20061231

Happy New Year!

Managed to find his superfab Hennessy Artistry TV ad running for quite a while on MTV. Someone has at last kindly posted @ youtube, thank you!

Really like his charming look & guitar strap. Vry addicting ^__^ Not much news on him now but he did have a vry interesting 2006. So here's a brief recap:
Jan - Attended Ren Ci Charity Show Spore. He came, he sang & he conquered ^__^ Successfuly staged TW Love Can concerts @ Taipei Arena for 2 days.
Feb - Went to HK to promote concert & talked abt new album being lighter
Mar - DT & Leo Ku in Beijing for release of Beautiful On Every Side written for Rejoice on International's Women Day. Did a talk & met with fans @ HKU. Attended Lee Hom TW concert. DT in the kitchen with Lydia Shum & Ronald Cheng. Attended play called Little Town of Tanshui cos his dad was performing. Honda Civic song The Moment released, 2 versions sang by him & Jane Zhang.
Apr - Hurt his right hand during motorbike accident in LA. Successfully staged HK Love Can concerts @ HK Coliseum for 3 days. Appointed spokeman for Sony Walkman in China for 2 yrs. KL Love Can concert postponed.
May - The Great Leap & Susan Says were on the Musicians Club's 2005 list of 10 best albums & 10 best songs in TW. The Great Leap received 6 nominations in GMA. Visited KL to meet his fans & promote Love Can concert postponed to Oct. Malau, DT's rescued cat, had his 1st birthday. Attended Suzhou concert. DT's Walkman song available online. DT Walkman cm released.
Jun - The Great Leap awarded Best Album of the year in GMA.
Jul - Celebrated birthday in TW & had his hair cut vry short. Can't Get You Outta My Mind released as single off his new album Beautiful. Shanghai Walkman promo where he also celebrated his birthday. Album release & presale announced. 1st album mv release & gift of Wan Bu Liao can with preorder. Appeared in presales promo in TW & GQ mag.
Aug - Release 5th studio album, Beautiful. 2nd single is Too Beautiful. DT went on TV promo & media took his words out of context again. Shooting of Marry Me Today with Jolin Tsai. News that China censors disapproved lyrics of I Don't Wanna Know continuing David's record of having songs banned in every new album release. DT attended autograph sessions & radio interviews in TW. DT China tour for Beautiful commenced from Qingdao to Beijing to Shanghai to Sichuan to Chengdu to Quangzhou. DT endorsed Disney's Back to School campaign. Attended Solar concert in HK.
Sep - DT appeared on Jade Solid Gold in HK. Guest in Karen Mok's TW concert where they sang Marry Me Today. Appeared in Guangzhou concert. DT cancelled some autograph sessions in TW when he was taken ill. Appeared in HitFM concert. 2nd part of China promo of Beautiful from Jiangxi to Henan. Guest in Jolin's Shanghai concert where they sang Marry Me Today & created headline galore when he gave her a friendly peck on the cheek. Attended KTV competition in Shanghai where the winner was a fan from Japan.
Oct - Attended launch of Carina Lau's pub in Shanghai. Attended Jimi Hendrix exhibition in TW & attempted to refute fabricated stories in tabloids. Malaysia promo of Beautiful commenced from KL where he also celebrated Lantern Festival with his fans then onto Melaka & Ipoh. Back in Taipei, DT went on university tour with his good mates, Andrew Chen & Josh Chen, who also performed during the tour. Sang Walk On during Walkman promo in China. Extremely successfully KL Love Can concert completed his Love Can Concert tour this yr.
Nov - Appeared in large-scale concert in Wuhan. Attended Wild Day Out outdoor concert in HK. Appeared in Hubei concert. Went back to LA for 10 days' leave.
Dec - Showcased in the last of the Hennessy Artistry concerts around the world ending in Shanghai. Participated in charity concert in Shanghai. Will be seen in New Year's Eve Concert tonite.
I like the fact that he did so much touring for Beautiful & his many live appearance in concerts all over China. He now rarely appears in award shows. I remembered he said that one of the main reasons he attended award shows is so he can see his fans & let his fans see him. So now he finds another way to meet his fans *__*
I know there is still a lot of misunderstanding among ppl who are not his fans & who believed what the media fabricated abt him. The harm been done which could well be the intention of all these fabricated stories as well as stories of his 'copying songs' from an online forum discussion. I have always been wary of these so-called 'online forum discussion' emerging from China. They have too often been used by the Chinese media as gospel which led me to believe that the ppl who posted on these kinda forums usually have specific agenda & are not your garden variety fan. Easy to use the anonymity of the net to post slander without being caught.
I am also glad that after trying without success to clear his name, David just let it go. He is an intelligent man & probably knew what was going on but he is also matured enough not to make too much of a fuss. The media is all ready to pounce on him if he makes more statements to clear himself. They would just report that he is trying to 'create' news & so he stay quiet & kept a low profile. Best to leave the ugly rumors alone. As I always say, if haters wanna believe them they always will no matter what.
The good thing to report is Beautiful still make it on the list of best as well as recommended albums of the year. Mostly the comment is although this album was not what the critics wanted or expected, but David Tao is still David Tao & he is still amongst the best when it comes to coming out with a quality album with well-written, well arranged, well-produced songs. The songs may not be to your taste but that's not a reason to criticise a composer. You can hardly criticise Debussy for being bland just cos you don't like romantic music, rite?
The standout hit from this album is the duet with Jolin, Marry Me Today, which again surprised me as there was so much criticism abt this song. Again insidious online comment that he 'copied' this song *roll eyes* don't these haters ever give it up? What is it abt David that arouse so much hatred from these poor souls? They should really go to anger management classes cos remember hate is an acid that will erode the cup just as much as the drinker *just in case any hater is reading ~__^*
Rambling along here heehee being the last day of 2006, a very good year for David I think. A year where he has some very quiet achievements, staged a few successful concerts, met many fans in China & all over Asia, wrote many beautiful songs and launched a very personal album. Looking forward to what he will bring in 2007. Happy New Year everyone *__*

20061226

喆服 in the house

Another pix of David @ Shanghai charity concert on 12/23. TW fan from Tao Mi Tian Tan attended along with 80 DTFC fans. It was very cold & since David was one of the last performers to appear, they were freezing. David sang 7 songs & told them that he was freezing too >"< David of cos looked gorgeous & acknowledged his China fans with '喆服 in the house' ^__^ With or without intention, he seems to be always able to use phrases from his songs appropriately. Such a natural talent. Here is a fanpop spot for David, not sure what it is but anything featuring David in english online is a good thing. Here is a media vid of Hennessy Artistry press conference. David looks so cool & noticed how he is still so calm & nonplussed even when a sexy star like Juliette Lewis put her arms around him *__* (Vid link credit & thanks to Yumiko)

20061224

Happy Christmas!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone wherever you are <3 Thank you for supporting David blog & never giving up on good music. Here are the latest pixs of our Dave during charity concert in Shanghai on 12/23. He sure is getting more & more debonair. He has a sense of elegance abt him that is just so attractive. Love the falling hair too, so irresistable, I think I will be like Celine, sweeping it away from his face ^__^ Still I do feel Seasons of Loneliness coming over me cos soon he will be departing our shores for LA *sigh* still he deserves the rest so wishing him hope, dreams & happiness forever.

20061222

2006 music review

Some fairly recent pixs of David when he performed in 溫州 on 12/18. A Chinese blogger praised his live singing. I honestly think he really is getting better & better at singing live. Some end of the year album recommendations surprisingly include Beautiful: here & here I thought they hated the album ^__^ Still I think there is overall disappointment at this year's output of Chinese pop music. Finally they admitted that piracy & illegal download has affected album sales, something David has already stressed many times. A HK music critic said that HK music is getting worst cos the same few composers & lyrists are producing the bulk of the music, again an opinion that David has already expressed more than a year ago. I feel that TW music has lost its freshness, everybody is doing the same thing, nobody dares to do anything different for fear their albums will be left on the shelves. Not that familiar with mainland China music but I think they overly obsessed with the Supergirls there.
Not one album stood out, not one single stood out for me this year. So if I have to pick one 2006 album, it will still be Beautiful not just cos I am his fan but at least David did something different. He gave us a bit of old skool hiphop, some good old-fashioned soul and lots of blues. The adaptation of the Broadway musical, Dreamgirls is the movie to catch this yr & weep when you listen to the soundtrack. This is what real good r&b music should sound like. This is what real emo singing sounds like. Earlier this year, David said that he is very disappointed with the Chinese music industry & once again, as always, he is right. I am guessing someone will echo his sentiment soon.

20061220

David counting down

Sry to give u all a fright >"< actually I gave myself a fright. I kept losing things & train of thoughts so yeah it was good to give myself a break. Listen to David's Bastard remix & Walk On today as well as heaps of Christmas carols. It felt Christmasy maybe cos of the constant rain. David will be performing in charity show in Shanghai on 12/23 from 1pm to 7pm. It seems David will be lending his full support, tis the season for giving after all ^__^ Then on New Years' Eve David will be counting down in Hunan in a Nokia sponsored concert along with a host of other stars including China Supergirls.
Anthony Wong has a role in The Painted Veil redux. Much as I like Somerset Maugham, do we really need a 2006 redux when the original 1934 starred the legendary Greta Garbo? Anyway the 2006 movie won a number of awards for the soundtrack featuring Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

20061219

Back on track

Hey hey guys I am allowed back ^__^ cos I promised to be good & not stressed abt my archives anymore. Cos u see I been trying to clean up my archives for a long long long time but it just got too depressing as there r so many entries & some of the pixs were too big so I had to repost many of them. Then some of the links were not working & coming up as red X so I had to find out what pixs they were originally. It was a nightmare. I suddenly realised how David must have felt when working on his music & trying to make it perfect. I can now understand why he took so long to come up with his albums. Anyway sorry abt locking up the blog but it was the only way to make me not get anxiety attacks abt ppl wandering into the archives. I know its silly cos u guys can understand why my archives are so messy but still ... u know how it is.
Thank you so much for all yr concern & msgs, esp Mark & your comforting words, I am not deserving. I must be strong again to accompany David on his journey. He still has a long way to go and I want to be here to blog abt it. Now is not the time to be weak & stressed abt unnecessary things rite? Anyway I felt loads better when I found this blog entry by this Malaysian girl who was one of the MTV winners for the Hennessy Artistry event in Shanghai. Gotta scroll past all the pixs of the yummy foods first *__* An incredible detailed account abt the evening performances with pixs. Loved the bit during David's performance where she wrote "Even the foreigners in the crowd knew EVERY SINGLE WORD" ^__^ She followed with a vry interesting account of when the winners were ushered backstage to meet David & of cos she had pixs, only a few but enough to show our gorgeous Dave. Hope u enjoy reading it as much as I do. Also found another youtube vid of the opening of David's performance. The person filming it must have been extremely close to the stage & the blog above also took note that girls were falling all over the stage, trying to take pixs of David & he was extremely good abt helping them up *__*

20061212

Freeing DT

David will be participating in charity concert on 12/23. For KIC which apparently stands for Knowledge & Innovation Community but no idea what kinda charity, still he looks fabulous in the poster ^__^ Also new 4G handset from Walkman featured the full Walk On song not the cm version. So close to the end of yr & there will be the usual listings -- top selling albums, best albums of the year, top earning stars, etc. Just wanna warn that David probably will not be in many of these lists or receive many awards. Initially I would get disappointed if he is not in these lists but now I realised it dun matter. Like in Walk On, he urged us to listen & follow the melody in our hearts. During Music on Fire interview, he said that he understands very well the demands of current music market, so its whether or not he wants to give the listeners what they want. Oftentimes he just refused to give because to him, its like betraying his own music. I know lots will say he is using this as an excuse to explain why he is not so popular. I cannot change their opinion nor do I care.
Sometimes I get angry that he is not fulfilling his potential to be great. But then I watch him being interviewed & noticed the fatigue & unwillingness in his eyes. He is happiest when he is performing in a concert but its a shortlived happiness. After that, he had to faced the media & then nxt morning, found out that they taken his words out of context again. It must be tiring. I read a post from this girl who saw him in the hotel during his concert in KL. He came down with his assistant to have breakfast. He looked wary when he saw the girl looking at him & only relaxed when she did not approach him. Imagine living like this, fearful to be recognised. "If you love somebody, set them free" Famous words from Sting. So even though I want David to be a high achiever but I know that's not what he wants. So many opportunities he let slip, insisting on doing things his way, never caring what others say or write abt him. Perhaps he will nvr rise to the heights of Lou Dayou, but I am ok with it. I have his music to accompany me & that's all that matters. I will just go & listen to Walk On ^__^

20061210

Song for Melody

Finally some light on the song David wrote for Melody. It was actually written 2 yrs ago when Melody was preparing for her album. She asked David for a song & also requested him to produce it. They spend a few days in the studio & David also provided the backing vocals. David was surprised that the song only now surfaced as ending theme for idol series, the Game of Love. Melody who will be marrying early nxt yr, will also released her new album & not sure if the song will be included but it will be included in the series OST. Found a longer version of the song where David's backing vocals can be heard quite clearly, get it @ Ultrasound Interactive but there is a bit of dialogue in the song from the series. Also if u haven't heard the 1997 remix of Wang Ba Dan, get it too @ interactive site as vry appropriate for now ^__^
Many commented that Melody sounded great in this song & before that, they thought she was an only so-so singer. I heard the same comments abt Jolin in Marry me today. Just goes to show that David is a really painstaking producer & tries hard to extract the vry best from the singer. Also the song was written 2 yrs ago & yet it dun sound like an outdated song cos David vry seldom follows music trends. He writes from the heart esp love ballads so they are evergreen. I love you, Everything's gone, Blue Moon, Love Can, Close to you, Who do you love are all everlasting ballads.
Btw think the cute onstage vid posted below is by the gorgeous & talented Kewei. Sry but rather busy these days to notice these things. Also meant to post this -- Celine's screaming funny account of her encounter with Mr Tao. It will brighten up yr day for sure, what a spunky girl *__*

20061209

Fun stuff

Change of pointy direction ^__^ He really does look adorable. Just luv the way he hold his guitar but such a pity he is not using his yinyang strap.
Here he posed awkwardly for media pixs. David will be having at least 2 more appearances in China for charity & New Year, & will probably return to LA soon after. Cute little vid posted @ youtube of the band mbrs making faces. Kewei esp looks so sweet. Pure fun with David singing unknowingly in front. However the last bit is quite awesome with the power & clarity of David's vocals onstage. Hard to believe he was having a cold that nite!

20061207

DT crossing over

CCTV writeup abt Hennessy concert with great mention of David ^__^
Hennessy artistry event-Shanghai concert
Source: CCTV.com
12-05-2006 08:58
Cognac is more than just a drink - it has come to represent an exciting lifestyle. And the top brand of the beverage, Hennessy, now brings its latest concoction to Shanghai - a music festival soaked in the lovely liqueur.
This is not the first pairing of cognac to a high-profile cultural event. From museums to music halls, Hennessy has shrouded itself in the aura of art by sponsoring, or like here in Shanghai, launching programs with international resonance.
The Hennessy Artists Series, a global music experience, has visited 13 Asian cities in the past four months, including Dalian, Chengdu and Hong Kong. And Shanghai's Pudong Exhibition Center, the site for the tour's mega-finale, was lucky enough to have world-class musicians perform Saturday night.
Among them, the most recognizable face was David Tao, China's godfather of R&B. Tao, who has headlined Shanghai before, enjoys an enviable following in the city. And his western upbringing, having spent much of his childhood and adolescence in America - has made him the fitting symbol of cultural crossover sought by the brand.
Other big names included Juliette & the Licks, whose singer Juliette Lewis is also an Oscar-nominated actress. And to top it off there was D-J Sky Nellor, known to have spun for music's royalty including P. Diddy and Britney Spears.
But the event is most significant for its enthusiastic embrace of local artists, such as singing duo Yu Quan. In the same spirited vein, the company conjures up a cocktail at each stop on the tour. There's Hennessy Paris, Hennessy Miami, and now to the delight of alcohol aficionados, Hennessy Shanghai.
Love the music, love the drink!
Editor:Lu Yuying
Reposted from cctv.com
Actually together with the great looking Hennessy promo & english interview on MTV, David really fits the cultural crossover symbol being equally comfortable in the East & West. I like it that he doesn't try too hard to overemphasized his American accent or his ABC chinese. He speaks both languages as natural as possible. I love it when he says, "You can catch me in The Art of Mixing in Shanghai." Anyway, it seems the Shanghai concert will be featured on MTV like the NY event so hopefully can get to see more of David.
Been trying to put some seasonal cheer on this blog but it looks a bit messy, sry abt that. Wanted to put him in a Santa cap but too juvenile >"< so try glamming up the pix of him kinda praying but just looks cheesy. Nvr mind, will do a better one soon, so long as the msg is clear I guess.
Our Dave sure looks like a cultural crossover ambassador here *__*

20061205

The Shanghai report

Some media pixs of Hennessy Artistry concert. Can see the audience is extremely close to the stage & not a lot of security. Here & SGFC forum many wonderful candid shots taken by TW fans who attended. They also posted nice detailed report @ Tao Mi Tian Tan yahoo grp. Will transcript some of it with credit & thanks to their tremendous efforts. After they got in, they saw an extremely shuai David *__* being interviewed. Apparently there was red carpet for celebrities both performing & attending similar to the NY event. They were surprised to see the stage so close to the audience & tried to get as upfront as possible. They also found out David was the last act & would be performing around 11pm. During performance of DJ Sky Nellor, they caught sight of some of David band mbrs & called out their names. They were vry friendly & returned their greetings causing curious looks from the crowd ^__^
Finally David appeared onstage with much fanfare & immediately launched into his first song Rain. David's vocals were fantastic upclose & it was an incredible live performance. By this time, they managed to get to the front & caught David's eye. He was shocked to see them, even forgetting lyrics & his expression was priceless ^__^ Tickets for this event were rather hard to get & he probably did not expect to see his fans from TW, HK & Japan attending. He came over to greet them prompting a reporter to ask who they were. The reporter were extremely taken aback that they were geuinue fans from around Asia as he always thought it was David who paid ppl to be his international fans >"< *plse David is not that kinda idol*
After that David was even more high & kept coming over to sing to them. During Smalltown Girl, David was hilarious when he forgot the opening lyrics & had to ask the band to stop. He came over to ask if they knew the lyrics & they shouted that they did. David was vry happy & finally David Tan reminded him. David Tan was also vry nice, holding out his microphone to them & even posed for them. During the Bee Gees medley, David even danced a little & his falsetto was excellent. The finale was I love you & again he got the audience to sing along. Think its marvellous that even though he could not hold his unplugged concert this yr in TW, at least some of them managed to enjoy this marvellous small scale concert. Songlist: Rain, Can't get outta my mind, Too Beautiful, Susan said, Blue Moon/Somewhere over the rainbow, Regular Friends, Marry me today, Smalltown Girl, Bee Gees Medley, I love you. 2 vids of Blue Moon/Somewhere over the rainbow posted @ youtube. His cold did affected his high notes but he did apologised during the concert.


Another thing that happened was when he helped the girl who was pushed up onstage, he immediately came over & explained to his fans that it was not intentional that he grabbed the girl but he was afraid that she might fall. I feel so vry touched that he care so much what his geuinue fans think of him & don't want them to misunderstand & be hurt by his behavior. It makes me feel sad & embarrassed for not trusting him enough in the past. Oftentimes the situation presented in the media is not the truth & there is always so much adverse news abt him cos he will never pay for good reviews as he once said. Like what the reporter thought abt David paying for so-called 'professional fans', unfortunately these kinda things do happen in China. David cannot stop these kinda reports so its up to his fans to believe & trust in him. So 加油 David, I will always be here supporting you.

David in cubism

Cool Slideshows

Did this revolving cube ^__^ get dizzy looking at the many Davids spinning around in cyberspace. Some mention of him in cyberspace - here with quite good partial translation of Susan Said by this lady blogger whom I believe is a non-Asian & here where Liu Xiang, China's Olympic gold-medal hurdler, sang his song during a school tour.

20061204

Latest concert pix & clip

Gorgeous pix from Hennessy concert. Love his outfit, casually smart with right amt of glitter, adore the modish jacket. Hair is nice too, let it grow at last & a darker color. Of cos he looks absolutely, swooningly handsome but maybe its the lighting ^__^ Also short clip posted @ youtube where he sings Tai Mei Li soulfully. His voice not hoarse at all, just beautiful matching the song. The band is his usual concert partners & the tracklist is like a mini Love Can concert including Marry me today duet with the lovely Kewei.

David alone naturally

Only 1 article & 1 pix on the Hennessy Artistry concert. Seemed David's voice was a bit hoarse from his cold & when singing Smalltown Girl, he forgot lyrics & had to start again. He said it was not his first time & asked the audience if they remembered the lyrics which of cos they did. He also bodily lifted a girl onto the stage & later explained that it was the audience who pushed the girl up & he only helped her unintentionally. Sounded like a wild party. David also did Bee Gees medley delighting the audience. The interaction between the other acts did not happened which was disappointing, but I figured it was only speculation from the chinese media. They only met on the afternoon before the concert, it was not really possible for them to perform onstage together with their different styles. To DTlover David's version of Love without end 不了情 is called 忘不了 which should be able to find on youtube ^__^

20061203

The mixing of David

David looking a bit sickly during press conference for Hennessy Artistry. He caught a cold due to the weather in Shanghai. He cancelled all other press interviews as he wanted to rest his voice. In the concert, he would have interaction both with DJ Sky Nellor & Juliette & the Licks performing a range of genres from hiphop, r&b to rock. Hoped it was a great success. He also said he enjoyed Juliette Lewis' movies & her band music prompting her to hug him ^__^
Tsai Chin who is having her Love Without End concert in China on 12/22 said that she most admired David's vocals. She has heard & liked David's version of Love without end saying that he has successfully remixed without losing flavor of the song. However she will not sing his version as she felt her audience will not be able to accept her singing this version but the original version. I think its just wonderful that such a veteran singer is able to appreciate & accept David's modern covers of old songs. I seen a lot of ppl unreasonably accused David of 'butchering' old songs. David is a musician who deeply respects music but he also understands that music is capable of evolving. Also its not a sin to do covers, a lot of musicians like to sing classic oldies bringing good songs, good music back to life. That's what music is all abt -- sharing the good stuff sometimes in new ways.

20061202

A little bit of soul

David promoting for W300c handset in China. He should be in Shanghai by now rehearsing for tonite concert. They played Olia mv in the Art of Mixing as well as the promo & his short interview. Noticed this mv is a bit similar to the style of Angel -- vry soothing ^__^ Found an english review of Beautiful:
David Tao: Too Beautiful
1/12/2006 9:54
Taiwan singer Tao Zhe, or David Tao, is widely considered one of China's most talented musicians. So anticipation was running high when he released his fifth album Too beautiful two months ago.
But his latest release takes a different tack to all his previous works, leaving his fans sharply divided. Some claim Too Beautiful contains some of David's best love ballads, others say it's bland and unimpressive. But you can form your own opinion after sampling some of his tracks.
Too Beautiful is much softer and more sentimental than David Tao's previous albums, especially the dark, rock sound featured in Black Tangerine and 2005's The Great Leap.
There's much more room for creative and romantic lyrics to shine through on the new album, but many fans have derided it for mainly consisting of pop music. They say it lacks musical variety and falls short of the quality that led many to hail David Tao as the godfather of Chinese R&B.
Faced with such criticism, David Tao says his work has become softer as he's entered another stage of musical composition. He also believes Too Beautiful has the most unified style of all his albums.
Can't Get You Out of My Mind is a remake of the classic oldie with the same name. David Tao puts a lot of hip hop and R&B into the mix, turning it into a fresh tune a thousand miles removed from the old versions. He delivers his vocals well and the original slow melody blends well with the new mix.
The title track Too Beautiful is a slow ballad with a typical canto-pop melody. This is Tao's specialty and he pulls it off brilliantly. The violin intro, piano and especially the chorus make it very catchy.
Forever is one of the best slow ballads on the album. The slow, waltzy, yet blues-like beat and piano style is sublime. Simple and no frills, this song is one of the less complicated on the album. It allows David Tao to display his vocal range, which can be both very powerful and emotional. The song conveys the sorrow and anger felt by someone who's loved and lost.
Overall, Too beautiful still represents David Tao's style of love ballads, though maybe it lacks some of the inspiration and excitement of his previous releases.
Hong Kong pop queen Jolin Tsai joined David for Marry Me Today, the only duet on the album. The melody's sweet, quiet in a way that suits the content, and both singers sing their parts perfectly, though the lyrics are a little clichéd.
Reposted from eastday.com
Glad u guys like the A-mei mvs, David probably wrote & produced at least 6 songs for her. Most of them featured his backing vocals & of cos he rapped on a few of them as well. After watching so much MTV to catch his Hennessy promo, I quite enjoy Jay-z's latest single - Show me what you got. It got a great mix of soul & funk from the 60s/70s. Just goes to show how much on top of the game David is in the music scene. While the rest of Asian pop still hang on to outdated 90s hiphop & r&b, he has already moved on to probably the next music trend.

20061130

A-Mei mvs

Saw the Hennessy Artistry promo again, also brief interview in english *__* Must be after filming as David was wearing the same clothes & in the same location. I think he said that it was the first time for him participating in this kinda event. Should be great experience for him. Kanye West was featured in the NY event & Hennessy is also sponsor for his HK concert with Edison Chen opening for him. That cutie really is flying high in his career!

Found this @ youtube -- classical trio playing Marry me today instrumental. What is it abt this song? *scratch head* I mean I like it but he has a lot of better songs, including those he wrote for others. Like the marvellous High High High for one & only A-Mei. Been looking for the mv & found it at last. Surprised that he wrote the lyrics for it as well.

Also found One night stand mv & he wrote the lyrics for this song too. A-Mei looked fabulous here.

This is probably my fav song he wrote for A-Mei & he co-wrote the lyrics - live version of Innocent Generation.

20061127

Story of a song

Managed to catch the Hennessy promo again & its really so enjoyable, David just looks incredibly good. Not really cm as there is no product shot so more a promo. Also noticed that his guitar strap is Levys yin yang design. Looks vry distinctive & goes with his name Tao ^__^ Yeah kinda noticed little details like that cos erm not much news on him at the moment heehee Well there was some news of a Taiwanese mayor's wife who suffered substantial injuries in an accident & cos she was listening to Marry me today in the car which is also her fav song, her family included the song in the tape they played to her constantly to help her recover consciousness. She has apparently regained consciousness but not to give too much credit to David's song, cos it was the brave effort of her family & the expert medical help she received. So much prayers & hope she continued to recover.
Anyway just wanna to point out how crazy this duet which is just a sweet little song written by David, not really great but it has such remarkable life of its own. It has already been sung in 4 concerts by diff ppl from the original singers David & Jolin to Karen Mok, Kewei & Jacky Wu. The girl featured in the mv was noted for her strong resemblance to Patty Hou & she has received other assignments cos of this. The elephant motif tee featured in the mv has become trendy. David said that he hoped ppl of all ages will like the song but he did not expect even the 2-yr-old daughter of his friend likes it & now in some small way, it helped a seriously injuired woman in her 50s cos she too likes the song. Maybe David should write more duets *__* No, not really, he will never try to write songs to achieve greatness, they just did it on their own if that makes sense.

20061126

Very cool David

Watch the Making of Hennessy Artistry & it was Machi & other TW acts, but they did show David cm at the end. It was really vry cool & David just way too gorgeous. It was shot in kinda sepia to reflect like old times. Old man turn on radio for the intro of Tai Mei Li, then David walks down street with black guitar slung on his back *swoon* Shop with many old clocks & 2 old men play chess at the entrance while outside David strums his guitar & sings a few lines of Olia <3<3<3 ^__^ Voiceover of David talking abt passing of time in his cute Mandarin with that slightly overseas Chinese accent - he tries hard to speak proper Chinese but just can't get rid of his cute accent *__* Dressed casually in his usual jeans, white tee & black jacket. Last shot of him sauntering slowly forward but not looking into the camera, he is just soooooooooooooooo dreamy & yummy *heart stop*
Fantastic ad! Hope somebody will post it up soon. Answering to Tracy, think David has 2 bikes, both Italian - Ducati & MV Agusta, & he said he has 7 cars. He mentioned some of them in his msgs. I remembered he bought a Ford Mustang in an online auction & I believed the BMW he drove in Runaway mv is his. He also wanted to buy a Ferrari but not sure if he bought it.

20061125

DT in LA

David in LA at the moment on 10 days leave. Even though its short, he is happy to spend time with his pet dog & all his beloved cars. He will be back end of Nov to rehearse for the Hennessy Artistry Tour in Shanghai. David will be performing for 45 mins & I think with a live band. MTV Cable 51 has ongoing updates on this event, there is Making of Hennessy Artistry @ 12pm on 11/25 & 1am on 11/26. Info thks to beachgurl ^__^ Not sure if both will feature David though but maybe can catch the cool ad. Updated Ultrasound Interactive with 2007 calendar & Melody singing Love not there if u want this song. I really like it. The calendar is CD sized so just pop into an old case to serve 2 purposes - DT photo album & calendar. I will try to do Tension soon. Kinda strange English review on Beautiful. Love Can HK concert dvd already available in Spore woohoo *__*

20061124

No unplugged concert

According to TW fanclub, David will not be holding his unplugged concert this year. But he may be appearing in a charity concert in Shanghai on 12/23. Apparently Jacky Wu who was 1 of the many guests in Jolin's 3-day concert in Taipei sang Marry me today with her & also changing the rap to blatant mention of Jay Chou. Jolin was vry good abt it though. Jacky has been heavily promoting his new protege, Evan Yo. Saw his mvs a couple of times cos on constant mtv rotation & basically he is no different from the many fresh new male talents from Taiwan. They can sing a little, play a couple of instruments & usually can write some songs & lyrics. What they lack is personality & a sense of direction. Also vocal training & voice projection.
Was reading the imdb review on Curse of the Golden Flower & kinda expected it. Saw some trailers & strangely, the storming of the Summer Palace come to mind. Probably cos the extravagant interiors, colors & costumes are more reminscent of the Qing Dynasty, Forbidden City & all that. This kinda annoys me, ok, a movie dun have to be that historically correct but it just perpetuates the myth that the ancient Chinese loved glitter & gaudy things *sigh* As someone pointed out after watching Curse, kinda disconcerting that Zhang Yimou is responsible for the opening & closing ceremonies of Beijing Olympics 2008 >"< No wonder they got Steven Spielberg as consultant but will he be able to tone down Zhang's excesses ^__^

20061121

Pirates & fame

Our Dave looks so adorable, he just has this presence on stage. Pix credit much thanks to Rachel who send to me. Watch Beautiful mv dvd & find it alrite, there was a slight jumping on Rain Phii but not too bad. Runaway was ok, also the mv itself supposed to be like handheld filming so there's the occasional jerking. This is not pirated taking the meaning of 'pirated' as releasing any cd/vcd/dvd without approval/knowledge from the singer & his record company & not paying any copyright. My understanding of 'parallel imports' is this: the company releasing the cd/vcd/dvd will pay lump sum for copyright to the singer or recording company which approved the release for China ONLY. I can only assume the trade agreement between China & Singapore also approves the sale of this kind of copyright. But whatever the reason, these China releases can be legally sold in Singapore. I believe there was a article abt how these 'parallel imports' are hurting the local recording companies cos they are not so expensive. As uber fan, I want to collect every legal release by David from any country which is why I bought this dvd. But unless you haven't seen the mvs, then this dvd is not really good value if you only want his new mvs as there are only 3.

Found this interesting news item @ youtube - David & Jay rehearsing for Jay's concert where David was guest not sure when as not really interested to go find out. Just find it rather sweet that David really hasn't changed all that much, still as talkative & jokey. Jay ... oh well since I am never his fan, I will not comment. Guess its true that sometimes too much fame & money can change you & not always for the better. David is not immune to such influence of cos which could be why he ran away to LA after his first album brought him so much attention. Maybe he wasn't just running away from the spotlight but also from himself. A lot of songs in his 2nd album I'm OK seemed to be written to remind himself to be humble & be thankful for what he has: Rain, I'm OK, Smaltown girl, Different, Circus. People always say he is 'underrated' which I think they meant he is not as famous as he should be for all his enormous talents. I feel he is comfortable with his level of fame, it gives him the freedom to do the music he wants to do & spread his message of love & peace sincerely to those who want to hear it.

20061120

New tagboard

A big thank you to Reb for pinpointing that it was the shoutbox generating all the popups not Blogger, no wonder they were ignoring my mad ranting >"< Actually the shoutbox did cross my mind cos it was refreshing not the blog but sry rather preoccupied these days my mind is not working well. Anyway got a new tagboard now, hopefully it will not generate popups as well but if anyone is getting virus alert plse let me know asap so I can get rid of it immediately. I apologise to those who may have got unwanted programs or trojans installed on yr computer cos of visiting my blog. But you guys so enjoy chatting that I like to have a board here. Hopefully Blogger will not force me to put Adsense here cos I already signed up for it *sigh* Anyway hope the new tagboard works well, but at least dun have to move ^__^
Found the Beautiful MV dvd which has a rather beautifully designed cover. 13 mvs but only 3 from Beautiful. Its actually called So Beautiful Greatest Hits MV Karaoke. Haven't watch it yet so will review it later. The price I got is S$12.90. I would have like Finally & Olia included as well though. Tracklist:
01) Can't get you outta my mind
02) Too Beautiful
03) Marry me today
04) Close to you
05) 22 (live version)
06) Melody
07) Rain
08) Regular Friends
09) Smalltown Girl
10) Runaway
11) Angeline
12) Blue moon
13) Airport in 10.30

20061118

Global David

David doing his pointy thing & looking goofy but still gorgeous ^__^ More yummy Wild Day Out pixs (link courtesy Yumiko blog & ent-magazine.net). English writeup abt Hennessey Global Artistry Tour: "... the conclusion of the China tour is a concert of epic proportions over at the Pudong Expo site on December 2nd ... The bill covers superstars from David Tao to Sky Nellor, to Juliette & the Licks of Oscar-nominated actress Juliette Lewis fame." Sounds wildly exciting! Some sobering news abt bustup of website for illegal music dl which included Tai Mei Li. Trouble is too many of them available online & not all chinese either >"<
Popular mainland singer Sun Nan will cover other singers' songs including David's during his Dec concert in Shenzhen. Another act covering David's songs is Walking on Water - Singapore's only all-female R&B-Gospel-Pop-Band. So watch out for their nxt performance. Some helpful fan has posted on TW Yahoo grp that the song David wrote for Melody is the ending theme for idol series Scissors stone paper or Game of love. Vid & lyrics posted here (Info credit TW Yahoo grp) This is a recently filmed TV series so now not sure when he wrote the song. Also think he sang the background vocals which could mean he produced the song but dun wanna start any rumor here *__*

20061115

New DT releases

Got the China/import version of Beautiful, much thanks to msg from Beautiful dvd on shoutbox for yr info. Quite a large box containing the cd in a normal plastic case, lyrics booklet and a rather cool Sony Ericson neckstrap. Not bad value for S$17.90, but probably can get lower price if u shop around. Only diff in the cd is the bonus track of Honda Civic cm song which is nice as I like both versions. No sign of Beautiful mv dvd so will try another cd shop later.
David got round the ban on one of the offending words in the lyrics of I don't wanna know in a rather creative way ^__~ As for the other chinese word, not sure of the meaning. Maybe some chinese expert can tell us.
Love Can HK concert dvd officially released on yesasia & in cd shops in TW. There are 23 tracks:
01. Opening
02. Rain
03. Shanghaied
04. Airport in 10.30
05. Who do you love
06. Let's fall in love
07. Runaway
08. Piano Medley (Blue moon/Tuberose/Springwind/Blue moon)
09. Everything's gone/Angel
10. Susan said
11. Smalltown girl
12. Season of loneliness
13. Ghost Overture
14. Ghost
15. Black Tangerine
16. The art of war
17. Close to you
18. Regular friends/22/Fated
19. Kungpao Chicken/My Anata
20. Dear God
21. I love you
22. Bastard
23. Love Can
Bee Gees' covers cannot be included cos of copyright but of cos can watch on youtube ^__^ Dun know why its always HK version, maybe the footage is better but hopefully David will also released Best of concerts from the various locations.