Archives For Language

I finally took the time to catch up with all seasons of Orphan Black, which I had trouble sitting through during its first season… even though I think I might have actually sat through those 10 episodes on reruns without knowing they were 10 episodes. there’s a slump there somewhere between the first 3-4 eps, but once you go through that threshold, it’s a breeze worth the binge-watch. Season 2 flowed better as a viewing experience because half the first part rides on its S1 high and it sets itself for Season 3, which doesn’t glide as smoothly.

But feelings have been had. In terms of Sarah dealing with Beth in a near-death dream sequence that totally reminded me of the Buffy episode, Restless… which interestingly fits into Season 4 of that show where they also deal with the military and conspiracies xD

Feelings were also had because of that messy relationship between Cosima and Delphine, sidetracked by Shay. I haven’t had the fandom feels in so long… and it’s Cosima’s relationships because Sarah-Paul is so impersonal, and Cal -as good as he may be- has been mostly off-screen history. It’s Cosima and Delphine because I’m a sucker for that “I’ll give you up for you” thing, and Cosima with Shay because- man, Shay’s gotta be bad for Cosima’s heart. She seems soooooooooo damn good and caring, it’s gotta be setting up a heartbreak even though it would be “Delphine is your monitor 2.0” and it’s only been freaking 19min. of them together through the whole season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZKDbIlnr4s

And man is Ksenia Solo as Shay the type. Yup, there’s a type. Carly Pope meets Juno Temple. lol

I really really enjoyed many of the performances in this year’s Spring Gala, which included a dance rendition of a Mo Li Hua (茉莉花) instrumental, the suspended dude on a mast on top of a digital display of the ocean (直挂云帆), and the Drum Dance in Prosperity Xi’an Terracotta Army, The Silk Road (丝绸之路), The Beauty of China (山水中国美). Also, my biases Zhao Wei and Sa Dingding (doing the Good Luck Song (吉祥吉祥)) were there! Donnie Yen showed up too! Dude! I even enjoyed the super Red Song, My Homeland (我的祖国), which was performed by Wang Li (王莉), Wang Qing Shuang (王庆爽), You Hong Fei (尤泓婓), Jin Ting Ting (金婷婷) and a special appearance by opera soprano Guo Lanying (郭兰英).

I also enjoyed the Inner Mongolia [1][2][3] and minorities medley In the Great Embrace of your Hometown (在你伟大的怀抱里) numbers xD In turn into a bit of a Red Song somewhere there by the end, but it wasn’t even the Reddest song of the night. LOL But I enjoyed it.

Tan Wei Wei’s (谭维维) number, though, featuring Zhang Ximin (张喜民) and Huayin Lao Qiang performers (“华阴老腔”演员) floored me. So much damn fun and energy. I loved it. The song was presented under the titled “the Huayin old tune in high tone shout” (华阴老腔一声喊, huayin lao qiang yi sheng han). It also teaches us all about Huayin Lao Qiang (Huayin Old Style “Chinese Rock’n’Roll)!

So… I caught up with Fresh Off the Boat over the weekend for my birthday and Chinese New Year~ and I made it to that episode, which apparently is the first time CNY has ever been shown on TV in the US. Jessica (Constance Wu is my favorite) is prepping for the holiday… and becomes my mom.

fob-airport-late

Jessica: I overslept. Get up! GET UP! We have to go to the airport!
Eddie: What time is it?
Jessica: 5 a.m.!
Eddie: The flight doesn’t leave until 2 in the afternoon.
Jessica: EXACTLY! WE’RE LATE!

EXACTLY!

This is where I get it from. And my aunt also features in the episode a minute later~

Happy Chinese New Year y’all bunch of lurkers!

My Life in Movies

February 5, 2016 — Leave a comment

Will also keep this updated.

*Updated every February 5th.

Customary MUBI list.

*dies*

It really kills me that this movie is opening a few days after my birthday, and I can’t watch it. WHY DO YOU GUYS DO THIS TO ME?

Sidenote: The Fitoor promotions have brought some interesting interview bits with Tabu- like she wants to be part of Golmaal 4 (I haven’t seen Golmaal, but that’s a Rohit Shetty movie, so… xD), she’s fishing for a comedy, she likes David Dhawan’s type of comedies (which are so 90s comedy style type of not my thing), and wants to do a movie with Govinda… who, if I recall correctly, actually doesn’t like many of the 90s comedy movies he did xD

Comedy is such a particular genre, so difficult to please people.

My type of comedy, I’ve found out, is in the realm of Roxana Avalos, Rosalind Russell, and Sandra Ng. I laugh quite a bit with Hong Kong/Chinese comedies.

Ram-Leela on Ice!

February 4, 2016 — Leave a comment

Ice-skaters Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov did a rendition of Nagada Sang Dhol [clip] in their ice-skating routine (which, apparently, won them a gold medal) that made me want to watch Devdas on Ice~~~ or specifically Dola Re Dola on Ice because I’m like that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcZ-LBJpp2U

As you know~ Russia is big on the ice-skating events, even more so than the Koreans (who had the reality Kim Yu-na’s Kiss & Cry[1]), the Japanese who broadcast ice-skating competitions quite regularly throughout the year, and the Americans (the other day I caught a broadcast of Musselman’s Apple Sauce Family Skating Tribute on ESPN).

I never thought I’d see this fandom crossover. xD

… you are supposed to be ready, man~ Get your sh!t together!

kathryn-hahn-transparent-raquel

But the Pfeffermans are such awful messed up bunch of people xD I’m so glad (kinda) that she’s out of that whirlwind. Here’s a spoilery interview with Kathryn Hahn about her character in Season 2, and she’s wonderful. I’ve been having a major girl crush there for a while.

Though Fitoor might get trapped by remaking Alfonso Cuaron’s version of Great Expectations… I’m still looking forward to Tabu as Begum. I’m also looking forward to see Haminasto (aka. also romanized as Haminastu) [YouTube] because it’s my favorite track in the whole soundtrack, even though I’ve been butchering some of the other songs out loud late at night. xD I like the song so much that I ended up looking for Zeb Bangash, found Pakistani duo Zeb and Haniya, discovered Coke Studio [1][2][3][4][5 non-Zeb related], and downloaded the compilations on iTunes [S2][S6].

It messed up my language library because there’s so much Punjabi, Urdu and Pashtu, and Turkish… I don’t know which is which xD

ANWYAY~ OCD frustrations aside~

Fitoor promotions are at full throttle~ and it includes the release of this micro clips of dialog, which I don’t understand at all… but Tabu’s just saying “Firdaus, Firdaus, Firdaus” gives me the chills.

More: Duur, Qubool.

Don’t ask me how I Am A Singer (我是歌手) elimination works xD, I thought I wouldn’t see HAYA again… but here they are with a version of Silent Sky (寂静的天空)… from their 2009 album.

Also making a surprise appearance~ the Wild Child, Su Yunying~

Continue Reading…

Well~ just grab Chulpan Khamatova, dress her up in your clothes and snap a few photos in your store. She’s that charming and photogenic.

She just posted these shots -probably just shopping- at Xakama (ХакаМа) [Official Website][Facebook].

khamatova-xakama-store