Archives For Rants

Say what?

I’m really pissed right now.

The Annie Awards (that’s the best animation awards) just announced their nominees, included for Best Animated Feature are, of course:

  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
  • Coraline
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox
  • The Princess and the Frog
  • The Secret of Kells
  • Up

Yup. That’s it. Say WHAT? Where’s Mary and Max?

You mean to tell me that THE best animated film of the year doesn’t get recognition from its own medium? Yeah, whatever. These are the awards that declared Kung Fu Panda better than WALL-E, so maybe we should be talking about actual technical animation than actual film.

The whole list of nominees is here.

I received a notification on my email that Amazon was going to begin selling The Best of Rocko’s Modern Life: Volume 3 this week. First of all, I wasn’t aware that Volume 1 and Volume 2 were on the market. Then I read properly. It’s not an official release! It’s on DVD-R, so they won’t play on many DVD players. And they’re edited! And you gotta pay over $20USD for those volumes.

So that’s about $60 for just three volumes.
The Best of Rocko’s Modern Life – Volume 1
The Best of Rocko’s Modern Life – Volume 2
The Best of Rocko’s Modern Life Volume 3 (2 Disc set)

Now, is that fair? As a consumer, and as a fan of the show?

No, I don’t think so.

So this is a link to the complete 4 seasons of Rocko’s Modern Life.

I get it, social media is hot right now.

I’ve seen it working… sometimes, but I’ve also seen it rendered pretty useless.

I know the importance of Social Media for up and coming stars, and I’m all for them having Twitter accounts, Facebook Groups, MySpace accounts, etc. Even if I think creating your OWN Facebook Fan Page is a bit lame. I mean it. It’s called a fan page for something. It’s meant to be handle by fans, not you.

It’s like creating your own Fan Site. I really like it when stars work with their fans on their fansites, but don’t open a website and call it a Fansite. Call it Star Name Official, but not a Fansite. Just saying.

I understand the importance of Social Media and the rise of some people, especially independent artists. I actually think it works great. But I don’t suggest all my clients getting Social Media accounts, especially if these clients are already well established people and pride themselves for their traditional values and their quality.

Off-topic example, Bjork’s a great performer. She’s a visually stunning artists, and she’s well respected. She’s got a very useful website with great info and media material from photos, videos, tour info, etc. Perfect website, but her Twitter is pretty… not… useful. Her MySpace is okay-ish… and her YouTube account should be useful (even if YouTube deletes some of the stuff, WTF right?), but her Twitter is kind of a waste. Probably just because her label requires her to get a Twitter account.

Bjork doesn’t need to talk to us about her project, I think she just wants to live her life normally without people fawning over her whenever they see her, so she doesn’t need to have # of Followers trying to send her tweets about what she had for dinner, or telling her how ROCKING she is.

On the other hand there’s Tom Cruise. He’s got more than 100k Following him, but it’s only the webmaster talking. Again, why? Because Tom Cruise doesn’t really need a Twitter account, but he wants to be hip (he’s management requires him now?) so he gets his official Tom Cruise Twitter account.

So yes, Social Media is okay, but not everyone needs to get into it.

It’s hard when all clients go to you telling you “I need to get into Facebook/Twitter” and when you ask, “Sure, what do you plan to make with it?” They only tell you “I don’t care. I just need to get into it.” Please, don’t make me waste my time. If you’re going to do this, you’d better do it right. You hire a Social Media team, and you get them to work it. I ain’t gonna be handling those for free.

I have already talked about this whole Social Media with Julz when she went to Japan, and I told her how I would use a Twitter account, but I don’t feel like I need an account now. Many of my friends do, but most of them just have it laying around there. Funny thing is, all of them are designers.

btw, I do love Fictitious characters tweets. LOL
As long as they are funny. I still wanna work on that Twittermovie.
Anyone would be interested? I’ve got too many projects lying around.
And I need cash. <- this is a plea for Ad revenues.

AMA’09 – Again, Did You?

November 22, 2009 — 2 Comments

The American Music Awards — it’s still on, though I’m guessing there’s about 20min left. Taylor Swift is such a sweety. As for performances, were you impressed? Because I wasn’t that entertained.

I did like Lady Gaga’s performance though, I don’t really go crazy about her music — album-wise — but her performances have been pretty cool. And her performance, alongside Whitney Houston and… yeah, even a little bit J.Lo were the best of the night, in my opinion.

Gaga’s stage performance, alongside the energy of the song, the lights, the theatrics, the glass-breaking, the piano-playing and the bottle-breaking, I thought it was interesting.

J.Lo’s performance — was that a comeback? — of her song Louboutins, it was kinda interesting (songs average, though). I liked the entrance to the boxing ring, and the choreography was pretty good. Note how her feet moved, instead of just jiggling her stuff. Jiggling your ham is not dancing, people. Feet gotta be moved.

And Whitney. Oh, my. I do love a good comeback. What a voice. The song on the album was okay, but the performance brought it to that level. Loads of feeling, I miss that feeling. And those shots with the backlights, they made Whitney look pretty rocking.

And LOL, Adam Lambert. Never seen him perform, but Maca always fuzzed about him. His performance was pretty good. He looked a little bit weird, but there were other parts that were pretty good. There was a lot of touching, including some pretending c*cksucking from a guy and a woman. And a bit of guy-on-guy action — right? coz the keyboards was a dude, right? We don’t see enough of that. They seriously cut from a close-up to a general shot when that happened.

Other performances of the night? Janet Jackson — who was pretty okay, I guess — Black Eyed Peas, Carrie Underwood, Shakira, Rihanna, Keith Urban, Mary j. Blige, Alicia Keys solo and with Jay-Z, Eminem with 50 Cent… and Timbaland’s performance which was okay, but truly can’t stand the way he sounds any longer. He’s overdone it.

Winners don’t really matter. No, really. I mean it.

But congrats to Taylor Swift who won big, including Artist of the Year.

— EDIT —

LOL, honestly. There’s a lot of talk about Adam Lambert. I knew it. The average American Idol viewer couldn’t take that performance. A lot of self-proclaimed Lambert fans who will not be buying the album tomorrow because of the crotch on the face, the S&M stuff, and the guy-on-guy kiss. Get over yourself, people. Female performers do it all the time, and no one says anything about it. If it had been a girl doing all the crotch grabbing, and there had been a girl on girl kiss no one would have made a peep.

Bunch of Mo’phobes.

8 Ways to Kill an Idea

November 22, 2009 — Leave a comment

I feel you.

Kill an Idea by Scott Campbell

More images, and bigger over at TrendsNow[fr].

I was looking into this for a few days, and I was thinking of giving priority to Sharing but since half my traffic uses freaking Internet Explorer, I have decided to give priority to my Google Adsense. Why are you guys still using Internet Explorer?

There is a new issue between the new WordPress version, the Share Button plugin and Google Adsense that makes Google Adsense NOT appear on Internet Explorer (version 8, I believe), which cuts seriously on my ad clickings. The WordPress forum post says it’s a “resolved” issue, but deactivating the plugin is hardly resolving the issue.

Anyway, so there will be no easy sharing until someone fixes that plugin, or someone suggests a better plugin to me. Which one will be faster?

Woah, those crazy fans~

November 15, 2009 — 3 Comments

I just sorta had a surreal experience while shooting a gig last night. After the 50min. gig, I was waiting coz I had lost my dad in the audience — hahaha, he’s like my bodyguard. You know, tiny girl + big camera is not a good combo at nighttime. Anyway, the band finished playing and were getting their gear packed when girls starting gathering around the entrance. Then the screaming started, like ear-splitting screams… they sounded three times the number they actually were. In the end, the band and the rest of us went the other way, from a side exit.

Once we got out of there, and security closed the fences, chicks had followed us there and kept on screaming against the fence. I was just startled, and it was kinda funny. So we ended up on the building where they were hanging out before the gig, and went up 3 floors. They chilled a bit there, when bam! Fans were downstairs waiting for them to show up on the balcony. Honest to blog, there weren’t that many, but they sounded like a hundred. LOL

The band began throwing signed stuff liked print-outs, and other paper. And I threatened to throw some tempura because honestly I was kind of starving, so I camouflaged my pass and my gear and quietly left to get my dad, and also get something to eat. I didn’t eat much either. Too many people~~~

I was having a discussion about 2012 (the year, not the film) yesterday, and I kept telling them that I have been expecting the end of the world ever since 1999. It’s been 10 years already. Moreover, my mom always tells me she’s been hearing this “end of the world” stuff — as she calls it — since she was a kid. LOL So that’s just too many years. xD

I just got back from the theater, after the studio stuffed me with free popcorn and soda. Are they trying to distract me? I remember watching The Day After Tomorrow (also directed by End of the World fan Emmerich) at the theater with my friends, and feeling super cold after the show. After 2012, however, I just felt okay. Maybe I wanted a bathroom, since the movie is kinda long and the free soda didn’t help.

Continue Reading…

Glee Dubbing Nightmare!

November 11, 2009 — 4 Comments

*le gasp*

Yes, you are reading me right. Glee just began showing on Fox Latin America, and to my surprise~~~ I was surfing channels this evening, and *le gasp* again — Rachel was talking in Spanish.

If I’m reading correctly, Fox Latin America is showing the subtitled episodes on Thursday nights (going up against House M.D. on Universal channel) and a repeat the next day with dub. DUB! How can you show a series like Glee DUBBED!

First, you know I hate dubbings.

But then you take a show like Glee, which is funny because of all the dialog they throw in… and you DUB it? I mean, REALLY? I even had my apprehension towards the subtitles, and now you tell me people are dubbing it? Look, I get it. Glee has cute musical numbers, some Disney people might think that’s entertaining, but what’s truly great is Sue being all harsh and mean, and the whole absurdity of it all. I mean, really!? Pregnant through jacuzzi??? xD

Glee - 1x04 - Yes, We Cane!

Plus, you canNOT dubbed Jane Lynch’s perfect mean delivery. How can you dub…

I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat. And then on some dark cold night, I’ll steal away into your home and punch you in the face.

it’s all about delivery. cannot be done.

I haven’t used a cellphone since someone stole mine nearly 3 years ago, but I’ve seen it moving towards it. I mean, I still think it’s gonna be tricky watching the show on my phone while making sure no one is following me to mug me.

Stories on forums that became premises for films, blogs that became books, etc. After all, everyone’s got something to say. Then came the days when Marketing caught up with technology, and we began with viral videos. We love viral videos, you’ve probably received thousands of emails from different people all sending you the same goddamn video.

Then there’s Mobile Phone Dramas. Sort of a hybrid between a series and commercials.. or other PR material, maybe a mix between short films and commercials that end up becoming a movie… like the Kit Kat short films by Shunji Iwai starring Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki that became the film Hana & Alice. And so came Shunji Iwai again, this time with LISMO Channel and their nine 5-minute episodes titled Koibana ~ SUIKA to Bansoukou ~ (恋ばな ~スイカと絆創膏~) directed by Kodomo no Kodomo director Koji Hagiuda.

Iwai, who is producing, has mentioned the high quality of this drama, and seems to be interested in turning this idea into a feature film. In reality, anyone can say whatever they want to say, but if anyone can make a Phone Drama and turn it into a film is Iwai. I mean, after turning Kit Kat into Hana & Alice, I believe anything can be possible.

But how far have we gone… 45 minutes of Koibana may turn into a feature film, short stories become nearly-three-hour films… Facebook becomes a movie, episode recaps as if they were on Facebook. What’s next? Twitter movies? After all, there are Twitter accounts for television characters already. Yes, definitely… a Twitter movie in the future. Anyone wants to discuss a story idea?

There’s already people on LiveJournal doing roleplay (though with real people), we can make one work, right? Anyone want to pitch in? It’s casting time! LOL Just gathering people who have the time to pretend they’re a character, and see where we go. xD

While Asia is taking product placement and marketing to a whole new level, here… they try to shove ads and other silly commercials on printed media. And more commercial time. And more clicking banners.

Also, I might need to add a new category besides Television. xD