joudama scribbling

So, y'all remember how I have Jie playing the guzheng?

Yeah, so, I was poking around youtube, and found this:



The guy I named Jie after, Jay Chou (because I am a screaming Jay Chou fangirl, and have been for a very long time), playing the guzheng.

*squee*


longer version from a different concert with the full song but not as good quality:

If any of y'all wonder why I'm a Jay Chou fan...don't.

I just um-acquired a copy of the new Jay Chou CD, "Capricorn." (It goes on sale this week in Taiwan, and in Japan on the 25th, and yeah, Jay's getting all my money again soon) and a song called "Hong Lou Meng Zhong" has really eaten my brain--it's got a real Hajime Chitose feel to it, with the vocal trills and vibrato he's doing. But what first got my attention was the name, and I finally looked it up, and yes.

The title in Chinese hanzi is "紅樓夢中", which comes from the really famous Chinese novel from the 18th century, and one of the Four Great Classical Novels (the others are Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Water Margin), "Dream of the Red Chamber" (紅樓夢).

I have no idea what this song is about--that'll have to wait until the 25th when I can buy my copy with both the lyrics and, most importantly, a Japanese translation of the lyrics--but I don't really care, because I had a minor nerdgasm over the fact that a song referenced such an important work (there's a whole school of study dedicated just to Dream of the Red Chamber, called "redology," and don't even try to tell me that's not where they got the idea for the Loveless hardon Crisis Core has). That's one thing I like about Chinese music--little drops of nerdly joy (one song by Jay, Ye Qu [Nocturne], has the line "I play this Chopin nocturne" and another song I love, by JJ Lin, is called "Shakespeare's Talent" and has the verse, "I don't have Shakespeare's talent, to write out our emotions" [plus, it gets extra props for, instead of the word for 'emotion' using a more literary four-character compound 喜怒哀乐 xi nu ai le, which means 'the gamut of human emotions']) that you just don't find in Western music. I mean, the closest equivalent I can think of to a song with "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the title in English would be if a song referenced the Divine Comedy, and if I see a pop song with "Reading the Divine Comedy" as a title, I will...I dunno, swear off chocolate forever.

Anyway. This song is full of pretty, Jay ballad awesomeness, and it's a nerdgirl joy to boot. I mean, just, glee.

I love music. :D

ETA - Now with links!

ETA2 - And because I love you all, now with music!

OMFG, Jay, I love you, you are my favorite singer, but you really WERE dropped on the head as a baby, weren't you? That is the only way to explain this song.

Lovelorn Frog

Oh sweet baby Jesus, Jay. Someone really did drop you on the head as a child. Oh my god.

*dies*

Oh, and thank you, Internet, for leaked copies of things that can be um acquired. And before any starts, hush, you know Jay will be getting my money as soon as it's out.

I just got back from Osaka. And why was I in Osaka? I went to go see the movie Jay Chou directed and starred in, "Secret" (「不能說的秘密」Bu neng shuo di mimi; Japanese title 「言えない秘密」--lit. "Unspeakable Secret"). There were, thankfully, subtitles instead of a dub, which meant I could read instead of my brain breaking at the wrong voice coming out of Jay Chou's mouth. Although I did have a moment of such brainbreak during the trailers when they showed a trailer for a 'new' Taiwanese movie--it was subbed, and it took me a minute to adjust my brain because I heard the Chinese, put it in "Understand but not English, so Japanese" box without realizing it, and then was trying to read the subtitles, and I had a "Bwaugh?!" moment of confusion since what came out of their mouth wasn't what was directly written, and it took me a sec to realize it was because they were different languages because I understood both. And then came the problem of trying to make my brain flip into Japanese because I needed Japanese-brain to read the subtitles and my Chinese isn't strong enough for me to try to focus on what they're saying. My brain completely (more or less) settled by the end of the trailers, which made me happy, because it meant I had no probs when Secret started.

Japan is hella slow and only just got this movie now. It came out a year ago. Gah. But I am SO GLAD I didn't watch the version I um-acquired because I never had the time, because I got to see it on the big screen.

OMFG I LOVED THIS MOVIE. I actually kinda teared up at the end, and I don't do shit like that. The twist in it was one I totally didn't see coming--I knew a twist was coming, and at one point went, "Oh, I get it, the secret is that she's [insert my first thought here]" and then that got blown out of the water, and I went, "Ahh, OK. I get it. The secret is that she's [insert second thought]." And was a bit bored because it was so obvious, and so waited to see how they did it, and then THE REAL SECRET CAME OUT OF LEFT FIELD and I went, "Waaaaaugh? OMFG!" I was totally blindsided. ...I loved this movie. <3

This is not to say it's perfect--there are some massive pacing problems at the beginning. I think it needed another 15-20 minutes because things happened too quickly--it felt like important bits got skipped. But by the middle the pacing was great, and the ending parts with the secret were OMFG.

I was talking to the coworker I went to see it with and we're probably going to see it again. And yes, the DVD will be mine.

*squee*

And because sharing is caring, here is the theme song, "Bu neng shuo di mi mi." :D I was a little teary at the end, then this song started playing with subtitles so I actually understood it, and yeah, sniffling then. I'm such a girl sometimes. (This was so emphasized today when K-san and I stopped by The Loft because we had some extra time, and I beelined for the stickers. Japanese stickers are cute yo, and I am a sucker for them. I bought three sets of stickers--one set of bunny stickers, one set of fuzzy bunny stickers (I need to replace the fuzzy bunnies on my DS soon), and one set of of fuzzy wing stickers. Glee!), and K-san was boggling at how girly I suddenly turned and how I was all over the cute stickers. I r dork, y/y? XD;; )

ETA - THE NEW JAY SONG! OMFG CUUUUUTE~! :DDDDD *melts into happy puddle of YAY*

Dao Xiang.

It does, yo.

But luckily, I cross-post, so yay, cut and paste!


*death*

Because I am bound and determined to finish the next chapter of TTYNKAP soon and I've been all "Music!!" since I got a new iPod...

I'd been wanting to do this for a while, but couldn't because of computer issues, but now everything is happy and shiny and I have music again and I'm working a bit on TTYKNAP every day now, upload hoooo~!

( Soundtrack here! )

So, talking about The Curse of the Golden Flower and looking up the vids for the two songs Jay Chou did for the soundtrack got me looking at Jay vids on Youtube, and since I love Jay and love sharing Jay songs, here is the first song by Jay Chou that I ever heard, 安静 [An jing], "Silence."



( Translation of the lyrics )