halfcactus | Entries tagged with cvariety: time concert

Books

John le Carré, "Call for the Dead"

TV/Movies

Furiosa (2024)

Rookie (2023)

侠探简不知 Ancient Detective (2020)

June was a comedy of technological errors—first my phone battery overheating (got a third-party battery replacement—hopefully the issue is resolved), then my work computer smelling like it was burning (I just shut it down for the rest of the day; I think it's fine now??), and then yesterday my AC died...

We've also been having a lot of ant problems which

umichii wonders might be an effect of climate change, since it's been unreasonably hot even when we've technically entered the rainy season; her place has too been besieged by excessively aggressive ants...

In our case we have multiple ant colonies—small black ants, small red ants, and the fearless red ants that will bite you multiple times just for getting in their way (I've developed a fear of them). They've gotten into our pack of uncooked oatmeal, our unopened packs of Indomie (where they've also gotten into a spice packet and died), and around my brother's toothpaste (once again to their own little deaths)... The ants will appear on the dining table as we're eating, sensing the food but not caring that we're right there. Thankfully my room and the sugar scrub I keep on the bathroom counter have been *knocks on wood* relatively safe. And for the past twelve hours the ants have left us alone so I really, really hope they're done with their stockpiling frenzy. ;__;

+ Today I finally finished Time Concert: Old Friends, which ends—very movingly—with a surprise reappearance from Tank, who not only performs a song onstage on his own, but performs a new one that he wrote for the show, after guesting on it in the beginning of the season:

Watch on YouTube

They even got the audience to learn the song so he would be less nervous-you can hear them continuing the song when he falters. (Tank had previously confessed to debilitating anxiety due to health issues and a traumatic performance experience, and could only perform in Time Concert if other people were singing with him onstage). :') So happy for him to be taking baby steps back into music life, but kind of worried that he seems to be continuing to lose weight. Also really happy to see G.E.M. (who's earned herself the title of the in-house crybaby) get more comfortable in the show and seeing Zhang Jie root so hard for her to be more confident in herself. :')

Aaaaaand now idk what to put in the background while working... I'm not as interested in the previous seasons of Time Concert because I was specifically interested in this season's guests (G.E.M., Ella, and Tank—and apparently also Penny Tai of Taiwanese Meteor Garden fame, and, at some point, Jia from Miss A)... I guess I should get back into podcasts.

Signed up to be a creator in Cdrama Gotcha for Gaza where you can request a gift in the eligible fandoms if you donate in amounts of 5 USD or 8 USD. Deadline for gift submissions is May 15, so turnaround time is relatively quick.

Because my Photoshop is broken, I can unfortunately only sign up for video edits, with graphics/GIFs as a secondary/last-resort medium. :( On the other hand, updating my OS means I have a version of Resolve that supports mkv files! I used to have to convert my video files which was a huuuuuge pain for Qihun fanvids.

Eiyuden Chronicle (spiritual successor to Suikoden) appears to be dropping this week! I haven't even finished my first FE3H run haha oops. Since I have nostalgia fatigue, I am fully prepared to hate it.

April has been pretty busy and super hot. I have for various reasons accrued a lot of sleep debt, so my fandom plans are to catch up on sleep before getting down on my G4G assignment.

Picked up Time Concert: Old Friends again - found out that there's an actual concert (a small one, for audience interaction) at the end of the show!?!? The crowd reaction to G.E.M. was so energizing:

Watch on YouTube

I did these back in September but I was going through my works this year and thought I'd round them up for archiving purposes...

Note: Dailymotion doesn't appear to automatically display external subtitles, so you have to tap the captions icon (bottom right) or gear icon (upper right).

SO many feelings about this performance and how much Tank is leaning on the cast to help him get through it—and Ella, Zhang Jie, and Penny giving him the best support. He was a nervous wreck beforehand and utterly relieved afterwards. （；へ：）He nailed it, though!!!

Related Links:

subbed: Tank, "Three Kingdom Love" (Time Concert performance)

subbed: Tank's Time Concert entrance—reuniting with Ella!

subbed: Ella and Tank talking about meeting in 2005

subbed: Tank talking about his physical and mental deteriorations (an edited cut for copyright reasons)

subbed: Reminiscing about Hana Kimi (S.H.E, Tank, Fahrenheit era) (this one has lots of typos oops!)

I think this might be my favorite musical selection so far (minus the Tank performances from eps 1 and 2 which I'm still feeling feral about)! Great mix of genres and musical styles, sweetly ending with a duet. Huang Ling was one of the guests, which added some variety + there was a cute part where they were trying to get her to sing various songs in her style (she's a gufeng singer).

G.E.M. - 李香兰 (Jacky Cheung cover)

Watch on YouTube

G.E.M. was really set on doing a Cantonese song, since a number of the other guests were from HK. ♥ I loved seeing how comfortable and excited she was with this performance, considering how she started this show confessing she was terrified to do covers.

Jason Zhang - 孤勇者 (Eason Chan/Arcane OST cover)

Watch on YouTube

Dedicated to Susu(???? one of the guys), this is probably a pretty ~basic~ choice (not that I have ever tired of this song), but the drumline, extra instrumentation, and the building, cresting momentum brought the goosebumps and emotions out of me hahaha. (And while Zhang Jie's generally a very versatile vocalist, his style and energy are especially right for these types of songs.)

I've also been obsessed with the version of 天下 that Zhang Jie did to kick off this season! It's a fresh acoustic arrangement with a guitarist he apparently bonded with, and this performance made me realize why he loves the show so much! The band, the comfy and intimate setting, how happy he is to sing among fellow professionals...

Watch on YouTube

Saw that Liu Tao also does her Nirvana in Fire song in one of the later episodes (if that thumbnail I saw was indeed for this season...), so I'm hoping I can catch up and get there! I really wish they'd put the songs from this season on Apple Music like they did for season 1. ;____; I'm still desperate to have the Time Concert versions of Personal Angel + Three Kingdom Love at my listening convenience. ;__;

Hamilton

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My Five Elements Lack You (49/107)

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Mysterious Lotus Casebook

I can't tell if I want to write a separate and long-winded post about this, or end up being too lazy to summarize my thoughts, but anyway, we finished it! The last few eps were not great (for many different reasons), but had some good dialogue... I kept my expectations low, so the show didn't actually disappoint me, but I was way more annoyed with the Nanyin storyline than I expected to be. (I thought I had high tolerance but the """twists""" at the end hit my rage button lol.)

Shortbox Comics

I spent all of October trying to decide what to get and facilitating a 5-way trade, and naturally now that the hard part is over I have no motivation to read hahahaha

I did finish reading what I got for myself: Birds of the Storm, Light Through Memory, and Minnow Soup. All of them were visually satisfying, and Light Through Memory was an interesting experience.

Ripe Town (8/12)

Now that we're familiar with the relevant characters as well as the factions in the story, I'm invested. There are also more group dynamics at this point, compared to the first half where it was all very individualistic with no one you could trust, but I still wonder about the show's stance on morality and what the conclusion will be. The episodes are getting longer though... (I have been duly warned that the last ep is an hour and 40 minutes long, so at least I won't be shocked. XD)

Time Concert: Old Friends ep5

G.E.M. performing 平行世界/Parallel, which I just learned that she wrote herself. She plays the piano here too ♥ Prior to that, she explains that while she wrote it for a movie, she had her beloved maternal grandma, who passed away when she was 19, in mind during the writing process. ;___;

Watch on YouTube

First of all: Zhang Xincheng has been releasing tracks from his mini-album, culminating in a music video that I (unexpectedly) like a lot! The teaser caught my attention because it was giving sapphic vibes, so the part in the MV with "our unbreakable friendship" made me LOL.

Watch on YouTube

Lyrics are by ZXC himself. While they are not the most poetic, they are sincere and uplifting. Both visuals and message remind me a lot of Reese Lansangan's St. Petersburg (about giving the listener the time and space to wander) and Easier (a song for her fan-community: I know I can’t change the world to make it better, no / I can’t heal the wounds / But I can proudly show you how I bruise).

St. Petersburg in particular is one I remember accompanying me when I felt sad and overwhelmed, so much that I have an embarrassing blog entry about it from 2016. (And I'm highly reccing the MV if you want the island + community + FOOD experience and a true sense of space and light, and not just the idealized aesthetic hehehe (it's pretty much a travelogue set to music)

+I've been listening to Easier a lot lately!

Watch on YouTube

I spent September and October making lyric videos of ZXC's other tracks (all compiled here) and at this point I'm ready to retire my Youtube channel lol??? I've been feeling extremely non-fandom-y and lately I want to go back to personal journaling; my planner is nothing but boring and increasingly long daily to-do-lists now and I think it's affecting me. I need quiet time and visual stimulation!!!!!

Time Concert: Old Friends

A list of ep2 things!

It is revealed that G.E.M. almost declined to join the show (at Jason Zhang's invitation) because she was nervous about having to sing covers; she attributes the success of her songs to the people who wrote and produced them for her, declaring her own singing quite ordinary. (+ She debuted early and never had the chance to play around with music or do covers, it seems.)

Ella is very consistent in her advice to just enjoy the time onstage. :') It's very sweet and it makes me glad to know that she likes performing!

Tank talks about how his older sister always fully supported his decision to pursue music (whereas their parents objected) until she passed away from heart problems. :( If I Become a Memory was written for her. And he talks about how Ella always made him feel safe and reminds him of his sister. Their siblingly dynamic is so sweet and cute!

ELLA, using her normal outside voice:
SO? NOT NERVOUS ANYMORE, ARE YOU? :D :D :D

TANK, embarrassed and long-suffering:
Can you lower your voice!!!

Personal Angel transforming from a song written for Hana Kimi to a very personal one about his sister, his friends, and all the people who've given him strength and watched over him. ;___; And Ella singing it with him because he still had stage trauma, and it turned out to be such a lovely duet, one I loved before knowing the context of their performance. I guess it makes sense for Ella to be so natural with harmonies since she used to be in a girl group, but her voice really is so smooth and unique. ;___;

Roy Wang (TFBOYS) telling Tank that Personal Angel had also given him strength. He has covered it before (Tank, smiling: "I saw.") and the covers helped him get fans.

Watch on YouTube

Tank! And Ella! Singing the Taiwanese Hana Kimi ED! In the year 2023!!!!

Diving into this show (Time Concert: Old Friends) for a bit because I saw this duet and I desperately want to know how Tank has been since I last thought of him??? I had no idea he was still active, but yeah!!! He sings 三国恋 in episode 1 and I can't wait to get there!!!

Other notable guests are G.E.M. (who

gixininja has informed me was Tan Jianci's childhood friend) and Jia from Miss A

*Ella and Tank reuniting*
https://youtube.com/shorts/mBYD8qmJ1iI

ELLA:
The last time I saw you was probably at your wedding.

TANK:
Right, right.

ELLA:
And then you got divorced, huh?

TANK:
You are SO annoying!!! >:(

Edit: I've watched a bit of ep1 and apparently Tank really just did disappear for years, and the answer is quite upsetting. :( Heart issues + subsequent anxiety——the latter acted up even during the episode so he had to take a break from filming the episode. :(