Chen Wei-Leng's 60th Birthday Party

A respected clarinet performer and teacher in Taiwan is celebrating his 60th birthday tonight. He is actually the teacher of my teacher, and he's still actively perform and teaching. He taught a lot students and many of them established themselves a successful career from university lecturers/dean to orchestra players/soloists.

On the other hand, I heard that one of the Malaysian student who went Taiwan to study with him, FFK-ed this Taiwan clarinet taiko, Malaysia Boleh.

We threw a party for him, performed some shows, played some games, and looked at his old photos, he looks like a Pakistani during his younger days. At the end, we played happy birthday song to him with clarinet, took photos, and had some awesome fruit cakes. 

I met up with some long time no see friends too, it was great to see them again. =)

He don't look like he's 60 in real person, seriously. 

yay, group photo

This is how a man in 60 celebrate his birthday

I don't know if I can even move like that when I'm 60

In the name of OJA

An update just for the sake of update per requested by a friend. 

Sunny hot Sunday, went to listened to my classmates' string quartet performance at 十方樂集，a cozy small recital hall located in a small alleyway near Yuanshan MRT station. 

Met with a few uni mates, some teachers, and I sat beside my head department Onion Yang.  Sitting with him wasn't good or bad choice, it's just really hard for two person who are both not socially good to carry out a normal or fun conversation, we tried hard though. 

The quartet performance was damn well, they played Haydn's op.76 "Emperor", Ravel's String Quartet in F major and Tchaikovsky's op.11

After that I had some time left before the sunset, I went to ride my bike along the north coast as the sun sunk quietly into the ocean bidding farewell to the people on the beach.

not my best shot though

Cycle from Zhuwei to Songshan

Last Friday went cycling with a friend, he's one kind of giving me surprise because he's a music composition major, the kind that gives me the impression of some nerd locking himself in a room writing music whole day and exercise isn't part of their routine.

We actually cycled from Zhuwei station to Songshan station, damn far damn depressing, to put in KL people's term, that's like cycling from Sungai Long to KLCC, #@$X&!!!!

More over I had 4 slices of pizzas before the trip, a celebration party threw by our orchestra conductor maestro Fusao Kojima, a short and fun one.

The trip turned out to be quite fun, Taipei government spend some effort in building pathways for the cyclist along the river, make it a safe and leisure activity. Malaysia has quite a long way to achieve that I guess.

 

 

 

We ended up in Raohe night market, a night market I came only for the 3rd time for I had already stayed in Taipei for 4 years, the first time was with a Malaysian friend who came here as tourist, the 2nd time with my high school friends for their honeymoon trip. 

Ate some night market food to replenish our energy or waste our exercise effort, and then walked around the newly built subway mall nearby, then we went back by MRT.

Appreciation Dinner with my K.581 ensemble

Spent quite much time rehearse together for my graduation recital, I decide to give a good treat and some allowance to my ensemble members, dining at the Tasty 西提 restaurant at the Tamsui riverside, a restaurant serve a course of steak for around NTD500++

This restaurant is under the Wang Pin 王品 group, well known for their service, the waiter treats customer politely, and they generously give replacements or compensations for reasonable complaints. I do kind of surprise when I first visited this restaurant, well, I grow up at a place that don't really have restaurants with friendly waiters =P. A recommended place for tourist.

Tonight's dinner and hang out turned out to be quite surprisingly better than expected. Because of my lack of social skills, I was initially worried getting very cold atmosphere and it wouldn't last for more than an hour, our dinner + unscheduled hangout instead lasted from 7pm until 12am, keeping the conversation going on wasn't easy too. 

Thank goodness I actually found a group of nice people, we can really talk with each other so much, only when we're not doing rehearsals XD . I guess I really need to put more effort in coordinating and leading an ensemble. 

Thanks a lot folks, you made my last year in uni a memorable and "exciting" one XD , will miss you guys. 

a polaroid taken at the end of dinner

19 April 2016 TNUA Graduation Recital

19th April 2016 is my big big day, I'm having my graduation recital for my undergraduate studies.

Unique because the only in my class without photo and pure art concept

From the preparation stage until the presentation and clean up, it wasn't easy although I have already taken least possible steps. Decide the repertoires, getting accompanists, poster and invitation card designer, getting work crew, setting up rehearsals, printing promotional materials, sending invitation cards, prepare the concert venue, everything to be accomplished in 2 months' time.

It's even more exciting when your teacher decides to go oversea and take break during the spring break, I practically only get to see my teacher around 5 times before I go on stage XD. By the way, congratulation to Wei Pan 潘微, my year one junior who merged up as the 1st prize in a clarinet competition in China, way better accomplishment than my recital XD. 

some of my friends' poster

The moment things set in motion, hell unleashed. It was the first time I’m doing these kind of stuffs, I’m a little too optimistic. A lot of things were behind the schedule due to unforeseen circumstances like quintet members’ conflicting schedule, improving the poster design, time needed for printings, and fund shortage due to cutting down part time jobs.

I have totally zero experience in working with string quartets, to the extend one of the member wasn't pleased with the progress, she voluntarily withdrew but still grace enough to get a replacement, she was a promising member. During the rehearsal, we always look at each other expecting for directions rather than giving suggestion, it was my biggest mistake to rehearse without a more experienced 3rd-party to supervise us. Things really tensed up, but I am really lucky that my members willing to give me a lot of suggestion when I approached them personally, and getting some friends to supervise our rehearsal. 

Invitation Card

Originally deemed failed concept, decide to use it anyway, surprisingly turned out to be invitees' most favourite and preferred card. (I have 2 designs, the other similar to poster)

Sending out invitations wasnt easy either, I handwritten all the invitations, at least to all my classmate (about 70 of them) and followed up by the juniors. It’s really time consuming, I actually skipped a few days of practice just to write cards. In the end I failed to write to some friends, but I still write to them after the recital to make up.

On the day itself, I initially plan to do a run through in the morning, take afternoon nap and get ready for evening recital. But I forgot to prepare the entry ticket!! A rule just implemented this year to control the quantity of the crowds. I instead spend the day preparing it, called up some good friends to help out however turn out to be bad friends asking me go to shopping instead.

Bio in chinese, sorry if you don't understand

And then the recital, damn bloody nervous wei.. Mistakes happens due to pressure and nervous, luckily no big shit except a few technical slips, I managed to get steady not long after into performance. Funny things still happens like knocked into the piano, stopping the pianist when he’s about to start cuz I need to adjust the stand, etc etc.  The most fatal is running out of stamina, where my embouchure could barely hold anymore, its like a plane almost decompose into pieces but managed to land safely. Thank god.

Mozart K.581 & Horovitz Sonatina

At the end, the highlight of my graduation recital wasn't my performance, but the poster, invitation card and my program notes(bio) instead.

Photo and social moment after everything ends. I will miss my classmates, friends, teachers, everyone in Taiwan very very much. Anyway, I'm not really graduating this year, doing planned delay. Good night !

Movie marathon, Mermaid Deadpool OlaBola

Apart from eat drink gamble, I came to a first time opportunity, movie marathon, 3 movies straight in a row. Thanks to a new friend from TAR accounting student Vincent, which is seasoned for doing movie marathon.

The day started a lunch with boss/friend Ujin, which haven't seen him for quite some time. It was a brief meeting, we had udon and I left shortly after because we're going to meet again two days later for lunch again. I was called for movie afterwards, wasn't expecting to run a marathon, too old for this stunt.

The whole thing was fun, Taiwan uni mates Ernest, Lau Seng and 3 new friends pulled it off. We watched Stephen Chow's The Mermaid, Ryan Reynold's Deadpool and Malaysian film Ola Bola. All 3 movies are good! And I think I watched them in a rather nice order, like how mentioned above.

We watched mermaid first, the movie itself is nice, the storyline, the cast, the idea, etc, except for the CGI, HK movies really need more effort in it. The movie is about how a rich man development plan destroying the aquamarine ecosystem, and putting a stop to it. A movie gave me thoughts about environment issue, serious and raising awareness. It comes together with classic Stephen Chow's jokes and love story, the jokes part is really out dated, it was really funny if I watch his early works, but felt kind of out of place when they are presented in today's work. However I like the way he present the human relationship, it was nice and serious, I enjoyed both in his early and recent works.

The Mermaid aka Please Save the Environment

Next, followed up immediately a washroom interval, is DEADPOOL. It was kind of classic, a standard hero movie however brilliantly presented in an unconventional, funny way. Since the character is potrayed psycho in original works, I think it is good the movie was produced this way. This movie is nothing much to me but serve as purely entertainment and relaxation, because the next movie is really wearing me out. Like said, standard superhero movies, I don't need to elaborate much.

DEADPOOL aka Stupid and Funny Stuntman

Lastly the loca patriotic movie, Ola Bola, based on the football history in Malaysia, it tells a story of locals training and playing so hard to get into Moscow Olympics. The movie really displays all the Malaysian culture, especially all the typical funny stuffs only Malaysian can understand. Sadly I think, this is really a movies only Malaysian can understand because of our very unique cultural mix, if its for foreigners to watch, I guess it doesn't make much sense at all, it takes people who understand Malaysia culture and history to understand the feelings in this movie. I really enjoyed it, the way we talk, we argue, the dialect, the mashed up language, the unique funny pattern that each race has (racist joke), and above all, how we overcome the obstacles together without the racial barrier, I felt so touching and passionate, so damn patriot, and really wanted to sit that classic old train in that amazing beautiful forest in Sabah. 

Ola Bola: I Reallllyyyy Believe

Chinese New Year 2016

Taking a break from studies in Taiwan, for Chinese New Year in Malaysia.

Last year, was quite engaged with stuffs so couldn't make it back, had to skip, it was a cold (winter season) and lonely (everyone's back, of course) CNY.

A rather disastrous year for Taiwan, coldest winter, strongest typhoon, and an earthquake at the northern region. Snows at multiple low grounds, roofs are being teared away by the strong winds, and buildings collapse with dead and missing counts, I pray things to get in good shape soon.

This year CNY is a fun one. A family that stay far and seldom show up, came and celebrated with us. Cousins are lovely as ever, Rylie the talkative, Wei2 the picky on food, Eeren the semi-pro camera man, and etc etc..

Older cousin is getting married, younger cousin ady married and has a child, time flies huh?

Going to have dinner tomorrow with the KOHS, some of them came to Taiwan for trip last December, it was surely fun as hell, can't wait to see them again.

Sign off.

Courtesy of the semi-cam man (1st row right)

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR