DIAOness on Ice: Brooklee Han

This is not a post about Jay per se.


Rather it is about a young lady who represents Australia in figure skating and is working her way towards a spot in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

What brought her to my attention was a post on my News Feed which featured the youtube video of her skating.
It intrigued me as it was on a Page for Jay Chou and I wondered why that was so.
Anyway, I love watching figure skating because it gives me such a great feeling.
It's like watching gymnastics; it's just stuff which you cannot imagine a human can do but somehow these guys and girls are doing it all so effortlessly.

Well, what made this particular vid even more special was that she was skating to the music from Secret (which I absolutely ADORE!) and as I watched, it just seemed so right to see her gliding along so gracefully to the familiar strains of the Secret score.
I am not an expert on skating but I could see that her leaps, twists and landings were self-assured and the movements just blended perfectly with the music and even the commentator said as much when he praised her performance and the music.
I mean....Jay's music is beyond compare and to have Brooklee interpreting it so beautifully just took my breath away. :)

Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET_aP_Z2GRw

Wasn't that simply marvellous??


Of course I had to Share this on my Jay Chou Pages and I posted it on both viz The Rooftop: A Jay Chou film and Jay Chou Diaoness.

To cut a long story short, I have since discovered that she is a huge fan of Jay and Secret which is why she chose this music for her long programme, as it was all instrumental and very suitable indeed.
It must be so nice to practise with Jay like that all the time, ya? ;)

Anyway, Brooklee has gone on to win the Volvo championship and is well on course to her Olympic dreams.

http://ridgefield.dailyvoice.com/sports/reddings-brooklee-han-skates-gold-volvo-open-cup

"REDDING, Conn. -- As she continues her quest to skate at the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February, Redding's Brooklee Han earned gold Sunday at the Volvo Open Cup in Latvia. 

Han, who skates for Australia, placed first in both the short and long programs at the international competition in Riga. Her scores were 53.95 points and 97.81 points, for a total of 151.76 points.

She easily topped the skater in second place, longtime British champion Jenna McCorkell, who scored 140.29 points. In third was Juulia Turkkila of Finland at 138.24 points. 

Han, 18, is a 2013 graduate of Joel Barlow High School. It is her first championship gold medal at an International Skating Union event. 

The men's winner at the Volvo Open Cup was Russia's Evgeni Plushenko, an Olympic gold and two-time silver medalist and three-time world champion.

In September, Han finished fifth and scored a personal best total of 147.16 points at the Nebelhorn Trophy competition in Germany to earn a spot for Australia at the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

She is considered the front-runner for the spot to represent Australia in the Olympics. Australia will hold its national championship in December.

In her short program, Han skates to a medley of "Prayer for Taylor" by Michael Smith mixed with "Titanic Symphony" by Richard Clayderman. Her long program is set to the music from the soundtrack of "Secret" by Jay Chou."

I think it is super DIAO that Jay's music was used so wonderfully and I hope he gets to know about this.
I can imagine him saying "Aiyo, bu cuo!" :)

And I'm sure we all wish Brooklee all the very best in the future as she progresses even further along her chosen path.

You go, girl!

Diaoness Updates: Opus Jay Nanjing and Matilda Tao

Hi again!

Sorry....I had a very busy weekend which included a visit to my alma mater, JJ Lin's Timeline concert and Anime Festival Asia.

In between all those, I had to complete a mountain of paperwork and keep the JCD Page updated. 

I hope you guys follow me there 'cos that's where all the action is once I spot something to post.

It's much more real-time so please Like and Share the Jay Chou Diaoness Page with as many friends and Jay fans as you can.

The button to connect from this blog to the Facebook Page is at the top righthand corner of this page.

I just added it recently....nice? :)

First up, Mr Chou was in Nanjing for Opus Jay where as usual, he put up another amazing show in spite of having a touch of flu and a sore throat. 

He must have caught a chill in Chongqing from singing in the rain. :(

And three lucky fans got to sing Silence with him!

http://youtu.be/iDPRiK7XgeY

Full version of guitar medley including a special Qi Li Xiang:

http://youtu.be/gYu14GZc2ng

Hope he recovers well soon!

On to Matilda Tao's new song, True Or False with music by Jay and lyrics by Ling Xi.

I love it!

So cute that he got Matilda to rap and she was quite out of breath doing so...lol!

http://youtu.be/sY9G_lZ6oOo

Article from JCS: 

http://jaychoustudio.com/archives/matilda-tao-raps-144-words-in-30-seconds-complains-about-losing-breath-from-singing-director-chous-song/1626

Okay....got to get back to work! 

Cheerio! 

Happy 13th birthday to JAY ALBUM!

This is a short post to commemorate an event which occurred 13 years ago. ;)

See?

Thank goodness I have so many Jay Chou fan friends on Facebook!

Seeing all their posts about Jay Album's release made me realise that this was THE iconic debut album of His Royal Diaoness, where the first track was the song which had caught Yang Junrong's attention and led to Jay's releasing his own album of songs which had been rejected by other more established singers. 

And look how far he has come! 

As I often say, if I had a time machine, I would go back to 6 November 2000 when this album was released and fall in love with Jay from the very beginning so that I, too can now claim to be his diehard and devoted fan for thirteen years.

But better late than never and it has been nearly three years since this man first caught my attention in The Green Hornet.

And look how far my Jay Chou fandom has come! 

New friends, my own Jay Chou blog and my own Facebook Pages for him and his movie, for which I am still having a ball of a time managing. :)

To celebrate, here is my recording of Black Humour from Jay Album to share with everyone.

Hope you guys like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ioXs9WsgCY

OPUS JAY: Chongqing: vids from youku and youtube

Big Ben in the rain!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFXqNjb4Ufg

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjMwMTUyMjIw.html


Fight Dance and You Are Everywhere:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjMwMTM1NDM2.html

You Are Everywhere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy-I_HBZZxg&list=PLbHLPahX3mJ5s2XZ7O-DwDg_tbFN5f4lT&index=8


Fine Day, musicians and Ukulele:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPiTrYap6ew&list=PLbHLPahX3mJ5s2XZ7O-DwDg_tbFN5f4lT&index=4



Moonlight On The Rooftop and A Larger Cello:

http://i.youku.com/u/UNTQ4Nzg0ODky


Qi Li Xiang and Where Is The Promised Happiness:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjI5ODcyMDc2.html



End Of The World:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjMwMDQ1Mzg0.html


Tornado and Silence:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjMwMDUzODIw.html


Musicians, Ukulele and Sunny Otaku:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjI5Njk5MDg0.html

Final Battle:

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjI5NzI1Mjk2.html


Cannot Speak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEXb5JZ7P6s

You Are Everywhere
http://youtu.be/iy-I_HBZZxg

OPUS JAY: Chongqing 02112013 (updated)

It was time for yet another OPUS JAY concert and the destination was Chongqing, where the weather would play a big part in dictating how the fans there got a special present from His Royal DIAOness.


Here is our King giving the Royal Wave to his supporters. :)

All that I'm reporting is taken from various Facebook/weibo posts.

The concert apparently started off with good weather but it soon started to rain but amazingly (or not, actually), the fans stayed put and if anything, their screams and yells became even louder and more vociferous.
Frankly, if it were me, I would not have budged either.
After all, what's a bit of rain when you've waited for the longest time for your idol to come to your city for a concert?
What more when said idol is Jay Chou???

Jay conducting his fans. :)

Love him from all angles, including the back. Just look at how huge the stadium is!

Nice composite of the concert and fans....with their ponchos and lightsticks. Rain did not dampen their enthusiasm; in fact, it probably made them even more determined to persevere and prove their staying power and love for Jay!

Another beautiful view of his back....le sigh....

Lighting effects are very important for Jay:

This has to be the most endearing image from the concert; that of his bodyguard, Xia Ban Zhang holding the umbrella to shelter him as he sang Big Ben. :)

I love this one....

Here are the links for the concert.

All The Way North:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhuOn0wmY2I


Qi Li Xiang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-1Uf-mq8ps&list=PLbHLPahX3mJ5s2XZ7O-DwDg_tbFN5f4lT&index=3

Fine Day, fun with his musicians and Ukulele:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPiTrYap6ew&list=PLbHLPahX3mJ5s2XZ7O-DwDg_tbFN5f4lT


Special gift for the fans, as Jay said he felt bad for them being drenched in the rain. He sang a song he had not performed at any of the OPUS JAYs so far....Where Is The Promised Happiness?
How not to love him even more??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLumPIk1Gmo&list=PLbHLPahX3mJ5s2XZ7O-
DwDg_tbFN5f4lT


THE vid of Jay and friends singing Big Ben in the rain...omg, he did get wet; can tell by looking at his shirt sleeves.
His bodyguard was a real trouper too, sheltering him stoically. :)
I have new level of respect for him and the rest of the guys on stage!

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjMwMTUyMjIw.html


More pics here on the Jay Chou Diaoness Page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.435259296578746.1073741896.399217090182967&type=1&l=be0d911108



Bye by to Chongqing....recognise that bodyguard? ;)

Okay...I really gotta go to sleep now. \

There might be more vids coming through so do check back in a few days.

Till then, good night!

Reveal and more Rooftop in November

*DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!"


Are you guys ready for the BIG REVEAL???

And the answer is.....

Xuegao on the left.
Jay on the right!!!

I was correct!!!
Were you??

Anyway, it seems Jay was the one who did the makeup and they went walking around the streets, totally unrecognised!
Xuegao then told Jay that he should go out like that every time....lol!



The other important occasion for today, apart from being All Saints Day and the start of the penultimate month of the year:

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY to NOVEMBER'S CHOPIN!!!

That is one of the very first albums of Jay's which I started listening to after discovering him in The Green Hornet and I loved it.
It is still one of my faves and I super love the cool cover, of course!

 

 I also found another review of The Rooftop by f*** magazine which is very balanced and fair:

http://www.fmoviemag.com/c/movies/item/1257-the-rooftop-review

Being one of Asia's most successful pop superstars is clearly not enough for Jay Chou. In the past few years, he's tried to make the move from music to movies by filming supporting roles alongside heavyweight actors (Curse Of The Golden Flower), playing a sassy sidekick in a Hollywood blockbuster (The Green Hornet), and making his directorial debut with a tender if imperfect ode to young love (Secret). Oddly, despite contributing a handful of songs to the soundtracks of his films, Chou has never tried to blend music and movie... until now. Juggling directing, scripting and composing duties, Chou has clearly poured a great deal of his heart and soul into The Rooftop. It's a commitment that - mostly - pays off. Bubbly and fun, the film makes up for its lack of polish and muddled ending with plenty of offbeat charm and quirky humour.

Set in Galilee, a fantasy realm reminiscent of a retro-soaked '70s Taiwan, Wax (Chou) lives in the rooftop community of the film's title - it's a ghetto area by most standards, but a warm, loving home for Wax and his trio of best friends Tempura (Alan Ko), Egg and Ah Lang. However, the idyllic lives of the cheerful, bickering quartet soon start to change. Wax finally meets Starling (Li Xinai), the beautiful actress whose smile radiates off the billboard that towers over his rooftop home. Tempura gets promoted in his job as a rent collector for a local gang, which unfortunately pits him against sociopathic thug Hong. As Wax falls in love and stands up for his buddies, sinister forces array themselves against him in the form of Hong and Starling's co-star William (Darren Qiu).


Chou's film is far from perfect. Its narrative is paper-thin and predictable, and there isn't a great deal of logic tying the whole enterprise together. With its patchy character development and almost hyper-active switching from scene to scene, The Rooftop sometimes feels like a feature-length version of a Jay Chou music video. In fact, the final half-hour of the movie is a particularly awkward experience, with Chou managing to raise more questions than he answers in the last five minutes alone. At that point, it feels like a different movie altogether, a brooding gangster opus - complete with dramatic confrontations and car chase sequences - grafted onto a feather-light musical.
But - and that's a pretty big 'but' - there's so much to enjoy in The Rooftop that it becomes considerably easier to forgive its unfortunate final-act detour. For most of its running time, the film is blithely silly, sweetly romantic and thoroughly enjoyable. Fans of Chou and neophytes alike will delight in its almost slapstick sensibilities and fun, catchy soundtrack, which includes some of the best ditties he's composed in years.

 In a sense, The Rooftop is an extended music video - specifically, it brings to mind Chou's 2007 out-of-left-field smash hit, The Cowboy Is Very Busy (牛仔很忙), which was a joyous, surreal, kitschy tribute to the Wild West. Bursting with much of the same energy, colour and life, Chou's characters sing and dance right off the screen and into the heart. Chou has brought together a winning cast, a combination of new talent and old friends who are all firmly attuned to his mindset and are game for pretty much anything he throws at them, including big, splashy dance numbers. Newcomer Li, famously spotted by Chou on the streets of Taipei, acquits herself reasonably well as his doe-eyed love interest, hampered only by her character's lack of a really distinctive personality. Chou himself is the main draw. Even in his early thirties, he remains boyishly charming and an unexpectedly effective screen presence. Criticisms that he's merely playing himself (again) don't hold much water when he does it so well and with comparatively little vanity.

 For better or worse, The Rooftop is a pure distillation of Chou as an artist. It's a film that manages to be pure entertainment and an intensely personal statement at the same time. As he blends dance with kungfu and hip-hop beats with romantic professions of love, Chou whips up a little universe that's testament to both his genius and ambition. If it falls somewhat short in the final analysis, it's nevertheless a treat to watch Chou try his hand at something so refreshingly different - not just in terms of his own films, but also the Chinese movie industry at large.

Summary: The film takes an unfortunate plunge off The Rooftop at the end, but overall, this is a delightful confection filled to the rafters with music and laughter.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Shawne Wang

This reviewer obviously 'get's it too. :)

To end of, here is one of my fave pics of Jay from HK:

Halloween Happenings a la Jay Chou

Well, I'm not one to 'celebrate' Halloween but it appears that the occasion has much in its roots which may make it quite universally fun in this globalised world of ours.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

A quick read through Wikipedia yielded some interesting facts, chief of which was that Halloween is actually a shortened form of All Hallow Eve and it is one day before All Saints' Day and therafter, All Souls Day in the Catholic calendar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#Christianity


Anyway, the good people at Mr J uploaded a pic of two hideous horrors this morning, asking fans to guess who they were:

Haha...your guess is as good as mine although if you pushed me to answer, I'd say Jay is the one on the right.
Lol...for all you know, that may just be Jayannah in disguise too...!
I'm waiting for the big reveal. ;)


Before I had recovered from those two fellas, the next big thing happened.....

I saw a post on my News Feed and it was.....

The official MV for You Are Everywhere!
Omg....I had been waiting forever for that and wasted no time uploading it on to my Jay Pages to share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfn8sE9obWU

I love this song very very much and it still rankles that the idiotic GHA jury completely overlooked it.
Anyway, we all know this is the REAL Best Song, right??


Then later in the evening came the next bit of excitement....viz Jay and Vincent's newest Chinese-style song, sung by Jerry C, a Taiwanese rock musician.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RnRbO7_fc8

I wish Jay had sung it instead (of course!) but I guess they had their reasons to let Jerry C do it.


That's it for now.
The next OPUS JAY will be at Chongqing on 2 November.
More updates then!



As usual, I shall sign off with two handsome-licious pics of His Royal DIAOness.
Good night and sweet dreams!