Anchorite Yao

今天去看了 Rent，親身體驗了 “Will I”,  “No day but today", "Seasons of Love", "Take me or leave me", "I'll cover you", "Finale B" 的感動。回過神來後，也是要好好的做研究寫作業，多運動健身，保持強健的身體跟堅韌的心智。這個世界還有很多東西等著我去探索，很多人事物等著我去認識，很多故事等著我去親身體驗。是 Roger 也好，是 Mark 也罷，永遠不要放棄最後的一絲希望，喜歡的東西就要勇敢的去追求，珍惜身邊的每一個人，珍惜自己在這個世界上的存在。 為了紀念今天成功地看到 Rent, 我決定在睡前分享一個心裡的小秘密，誠實的面對自己，感謝今天跟我一起去的大家。當初在開 event 的時候，很想找大家去，但怕大家對 Rent 不熟，會找不到人，在認真的寫了一篇介紹後，本來有打算加碼，犧牲色相，超過 10 個人我就用我破破發抖柔弱的聲音唱 Rent 的歌 po 上 youtube 的 (e.g, “Will I” or “Seasons of Love”)，但後來大家很捧場，慢慢從 5+ 到 10+, 然後在倒數第二天到 20+ 然後最後一晚衝破 30+ 後 (到底發生什麼事啊????? XD)，我就整個被 distract 了，開始擔心 37 張票是要怎麼買位置。故事結束，謝謝大家！今天我很開心！ 希望大家也很開心  :) Finale B by Jonathan Larson There is no future There is no past Thank God this Moment's not the last There's only us There's only this Forget, regret or Life is yours to miss No other road, no other way No day but today I can't control (Will I lose my dignity) My destiny (Will someone care) ...

Hello, 培堯 (Perry) 想邀大家在 11/22 (Fri.) 去看音樂劇 Rent (@Power Center), 由學校的學生包辦的演出。 信得過我的話， 這是我一生中最愛的音樂劇(不是之一，是唯一)，所以希望大家能一起去看。(所以不要浪費時間，直接說要參加!) 好啦～我還是盡責的敘述一下 :) Rent 是根據普契尼的 La bohème (波西米亞人) 的故事改編而成。他沒有超級大的特效場面 (飛機，船，或是其他你期待會開進來或開出去的東西)，但是非常近距離的述說著幾個人之間的故事。音樂跟詞非常的棒，朗朗上口。在我心目中是屬於 p-honor 等級的音樂劇。 (不清楚 p-honor 的意義的請參考下列有關 p-index 的文章:  http://peiyaoh.blogspot.com/2013/07/2013-broadway-musicals-to-see-in-summer.html   ) Rent Rent 講的是一群在 New York 居住的年輕藝術家，在貧困跟病痛 (AIDS/HIV) 下面對生命的故事。劇中的音樂走 Rock 的路線，當年得到 Tony Award 的 Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, 並且得到的當年的Pulitzer Price for Drama (普立茲獎), 是史上少數能兼得 Tony Award 跟 Pulitzer Price 的音樂劇，可見它在探討社會時事上的動人之處。作曲家 Jonathan Larson 一心一意想要寫出能讓新世代的年輕人產生共鳴，喜歡劇場的作品，經年累月嘔心瀝血的終於創作出了 Rent。可惜天妒英才，他在 Rent 在 off-Broadway 首演的前一晚因為病發突然過世，無法親自見到這齣音樂劇所引起的劇迷們的巨大迴響。(他對我的意義有點像張雨生，只不過他們用不同的方式述說著年輕人的心聲) Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent (from last.fm) 很多人提到音樂劇的時候總會想到 The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Lion King, or Wicked , 但對很多音樂劇迷以及音...

UMS (University Musical Society) 明天起 (09/09/13) 要開始賣特價學生票了! 有很多好的表演，但我想特別跟大家推薦一下 Audra McDonald 在 Sept. 15 at Hill Auditorium 的演出。 我是她的 Fan, 所以我就直說! 兩年前錯過她的表演懊悔了很久，今年終於給我等到了！ 聽她唱歌就像聽故事一樣，她是個很會說故事的人。 故事中的情感，或細膩，或濃厚，她都收放自如，很容易融進去。 她本身是個很厲害的演員，演過很多經典的音樂劇角色，像是 Ragtime 裡面的 Sarah, 還有 Porgy and Bess 裡面的 Bess。 今年 43 歲，得過 5 次的 Tony Award (不熟悉的朋友可以把它當作戲劇界的 Oscar)，是目前記錄保持人。跟她並列記錄的兩位，一位 (Julie Harris) 前幾個星期才過世，另一位 (Angela Lansbury) 87 歲，大家都覺得她 (Audra McDonald) 應該會打破紀錄。 不多說，讓大家親自體驗一下。 One of my recent favorites, I'll Be Here She is funny :) My another recent favorite from her, Somedays As "Sarah" singing "Wheels of a Dream" with Brian Stokes Mitchell, in Ragtime As "Bess" singing "Summertime", in Porgy and Bess She can played another singer, Billie Holiday. She can sing anything, even Yahoo! Answers Tickets:  http://ums.org/performances/1314-audra-mcdonald-sings-gershwin

Ever since I attend my first football game in the Big House, I fall in love with "The Victors", the University of Michigan fight song (I am probably biased because I am a Michigan wolverine). Here is one done by the University of Michigan Marching Band. An indoor version that fills the renown Hill Auditorium with energy! I dug on Youtube and found some crazy good renditions of "The Victors" and "You suck".  I believe the rearrangement is done by a wolverine named A.J.Homes (@ ajholmesmusic ) when he was a "freshman", who currently starred on Broadway in The Book of Mormon. (Yes, to my knowledge, he made this rearrangement when he was in his freshman year. He is so talented!) Here are the lyrics: Hail! to the victors valiant Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes Hail! Hail! to Michigan The leaders and best! Hail! to the victors valiant Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes Hail! Hail! to Michigan, The champions of the West! ...

Do you regularly code and seek information on the Internet? If so, I would like to invite you to participate in a study of programmers’ online information seeking. Pei-Yao (Perry) Hung, a graduate student from the School of Information at the University of Michigan, is conducting a study to understand how programmers with various levels of expertise seek information online regarding their programming tasks. All the details (e.g., qualifications) of the study are included here:  http://bit.ly/146na6b The study will span 2 weeks and take less than 30 minutes each week for you, with the option to extend it to 4 weeks if interested. If you successfully complete the study, you will receive gift cards ($20 for a pre-study interview and the first two weeks, with an additional $20 for the optional two weeks and a follow-up interview) for your effort. Please consider participating in this study and help share this information to people who might be interested. Contact Perry throug...

因為兩位朋友提到暑假可能會去紐約玩，問我有沒有什麼推薦的音樂劇，我想著想著，打著打著就變成一長串了。再加上想要附上 youtube video 來佐證，最後就變成一大篇了。由於在 email 中回不方便，想說乾脆貼出來分享給大家。下面列的是幾部我推薦的音樂劇，某種程度上按照我推薦的程度來排順序，所以有我個人的偏好參雜在裡面，我沒有列在這裡的不表示不推薦。比如說，那些常駐的有名劇碼我想我也不用介紹，想看的會自己去看。另外還有一些剛推出 or 比較實驗性質的劇碼，我個人很喜歡嘗試，但在不清楚狀況前不想推薦給朋友，避免出意外 XD 先定義一下 P-Index: 什麼鬼？ Pei-Yao(Perry) Musical Rating Index, 1-10, however he defines. 以下是我的推薦劇碼 Pippin P-Index: 破表，Sing, Act, and Dance 全部都強，管他三七二十一給我弄到票進去就對了 簡單來說，Pippin 是部很經典的音樂劇，作者 Stephen Schwartz 寫出很多經典動聽的音樂，包括 Wicked, Godspell, and The Prince of Egypt，他也寫過不少經典的詞，像是 Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame。當中的名曲 Corner of the Sky 是我最愛的一首歌之一。故事主要是講一個王子思考自己的人生意義，跟他一路追尋的過程。這次的 revival 整個就是一時之選。導演 Diane Paulus 是當代傑出的女導演，執導過 The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Hair，今年靠 Pippin 拿到 Best Director。男主角 Matthew James Thomas 很年輕，演出過一些劇場，唱歌滿好聽的，上個月剛出新 EP。女主角 Patina Miller 是 CMU Drama School 的畢業生，歌喉超棒，我超愛，剛畢業就拿到 Sister Act the Musical 中飾演女主角 Delores Van Cartier (就是當年Whoopi Goldberg 演活的那個黑道大哥女友兼瘋狂修女的角色)，也被提名當年...

給建智跟佳蓉  恭喜你們，台灣時間再過約一天 (2013/05/19) 你們就要結婚了吧～ 希望結婚後兩人可以互相扶持，好好的一起體驗人生。 看在我不計形象, 重新拿起吉他練 5 天 + 鼓起勇氣用不成熟的技巧唱歌錄影片 N 次，弄上網的份上，原諒我沒有辦法回去台灣參加婚禮吧～ 這首歌名字是“What A Wonderful World” 要幸福喔～

Great people just keep scaring themselves... Ang Lee, Yo-Yo Ma, and lots of great people all say the same thing. They all scare themselves and then conquer the fear!

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes! The past year is really amazing for me, even though I do not change that much (I think, ha). Here are the birthday wishes I make this year, for me, and for you. 1. I will be brave enough to try new stuffs. 2. I will have the stamina and determination to keep doing what I want to do. 3. (Keep it for myself.) I might change the world one day, but now I will focus on changing myself into a better person first!

I attended the SI Chinese New Year Party at Paul's place today. I brought the fried rice stick that I spent 1.5 hours on preparing it. Cooking a for a big audience with that kind of size is quite challenging for me. My fingers are still a little bit shivering now, after I was done with the cooking. Based on the result, I would say "Mom! You can feel just a bit safe about my cooking skills, ha! At least some of the SI faculty and colleagues  approve it!(by eating it, of course)" I did not expect to play the piano and did not even practice, but eventually played it in front of my colleagues. I stumbled a bit at the end, which was the most difficult part of the whole number, but was able to finish it smoothly. That is it! Now, go back to the readings and assignments. A whole new year is coming!

I spend a few hours digging on youtube to find out about the Les Miserables movie cast. Enjoy! (There is no movie related videos for cast singing.) 我竟然花了幾個小時在 Youtube 上找悲慘世界的演員唱歌的影片 XD，分享給大家。電影演員唱歌的部份已經避免了跟悲慘世界有關的影片，所以請放心享用(如果你還沒看的話)！ Hugh Jackman (Jean Valjean) Russell Crowe (Javert) Anne Hathaway (Fantine) Amanda Seyfried (Cosette) Sacha Baron Cohen (Thenardier) Helena Bonham Carter (Madame Thenardier) Eddie Redmayne (Marius) Aaron Tveit (Enjolras) Smantha Barks (Eponine) Colm Wilkinson (Bishop, and the original Jean Valjean of the London cast) Frances Ruffelle (One of the whore(s) in the movie, and the original Eponine)