Archives For Chinese

Sighs~ July…

July 1, 2009 — Leave a comment

Wow, time does fly.

Julz should be heading or already be in Korea by now. She’s got me all fuzzed over the things she said she’s got for me. I got all giddy ‘coz she said she’d been watching a couple of episodes of Dr. Koto’s Clinic, which they are re-broadcasting this week… I’m also watching the episodes (currently on episode 7) pretending (almost) that I’m there to watch. LOL’ – But it’s been 3 years since the broadcast (and upload) and there are still no subs, though SARS fansubs did announce not long ago that they were doing it, so I’m looking forward to that.

I also found a couple more Chinese musicians and groups… and now, NOW! I’ve got more Chinese music than Japanese… which, to tell you the truth, baffles me a little. So now I need to find some more Japanese music – and just for fun… I thought I would mention that I was singing SNSD’s Gee yesterday… god knows why!?! Geez~ – you can laugh now.

I feel I’m lacking Korean music… none other than Seo Taiji.

I know I’ve tagged this with “new talent” and “new music” when in fact it’s not.

First, a little about Han Hong – according to Chinese Wiki – She’s won the award for the Most Popular Female Singer, as well as the Best Female Artist Award (in mainland China). That means she’s critically acclaimed, and popular among the public – which doesn’t happen often on this side of the world. LOL

Her voice is often compared (by the fans) to Sarah Brightman for her unique style… music and lyrics. – and everyone loves Brightman… she was even on the Beijing Olympics Opening.

Now, a little on my story. I first noticed her at the Beijing Paralympic Opening Ceremony – with Andy Lau singing Flying with the Dream – but I didn’t have much luck getting her name or clips back then, so I kinda forgot about it until the day I was watching those music concerts on CCTV back in April and she appeared on stage. My mom thought what an amazing voice! While I added I had seen her in the Paralympic Ceremony… totally forgetting she’s also featured on the Beijing Welcomes You music video (thank you, whoever did those annotations! It’s hard to keep track of so many singers…) – Anyway, that day… I ended up discovering Chris Lee instead of Han Hong… but the wait is OVER!

Since the beginning, I’ve always thought she had an amazing voice, but the video above moved me so much. It gave me shivers, and almost brought tears to my eyes. No, really. It’s THIS video in particular… this performance. She’s an amazing vocalist! I would love to see her perform with Sarah Brightman herself, or maybe even the lovely women of Celtic Woman – or Meav *tsk tsk*

I’m not completely sold on her videos – like on most vocalist I follow – but her live performances are so much more worth it. Here are some of her other performances…

Ommani
Qinghai Tibetan Plains

I just officially joined Vimeo – not entirely sure why, but we’ll see…
In the meantime, this rocking video and song!

We’re almost about to finish up with June – still haven’t reached 20 films listed on 2009 @ IMDb… and I’m still way short on my quota to be legible on my own awards.

I thought it’d be interesting to see how this works, so I grabbed the IMDb Power Search Tool and looked for all films listed on IMDb following this criteria:

  • All films must have over 50 votes on the site (you know, just to make the list shorter)
  • I must have voted it over 6.

So I made my list of the regular categories – All acting categories, best animated feature, best director and best picture – without caring about the language they’re in. Just a reminder~~~ this year’s awards should include all categories except for Documentaries and shorts~~~

Here are the ones of the would’ve beens of films released on 2000 – Oscar 2001 –

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LOL’

Does that say enough to you? Really, read the editor’s note. Lots of things on this new issue… new problems, new films, new music…

Reviews of films from the blockbuster season… Star Trek, Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Up~~~ Brothers Bloom. Short film reviews, concert reviews… of Kiss in Lima. Music reviews of The Sounds, Green Day, Shiina Ringo… a bunch of K-pop courtesy of Julz~~~ off you go to Japan!!! WOOOOO – there’s Life on Mars, House M.D. and my more “professional” review of Yu Aoi’s Portugirl.

Yam004

Head over here.

has been satisfied this weekend!!

I had just discovered the Chinese Music Blog~~~ while reading this post – on also one of my new Chinese entertainment stops. – I got interested on the term “Zhong Guo Feng” which is to be translated as Chinese Style, or Wind… Vibe… etc etc.  so I googled and ended up there~~~ I really like the term a lot more than the Chinked Out (nicked by Wang Lee Hom) though.

A lot of people seem to have a lot of different opinions on what music is what style, and so on~ I tend to think Chinked Out style is more of what LeeHom does, which is combining a lot of Hip Hop with very strong Beijing Opera elements (or other Chinese elements) … I really enjoyed that. *laughs* His latest album wasn’t so Chinked Out style, I thought, but I still liked it since I really also enjoy Rock N’ Roll and Elvis style *laughs*

Zhong Guo Feng… I dunno if the term was nicked by Jay, but I got introduced to it through him (and my friend Diana, of course *laughs*) – I really do enjoy his Chinese-oriented songs a lot more than his faster Hip Hop dancing tracks. The more piano he’s got in the album, the less he raps in them… the more I dig. xD

I do enjoy a whole lot more Zhong Guo Feng than any regular nasal dance pop.

And I love LOVE these new additions to my library. ^^

Milk@Coffee – Don’t let the name fool you (I foudn a lot of Starbucks related sites on my search) , after all… who can resist good Pop music?? Pop with an Umph! That electronic-y, quirky vibe. I love!!! Some of the songs remind me of Clazziquai in a way, which I also enjoy xD – They’ve got a bunch of great songs like Yi Qi Lai (Together), Space Cake or Lunar Garden~~~

Yuguo – I think this is by far the most “rock” band [MySpace] I’ve heard in Chinese. You know? We often hear of soooo many Pop acts, it gets a little bit boring. Their 2nd album, Babel, has just been released. It’s a great rock album with bits of electronic… and I think it’s a “themed” album~~ at least, it seems that way from the titles of the tracks. xD

Cheer Chen – *shrieks* How in the name of insert-God-name-here did I not hear about her before? She’s just recently released her fifth studio album Immortal (Tai Yang, as in Sun), and it’s pretty great… so I’m looking forward to her previous work.

[Simply Said][Floral Posture][Shou de Yu Yan]

If I ever go to Taiwan to study, she’s got a brand new stalker. *laughs*

Add to that debut albums by Vae (linked above) – before there’s any complaints~~~ he’s a doctor. ’nuff said. LOL

[You He Bu Ke (Why Not?)][Ru Guo Dang Shi (In the Event that)][Duo Yu De Jie Shi (Superfluous Explanation)]

and LaLa (Xu Jia Ying) – like I said~~~ I enjoy my Zhong Guo Feng, and also good guitar driven songs.

[Export (Chu Kou)][Oh, Easy (O Yi Xi)]

Hmm… I seem to be listening to a lot of chick music lately O.o

May 2009 Music!

June 8, 2009 — 3 Comments

*legasp!*

I didn’t blog for two days!!! My perfect two-month-everyday posting record is over~

T.T – and…

Didn’t really listened to much music either~~~ just a few couple albums that just came out.

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I can’t remember the last time I did a music backup, and that’s a bit worrying… but not as worrying as the last time I made a backup of everything else. That’s another scary subject. I’m here to show you how neat is my iTunes library~~~

iTunes Library - June05 '09

See? Neat~~~ almost everything with a cover, but that’s because I ripped that from a YouTube video, which is lame… but I couldn’t find a proper mp3 of Sedated by the Young @ Heart Chorus. Do you know where can I get it?

Then… circled albums are the ones I don’t own, and want to buy physically… the ones marked with a “2” means I would be thinking of getting them physically as well. I really, really have fallen in love with the Hana & Alice OST, it goes with liking the film more and more.

The rest, as you can see is filled with Chris Lee, Coeur de Pirate, David Tao, Dirty Projectors, Green Day, The Sounds, St. Vincent, La Patere Rose etc etc… Shiina Ringo, Seo Taiji. When is Seo Taiji’s 8th album coming out??? I’ve been waiting for it since October last year – I remember because I was complaning too many albums coming on Oct/Nov.

I know I’m often unkind to dubbing – right?? – but I particularly think Disney does a decent job at doing multilanguage version of their musically-animated films… perhaps not actual full films, but their musical sequences. I was watching a Russian animated short that linked me to the Russian-dubbed version of the Halloween song on The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I particularly think the Russian dub has a lot of personality, and kinda scarier vibe~~~ and, what do you think of the Japanese dub of Halloween? Kore wa HAROUIN~~~ xD

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Two days ago I found an interesting post on Chinese Celebrities When They Were Young~~~

Cutest thing~~ like EVER. Here’s Bibi!! Almost exactly as she is now, isn’t she??

Bibi Chow - Kid Bibi Chow - Kid - doodle

On that post, you’ll see some familiar faces like Zhang Ziyi (who hasn’t changed a bit), Jolin Tsai, Bridgette Lin, Vivian Hsu… is that Ella Chen (???), Jet Li, Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse… and even Yao Ming!

But check after the break for some of the photos for Faye Wong, Jay Chou, Leehom, and Maggie Cheung – with a Japanese bonus… *tsk tsk*

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