝杰 is the one who wrote hocc's 露絲瑪莉 while 方樹樑 wrote Joey's 一拍兩散 and Nicola's 上帝愛我. I love these songs! I find 張佳添's singing style a little bit like Joey Tang. 陳詠瑜 sounds so much like Joey and Eunice's voice reminds me of Ella Koon...not bad not bad...the singing is good!

I am also impressed by the singing of 徐偉賢, 金培達 (composer of Sammi's 輸得漂亮) and 柳重言 who sounds so much like Jacky Cheung! Then there is 颱風 (男孩像你 by Fiona) by 徐繼宗 who was the composer of Joey's 心淡, and 執爾之手 (按摩女郎 by Andy Lau) by 馮瀚銘 . I didn't like it at all when I first heard Andy Lau's version but after listening to the demo version I thought it was quite nice.

Out of the 16 songs in the collection, only 5 kept their original titles, which meant that record companies only wanted the melody but not the lyrics. Sometimes I feel sorry for the lyricists, who are already being paid less per song compared to composers in general. And good lyrics are perhaps harder to come up with than tunes though a nice melody is always the first to catch a listener's attention.

Thank you

I am in a much better mood these couple of days. Several reasons for this...

My mum is feeling better. I think the chemo side-effects are wearing off a bit, until her next session anyway, so she doesn't feel so tired now. Hopefully the treatment is working.

I went for a hair-cut today. My first time going to the new place. My hairstylist moved there recently so I 'followed' her. Been putting up with a messy look while in Taiwan and I think I look more 'refreshed' now with the new cut.

I feel very inspired after coming back from Taiwan. There are lots of things I want to get done at work - thinking through project ideas, reading research papers, organising my notes and messy files, thinking about the future etc etc. I actually brought home a stack of papers to read over the weekend! I realised that there are still so many things I am ignorant about or maybe just scrapping the surface, and I am keen to catch up by reading up as much as possible.

I have one person to thank - your calls and emails really helped me a lot.

And not forgetting the encouragement from my friends, even though I have only known some of you for a year or less. I appreciate all your comments, sms and well-wishes very much. Thank you :-)