Archives For Life

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Of course I’ve managed to watched Haider already. Three times. Over the weekend. In a month, I see it topping my list of favorites this 2014. Anyway~ there is a wonderful wordy article on Tabu by Raja Sen — titled The Stunning Actress Who Dared to Age, Seduce Her Son— and Confound Bollywood — where he sings praises left and right of Tabu’s latest performance [which has, in fact, trumped all her performances], and talks about her most (critically and commercially successful) notable roles.

In other news, it’s unlikely Rajeev Masand will take off the geo-block on his YouTube account, but the Actress Roundtable [1] is available on the IBN website. It’s got some very good moments, despite the Me, Me, Me, It’s All About Me attitude certain someone displayed. I was amazed. I always expect it, but this is taking it to a whole new level. LOL

I guess I will be cheering for Mary Kom in this upcoming Rio 2016 Olympics.

mary-kom

Mavis Fan’s fans (no pun intended) rejoice! She’s got three songs out this year, making a comeback since 2009 with Immediately (當下, Dang Xia). Obviously, the East doesn’t give a flying fish about End of the Year lists or the Holiday season, that’s why they keep releasing stuff- business like usual. xD

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Sorry, US-based users. I was only able to find the songs on Xiami. I know, geoblocks suck. But, as far as I know, the songs aren’t available anywhere else -even on iTunes TW- because it seems like a Xiami exclusive release.

–EDIT JAN 20–

I wasn’t aware that Mavis had added this free download link on her website.

Crowd Lu’s back! Two years after his military service with Natural Is Best (天然的最好, Tian Ran de Zui Hao) as a Happy Chinese typical Crowd Lu type of music to say goodbye to 2014 and welcome 2015. It’s a digital single (so I suppose there’s no album… yet), but there was supposed to be a concert in Yangming Shan (陽明山).

Actually, Crowd had released Becoming a Man (大人中) [clip] back in March, which you can get on iTunes.

Anyway~ Happy holidays, everyone!

Farah Khan’s and Shahrukh Khan’s latest Happy New Year [Español] just hit the market officially with VOD… or as they’re calling it DTF (Direct to Fans), which is less technical and much more personal. It’s also way cheaper than regular VOD too, which usually charges $5USD per one-time stream or 4-5-day rental. You basically get to download the movie for that price. I’m just supposing it’s subtitled (being aimed at all markets except India and China), but I could be supposing erroneously [1].

happy-new-year-vod-dtf

No cons, just pros really. It would have been much cooler and much more trailblazing if this had happened on opening week (or the week later), but it’s something. I’m just hoping UTV (EROSNOW had its one moment with the pretty horrible Lekar Hum Deewana Dil) gets their shit together with the distribution of films like Haider and PK, really because those two are my bias at the moment. Imagine if more European and other big Asian movies did the same. Isn’t THAT what they want? Piece of the Hollywood pie? You need to indoctrinate people first, get them on the habit of watching you. Hollywood’s been doing this to us for the past 70 years.

Here’s the link.

Joe Cocker was one of my dad’s favorite musicians, so I guess he’s now enjoying the music wherever they may be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRzKUVjHkGk

Ooh, Tamil Looks Intimidating

December 22, 2014 — 4 Comments

I was watching Madharasapattinam last night, and I said to myself “let’s see about that Tamil.” If Amy Jackson could try, so could this Amy, amirite? However, I’m not gonna lie to you- Tamil intimidated me from the get-go. There’s something about those long *VERY LONG) words and all those Rs, Ps, Ks that just made my tongue a mess. But at least I can sorta tell the Tamil alphabet apart, which isn’t the case with Telugu and Malayalam. You have to admit it MUST look really foreigner to outsiders~

tamil-alphabet

I sorta can guess how it works, but I need a place/link where they teach you how to write the alphabet in order. For example, how do you begin writing the symbol for Ai (ஐ)- is it in one stroke? Do I do it like a toppled over 3 with an inverted one, or does it start more like an incomplete heart. Is A (அ) more like two strokes? And what about Aa (ஆ). And the I (இ) looks suuuuuper complicated. Is that on one go?

If anyone stumbling on this post knows Tamil, please, give me some pointers ;) I, at least, would love to pick some up.

A double feature with Lukas Moodysson’s Vi Är Bäst! (We Are the Best!) and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda. Because~ Why not? RIGHT?

vi-ar-bast-we-are-the-best

When visiting IMDb, you’re reminded that Jennifer Beals is turning 51. 51! The last time I saw her on TV was in her small role in Castle (which my mother loves), and I have to admit that I hadn’t follow through any of the actresses post-The L Word. And to be honest, I was much too preoccupied with Shane and her love life to care much for Bette.

But alas~ TCM Latin America has been running Flashdance quite a bit, on top of the numerous references to the movie this year (eg. Cuban Fury, Happy New Year), so I clicked on Beals name wondering what she’s been up to, and was eventually directed to this video of the Flashdance screening celebrating 30 years of the movie. I was shocked, she looked freaking amazing. Like- I’m even jealous of how good she looks in there. She even looks better on that clip than this photo from the event~

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Most people need expensive lights to be well-lit and make you look like a million bucks. Jennifer Beals looks like ten million bucks in that poorly-lit shot for the fansite. I also wasn’t aware that she and my bias Olivia Thirlby had made a movie together. Now I have to find it.

 

I’m the crazy lady of Best Of lists~ so here’s another one.

amys-top50-songs-of-2014

Do your thing~

But if you’re lazy, I’ve set up (almost) complete playlists on Xiami and YouTube.