Category: Sharing

  • La Bailarina de Izu (The Dancing Girl of Izu) by Yasunari Kawabata

    la-bailarina-de-izu-kawabata

    Also known as Izu no Odoriko, or The Izu Dancer is the first published work (1926) to achieve popularity and acclaimed by Yasunari Kawabata. The book, very much like Kyoto, is about nothing at all… in fact, this is just a compilation of stories put together.

    The first one, which gives the name to the book is one of the few interesting ones, as well as Diario de mi Decimosexto Año that tells some of the moments of Kawabata’s dying grandfather. Some other stories I liked were La Princesa del Palacio Dragón, El Camino de Monedas, and Una Oración en Lengua Materna.

    Despite that, the just over 200-page book seemed to be a very long and slow book, compared to the reading time it took me to finish Kyoto. If you are a fan of Yasunari Kawabata’s writing about a time and a place and the people, you might enjoy this compilation of stories. If you’re looking for an introduction to him, or an epic tale about Japan… you might want to skip this one.

  • Bibifying One Person at a Time

    Half a year ago… I did my fair share of RASUTO FURENZing people, now it’s time to Bibify people! As a gift, I gave my friend NOW & WOW for her birthday… last I checked on the Bibi Facebook group, she’s been Bibified. And I have not only Bibified her… she’s only my latest Bibifying…

    I have also Bibified my dad (he says Bibi is my ringtone on his cell), my two older cousins are also Bibified as well… are you ready to be Bibified?

  • Dango San Kyou Dai

    When I watched Memories of Matsuko, there was one scene when Matsuko’s life was already going to the gutters, she was lying on the garbage bags, and she was watching TV. I immediately recognized the song as an Okaasan to Issho song… today I decided to look for it, and found it!

    Okaasan to Issho 1999 song, at first I thought it was a Takoyaki Mambo song, but I was lucky enough to find it on a website listing all the songs. Video and Romaji after the break!
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  • The L Word – S6 – Last Season Promo

    Let’s try some Sling.com embedding…

    As some of you know, The L Word is making its final showing this coming January (woo! exciting!) – Promo looks good, as in it looks pretty. Not sure about the “killer’s look” – I wonder… will they give me Sholly? I saw the poster, and Shane was licking Jenny… are they trying to throw me an anvil? ARGH, I hate anvils… they bring bad memories to my shipping heart.
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  • Preview Britney’s Circus on IMEEM

    Yay for no “this content is not available in your country” messages. Britney and IMEEM team up and have released Circus for preview one week ahead of it’s official release on December 2. I was actually kinda worried that I might not be able to listen to it (like I can’t see some official video releases on YouTube), but thank you IMEEM for letting me sample.

    — EDIT 2012 —

    IMEEM doesn’t exist any longer, so here’s a photo of Britney!

    —

    Don’t have an opinion yet… I’m on track two. Anyway, you too… listen to this.

  • Please, Sample some Bibi Chow

    I know some *coughjulyssacough* tried to sample some Bibi Chow [aka. Zhou Bichang] but couldn’t. I just found out… you can sample all of Bibi’s music (sans download, I think) on her website. But ALAS! If you google Bibi Chow you won’t find her website… so I will make it easy. Bibi’s website is BibiSky.com – call me CRUISE, but I thought that was kinda NOT obvious… but oh well, okay.

    It’s Flash-based, so can’t give you a direct URL to the music, but follow  this:

    1. enter BibiSky.com and wait for it to load.
    2. on the green menu [commonly known as the main navigation], click the first option
    3. you are on bibi’s desk now. there are 4 items on the sub-navigation.
    4. click on the 3rd item of the sub-navigation. this item will open the stereo on bibi’s desk.
    5. the stereo has its own navigation to go through bibi’s music [misc., EP, NOW/WOW + other stuff, and Who Touch my Violin String]
    6. listen away…

    Enjoy,

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  • AMA ’08 – Did You Watch?

    Because I didn’t. I don’t watch awards for music (anymore) other than Grammy, and MTV… and I am doubtful I consider MTV any worth now. However, I read enough headlines on the past American Music Awards to make me curious… so did you watch? I saw 6 clips of the performances…

    • Christina Aguilera
    • Taylor Swift
    • New Kids on the Block
    • Jonas Brothers
    • Sarah McLachlan & Pink
    • Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah & Kathleen Battle

    I do like Christina Aguilera, in fact, I love Back to Basics as an album. I don’t think her “greatest” hits was either great (like the writer for Entertainment Weekly) or sucked (like Lainey said) – It was neither here nor there… though the performance of each song was ok, the medley was disaster. O.o

    Another medley disaster was New Kids on the Block. LOL – and I do sing along to Steps by Steps or the Right Stuff, so I’m not a hater. I like Jordan Knight solo stuff, as well as Joey McIntyre… but new NKotB smells like middle age crisis. They are still trying to sell it to teens, while telling us NKotB has matured. Doesn’t reflect on the music…

    LOL, don’t even get me started on the Jonas Brothers. This is the second live performance I see of them and I’m still unimpressed.

    Sarah McLachlan and Pink was good, as was Alicia Keys, Queen Latifah and Kathleen Battle, though I felt that Kathleen Battle didn’t mix well with the whole feel and number, even if she has a voice.

    Taylor Swift, however, I was actually kind of impressed. I haven’t had the chance to hear or review Taylor’s sophmore album, just her debut which I thought was kind of decent. Then I heard her speak in an interview and lost the little respect I could get from hearing her music, but this is the first time I see her performing… I was sort of reminded of Faith Hill. *blasphemy!!* xD

    White Horse is a pop country-ish ballad that faintly reminded me of Faith Hill’s Fireflies… talking about fairytales and real life, I still need to give a listen to both songs back to back to really know what I’m talking about, but Swift reminded me of Faith Hill in that AMA performance. OJO! Just faintly reminds me… Faith Hill has a voice so powerful… Swift’s voice still needs maturing, she sounds more like a chill studio Avril Lavigne at the moment, but if she goes the right way, I can imagine her in 15 years with a really powerful voice… and better stage presence… you gotta admit she looked a little bit nervous standing there…

  • As If Once Again!

    I just found out that Canal I-Sat is showing As If. *goes mad* – I am losing it, ha! Watching Buffy… now As If, it takes me back. If you are a fan (join here), and get the channel… and you didn’t know they were showing it, go watch it!

    All of these are on -5 GMT
    Monday to Friday
    4.30am, 10.30am, 3.30pm

    Though, still haven’t confirmed it’s a regular thing. Those times are for this week…

    If you knew… why didn’t people tell me about it??

    I still wish this was on DVD… would so buy. So… would you sign the petition?

  • Yu Aoi Film Discussion – Nanako to Nanao – TV Movie

    I was gonna apologize for not getting the time to write a new review, luckily I found that this reviewed followed next. Yay! xD

    Nanako to Nanao – Ane to Otouto ni Nareru Hi

    I have no idea where to put this since it’s not a film, but it’s also not a series. Sure it is, for some reason, labeled as a TV show or series… but no. It’s a TV movie, people. What is the difference between a film/movie and a TV movie, you say? Well, first it’s medium… then it’s budget and resources. In the end, you can almost always tell the difference between one and the other.

    What’s this TV movie about?
    Well… let’s see~ It’s a 2004 NHK Made-for-TV-Film about a high school girl named Nanako (Yu Aoi), who is often labeled as weird and anti-social due to trust issues with people caused by the betrayal she feels her dad committed. Seven years after his death, Nanako is thrown into the unusual situation to cohabit with her half-brother, Nanao (Yuri Chinen).

    Genre: Drama… kinda cute, but drama.
    Starring: Yu Aoi, Yuri Chinen
    Duration: 1:15hr

    Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

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  • Please, scanlate Osen!!

    Over this past weekend, I decided to look for the Osen manga again… I had tried times before, but ended up in nothing. However, this past weekend… THIS PAST WEEKEND! I found a group that are scanlating Osen!

    Thank you Kotonoha!

    Osen is a 12 volume (and ongoing) manga series, which gave way to Yu Aoi’s Osen NTV adaptation this year. And I liked the series, so I wanted to read the manga… Kotonoha has only uploaded the first two chapters of the first volume, but I am already liking it. MangaOsen is different to JDramaOsen… at first I had an issue with how skanky MangaOsen looked on the cover, but she already has me after the 2nd chapter xD

    So I am hoping they continue releasing scanlations for this one, because I wanna continue reading.