Category: Fun

  • The Late 2012-2013 Music Highlights

    amys-2012-2013-music-highlights-yammag

    I think I could work more on the 2013 list, but then it will be 2015! LOL I also hate that I don’t have my font pack at hand because this graphic is UHHHH-GLAY. My Frankenstein Computer is back! I’m so happy~

    Anyway, here are 30 album picks by all different artists that released (almost) full-length albums these last two years. And here are all their covers in gallery form, and here’s a Facebook Gallery, it contains some playlists and iTunes links. And here’s a Xiami playlist, where you can (almost) access all the albums. And a Weibo post in case you’re there.

    And here’s the YAM Magazine list that contains all my ramblings, with playlist/streaming and buy links.


  • Revamped Indian Film Journey

    I don’t think there’s been any significant update since April [1], but since my internal hard disk got busted after a sudden power outage, I lost my last mindmap. Instead of recreating it, I revamped it with some clean-up names and added some others. The clean-up? I got rid off Aishwarya (at least, until I watch other films of her), Nana Patekar (haven’t seen him in a while), same with Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Dutt. Got rid off Kareena, Sonakshi Sinha, Abhishek Bachchan, Anushka Sharma, Ajay Devgn, Salman, and Preity.

    Only filmmaker to go is M.F. Husain, because- well, no more films. Also, there’s more order, because I’m lumping all Karan Johar directed or backed projects on his hub.

    indian-film-journey-aug1014

    It’s been a year yo! [1]

    Objectively speaking, though I love Tabu with all my fandom heart, I gotta admit that Rani Mukerji is the best movie hub to start out. The only thing she’s missing, really, is films with these other directors like Vishal or Vikramadytia Motwane. I doubt Imtiaz Ali would ever cast her in anything- besides, most his movies… though decent, are quite overvalued. Especially RockStar. And she was >THIS< close to getting to The Namesake, that really…

    Rani’s got Bhansali, Hassan, Balan, Konkona and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. That’s of course on top of Shahrukh Khan, Aamir (and the other two Khans), Mani Ratnam, Juhi, and family connections aside, Kajol. And look at the times she’s worked with Amitabh Bachchan… and even son. That’s basically the whole contemporary commercial Indian film spectrum.

    Tabu, on the other hand, has Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar, sure. She would also get Hassan (though not at his best), and Konkona… as well as Mani Ratnam, Amitabh, and Juhi (in her leading lady days) — probably more crossovers like Govinda and Salman. She also has Mira Nair and Ang Lee in her bag (though not strictly Indian-verse), and a whole bunch of regional films… but they’re more Telugu than anything else. Then there’s Nagarjuna. She had that symbiotic film-relationship to Madhur Bhandakar, whose career isn’t very good at the moment, though I thought Heroine improved in the horrible story treatment he had in Fashion.

    I haven’t dared to watch Juhi’s earlier filmography because there’s so much early Aamir, and I’m not a fan of him in those days or Indian commercial films in general. Confession: Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! and Hum Saath-Saath Hain are pretty bad. Both the same director, a director Tabu wants to make a new comedy with. Not a comedy with Rajkumar Hirani, or a Motwane-backed project like Queen or Hasse Toh Phasee. She wants the dude that gave you Salman.

    I’m becoming one of those fans that question her film choices. xD Having said that, I am still looking for Idee Sangati (or however you romanize it). I know Telugu films aren’t my thing, and not even Manam is changing my position, but I need to watch that movie.


  • Huzzah Rani for Mardaani

    Though I did knocked the trailer out because I thought Rani might have been a little “too chunky” to pull off the chasing and fighting [1], her frame actually makes much more sense. I’ve never met in real life a come-hither-you sexy of a female (or male) cop, as many of them just look like the police that are played by extras, instead of them sexy male or female leads on Hollywood movies.

    Plus, Rani does look like a total badass, so what’s not to like?

    And seeing that she’s promoting self-defense classes and all, why not just lump black-belt Rina Takeda in here. ‘Coz, duh! Rina Takeda would not only take Rani (or Madhuri or Priyanka) out, she would also take down SRK, probably Salman and maybe Akshay Kumar… though I may have read he knows martial arts or something? Maybe he was just a fan of Hong Kong martial arts movies…


  • Satine, the Sparkling Diamond vs. Chandramukhi – FIGHT!

    The other day I caught a rerun of Moulin Rouge! on tv, and this is the first time I’ve lived it — I not only sing out loud, but recite as well as cry during the whole show… so, yeah~ I LIVE IT — since I started watching Indian films. The only thing that would make that movie better is to have had Urmila in there for the Chamma Chamma [clip] sample.

    You can’t really get any more Indian -near masala levels- than this, and of course my mind had to have a Battle of the Courtesans between Satine, The Sparkling Diamond and Chandramukhi. It’s a visual battle between Baz Lurhman and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a flawless duel between Nicole Kidman and Madhuri Dixit, and a fight for the dramatic between Moulin Rouge! and Devdas.

    satine-moulin-rouge-chandramukhi-devdas

    On one side, you got the courtesan manipulated to stay that falls in love with the mistaken penniless writer, until she finds out the evil duke will kill her loved one- oh, and she’s dying of tuberculosis. On the other, the courtesan lives in a mysteriously super posh and luxurious whorehouse, and is the most sought after until she falls in love with the rich lawyer who’s suffering of a broken heart and likes to get drunk to forget his sorrows… that is, of course, until he dies of liver failure after a long period of continuous intoxication.

    Jesus, Chandramukhi. Forget, Devdas, and elope with Christian.


  • Tabu vs. Tabu – FIGHT!

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    Tabu made a Telugu movie released in 2008 called Idhi Sangathi (sometimes romanized Idee Sangati or other variations without the ‘h’), which has been nearly impossible to locate even though Telugu movies are usually on YouTube (though sometimes dubbed in Hindi). In the case of this one, they haven’t even uploaded a single clip of any of the songs nor a trailer (in YouTube).

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  • More Yu Aoi Short Takes in the Mountain on Fire!

    Super messy Yu Aoi post ahead~

    With the release of Haru wo Seotte [trailer] this Saturday, the release of Mozu Season 2 next, followed by Wakamono-tachi and Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Inferno, all promotions are meshing with one another.

    First, Kenichi Matsuyama and Yu together in this CinemaCafe interview.

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  • Hello World BiBi vs. Belle FIGHT!

    BiBi’s got a brand new song titled Hello World, the theme for the new Mainland Chinese movie The Breakup Guru (分手大师), which opens…  on June 27th. The vibe of the song is very Train’s Hey Soul Sister-y and Jason Mraz-y chill whimsical folksy.

    Fun fact: Jason Mraz’s Wordplay [MV] was my jam back in my Vancouverite days. Never liked him as much since then.

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  • Emily Blunt Kicking Butt and Taking Names

    I had been hoping Emily Blunt make up for not living up to my expectations of her amazingness [1], and I’m so happy to see her in Edge of Tomorrow. I just want to see a prequel where she gets to kick some more ass, though I’m not entirely sure what the movie would be about… maybe an actual movie where we don’t get much into the explanation of what is going on with the re-living.

    emily-blunt-edge-of-tomorrow

    I needed a little more feelings.


  • Tabu and her Languages

    I just ran into this NDTV Walk the Talk interview that Tabu did – should be in between 2004 – that aired in Jan’05 where she gets into the various films that she’s done in various languages. She mentions that she’s got a flare for languages (!!!) and that she’s fluent in Telugu, and had picked up Marathi. She also mentioned she’s done films in Malayalam (which she says she doesn’t understand when doing her lines), Kannada, and Tamil.

    And… and… and… she took three months of Spanish. There. LOL

    From what I’ve been able to see from Hindi, at least, Spanish conjugation won’t be much of a head-scratching problem. I don’t know exactly how much Spanish she could’ve picked up in that period of time, considering I know people who gave up Spanish after a couple of months because of verb conjugation (especially from the ‘to be’ and ‘to have’)- it could be the same from Tabu. xD

    It also depends on whether she tried Castilian (The Spanish with a Spain accent) or Spanish (with any variation of Latin American accent), because the different sounds for ‘s,’ ‘c,’ and ‘z’ may frustrate some.

    So now I wonder how that went for her. xD


  • Funny Tabu for Meenaxi Extras

    You know how we love to put stars on pedestals? Often reserved and measured in interviews — except for the fact that Ang Lee told her she laughs like a school girl [1] — it was totally worth the buy of the Meenaxi DVD for the Making Of. Now we have these~

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    My reaction when I saw that?

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