Archives For Fun

Han Hong – The Woman with the Wonderful Voice

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

Posted on June 26, 2009 In Chinese, Clips, English, Fun, Music, Sharing , , , , , , , , ,
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Experiment Awards’ Warm-up

June 23, 2009 — Leave a comment

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 –

Continue Reading…

In Chinese, English, Films, Fun, Japanese, Sharing, Spanish , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Which Student Are You?

June 23, 2009 — Leave a comment

Funniest post here.

From there, I’ve concluded I’m…
A dirty anime 1.0 student with strong geek and brown noser (?) tendencies. LOL
I also had one or two from the hip hop, metal, goth/emo, gamer, loner.

DIRTY STUDENT
– glasses or sunglasses depending upon what they smoked, drank or ate last night
– paint, food, and god know what else splattered all over ripped up jeans
– tragically hip retro t-shirt
– messenger bag: markers, old bag of potato chips, cds, crayon, broken watch
– designs but usually wrinkled, bent, spit on, folded

ANIME STUDENT
– Glasses, wai-wai!
– buttons with witty sayings about nothing in particular, gasp!
– chews on weird flavored asian gum simply coz it’s asian.
– backpack filled with art supplies, and with asian candies, yum!
– sketchbook with story ideas, whee!

STUDENT 1.0
– Up until 5am on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and various forums.
– External harddrive (full of illegaly downloaded movies)
– Always plugged into the internet.
– shoes have lasted 4 years

COMIC BOOK/GEEK STUDENT
– Knows everything about every movie.
– professional blue pencil is the only way to draw – anything else is foolishness
– full of supplies, various inking pens

BROWN NOSER STUDENT
– always has a smile and a hellow for everyone.
– always on time
– wears overalls

HIP HOP STUDENT
– Huge enormous headphones to block out teacher’s instruction.
– No watch to tell what time to come to class

METAL STUDENT
– Band T-shirt (black)
– Oversized droopy pants

I’m off to do this Meme – will post my doodle when I’m done.

In English, Fun
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Lucky Thirteen – Watch Over Me

Fan-made video! And new video posting testing!! LOL

First, a little about the video.

I began this… when this episode (Lucky Thirteen) aired back in Oct. 2008 – so it’s been sitting on my computer forever. I worked on it one weekend, and sort of left it there – until this weekend. I’ve begun working on another music video (on a less fan-made side) and thought I should at least finish this one.

I found Thirteen (I refuse to call her Dr. Hadley or Remy LOL) interesting from the beginning. It was a certain spark, and well… Olivia Wilde is pretty hot – which my friend Mob would be glad to agree on. And I also have to say that I’ve always found Foreman boring, so Foreteen makes me roll my eyes.

That aside… the song is by Hanson from The Walk, and it immediately brought images of Thirteen and her out-of-control behavior, so I just had to do it.

On a rant side… YouTube has removed already 2 of my fan-made videos, and I’m expecting them to remove the ones that are left, so I’m now forced to not use it. So please help out by linking back to this site =D

Posted on June 23, 2009 In English, Fun, Jobs, Music, Music Videos, Rants, Sharing, Television , , , , , ,
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First Look at Burton’s Alice

June 22, 2009 — Leave a comment

*passes out*
this just in (okay, maybe a few hrs. ago) via InsidetheGold

To just break off a little of all the Japanese films on the front page~~ xD

Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland - Red Queen

First, I must tell you. These are fantastic, and now I’m just dying to see it. Even more so than when I wrote my brief article on horrorific films~~~ Bonham Carter looks abso-bloody-lutely crazy  good on that with the big head… the eyebrows or lack thereof, the lips, the hair… and that look, man!

Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland - Mad Hatter

Tim Burton - Alice in Wonderland - White Queen

is it just me, or is Johnny looking very Elijah Wood right there??? LOL

In English, Films, Fun, Sharing, Stills , , , ,
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Japanese Cinema Blogathon 2009 – Day2

June 17, 2009 — 3 Comments

I just got really into Japanese film about a year ago (thank you, Internet) – a few of my friends are really into J-Pop and anime, but none of them are really interested in any J-films or directors. When I went abroad to study, I met a bunch of people who were into films (duh! it was film school, after all) and we went into films all the way.

One of my first memories  (maybe 2003?) of Japanese Cinema was Battle Royal. My! What an example, eh? I was blown away~~ I don’t have other memories of J-Film prior to that other than animated films like Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) and Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)… which brings me to my post of the day for the Blogathon~~~

The Top10 Japanese Films I Watch this Past Year

in the order in which I saw them from earliest to latest~
only between these past 365 days – some of my fave didn’t make it

  • Kiraware Matsuko no Issho (Memories of Matsuko)
    by Tetsuya Nakashima (loads of people with Miki Nakatani, and Eita)
  • Tekkonkinkreet
    by Michael Arias (voice of Yu Aoi)
  • Love Letter
    by Shunji Iwai
  • Cha no Aji (The Taste of Tea)
    by Katsuhito Ishii
  • Sasame-yuki (The Makioka Sisters)
    by Kon Ichikawa
  • Tenshi no Tamago (Angel’s Egg)
    by Mamoru Oshii – sooooo weird xD
  • Wool 100%
    by Mai Tominaga
  • Hyakuman-en to Nigamushi Onna (One Million Yen Girl)
    by Yuki Tanada (starring Yu Aoi)
  • Tsumiki no Ie (La Maison en Petits Cubes)
    by Kunio Kato *short film
  • Aruitemo, Aruitemo (Still Walking)
    by Hirokazu Kore-eda

Almost made it, xD

In English, Films, Fun, Japanese, Sharing , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Looks like it’s going to be a fun Portman Year

June 17, 2009 — 1 Comment

=D

First for the obvious… many of us still haven’t seen Eve and her New York, I Love You shorts (the one she directs, and the one she stars in – there’s also one with Shunji Iwai!!).

Then, there’s also Brothers with Tobey and Jakey G~~~ later this year (?), then there’ll be Important Artifacts and Personal Property From the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry – *phew* that was long… with Brad Pitt.

There’ll be Hesher with Joseph Gordon-Levitt by Spencer Susser~~~

There will also be Your Highness by Danny McBride (Superbad, Fanboys, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder) – and now add to that, the Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, The Wrestler).

You can all do a dance now.

In Celebrity, English, Films, Fun, Sharing , , , , , , ,
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Me in Numerology~

June 16, 2009 — 2 Comments

Someone I know did one of those silly FB test application things on numerology, which made me revisit mine. As you probably know, I did a bit of numerology back in my fandom years – which was pretty accurate, if I may say so~

Anyway, here is mine as a quick result ;)
with links after the break, so you can quickie check yours too~

Continue Reading…

In English, Fun, Jobs, Sharing , ,
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Japanese Cinema Blogathon 2009 – Day1

June 16, 2009 — 7 Comments

and a half~~~

I just read over NipponCinema that the Japanese Cinema Blogathon has started. (yesterday, really…)

What is the Japanese Cinema Blogathon?

Japanese Cinema Blogathon 2009

Someone over at Wildgrounds.com thought it’d be a cool idea to unite forces in order to promote Japanese Cinema. Write, share ideas… anything goes as long as it’s about Japanese Cinema. Check their list of on-going activities…

I’ll start off with something simple…

What I Like about Japanese Cinema

My history with Japanese Cinema isn’t as broad as other people’s. I don’t watch too many older classics, because they are harder to get~~ I mean, it’s just easier to get contemporary stuff. ;P but there are some really great films that I’ve been able to watch this past year.

1. They can be about nothing at all, yet hold so much meaning or be so entertaining.
I saw Kore-eda’s Aruitemo, Aruitemo (Still Walking) a couple of days ago. I think that’s perhaps my favorite Japanese film from last year *laughs* – besides from the fact that I really like Hiroshi Abe *laughs*. That film felt so right to me, from the moment we saw Ryo’s sister and mother discussing and trying to cook in the kitchen, to the very last scene of Ryo’s family walking. There was no big reveal of someone having another kid, or someone getting kidnapped or killed, someone having an affair – none of that. One of the things that just stands out was Ryo and his mom finally remembering the name of the Sumo wrestler… and always being late. Heartbreaking.

A similar thing I can tell you of Linda Linda Linda, which I saw and liked, but LOVED after repeated viewings. Nobuhiro Yamashita’s story of a group of girls trying to make it on time to play on the school festival. Nothing at all! But add to that Doona Bae as non-Japanese lead singer, and rock!!

2. They can be bizarrely good.
From high-on-drug-styled film Survive Style 5+, bike-riding rococo lolita adventures on Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls), Moulin Rouge!-meets-Amelie-meets-Sin City-esque dramedy musical Kiraware Matsuko no Issho (Memories of Matsuko) – or even high-school-hardcore-Survivor Battle Royale. They are not your typical film, they can only be Japanese. LOL

3. They don’t treat animation as if it’s only for kids.
Yes, Japanese Cinema is not only Anime – to the dismay of some of my friends – but they do a pretty darn good job animating films like Paprika, Tekkonkinkreet, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies. Since the day I discovered Hotaru no Haka 6 years ago, it’s become my favorite animated film to date. LOL

In English, Films, Fun, Graphics, Japanese, Reviews, Sharing , , , , , , , ,
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My Thirst for Chinese Music…

June 14, 2009 — Leave a comment

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

In Chinese, English, Fun, Music, Sharing , , , , , , , , ,
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