Music Obsessions – March 2018

March is my birthday month, which puts me in a right mood to just share a lot of stuff I’ve been enjoying. I’ve been still in the nostalgic phase where I’m diving into a lot of older music. However, I did end up finding some old music that is new to me and The Voice is back so I’ve been catching up with some music on that front as well. No The Voice contestant has stood out yet to me and performances and such so nothing on this one. Let’s just hop right in!

Medicine – Kelly Clarkson

I really love Kelly  Clarkson. She has a fantastic voice. Its nice to see her as a coash on The Voice this year. There’s been so many great moments. Medicine is so catchy and honestly, its been just on repeat.

Be Ur Man – Alan Kuo

Alan Kuo came back on my radar lately because of TV series OCTB. The TV binge is coming up for that one. I’ve always thought that he’s really good since his first album and he’s definitely improved a ton, even in the maturity of his music and lyrics. This one is a nice fun one.

Justin Timberlake vs. Brittany Spears Mash-Up – Sam Tsui, Madilyn Bailey & Kurt Hugo Schneider

I love mash-ups and Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears both has some good music. However, this one is pretty fun to listen to. I can’t say a lot of recent music has really been that good so I’m listening back to older music. Yes, it applies to the new Justin Timberlake music that I’ve heard so far (which is like only 2 songs in the album). Go ahead and gasp but its just my opinion, at least for now.

OCTB Main Theme – 大丈夫 (rearranged from 1976 original)

OCTB is my new favorite series that I’ve seen lately. I’ll talk all about it in the upcoming posts. This series was born out of the passion to make Hong Kong film and TV as great as back in the day and was launched for free as a web series then was picked up by Netflix. Just like much of the soundtrack in OCTB, it uses a few older songs. The theme was originally a song from a 1976 movie and is now rearranged and resang by the cast of OCTB and just works so well here and I love it.

House of Cards – KSHMR (feat. Sidnie Tipton) 

I’ve already talked about my love for electronic music and KSHMR so this one is not my fave but doesn’t disappoint as always.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
Hope you like it!
What songs have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions [November 2017]

Its November!!! Its kind of hard to really acknowledge how fast 2017 has gone by. Perhaps its being busy with all the projects and all the life stuff that just keeps bombarding us. The past month was one that needed a lot of music to get through. Sure, we had vacation so music for the road but also a lot of big decisions and stressful times and frustrating bits. We made it through and I can’t say that music wasn’t a big part of it since its always there for me. The Voice Season 13 finished up their blind auditions and the battles which took a lot of my time as well so maybe we will see some influence here. It always kicks up my desire to sing all the time so I went back to check on some 90s Hong Kong pop since that is how I got into the whole loving to sing.

Let’s check it out!

Live Goes On – Grasshopper 草蜢

Yesterday’s Song – Hunter Hayes

Evolution of Boy Bands – Kurt Hugo Schneider ft Sam Tsui & Michael Constantino

Freeze Time – Jonathan Roy x Deepend

誰明浪子心 (Who Understands a Drifter’s Heart) – Dave Wong

A nice mix of some upbeat music and some Hong Kong pop from old and new. I just realized as I was compiling this that I was listening to a lot of songs on repeat so it was pretty  hard to narrow it all down. Here are the ones that has been playing the most on repeat. There’s not really much to say. The other stuff on my Youtube playlist are some of The Voice battles.

Happy Sunday!
What have you been listening to?

Music Obsessions: Christmas Special

Today is a nice and relaxing Christmas so we’re going to take it super easy and have some lovely Christmas music!

I did promise it earlier this month. 😉 We all know that you have that Christmas music playing anyways, right? I’m giving you all some alternative to the radio music.

O Little Town of Bethlehem – Voiceplay

Baby It’s Cold Outside – Tiffany Alvord & Danny Padilla (Holiday Cover)

Keep You Warm –  Sam Tsui & Kina Grannis

And for those of you not celebrating Christmas, here’s a little extra:

Set It All Free – Sam Tsui & Madilyn Bailey

Duck Tales Theme – All-New DuckTales Cast

Thanks for stopping by! Have a beautiful and awesome day!
Merry Christmas!!!

Music Obsessions & Something Else [September 2016]

Can you believe it? September is here! That means autumn is just around the corner!

I’m falling away from the Sunday posts for these music obsessions but I think it fits well for kickstarting a Friday as well! When I started this post, I couldn’t really think of music that has really been impacting me this past month. I’ve been gaming or binging TV series instead of watching movies or listening to music. It is really my fault. Maybe there will be less selections, or maybe not. You’ll see right now! 🙂

We’ll add a little extra with one  other videos that I’ve loved watching over and over again!

CLOSER – The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey – Sam Tsui, Kirsten Collins, Lia Kim, KHS (Cover)

Fireflies – Bassjackers ft. Luciana

Graveyard – Kura

This Time – Lea Michele (Glee Final Season)

I Lived – Glee (Glee Final Season)

and the little extra bit..with lots of magic!

I guess this posts shows that I’ve just finished binge watching Glee Final Season! If things are on track, the post should’ve gone up earlier this week but no guarantees since as I’m typing up this one, its not done yet 😉 Also, I just love that magic show on the channel Sam and Niko. Plus, I also love their main channel, Corridor Digital. These guys put out some of the most entertaining and creative videos.

What songs have you been listening to on repeat?

Music Obsessions: Valentine’s Day Special!

Happy Sunday, my lovelies!

We’re almost in the full swing of Valentine’s Day over here! I know its hard to accept it since tonight is all about Superbowl (if that’s your thing).  Well, we will be doing that while celebrating Chinese New Year’s Eve! Regardless, its pretty much in full swing this week.  I always try to keep it a little not all about romance, hence the beer chicken on Friday and some Oscar Best Picture reviews (if I manage to get it all watched).

However, romance is a big part in songs nowadays so let’s take a look at few.

Don’t Mess With My Girl – Jon McLaughlin

Stand By You/Stand By Me (Mashup) – Sam Tsui & Casey Breves

Save My Soul – Corey Gray

One Call Away – Charlie Puth (Cover by Mitchell Rose & Kurt Hugo Schneider)

Every Breath You Take (Deep Chills Remix) – The Police

Mashups, covers, remixes and originals: I think I got it all covered this time around! We’re back to regular Music Obsessions next month with some songs I’ve been obsessing over right now! I don’t see them leaving my mind or my playlist any time soon!

Hope you enjoyed! 

Music Obsessions (with a hint of bonus comedy)

I’m not sure how long Music Obsessions is going to last.  I’ve been on Youtube watching gaming videos more than I’m listening to music.  Plus, the radio has been having some pretty crappy songs on loop so I gave up on that for a little while. So this Music Obsessions, we will mess around a little and change it up with a comedy video at the end just in case music isn’t really your thing. But humor is subjective so hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Also, I’ll try out a new structure where I have certain categories and choose one song for it.  I might get a little sneaky and mess with this a little. Music Obsessions are about having fun so let’s just roll with it! 🙂

Electronic: Waysons – Eternal Minds

Positive: Tyler Ward – Better

Cover: Kurt Hugo Schneider & Sam Tsui – Honey I’m Good

Video Games: Craziest Zelda Piano Medley

(This is for you: Drew, V, Mikey, Mel)

Instrumental: The Piano Guys – Jurassic World Sonata

Bonus Comedy: The Whisper Challenge with Markiplier and Friends

Warning: There’s a bit of talk about NSFW stuff (you know, private parts, etc).
If you don’t like that sort of stuff, please refrain (or you could jump to the 3:39) !

And that’s it, my lovelies!

Happy SATURDAY!!! Have an awesome weekend! 🙂

Steve’s Music Mix: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

I looked forward to doing this week’s Steve’s Music Mix.

If you haven’t been current, Steve at Steve Says has a weekly music mix segment where we use the power of our MP3 players/Ipods and its shuffle mode to determine answers for 3 questions that he asks.

Here are the rules (copied from him):

Each week I will post 3 new questions so…

(1) Go to the music player of your choice and put it on shuffle
(2) Say the questions aloud and press play
(3) Use the song title as your answers
(4) NO CHEATING

Title your post “Steve’s Music Mix – …” and link back to this week’s page.

Post your response in the comment section of that week’s page.

You can check out his post and see other creative answers HERE!

Lets check out what my MP3 whipped up for his questions:

What should I do…?

–> Defying Gravity – Wicked soundtrack (Idina Menzel & Kristen Chenoworth)

Hmm…Defy gravity.  I like that.  Not literally but going against the norm or whatnot.  Maybe it is time to chase some dreams 😉

What I shouldn’t do…?

–> El Tango de Roxanne – Moulin Rouge Soundtrack (Ewan McGregor)

Definitely! I agree! I’m not much of a dancer even if I wished I actually had taken lessons.  So no tango and in the context of the song, I will not be selling my body to no one.

What I will do…?

–> Shadow – Sam Tsui

Become a shadow? Be haunted by someone’s shadow/my past? That second part happens occasionally already but right now is not really the time for it.  Maybe its just reminding me to put my past behind me and focus on the present.

There you go! I have to say, my MP3 was feeling quite depressed this week. Its giving me a ton of slow paced songs and partially musically.

Head over to Steve’s site and give this a shot! Lets see what your music has to say about what you should, shouldn’t and will do 😉 Have some fun! 🙂

Fun Times at the Concert!

I love music! Its part of my life.

Some time 2-3 years ago (or maybe longer) I started falling in love with YouTube independent artists.  I believe the first person to spark my attention was Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider.  I have shared some of their music before.  Due to my vacation week and not sure when I would be home, I had to also postpone getting the tickets to their first ever concert and it was along with Alex Goot (another very awesome independent artist) and a bunch of other great groups.

Last Friday, I finally decided that this was really something I wanted to do and there were still tickets left for last night’s show! My best friend came with me.  It was great of her to do so even if she wasn’t as into this as me.  I love the atmosphere of these standing concerts where we get to really move around and have fun with the artists on stage, scream and cheer them on with everybody else in the audience and just have a whole lot of fun! I’ve been to concerts like these at Metropolis and Cafe Campus but this one was called La Tulipe and it was a pretty good venue! 🙂

Somehow, I missed part of the first group that went on and didn’t even catch their group name but they did a really good job.

The group we went in that had started playing!

After that we had a local band go on called Perfect Sideline!

Perfect Sideline!

There are always treasures to be found in these gigs and this group was mine! They totally rocked it and was fantastic! When they were doing the transition, I went right ahead to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  Ah..the wonders of having a smart phone, right? Do things before I forget! SCORE!

Next up, we were joined by King The Kid.  A group that I started following when they were another name, Wellington, before one of their team members left. I have been a bit slack on that so I wasn’t as up to date with their music.

King The Kid –> Lead Vocalist

However, this group is energetic and they have great band members.  Ricky plays the heck out of those drums for one!

Ricky –> is awesome on the drums and great on guitar!

I will strive to catch up with their music now! 🙂

After that, they were followed by Against the Current.  I’ve only followed this group when they do collab videos with other independent artists that I follow on YouTube.  They are pretty good as well! The lead singer is a very energetic girl and she teams up with 3 other guys to play the guitar, bass and drums (I think?)

Against the Current

Right when we thought the wait could be no more, FINALLY Kurt and Sam enter the stage and they start.

Sam Tsui and Kurt Schneider doing acoustic

The crowd goes even more wild than they were before! They hit it off to heat up the whole crowd and everyone is in love with their on stage appeal and charisma.  I can tell you right now! I LOVE THESE GUYS!

Sam Tsui

I supported their Kickstarter project and I’m waiting patiently for my copy of the CD to arrive in the mail.  I hope its soon because all those videos they’ve done on the new music is fantastic and I cannot wait to hear it all! Put it in my car and just drive around singing to their awesomeness!

After waiting and waiting and waiting alongside some great music, I was ready for Alex Goot to finally makes his appearance!

Alex Goot accompanied by another awesome artist Luke Conard on guitar!

This tour is in his name and he is the highlight! He did a lot of originals from his album In the Atmosphere (which I own and put in my MP3 to listen to all the time) and he also did some great covers! My favorite is always his rendition of A Thousand Miles originally by Vanessa Carlton.  Love it!

Unfortunately, my best friend had to leave halfway through the final act with Alex Goot but I stayed to enjoy the rest of the show and then ran outside afterwards to get pictures with these talented artists 🙂

King the Kid with their camera!

I didn’t get a picture with them mostly because I was intimidated by the constant crowd around them…I would’ve missed all the public transport to get home. Then guess who walks right out of the doors: PERFECT SIDELINE! The guys who is the keyboard and vocals and their drummer! They were so nice!

Perfect Sideline vocals and drummer

After that, Luke Conard had gotten out front also and I went to get a picture with him.  This guy is awesome! Its too bad he didn’t get to sing tonight.  He has an amazing voice!

Luke Conard Take#1

Luke Conard Take#2

So much fun! He actually took two shots with me.  Very awesome!

Right after, Sam Tsui emerges from the bus and I follow everyone and try to get my chance to get a picture with him.  Sam is totally cool!

Sam Tsui

After that, my final artist that I caught was Kurt Schneider! He’s super nice! I love his music and how creative he is! Love him so much! Plus, he doesn’t sing often but he has an awesome voice as well and plays tons of instruments! 🙂 My inspiration, I tell you!

Kurt Hugo Schneider

By that time, I had wanted to wait for Alex Goot to come out but it was already 11pm and I had to walk to the subway stop which was a good 10 minutes or so away and then catch the bus to get back home!

It was an amazing and fun night! I was so hyped up and it was worth almost losing my voice!

Seriously hope that they perform in Montreal again and if they don’t, in close enough cities that I can go away for the weekend (if it lands on the weekend)! Totally worth it 🙂 Check them out on YouTube if you get a chance! They seriously are amazing artists! 🙂

I might post some of the videos from the performances after I string them together and upload it to YouTube 🙂

Have a great weekend!!

Spirit, Motivation and Finding the Positive!!

Last weekend was fun because of my family and friends.  Heading back into reality on Sunday was a tough one.  It was full of thoughts and reflections that I had pushed to the back of my mind. I was supposed to post about it during the week but I felt like it was too heavy plus I haven’t figured out how to word it.

**I’m going to try to put it out in a more positive way since I want to keep these personal blogs light and fun! If you don’t want to read about it, thats okay..at least check out the vids that I’m sharing, packed with music and motivation :)**

Work has really been on my mind lately.  I hate that it carries into my personal life especially when it invades my weekends and depreciates my own self-worth immensely.  I’ve been on a constant search and reflection to find something that I will feel is my career and my dream and not just a simple job.  Do you get what I mean?  Something that I’m passionate about.  I chose my field because I had to think about reality and (a better chance of)work stability.

When I see these independent YouTube artists doing what they love, it really makes me happy, especially because they are seriously talented. Like I supported Sam Tsui’s first independent album, and I’m hoping it’ll come in the mail soon.

Or someone like Green River Ordinance who went back to doing what they felt was right for them and going independent!

Its mostly because I want to find something better that I’ve been getting myself involved in getting a certification to teach English as a second language.  Its always been something I wanted to do back when I felt started university.  Second, I aim to finish up my piano and eventually maybe do some teaching as well.  I just have certain skills to improve before I feel that I’m fit to be a good teacher.  I’ve been discussing it with my boyfriend and he urges me that maybe I should look into baking: something that I’ve thought about as well.  I’ve even thought about putting those health and training knowledge and strengthening it to become something a certified personal trainer.

There is a world of options, choices and paths out there and for me, its just finding that one that I want to do, because I sure don’t want to stay in the rut I’m in.  What I need now is to make a decision, find the courage to not regret and work hard towards it.  I know once I start, I won’t turn back because thats who I am.  All I know is that I’d like to incorporate something that makes me happy to wake up for in the morning!

That would feel like Paradise, right?  Tiesto & Dyro’s new song is exactly that! It always makes me feel better to listen to some electronic music 🙂

With that said, piano and English training is really taking up a lot of time.  However, I’d like to complete them this year or be ready by early next year to take the piano exam.  That was what prioritized over Dragonboat.  This week, we had a Chinese festival, the dragon boat festival which commemorates a loyal scholar who sacrificed his life and this is what leads to the dragonboat competitions that we have now.  Dragonboat really is my motivation.  If life wasn’t so busy, I would never have dropped it to part-time.  Just look at the inspiration and spirt of it! Thanks to my awesome coach for sharing this with the team!

This may not be everyday life, but character is shaped out on that boat and I bring everything with me every day of the week

He captured it all in that video! Just a little bit of sharing and possibly promoting dragonboat.  Even watching a race feels awesome but being a part of it feels even better! My motivation to pull everything together so that I can get back out there to all my practices.  At least I know I’m working hard training on my own to make sure I don’t fall behind.

This has been a scattered post full of my feelings about this week.  I’ve pretty much spent this past week in depression.  Trying hard to pull myself out of this deep, dark hole and I just keep falling back in.  To think that I had spent so many years working hard to stay positive and being trapped in something that has eventually made me so negative that I’m cracking under its heaviness made me realize that change has to happen really soon! I never back out when I have hard times but sometimes, maybe its better to know when to stop a bad thing and find something that attributes more positive.  As I work towards climbing back out, I know that I’m ready to build up my future stronger and find a better path! How I live my life is my choice and I want to have it with more smiles and positivity!

I mean, who likes to hang around with a depressed grouch (or a crying mess), right? I’m not going to let anything do that to me, I promise! I’m climbing out slowly…just give me some time.

Just curious (to those who have followed me a bit or a while): What would you think I’d be good at? Maybe your objective mind will give me something I haven’t thought of 🙂

30km bike ride here I come!  Have a fantastic weekend!!!!

Tomorrow, I’ll have a special Father’s Day post! 🙂 If you’re not too busy celebrating with your loved ones, drop by and check it out!

Fridays, Girls Night Out and Fun Music!!

It seems that last week I had a really awesome thought that since weekends, my views are slow and everyone is out having their fun, and I’m a blogging addict so I’m going to take Saturdays to talk about my randomness! Its going to be a weekend thing for some to read up on whats up in my life (even though there might not be a lot) and sharing some music, cool YouTube vids or whatnot.  Its a chance for me to take it easy trying to write a review and just switch things up a bit!

Yesterday was totally awesome time with my friends.  We may not have ended up in the originally planned male strip club, but it was such a fun night as a girls night out celebrating Sunday’s bride to be’s (almost) last night of being single.  We all dressed up a bit in nice cocktail dresses and whatever layers to keep us warm as the night progressed and met after work.

We then went off to grab some dinner and wrap up on the final details and rundown of the wedding on Sunday.  We decided to go try out Pino Restaurant.  We started off with some drinks! I got a Mojito! I’ve been on the search to find a good one in Montreal…

Mojito!

Then dinner came! I had a very good Fettucine Salmonata!

Fettucine Salmonata

And some of the dishes the girls had!

Chicken

Shrimps

After the restaurant, we went off to private KARAOKE! I’m forbidden to release any of the photos publicly as per my friend’s request.  I respect that but it was really fun.  Among the many songs, we sang some LMFAO Sexy and I Know It, and some Backstreet Boys I Want It That Way because those songs are always easy to sing and gets everyone in.  We did some Bruno Mars The Lazy Song! One of the girls got us to all get up and then BANG! We were dancing to Gangnam Style! WOOHOO! And we ended off the night with a perfect song with everyone in doing Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling! Time flies by because before we knew it, we were in there for over 2 hours and sang so many awesome songs.

Next stop! More drinks on the terrasse at Cafe Via on Crescent Street 🙂 Very comfortable place to sit and their drinks were quite delish!

I started off the night with Slammer…

Slammer

I love cocktails and this one had gin, southern comfort, amaretto, orange juice and grenadine (is that what you call this in English?).  It was super delicious and the gin stood out in this drink.  Awesome stuff!

Then we went for second rounds and I got another cocktail called Naughty and Spice…

Naughty and Spice

This drink was quite fruity and the alcohol actually was not very apparent.  We all know those are the most lethal.  It tricks you into thinking that its nothing.  This was more simple and had Bacardi, ginger ale, pineapple juice, apple juice (and something else?).  Super good drink!

We all live on the suburbs so at around 12:30am, we realized we had to catch our last bus and paid and ran off literally.  Thank goodness we made it on time 🙂

This morning was actually quite good.  I’ve been relaxing a bit before doing all the stuff I have planned.  And I actually found some nice music to share from an independent YouTube artist that I like quite a bit.  Sam Tsui with his first independent album! I helped out with his Kickstarter project and to see that this song was so awesome makes me even happier!

“I got a little confession that I don’t know what I’m doing, but if you want you can play along, maybe I’ll wait to find out that when I do it, until I do I’ll keep going strong.  Make it up as I go, Make it up as I go!”

Have an awesome Saturday (or weekend)!

Cheers!

Cheers!

P.S. I’m up at 6am tomorrow to get ready for the wedding to meet up at 7am at the bride’s house so I don’t think I’ll be very active here! Maybe I’ll do a quick post…we’ll see how it goes 🙂