Archives For Clips

https://youtu.be/dJOMq5vRFcE

Korea has a show called Immortal Song that basically pits popular singers performing songs of a selected theme/singer/era in front of the audience made out of people who listened to that type of music. Think of it as a show where you would gather the likes of Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, sprinkled with a few picks like Demi Lovato and whoever people think are good vocalists nowadays, and having them competing against each other in things like “Themes from the 80s” and having all of them battle (A vs. B) with a song performance to move onto the next battle.

Once a week. Yeah, impossible to do in America.

But so good for ratings, no? Could you imagine? I would pay money to see Christina Aguilera vs. battling with Britney Spears — not a duet, a performance battle. Simon, get to it.

ANYWAY, I completely digress.

Brown Eyed Girls member JeA has been on the show’s newest season, and though she lost her battle — T_T — the second half of her performance is pure perfection. She started off breathing too much into her microphone, but once the high notes began, she seemed to have gotten her footing and by the time she had to deliver those whispery notes… it was too much.

JeA is singing The Winter Rain Falls (겨울비는 내리고) by Kim Bum Ryong (김범룡), in honor of this week’s 80’s songwriter theme.

I would never… in a million years — or five years, give or take — would have ever imagined that I would see the day of Kpop groups performing specifically for a Latin American audience. So the musical event known as Music Bank was held in Chile last month [1], featuring Super Junior, Afterschool, MBLAQ, Davichi, CNBLUE, and Rani and…

Sure, they did the mandatory Livin’ La Vida Loca performance and the mandatory Kpop Gangnam Style, but they also did Lambada — which is in itself quite impressive, even if~~~ a little clumsy with that stage — and then they went on singing El Hombre Que Yo Amo, and Gracias a la Vida, at which point they had already delivered. I mean, they didn’t need to, but they did.

Music acts in other places, other than Japan (and maybe China), are not required to perform in other languages. We’re all accustomed to sing in English when Aerosmith comes over, and we sure as hell don’t expect Justin Bieber to sing in Spanish, even if pop groups in America used to have one or two tracks in Spanish (or other languages). No, it seems now other language versions are left to the fans and their covers, which aren’t half bad – just check out the Spanish version of Call Me Maybe [YouTube] or G-Dragon’s Spanish version of Heartbreaker [YouTube] or Big Bang’s Love Song [YouTube] or GD&TOP’s Knock Out [YouTube] — or just check out Seba Dupont’s YouTube channel, they have LOADS of covers.

So for the groups to have learned these Spanish songs to perform for this show in specific, it takes dedication and a respect.

It feels good to dish your money when that happens.

salyu x salyu had a new song out? Titled Color Magic (カラーマジック, or the KATAKANA~ pronunciation KARA~ MAJIKKU — you know Katakana baffles me), it was included in NHK’s Design Ah (デザインあ), but you know it would be the perfect companion song to 6COLORS.

The song (if my Japanese is correct) will be included in the soundtrack of the show to be released on January 23rd.

design ah nhk a no uta

They also have an awesome (interactive) song titled Ah’s Song (「あ」のうた).

I remember the feeling when MJ passed away. Within the family, it’s common to think that you could not possibly cry for people you’ve never met, and that’s true most of the times. I don’t know anyone personally that cried when MJ passed, but I remember the day of the memorial concert, when Jennifer Hudson performed Will You Be There [1]… it wasn’t her performance, it was the moment when Michael does her spoken monologue with that broken voice- I didn’t break down, but I did share a few hazy looks with my TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9tw7luxEfc

In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will you still care?
Will you be there?
In my trials
And my tribulations
Through our doubts
And frustrations
In my violence
In my turbulence
Through my fear
And my confessions
In my anguish and my pain
Through my joy and my sorrow
In the promise of another tomorrow
I’ll never let you part
For you’re always in my heart

I’mma be loving this song, which has been included in Crowd’s latest album Guitar (有吉他的流行歌曲, complete title: Pop Songs with Guitar), strangely titled: One Bento Box (一個便當), even though the official name is simply Bian Dang x)

https://youtu.be/6s_JDi4Kxuo?t=1m49s

I’ve always loved that he uses — rather random — Spanish in his songs.

While finally watching Joan Crawford’s Queen Bee, I got to watch the finest ‘OMG-I-Can’t-Believe-How-Much-It-Hurts’ on-screen slap EVER [1], even more epic than the whoop-ass that Veda got on Mildred Pierce. It was jaw-droppingly fascinating. xD

Then I found this compilation and I died laughing.

Makes me want to watch all her filmography again… but then I remind myself that I’ve still got Crawford movies to watch, so I can’t re-watch the films I own. I must complete my task at hand.

I haven’t seen you in so long, and yes… what is it about you?

It is what it is…

After some flame from their compilation of 135 Shots That Will Restore Your Faith in Cinema [1], Flavorwire is back with a new compilation~~~ this time around focusing on faces, their emotions and their beauty… to relative success. I don’t think I could fault them… I had enough with Wong Kar Wai (included multiple times), multiple Zhang Yimou shots (and a double appearance of Gong Li to boot!), there was Park Chan Wook, Guillermo del Toro, Leslie Cheung’s face.

It was a thing of beauty.

The only face I could possibly suggest would have been Greta Garbo’s last shot on Queen Christina, but I’m content.

I haven’t actively looked for Yu Aoi fan-made videos in a long time, but here we go~ I hope this one doesn’t get deleted, coz we’ve been suffering from that a lot lately. Regular Yu Aoi film footage applies, with nice additions of Tamatama, and Otouto… though, Raiou would have been nice to have.

Halloween love!

My Body’s a Zombie for You by Dead Man’s Bones~~~
in a project by James Duffy and photographer Lucy Nuzum.