Archives For Art

Is this the resurrection of Broadway?

Neil Patrick Harris just pulled off a massive introduction for last night’s show, not only including fellow show nominees, but they also included some snarky blow at Shia LaBeouf, whose theater scuffle made it outside Broadway circles. I have no idea about Broadway news and the who is who, but I knew about it. Go figure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=danBaPWT09A

I know tickets have been down for Broadway shows- all shows across all media, I believe. So I hope last night’s award show boosts the popularity, because if the numbers keep going down, there’d be no place for…

There’s a kid in the middle of nowhere who’s sitting there living for Tony performances. Singing and flipping along with the Pippins and Wickeds and Kinkies, Matildas, and Mormonses. So I might reassure that kid, and do something to spur that kid. Cause I promise you all of us up here tonight. We were that kid.

When Hannibal started airing, I gave the show a watch (the first two episodes seemed like a lot) but since it seemed to stressed me a lot, I decided to stop watching and not be waiting for the latest episode, like I used to do for some of my now-not-so-current television watching. And though I had decided to not watch the show, I found myself catching the episodes on the weekend showings on AXN Latin America.

Two episodes a sitting- it doesn’t even matter if you skip a week, since you can catch up the next week! And it’s perfectly timed with my dinner on Sundays, so I don’t get eerily hungry whenever they show Hannibal cooking.

hannibal-feel-unstable

During the commercial for tonight’s episode, Dr. Alana Bloom talks to Will about her decision to not pursue him as a love interest… because he’s unstable. And obviously, as a Wonderfalls fan [1], I immediately though of Jaye as a crazy person. It’s like a perfect conversation!

wonderfalls-clinically-insane

We all miss supermodels. And damn, that’s some crazy pose Cindy Crawford is pulling for that hourglass shape (as hourglass as we can pull nowadays, anyway) she’s got going on this shoot for Muse mag by Mariano Vivanco [1].

cindy-crawford-mariano-vivanco-muse-jun13

I’m sure there’s a photoshop tweak here and there- after all, it IS a one-color wall.

And though Crawford remains quite flawless, there’s this bit weird about her face that you can notice faintly in some of the shots [which you can check out on Fashiontography], it’s even more noticeable on the cover for Muse, sadly. I would have preferred this shot.

I refuse to call this a music video, since it’s actually been commissioned by Adobe to promote their upcoming cloud system. But… it’s beautiful. All done by Spain-based Dvein. I’m uncertain about the credit to The Vein.

Original Vimeo upload.

There’s also a Making Of available if you’re interested.

optimus-maximus-keyboard

My main grip about Korean is that if I wanted to type it, I had to customize my keyboard so I knew which syllable was in which position, instead of typing gibberish the first time I tried to use it. LOL The same thing is happening with me and Russian. Every time I try to type something, I have to press every single key because I can’t find them. xD

So I was looking for a LED-based keyboard that would do just that. Change layout every time I would switch keyboard settings on my computer. And Apparently I wasn’t the only person in need of one (and I’m too late to the party). Someone pointed me towards Art. Lebedev Studio, who happened to be a studio based in Moscow, Kiev and New York.

Because only non-English speakers, or multilingual people would need to come up with this sort of gadget. The concept was solid, and apparently all the keyboards are sold-out, even though the “popularis” version (so the compact one) is priced at 797 Euros or $1086 USD. xD

The concept for the Tactus one looks cool, though, I’ve never warmed up to digital displays in the form of typing devices. I HATE typing on smartphones and tablets.

learning-russian

Guess who took her first dive into Russian? That deserves its inclusion on the language category, as well as a “russia” tag, no? ‘Coz I’m suspecting there will be a lot more Chulpan Khamatova postings around.

First impressions on the language? I thought it was easier and less scary than Hebrew (which I once tried to learn, I don’t know if I ever confessed to that). The new alphabet seems to be quite straight forward (though a bit weird to write). Anyone wants to tell me the proper direction and how I should be writing the following letters: ц, г, ш, щ, з (is this like a 3?), ъ, ф (can I write it like an “o” with a line across it?), п, л, д, ж (especially this one), э, я and и (when I write this, I feel like a 5-year-old that can’t write, though I read the inverted “N” should look like a script “U” when handwritten), ч, б, and ю.

Pronunciation-wise, you guys have soooooo many diphthongs. It might be unsettling to my Spanish brain. I also noticed that because of the inflections of voice and the use of so many “y” sounds, my voice sounds different when I repeat Russian. It’s weird.

I also can’t tell the difference between  ш and щ. And I also can’t figure out how to pronounce ы properly. And the Russian keyboard is freaking me out. I might need to put stickers on my keyboard now. But then I would have to consider adding a Korean one as well. Sighs.

Numbers are already scaring me.

While getting acquainted with Chulpan Khamatova’s work, I ran into this video clip of the Arbenina’s song Come to Me (ИДИ КО МНЕ) — and I’ve been polishing my non-existent Russian trying to learn how to pronounce that… Idi Ko Mne. If I apply my Spanish, it sounds like Idi Ko Mie.

The thing is… that Making Of was released back in January, and I wasn’t able to find the actual music video, which makes me think it hasn’t been released yet. I’m not used to that. Korea and Taiwan have spoiled me completely.

I did however, find these stills of the shoot.

 

More stills here.

In other news, Khamatova’s been very active these days (it seems) with her charity work.

Well, Hyori has earned her “Comeback” title alright- she’s been absent for… like, what? Four or three years maybe? Since her 4th bad luck album was such a bust, she’s been sort of hovering on our lives as Kpop seemed to rise and leak into the worldwide pop culture subconscious.

Since those days, LOADS of rookie groups have debuted — all trained vocally and in dance ability, which puts them ahead of Hyori. But you know what? Who cares. Hyori is what I wanted Britney to be at some point. I wanted Brit to be well adjusted and charismatic, even if she had gradually lost her voice and, ultimately, her dance ability. One thing I never wanted her to lose was her ability to engage.

Hyori engages with her audience. At the end of her celebratory comeback presentation, she brings back 10 Minutes, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and then she performs U-Go-Girl, with no post at ALL O_O You can hear her laugh while singing through the almost-bare and casual arrangements of the song, while she’s been squirted with water guns. And she tells them (and us) that she’s missed us. Or that’s how I’ve interpreted her bogoshippoyo.

The water gun squirts borders on a wet t-shirt contest, but Hyori is wearing silver leggins throughout the whole show, which really surprises me — I mean, she could’ve been wearing black hot pants like her over-exposed back-up dancers, but she isn’t. She’s actually quite casual through the whole segment until the water squirting gets ridiculous and she laughs. I love that.

Apparently the show lasted nearly 50min?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ySkD-05HpU

BiBi’s doing a concert in Beijing (if she hasn’t done it by now, it’s one of these days), and my pal is attending. And even though I doesn’t feel like I’ve been an ardent BiBi fan for a bit, this rehearsal has made me giddy (and slightly jealous) to be there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3JgZQoytc0

Guess I’m gonna miss the party. xD

In other news, I had NO idea that one of the songs on Time was written by Mavis Fan. The more you know.

Also how cut does BiBi look?

My nephew (my niece is past that, I think) is at that awkward Third Culture Kid stage in which he’s learning Spanish after speaking Swedish. When he just got here (about) 7 months ago, he didn’t speak much. My niece at that time was awkwardly explaining things as “this and that” while pointing. Being slightly younger, my nephew has already picked up the language a lot faster — he even uses words such as “grandazo,” (kinda like saying “super big”) “oye,” (hey) and “ya pues” (come on!) — as if he’s grown up here. He even calls on the ice-cream man [1] with a nonchalant “amigo, amigo” (friend, friend).

The downside to that is that he’s forgetting Swedish a lot faster too.

At school, he’s not only learning English, but also Italian- this is why, when we’re at the dinner or lunch table (sitting by my side), he keeps asking me if I know how to say “x word” in “x language” — as a language buff, I know how to get around this stuff. Especially at the age of 5. LOL So while I dazzled him with my “Vad heter du?” to which he responded “Mommy, mommy! Amy knows Swedish!” to then ask me if I knew how to say “apple” in Swedish. I did. But apparently, he didn’t. He asked his mom the same question to make sure I was telling the truth, and she told him “it starts with ‘Ä’…” (which sounds similar to “eh”), so all giddy he responded “ÄLEPHANT!”

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