Category Archives: Music

Getting to Java Jazz Festival 2010

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As advertised by Indonesia TV channels, as well as Euronews TV across Europe and TV cables, Java Jazz is getting bigger this year.

Java Jazz Festival is an annual event in Jakarta to attract and satisfy jazz lovers with so many International Artists in the line up. This year in 2010, sponsored by Axis GSM, we’ll have Eric Benet, Babyface, Jason Mraz, and also previous years performer such as Chaka Kan. One of the highlight is The Manhattan Transfer and John Legend. Local jazz artists will also satisfy local flavour, from veterans like Barry Likumahuwa and Bubi Chen to younger generations like Ecoutez. Check daily schedule on their official website for artist line-up and those special performances.

This year, Java Jazz Festival venue is moved to Jakarta International Expo at Kemayoran. From 5-7 March 2010, we’ll have biggest names in Jazz world come and play at Jakarta with a special theme: tribute to Michael Jackson.

Entrance ticket is referred as daily pass since you can hop on and off any playing stages at any time during a day, priced IDR 300,000 (~USD 33) per day, or IDR 800,000 for 3-day pass. Online purchase will be cheaper, only IDR 220,000. For special performance like The Manhattan Transfer, you need to buy additional special show ticket, ranging from IDR 220,000 to 1,500,000 for John Legend’s best seat. Tickets are sold at several ticket boxes across Jakarta, but if you are foreigner, ticket purchase can be done using money transfer or online credit card payment (see official website here).

Where to stay

As it is moved to JIExpo at Kemayoran, staying at Semanggi The Sultan Hotel like previous years will not be the best spot. The nearest hotel to venue is Sheraton Media Hotel at Jalan Gunung Sahari. It is a bit old but still offer luxury.

Your best bet and also great location should be Novotel Mangga Dua (Agoda link or Accor official website). It is located in Mangga Dua Square, shopping and dining should not be a problem. The other one is 4-star Le Grandeur Hotel at Mangga Dua shopping complex. Both hotel offers affordable luxury from around USD 50-80. Java Jazz venue is 5-10 minutes taxi drive from Mangga Dua.

More hotel selections to book, refer to Hotel Reservation in Jakarta

Transportation

One of the drawback of holding event at Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran is its location and access. Although it is still categorized as city center at North Jakarta, as an ex-airfield, only few public transportation passes this large complex. The only reliable solution is by taking taxi or private car to the area. While going to Kemayoran is easy since you can hail any taxis near your location, getting back to home or hotel was a bit problem. Taxi queue is long but supply is rare, but I don’t know if there will be improvement for this.


Upcoming Jay Chou New Album 2008

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Jay Chou Capricorn Album CoverTired of my old Jay Chou  ??? MP3 Collections, I have been playing them again and again. When will Jay Chou new album be released?

The last album was released on Nov 2, 2007 (Cowboy on the Run). And the latest song introduced by him was Kungfu Dunk OST and ???? (Thousands Mile) for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. So many fans have been waiting for real 2008 new album release.

After rumour said it would be released on August 2008, delay .. and delay, then here comes the exact date of Jay album release: 9 October 2008 (from Jay-chou.net) while pre-order starts on 24th September 2008. Album title name is not published yet Capricorn (???).

What new style will he bring in this album? Cover album is a bit dark since Jay imitated Joker (from Batman Dark Knight) style. It is said that first hit single will be titled “Fragrant Rice“. Let’s wait for this song and lyrics.

>> Update 1 Oct 2008
Source: JayCN (cn.jaycn.com)
Original Source: Apple Daily ??????
Translation: stitchphil (www.jay-chou.net)
Jay Chou’s new album has been leaked online (again). Scheduled to be released on the 9th this month, “Capricorn” can now be found on several Mainland China websites, available for download. His company, JVR Music, announced in a statement yesterday that the leaked songs were not the final versions from the album (probably demos), and they (the 11 songs) were not the final track listing. From “November’s Chopin” to “On the Run” and now “Capricorn”, songs from the albums were leaked before the albums’ scheduled release, leading one to question if this was a publicity stunt to gather more attention and news. In the JVR Music’s official statement, the company reiterated the damaging impact piracy has (on them), and stated that they would never resort to such a shameful publicity stunt.

What I’ve got was pretty obvious, I could say is the recording is near production (if they still call them demos). Dunno, but some tracks I heard were a bit ‘not smooth’ and some false notes sung by Jay. Track list for Capricorn album is here. Also dunno who post it, but you can freely download full Jay Chou Capricorn album from here.

Apparently, previous leaked album have incorrect song titles. Latest post told that this is the correct one. When I was in Hong Kong, Capricorn album cover is this:

01. ???? (Dragon War Rider)
02. ???????? (Give Me A Song’s Time)
03. ?? (Snake Dance)
04. ?? (Sea Flower)
05. ???? (Mr. Magic)
06. ?????? (So Good That Happiness?)
07. ??? (Orchid Pavillion Series)
08. ???? (Wandering Poet)
09. ??? (Time Machine)
10. ???? (Uncle Joker)
11. ?? (Rice Fragrance)

Movie Review: Red Cliff

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This is my first post after upgrading my wordpress to 2.6 :)

My Rating for this movie : 7.5 of 10
Red Cliff

From Wiki: Red Cliff (?? chi bi) is two-part movie directed by John Woo to bring back story on the Battle of Red Cliffs and events during the Three Kingdoms period in ancient China. stars Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Hu Jun, Lin Chi-ling and Zhao Wei. With an estimated budget of US$80 million, Red Cliff is the most expensive Asian-financed film to date.

I can say that story telling is superb and describing war strategy in quite a good way. This movie first part is pretty long: 2 hours and 10 minutes, but all casts are in there in their own enough screen time. From perspective of non-Three Kingdoms-novel-reader, I think you will not get lost in the story, it describes each character quite well until you can learn them more from wiki or history book. Some parts of this movie has subplot you can watch in Three Kingdoms movie about General Zhao (played by Andy Lau).

What a failure of this movie is at its cast. Besides Tony Leung, Zhao Wei, and Chang Chen, I think cast for Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), Guan Yu and Zhang Fei is disappointing. I prefer cast at Three Kingdom (Ressurection of the Dragon) as it is more realistic. Also this movie stuntmen are all not screen friendly, fighting scene also lose to some other epic movie. Another lack is music, as far as I know there is no themesong in this film.

Just cannot wait for the second part of this movie, which is expected to screen on January 2009.

Om Farhan back to radio, now in Delta FM

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It’s been a while I missed Farhan, tv and radio host. Since his late night show ‘Om Farhan’ losts it grip and attention from Empat Mata show (hosted by Tukul Arwana), we don’t see Farhan much. Since his career rose from Prambors to Cosmopolitan FM, then his tv appearance made him busy, current morning radio talk show in Cosmopolitan FM seems dull for me.

Then advertisement in Kompas several days ago got my attention. A nice advertisement Delta FM with a picture of Farhan helping elderly mother. It didn’t mention about Farhan movement, but I could understand that this is movement advertisment. So I turned my radio this morning to Delta FM 99.1 and quite surprise with his ‘old and lovely’ voice.

Welcome back, uncle!

Music Lyrics: Cowboy on the run ???? – Jay Chou ???

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Get stunned when I see my wordpress stats, suddenly traffic to my site jump significantly after I posted On The Run Album Review. With some keyword search in Google actually my post is #1 entry. Okay.. as requested by many visitors, I post first song’s lyrics including mandarin pinyin and translation that I got from Jay-Chou.net.

Many folks don’t quite like this first track, but I personally like it very much, as much as I like Ting Ma Ma De Hua from previous album. Try to listen carefully and notice the speed and urgency feeling, you can hear it when chasing your front car or doing homework, tiok bo!

Bookmark my site JavaMilk.com in your browser or rss reader since I’ll be posting next tracks’ lyrics soon.

???? | Niu Zai Hen Mang| Cowboy on the Run

?????
Qu: Zhou Jie Lun
Music: Jay Chou

?????
Ci: Huang Jun Lang
Lyrics: Huang Jun Lang
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Album Review: Jay Chou – On The Run

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Jay Chou On The RunA long awaiting album finally came up yesterday, latest album of Jay Chou ??? named On The Run which is taken from first tract title Cowboy on the run (????). It is released on Nov 2, 2007 but has already been available at torrent download and forum site since night Nov 1.

I recommend you to clear away any expectations from your mind. This album is very fresh in music and style meanwhile still retain Jay’s unique singing technique. You should not compare it to previous albums as I think Jay also tries to do some experimental changes. I can say that I love all the tracks in this album. Each track has a hit-point and very easy will top all charts.

Here is the tracklist of the album:
01 ????
I love this track since beginning. Old Cowboy mixed in fast-paced music but will not make you as old as lau-ah-ma.

02 ??
Slow and melodic song, accompanied only with guitars at the beginning. Easily bring you into karaoke box lah..

03 ???
A bit worry about how Jay sings this song, many twists on notes but bring a memory of hongkong kungfu film.

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