Archives For shiina ringo

Last time it took me 2 years to get my 2012-2013 list out. LOL This year, I’m early. I’m pretty happy with my picks at the moment, so I hope nothing mind-blowing pops up in these last remaining weeks of 2014. In the meantime~ you know where to go.

amys-2014-music-highlights

If FIFA’s World Cup is making me choose between Pitbull and Ricky Martin. Okay, I’ll take this~

NHK got Shiina Ringo to make a song for their coverage of the event, and that’s all we need to know. I’m not sure what’s the coverage is gonna be like down here (cable or networks), but I’m sure we’re stuck with Pitbull.

I just knew songs were gonna suck when they started announcing the social media contests to “create the song” for the World Cup. Cheap music will always be cheap.

I was catching up with all my ‘to watch’ queue on YouTube which at some point had been inundated with Shiina Ringo thumbnails. After her split from Tokyo Jihen and the celebration of her debut 15 years ago, she’s releasing this gorgeous (and pricey) concert.

I was just marveling myself with the palest of pale queens and thought to myself that if I ever get to see her show live, I would probably cry. When Bjork was here for the first and only time, I remember tearing up a bit- the others I would tear up/cry for would be Shiina Ringo, Faye Wong… and BiBi, for sure.

It’s been ages since I last bought anything on HMV Japan.

Happy new year, everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posts last month. To make up for it, here are five posts so you can catch up to my 2013 and to get you going this 2014.

amys-top50-songs-2013

Or, at least, you got your first steps into the door.

Yes, Shiina Ringo music videos are being uploaded on VEVO accounts, as well as Tokyo Jihen ones, at 360p or 480p- BUT, baby steps. They’re pretty good 360p videos, though. They look better than some HD versions unofficially uploaded and ripped from the net. I’m not picky as long as Japan lets me watch the music videos of the artists I like and stops me from worrying whether the video I’m posting is gonna disappear in the next few days.

Speaking of the devil.

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mika-ninagawa-sakuran

I ran into two really cool posts on Mika Ninagawa- one sort of talking about her work — mentioning her style and her work with the likes of Shiina Ringo, Bjork and- of course, Anna Tsuchiya — and the other a quite rare (and insightful) interview in English.

I’ve been kind of dying to see Helter Skelter. I haven’t even checked if there are subtitles available yet.

I guess people can’t stand true stars because they are so different, they’d rather watch some stupid proxies they can sympathize with.

I guess we do live in the era of the dying movie star. :\

See, this would be a mega-talent post if NHK would only let me embed Shiina Ringo’s performance at the latest Kouhaku, but no~~~ they gotta make things difficult.

Anyway, I think I may have died a little and gone to heaven. One of my wishes from last year may be coming true or something. Faye Wong singing new material — for New Year nonetheless — it’s like the creative muses got together and made Shiina Ringo and Faye Wong perform so close to one another, some babies may have been born with no talent at all because the concentration of it might be too much. LOL

as per usual with Faye Wong stuff, I have no idea what this song may be call except for Yuan (愿) which can mean “desire, wish, hope, willing, ready” — take your pick. You can listen to the studio version here.

The live version is… off, apparently Faye — diva and all – recognized she messed up a bit. I’m really blaming her time off stage, but it doesn’t matter… I can just LOOT AT HER. THAT STAGE. That stage is stunning beyond words. I can salivate looking at that stage and love that I can see it in high definition… there are just no proper words to describe it.

Thanks to Cfensi for the heads up.

My purty iTunes Library~

April 22, 2011 — 4 Comments

I’m a dork, you can’t deny it.

I’m a dork, and I’m proud of my -mostly- tidied up iTunes library.

As with my CDs, and my DVDs… a little bit of books, and mostly with computer files, I like to know where my things are. Of course, iTunes makes it way easy to keep things organized with their “copy to folder” and “keep things organized” options, but then we’ve got album covers, song names, artists names… and music can get a little messy.

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Moi et le funky musique~~~

October 3, 2010 — 1 Comment

So… today it’s voting Sunday. And I’ve also setup my About page… and got rid of my Favorites page because… well, it seemed redundant to have two pages about me. LOL

In case you missed the post in which I talked about my taste in film, this is a similar post that talks about my history… or lack of history with music.

When I was about 7, my dad opened a Karaoke bar (how Asian, non?). But by then, I had already grown up with the likes of the music of La Nueva Ola (the new wave) — you know, the type of Rock n’ Roll from The King… Jailhouse Rock or Houndog but in Spanish. My favorite tunes were probably La Plaga (the plage, the Spanish version of Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly), and La Mantequilla (the butter, the Spanish version of Cliff Richard and the Shadows’ Move It).

Of course, I was a little kid going to Chinese/Peruvian school, so my repertoire also included the Cantonese Counting Song Yat Yi Sam, as well as the counting Elefantes song… as well as the Sukiyaki song. So from the very beginning… I had a predisposition for all types of music in many different languages.
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Ehhh???? Atami no Sousakan End

September 24, 2010 — 7 Comments

I need someone to discuss this. LOL That ending, I did not expect THAT ending. But I like what I’ve been reading around. I like it a lot, without revealing too much – I like the concept of duality. Even more so considering how it ties with Tokyo Jihen’s theme, which let me tell you – could blow your mind.

[iframe src=”https://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMzgxMzIxNTky/v.swf” width=”480″ height=”400″ /]

— EDIT —

All the YouTube uploads are going missing (THANK YOU, SONY >,<), so I’m just going to embed this Youku no-so-sync version because it’s the only one I’ve been able to find. In any case, here’s a Portuguese subtitled version on YT.

Please, let the explanation of the # mean that there will be a second season~~~

Also, Japan! WHY NO OFFICIAL SUBTITLES? The 8eps DVD collection is priced at over $150USD – considering the Yen’s so high compared to dollars now – and no subs? Oh, really?

Sponsor of Heiwa Fansubs will have to do – google “atami no sousakan” and watch the show – they did a great job at subtitling this… in a time when I was uncertain this show would get picked up by any group, they were our saviors! Thank you Heiwa Fansubs~ Please, don’t stream the groups’ subtitles.