Jay Chou to hold concert in Xiamen on the 18th of October

Jay Chou will be holding his 2008 World Tour Concert in Xiamen on the 18th of October, this is Jay Chou's first concert since the Olympics ended. This time's World Tour Concert has already been successfully held in Taiwan, Shanghai and many other places, plus the stage for this time's concert is one of the most expensive ever in China. Also, Jay Chou played the leadership role in arranging the entire concert, according to people in charge of the Xiamen concert, when fans found out Jay Chou was arranging his concert, on the day there were already numerous fans queuing up outside the Days Hotel & Suites Fortune in the morning. The president of the fans club told reporters, they believe Jay Chou will give fans in Xiamen a surprise. Of course they aren't ruling out that he will sing Min Nan songs.

Jay Chou busy recording new album, estimated release between late September and early October

According to reports, Jay Chou, who is in Taiwan right now, is busy recording his new album, it is estimated to be released between late September and early October, he even snuck in a bit of time to learn some new magic tricks, apart from playing cards, he showed off a trick of breaking a coin, after taking a breath he returned back to the normal new tricks, the people who saw it were all amazed.

Jay Chou promoting movies in Japan, recommends himself to direct live action version of Doraemon

A few days ago Jay Chou went to Shinjuku to the premiere of the EEG movie "Kung Fu Dunk". As an actor and a director, he expressed his desire to film a live action version of "Doraemon", the story will be about Doraemon running out of power and nearing death, with the touching story of Nobita becoming independent to help Doraemon, but he believes he won't get the permission from the original author.

Promoting movie in Japan, Aki Hoshino supports onstage, Jay Chou sets limits, rumoured that Japanese media aren't happy

Aki Hoshino asking for basketball lessons

Jay Chou has a lot of rumours because of his popularity, he set off to Japan to promote his movies "Kung Fu Dunk" and "Secret", it's rumoured that there have been problems because he thought he was all that, didn't cooperate with the media and had too many demands, which led to anger and dislike from the Japanese media, Wu Dun who is accompanying Jay to Japan for the promotion expressed, this is very normal, because before an interview communication between both sides is a must, the Japanese media haven't been unhappy!

Before going to Japan to promote the two movies, in order to prolong Jay Chou's momentum the Japanese arranged a lot of side shows in terms of the promotion, they invested a big budget to boost his momentum, on the night of the 28th which was the opening of "Kung Fu Dunk", they invited the former Japanese prime minister Takeshita Noboru's grandson, Daigo of the group Breakerz to support onstage, Daigo even played basketball with Jay Chou, Jay tied his hardest as he loves face, at the end he won 3 - 2, beating Daigo. Apart from this, they also invited H Cup Aki Hoshino to support onstage at the premiere, seeing her hot body, Jay Chou just couldn't look at her directly.In the short promotion time of only 3 days, Jay Chou is packed with interviews from 10am to night-time, the investor boss of "Kung Fu Dunk" Wu Dun accompanied Jay Chou on the promotion, concerning the problem of Jay Chou being over demanding, Wu Dun expressed it was very normal, he also said that the media were very friendly when Jay Chou participated in the TBS TV recording and when he accepted interviews from newspapers, magazines and radio stations.

Direct another movie? Jay Chou: still thinking about the topic to do it on

Jay Chou's first directed movie "Secret" produced excellent box office results in Asia, it received both applause and watchers, Jay Chou expressed his delight and he plans to continue directing, to film his second movie, but he's thought too much, he still hasn't decided what topic to film it on, so he will probably act in another movie before he starts filming another movie; apart from this, recently he's had the cold, his sickness has delayed his album release from the original end of August date to September.

Jay Chou's first directed movie "Secret" broke the record for box office sales last year, not only did it get applause but even some movie reviewers praised it: "Who could have thought the hope of Taiwan movies would be resting on Jay Chou, he's finally helped Taiwan produce a surprise commercial movie!", not only this but "Secret" was nominated for 6 awards at the 44th Golden Horse Awards, it won Best Movie Song, Brilliant Taiwan Movie of the Year, Best Special Effects, to this amazing result, Jay Chou expressed, due to the fact directing is not his professional domain so receiving such a response and affirmation made him very happy.Jay Chou once expressed, he actually likes other people calling him a "director", "Because that expression of theirs is an affirmation to the work I do in another domain", after filming "Secret", originally Jay Chou decided he would not film another movie for 3 years, but not long after, he started thinking endlessly again, what movie should he film next? But his second movie still hasn't taken shape, to this Jay Chou expressed, "Next, I will probably act in another movie first, I've always been thinking of ideas for the movie I want to film."As to his second movie, what kind of topic does he hope to try? Jay Chou expressed, everything is still being considered, he still doesn't have a definite direction, as to his next movie, will he get Guey Lun Mei, Alice Tseng, Anthony Wong and the others to work with again? Jay Chou smiled saying: "If there are suitable characters in the script, of course I won't rule out another collaboration!"

Devon Song getting married in September, Jay Chou was the matchmaker

Nan Quan Mama member Devon Song met his girlfriend at Jay Chou's concert, the two will be getting married in September.Jay Chou's beloved student, Nan Quan Mama member Devon is getting married, the girl he is marrying is his girlfriend of half a year dancer Hong Duan Bing, the two met each other at Jay Chou's concert, so Jay was kind of the matchmaker. The two have gotten the approval of their parents and plan to wed on the 17th of September.

According to Taiwanese media reports, Hong Duan Bing once presented the travel show "Taiwan Walker". Devon's parent company JVR Music expressed: "They are truly in love, the company and Jay happily give them the biggest blessing." The two people involved are both still young, are they getting married so fast because of a baby? JVR Music expressed: "We aren't the parties involved so we can't respond." There have been rumours they are already living together, the workers by Devon's side denied this.

Jay Chou catches the cold, fake new album tracklist online

The time of Jay Chou's new album release is nearing, an Mainland China website has already released a fake new album tracklist, exposing the fact the whole album is already finished, they also said the name of the album had already been settled on a Chinese style name "Blue Gong Mode", talking complete nonsense, this made workers at JVR Music shocked after hearing about it, they denied it expressing: "Jay Chou has caught the cold these few days and still isn't well yet, even though the writing is still continuing, but the recording work has basically been paused for now."Online in Mainland China recently there has been rumours of Jay Chou's new album tracklist being leaked, there have been people online posting the complete tracklist and style of songs in forums, there are14 songs all together including "Blue Gong Mode" which is also the name of the album, "Promise", "Astral Lamp" and more, the lyricists include Vincent Fang, Huang Jun Lang, Devon Song, the usual partners who work with Jay Chou. After this version came out, another version with the name "New Power" appeared online.

Before Jay Chou's "On The Run" album came out, there were similar fake tracklists that went around, to this phenomenon, JVR Music denied it expressing: "We thank the people online for looking forward to Jay's new album so much, at present it really is still in production, due to the fact he has the cold recently the progress of the production has been delayed a bit, it will have to be released by September. Plus the name of his album, they only decide on it at the very last moment before releasing every time."

Jay Chou worth 10 billion, dominating like Guo Dong

Jay Chou's 8 annual albums have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The new issue of "UBN Weekly" has listed him side by side with "Guo Dong" Terry Guo, besides naming them both "heavenly kings", they also say the two have many similarities, they estimate that Jay Chou is worth about NT$10 billion.The report states, Jay Chou and Guo Dong are the most famous people in Taiwan, even primary school students and elderly people know them, due to this the nosy media go after their rumours like mad, causing them to forget what they actually contribute and the reason they dominate. Besides having ordinary educations but being extremely intelligent, the two know their own professional domains very well and have their own ideas.In terms of personality, they have the air of a leader, they are also very good at executing things, the only weakness they both have is that they don't have much patience. And in their personal lives, they are both very filial to their mothers, besides giving all his income to his mother to handle, Jay Chou also wrote the song "Listen To Mother's Words", he also used her name "Ye Hui Mei" as an album name. Jay Chou and Guo Dong both have interests in Chinese kung fu, at the moment the two are both leading by miles ahead of any of their competitors in their respective fields.

To the news that the magazine listed Jay Chou and Guo Dong and also saw Jay Chou as "the Guo Dong of the entertainment circle", Jay Chou's company JVR Music replied simply: "The contents of the report about their story just hope to encourage youths to work hard moving up, and to give them a positive influence." But as to whether Jay Chou is worth what the magazine estimated, or if he was worth over 10 billion? JVR Music expressed: "We have never taken the initiative to talk about any numbers."

CNN comes to Taiwan to interview Jay Chou

Jay Chou's NW$38 million Benz sports car has finally been exposed! Even though he's handled things with a low profile but the Benz sports car SLR 722 he drives is just too eye-catching, as soon as he drives it out it attracts a lot of eyes, some people even started taking photographs and shared it online, accidentally exposing Jay Chou's beloved car.Even though the car is very bling bling, but Jay Chou's beloved car goes on the road with only a test drive plate, it's a provision set by the environmental law on oil consumption, Jay Chou's sports car has great horsepower, it consumes a high level of oil, it's hard for it to go on the road with a proper plate in accordance with the standards, but car enthusiasts expressed that through mechanical adjustments they can bypass it, it's just that there's too many speed limits in Taiwan, Jay Chou can only drive fast in the middle of the night.Jay Chou won many GMA awards at the beginning of the month, his career is going from strength to strength, it's rumoured that the foreign American CNN news channel has come to Taiwan a few days ago to interview Jay Chou after they interviewed such stars as Amei Chang, Kaneshiro Takeshi, F4, the location was the "Mr. J" restaurant he opened, you can tell from this Jay Chou's influence in Asia has increased. To this, his company JVR Music expressed that it was indeed true that they accepted an interview from CNN, the contents of the interview talked about Jay Chou's achievement in crossing music and movies, and Chinese style music also got the focus of outside attention, but due to the fact this video has not been broadcast yet they can't reveal anything.

From having not been to university to establishing himself in the Asia entertainment circle, Jay Chou says he's "a greedy artist", because he loves face, has a strong ambition, he hopes to give fans a feeling of improvement, so he's puts all his effort into the music, not only can he write all kinds of songs, his writing can even get into exam questions, Jay Chou coolly said: "It's so diao".

Nan Quan Mama releasing new album, they put on old age makeup, Jay Chou says they're cool

Even though they've failed to win the Golden Melody Award's Best Group after being nominated three times in a row, their plans to release a new album have not been affected, in their upcoming new songs plus best selections album, the four of them are putting on old age makeup, they've become "Nan Quan Grandma", the excellent effect made Jay Chou, who trained them up, say "Cool"!

The first plugged song "Goodbye Childhood" for "Nan Quan Mama" echoes the main plugged song from their first album "Childhood", despite their record contract coming to an end, they still haven't revealed their future direction, but with this new songs plus best selections album they are announcing a stage of their musical path.Jay Chou has written for "Nan Quan Mama", but unlike other artists who put Jay Chou's song as the main plugged song, "Nan Quan Mama" are still persisting with choosing their own written song to be the main plugged song.For this album "Nan Quan Mama" put on old age makeup, their makeup was so detailed that they even had the effect of wrinkles, the funny thing was that Lara and Yuhao's eyes were too big, they had to put on some tape to make their eyes smaller, Dantou put on reading glasses and called himself "Grandpa Xing", Zhang Jie's old age makeup was the best looking one, everyone said "when he gets old he can join the setup at Taiwanese eight o'clock".To the old age makeup of "Nan Quan Mama", after seeing them Jay Chou said "Cool! When Dantou gets old this look will suit him, the look of Lara's eyes when she's gotten old is very cool!""Nan Quan Mama" imagined after getting old, besides continuing playing music, what other dreams do they have? Among them Dantou's answer was the most silly, because he said: "After I get old, I'll take good care of Jay Chou".

Exclusive interview: Jay Chou to sing at Shenyang on the 30th of September

Lndaily: This is the third time you have had a world tour since you came out, what meaning do concerts have for you?

Jay: Usually it's a summary to all the work that's been done over the past few years, but what I see even more importantly is that in concerts I get to directly interact with fans. That's why for concerts I put a lot of thought into attracting fans. For place I hold a concert I will add in some things related to that place. The songs will have new arrangements, every time there will be a little change, so that it gives both me and the fans a fresh feeling. It'll also help increase the interaction and let everyone sing along with me.

Lndaily: Will you add in some local flavour at Shenyang?

Jay: Shenyang, I'm no stranger to it, I've been there before. Every knows that right now North-eastern dialects are really popular, our team have already started compiling data about this side of things, everyone has to hold meetings to discuss things, right now there's already....a secret. This time's tour has been in the Summer, it was hot every place we went to, everyone was pretty tired, I hear Shenyang gets cool at that time.

Lndaily: How's your new album coming along?

Jay: It'll be out in August, besides being busy with my concert recently I've been working on my new album, I've already written 3 songs right now.

Lndaily: Will you sing your new songs at the Shenyang concert?

Jay: Of course I will.

Lndaily: On the side of concerts, you've always been the most profitable artist, what expectations do you have of the box office sales in Shenyang?

Jay: (smiles) Everyone hopes that as soon as the tickets go on sale, there'll be the problem of getting a ticket.

Lndaily: I've seen the Wenzhou concert, everyone was surprised with your diabolo performance, when did you learn it?

Jay: I learnt diabolo by getting a teacher specifically for it, I only went to 6 lessons, the results don't seem too bad at all. I will use about half a minute on playing diabolos after "Compendium of Materia Medica". For a lot of things you have to see it to believe it, so I'll definitely play it at Shenyang for everyone to see, you'll all be shocked.

Lndaily: For the concert, you were absent from the Golden Melody Awards, do you not feel regret? You got 5 awards.

Jay: Compared to awards, I see concerts as more important, because there are many fans waiting for you. Since I came out I've won lots of awards, so right now I have a calm attitude towards awards, it's just a game, I won't take it too seriously.

Lndaily: Well then, in music do you have a target for improvement?

Jay: I hope I can use my own diligence to make other countries, people from the whole world like Chinese and Chinese songs. Music is boundless, a good song no matter the language will very easily be spread around. In recent years I've had more arrangements for performing abroad, when I was in America, I heard foreigners learning Chinese to sing "Nun-Chuks", "Beyond A Thousand Miles", it gave me a very big encouragement in the fact that even foreigners like to sing Chinese songs.

Lndaily: You have your own company now, and sign artists, what's your vision like?

Jay: I'll watch some singing contests, these shows are good for records, because the chances of discovering a newcomer successfully are just too low on the street. I take more notice of newcomers, I like creative types, unique youngsters, because there's just too many imitations nowadays, I need the type with a high distinguishable level, a voice you can recognise as soon as you hear it.

Lndaily: A lot of youngsters imitate you, how do you see this?

Jay: I'll be worried they sing better than me (laughs), because there's too many people nowadays who can sing well, and I admit I'm not the best singer, but have a distinguishing quality. Actually I suggest youngsters don't have to sing too well, but they need to have a distinguishing quality, it just won't do, be like me and don't pronounce clearly, it's also a characteristic.

Lndaily: Directing, acting, music, you are trying new things out, which side will you favour more?

Jay: Music is still the piece that gives me the most feeling. I started writing songs when I was in middle school, to me, making music is already like drinking water, I have to do it, it's also the part I don't have to worry about and have the most confidence in.

Lndaily: What do you think is the reason you've been popular?

Jay: My luck is good. Actually having a distinguishing quality is probably the most important thing, imitations is the most useless one. In the past I also imitated Jacky Cheung, but I gave up really fast, because no matter how much harder I tried I won't be surpassing Jacky Cheung. So I just used the most comfortable way for myself to sing, even though at that time a lot of people thought I didn't sing well, but I believed this was my own distinguishing quality, add to that very good luck and that's how I became popular.

Lndaily: The Olympic song "A Long Journey" that you wrote, a lot of fans like it, what was your initial thought when writing it?

Jay: In reality all I wanted to express was the desire to participate, in the past Vincent Fang hardly wrote these types of lyrics, although it was Chinese style, but in the past the ones he wrote were about fighting, eating, he hardly wrote about purely encouragement songs. This song needs to be collected, I want to put it in my new album.

Lndaily: What sports do you do normally?

Jay: Intense sports are not suitable for me. I like playing basketball, but I don't play much these days, occasionally I'll play.

Lndaily: Will you go watch the Olympics live? Which event will you watch?

Jay: There are a lot of Olympic events I want to watch live, the one I want to watch most is of course basketball.

David Tao: Jay Chou and I are different

Yesterday, David Tao the well known musician and the "godfather of R&B"appeared at Shenyang. For this journey he's not only being a judge to discover new singing talent but he also revealed his latest news.

David Tao expressed that he's still putting music at the centre of his work, apart from holding a concert in Mainland China, he'll be releasing a new album at the end of the year.But, like Jay Chou, David Tao has a movie dream. He came into contact with movies when he was at university, he studied Psychology and treatment with films, so filming a movie has always been his dream. David Tao expressed, starting next year, he'll be moving the focus of his work, he'll be concentrating on cultivating his own movie domain. Due to the fact they are both good at R&B and Chinese style music, and now they both like movies, David Tao and Jay Chou are always compared.

But, David Tao expressed, he and Jay Chou are different. "Me and Jay Chou, including Leehom Wang are musicians with different styles, even though we have competitions in the same market, but this kind of competition is good and it's normal."

Shin speaks highly of Jay Chou, rare genius every 50 years

Shin lost out on the Best Mandarin Male Singer at the Golden Melody Awards, but he wasn't discouraged by it, instead he thought that this year's big winner Jay Chou didn't win enough, he praised Jay Chou's "Secret" for being full of his personal style, at the end it only got two awards and he thought it was a bit of a pity.

He also praised Jay Chou and older generation Luo Da You as being musical genius' that only appear once every 50 years, they are both their era's respective representative. Shin always likes to hit high notes in his songs, it's hard to come by to have both the gentleness and strength to sing "Secret", he expressed that this song has both rock and Jay style, he highly recommends it, and it's a must sing at the KTV.

Jay Chou gives Jolin Tsai a private call to comfort her and encourage her to start her own company

Recently it's been rough for Jolin Tsai in both love and work, not only has her new album's release been suspended, but her relationship with Eddie Peng has ended due to his mother not approving. But, there has been news saying that her old love Jay Chou, who she had a public spat with over record sales, has privately called her to comfort her. Seeing as Jay Chou has grown even better since becoming a boss, plus Jay Chou has encouraged her to start her own company, at long last Jolin Tsai has decided before the end of December she'll invest 50 million yuan to start a company, she'll no longer let contracts become stumbling blocks in her career.

Music cultures skill, Jay Chou's biography film, from a young boy to Asia heavenly king

The most popular artist in Asia is probably Jay Chou, how did Jay Chou successfully become the Asia heavenly pop king from a young quiet boy? A magazine has helped him film a biography, they publicly recount Jay Chou's successes, the crucial part is he worked hard to culture his "skill".

Artist Jay Chou said, "Every year I'll only hold a concert if I improve, hopefully the next concert will be next year, is that good? (yes!)"

Jay Chou, there's no Chinese person in the world who doesn't know this name, he is an artist, an actor and also a director. From the movie clip: "You look like you really like piano playing."

All his brimming talent originates from a seed that is blossoming on the 5 strings. Music teacher Qi Meng expressed: "I said Jay, Jay, I kept calling him, I said the teacher is asking you a question! Then his eyes will look at me, and he would smile, but he still didn't answer."Who could have thought this young quiet boy who played Chopin, Bach, Debussy would cross over to pop from classic and become the new Asia heavenly king.

Jay Chou expressed: "In the past you think I want to do the diaoest things, as long as it's diao then it's fine, like things that other people haven't done before, now there's a bit extra, in that I'll start off from love, that is for you to educate children of the present."His biggest opponent is face, perfectionism and his ambition, Jay Chou is walking step by step towards success, that young boy who loved music still lives in his heart.The reporters asked him, "What is music to you?" Jay Chou said, "Music, is like water, you need it everyday."

Jay Chou's concert being held on Saturday, there's going to be traffic control at the city centre in Wenzhou

From 20:08 to 23:00 on the 5th of July, "M-Zone 2008 My Territory Jay Chou World Tour Wenzhou Concert" will be held at the sports centre in Wenzhou. In order to ensure the concert progresses without a hitch, in accordance to the 39th article of the "Chinese citizen traffic safety law", the traffic wardens in the city have decided to control traffic at the sports centre and surround roads in Wenzhou.

Time of traffic control: 17:30 to 23:00 on the 5ht of July

2008Scope of traffic control:

1. The road facing the bus station by the west, the school road by south, Nam Ha road by the east, Wendy Road by north will be traffic controlled (not including the above mentioned roads);

2. The place by the side of the sports stadium (from the east of the road by the side of the fountain of the sports stadium, as far west to the entrance of the sports stadium), all private cars will be prohibited. A friendly reminder: due to the fact the car park at the sports stadium is very limited, citizens coming to watch should try not drive to the sports stadium; during the traffic control, please change roads early if you are driving on one of the roads by the side of the sports stadium, drivers please pay attention to the Wenzhou traffic radio for road information.

3 in a row for Chinese Flower Pot, Vincent Fang overjoyed

Due to the fact Jay Chou was holding a concert in Wenzhou and the tickets had already been sold so he was unable to rush back to Taiwan to accept his awards, therefore Vincent Fang went onstage to accept them for him, in total he took home Best Song of the Year, Best Composer, Best Album Producer and Composer for Accompaniment Category, a total of 4 awards. Vincent Fang himself won Best Lyricist with the song "Chinese Flower Pot", it's made up for the work he has to do going on and off the stage accepting Jay's awards.

When Vincent Fang was accepting his award he thanked the organisers, judges, the people who have been by his side all this time, his family, and also Gu Xiao Li. He smiled saying: "This song Chinese Flower Pot got nominated for Best Composer, Best Song of the Year, Best Lyricist and Best Arranger, the other songs on the album didn't get nominated, might as well have released an EP!"

He revealed that one time he was in Singapore, he heard that there were youngsters that were learning Chinese for his lyrics, only then did he know pop music had universal value and penetration.

Jay Chou's Wenzhou concert starting next week

Jay Chou's world tour concert Wenzhou stop has already gone into the last week countdown, the events, searching for "basketball master", "airport arrival member" and "Wenzhou welcoming Olympics event", that surround the concert are all nearing the end, according to the sums of the committee, there are over 1000 fans who have taken part in them, it shows Jay Chou's popularity. Among them, when the event "airport arrival member" started, the number of people who went to leave messages and supporters for the "What do you want to say most to Jay?" web was over 1 million, the top 20 most supported fans will get to welcome Jay Chou at the airport.

Also, the top 10 "basketball masters" have already been chosen, these ten basketball masters come from Wenzhou, Ningbo, Hanzhou, Jinhua and other places, they will receive concert tickets.

And the search for the original segment in Jay Chou's concert to welcome the Olympics has already gone into the last stage. The committee have revealed, after the preliminaries, the ten candidate segments will be personally chosen by Jay Chou in a few days time, the chosen segment will be personally directed and rehearsed by Jay Chou, the final list from the above events will be announced soon.

Four beauties fighting it out at the Golden Melody Awards, Patty Hou cheers on Jay Chou

On the 27th of June Da S, Xiao S, Patty Hou and Tao Zi decided on their dresses for the "Golden Melody Awards" in Taiwan, the four have started a war in beautiful clothes, Xiao S has declared she will be the most beautiful one. Da S exposed that on the day of the awards ceremony you will see Jay Chou's two old loves Jolin Tsai and Patty Hou on the same stage.

Jay Chou, whose nominated for 8 awards, has said he will be holding a concert in Mainland China on the day so he can't attend. But, Da S said: "He actually will be attending, and he will have some interaction with Jolin Tsai and Patty Hou, how this will appear, I can't say now." Xiao S smiled saying: "When we first thought of this plot, Patty Hou was very helpless but it was us 3 against her, all she could do was accept it." When Patty Hou was asked if hoped Jay Chou would win an award? Xiao S deliberately told her to cheer on Jay Chou, Patty Hou could only awkwardly turn to the camera and say: "Come on!"

周杰伦号召歌迷提前练歌 Jay Chou calls on fans to practise lyrics in advance

Jay Chou, who announced he was using his voice to cheer on the Olympics, especially set up a lot of segments in his concert that relates to the Olympics, among them, the part when he sings his Olympic song "A Long Journey" is an major part. When Jay Chou sang this song in other cities, it always led to a "big sing-along", Changsa won't be an exception.

At the "Jay Chou 2008 world tour Changsa concert" being held in the He Long stadium, Jay Chou will be performing 20 songs in 3 hours for fans, among these a lot are his classic songs for 8 years since he's been out. All the songs from "On The Run", "Beyond A Thousand Miles", "Nocturnes", "Cannot Speak" will all be appearing at the concert, songs like "Golden Armour", "Hero Chou", "Secret" and other movie songs will be inserted into various segments of the concert. Among these songs, that everyone is focusing on, includes the Olympic song Jay Chou and Vincent Fang wrote together "A Long Journey". To this even Jay Chou himself is really looking forward to it, in order to get a big sing-along going at the Changsa stop for "A Long Journey", Jay Chou has called on fans to practise the lyrics in advance, he smiled saying: I hope fans can practise this song in advance together, especially the Beijing opera part.

Any readers who want to go to the concert can call the ticket hotline: 0731-5218888-818,0731-5124018


本报长沙讯 扬言要用歌声为奥运加油的周杰伦特地在他的演唱会上设置了许多与奥运有关的环节，其中，他演唱奥运歌曲《千山万水》更是最重头的好戏。周董在其他城市演唱这首歌时，总是引发“万人大合唱”的壮观场面，长沙也将不会例外。

　　于21日在贺龙体育场开演的“周杰伦2008世界巡回长沙演唱会”上，周杰伦将在近3个小时的演出中为歌迷演唱20余首歌曲，这其中大多是他出道8年以来的经典曲目。《我很忙》的所有曲目、传唱度颇广的《千里之外》、《夜曲》、《开不了口》等都会在个唱中一一展现，而《黄金甲》、《周大侠》、《不能说的秘密》等电影音乐也将穿插在个唱的各个环节中表演。这其中最受瞩目的歌曲还包括周杰伦和方文山联手创作的奥运歌曲《千山万水》。对此连周杰伦本人都充满期待，为促成长沙站也出现万人合唱《千山万水》的场面，周董号召歌迷提前练歌，他笑言：希望歌迷一起提前去练习这首歌曲，尤涫瞧渲械木┚绮糠帧Ｏ胩莩岬亩琳呖梢圆Υ蚴燮比认撸?731－5218888转818，0731－5124018。

周杰倫世界巡迴個唱貴州站26日停止門票銷售 Tickets for Jay Chou's world tour Guizhou stop will cease to be sold on the 26th

彩貴州站)將在2008年6月28日登陸貴州新體育場。日前主辦方表示，為保證奧運期間演出的萬無一失，決定於26日停止門票銷售。

為保障廣大歌迷利益，謹防歌迷買到假票，組委會特別提醒，應通過以下方式獲得演唱會門票：方法一：移動客戶在12530網站下載「為災區祈福」鈴音、與飛信抗震機器人互動等方式參與600張門票抽取；全球通、貴陽地區動感地帶客戶可到指定營業廳預存話費獲門票，1300張門票，送完即止；同時還將在M-ZONE人中抽取333個幸運粉絲，贈送門票。方法二：到各大票房購買。

演出時間：6月28日晚上19：30
演出地點：貴州省新體育場
24小時咨詢電話：0851-8564375
總票房：貴陽大劇院0851-8564376　8564377

M-Zone 2008 My Music Territory Jay Chou world tour concert (colourful Guizhou stop) will be held in the new sports stadium in Guizhou on the 28th of June. A few days ago the organisers expressed that in order to ensure nothing goes wrong for this performance in the period of the Olympics, they've decided to stop selling tickets on 26th.

In order to protect the interests of the fans, so they don't buy fake tickets, the committee sent out special reminders that they should buy concert tickets through the following methods:
1st method: M-Zone customers can download "Pray For The Disaster Area" ringtone at the 12530 website and interact with the Feixin earthquake fighting robot will be entered into a draw for 600 tickets; M-Zone customers from Gotone and Guiyang can go to the designated places to get tickets, 1300 tickets will be provided, when they are all given away they are gone; at the same time there will be 333 lucky M-Zone fans who will receive tickets in a draw. The 2nd method: go to the various box offices to buy tickets.

Time of performance: 19:30 28th of June
Venue: Guizhou new sports stadium
24 hour hotline: 0851-8564375
Head box office, Guiyang great theatre: 0851-8564376

周杰伦相中温州“叮叮当” Jay Chou chooses Wenzhou's "Ding Ding Dong"

为期一个多月的“周杰伦寻找温州一支歌”活动日前揭晓，一首家喻户晓的温州民歌《叮叮当》当仁不让被周杰伦选中，被改编后将于7月5日在温举行的周杰伦个唱上亮相。

　　据悉，继活动开展之日起，主办方从温州各县市区收到代表性民歌达50来件，其中不乏有我市观众耳熟能详的《对鸟》、《九山情歌》、《月光光》、《马灯调》、《懒汉歌》等一批经典民歌。而周杰伦最后选定《叮叮当》不仅是因为它的优美和最为广泛的传唱度，而且更在于其歌词充分地反映了温州古城风貌、人文景观和民俗象事。

　　据介绍，作为海内外最著名的温州民歌《叮叮当》早在1987年就被联合国教科文组织亚洲文化中心选入亚洲、太平洋地区民歌集。温州人是吟唱着《叮叮当》长大的，它在温州世代相传并深深烙印在童年的成长记忆里，是真正意义上的温州音乐。

The result for the month-long event "Jay Chou searching for a song in Wenzhou" was revealed a few days ago, a Wenzhou folk song that everyone knows "Ding Ding Dong" was chosen by Jay Chou, after being rearranged it will appear at Jay Chou's concert being held in Wenzhou on the 5th of July.

According to reports, since the start of the event, the organisers received over 50 folk song representatives from different parts of Wenzhou, among them there was no lack of familiar songs "Bird", "Love Song of Jiu Shan", "Moonlight", "Lantern". "Slob Song" and other classic songs. Jay Chou chose "Ding Ding Dong" in the end not only for its elegant and broad range but for its lyrics that reflect Wenzhou's ancient city image, the culture and people.According to introduction, being the most famous Wenzhou folk song both abroad and within, it was chosen to be in the folk song collection for Asia and Pacific regions by the united nations teaching group. People from Wenzhou have grown up singing "Ding Ding Dong", it is passed on from one generation to the next and is deeply imprinted in childhood memories, it is the real meaning of Wenzhou music.

周杰伦7月5日温州忙个唱 将缺席金曲奖现场(图) Jay Chou holding concert in Wenzhou on the 5th of July

周杰伦巡回演唱会制作精良

周杰伦演唱会上扎小辫的造型很独特

Jay Chou, who has just finished filming a commercial in Shanghai, after being busy finishing his concert in Wenzhou on the 5th of July, he will hold a concert in Xian on the 20th of September, his new album is expected to be out by August, he is different from other artists avoiding the Olympics, choosing to release before or after them, not clashing with the schedule of the Olympics, Jay Chou hopes everything continues smoothly, as long as the production of the album is smooth, he should be releasing it on schedule. As to the Golden Melody Awards being held on the 5th of July, Jay Chou will be busying holding his concert in Wenzhou and so will be absent from the awards.

Jay Chou originally planned to hold a concert in Changsha, due to the earthquake it is delayed until 21st of June, Jay Chou didn't ask for a grand rehearsal, everything was made simple, even the rooms at the hotels he only requested a business suite, he hopes to save as much expenses as possible and donate it to the Sichuan victims to rebuild their homes!


新浪娱乐讯 刚从上海拍完广告返台的周杰伦( 听歌)，忙完7月5日温州演唱会后，9月20日才在西安开唱，而他新专辑则预计8月推出，有别于其它歌手闪避奥运，选择在奥运前或后推出，不与奥运撞期，周杰伦则希望一切照进度，只要专辑制作顺利，应可如期推出。至于7月5日举办的金曲奖，周杰伦忙于温州演唱会，将无法出席。
　　周董原定5月31日举办的长沙演唱会，因四川地震延至6月21日开唱，周杰伦不要求天王排场，一切以简单为原则，就连下榻饭店的住房等级也仅要求商务套房，希望将省下来的费用，捐给四川灾民重建家园！YuerZh/文

黃文星偷師小豬 王雅婷秘練國標

「超級偶像」黃文星愛「周董」周杰倫成痴，學他不穿內褲，還一度想在總決賽大跳他的歌「本草綱目」，黃文星笑說：「我以前喜歡的是王力宏，但現在最喜歡周杰倫，也想像他一樣到世界各地開演唱會。」

超級偶像總決賽今天登場，5位參賽者分別都練了一首舞曲，其中張芸京將大跳空姐舞突破以往形象，林宗興將挑戰嘻哈舞步，王雅婷則超越年齡，嘗試性感國標舞，黃文星和江明娟為了甩開「台味」，也分別選了羅志祥的舞曲。

把周董當超級偶像的黃文星說，看了周董的演唱會後，原本想選他的歌當舞曲，並學他在台上秀扯鈴技術，但製作單位怕他無法將一長串的RAP唱好，最後只好忍痛放棄，「我覺得周董的很多構想都很好，也想像他一樣能又唱又跳，很佩服他可以到東京武道館開唱。」

而排名落後的王雅婷，這次將演唱「意難忘」和中島美嘉的「雪花」，她說：「意難忘是奶奶生前最喜歡的歌，以前她常常叫我唱給她聽，我都故意不唱，現在想起來真的很後悔，所以要唱這首歌獻給她。」

為了提升分數，這次她也特別選唱日文歌，「這首歌以前就很喜歡，雖然完全不會日文，但有信心一定能夠唱好。

Jay Chou's "Chinese Flower Pot" gets into exams for the third time

Jay Chou, who has a movie coming out in Japan for a third year in a row, yesterday attracted the attention of a mass of Japanese media crossing the ocean to interview him, in Mainland China Jay Chou's songs have once again appeared in exams, the lyrics to "Chinese Flower Pot" written by Vincent Fang and "Harry Potter" both appeared in the general test for Shan Dong's high school.

Jay Chou's influential power plus Vincent Fang's deep lyrics have helped Jay Chou's songs receive more and more attention from the education world, besides songs like "Listen To Mother's Words", "Shanghai 1943" and others being integrated into teaching materials, language and history teachers have been using Jay Chou's lyrics to set out questions, "Chinese Flower Pot" from the "On The Run" album has been added to the high school exam in Shan Dong, this is already the third time a song has been in the exam.

According to reports, this time's exam used the lyrics in "Chinese Flower Pot", investigating the history of Chinese porcelain, at the same time there was also a literature question on Harry Potter, a lot of middle school graduates participating in the exam were surprised when they saw these two questions. Vincent Fang especially loves this song, recently he's released the 2 booklets for the "Chinese Flower Pot" and "Chinese Style".

"Kung Fu Dunk" is coming out in Japan in July, yesterday when the Japanese saw Jay Chou they couldn't hide their excitement, in the interview there was a lot of applause, it was like a "fans meeting", they were curious about which domain was more challenging for him, music or movies? Jay Chou expressed: "Music is my profession, filming movies is my interest, to me the domain that's a bit more challenging is acting and directing, I haven't received any training, if I can take it as my profession in the future it shows I've already been successful."

周董S.H.E全力支持 近百台藝人明晚演出賑災騷 Pres Chou, S.H.E. and other celebs to show support at fundraising event

集合近百位台灣藝人將於周日（18日）晚舉行《把愛傳出去》四川賑災晚會，這個愛心行動將娛樂圈中緋聞情侶 大串燒匯聚；最矚目的組合要算是周杰倫與眾緋聞女友蔡依林、侯佩岑、徐若瑄、Hebe有機會同場演出。昨日 記者會上周杰倫不避嫌跟S.H.E的Hebe一起呼籲，他更義正辭嚴地訓示在場的傳媒不要將焦點在「八卦」 報道了。他說：「八卦不重要！救人較重要！」早前周杰倫已捐出50萬人民幣賑災，他透露會創作一首賑災歌曲 。Almost a hundred of Taiwan's celebrities will appear at tomorrow's 'Let Love Spread' event in aid of the Sichuan earthquake disaster. This charitable event will bring together many rumoured lovers within the entertainment circle. The lovers still at the centre of attention are Jay Chou and his rumoured girlfriends, Jolin Tsai, Patty Hou, Vivian Hsu, and Hebe - any of which might appear on the same stage. At the press conference yesterday, despite rumours between Jay and S.H.E.'s Hebe, he asked the media to not focus on the trivial matters. Jay said that "gossip is not important, saving lives is more important!". Earlier on, Jay had donated 500 thousand RMB for the disaster, and disclosed that he was working on a song dedicated to events of the recent earthquake.

S.H.E稱所屬唱片公司也動員錄製了一首公益歌曲《比較美好的世界》為四川的災民加油，她們知道周杰倫也 要作賑災歌後，更主動問周杰倫要不要參與他們的錄音，反正大家一起送愛心。S.H.E stated that their record company were also working on a charity song 'A More Beautiful World' to encourage those caught up in the Sichuan disaster. After hearing that Jay was also working on a song, they even asked him whether he'd like to join them on the recordings, since everybody was working with love.

《把愛傳出去》以4小時直播節目為四川大地震籌款，演出藝人名單，包括蔡依林、飛輪海、彭于晏、吳尊與張韶 涵、黑人與范瑋琪、蕭敬騰、楊宗緯、王力宏、蕭亞軒、黃立行與小S等。主持方面是重量級陣容，包括張小燕、 吳宗憲、蔡康永與張菲等。'Let Love Spread' will be a four hour live broadcast helping to fundraise money for the Sichuan earthquake, with a list of performances from Jolin, Farenheit, Eddie Peng, Chun and Angela Zhang, He Ren (Charles) and Fan Wei Qi, Jam Hsiao, Aska Yang, Leehom, Elva, Stanley Huang and Xiao S etc. Presenters will include Zhang Xiao Yan, Jacky Wu, Kevin and Zhang Fei etc.

Jay Chou "searching" for Wen Zhou folk song 周杰伦“寻找”温州民歌

　"M-zone 2008 My Territory" concert will be held on the 5th of July, one of the special activities of Jay Chou's world tour stop at Wen Zhou is "Jay Chou searching for a song in Wen Zhou", right now there is a upsurge in folk songs in the city, some folk song lovers have even formed a group to offer up songs with reasons for their recommendation.

According to our understanding, songs that have been recommended include "Give A Cake", "Boss Boss", "First Day of the First Month" and "Asking Surname Ballad", there were also songs from Qing Tian, Yong Jia's "Tea Picking", Yue Qing's "Lantern", "Crew of a Ship" and other small folk songs, and the songs "Ding Ding Dong" and "Bird" which once were entered into the Asia folk song collection were naturally chosen at the top. Music experts in the city think: Wen Zhou folk songs until now were a piece of gem that climbed over culture, young people in Wen Zhou have limited contact with folk songs, and Jay Chou has combined pop music elements with Wen Zhou folk songs, to perform it afresh, just this point has made the Wen Zhou music world excited in anticipation. As to which Wen Zhou folk song Jay Chou will choose at the end to perform at the concert, it will be officially revealed at the middle third of this month.



将于7月5日开唱的“动感地带2008我的音乐地盘” 周杰伦世界巡回演唱会温州站亮点活动之一“周杰伦寻找温州一支歌” ，正在我市各地掀起民歌热潮，特别是一些热衷民歌的爱好者还亲自向组委会提呈乐谱与推荐理由。 　　据了解,在众多推荐作品中既有《送松糕》、《点指板板》、《正月初一头》、《问姓谣》等浓郁温州地方韵味的民歌,也有来自青田、永嘉一带的《采茶调》、乐清的《马灯调》、《船夫号子》等民歌小调,而曾经入选亚太地区民歌集的《叮叮当》与《对鸟》则自然荣登评选前列。我市有关音乐专家认为：温州民歌盛传至今，是瓯越文化的一块瑰宝，作为年轻一代的温州人接触民歌机会比较有限，而周杰伦把流行音乐元素与温州民歌相结合，进行重新演绎，光此一点就令温州音乐界值得期待。至于周杰伦本人最后会挑选哪首温州民歌来全新演绎并在演唱会上惊喜呈现，将于本月中旬正式揭晓。 鹿闻

Huang Yi and Lin Zhi Ling form team, Jay Chou willing to play accompaniment

Lasting 9 hours, called the marathon "512 Fundraising Special", yesterday it was held in Hong Kong. There were over 500 celebrities who joined this "long run", they raised HK$31.3 million.

A lot of the exciting parts were unexpectedly "formed" at the last minute, just ten minutes before they performed, they were fresh out of the oven. Among them, the part with Sylvia Chang, Huang Yi and Lin Zhi Ling doing the poem "Child, grab onto mother's hand, the path to Heaven is too dark" was the biggest "tearjerker", not only this but Jay Chou was willing to be the "green leaf", just before going on he decided to play "Snail" as the accompaniment, it made the performance perfect.On the day of the live broadcast, the schedule was over half way, Jay Chou, Lin Zhi Ling and the other Taiwan artists arrived in Hong Kong, they rushed to the set. Lin Zhi Ling picked up the poem and joined the group of Sylvia Chang and Huang Yi. The two Chang and Huang had only just hurriedly practised once in the afternoon. The good thing was that even though the three hadn't teamed up before but they had a good mutual understanding, very quickly they made it smooth. After the rehearsal, the three couldn't hold back their feelings and were already crying.At this time, Jay Chou, who wasn't feeling well, supported them and suggested playing the accompaniment for this poem. On the stage, Sylvia Chang was motherly, Lin Zhi Ling was warm and Huang Yi was sobbing, the whole scene was immersed in a warm atmosphere. And not far away, Jay Chou's "Snail", continued the warmth.

SKINWALKERS MOVIE

Skinwalkers berkisah tentang anak laki-laki berumur 12 tahun yang mengetahui dirinya berada ditengah-tengah pertempuran antara sesama manusia serigala. Salahs atu kelompok bersumpah untuk melindunginya, sementara yang lain mencoba membunuhnya – dan ibu sang anak mencoba mencari tahu penyebab keberadaan anaknya sebelum semuanya berakhir.

Pemain :
Natassia Malthe

Shawn Roberts

Jason Behr

Elias Koteas

Rhona Mitra
Sutradara :
James Isaac
Penulis :
James Demonaco/todd Harthan

Jenis Film :
Horror
Produser :
Robert Kulzer, Brian J. Gilbert, Don Carmody
Produksi :
Lionsgate
Homepage :
http://www.skinwalkers.com/
Trailer :
http://www.skinwalkers.com/
Durasi :
111 Min

NIM'S ISLAND MOVIE

Nim (Abigail Breslin), seorang gadis cilik yang tinggal di pulau di Pasifik Selatan hanya berdua dengan ayahnya dan beberapa binatang setempat. Saat Ayah Nim (Gerard Butler) hilang di lautan, Nim bersekutu dengan Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), penulis buku petualangan Alex Rover, untuk menemukan ayahnya dan melindungi pulau dari Bajak Laut, atau itu yang ia percayai.

Pemain :
Jodie Foster

Gerard Butler

Abigail Breslin

Morgan Griffn
Sutradara :
Mark Levin Jennifer Flackett
Penulis :
Paula Mazur Joseph Kwong

Produser :
Paula Mazur
Produksi :
Walden Media
Homepage :
http://www.nimsisland.com/
Durasi :
96 Min

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL MOVIE

Berlatar belakang Perang Dingin tahun 1957, Indy (Harrison Ford) bersaing untuk mendapatkan Tengkorak Kristal melawan operandi-operandi yang dijalankan oleh Uni Soviet. Petualangan ini membawanya menuju New Meksiko, Connecticut, Mexico City dan hutan-hutan di Peru.

Pemain :

Harrison Ford Cate Blanchett Karen Allen Ray Winstone John Hurt Jim Broadbent Shia Labeouf
Sutradara :

Steven Spielberg
Penulis :

David Koepp

Jenis Film :
Action - Remaja (teenage)
Produser :
Frank Marshall
Produksi :
Paramount Pictures
Homepage :
http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html
Durasi :
123 Min

TELAH DIBUKA MEGA XXI BATAM

Para pecinta film khususnya di Batam dan sekitarnya, telah dibuka MEGA XXI Batam mulai tanggal 30 Mei 2008, berlokasi di Mega Mall Batam Lantai 2 Jalan Engku Putri – Batam. Untuk informasi lebih lanjut dapat menghubungi (0778) 466 121

Untuk info film, ketik MEGAXXI atau MEGA XXI dan kirim ke 2121

Microsoft scanning operations

Microsoft is abandoning its effort to scan whole libraries and make their contents searchable, a sign it may be getting choosier about the fights it will pick with Google.

The world's largest software maker is under pressure to show it has a coherent strategy for turning around its unprofitable online business after its bid for Yahoo, last valued at $47.5 billion, collapsed this month.

Digitizing books and archiving academic journals no longer fits with the company's plan for its search operation, wrote Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's search and advertising group, in a blog post Friday.

Microsoft will take down two separate sites for searching the contents of books and academic journals next week, and Live Search will direct Web surfers looking for books to non-Microsoft sites, the company said.

Nadella said Microsoft will focus on "verticals with high commercial intent."

"We believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer and content partner," Nadella wrote.

At an advertising confab at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters this week, he demonstrated a new system that rewards customers with cash rebates for using Live Search to find and buy items on advertisers' sites.

Microsoft entered the book-scanning business in 2005 by contributing material to the Open Content Alliance, an industry group conceived by the Internet Archive and Yahoo. In 2006, it unveiled its competing MSN book search site.

Unlike Google, whose decision to scan books still protected under copyright law has provoked multiple lawsuits, Microsoft stuck to scanning books with the permission of publishers or that were firmly in the public domain.

The company said it will give publishers digital copies of the 750,000 books and 80 million journal articles it has amassed.

Microsoft's search engine is a distant third behind Google's and Yahoo's, in terms of the number of queries performed each month, despite the company's many attempts to emulate Google's innovative search features and create some of its own.

Microsoft as much as said its search strategy wasn't working when it offered in February to buy Yahoo to boost its search and advertising. Talks between the companies collapsed because Yahoo executives sought more money.

The company's ceding the book-search segment to Google and the Yahoo-led Open Content Alliance could signal Microsoft has a new search strategy and is ready to jettison its unsuccessful me-too efforts.

However, the software maker has not given up on combining its search operations with Yahoo's. The two companies are said to be talking about a more limited deal.

farmers to go high technology

When Martin Barbre got his first look three years ago at a system that would drive his tractor for him, he didn't buy the device — or the premise that it would cut costs on his farm.

"When they first came out with them and we first looked at it, it seemed like a fancy gadget," said Barbre, a 53-year-old who grows corn and soybeans in southern Illinois.

But with the cost of fuel, seeds, fertilizer and just about everything else it takes to grow his crops rising fast, Barbre quickly came around after he started using the global positioning system to drive his tractor a year and a half ago. "As soon as we used it, we realized the benefits," he said.

American grain farmers are enjoying the highest crop prices of their lives, but they don't expect that to last forever. As a hedge against the inevitable downturn, owners of midsize farms like Barbre's — and even some smaller-scale farmers — are investing that cash in technology that's increasingly integrated.

"These new economics have changed the whole landscape," said Dan Davidson, an agronomist with agricultural-data company DTN in Omaha "They've got the money to spend; they're going to update. They know the (profit) margins we have today are not going to be around forever."

Large-scale farmers have used GPS-based automated steering for tractors, sensors that probe soil for nutrients and moisture and other gadgets since the late 1990s to cut their expenses and increase their production. It wasn't until the past five years or so, however, that the savings owners of smaller and midsize farms could realize from using high-end technology would significantly offset their rising costs, said Davidson.

Sure, there were environmental benefits: spraying less fertilizer and fewer herbicides; not overwatering; cutting fuel costs and reducing soil compaction. And farmers could take the data that high-tech gear gathered in the field, download it to their computers and use it in planning.

But now fertilizer used by corn and soybean farms costs almost double what it did two years ago, while seeds and fuel cost almost 50% more, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, the cost of auto-steering systems — among the most popular high-tech products — has remained relatively flat the past few years, and in some cases it has fallen. Systems that now typically cost from a few thousand dollars to $25,000 used to run as high as $40,000.

Look no further than Barbre's farm, he said, for examples of technology's payoff in the current farming economy — and of how important it may be if costs continue rising.

With auto-steering, a farmer manually drives the perimeter of a field to map its boundaries so the GPS gadget can then direct the tractor to carve near-perfectly straight rows. A few systems will even turn the tractor around at the end of each row. By cutting down on overlap, the system saves fuel, and it means the same ground won't be planted twice or sprayed unnecessarily with fertilizer or pesticides.

Barbre estimates that using auto-steering on his 4,000 acres — split about evenly between soybeans and corn — has cut his fuel costs up to 5%.

"That's maybe 30, 50 cents an acre," he said. "Over 4,000 acres, that adds up."

Yield mapping — tracking how much corn or soybeans parts of his fields produce, which he's used for more than 10 years — brings him an extra $30 or $35 on every acre of corn. He figures he's spent about $14,000 on it over the years, buying and upgrading his hardware and software, for a net benefit of $60,000 to $70,000 or more per year on 2,000 acres of corn.

But technology has limits for Barbre. Some of his fields are cut into hilly terrain, while others are near-perfect squares and rectangles of flat prairie.

"This field I'm planting in right now goes all the way from flat, black ground to ridges with terraces in them," he said while taking a break from corn planting.

The auto-steering helps a lot more in fields like that and less on flat, relatively square tracts. Similarly, yield-monitoring can work wonders if you farm across different types of soil, but not so much if all your crops sprout from similar ground.

A lot also depends on how effectively a farmer uses the technology.

Iowa State University agriculture professor Matt Darr said buying and using high-tech gear is a lot like buying exercise equipment.

"Just because you have a treadmill in your basement doesn't mean you're in great shape," he said.

That's why equipment dealers are offering new services.

"They've had to hire consultants. They have to go out to the farm," said Barry Nelson, a spokesman for the agricultural equipment division at Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co. "There are some extra expenses."

A 2007 survey of farm equipment dealers conducted by Purdue University and CropLife magazine found that 85% offered customers custom applications and someone to come out and put in-field technology to work. Only 45% reported making money on the services.

Companies like Deere now try to entice farmers to stick with their brand by making their various high-tech devices compatible so a farmer can get more use from data and high-tech parts, like GPS receivers.

"You can take the receiver off the tractor and plug it into the combine and, boom, you're off and running," said Nelson.

Just over the horizon, even more technology is coming to the farm.

Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on a small robot that can identify individual weeds in a field and spray them with herbicide so farmers don't have to spray an entire field as they commonly do now. The robot will move perhaps 2 mph picking out weeds by color, location and other characteristics, engineer Lei Tina said.

"Actually we have a prototype," he said. "We can identify the individual plant pretty well."

The technology is years from commercial viability, however.

Then again, Davidson said, what's expensive and far-fetched today may quickly become cost-effective if fuel and fertilizer costs don't drop back.

"All of these things are so tied to energy," he said. "I don't expect them to come back down."

USA in recession

BERLIN Warren Buffett, whose business and investment acumen has made him one of the world's wealthiest men, said in an interview published Sunday he believes the U.S. economy is already in a recession.

Asked by Germany's Der Spiegel weekly whether he thinks the U.S. could still avoid a recession, he said that as far as the average person is concerned, it's already here.

"I believe that we are already in a recession," Buffett was quoted by Spiegel as saying. "Perhaps not in the sense as defined by economists. ... But people are already feeling the effects of a recession."

The 77-year-old chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. was in Europe last week for what he called a "deferred shopping tour," looking for possible acquisitions.

spacecraft successfully landed on Mars

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft successfully touched down on the surface of Mars Sunday night, the first time in 32 years that the space agency has landed a probe on the Red Planet using retrorockets.

Jubilant officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., burst into cheers when Phoenix's radio signal came in as scheduled at 7:53 p.m. ET, indicating that the $457 million lander is in position near Mar's northern polar cap.

About two hours later, the mission controllers got word that the craft's solar arrays had successfully deployed. The twin 6-foot circular disks are the power source. If they hadn't deployed, Phoenix would only have had about three hours of battery power.

And immediately after that, images began to arrive — the scientists' best-case scenario. "What we're looking at is a surface of Mars that we've never seen before," said Dan McCleese, JPL's chief scientist. The "crystal clear" images showed a flat surface with very few rocks.

"I know it looks like a parking lot, but that's a safe place to land, by gosh," joked Peter Smith, Phoenix's principal investigator, at the press briefing. Smith, a planetary sciences professor at the University of Arizona, proposed and helped develop the mission.

"This was just perfect. It didn't seem real," said Smith. "I'm on Cloud 9."

JPL's Barry Goldstein, the project manager, noted that one image shows that the planet surface was not greatly damaged by the rocket thrusters. Edward Sedivy, Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, which built the probe, described the landing as fairly gentle at 5 mph.

Sedivy said the priority for the next few days will be assessing the craft's power requirements and regeneration. He said the team must see how much power the lander needs at night and how quickly the solar arrays are able to recharge the batteries during the day.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin and Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, praised the precise execution achieved by the mission team at the gathering of an international corps of reporters.

"If I did my math right, doing something like this is like trying to hit a hole-in-one if you're tee-ing off in Washington, D.C., and the hole is in Sydney, Australia," said Weiler.

Earlier, Robert Shotwell, the mission's project systems engineer, described the landing as "almost exactly perfect — flat and aligned where we wanted it to be."

He said the parachute deployed seven seconds later than anticipated, which had a "slight" effect on the landing site. Otherwise, he said, "Everything looked as good as could possibly be expected. Everyone is thrilled."

"As icing on the cake, we've found that the lander is tilted only one quarter of a degree, which means we've landed nearly perfectly level," blogged Brent Shockley on NASA's Phoenix website (www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix).

"Engineers in Mission Control are saying that our actual landing went far smoother than any simulation or test that was ever done," said Shockley, the mission's configuration and information management Engineer.

It takes 15 minutes for Phoenix's radio signal to reach Earth, which meant a long, suspenseful wait in the home stretch for members of the mission staff assembled in the JPL's mission control room.

As the mission team awaited word of the craft's fate, the early stages of its entry into the Martian atmosphere appeared to go well. As the news arrived that each challenge had been met — that the cruise-stage hardware had been jettisoned and the craft had pivoted to turn its heat shield towards the planet's surface; that the parachute had deployed and the radar had been activated — the control room filled with applause.

This happy ending to Phoenix's 423-million-mile, nine-month journey was far from a safe bet. Of the 11 missions that have tried to land probes on Mars since 1971 — by the United States, Russia and Great Britain — only five have succeeded.

Adding to the risk of failure is the fact that every successful Mars landing since 1976 has involved huge air bags that let the craft bounce to a soft landing. But the air bags don't allow for precise landings and NASA scientists want to hit the targeted landing site.

So Phoenix was equipped with retrograde rockets, set to fire less than a minute before touchdown to decelerate the craft. The last mission to land this way was the Viking 2 lander, on Sept. 3, 1976. A later mission, the Mars Polar Lander, was using retro rockets when it crashed in 1999.

And there was another danger: rocks.

Phoenix has three legs. If one of them had come down on a large rock, the craft could have been knocked over or become unstable, ending the mission. NASA surveyed the 60-by-12-mile landing area by satellite, looking for spots with as few rocks as possible.

There were six "trajectory correction maneuvers" (carefully calculated rocket blasts) planned for Phoenix but not all proved necessary. A May 17 maneuver, when the craft was 6 million miles from Mars, was just a nudge, moving the landing point 11 miles to a slightly better location.

Early Sunday, mission controllers decided there was no need to use their last chance to tweak the flight path, leaving them with nothing to do but wait for Phoenix to carry out the landing on its own.

The lander is beaming back images of a Martian landscape never before seen by humans — one near the north polar cap, where scientists believe there is abundant water, if frozen and buried.

Finding evidence of water has long been the goal of NASA's Mars program. Water is essential to all known life. The Mars missions are aimed at giving scientists more information about where, when and in what form water existed there.

The Phoenix lander is designed to collect and examine ice and rock samples for evidence of microscopic life. NASA scientists hope that if a rudimentary form of life existed there millions of years ago, traces of it might remain.

There's a reason this Mars mission is named Phoenix, after the mythical bird that rises from the ashes of its own funeral pyre. The spacecraft originally was scheduled to launch in 2001 as the Mars Surveyor, but it was grounded because of the Mars Polar Lander crash.

Phoenix's equipment includes a robotic arm that will dig up soil samples and a portable laboratory that will test the soil. The Martian soil is expected to be a frozen matrix of rocks, gravel, sand and ice as hard as concrete.

The samples will be viewed by an onboard microscope, and high-resolution images will be beamed to scientists on Earth.

Phoenix also is a weather station with a mast that will rise 4 feet, allowing scientists to calculate the extent of water vapor and cloud cover.

Phoenix isn't alone on Mars. NASA has had the golf cart-sized rovers, mobile geology labs called Spirit and Opportunity, on the surface since January 2004. Overhead are the Mars Odyssey, which began its orbit on Oct. 24, 2001, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars in March 2006. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter also has been circling the planet since 2003.

The orbiters will be playing a key role in this mission, assisting in the transmission of data from Phoenix and capturing images of the 904-pound craft on the planet's surface

The mission is being led by scientists at the University of Arizona. When NASA put out a call in 2002 for Mars mission proposals, the one chosen came from Smith, who proposed using the mothballed Surveyor.

Smith's team designed the science experiments and worked with JPL and Lockheed Martin to recondition the spacecraft, which launched on Aug. 4, 2007 from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

About two days after the landing, the mission's center of operations is scheduled to shift to the University of Arizona's Science Operations Center in Tucson.

The mission is expected to last 90 days. In three months, winter will come to the Martian north pole and the sun won't rise again for 100 days. The solar-powered craft is not expected to survive the frigid temperature.

Beijing orders telecom merger

BEIJING phone companies will merge into three large groups in a long-awaited government restructuring of its giant telecoms market that could lead to billions of dollars in new orders for foreign equipment suppliers.

A plan announced over the weekend calls for energizing competition by bringing together mobile and fixed-line operators. It says once mergers are complete, licenses for next-generation services will be issued — a step that would require heavy spending on new equipment.

The announcement said mergers were expected to take place as quickly as possible but gave no time frame.

The plan is aimed at creating more robust competitors to China Mobile Ltd., which dominates China's market and is the world's biggest carrier by number of subscribers, with more than 400 million accounts.

It would result in three groups based around the parent companies of China Mobile and fixed-line carriers China Telecom and China Netcom.

The competitive environment will "dramatically change" over time, but China Mobile is unlikely to lose its dominance for at least one to two years, said Fitch analyst Jinqing Li.

Even after that time, "China Mobile's strong financial profile also provides further support in the face of evolving industry developments and uncertainties," Li said in a report.

Fixed-line carriers are struggling to attract new business at a time when first-time customers are passing up traditional service in favor of mobile phones. China Mobile's smaller rival, China Unicom, also is having trouble attracting users.

The merger plan highlights the communist government's continued dominant role in the industry even after an earlier restructuring that broke up China's phone monopoly into smaller competitors.

The plan released by China's telecoms regulator, the Ministry of Information Industry, directly applies to the state-owned parent companies of Chinese carriers.

But it is expected to affect subsidiaries that have public shareholders abroad and create new commercial opportunities for equipment vendors such as Sweden's AB LM Ericsson, Franco-American company Alcatel-Lucent SA, China's Huawei Technologies Co. and Nokia Siemens Networks, a partnership between Finland's Nokia Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG.

The plan would have no direct effect on foreign carriers, which are barred from competing in China's telecoms market.

The mergers would set in motion the awarding of licenses for third-generation, or 3G, service that supports wireless video, Web surfing and other services, the government statement said.

Nokia and other suppliers are anticipating billions of dollars in orders for 3G equipment.

China has the world's biggest population of mobile phone users, with some 520 million accounts, and the government says that should reach 600 million soon.

The plan's rollout began Friday with the announcement that China Mobile's parent, China Mobile Communications Corp., will acquire China Railway Communication, also known as Tietong.

The plan also calls for China Telecommunications Corp., parent of China Telecom, China's main fixed-line carrier, to buy a mobile network from China United Telecommunications Inc., Unicom's parent company.

The rest of Unicom would be folded into fixed-line China Network Communications Group Corp., Netcom's parent. The remaining carrier, China Satellite Communications Corp. would be taken over by China Telecommunications.

In trading in Hong Kong, China Mobile shares fell 8.2% Monday on investor worries about greater competition. Its shares fell 3.8% Friday on speculation ahead of the weekend announcement. That means China Mobile's market capitalization has lost 304 billion Hong Kong dollars ($38.9 billion) since Thursday.

Trading of China Telecom, China Unicom and China Netcom shares in Hong Kong was suspended Friday pending the announcement of the restructuring and that stayed in effect Monday.

In Shanghai, trading also remained suspended in China United Telecommunications, which owns part of China Unicom and is the only phone company with shares traded on the mainland.

Oil prices rise

Oil rose to near $133 a barrel Monday in Asia on persistent worries about global petroleum supplies and the outlook for the U.S. dollar.

The dollar has weakened over the last week after a modest recovery, and investors will be watching economic data out of the United States to be released over the next few days for further clues about the health of the world's biggest economy.

"The dollar's been swinging down again," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Bank in Melbourne, and that's "going to sway sentiment."

Oil and other hard commodities are seen as hedges against a weakening greenback and inflation. Also, a weak dollar, the currency of international oil trade, makes petroleum products less expensive to Asian and European buyers.

This week, investors will be watching for what implications U.S. consumer confidence, new home sales, gross domestic product and other economic data might have for the dollar and oil prices.

The dollar has weakened over the last week after a modest recovery, and investors will be watching economic data out of the United States to be released over the next few days for further clues about the health of the world's biggest economy.

"The dollar's been swinging down again," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Bank in Melbourne, and that's "going to sway sentiment."

Oil and other hard commodities are seen as hedges against a weakening dollar and inflation. Also, a weak dollar, the currency of international oil trade, makes petroleum products less expensive to Asian and European buyers.

This week, investors will be watching for what implications U.S. consumer confidence, new home sales, gross domestic product and other economic data might have for the dollar and oil prices, he said.

"It's a pretty price sensitive week for economic data," Pervan said. "The data we're seeing out of the U.S. at the moment looks pretty weak. You'd expect that trend to continue, pushing further down on the dollar."

The dollar, one of the factors that has fed oil's rally from about $65 a year ago, was lower against the yen, but up a bit against the euro in currency trading during the afternoon in Europe after losing ground Friday in New York.

The euro slipped to $1.5764 compared with $1.5775 on Friday, while the dollar fell to 103.41 Japanese yen from 104.17 yen Friday.

Prices also were supported when militants in Nigeria, a major supplier to the U.S. market, claimed they destroyed an oil pipeline and killed 11 soldiers in a gunbattle.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it attacked the pipeline operated by a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture early Monday. Shell officials were not immediately available for comment, and a military spokesman had no immediate confirmation of any overnight incidents.

Last week, a series of supply warnings shook markets, and Thursday, a report that the International Energy Agency — the energy watchdog for the most industrialized nations — is in the process of lowering its forecast for long-term global oil supply, sent crude futures rocketing to an all-time high of $135.09 a barrel.

Investors are also worried about a growing squeeze on global diesel supplies as demand in China surges has sparked a massive run up in heating oil prices.

Over the weekend, China's top economic planning agency again urged oil and power companies to make sure there are enough supplies for earthquake-hit areas and for the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

"They certainly want to have a buffer of supply ... so there's pressure on the upside from demand in Asia," Pervan said.

The U.S. driving season officially kicked-off with the long Memorial Day weekend there, and even if demand for gasoline and diesel is lower than it was a year ago, it will still be stronger than it was in the preceding months, he said.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 7.89 cents to $3.9445 a gallon while gasoline prices rose 2.95 cents to $3.4255 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 18.2 cents to $12.039 per 1,000 cubic feet.

USA 2008 election

After days of hammering at Republican rival John McCain, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama struck a conciliatory note and urged unity in service of a greater good in a speech to college graduates.

Obama was filling in for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor last week and had planned to deliver the graduation address at Wesleyan University. Kennedy has endorsed Obama in the nominating contest against Hillary Rodham Clinton and has campaigned for him.

"We may disagree as Americans on certain issues and positions, but I believe we can be unified in service to a greater good. I intend to make it a cause of my presidency, and I believe with all my heart that this generation is ready and eager and up to the challenge," Obama told the graduating class of 2008.

Obama spent much of the week criticizing McCain for opposing a college aid bill for military veterans, part of a strategy to link the conservative Republican to the deeply unpopular Bush administration. But he stepped back from the topic in the midst of the Memorial Day weekend holiday honoring fallen U.S. servicemen and women.

The Illinois senator peppered his speech with references to the Kennedy legacy: John F. Kennedy urging Americans to ask what they can do for their country, the Peace Corps and Robert F. Kennedy talking about people creating "ripples of hope."