Category: Rants

  • Jean Paul Strauss – Vibra Peru – Mambo de Machaguay

    So… first of all, this was going to be just a Jean Paul Strauss post, but then… you know. I needed a bit of space to clear things up. I know I don’t particularly talk much about Peru in here (especially with my current obsession with Japanese and Asian) – Anyway, I heard this a couple of months ago… just half a tiny clip on television, so I couldn’t do much back then. Luckily, I decided to try my luck again, and surprise!

    Vibra Peru is the album by Peruvian Jean Paul Strauss fusing Peruvian rhythms,folk music and the whole shebang, the result I thought was pretty fun (one of those reasons I also enjoyed some of Gianmarco’s productions). But let me just show you instead of writing about it~~~

    [iframe width=”480″ height=”390″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/DrgytdP7xOE?rel=0″]

    Now, I’m pretty sure that’s track12 – Huaynos: (Matarina y Mambo de Machaguay). Why? Well, because I’ve heard Mambo de Machaguay before… I knew it when I was a kid because of a sing-along Libro Coquito book that had the music in one of the tracks (La Grua, if you were interested in it… I must have the goddamn tape somewhere). Then, I went all music discoverer, I recognized the tune on the Indian Carnival song by Yma Sumac (track 7) – I couldn’t really remember what the ‘tune’ is called… if Carnaval Arequipeno, or Cajamarquino… but it was a folk tune.

    So I ended up on Wikipedia Spanish, and found that it’s called “Mambo de Machaguay” – what it’s missing? Well, it mentions the version by Los Jaivas from ’76, but fails to mention the 1954 use by Yma Sumac, so I just wanted that out of the way since I’m not a Wikipedia editor/user/contributor…

    Here’s the version by Inca Son.

  • Learning to Speak and Write Properly to Work in Congress

    I was unsure on what to talk about before going to bed (I’m trying to post once a day, have you noticed? hahaha) – And I was between discussing this topic, and the news of Peru deciding to use the Japanese system of Digital TV [Eng Google Translate] (does that mean I could… somehow get WOWOW??), instead of the European one~~~

    Anyway!!! I decided to rant~

    [Original Spanish Article] Sorry, any English media DON’T CARE so you’ll have to do with a Google Translate.

    I think it’s amazing that an illiterate person who is over 25 years old and Peruvian is legible to work in congress. Baffles me! And I’m sure it baffles many others…

    I am in no way calling the congresswoman illiterate, because she reads and writes. Not AT the level that someone who supposedly legislates and works on writing and reviewing law should be, but writes nonetheless.

    As congresswoman Martha Hildebrant (a linguist, who could probably insult me and I wouldn’t understand) – Actually, I think I would feel honored to be insulted by her… kinda like Lainey dreaming of Gwyneth being a bitch towards her hahaha – Anyway, as Hildebrant points out~~ people (regular, other congressmen and the media) have completely distorted the article written by the newspaper. They did not mock Supa’s quechua ancestry (that’d be more like mocking us Chinese descendants saying things like “lico alo” when we speak perfectly well. thankyouverymuch. Assholes!) But they did point out that Supa’s Spanish is of the level of someone in primary school, hence the reference to the Coquito books (popular ABC books for children).

    And as Hildrebrant also points out in the pseudo-video (because it’s just an audio) is that all congressmen, as public figures, are exposed to being criticized in the labor they do.

    As one user states in a comment,

    I am a Peruvian from Puno, Quechua-speaker and southern, and I don’t feel remotely humiliated [referencing how the congresswoman feels], au contraire I feel pity for our representative being almost illiterate.

    I say this because she’s a congresswoman representing the state, and should be in the position of being criticized or interviewed, but when you’re illiterate – you can’t even do that. She’s fragile and helpless, she doesn’t waste time to play victim and that’s the nature of ignorance. There isn’t the capacity to reflect, they think that everyone is against them or discriminating against them.

    All talk on corruption, being honest, pure and holy – that’s simply poppycock.

    Why don’t we put virgins in congress already! Geez~~~

    Now, if you really wanna support literacy through all economic-social barriers, check out some about The Big Read project… maybe someday Peruvian’s will have a non-illiterate-congress.

  • Remember VH1’s Divas?

    Remember that VH1 segment where women sang? You know, that one show that gathered Gloria Stefan, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain… etc, etc~~ Sorry, I’m a little weak in the mind right now. xD

    Well, Divas’ is making a comeback~~

    Look, I get Divas~ I love talented women… Sophia Loren to me is a legend, whom we could call Diva, I guess~ How about calling the show Legends? LOL, Let’s face it! Divas is now synonym with bitch, hard to work with, and high maintenance.

    Anyway~~~ I have issues with VH1’s announcement. First, “Pop, R&B, and hip-hop” – Heck? How about country music? How about rock? Then, VH1 is also asking listeners to pitch in. Let’s face that too! That’s rubbish. *sighs* Why? Britney Spears and Lady Gaga are being suggested! What the…

    Who would you suggest? I dunno, howz about a duet by Joan Jett and Reba McEntire… or~~~ hmm… Regina Spektor with Pink? Woah, bizarre. I’d better quit thinking of duets. xD Just naming people~~ Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Alanis, Alison Krauss, Amanda Palmer, Adele, Emily Loizeau… Bjork? xD

    How about mixing music!?!?! Shiina Ringo!!! Or okay… Utada Hikaru… Faye Wong!!! Andrea Echeverri! Bibi Chow? Salyu!!!

    ZOMG! A duet between Marit Larsen and Regina Spektor? I’d die~~~

    Or one with Bjork and Salyu??? Alanis with Shiina? Amanda Palmer with Andrea Echeverri? Adele with Bibi Chow? Utada Hikaru with Christina? Faye Wong with… Loizeau?? Faye Wong with Bjork?? Utada with Keys? LOL

  • Record Store Day…

    was today~~~


    recordstoreday.com

    Damn. I must admit I haven’t stepped on a record store since… since… maybe perhaps 2006? I do most my shopping online now, mainly because Peru overprices too much, and takes to long to get stuff. For example, I wanted to buy the Surrounded Bjork collection, and the store here decided to split the collection per album and wanted around $30USD per album because they were all dual discs – so considering it had 7 discs at $30 each… they wanted me to pay $210 bucks instead of the $130 price tag it has on Amazon. And it’s not only the music… I have the same issue with books and dvds.

    Also… there weren’t any events in Peru anyway. There were, however, events in Canada, Sweden, Japan, and even Hong Kong. And I am still looking for the Asian-version of Pitchfork… any suggestions??

  • One day like today five years ago…

    I bought my own server and domain, and opened by first ‘proper’ blog. sighs~

    And damn it! I lost that domain because the stupid company I was using, didn’t automatically renewed my account, and they never sent me an email notification. Dumbasses!!!

    So I spent 1 month without knowing why my domain wasn’t working, and when they finally confirmed my thoughts it was too late~~~ someone had taken my domain and was trying to sell it to me at a higher price. Assholes!

    April 18th is siutou-amy.com remembrance day~~~ LOL

    siutou-amy.com website - April 18th 2004

    Emo-est website ever? True. But that site had pretty nifty content like faux-interviews~~~ I should do those again! LOL’ Had some phunny lists like “You know you’re Peruvian when…” or “I hate it when…” – there was music, a lot of fanart icons and wallpapers, and my favorite of all~~ there was a movie faux-database. It was actually all .html and nothing fancy, but I did take the time back then to write as many reviews as films I got to watch each week. Sometimes once or twice a week, sometimes I wrote more than four reviews~~

    Now I watch and listen to too much stuff to write individually… sighs.

    too the long-gone siutou-amy.com!!! *raises glass* Cheers!

  • Design and Politics – The Obama Era

    Despite whatever views I may have on Obama’s policy, decisions… or the lack of a firm position (and how much his ideas reminded me of the traditional Latin American candidates during their campaigns) – I do agree with many designers who point out how good his campaign is. The most throughly article I ever read (mind you, I read this a long time ago~~~ perhaps almost a year ago) was Expertinent: Why the Obama “Brand” Is Working – not only the thoughts and critic people involved in graphic design did, but also the comments on the article. Yes, there are a few bad-mouthing the article pointing out how they are not voting for Obama for his marketing, but there are a few others that are quite insightful too. Doing a quick search, you end up with articles such as The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo, which show the pretty awesome use of the Obama-branding… crazy I tell you. As well as NOTCOT’s Obama design post, Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign, and How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama.

    So we all agree. Now, moving on…

    So I’ve been Mood: Political for the past week, and I’ve been watching a lot of political shows (which I’m tired off, because I always end up grumpy and cursing interviewers to hell and back), but I’m S&M like that sometimes~

    Anyway!!! I got curious, went online and looked up websites of the main political parties here in Peru. APRA, Unidad Nacional, Partido Nacionalista Peruano and… is Peru Possible still relevant? Anyway, I did search for them. I’ll just let you look at my captures instead…

    Very 90’s… compared to Obama’s right? Lack of sophistication, graphical quality… but let’s even forget about apperances and focus on the content and its organization. These political Peruvian websites lack ANY information architecture, perhaps interface design needs… a lot of work?, and a total lack of interactive design. But my main problem with all of them is the amount of information, which obviously hasn’t been edited. So in short~~~ They lack structure, and they lack strong content. And don’t even mention the Unidad Nacional website which is just a placeholder saying it’s the website, it has a few links linking to .htm pages with NOTHING on them!

    SHAMEFUL.

    So now that we are in the Obama Era… the times of globalization, will the political parties take notice of this, and begin minding their design and content? Will good marketing finally matter here?

    I may have to agree with something I remember Simon Cowell said~~ that politics in America were great because they were very engaging. Something to that extent… I remember, but can’t find the quote. LOL’  But I remember! That was the reason I watch a lot of CNN, and the voting results with their graphics. There was so much design to be seen there! And I had wished that Peruvian politics took their job that serious and stepped it up with their marketing. *sighs* If only!

  • Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature Nominees – Part II

    For Part I of this post, click away~~

    Okay, today is not really early either… but this will have to do because I only have 3 years to go. In case you haven’t read the first part, or are lazy to read it now that I’ve given you the link… I got a little mad remembering films that should have won in years past~~ which include Tekkonkinkreet, and/or Paprika getting nominations in 2006 (or 2007, pick your release date issue).

    So just after the break, I will be talking about 2005, 2007 and 2008…

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  • Academy Awards: Best Animated Feature Nominees – Part I

    Most often than not, there’s a lack of foreign films in the Animated Feature (and in any other) field~ So how many times must we pass over great animation (not only for kids) to open our eyes? I started out with a qucik search for 2006 released animation (because I was discussing that year with a friend), but that didn’t do anything except make me skim through an article stating that “2006 was a great year for animation” – NOT! That there were 2 or 3 animated (3d CG) films each months totaling more than a dozen films of pretty much crappy quality… and if they were lucky they were worth a straight-to-dvd release is NOT a great year for animation. That just makes it a great year for movie business…

    2006 was the year I began hating 3d animation, because everyone seemed to be releasing their 3d films JUST to cash in.

    I ended up at the Academy Awards site to search all animated films nominated since the category began in 2001 with Shrek (the original not sequels) won. I also ended up on IMDb and their ‘Power Search’ tool to search for animated films with feature releases from the year.

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  • Demasiado Extranjero, Por Favor Cante en Inglés

    Esta es la traducción de inglés -> español del artículo que escribí para YAM 003 titulado “Too Foreign for your Own Good. Please Sing in English” en el que hablo de los más recientes lanzamientos de artistas de no habla inglesa estrenando material en el idioma para entrar en el mercado.

    Como el artículo es un poco largo, pueden leerlo después del break.

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  • Happy 3rd Anniversary, As If!

    BALLS. I suck at working anything new or worthy with this fanlisting, but I do try to keep up with members. But it’s 3 years since I opened it!! Only 150 members barely though…

    As If Fanlisting - 3rd Year

    Many or most As If websites are either inactive, or totally gone… HOWEVER! You can still find some activity in Facebook! First, the As If Appreciation Society (who by the way are using the banner I made for my fanlisting, without crediting… balls much?) And there is also… and this is VERY important~ There’s the As If/Et Alors/Asi Somos/Som Aixi on DVD FB group. Yes, you read right… it on DVD.

    If you are still interested on the ‘original’ set, you can still sign the petition (which I made) and has over 700 signatures – whoa~~ and where are these people and why aren’t they on the fanlisting? LOL’

    Things against the petition, and the whole As If on DVD idea~ copyright music on the show. The show had an uber cool soundtrack, and because of this it probably gets killed by copyright fees of use for the music on dvd format. Just to tell you an example… I wanted to use a Sony Music song in a project in film school once, and this is the info I got.

    STUDENT FILM MAKERS
    $200 administration fee payable to Sony Music
    Proof of school enrollment as well as proof of class credit
    A VHS copy of your film

    Depending on the particular recording and the scope of your project, we will determine your total cost.

    And that was only for a song use for a weekly assignment TOTALLY non-profit … LOL’ – Of course I didn’t use the track ;) – so imagine how much a profitable project would have to pay. They already pay for the use of music on broadcast, but they will also have to pay fees to have the right to include their already made episodes on dvd… and a +10 dvd copies has a different price range ;) at least in some websites like ‘freeplaymusic‘ which is not so FREE.

    So the As If DVD idea is kind of expensive to do, unless you want to swap the soundtrack on the whole series for other cheaper music (like The WB’s Popular did on their DVDs), but you don’t really want that with As If.

    Well, this turned into sort of a rant… anniversary rant, but I felt it was time to put these on a post, instead of just complaining on IMDb, and getting people who keep asking the same question. “Why isn’t this show on DVD already?” Because of copyright music… *sighs*

    In the meantime, do support the fans As If DVD project. To the lack of actual content, fans do what fans gotta do~~~ we must mess with the status quo, because the status is NOT quo. xD LOL’