Archives For mayday (taiwanese band)

I recently bought myself a bluray copy of the Mayday 3DNA film/concert, which I didn’t love at first. But Mayday was my dad’s last favorite band, and I found that he had been carrying Mayday’s music on his phone and on a USB drive, alongside a copy of the movie; so now it just brings memories of him to me.

I remember I re-watched the movie on his first commemorative month, and I cried a bit with the whole Lam Suet is a dad LOL but I just truly lost it with the storyline of the brother and sister. On last night’s rewatch, however, it was all tears when listening Ashin singing during the concert. Even during Liang Ai-I-N-G (戀愛ING) [MV] LOL I need the subtitles, though.

so I’m all like~ Huh… this movie is not that bad. I still think the ending feels very forced with the stealing (WHY couldn’t they all go to the concert, yo!). But feelings nonetheless~ I miss my dad, but specially yesterday. And it wasn’t even any special day… just one of those blue ones.

*dies*

Oh, hey! I’m back from my trip! And as I work on the photos (+1k) I took, I wanted to share these quick perfections~

These are pictures I took on the plane on my way there and on my way back, during perfect break of dawns across the Americas — one was near landing time in Los Angeles and the other in plain flight across Central America — to the most beautiful soundtrack moments~ Su Yunying’s Ming Ming 冥明 and Strong Sky People 空人得坚强. That album is certainly topping my favorite album list this year, LOL.

Anyway~ Su continues her perfection with a performance of Mayday’s Contentment (知足) [MV] in this year’s season of I Am Singer (我是歌手), which I thought I was done with. LOL I don’t get how this show works. But Su Yunying made another appearance and her presence just makes things better. I didn’t realize it was the Mayday song until the last moment or halfway through. xD Her version is so hers and so unique, makes me appreciate the original even more.

But if I thought that was it? Turns out HAYA Band also did a rendition of Bjork’s Joga [MV], which is also life itself. They topped it off with more chants. I’m not entirely sure why they call it 英格玛.

I’ve just published a list of 100 songs in Chinese (mostly Mandarin, but also Cantonese… and maybe Hokkien… can’t be sure of that) that’s a great cheat sheet for anyone wanting to show off their knowledge of the scene. There’s definitely a wide variety of artists, so you’re sure to find something you enjoy.

yammag-100-songs-in-chinese-music

Visit YAM Magazine for the list with a link included to the YouTube playlist.

My Life in Music

August 2, 2015 — Leave a comment

Will keep this list updated here.

Well~ that was a LONG process. Buth ere it is, after nearly four months of movie-watching and voting… the YAM Magazine team’s favorite movies of this decade so far~ Hope you find one you like, discover one… and that we included some of your favorites!

yammag-best-decade-so-far

Do your thing~

Oldie song, but new performance at… what seems, the Bird Nest Stadium in Beijing.

Mayday has just released the Nowhere Concert Movie in four editions: 3D BR + Live in Live Making-Of the concert DVD, Simple BR, Free Region DVD, and the DVD with the Making-Of.

They’ve also re-released their albums in Chinese versions, and I’ve seen (super expensive) Vinyls, as well.

I still can’t believe Asian Blurays are so expensive compared to their US counterparts. Now we all gotta way for Asian movies to be released in America.

Since I was kinda lukewarm with Season 2 of The Voice of China, and the format of the show seems to have expanded… and I don’t have my dad to watch with, I haven’t been following this year’s season. Just reading Cfensi’s recaps. xD

Also, there’s not as much variety of music genres and voices like in the first season. However, I’m always game for someone who wants to sing Mayday, because as my dad would note… there is a certain flare to Mayday’s music, as well as Ashin’s voice (plus composition skills!). Nobody can really do Mayday’s music like Mayday can.

But damn~ Chen Bing (陈冰), aka. Kiki, does it pretty well.

I’m not sure about being Kiki Chen, though. And it can’t be plain Kiki, because there’s Kiki from Milk@Coffee.

You can also get the clean song on Xiami, because those damn The Voice special effects can get in the way.

Paraphrasing this different…

小时候,爸爸说《睡不着的时候就看看天空找到最亮的那颗星星,魔法师就会送你一个美梦》。睡梦中,我知道魔法师带着爸爸回来了。

When I was little, dad used to say, “when you can’t sleep, just look to the sky. Find the brightest star, and the magician will grant you a beautiful dream.” In the dream, I know the magician will bring my father back.

Father’s day is coming up soon, and all the promotion has made it a difficult start of the month. This is the latest song to make me cry.

My Dad’s Mayday Playlist

October 6, 2013 — 1 Comment

For the past year, my dad had become a really big Mayday fan. I think this happened right after watching the concert film Mayday 3DNA, he used to show it to his friends and carry the film as well as their discography on his USB ALL THE FREAKING TIME. When I retrieved his USB, he had the discography on.

So… as a means to remember him, I made a short playlist with some of their songs.

[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL7meHYcWQv4grFX0-edj4hW8TVGJf3tCN” /]

  1. 時光機 (Shi Guang Ji) – Time Machine
  2. 我們 (時時刻刻) (Wo Men (Shi Shi Ke Ke)) – Us/Moment by Moment
  3. 倔強 (Jue Jiang) – Stubborn
  4. 知足 (Zhi Zu) – Contentment
  5. 戀愛ING (Lian Ai-I-N-G) – Love-I-N-G
  6. 盛夏光年 (Sheng Xia Guang Nian) – Eternal Summer
  7. 擁抱 (Yong Bao) – Embrace
  8. 為愛而生 (Wei Ai Er Sheng) – Born to Love
  9. 離開地球表面 (Li Kai Di Qiu Biao Mian) – Leaving the Surface of the Earth
  10. 乾杯 (Gan Bei) – Cheers

I just began listening (truly listen) to Mayday’s discography pre the Born to Love days, finishing off titles/pinyin/title translations, when I ran into this song titled Masquerade (Male, Female, One Body) from their 2003 album, Time Machine (時光機). The thing is, the title of the song is Ci Xiong Tong Ti (雌雄同體), which is the term used to refer to “hermaphrodites” (which, by the way, isn’t longer a term accepted for people, who are now referred to as “intersex”). Perplexed, thinking that Google Translate was giving me a wonky translation, I checked the dictionary to double check.

On a quick google search, I found a pretty terrific (singable) translation of the song.

Rather than you understand me—I’d rather be a mystery
A puzzle you just cannot solve, of what’s false and real, it’ll play at your heartstrings
I’ll play you, or play your opposite form; partake in this game of love that you’ve borne.

via NoStarWords @ LJ + starriheavens

My mind was melted. I mean, it’s not VERY often you get playful duality in music, playing on gender-role conventions and completely avoiding the titillation that seethes from… well, everywhere now.

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