Earlier this year, Pei got me this Cici Jelly Drink endorsed by Jay from Oriental Mart. When I went back a few weeks later, they only have the regular packaging ones. That means no 杰倫's face on it. Hehe, so of course I didn't buy any ler.
Last week, I went to 大華 to get some vegetable and as usual, will also wander over to the snack isle. Guess what, I found tons of Cici Jelly Drinks with Jay's face staring back at me!! :P
Am sure you all know the outcome of the encounter....
Hehe, can't help it. One don't come by Jay's merchandise easily in the States! Bleh. Malaysian fans are going to be so excited when he goes to M'sia to promote 刺陵 in December. Too bad, they won't be showing the movie in the States. Will have to get the DVD when I go back next year.
Was expecting a package from Mei, but have no idea what it is. Mei only mentioned that it is something cute. Hehe...
The one thing that I least expected - Jay's merchandise!!! Mei went to Jay's concert in Sydney. Ping is sooo jealous!!! :P Hehe...still aiming to go to his Taiwan concert one day!!! Although I have lots of Jay's merchandise, I actually have not started collecting the Jay 公仔. Let this be the first! Thanks a bunch Mei!!!
Spending another late night in the dungeon. Makes me wish I had gotten a Mac!! Hehe...then I get to work at home. Definitely getting a Mac next time! (Yes, Steph, I know you are thinking "I told you so".)
Guess what Ping got from Pei today! It is the Cici Jelly Drink endorsed by 杰倫!! Hehe..felt like a kid when Lin showed it to Ping. Who would have thought that Jay endorsed products will be sold here in the US! What more in Michigan!!
This is the highlight of the trip!!! If it wasn't for Jay's concert, we wouldn't have planned the trip in the first place! 還記得 July 那一月, 第一次看到有人說杰倫有可能會來到Toronto 的事後, 已經很開心了. 到票開始賣的時候, 跟朋友已經決定去了. 差一點要訂酒店, 要開始plan去Detroit 申請Canadian Visa, 有看到有人說杰倫會去Connecticut辦演唱會. 那就更好! 因為可以用Visa那筆錢買更貴的演唱會票. 等了幾個星期, (雖然感覺好像很久!!) 終於在杰倫的官方網站看到公告 - 杰倫真的回來到Connecticut 開演唱會!! 好興奮!! 一看到消息就立刻通電話給ah Pei.
The moment we arrived Connecticut, Ping was already super excited. While getting dressed in the hotel room, 我們已經開始聽杰倫的歌. 一到Mohegan Sun, 興奮到吃不下了. 更何況那環境也很特別. 在美國第一次去Casino. 它的室內裝潢還滿美的. 那天晚上吃的buffet是最不值得的. 好想看到Jay 或許NQMM 他們, 但一個都沒看到. Hehehe...知道, 知道, 那只是一個夢想了. 在馬來熱亞的時後, 是跟Jay2U一起, 所以比較熱鬧, 全部都一起期待杰倫的出現.
The stage from Ping's seat.
The first song - 黃金甲 from the movie Curse of the Golden Flower. The view from our seat. Pretty close eh. We were just one section away. Ping is glad we didn't get the floor level, which is the most expensive ticket since Ping won't be able to see it anyway.
Next is 無雙 from his last album, 我很忙.
不能說的秘密...where they played the movie clips on 葉湘倫 and 路小雨 interactions.
Then it was 退後 followed by 安靜. Ping really wanted to hear the mixed version of 安靜 and 安靜了 that he sang in Canada but he only performed the classic 安靜. Even with the classic 安靜, it was still great because nothing beats listening to Jay live!! especially with one of his best composed song!! Another classic that he sang was 開不了口.
Another kick out of the live concert is 能夠親眼看見杰倫彈鋼琴. He first played a duel with 宇豪, similar to the duel they did in the movie. Later, he played 最長的電影 from the previous album with the MV at the back followed by 說好的幸福呢 from his new album, 魔杰座. We were hoping to hear 給我一首歌的時間 too but he only sang two songs from his new album. BUT, he also sang 黑色幽默!!! This was totally unexpected!! It is one of Ping's favorite Jay's song. This is definitely a surprise for Ping!
After the piano and Jay's classic came 千里之外 with the fan dance. This is another one that Jay is known for - 中國風 songs.
He also did a short version of the 扯 dance after singing 本草綱目, when he also threw the 扯鈴 down. It was so close that we could tell it was a plastic toy one. Haha...no wonder he can afford to throw them down at every concert.
After 扯 was 迷迭香 and 夜曲. 迷迭香 was actually the only song that Ping get close-up look at Jay back at the concert in M'sia. After 迷迭香, Jay went back stage to prepare for the next song while his dancers came down to dance right in front of us!!! Yes, literally in front of us!!
After that came another highlight of the concert - 南拳媽媽 as the 來賓. Not only that, he also brought Gary along!!! NQMM also came out earlier with their What Can I Do and another song which Ping can't remember. When Ping saw Gary, Ping was hoping they would sing 流浪詩人 but they sang 月光 instead. It was actually expected since Jay is pretty good at promoting his buddy's songs but can't hurt to hope mer. Sad to say, Ping wasn't too impress with Gary's performance though...it seems like he wasn't very excited to be there. NQMM did a way better job.
They also sang 彩虹, acoustic version of 雙截棍 and he did a special dedication to all his fans who are away from home, studying in the US (like us!!!) with 稻香 - his most recent 'advice through song' song. Here's Jay when he walked toward the side we were sitting.
Ping was also excited to get a pretty close glimpse of 彈頭 and 宇豪. In M'sia, they stand pretty far away so Ping could barely see them. Ping actually a pretty clear picture of 彈頭 too!!! Wanted to get a pic of 宇豪 but taking picture when Ping is super excited is pretty challenging. A super cute Jay expression.
Of course, we didn't miss out on the super popular 聽媽媽的話 along with 張學友 singing one of the chorus. He also had a clip showing Jet Li's comment on him which is pretty recent. None of us took any photo after that as he started singing all the 搖滾 songs - 陽光宅男, 霍元甲 and the original version of 雙截棍.
When he sang 髮如雪, someone actually managed to get near the stage to give him a little bear!!! Ping was hoping he would do another encore and sing 周大俠 but they only showed the MV while he sang 雙截棍. It was about 30 minutes shorter than the one in M'sia but hey, we are in the States. It is definitely a rare chance. 能夠看杰倫兩次在一年時間裡, 已經夠滿足了.希望杰倫有個特別的生日. 生日快樂 to 杰倫!!!! In a month, it will be a year since Ping was last home...yet, Ping feels like it has been forever since Ping was home with mum and dad and ahmah.
Woooohoooo!!!我終於拿到了!! Can't help checking the mailbox every day since Ping saw that it was shipped on the 16th. It is actually earlier than expected because initially, they were going to ship it out on the 20th. Ping had plans to finish reviewing for a quiz on Monday and get groceries on Saturday but when Ping saw Hobie posted that she got her cd on Friday, Ping knew it was gonna get here that day. So Ping finished up all the stuff that she had to do in the lab and head home…there goes the plan to review and go to Kroger. *Phew* Caught the postman just in time!!! After an entire year!!! We finally get to see Jay again!!
After listening to the album, Ping decided to take a photo of Ping's Jay collection. Was listening to the album while cleaning up the room too! Had to clean the room 'coz the room was super messy to the point that there is no floor space to arrange all the albums and stuff. This weird working hours that Ping is going through right now makes Ping tired every time she gets home and she just shower and crash.
Starting from his first album in 2000, with songs he wrote that were rejected by other artists. From then on, it was one album every year, all songs that he wrote himself. Yup, he wrote EVERY SINGLE song in ALL his albums. Most of the lyrics were written by 方文山 (Vincent) but in every album, there will be at least two songs that are penned by Jay himself. While his albums stayed pretty constant in style throughout 依然范特西 (Still Fantasy) released in 2006, the drastic change occurred when he started his own company with his lyricist (方文山) and manager (揚峻榮) – JVR Music (杰威爾) for Jay, Vincent, and Rong. Probably because now he can do whatever he wants, as long as 方文山 and 榮哥 agrees to it. Oh, and of course his mom too! Ping didn't start collecting the originals until 2004…when Ping had some extra money to spend. Hehe…Ping's favorite is his second album – 范特西 (Fantasy), especially the EP, where he wrote and penned 3 extra songs. But he's the only artist that has no song which Ping does not like.
While he started as a singer, like most Taiwanese artists, he eventually stepped into moviedom. Although not as active as others, and started out as a minor (Hidden Track, 尋找周杰倫), he did acted in 3 of the Asia's top movies – Initial D (頭文字D), Curse of Golden Flower (滿城黃金甲) and recently, Kung Fu Dunk (功夫灌籃). In addition to that, he also wrote, directed and acted in his own movie, Secret (不能說的秘密), which was pretty impressive. He's currently writing the script for Secret 2, which apparently is not related to Secret at all so we'll just have to wait and see what the storyline is about. Like these are all not enough for him, he have also had 3 world tours, in 2001, 2004 and 2007, which is still going on – Ping got a chance to see him in M'sia earlier this year and, yup, AND, will be going to see him again in December at Mohegan Sun, Connecticut. Ping is still missing his Curse of Golden Flower movie and KFD EP.
Ping also got quite a few of his merchandise. Not as complete since there is not much that Ping feels is worth keeping or spending the money on. The first black shirt on the left and the handphone strap are from this year's concert. So are the 2nd black one and the white one but they are from Jay2U, rather than the official concert merchandise. The black one is for the VIPs while the white one is for regulars. The black bag from his 2007 concert in LA was given to Ping by TT, who did go to the concert (Ping wanted to go too but since Ping was already planning to back to M'sia, decided that it would be more worth it to go to the one in M'sia, which it really was because Ping was sitting at the third row from the front!!!). The rubik cube and poker card is the added gift with this year's new album – Capricorn (魔杰座). Ping's favorite piece of all is the AUTOGRAPHED KFD photobook. Yup! It is AUTOGRAPHED by Jay himself!!! Thanks to SM for spending all the time and effort to get it for Ping.
Next on Ping's list is the DVD with MVs for all the songs in 魔杰座. Another thing he does very well is directing MVs, with the exception of 我很忙, all his songs have MVs, which he usually add to EPs but it seems like it'll be sold individually this time as the 龍戰騎士 MV is a super expensive MV and will be a pretty long one, kinda like a short movie which he used to do quite a bit when he wasn't so active in movie-making.
Off to bed, while listening to 范特西…開不了口…只能遠遠看者一直到老.
