Fuji Rock Festival '07- All about the music

WE're BACK!!!! and I'm alive. You can't seriously expect Stella the PRINCESS to camp outdoor and not bathe for 3 days right. But i did it ok.

It wasn't perfectly comfortable, i complained and Lester had to endure it for a bit. He was also my mule, he must have gotten 2 inches shorter since he had to carry 2 backpacks right from day One.


Anyway, Fuji Rock fest is a yearly affair like the Glastonbury of Japan. Its a 3 days 3 nights affair (maybe 4 nights if u camp longer). Almost 24 hrs of music, from 11am to 4am, different genre playing at different stages, so there's something for everyone.

Okay i'll get right down to the performance highlights without further ado.



DAY ONE

Jarvis Cocker
What can i say, Pulp is Jarvis Cocker but Jarvis Cocker is not Pulp. The overall energy of the performance didn't do justice to the lyrics of the songs. There were some gems amongst the medly but too bad it wasn't good enough to draw the crowd. He did his hit song "Running the World" very well tho. Very singalong but a bit rude. (chorus goes "C*nts are still running the world....)

Rocker Award : Most Sporting Artiste Award (for perservering in his dry english humour amidst a non-english speaking japanese crowd, and for continuing to perform despite the murder crowd)



Kings of Leon
Frontman Caleb Followill's vocals blew me away. He sounds so good live... U know how whiny voices can sound crisp and enunciated on microphone? THeir performance made me wanna come back and listen to their album once more.

Rocker Award: Best Vocals + Most handsome frontman award

Muse
Okay something happened here. Muse and Damien Rice were due to perfom on the same timeslot at different stages. Its was SO tough deciding which one to go for. I mean Damien Rice has written the greatest melancholic love songs of this era and Muse has had such a successful album with Black Holes and Revelation. Anyway, the choice was made for us when Damien Rice cancelled! Anyway, Muse was good, not excellent but OK. Supermassive Black Hole was a bit warped and didn't have the punch during the intro... I was tired by the end of the set tht i didn't encore for more.

Rocker Award: Best Presentation (they had projection stuff tht other bands didn't have. I guess its cos they were also on tour)


The Cure
Okay nothing to say cos by the time i was too tired already, and Les had already drank half his bottle of whisky so it was time to go back. I only waited for Lovesong but didn't wait for Friday I'm in Love.

Rocker Award: Best Comeback (they are old la, but thank god for ageproof make up)

DAY TWO

Juliette & the Licks

I must say, a pleasure to watch. The music wasn't exactly impressive, but Juliette Lewis has great showmanship. She has the rocker chic attitude and can connect with the crowd. She's still pretty after all these years.




Rocker Award: Best Female Performer + Hot bod/butt award



!!! (Chk chk chk) http://chkchkchk.net/

Seriously, had no clue who they were before fujirock, but they are the kind tht makes u drop whtever you're doing and pay attention to wht they're doing. A bunch of dorky looking folks, but OMG best performance they put up. The crowd was WILD.... WILD... Strongly recommend checking them out.


Rocker Award: Best Jivin Award + Best Accidental Find award


Kula SHaker
Sorry i feel asleep here. But fans should know that they are good. They played Govinda while i was in the toilet and it sounded good. I mean no disrespect to Kula Shaker fans out there, i'm a lukewarm fan only cos i never really listened to them. Maybe i will!


Rocker Award: Best Lullaby.... (sorry)



Kaiser Chiefs
The biggest disappointment was Kaiser Chiefs. I am such a fan... We gave up watching the Feist to singalong to them... They have good potential crowd pleaser tracks but they did nothing with their catchy choruses. The enunciation was also rubbish. Blah. Next.






Rocker Award: Biggest Let Down Award


Iggy and the Stooges

Honestly, we stayed only cos we wanted to see Iggy naked. There i said it. Who doesn't want to see rippling six pack on a 60 plus yr old man!! The music was Iggy loud, he was so iggy high tht he iggy fell off the stage at one point. When he got to his song No Fun (the lyrics goes No fun to be alone...) Iggy invited fans on stage impromptu, and more and more fans went on stage until it was CROWDED, dangerously crowded. U need to squint a bit to see the crowd on stage.



Rocker Award: Most dangerous in every sense of the word Award

Beastie Boys

I went in lukewarm, came out a fan. FANTASTIC performance wo hoo.... They were funny, they were entertaining, and they rock live. My adrenaline went to max watching them perform, every blood vessel was pumping and i didn't want it to end. Lester would call them the only whites who can rap.

Rocker Award: Best Performance! Will watch them a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time.

Other Performers:
We also saw Lily Allen (it was freaking crowded so i peeped from outside and watched from the screens), Mika (ahyo so happy and gay) , Joss Stone and Happy Mondays.

Performers we missed but would have loved to see: The Shins and The Feist.

Performers mix-up: The Chemical brothers performed, i bimboly mixed them up with The Chemical Romance. I was so looking forward to seeing the black parade. I know!

Okay... I'll pause here for today since i'm done with the concert reviews. Tomorrow (or when i find the time) i'll continue with part 2 of the fujirock entry, i call it The life up in the Mountains....

Harry Potter ; The end...

Warning: If u're a Harry Potter fan and u haven't finished the book. Don't read this entry cos its a spoiler. But if u've read it, let's discuss it!

Bitter sweet farewell to what i deem the greatest children/adult fiction... greater than LOTR, greater than anything anyone has ever wrote.

I've waited for 2 years for the 7th book to launch, and i give it 10/10 satisfaction. It ended perfectly.

Death count for the book was depressing... First it was Dobby. Tears came to my eyes when the little elf gave his life to save Harry and his friends. His death was the most heart wrenching. Then it was Fred, George will never be the same again without his partner in crime. I would have loved for JK rowling to write a short epilogue on how George moved on, but i'll never find out. Tonk's and Lupin's deaths were cushioned cos my silly cousin gave me a spoiler... I was happy that JK Rowling didn't over dramatise their deaths, if not i wouldn't have been able to get over it. (I'm still recovering from the death of Sirius Black).

Dumbledore's story was very touching. Before his death, he was this infallible wizard who could always tell right from wrong, good from evil. But Deathly Hallows showed us Dumbledore's weakness for power and immortality that made him even more endearing and real.

Snape i knew from the beginning had repented and never truly served the Dark Lord afterthat. I was happy to be proven right. He was one character tht i was always interested in, he had so many complex layers yet his complexity was the most accessible. He had the difficult task amongst all, playing both sides and be convincing at it. He is the true hero.

Amongst Harry's friends, my favourite are Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. They never had a reason to be so loyal to Harry cos they were not such close friends of his. Very odd duo but they knew they lived and believed in something.

I know i'm just rambling but i'm still a little shaken by the fact tht i have no more harry potters to look forward to from now on.

Anyway, some quick QnAs....

1) How come voldermot cannot kill harry but harry can kill voldermot?
2) Elderwand business, how come it belongs to Draco Malfoy? He didn't kill dumbledore, snape did.
3) Whats tht wriggling baby at king's cross?

Can't think of anymore questions now. need to pack for Japan tomorrow.

Kim Soon's House Warming

We managed our first potluck in Shanghai. By managed, i mean tht nobody reported diarrhoea after.

Boy we're all great cooks i tell you....(including me ha ha) . There was Chicken Wings, Nasi Briyani, Mee Siam, shepherd's pie (i made, lester mashed the potatoes), ba-kwa salad(i made also), and fresh water prawns with garlic.

Our host Kimsoon. Lawyer, 35, eligible, funny, and wears speedos to swim. Kimsoon is passionate about many things, especially cooking. He took time off his high flying lawyer career to become a chef apprentice at the Olive Tree. I admire passion in people... Be passionate about something in ur life and make it worth living. Whatever it is. Cooking, music, photography, writing, diving...

Aileen passionate about washing up, well done!

Everyone soon became sleepy after the wonderful feast....

Especially the host.... So unglam.

***

Brunch with tree trunks at Aegean

Next day we had brunch at Aegean, its almost like Al Majilis at Arab Street but high class. Its quite an interesting place... the restaurant has 2 huge trees growing in the middle of it.

Usually when i go to restaurants, the course i enjoy the most is the free bread and olive oil/balsamic vinegar combo. So by the time the main course came i was super full already. The chef later came to check if everything was ok... honestly, nothing to complain. Just a matter of personal preference. I'll be fair and give the restaurant a 7/10 for food, 8.5/10 for ambience. But i dun think i'll go there again.

Visitors

My friend Joey came to visit last week so Les and I brought her to see the "sights" of shanghai (Read: shop, eat, club). Honestly speaking, its hard to appreciate Shanghai when its freakin 38-39 degrees...The city becomes instantly less charming.

Anyway here are some pictures we took...We were at Laris, one of the lounges near the bund.

Left to right: Catherine (from leo Burnett), her friend i think her name is fiona, Mingyen with her new Clepatra hairdo, me, Joey, and of course the every lovely Aileen.

And what are roses without the thorns.

Left to Right: Les monkeying again (sigh), Kimsoon ah soon soon, Jacko wacko (or Action Jackson), Daren and Stephen (he imports singaporean ingredients to China so we all wanna be his best friend from now on).

After Laris, the chain gang went to Attica to party the night away. Its a great place. The hip hop room was the globe that gave u a 360 view of the bund. The main hall played progressive house, and there's also an alfresco area, which we didn't bother with cos its too hot.

April, Cheeleong and Johnson also dropped by Shanghai (i didn't take any pictures!) . All of us are part of this group called the Dive Kaki Inc, we share the same passion for marine life and we love breathing from oxygen tanks. We reminisced the great dive adventures and many laughs we shared.

Anyway, John stayed with us. This is how Joey and John spent their nights...

Wiiii.....

They are doing virtual boxing. works the abs too cos its a good laugh... =P

It was great catching up with dear friends from Singapore again. Miss home and miss the good times. Come again my dear friends!

Crazy Celebs update part 4: Beloved Britney

You know me, always in the lookout for crazy celebs attitude... And Britney never fails me. Don't get me wrong, i've always been a huge fan of hers. I love Hit me Baby One More time. Its the perfect song for the average broken hearted women (something i only understood pretty late in life) and she understood it all when she was 16. I know you music puritans out there(including les) are gonna sream tht she didn't write her own songs, but i don't really care. She's got pretty catchy songs and she's nice to look at, or rather she was nice to look at. Now she's just fun to ridicule.

Ok... Britney hadn't made a music video in what.... 4 years. AND THIS IS WHAT SHE CHOOSES TO WEAR???????????Alamak... somebody hit her one more time please.

U know Britney loves the beaches. ..When she saw one, the attraction was so strong that she decided to just jump in in her undies! Given her shocked expression, she must have realised tht she forgot to match her underwear.

Love ya still brit.

37 degrees in Shanghai...

And we still froze our butts off!

My first visit to the Shanghai Absolute Ice Bar (or shd i say absolute ice brr, get it get it?)

Quite an interesting experience. Everything was made of ice (duh). The room was only about the size of a typical classroom, everyone had to wear these thick eskimo-ish outfit (that has been worn by thousands before you). The cost was 100 yuan, but u're only allowed to stay for 45 minutes. It didn't matter cos we didn't stay more than 20 minutes. Its bloody -5 degrees!!! Aileen and I were in capris, so we really couldn't take it.

Drank from Ice glasses.... Question that comes to mind is, DO THEY RECYCLE THE GLASSES? Don't think they do, when u drink off the glass, the ice will melt so the glass will be slightly deformed. Anyway, germs probably dun survive -5 degrees. The menu is not made from ice, its plastic. Sorry to disappoint u guys.

The ice is supposedly "Cleaner than water". If you really think about it, it doesn't make sense. What does it mean? Maybe it should be, Pure WATER instead.

WINA & Baby RUSSELL

This is one of the times i wish i'm home. I missed the birth of Russell, my sister's 2nd child, my first nephew!

This is a picture of my beautiful sis (and Russell of course). She's really really very gorgeous...

Can you tell that Russell's gonna be cheeeekkkkky....?