Category: Art

  • Beijing Olympics – Closing 2008

    OMG, are you watching?? I can hear millions of Asian girls swooning~~~ Wang Lee-Hom and Bi singing Beijing Beijing Wo Ai Beijing!!!! Poor Kelly Chen… who? Where was Guan Zhe, though??

    Wo Ai Beijing - Lee Hom Wang and Bi Rain
    American-Chinese musician Wang Lee-Hom, and Korean musician Bi (Rain) perform together Beijing Beijing Wo Ai Beijing in the Closing Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

    Are you waiting for London? Eh, No~ What the heck was that, London? That looked more like a Superbowl half-time entertainment than an Olympic closing performance. We all love some Beckham… and some people love themselves some Leona Lewis and then some Led Zeppelin… but that was just so anticlimactic.

    Anyway, going back. Closing ceremony was not as HOLY-CRAP-CAN’T-BELIEVE-THAT-I’M-SEEING-THIS, but it was pretty good. LOL’ I am still swooning over Wang Lee-Hom and Bi together….

    I think one of my favorite parts was when the performers made the Olympic logo, because I’m so-oh-in-love with Dancing Beijing… unlike the ‘unnamed’??? 2012 London Logo. While watching the whole London Olympic sequence, I couldn’t help but think about school Motion Graphics. Yes, sure… aim at young people, but don’t alienate the older viewers. My mother sure didn’t appreciate that~~

    Dancing Beijing - Memory Tower
    Performers make the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics logo, Dancing Beijing, on the Memory Tower.

    Moving on… again! Placido Domingo made an apperance! He sang alongside Song Zuying (which the dude on TV made sound like ‘Son Su Jin,’ which made me think she was Korean).

    Hmm… will look for photos. Photos are everything… or at least a video clip. Did you swoon? Lee-Hom Wang and Bi deserve my swooning~~~ I hope you swooned!! xD

    **EDIT** 8.54pm – Found some photos!
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  • My 4-Year-Old iPod – CPR!

    4th Generation iPodI’ve got a 4th generation iPod… yes, my iPod is 4 years… since the day I bought it on my trip to Hong Kong back in September 2004. Yes, my iPod has many scratches on the tiny 1.5 inches one-color screen. LOL I cannot watch videos, it doesn’t allow photos… and it’s only 20Gb. But it’s more than I could ask for…

    Yesterday, my iPod suffered an accident, and it’s been on the border of a permanent coma. Connected through the USB cable to my Frankestein PC desktop, I tripped over the cable and it fell on the hard cold floor. I had dropped my iPod before, and apparently… it’s been taking its toll.

    One of the problems that began happening is that Windows XP wasn’t recognizing the iPod, iTunes crashed… and I ended up restarting my computer more than a few times before I decided to disconnect it all. Once again, I disconnected all and restarted the system as I connected my iPod directly to the electrical outlet with the firewire.

    It seemed to work that way, and I hadn’t lose any of the 3000+ songs I’ve got in it… over 14Gb of music. When I woke up today, everything seemed to work fine, and I set up the music that I wanted to listen while doing some studying, when all of a sudden everything stopped playing. Most of the songs I tried playing showed that little exclamation (!) sign when iTunes can’t find the original file.

    After that, Windows and iTunes began acting weird again, and it did so in another computer. After a few more restarts, I plugged the iPod to the electrical outlet once again, and let it rest there for a while.

    iPod is working once again… and songs that showed up as missing are playing fine.

    My faithful 4-year-old iPod that accompanied me through so many sleepless school days during finals, during so many hours on a plane… and terrible endless waits in airports around the world. ~~~ There won’t be a replacement for my 4th generation iPod, just like there’s no replacement for my worn-out Adidas, which I bought in 2001 and have carried with me around the world… endured terrible rain, mud, moss, extremely long walks.

  • Juri Ueno – A Piacere by Kentaro Shibuya – WANIBOOKS

    3 of 3!

    This time with lovely Juri Ueno~~ Rocking photos by Kentaro Shibuya. First time i find a portfolio online…

    Anyway, as the name suggests… A Piacere, is a pleasure… a delight. It’s got 50+ photographs of Juri-chan visiting Kodaira (Tokyo), Okinawa, Yokohama and Ebisu (Tokyo). Moreover, Juri’s photobook is western. LOL’ It begins from the left to right like any regular books you buy in America or Europe, and there’s a lot of easy-to-read info (like the cities, and people involved names).

    Juri Ueno - A Piacere

    PLUS, there’s an interview with Juri and Kentaro Shibuya. I didn’t get much of what was going on… since they didn’t talk much about food (and the interview is in Japanese), and food talk in Japanese is what I’ve been practicing. But they did talk about Juri’s musical projects, relating it to some of the photos of Juri playing the guitar. So a little bit of Swing Girls talk, then some of Nodame Cantabile… and they even get to talk a little bit about Niji no Megami (Rainbow Song)…

    If you doubt whether to get this or not, photos are REALLY worth having, many of them have a natural lighting style that remind me of some Mario Testino photographs. Anyway… some photos of the photos ahead!! You know the drill!

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  • More New Clothing

    *smashes head into wall*

    xD I just made a dangerous clothing discovery~~~ damn you YesAsia!!! xD Yes, because they had to spam me with a little print on YesStyle~~ And Amy wants some of those, especially those beanies… I am almost sure now that the search for that knitted beanie/toque/tuque that I’m on can end with GraceHats.com – Word. But NO! I’m not only eyeing those beanies… Amy cannot possibly stop looking there!

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  • The Cho Show Premieres Next Week!

    We (meaning me) interrupt your Olympic and Photobooks posts (finally) to report that Korean-American comedian Margaret Cho’s VH1 reality show, The Cho Show, will be premiering next week on VH1 (America, obviously… I’ll just have to find it online), Thursdays at 11pm.

    Lucky for us… AfterElton.com has a full ‘sneak peek’ of the first episode, Korean of the Year, where Cho battles the idea of accepting or not the award of Korean of the Year… The episode is divided into 4 parts, no commercial breaks~~~ I think the parts I laughed the most were Part 3 and 4.

    If you don’t know who Margaret Cho is, what the hell is wrong with you? xD Cho is one of the funniest people I’ve heard, though her humor might not be for everyone… she’s funny once you get used to. I first discovered her by watching a YouTube link to her comedy act, I’m the One that I Want ~~~ xD

    I just love Margaret’s parents~~~ and her imitation of her mother! xD

  • Yu Aoi – Kaiten TEBURU wa Mutsukashii by Ivy Chen – Media Factory

    #2 of my 3-part order!

    Yu Aoi - Kaiten TABURU wa Mutsukashii

    Now, don’t ask me what the name of the book means because I haven’t the faintest idea. From what I could find out is something about a Rotating Table… which kinda makes sense ‘coz of the food rotating tables, and the whole food take on this book. And apparently, Mutsukashii means ‘difficult’ – a title that makes no sense to me xD…. Difficult Rotating Table?? xD

    If I read correctly… photos taken by Ivy Chen, who apparently was the on-set photographer in Yu Aoi’s participating films All About Lily Chou Chou, as well as Hana and Alice.

    This time around, Yu goes to Taipei (Taiwan) for a full-on Foodie trip. Yup, that’s right… if I thought her Travel Sand, and Dandelion photobooks talked a lot about food~~ well, I read a lot more food paragraphs and saw a whole more food photos on this one. There’s also a WHOLE lot more text, which would be ubber cool if I could properly read. LOL I read… I tried to read. I swear~~

    Also… I was ‘reading’ and noticed Peru. Can someone help out? Plus, I’m looking for a reliable Japanese translator to have on call for projects (maybe even paid) ~~ So it’ll be good if you can drop a line~~ Here’s the text, I hope I typed correctly~~

    フィアンセ　の　”ペルー”　を　呼んで、　みんあ で ご飯  を　食べた時　は、　幸せな　気持ち に なりました。

    Sorry, don’t wanna transcribe everything, takes me too much time. LOL So, does it say something like Ivy Chen’s fiancee is from Peru? And that they were calling out for lunch time, and that they’re happy? LOL Just wanna make clear, coz I get giddy each time I read Peru in something not remotely Peruvian.

    Who else thinks Yu Aoi should visit Peru for some Foodie trip??? Anyway, photos of the photos ahead!

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  • Yu Aoi – Dandelion by Yoko Takahashi – rockin’ on

    Sorry that I didn’t post last night! Olympic fever is madness~~~ My YesAsia order arrived yesterday! Sugoi NE! Photobook Fever at its MAX~~~~~ I devoured Dandelion, you wouldn’t believe it. I saw the photos, swooned over many of them, and went mad with super concentration to try to read. Because, as you know, Amy doesn’t read Japanese.

    Yu Aoi - Dandelion Photobook

    Photos of the photos ahead! Like before, I doubt I will be posting scans… support Yu, people! ^^

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  • Jena Malone with sort of a Mohawk~

    Jena Malone fans! Jena made an appearance at the Tropic Thunder premiere (which I’ve got no intensions of watching, LOL) – But Jena made her appearance with… is that a Mohawk? Kind of… like, yeah? Kinda like what Natalie Portman had right after V for Vendetta?? Take a look yourself~~~

    Jena Malone - Tropic Thunder - 2008 Jena Malone - Tropic Thunder - 2008 Jena Malone - Tropic Thunder - 2008

    Anyway, when did you first spotted Jena? I think I was a kiddo when I first saw Bastard Out of Carolina, because her face was already familiar when I saw Stepmom, which was probably in 2000. Because back in the day, I didn’t use to go to the movies… so it is likely I didn’t watch her films at the movies, but on Cable~~~ OR, even on regular TV.

    I saw Cheaters before I even learned about For Love of the Game (with Kevin Costner). But my favorites are still probably Cheaters, and Donnie Darko~~~ I’ve also seen Life as a House, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The United States of Leland, Cold Mountain (though I saw this one for Natalie Portman! LOL), Saved!, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Pride & Prejudice, and Into the Wild~~ Wow, I’ve seen quite the number of films… which is kinda nifty. However, I admit from all those films, I’ve only seen Saved! for Jena Malone.

    I leave ya with some other photos of a younger Jena~~

    Jena Malone - Stepmom Jena Malone Jena Malone Jena Malone

  • Wo he Ni – You and Me – Olympic Song

    Sarah Brightman was the sh!t performing… Okay, Liu Huan sang pretty good too, but the attire, man~~~ He was so underdressed – Brightman, on the other hand, was STUNNING. The song is oh so very Chinese feeling ballad, betcha it’s not for everyone’s taste, but I betcha people are looking for lyrics…

    Bear with me! First pinyin lyrics, EVER. I’ve got a secret tool, will post on that later! I’ve also got videos to post~~ The Live performance, and the official music video (aka [MV] or [PV])… pick you poison and begin singing.

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  • Beijing Olympics – Opening 2008

    OMG, Are you watching? Countries are showing up at the moment. I woke up at 6.30am to watch at 7am. And did the Chinese disappoint? No, they didn’t~~ The Chinese did not disappoint with their first hour. All orchestrated by Zhang Yimou, it was the stuff (suck it up, Spielberg… suck it up.) – Yes, love Zhang Yimou’s visual style… flying performers, lights~~~ LOTS of lights, people with lights on their clothes, projections… human-Chinese-painting…. that was amazing!!! The loads of drummers, the dancers, the giant canvas… the representation of the Road of Silk, the calligraphy, the Taichi demonstration with the uber cool banners with digital displays in synched with the movements of the choreography. The human Bird’s Nest stadium surrounding Lang Lang… the stuff~~

    If I find a digital file, will do captures~~~ *EDIT* (12.36pm) video should hit the net soon~~~

    And the rumors of Jay Chou with Celine Dion? Dunno… I was super surprised to see Sarah Brightman and Chinese singer Liu Huan singing You and Me. Maybe Jay and Celine will sing later on. We will see~~

    Could you have imagined a duet between Sarah Brightman and Faye Wong??? Orgasmic performance of eclectic energy that would’ve been, would’ve taken you to the Ether~~~ Sarah Brightman singing was the hotness, she looks so young, and her voice was so powerful. And was she singing in Chinese? *scribble: must find lyrics and song*.

    Word has it that Brightman is the sole international star performing in the event, so that would mean Celine and Jay was just a rumor, or that Jay will be holding it on his own.

    Stay tuned.

    Holy crap! Did you see???? Did you see the final race for the Olympic flame????? DId you see the digital projection of the race above all?????? How awesome was the igniting of the flame? Like a super gigantic firework *WOOSH* and then all the fireworks.

    China delivered, China was the shit to watch today. Craziest, fanciest, exhuberant Olympic Opening EVER. Art, art, art, art *SWOON* – Now… London’s got tough competition. LOL Beijing Olympics are just beginning, but will London deliver next????? Could they deliver more?

    I found photos! Nifty photos than the ones being used by the press~ xD
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