Archives For 2010

It’s begun. The beginning of the end. After the 7th book came out, and left me unsatisfied — a feeling carried over the 6th book and the 5th film — I swore to never see Harry Potter at the cinema ever again. A promise easy to keep with the 6th film, but then… it was hard to keep it when the first promotional materials for HP7 were released.

Well played, Warner. Well played.

Deathly Hallows is perhaps Yates’ best attempt at a Harry Potter adaption, but considering the other two – it isn’t saying that much. In the greater scale of things, it might follow on Azkaban’s footsteps as an interesting film filled with anguish and desperation… of I guess, the teenage sort. If the book didn’t work for you, the film seems to improve on action and characters. It’s also of great comfort to say that The WB’s decision of splitting the film in two parts was hardly a bad commercial or creative choice… at least for the fans of the books, who will savor each an every detail.

But then again, considering how many chapters were crammed into this first part, one has to wonder what’s left for part two if not only the “last battle” which, in the book, happened off-page… and that epilogue that’s ripped out of the most poorly written fanfiction.

For the non-readers or those who haven’t seen HP6… well, you’re screwed. It really doesn’t work without the background, and you’re better without watching it, if you’re going to start complaining. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows feels like made for the fans of the series only.

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I was watching my newly-purchased copy of Strait-Jacket with my father, having a blast — seriously, that movie is a hoot! Can’t really wait to take a look at the extras, and see Ms. Crawford with that ax.

But then, almost at the end of the film when Crawford is wrapping up, my dad goes on and says “Look, it’s Mario Vargas Llosa!” Freezing the image, we burst out laughing.

do you see it? I mean this photo of Crawford in the film isn’t really it. You must see her with her not-a-wig hair from where she is normal. It’s uncanny.

It is common knowledge that I’m not really partial to un-scripted television. I grew up with things like MTV’s The Real World in the background of my mind, sometimes watching it quietly when I was a teen. But then it just exploded, and it’s not like I’m bothered by the actual programs… what bothers me is that contestants later become “celebrities”. It’s like being a celebrity means nothing. You can eat crap (literally) for money, win and become a “celebrity”. That’s sad.

Having said that, I have a few shows that I do watch. It doesn’t have to do with who’s in it, or who’s going to be in it… who says it’s what, or if it’s hot or not to watch it.

It’s simply 3 things I would like to be able to do.

First, dancing.

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A couple of days ago, I noticed that my WordPress Dashboard didn’t show any of the “recent comments” items — neither comments or trackbacks — and that the data of number of posts and comments said there were “0 comments”. At first I thought it might be that Intense Debate was playing with my mind, so I deactivated it… but nothing happened. I thought maybe it was some WordPress mumbo jumbo, so I let it go for a day or two. But it started to bug me.

I didn’t do any updates to WordPress… or to any of the plugins I used, so it must have been something else inside. With the plugin on, there were comments, but without it all the comments were magically disappeared.

After a few hits, I found this thread on WordPress.

Basically, if you’ve got a self-hostel WordPress blog,  go to your Webhost’s control panel. Head over to the mySQL options, choose the appropriate database (the one that holds your WordPress info), and hit repair. That did it.

Some of the trackbacks I did during this database wonk don’t show up. How to send the trackbacks again?

I was re-watching the DVD for Swallowtail Butterfly that I bought after watching the film on YouTube xD – and Because I’m cheap, I bought the Hong Kong version, when the Japanese version comes with English subtitles. I don’t think it’s the DVD per se, but the way it was shot. I don’t really know what it is, it’s scratchy, and it could certainly be because the film is kinda old. However, I would like to see a clean better release by Criterion… of all of Shunji Iwai written and directed films~

Fake Criterion Collection: Shunji Iwai Collection - Love Letter

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Yu Aoi and Satoshi Tsumabuki are set to star in Hideki Noda’s new play, Minami he (To South), at the Metropolitan Art Space from February 10 to March 31, 2011. Tickets will be on sale beginning January 8th.

via Nikkan Sports + Tokyo Stages

So Yu will be busy with the opening of Coin de Rue — opening the 11th — and this.

It’s like she knows is my birthday x’D

I could be wrong on this one, but this is the third time she does theater, right? First, Shakespeare playing Desdemona. Then Gakuya, and now this? Well, it’s not like I can attend the theater, since I won’t be understanding anything said xD

I think it’s safe to admit that OK Go has the 2010 title of best set of music videos. First of with the incredible-blowing-your-mind This Too Shall Pass, followed by the pretty good End Love, followed by the doggies on White Knuckles… and now~

A video with some 30 toasts per second~

This Too Shall Pass still remains the best of the year, I think – and the year is almost done.

More Emma Watson

November 12, 2010 — 3 Comments

With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows… er, Part 1, there’s been a few interviews… events, magazine shoots, covers etc. Lainey is even interviewing the not-so-kids, and then… there’s of course the rumors.

Apparently there’s fake nude pics running around the Brown University campus… after Emma spoke how her Brown experience had been pretty great. And I just love that Sarah, who now writes pretty often for Lainey, has come up with this article. It’s like Emma is her little sister.

Who would take the time to photoshop Emma’s head to a naked picture? What are they 12? I find it completely childish to be doing such a thing at that age… in university! And while I certainly don’t think it’s the police’s jurisdiction to handle an investigation, it should be Brown’s responsibility to find out who did it and sanction them.

It’s not even the action of photoshopping these photos. I’m sure there’s people around the world that do that and post this stuff online, but the fact that your peers do it. These are people that study with her.

Considering I didn’t think the Latin Grammy was anything special, I thought I’d give the search for my favorite performance of the Video Music Awards.

The initial shot works perfect, despite some problems with the camera zooming out. Moreover, the cuts when everyone shows up dancing work to show the whole stage, and closer shots for all the jumping.

The song is catchy, and the performance is different enough from the rest of the performances of the night to be memorable, and perfect to stand out. I hope Vimeo doesn’t delete it because it’s the only good version I’ve found.

[iframe width=”580″ height=”334″ src=”https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xet2b8″]

Continuing with posts on main titles, this is Desperate Housewives by yu+co

Check the yu+co link for a better resolution one.

What’s so cool about this title sequence is that it’s simple. Women from famous paintings as housewives. At the time, it was giddy for anyone taking an art history class. Plus, it captured the essence of the show.

Frankly, I’ve stopped watching the show… and I think they’ve stopped playing the intro last last season. But it still brings back memories of better Desperate times. The last season I bought on DVD was when they did the 5 year jump. I’m going to pretend the show ended there.