Archives For 2012

I have been looking… for years and years for that perfect beanie [1] I saw Yu Aoi wearing on her Travel Sand book. I’ve looked at thousands and thousands of knitted hats of all types, but none has ever struck me the way that beanie had on those beautifully printed pages. The colors, the material… the amount of the openness of the weave, it was perfect.

knitted beanies polyvore

Slouchy, with ears, pompoms, tails, tails with ears and pompoms… the ones with scarfs knitted out of the beanies… my collection might not be vast, but it’s certainly varied. I’m also terribly cheap, so I really can’t see myself paying $45USD for the Mango Knit Beanie with beads or worse… £216 for this Inverni Monnier Freres cashmere beanie — as awesome as they are.

This search for the perfect beanie is becoming an OCD of mine. I need help.

Urgent help.

Two Ayumi Ito-related posts today!

I ran into these photographs taken by photographer Muga Miyahara [website], titled PORTRAIT 纏う (Matou) featuring actresses/models/etc. Asami Imajuku (今宿麻美), Ayumi Ito (伊藤歩), Miwako Ichikawa (市川実和子), Rena Takeshita (竹下玲奈), Rila (Fukushima), and Rina Ohta (太田莉菜).

Photographer: 宮原夢画 (Muga Miyahara Fotografia)
Stylist: 小林新 (高橋事務所)
Hair: JUNYA (高橋事務所)
Make up: 遠藤真稀子 (高橋事務所)

muga-miyahara-matou-portrait-ayumi-ito-002-b

ayumi ito tokyo film fest 2012

Uzaigaijin (who writes on SHINE! — you can usually find them on their site, but it’s down atm — u can also find them on Twitter) is passing her time at the Tokyo Film Fest and took pics of Ayumi Ito because she knows I’m like… her only fan. LOL But I’m not sharing most photos, coz ha-ha that will be my personal stash xD **evil laugh*

And Ayumi Ito knows when she’s to look at a camera~~~

It’s been roughly… four years. Give or take. It’s been a good ride, and it’s still going strong… so we still got a long way to go. Guys, if you would’ve gotten me at my “good” times, you’d be millionaires by now. Back when I was in high school I bought anything I could… even if I only like one song- I would have bought your whole album for that one song. I’ve got around 30 physical album with music in Mandarin — that’s roughly 7 albums a year… which is about an album every two months. Trust me, it’s not a bad deal.

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Plus, imports are expensive…

All of the albums’ artists have their tags on the blog except for SingerSen. I haven’t talked about her much on this blog… yet. But maybe one day in the near future, I’ll add her own tag.

This is also not counting the music DVDs xD so there’s a couple more.

As a fan, I think I’ve been good to Chinese music fandom.

buffy season 8 xander female trio

I always had the suspicion that I was Xander, and this quote just proved it. Destiny’s Child, Shonen Knife and the Dixie Chicks- in one dialog bubble not on YAM Magazine. What else is next? S.H.E, TLC and Acha Tsendep (阿佳组合)? xD

You Me by Hamacide + ChaCha

October 15, 2012 — 3 Comments

Just ran into this song- a collaboration between producer Hamacide and Shanghai singer ChaCha on vocals. The EP — which seems more like an elaborate single really — has different remixes by Downstate, Jared Turinsky, Lightswitch Lafayette as well.

With artwork by Lily Xiao.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1670814″ params=”auto_play=false&show_artwork=true&color=ff0090″ width=”100%” height=”200″ iframe=”true” /]

You can also buy this on Bandcamp.

Look at this cheese commercial shot for CNIEL -Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière by the EURO RSCG Agency. It’s like a cute combination of The Host and… you know, Cheese. In Paris. xD

Client: CNIEL -Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière
Agency: EURO RSCG – Creative Director : Christophe Coffre
Director: Ruairi Robinson
Production: Henry de Czar
Creature design: Jordu Schell
Cinematography: Macgregor
Music: The Moon is Shining for You de Kouz Productions
Post-producer: Nathalie Delvigne

Recently, I’ve noticed that Kpop YouTube channels have been uploading their content with English subtitles!! That makes them official English subtitles — for some major groups like Brown Eyed Girls’ GaIn’s Bloom [MV] and Miss A’s I Don’t Need a Man [MV] (they’ve even added Simplified Chinese!) are recent examples — rendering in my opinion most (if not all) Kpop fansub groups useless.

There’s now no reason to upload an extra video with subtitles… at least in English [1].

Having said that… the quality of subtitles are very important when choosing your fansub group. It is, of course, the content and subtlety of the translation that matters the most, but in terms of hardsubs- it’s also about type-setting. It needs to be readable, and personal comments kept away out of the subtitles [1]. Matters should be as professional as possible… that also means language should be as neutral as possible.

You know I don’t really mind my songs not being translated… but it’s nice to find your favorite songs done the right way.

So thank you, JyariKpop, for your quality subs.

My favorite is, of course, SunnyHill’s Pray [1].

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When did this become NOT the norm for American pop music videos?

I know music video’s budgets have skyrocketed [1] — as of 2012 MJ and Janet’s Scream [MV] directed by Mark Romanek was still the most expensive music video ever made at $7M USD~~~ adjusted to nearly $11M USD nowadays. In fact, 8 of the Top10 Most Expensive Music Videos are of the 90s, lead by Madonna and Michael Jackson. Though, I still find it unbelievable that Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker [MV] cost $2.5M USD. That’s just gotta be money not well spent.

Instead, Dominic Sena made this… fairly simple quite rocking and powerful music video.

Also, overreaching here since this MV is from 1989, but did the award circles in 1990 ;P

Interscope has a new website!

interscope new label website 001

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