Categories
Music

Ayen何璟昕 – a quick re-introduction

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Ayen何璟昕 He Jing’xin (earlier she used Ayen Ho for her English name) is very special and quite talented artist, musician and social media influencer (自媒体作者 zi mei ti zuo zhe). She was born in Guangdong Province and she lives in Beijing metro area now.

Sometimes people used the term “北漂(Baike, Wikipedia) bei’piao”。From what I observe, Bei’piao is quite common for musicians and some other artists, because Beijing is also China’s No. 1 culture center, in addition to be the capital of the country (the political center, and many good universities including the 2 leading ones). Here is an example of Shanghai singer who is also 北漂ing.

Live Performance

2025.10.18 CCTV 15 《15号音乐房子》 20251018 大概不到五分钟左右：漫步人生路；25分钟不到一点：祝福（粤语版）；44分钟左右：人生何处不相逢（粤语），中间有一小段国语版 最真的梦。这里有粉丝团的剪辑版（微博）。Technically speaking, CCTV show is recorded not live. But I will categorize it as live as I think it still has a lot of pressure.

2025.09.29 CCTV 3 [开门大吉]何璟昕带来经典歌曲《红日》

07-12-2022 CCTV 3 黄金100秒 appearance complete video via Baidu. Below are clips via Sohu: 广东女孩何璟昕唱响17岁写的原创歌曲《向光性》，温柔歌声，暖化心灵; 广东女孩何璟昕太有才了，现场带来原创粤语歌曲，直击心灵 (七夕词）; 广东女孩何璟昕脑洞打开，将从小熟读的诗句谱成曲子，这波操作太有才了 (I accidentally bumped into these as I was looking for an old video of hers – 何璟昕 北方工业大学 话剧. I didn’t find the 话剧 in which she was the director – she *may* have taken it down since I watched it a few months ago.)

(Update 08-01-2025) I found an old video of Ayen何璟昕 on Bilibili – 56红人馆 第204期 南方姑娘何璟昕北上追音乐 小清新曲风书写心情. You may need a Bilibili account in order to watch. Personally, I have a Bilibili account which is tied to my WeChat account.

(Update 07-19-2025, from 何璟昕的微博) 听民谣，来岳阳🎶 我会参加7月25号、26号的湖畔音乐节演出，地点在岳阳港工业遗址公园，这次准备了3~4首从来没有在现场演出过的新歌曲，欢迎大家来玩！

(Original June 2025) Here is my earlier post on her. The article was probably too long for a person who heard about Ayen何璟昕 the very first time. Below is an updated and a shorter version.

Show and Tell via Videos

Update 10-15-2025 Ayen recently started a new YT Shorts channel.

For those of you who really don’t like Douyin and like YT better: here is a video for Ayen and her mom – beyond-真的愛妳 吉他cover 母親節和媽媽一起合唱，媽媽第一次上鏡有點害羞 | Ayen 何璟昕

Also Bilibili: 南 屏 海 滩 it’s a combination of 南屏晚钟 (YT) and 上海滩。There are some similarities between those two song’s melodies.

Most of the video links go to Douyin 抖音. How to watch Douyin without an account? Basically, you need to complete the Chinese version of captcha (slide the shape/the object into its place). Also, you dismiss the phone number pop up after that. Btw, this is her Douyin live URL/address. Note I haven’t watched her live show yet, because before today 07-30-2025 I was under impression that we need a Douyin account in order to watch any live show. My assumption could be wrong.

Update 10-26-2025: also recently I happened to find another tip that get to DY on the mobile browser on the phone. That is the so.douyin.com DY’s own search engine. It only works on the phone though. It seems DY uses some “innovative” tricks on the front end.

(Original) I think this Douyin short video showed her skills very well. The song is 抖音《素顏》許嵩、何曼婷【動態歌詞Lyrics】Ayen was doing a cover, but it’s not a very straightforward cover. She puts efforts and creative thoughts into it. She has two versions of herself in the video.

Note this is not entirely new, as I saw she did it at other videos, such as this one – 許冠傑 – 半斤八兩 女生版 Acoustic cover｜粵語歌吉他彈唱｜Ayen何璟昕

and another one

【易燃易爆炸】的【笼】（电影《消失的她》主题曲）cover 陈粒 张碧晨｜Ayen何璟昕

And she did dance too. Ayen used to joke she didn’t know how to dance. I don’t know. But I know she learned dance in last few years. Personally I felt her dance move is good. Note dance is not her strong suite.

国粤双语：怨创天变了心 恨在今天再相遇

Btw, you don’t have to have an account in order to view Douyin videos. Just validate the capicha, and dismiss the pop-up for sign in.

梨涡浅笑：this song is 49 years old 🙂

奔赴星空粤语版

New song June-2025 fresh brewed 🙂 痴情的人最心碎(YT); Douyin short clip featuring the Ayen何璟昕

Old song June-2025: 海阔天空 (Douyin)

国粤双语 面具+天后: since I am learning Cantonese nowadays, I think I hear: “一首歌，一个面具，大家听好” in Cantonese at the beginning.

Here is Baidu Baike intro of Ayen何璟昕

(Update 07-18-2025) I just noticed she has another channel – Ayen阿昕的抖音: and I really like 献给永远的 and 不一样的泪桥 (compare to 伍佰的泪桥here). Btw, noticed her compilation here 阿昕的合唱。

Executive summary

She is a multi-talented artist, composer, lyricist, singer/songwriter and creator/influencer. 唱作人，网红 in Chinese. Here is her Wikipedia page, and her Wikipedia page in Chinese.

Full disclosure: I made some contributions to her Wikipedia page since March 2025.

A few things I liked about her

Hard working, and work smart.

She does most everything on her own, again refer to her undergraduate major and her multiple talents. Here she talks about how she makes the video:

一個人就是一個團隊？/揭秘：我平時是如何一個人製作視頻的！

She is also present in all the main music (or video) platforms, inside and outside China. I am listing some platforms below:

Douyin 抖音

WeChat (search Ayen何璟昕 in the app)

RedNote or Xiaohongshu (search Ayen何璟昕 in the app)

Bilibili (not updated as often recently)

YouTube; also 何璟昕（Ayen） – Topic (auto generated by YT as publisher sent new songs over to YT)

Spotify

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Below are more gearing towards my personal preferences, please feel free to ignore

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敏杰最钟意（喜欢）的何璟昕原创原唱的歌

Top songs that Ayen wrote and I like the most, sorted in chronicle order

向光性 (Apple Music, Bilibili, Spotify, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

月光 (Apple Music, Bilibili, Spotify, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

如果今天天气很好 (Apple Music, Bilibili, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

一切美好都像你 (Apple Music, Bilibili, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

時間不等你 (原唱) (Bilibili, Spotify, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

满天星星 (Apple Music, Bilibili, Spotify, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

明月高高天上挂 (Apple Music, Bilibili, Spotify, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐) — 国语版 顺游 在这里 (Apple Music, Bilibili, Spotify, YT; QQ 音乐，网易云音乐)

==================

敏杰最喜欢（钟意）的何璟昕翻唱或吉他弹唱的歌

Top songs Ayen covered, many covered with acoustic guitar. This is a tough task, because I like many of her covered songs. I have created many playlists on YT or YT Music. Here is one example.

I noticed a QQ Music playlist created by a friend is also very popular – much more popular than my list – understandable from the point that in mainland China there are a lot more listeners for both Cantonese and mandarin songs, compared to the listeners outside CHN.

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Lullabies 催眠曲

Btw, for lullabies, my recommendation is to listen to them from a MP3 player, not from the phone. Because ideally, we don’t want to look at phone extensively before bed, and also, we want to keep the phone outside bedroom – for less distractions and better sleep. I learned this trick back in 2012, from the CEO of Arch Coal my employer at the time. But I had to admit I failed many times and recently I am more serious following this best practice. A related thing I started to do is to use Apple Watch to track my sleep.

That being said: here is my YT playlist for lullabies. I have a similar PL on my iPod Nano I use for sleep or before sleep (we are talking about lullabies or songs during sleep, right 🙂 I got the songs from Ayen’s Cover songs on the U drive.

This is my favorite lullaby right now 11-25-2025

A related thing I started to do recently is to use Apple Watch to track my sleep – after the suggestion of my 15-year-old. Previously I used Fitbit sleeping tracking for a while, but I haven’t used the Apple Watch sleep tracking since its debut in 2020 (I switched from Fitbit to Apple Watch a few years before that), mainly due to the fear to facing the reality of looking at my sleep data. Oh well, not a really good excuse and also let me back to the topic. 

Similar singers

I saw some people commented on YT that that Hong Kong based 王菀之和陈洁丽的风格有点像Ayen何璟昕。我觉得读者可以自己去做判断。

PS: 后记

How to show your support? Here is Ayen的店 at Taobao淘宝。She has her own branded guitar and other peripherals (附件，周边）in addition to her top selling Ayen翻唱經典歌曲集.

Categories
gadgets

Bought MP3 player from Amazon

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This one – 64GB MP3 Player with Bluetooth 5.2, AiMoonsa Music Player with Built-in HD Speaker, FM Radio, Voice Recorder, HiFi Sound, E-Book, Earphones Included

First impression: this is more like a feature phone instead of iPad Nano or smartphone. For $27 (before tax), this is expected though.

I already started to use the MP3 player and I tested out radio feature (it works). I haven’t tried the earphone comes with it. Right now I am using Apple EarPods. It meets my basic need.

Note another reason I need the MP3 player is it has better or more powerful battery than my current iPod Nano – it still works, but I don’t know how long it will last – I owned it for about 12 or 13 years.

PS:

I am thinking that I probably still will get the iPod Nano from eBay or somewhere. Ideally an iPod with good battery. Separately I bought the USB C EarPods from Amazon and really liked it too. I gave my old USB C EarPods to S6 for her school work (she has a school iPad with USB-C port, and she uses the EarPods for Map testing etc.)

Update (07-03-2015) It seems the player will drag the voice of a song, similar to how cassette player works when it runs out of battery or power. I need to verify it’s indeed the case. Once again more than 10 year old iPod Nano seems doing a much better job than this latest and greatest MP3 player 🙂

(Update 02-21-2026) I bought a refurb iPod nano from eBay over the holidays, and I sold the MP3 player I mentioned above.

Separately, I came across this – Influencers want to adopt the ‘analog lifestyle’ for 2026. Here’s how to join them (LA Times). Below is quote from the article.

The recommendation has increased the search for “iPods” on EBay more than 1,200 times an hour globally between January and October 2025, according to the company. The iPod third-generation models saw a 50% increase in average sales price from global  EBay users in 2025 compared with 2023. The iPod Nano third generation saw a 60% increase, while the iPod Classic sixth generation had a 40% increase.

(Update 02-23-2026) Axios – Why people are buying iPods again

(Update 02-28-2026) The iPod’s slow shuffle back to relevance

Categories
advice and tips Life Tips

Don’t talk behind other people’s back

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Be kind.

We cannot always be more talented than others – assume the nature born talent is “born”.

But we can always be more kind than others.

Example 1:

A rival tennis club owner trash talks about CCRC (Creve Coeur Racquet Club), ironically this owner is a fellow parent of kid in my younger daughter’s grade. Initially I thought about moving my daughter from CCRC (now Lifetime Fitness Creve Coeur) to that rival tennis club. Now I have some doubts whether I should move her. I do understand quite a few people moved before of the CCRC to Lifetime Fitness CC transition, including the coaches (the pros in the tennis world).

Example 2:

An internet singer I recently wrote, trash talks Coco Lee 李玟 ‘s perceived lack of mainland culture awareness in her mandarin education: 说她中文不正宗. This is totally unnecessary as Coco grew up mostly in the west. Quote a bit from her Wikipedia page below:

Ferren Lee was born on 17 January 1975[19][20] in Hong Kong[6][16] or Wuhan.[21][22] She was a posthumous child, as her father had died earlier of an illness. She had physical defects in her left leg, which affected her throughout her life and contributed to her later challenges.[23] After her father’s death, Lee’s mother moved the family to Hong Kong to seek support from relatives. They faced difficult times there before emigrating to the US when Lee was nine years old.[24][25] She had two elder sisters, Carol and Nancy, the latter of whom would become Lee’s manager early in her career.[26] Growing up in San Francisco, Lee attended Redding Elementary School, Presidio Middle School, and Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School.[27] She won the title of Miss Teen Chinatown San Francisco in 1991 at age 16.

Buffett and Munger

Now I recall Warren Buffett famously said “critique by category, not by name”. Charlie Munger may be a bit more critical on people in certain industry, e.g., cryptos.

In many ways we can out-work or work harder than others too. That’s topic for another day. But work smarter is equally important if not more.

Categories
gadgets

My AirPods Pro 1st Gen came back to life?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

(Update 06-30-2025) After a bit back and forth, the current status: the right AirPod has 18% battery, the left – zero. Will hang on for a bit (charing etc.) before finally ditching it to the local Apple Store 🙂

(Update 06-24-2025) It seems the battery didn’t last long. Out of battery after about 30 mins or so usage. I will continue monitoring.

(Orinigal 06-23-2025) 我用AirPods 和在eBay上卖一些小东西以来，可能最不可思议的一件事。Most incredible thing happened to my AirPods Pro 1st Gen, and in my 20 years eBay selling journey. Let me elaborate below.

Today I decided to try the “returned case” with the AirPods Pro 1st Gen that I left at home. First I charged the case and the AirPods. And then I used it with my iPhone 16, and it worked! My phone says “(my old daughter’s 1stst name)’s AirPods Pro”.

Are we talking about Headless chicken 🐓 or dead cat 🐈 bounce?

AirPods, top to bottom, Pro 1st gen, 3 and 4

Death Sentence

I sold the case via eBay in Apr 2025, as I cannot make the AirPods to work. So I thought the AirPods is already dead due to the age. I tried to charge the AirPods a few times, but it couldn’t connect to the phone after charing. Before all that we were visiting China (summer 2024), and I did recall sometimes my wife would take this away from her. And my wife may have left the AirPods Pro 1st Generation in her drawer for a long time. I am mildly annoyed by my wife policing our older daughter’s AirPods usage, if leaving it in her drawer accelerated the death, obviously I wasn’t happy, but probably at the same time I don’t want to fight my wife on this. There is this slogan: there are something in life money cannot buy; for everything else, there is MasterCard.

Now I think about it, perhaps leave it in the dust for a long time, may have helped the battery to come back to life? I know rechargeable batteries are not as predicable as the mechanical counterpart. Note I recycled my 1st AirPods at the Apple West County store. Since last year or 2, I am beefing up the eBay side business, and I was thinking maybe I can just sell the case because I assume the case is good.

You may refer to this post here Lost my AirPods Pro. Quoted below.

I paid $159.87 for Apple AirPods Pro (series number: SH36DK17G0C6L) at Amazon on November 25, 2020, and I just saw it’s $219.99 on Amazon now.

I am not sad. The AirPods pro is about 2 years old. Typical life span for AirPods is about 2 to 3 years. The pro has two advantage that my AirPods 3 doesn’t have: 1) It can connect to my old MacBook Pro (late 2012 model); 2) It has noise cancellation. For the latter I have this Anker SoundCore headset.

Customer Return

But the customer complained it didn’t work, after he received the item. Note I could not verify it end to end before ship it. Fortunately I asked for the case back this time. Nowadays normally I let customers keep the merchandise and I would still issue the refund. This time I was a bit curious regarding why the case didn’t work for the customer. Now I think it’s likely due to the fact I didn’t remove the AirPods from my Apple account or resetting the device. Again I am not 100% sure. I did google search, and I recall I removed the AirPods Pro 1st Generation from all my iOS and Mac devices.

Earlier I talked about AirPods Pro 1st gen here as well. Let me copy some stuff over:

1st Generation AirPods Pro: purchased Nov 25, 2020, on Amazon. Died and trying to sell the case on eBay now). Update 04-13-2025: sold the case on eBay.

Now at least I can use this pair of AirPods as the spare AirPods in my car: just like we have spare tire in the car, now we have spare AirPods too 🙂

Categories
Fun Life Tips Saint Louis

The swimming pools size at the JCC St. Louis

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I am mostly talking about the length for lap swimming

Creve Coeur

Indoor

Recreational pool (warm water, temp probably slightly above 84F): 20 yards

Lap pool (warm water, temperature is probably at 80F): 25 yards

Outdoor

They have two kinds of setups for the lap swimming

Shorter: about 25 yards

Longer: about 25 meters (about 27.43 yards)

Those numbers are a bit trickier because they are not standard. And I got it from my own try and error, via my Apple watch. I assume Apple watch is measuring the pool length correctly.

Refer to the official length

Chesterfield

Indoor

Warm water, temp 84F, 25 yards

Outdoor

Need some confirmation as I haven’t been there for a long time.

(Update 06-24-2025)

Today (this evening) it was a bit usual because a boy approached me and asked whether I speak English. I said yes, and he asked if I could teach him to swim. It looks like he can swim to some extent. I showed him and his friend how to breeze via mouth above the water. Also, the very basics of breaststroke. The boy is 11, his friend is 9 and the boy’s big sister is 12. They all know some swimming or can swim some: but they seem have not taken formal swimming lessons at the J or somewhere equivalent.

I never in my life would think I would teach kids swimming. I never taught my own kids. I did teach my wife a bit re: breathing or blow the water (suck in air and leave the water out via mouth). I don’t mind teaching kids one a while, but if every time I go to lap swimming, and I could not find an empty or semi-empty lap, I may have 2nd thoughts on this.

(Update 06-25-2025)

I am continuing adjusting the length of the pool on my Apple Watch. Today I set it to 31 yards. This thing puzzles me a bit: if the Apple watch can measure my swimming distance, why it needs the pool length. It seems it’s using the pool length to do some kind of calibration, so that it could come up a nice round number for the total swimming distance.

Categories
Saint Louis uber-and-side-hustle

I want to give money to you rather than giving it to the casino

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Back to Uber Driving

I took a long break and now I am back. I was back driving for Uber on still fairly limited basis, after my CHN trip. And today is Sunday, and I am happy to report I am doing reasonable well this week. The most import thing among it all (in addition to the extra income generated), is to be happy. And I am happy to report that I am happy now.

This morning I have an slightly unusual encounter with a passenger (let me call me S). I picked up the gentleman S in south county near the Mercy South Hospital, and he was using the walker. I assume he is old (meaning old as my dad, who is in early 80s). To be surprise he is only 61 🙁

Alcohol Use Disorder

He told me he left his car at the casino last night, and now he is going back to retrieve his car. The reason he left his car there was he was intoxicated (drunk) last night at the casino. I think he is a person with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Google: what do we call people who failed to quite alcohol

I helped his walker, and he can walk without the walker, although quite slowly. In the end, he gave me $5 tip in cash. We talked a bit during the trip, and I told him if money is tight, don’t worry about the tip. He said: I want give money to you rather than giving it to the casino. He drunk too much last night, lost some money and had to leave his car at the casino parking lot as he was intoxicated. Now he is going back to get his car.

He also told me about “One is too many, twenty is too little” – refer to google search and explanation here (I copied below from the google search => Search Labs | AI Overview):

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The phrase “One is too many, twenty is too little” is a common saying that highlights the nature of addiction, particularly to alcohol. It describes the experience of someone with an addiction where even a single instance of the substance (like alcohol) is considered too much, and yet, no amount of the substance is ever enough to fully satisfy the craving. This phrase captures the idea of a downward spiral associated with addiction, where the individual’s tolerance increases while the satisfaction decreases. Here’s a more detailed explanation: 

  • “One is too many”:This part emphasizes that for someone with a substance use disorder, even a single instance of consuming the substance can trigger a cascade of negative consequences. It suggests that the individual has lost control over their consumption and any amount can lead to problems.
  • “Twenty is too little”:This part highlights the insatiable nature of addiction. The individual may consume a large amount of the substance (20 drinks in this case), yet still feel a void or craving that is not satisfied. The tolerance of the individual has increased, and the substance no longer provides the desired effect.

This phrase is often used to describe addiction to alcohol, but it can be applied to other substances or even behaviors as well. It serves as a stark reminder of the destructive nature of addiction and the importance of seeking help for those struggling with it. 

======

Other background with this gentleman

He told me he got accounting degree from the Mizzou (University of Missouri at Columbia). I think it was 1987. He worked and lived at Myrtle Beach SC: I first learned about Myrtle Beach from this video about 6 months ago. He also said he separated from his wife for about 5 years. Looking to quit alcohol, he came back to St. Louis where he attended Hazelwood Central High School. Note St. Louis is a town with less party (or drinking) atmosphere than Myrtle Beach. He also intended to take care of his aging parents in early 90s. But the alcohol issue alone sunk the whole plan 🙁

Picking up my next customer

Next ride is from Holly Hills to Ikea.

I gave $2 during my next trip to a guy who was peddling in a traffic light.

Btw, I saw very impressive buildings at Holly Hills (could be Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet, could be anything else too), St. Louis between dropping off S and pick up my last passenger this morning.

Uber Rider App

I saw it on the car (the ride I took on 05/31/25 early morning from home to STL airport). And I just did a google search: uber driver provides ipad mini – Google Search 

I am guessing the driver is using this one Interactive tablets for Uber and Lyft drivers – Play Octopus “Drivers qualify for a free Octopus tablet if they are regularly driving rideshare trips. We ask that our drivers average more than 100 trips per month and have driven for at least two months.”

I would not be able to qualify because I drove 204 trips in about 8 months so far.

Drinking cultures in Asia

Recently I talked to a teacher at the Ladue School and we talked about the drinking culture in Japan 🙁

As I recall the drinking culture in China when I grew up was not good – especially if we use today’s social standards or knowledge and science. You can refer to this blog post I wrote in year 2022 – Alcohol. I am happy to report that I did give up hard liquor (whiskey) recently. I still drink a bit beer or wine (both white and red) from time to time 🙁

Bonus readings (ordered chronically)

Drove for Uber the 1st time – 我在美国开优步

More Uber driving and tips I learned

Uber driving tips

More Uber Driving Tips

Categories
Business

Upgraded Netflix Subscription, streaming

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I started keep track of my monthly subscription on various things. Here is the google sheet for that. It’s $231.11 total per month. I also pasted below.

Subscriptionmonthly cost (updated 06-21-25)
Netlfix$17.99
Hulu, Disney ad tier$3.99
panera sip club$10.00
apple news$12.99
apple icloud$3.98
google drive$1.67
youtube$22.99
Peacock TV$6.67
AT&T$70
Medium$4.17
Strava$6.67
mint mobile$55
Amazon Prime15
subtoal$231.11
Xu household digital subscriptions cost – year 2025

Also, last night (or this morning to be precise) I noticed since I downgraded my Netflix subscription a few month ago to a Ad-support plan $7.99 a month, and I happened to watch the Virgin River show last night as I could not fell asleep. And I really disliked the interruption of the ads. So I went ahead and switched back to the standard plan $17.99 a month. Besides no Ads, it also allows more screens or allows for popup screen on iPhone.

Streaming

I noticed this stat from the newsletter from Morning Brew, and I will copy a bit below.

Prime number: Streaming overtakes broadcast + cable (this is the subject)

All those Hot Ones interviews you watch while muted and off-camera during companywide calls are adding up. For the first time ever, more Americans watch streaming services on TV than broadcast and cable combined, per the latest Nielsen data:

As of May, streaming accounted for 45% of all TV viewing, while broadcast + cable represented 44%.
When Nielsen started measuring in 2021, streaming made up only 26% of TV time, while traditional TV dominated at nearly two-thirds.


The popularity of streaming among the youths is well documented, but this latest surge away from regular TV and toward free, ad-supported apps like YouTube and Tubi is driven by the elders. The fastest-growing cohort watching YouTube on a TV set is viewers over the age of 65, the New York Times reported.—AE

Categories
Business Saint Louis

A cruise company I never heard about before

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I happened to meet the controller of the company yesterday evening. It’s a charter cruise company with a focus on music theme: jazz and country music in particular. The business is booming, apparently, America minted 1,000 millionaires a day in 2024 and it’s not slowing down helps too. I mean the older people, their main customer groups, are getting richer and richer 🙂

Also, this again reinforced my impression on the 行业细分 in the USA. I know there are large cruise companies such as Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, or Disney branded cruise etc. But this charter music cruise brings the specialty to another level. The mentioned cruise company (see below) has zero debt, and they survived the pandemic with 2 years of no cruise 🙂

Zero debt is a luxury and it’s something I am looking forward to see as well 🙂

LinkedIn: Signature Cruise Experiences

Official website

Portfolio website

Also Reddit: Best cruise lines for music

Categories
Music

Why some songs get popular while others don’t

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Or put it in another way, why some singers break out (to become superstars), while others don’t? I am just asking a legit question. Note I am not music major. But I watched quite a bit music videos recently, and sometimes I wonder this question in the title.

I think one important factor is famous lyricist/singer.

For example, this one, 當時的月亮 (KKBOX), personally I like Ayen何璟昕 當時的月亮 – 王菲 Acoustic cover a lot. I noticed the lyricist is Lin Xi 林夕。 But honestly I still don’t understand much about the song. This is even after reading the explanation at Baidu. Quote some:

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《当时的月亮》可说是一剂降温的凉茶，免得听者未完成半张唱片便兴奋得爆炸。词意上不但延续《开到荼蘼》的不外如此世界观，更回应邓丽君的《月亮代表我的心》。即使“当时的月亮，曾经代表谁的心，结果都一样”。《当时的月亮》那淡淡的清凉，跟《过眼云烟》的寒气迫人，是两种绝对不同的感受。前者是甚么都无所谓的姿态，“当时如果没有甚么，当时如果拥有甚么，又会怎样。”。后者着力营造出凄凉的感觉，带点决绝地谈到解释、权利和义务，结尾一句“都是眷恋才让爱情危险”，说明自己不再眷恋的立场。

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Other 小众歌 examples

at17 —- Lost In L.A. (Original) || (Ayen cover) 安利一首小众好听粤语歌#2《Lost In L.A》cover at17

Many other Ayen cover songs, e.g., Leslie Chueng’s songs

叨叨冯： 平庸的音乐，优秀的配乐：《周处除三害》插曲《新造的人》为啥洗脑？ (this reminds me almost the same thing in the US politics, and US consumers)

Also by 叨叨冯:【会员专享】第72期：如果音乐行业存在金字塔，塔底的人是如何生存的？(member only, membership starts at $2.99 a month)

A related question is why some singers got famous while other good singers didn’t get famous: assume their singing skills are comparable.

PS: actually, today I talked to my 15-year-old daughter about “why some pop music stars or singers” break out and become famous. And her comment is both interesting and to the point: basically, she mentioned luck. This seems to be the case for singer such as Sandy Lam.

PS:

伍珂玥父親身份曝光！家庭背景太驚人，難怪那么多導師力挺伍珂玥，也只有金星敢說出真相！網友：這樣我們有了答案了！娛樂名星 (since this is a somewhat critical video, I would caution and listen/watch it with a grain of salt).

Also – 周笔畅 (Wikipedia) – quoted below, please note I didn’t mean to pick on her.

1985年，周笔畅出生于湖南长沙的一个音乐世家，其曾外叔公是第一任中国音乐家协会主席吕骥，外公外婆和妈妈都从事音乐或音乐教育工作，而爸爸也是音乐爱好者。周笔畅的父母希望她长大后能成为作家或记者，所以给她取名“笔畅”，寓意“文笔流畅”。

她6岁跟随父母定居广东省深圳市。[19]她曾就读园岭小学、岗厦小学、福华小学及深圳福田中学。[20]

2003年，参加高考，由于深受粤语流行音乐及00年代活跃的陶喆，周杰伦等音乐人影响，有意往此行业发展，并以艺术生总分681分的成绩(广东卷900满分)考入广州星海音乐学院。

Why is that?

Unlike hard science or engineering, arts or music could be subjective sometimes. Pop music is even more subjected to consumer taste and social trend, both are more fickle. Or subject to some sort of manipulation. SingChina 中国好声音 is a good example of all this – go to 争议 – 李玟现场质疑赛制不公被羞辱事件 and you will know.

Categories
Investing

Some thoughts re: Apple’s growth and profitability

Reading Time: 2 minutes

AAPL: they are not famous for leading edge on everything, basically. I recall in year 1997 to 2000, when I was at Rolla, I used the Mac at (eMac? Those colorful Macs Steve came up with his return). After that it’s the iPod – again at that time there are many mp3 players in the market including those from Samsung and iRiver. After that it’s iPhone – I was skeptical they can beat blackberry but I was wrong – I realized it in year 2009 too. Their AirPods and iPad are also good. They probably take most profits in all the categories they compete: smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop, earphones and they are number 2 in music (behind Spotify).

Their recent notable failures include Apple car, and to lesser extent, Vision Pro.

Many street people perceived they are lagging on AI and gen AI, which is a bit premature to call, I think

Thoughts when I was driving: US companies such as Apple has the most profit and also shareholder friendly.

Bonus points: Apple iPhone sales in China

Btw, in China there are so many choices of smartphones, and also Apple service doesn’t stand out as it does the in west.

Along those lines, I think it’s possible that in China Apple makes less money than say Coca Cola company. (Update) I think I am likely wrong on this one as I just googled “how much money coca cola makes from china each year” –

Below is Search Labs | AI Overview

“While specific annual revenue figures for Coca-Cola’s operations in China are not consistently reported in a readily available format, it’s clear that China is a significant market for the company. Coca-Cola’s overall revenue from the Asia Pacific region, which includes China, was around 10.3% of its total revenue in 2023. Specifically, Swire’s Coca-Cola business in mainland China experienced a 5% drop in revenue to HK$24.72 billion in the last reported period. However, the company continues to invest in the Chinese market, indicating a long-term commitment and potential for growth.“