Saturday, September 21, 2013

Final Notice: ...Last Post.

So after a couple of years posting irregularly, I've decided to hang up the towel and take an honorable bow from the world of Blogger. If this were a romantic relationship, it was definitely an on-and-off one where I sometimes couldn't find the time for you and when I could, sometimes I couldn't be bothered coming back. And when I was in the mood, I would sit with you for hours just working on you with projects and neglecting all my homework and household chores. You made me forget about the stress back then. Those were the days.    

Well, I'm not going to purge this blog and I'll be around to comment on all the other blogs I follow, so you'll see me around. I just won't be here anymore to do my irregular rants and such. I won't be updating this blog anymore. It will end with just a few of my sentimental words and a classic goodbye.

Can it be?

Image credit: i1.ytimg.com
Yes. So, goodbye my lover and my fellow readers (yeah, I know, there are only a couple of you actually following me). Thank you to everyone who ever visited, watched the videos I posted, read what I had to say and left me comments. Well, except for you damned spammers and bots that decided to take a dump in my CBox. You're one of the reasons why there's a data shortage on the Internet. But anyway, it's been a generally enjoyable ride.

I bid you farewell. Adieu!

With love,
TAQ


...



PSCYCHE! I'M TOTALLY JUST KIDDING! I wasn't joking about the last post here, because this will be my last post here, on Blogger. I'm actually just migrating over to Tumblr, since I think their platform may be more applicable to me. In the sense that I can more easily reblog things and also not have to worry about posting videos. I'm looking for a cleaner interface. I guess I'll talk more about it once I've moved all my things there. So, just bear in mind while I'm tidying things up and in the process of moving over to my new place. See you there!



Playlist Tribute: Remembering the legendary stars of yesteryear today – Part 3, Teresa Teng & Roman Tam

Image credit: heartflyer.com
So welcome back to you and me, sometimes real life not in the blogosphere really does take its toll on you. But this time, I've brought you the final video playlist for the tribute series - the last part in the trilogy. I've decided to focus on the late stars Teresa Teng and Roman Tam. It is, of course a well-known fact that songbird Teresea was not originally from Hong Kong but, I believe she had a lot of affinity with the Pearl of the East. It wouldn't be too much if HK claimed her as one of their own precious pearls, since her music had such a great influence on this small island. Born in Taiwan, and gifted with a clear and sweet voice, she managed to conquer much of the world where Chinese people resided. She did this by learning to sing and speak in several other languages, such as Japanese, Indonesian, Cantonese and English, in addition to her mother tongue, Mandarin. Her voice has inspired many, including 'Heavenly Queen', Faye Wong with her clarity and high, pure-sounding tones. She was definitely one of a handful of artists that possessed great vocal technique, an extremely clear voice and the ability to interpret lyrics in her own way.

Image credit: wikipedia.org
As for Roman, he was known for paying careful attention to the pronunciation and enunciation of lyrics to produce a clear song. He believed it was important to get the underlying message of the song across. I've gotta agree with the man. Although I do tend to node my head with the other people who say that Roman sung his lyrics, a little too clearly. But you know, sometimes more is actually more, and better than less, especially for Cantonese. Get the tone wrong and the meaning changes. Sure, Mandarin has tones too but the number in Cantonese absolutely outweighs what Mandarin has. Along with the variety of combinations of extra sounds, well you can see where this is going. Singing badly in Cantonese is at least ten times worse than hearing someone with a fobby Engrish accent singing in English. It's worse than someone with a gweilo accent singing in Mandarin, in my opinion. Alright, rant over and back into tribute mode.

Roman actually achieved and contributed a lot in the making of TVB history - his classic duets with 70's-80's diva Jenny Tseng for the LOTCH trilogy and theme songs for several other classic series like 'The Romantic Swordsman'. Sometimes listening with the ears is not enough, in these cases - his songs fueled the emotions you felt when you watched the series. But for this playlist, I've featured songs that were from none of these TV dramas. Surprise? Not exactly. I wanted to draw attention to his dazzling character, which can only be evidenced by live stage performances and feature music videos.

Well again, it's been a long time coming with this mini-tribute series, so I do hope you take the time to enjoy. And let us not forget the great works of these super artists, since they were surely superstars. I'll leave you with a quote from the song, "Superstar: to wrap up:
"When you see the sparkling stars in the sky,
I pray that you keep a place for me in your heart. " 
Playlist here (sorry, some users had disabled the embed feature for their videos, so you'll just have to watch it by clicking the link on Youtube. Boo-hoo. Opens in a new window! And for you people who like to play singles - down below...)

1. "Goodbye My Love"
2. "The Moon Represents My Heart"
3. "Forget Him"
4. "Strolling the Road of Life"
5. "Night-Blooming Cestrum"
6.  "Within the Laser"
7. "How Many Trials and Tribulations?"
8. "A Great Song For You"
9. "Carmen"
10. "Tomorrow, In A Place Faraway"