I didn’t do one last year because… because I didn’t care. I probably care less this year, since I have less films that I liked, and my watching colored-coding has been reduced to “watched” and have no desire “to watch” anything. Let alone “dying to watch” [1] [2]
But here it is- what I’ve watched and some of my rough predictions.
Also attaching [1] my Watched List from last year.
A few weeks ago, Google changed its image search to the rage of webmasters — especially bloggers of photographers. However, hits didn’t seem much too affected here. Maybe there was a 10% drop in hits, give or take. So I decided to keep an eye for it to check how affected the hits on the site were. It wasn’t until two or three days ago, when I installed Imaguard (besides having enabled Hot Linking, which has been on forever but doesn’t seem to work with Google Image Search for a reason — is that even ethical?) that I saw a BIG drop in hits. To check what was going on, I did a search on my most popular subject: “yu aoi” – the search is disheartening.
Before, when you used to image search for “yu aoi,” you would end up with a few tons of photos from my blog. Embarrassingly known as “amy the yu aoi fan,” Besides trying to avoid the posting of random picture spam with no data, I did try to do some research with my barely capable level of Japanese. For commercial work, I tried looking up at campaign names, and creatives involved — for photoshoots, I tried my best to post photographer names and maybe stylists. So people who were fans, would generally end up in my site.
Now when you search for “yu aoi,” there’s only one of my files showing up in the first four lines of images. Before, the first few lines used to be flooded with the photos I posted with details.
WAIT, it gets worse.
When I do an specific search for “yu aoi + amy wong,” the selected photos in the search get some mix up with Pinterest and WeHeartIt, which are re-postings from my blog. Sighs.
Is it time to look for some other search tool other than Google?
Vancouver-based motion graphic studio, Giant Ant, took part in the making of an animation collaborative effort centered on the poem titled To This Day by Shane Koyczan, who was in charge of the We Are More poem used for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics [1]. To This Day focuses on the lasting impact of bullying on its victims, and though it feels heavy-handed with a +6min of running time with a narrative of negative lows in contrast to Koyczan’s climbing monologue, it’s still a project worth checking out because of…
it’s animation.
Giant Ant (which includes work by Jorge Canedo Estrada [1]) asked animators and motion designers to come up with 20-sec sequences to go along to Koyczan’s spoken poem, developing a wonderful mismatch of styles within its narrative.
You can check out more of the To This Day project on:
I want this (Dutch???) toilet paper!
The best toilet paper commercials we ever got in Peru were of Suave, featuring Luis Miguel’s hit song, Suave [MV] — that’s the only one that ever stuck in my subconscious anyway. That one, for the song, and there was another one of a little girl who wanted to go to the washroom at a mall or something, and she was only with her father. Obviously, he couldn’t go it to the ladies room, so she went in with her father staying by the door giving directions, where he spurts “ahora limpiate tu potito.” (now clean your tushy).
We aren’t any remotely close to having this kind of toilet paper commercial.
I just began listening (truly listen) to Mayday’s discography pre the Born to Love days, finishing off titles/pinyin/title translations, when I ran into this song titled Masquerade (Male, Female, One Body) from their 2003 album, Time Machine (時光機). The thing is, the title of the song is Ci Xiong Tong Ti (雌雄同體), which is the term used to refer to “hermaphrodites” (which, by the way, isn’t longer a term accepted for people, who are now referred to as “intersex”). Perplexed, thinking that Google Translate was giving me a wonky translation, I checked the dictionary to double check.
On a quick google search, I found a pretty terrific (singable) translation of the song.
Rather than you understand me—I’d rather be a mystery
A puzzle you just cannot solve, of what’s false and real, it’ll play at your heartstrings
I’ll play you, or play your opposite form; partake in this game of love that you’ve borne.
via NoStarWords @ LJ + starriheavens
My mind was melted. I mean, it’s not VERY often you get playful duality in music, playing on gender-role conventions and completely avoiding the titillation that seethes from… well, everywhere now.
I remember when I was in fifth grade I saw my grandfather die. There he was, lying motionless on the bed. I was close to my grandfather. He taught me how to write. I remember thinking, “If this is the end of life, that means we don’t have to take everything too seriously.” Children who grow up without seeing death don’t have that realization.
I know so many people who would download loads of music for free, but still buy the stuff they liked (usually discovered from their own or other people’s free downloads). Now those same people listen to Spotify and feel that they have paid the artists, so no longer feel the need to buy the songs they like.
Comment on Artists, Please! Don’t Put Spotify Play Buttons On Your Site…
Additional info: How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?
Yu-chan, how am I supposed to know you have a new miniseries, if you don’t even update your blog? Like, I was blind. COMPLETELY BLIND about this two-episode series you did for TV Asahi, airing on February 2nd and 3rd. Titled Mottomo Toi Ginga (最も遠い銀河) — translated as The Most Distant Galaxy — the series has nothing to do with space. Instead, it seems to be a detective story, but the AsianWiki Plot/Synopsis sucks.
Still… it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to check it out.
I wouldn’t have heard about it, if it wasn’t for Weibo. I’m supposed to be subscribed to the Yu Aoi/Aoi Yuu and other variations of her name from Tokyohive, but whatever. It seems she has very few English-speaker fans who don’t even bother.
At the moment, this screencaps will do.
I don’t want to say “POWERFUL!!!” because I will feel like the captioning person on Korean variety programs. However, I just stumbled upon this video of TINY-G doing the choreography of their debut [MV], which I liked more than the actual music video. For one, you can actually see what’s going on without much distractions, and you can appreciate that they’re bringing a lot of HMPH! to their dancing in the way that 90s pop music used to have women dancing in not-high-heels and stomping their feet looking that they’re dancing instead of seducing you.
There’s still a long LONG way to go for TINY-G, and we still need to see if their management ever dares to push the girls for a super girly concept for a comeback single like they love to do in Korea — which, sadly, seems like a huge possibility from the few comments I’ve been able to read asking why these tiny girls need to wear such baggy clothing when they’re so minuscule. Apparently people have issues with baggy clothes. Is it not feminine enough?
Would you rather see them stomping with high heels and minis, so they can eff up their kidneys… just so they can look feminine and show their slender bodies to you?
Looking at TINY-G, it brings back memories of me rooting for Britney.
Just been discovered!
Escape Plan (逃跑计划, Tiao Pao Ji Hua), aka. Perdel Band. Spotted on CNN Travel… as always [1]. Their Rock in China page isn’t up to date, but it’s always a good spot to start with. Besides their 2008 EP titled Take Me Away (带我离开), they released a full length album in early 2012 titled Earth (世界), which contains all the songs from their EP in more slick production, as well as a version of Zaijian Zaijian (再见再见) with lyrics instead of the instrumental piano.
From all the endless bands coming out of China, they seem to be a good substitute of Yuguo while I wait for their new album, which is supposed to come out this March (if I didn’t read wrong)
Sorry, no music embeds.
You can preview web shorter versions of their album on their Douban page or Weibo Music.
