20101130

DT in Hangzhou

David singing Rain in Hangzhou on 11/27 among girls dancing with umbrellas. Quite strange b/w pix, almost like he was performing in a musical - Singing in the rain ^__^ Anyway he sang 4 songs - Rain, Who do you love?, Susan says & I Love You. Here's vid for Susan says & I Love you which gotta see. It was just fabulous when he stepped into the crane-cage thing which slowly rose above the heads of the audience. You could heard gasps & he really did well to stay in tune while the thing was moving. It was so cute to see him encouraging the audience to singalong & then running wildly around the stage like it was the ending to his personal concert rather than the 2nd act in a largescale concert. In fact I think it must have been a highlight of the concert as some articles headlined '60,000 people sang along to I Love You'. The vid for Who do you love? also showcased his mighty vocals, he sang much louder than the backing track. However as usual with DT, he messed up quite a lot of the lyrics *sigh* He did say the only song that he usually didn't mess up is I Love You. One interesting thing abt this concert was that initially some spectacular gimmicks were planned for the opening of the singers but later the organisers held a press conference to say that they had decided to tone it down due to concerns abt the singers' safety. This probably cos of the unfortunate accident involving Selina Jen of SHE and Chinese actor, Yu Haoming. They were badly burned when a series of planned explosions went horribly wrong during the filming of the TV drama “I Have a Date with Spring". Much sympathies to both of them who are recovering but it must still be extremely painful. I feel so bad for delicate Selina. She is such a lovely girl who had a small crush on DT a few years back. Luckily she has a very supportive family as well as a loving fiance. Hopefully DT will remember to send her flowers and that guidelines will be set from now on for filming of dangerous scenes in China.

20101127

Badminton & Adoration

David strummed & sang backup for Bao Chunlai in Hunan last mth. Bao Chunlai is a highly ranked international badminton player in China, but not as highly ranked or as famous as his compatriot Lin Dan. Why do male sports star in China like to sing? Anyway clip of him singing DT's Ordinary Friend while DT played his guitar. He seemed vry nervous at the start but did quite well. A little late but my review of DT's short music movie 暗恋 (Adoration). If you haven't seen it, watch here first if you don't want any spoilers. Mostly I like it & I think it did showcased a little DT's potential as a director. Also I'm glad he got this story which could be considered semi-autobiographical out of his system before his first movie. I think the love story in the hair salon could be his idea for the musical. If it was, I sincerely hope he had discarded it as it was very cliqued & not vry good material for a movie. I mean come on, boy wannabe rock singer romanced cute girl in salon, gave her ticket to his first successful live performance in club. How clique could you get for a musical?
The story behind Adoration was much better & flowed really well with various flashbacks. The story is very simple & followed various brief meetings between David and Cheryl Yang played by Cheryl Yang herself over a long period of time. Fairly obvious from the beginning that David adored Cheryl but was rejected in a vague sort of way by her when she stopped short of giving him the last 3 digits of her phone no. Both of them went on to have successful careers which were revealed when they next met in a store. David was browsing car magazines but secretly picked up a magazine with Cheryl on the cover. Before that Cheryl heard DT's latest album on the radio in a cab. While they were talking, a pretty young female approached David and it was obviously his girlfriend although he tried to deny by saying they were 'just friends'. It was vry telling here that although David claimed to 'adore' Cheryl secretly but he didn't try to pursue her again nor hesitate to have relationships with other women. There's a scene which I really like when Cheryl who was having drinks with her friends looked across the glass window and was stunned to see DT riding a motorbike to a shoestore opposite. He was there to meet up with his girlfriend who was buying shoes. The forlorn expression on Cheryl's face seemed to say it all. Why is this man who claimed to 'adore' me & even wrote a song for me, doing with another woman? Then DT also noticed Cheryl & he stood still for a minute looking at her. It seemed fated that they chose to remain in their own separate worlds. Earlier DT was seen to call someone on his mobile after daydreaming of Cheryl and Cheryl answered but of cos, he was not calling her but his girlfriend cos remembered he didn't have her phone number. In between there was some interviews, behind the scenes and filming of 2 mvs - Summer Love Triange & RE DT. Then DT was seen filming Marry Me Today mv and Cheryl came to check up the church for a wedding presumedly hers.
Finally DT was woken up by his father so he showered *__* & dressed up smartly in a black suit. It was assumed that he was attending Cheryl's wedding. This part is quite jarring to me cos his house was shown to be full of Cheryl's images from photo displayed to pixs he cut out from magazines on his mirror. It seemed vry obsessive & quite contrary to DT's cautious behavior. But I supposed he wanted to drive home his secret 'adoration" for Cheryl. It was a funeral that DT was attending & Cheryl was the matron of honor in the wedding opposite. Once again they met and Cheryl at last tried to reach out by taking David's hand to give him the final 3 digits of her phone no. However, DT was shaken by her action as it meant his beautiful 'adoration' of her would ceased and quickly took back his hand. We would probably never know who DT was secretly 'adoring' for so long but it didn't matter because it was fairly obvious he wasn't in love. He was only in love with the idea of a love that was so perfect and pure that it would last forever. It was pathetic and selfish I suppose but for David, love was this elusive thing that he didn't have the courage to capture. I like that the behind the scenes of the movie kinda carry on the adoration theme. There were suggestions that Cheryl maybe the one David was secretly adoring, not real of cos but it was a nice touch. At the end of RE DT mv, Cheryl on the stage said out loud that she had been waiting 40 yrs for David to call while David who was sitting below immediately took out his mobile to call her & ask her out for dinner. If only life & love was so easy. I think if the Adoration script had been revised & expanded, it would actually made quite a nice movie. Some of the scenes are really well done & beautifully shot. The chemisty between David and Cheryl is spot on and throughout the movie, you kinda hope they will get together even though you know they won't. So thumb up to DT on his first effort on film.

20101122

DT redux

Stewart Mac is an English singer who released an album titled I Love You - an english redux of DT's most famous love ballad. You can listen to it at Stewart Mac's official website. It got a vry nice big sound & here are the lyrics:
I Love You
There was once a broken man
Who walked a lonely road
And gave up all his dreams
And I was once this broken man
Who stared into the sun
And just refused to see
I was the lost amongst the clouds that wouldn't fade?
I was looking for an answer
I was searching but I didn't take the time
I was down and out and feeling so afraid
I love you
The way that you turned me round
And chased away my blues
I love you
The way you changed my world
When I'm with you
Love may come and love may go
And now its here to stay
Forever and a day (With you)
And when I see you smile
I fall into your eyes
Don't ever fade away
I need you here to make
The dark clouds drift away
And to make the mornings bright again
I'm right here for you
There's nothing what to say
I'm just happy that you're mine
I'm here to stay
I love you
The way that you turned me round
And chased away my blues
I love you (yes I do)
The way that you changed my world
When I'm with you
It doesn't matter where you're from or where we're going
As long as you're with me all the way
And the night's no longer lonely
I'm waking up to find a brighter day
I love you yes i do
The way that you turn me round
And chased away my blues
I love you
The way that you changed my world
When I'm with you
Music by David Tao, lyrics by Hans Ebert, sang by Stewart Mac
Interesting thing is the lyrics were written by Hans Ebert, a rather influential man in the HK music industry. It was claimed in this fascinating website abt HK popmusic history that he was the one who coined the term 'cantopop'. There you go 2 degrees of separation via DT *__*
By the by, everytime I post abt Ai Hen Jian Dan, there's always someone popping up to claim that David plagarised from some song or other. I don't know, there are a couple, basically they can't even made up their mind which song. Anyway I don't know what problem you have with DT but I'm not interested. Do you think that Hans Ebert who is an expert in the chinese music industry would write lyrics for a plagarised song? So go crying to him if you are so sure you are right, I am pretty sure Hans has Twitter or Facebook acc & quit following me.
Back to more pleasant things like this mawkish pix of him holding his CCTV-MTV best male singer award and his performance of Your Song *sigh* I have forgotten how much I love Your Song. It has the same heart-tugging feel of I Love You.

20101119

Party all nite with DT!

Alrite people, our fav boy will be coming to this part of our world soon, very very very soon ^__^ On 11/24 he will be at the AFC Annual Awards 2010. Ok, so what is AFC? It's all abt Asian football of cos *__* & if you have watched Ultrasound docu, you will know that DT likes playing football:
David Tao set to light up AFC Awards night
Friday, 19 November 2010 09:47
Kuala Lumpur: Chinese Taipei singer and lyricist David Tao is set to light up the AFC Annual Awards 2010 on November 24 when he performs before select dignitaries and television viewers around Asia.
The Awards Night, at the Grand Ballroom of the Sunway Hotel Resort and Spa in Kuala Lumpur, is being held to celebrate the best in Asian football, with Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak among the winners as the recipient of the AFC Diamond of Asia Award.
Tao has popularised his rhythm and blues and hard rock tunes in the Mandarin popular music industry.
Hailing from a family of entertainers, Tao started his career writing songs and producing them for many singers before releasing his own album ‘David Tao’ in 1997.
He has since released five more albums – I’m OK, Black Tangerine, The Great Leap 2005, Beautiful and Opus 69 - a live concert recording and a compilation of his best songs.
He is also a major live act and his concerts are almost always sold out.
(Reposted with thanks from the-afc.com)
Then Singapore get to count down on New Year's Eve with DT!!!!!!!!!!
Win a pair of tickets to Celebrate 2011 with David Tao
We have 10 pairs of tickets for the biggest countdown party happening on The Float at Marina Bay this New Year’s Eve!
Hosted by Michelle Chia and Gurmit Singh, Celebrate 2011 promises a star-studded evening at Marina Bay on Dec 31, with performances by Malaysia's Hip Hop group One Nation Emcee, Singapore Idol Sezairi Sezali and local artistes Sylvia Ratonel and Jack & Rai.
Expect to see a special performance from Taiwanese singer-songwriter David Tao as well!
DJs Will and Kennerve from Zirca will also be spinning your favourite hits right after a spectacular fireworks display at the stroke of midnight!
It's going to be seven hours of non-stop partying!
Details:
What: Celebrate 2011
When: 31 December 2010, 8pm to 3am
Where: The Float @ Marina Bay
Get your tickets at $38* at www.sistic.com.sg from Nov 23.
*10% discount for students, NS men, senior citizens, URA & MediaCorp staff.
(Pic & article reposted with thanks from xin.msn.com)
Okaaaaaay, it seemed he is managing himself vry well after leaving Gold Typhoon altho not too crazy abt that fact that he is mostly a hired singer but hey at least he is working ... & singing very well as seen on this clip of him performing Smalltown Girl in a concert sponsored by Vim Global, a mobile company in China, in Zhuzhou, Hunan on 11/6. He is sure getting around China alot heheheheheh

20101118

DT & Hairspray

Liking my new layout very much indeed. Was gonna put a background but decided just to leave it B/W - nice & simple. So while waiting for David's movie *sigh* I thought maybe I'll enliven the blog with some movie news. Starting with the movie most anticipated in Jan 2011:
Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmasters. Just posters & no trailer yet but it certainly has generated a lot of buzz. Tony Leung is of cos Ip Man so the question is will Bruce Lee put in an appearance and if yes, who plays him? I think it gonna be Cung Le, a well-known martial arts world champion who has appeared in both English & Chinese movies. He does has some physical resemblance to Bruce Lee and he is obviously the real thing as far as martial arts is concerned. The movie will also apparently be the real thing as far as kungfu fighting is concerned and there will be NO 3D yah!
In other DT news, he will performing in a largescale concert in Hangzhou on 11/27. Alrite both DT & Jay has similar hairstyle but I like DT's better cos it kinda natural & floppy but Jay's looked like serious hairspray OD heheheheh

20101117

DT rocking the Asian Games!

David was at the Asian Games 2010 Opening Ceremony on 11/12 in Guangzhou, China. He performed one of the theme songs, Sunshine Again, with Wei Wei and Tan Jing from China, Joey Yung from Hong Kong and Kim Hyun Joong from Korea. Unfortunately he didn't write the song which would have made it more amazing for me. However he did look wonderful & his voice was as ever melting. Watch @ youtube:

Just so great to watch & listen to him sing. His hair is longer which I like vry much. Also belated congratulations to him for winning Best male singer (Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan) at the 10th CCTV-MTV Music Awards held in Beijing last month. Below, he kinda strutted the red carpet ^__^
He hasn't been updating Twitter as he couldn't access it from China where he is at the moment. He gave as an alternative a chinese blogsite in Sina but unfortunately you have to register. Still I am glad he is keeping busy and hope to hear news abt his movie soon.