Alright~ Bibi taking on My Heart Will Go On kinda took me by surprise — have no idea who’s on the guitar — but I like the arrangement they did to the song kinda straying from the actual song, because very few can give Celine Dion a fresh spin.
Bibi oversang a bit, coz I have the inkling that she was trying to cover up for something~~~
DUDE, his English. I don’t mind that you mispronounce one or two words, but all the lyrics sound like gibberish. It’s completely distracting, and a pity that had to turn out this way because it’s a really refreshing arrangement.
I don’t know what is it about Hayato Ichihara (or Christopher Gorham) that I find so irresistible. Must be the kind of boyish charm, huh? I suddenly ran into Hayato Ichihara on NHK (so lucky I changed the channel!) where he talked about his new NHK project, A Tree in the Sun (陽だまりの樹) — adaptation of an Osamu Tezuka manga, and the interviewers asked him about All About Lily Chou Chou, for its recent 10th anniversary.
I don’t remember seeing him in the anniversary pictures [1], but I’m so glad they asked him about it because Yu-chan got a mention by name as well as a very long clip. Natsukashii na~~~
Anyway, I didn’t get much about the interview (of course!), except that he likes tako nigiri sushi (octopus). LOL — Also, Hiroki Narimiya stars in the new show, and he’s another one of my weaknesses~ I find Narimiya attractive when I see him acting on screen (crazy and all), though, not on photos.
You all know that I like Brown Eyed Girls. I actually spent a huge chunk of my trip to Taiwan listening to Brown Eyed Girls’ albums (especially the first two), and then I realized something. I LOVE JeA, like… so much.
But I have a confession to make~ I didn’t really “get” her at first. To be honest, I was way too distracted by GaIn to notice anything, but as time has passed by… I finally get it. JeA, you’re amazing just the way you are. I’m sorry I took you for granted when I first started listening, but now I have a deep-seeded respect for you (as a person) and your talent. Your voice is beautiful, layered with feelings and experience that just flows towards your audience. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
When I was in Taiwan… in one of those nights I used to watch the news, I remember watching one note where they were talking (or, I guess… complaining) about how some “people” of the communist party where loaded with money, so MUCH money that women were able to showcase their Marc Jacob bags (priced at $20k USD apparently). The guilty parties? Gong Li and Song Zuying.
Bitch, please. Those two can afford their own Marc Jacob purses. They’re divas. They may be part of the party… because — come on, who DOESN’T belong to the party? You gotta be part of it to be a working actor or musician.
And if those two don’t buy their own purses, they get them as gifts. That’s how life is for this kind of people. No need to make it news-worthy complaining about the loaded communists. LOL
ANYWAY. I “met” Song Zuying when she performed at the Beijing Olympics (like ALL the other artists I met in that event — 谢谢，北京~). She sang with Placido Domingo and I totally heard her name, thinking she was Korean — come on, it totally sounds Korean when you sound it out~ xD Afterwards, I’ve seen her in several CCTV events and eventually got accustomed to her voice. She’s one of those people you just gotta WATCH when she performs live.
One of my favorite songs of hers is Love my China (爱我中华) — which some translate as (I’m looking at you CCTV) Our Love for China or I Love China — don’t be fooled. It’s Love my China and it’s about the 56 ethnicities in China and how they all sing their love for the country. It’s a VERY patriotic song, like… too much. But it’s so freaking catchy. Specially in the CCTV broadcast where I first heard it.
Her performance is the quality of Madonna LOL — it’s a big performance, almost unlimited budget coz it’s for the party… and Song Zuying may lack the sex quality Madonna has (because, COME ONE~), but she totally has that air of a magnificent diva. You may not like her political option, but my gosh~ she’s fantastically classy.
She even does it with regular versions of the song with a western chorus and a western audience [1]. Her voice has a magnificent quality once you get accustomed to its tone. However, I like her the best when she goes full-on Chinese with me. LOL Like in this crazy big performance of Good Days (好日子) [1] she did for the 60th anniversary of China. It’s incredibly… sentiment rousing. Them Chinese patriotic songs are good. LOL
Too much walking in the heat. I should relax watching tv, but Taiwanese tv is amazingly bad. All I do when it’s the time is watch Korean variety programs and music shows… even when they’re the same I watched the prior night. LOL
I wanted to add one more panel, but I thought it would be too spoilerific of the episode. I really really REALLY hope and wish someone subs Shokuzai because it’s only five episodes, and buzz seems to label it as “the drama” of the season because of the amount of talent involved [1].
See, this would be a mega-talent post if NHK would only let me embed Shiina Ringo’s performance at the latest Kouhaku, but no~~~ they gotta make things difficult.
Anyway, I think I may have died a little and gone to heaven. One of my wishes from last year may be coming true or something. Faye Wong singing new material — for New Year nonetheless — it’s like the creative muses got together and made Shiina Ringo and Faye Wong perform so close to one another, some babies may have been born with no talent at all because the concentration of it might be too much. LOL
as per usual with Faye Wong stuff, I have no idea what this song may be call except for Yuan (愿) which can mean “desire, wish, hope, willing, ready” — take your pick. You can listen to the studio version here.
The live version is… off, apparently Faye — diva and all – recognized she messed up a bit. I’m really blaming her time off stage, but it doesn’t matter… I can just LOOT AT HER. THAT STAGE. That stage is stunning beyond words. I can salivate looking at that stage and love that I can see it in high definition… there are just no proper words to describe it.
Most importantly~ did you catch adorable Mana-chan performing? If you didn’t, the Maru Maru Mori Mori performance blended with the Arashi/Disney performance and anything with Disney is full of win for me. I found you this link on Nate.com of the Disney performance.
Mana-chan also had the most graceful fall on stage, that I swear it’s going to last all year and be name Most Graceful On-Stage Fall of 2012~~~ which wasn’t even 2012, but just for the sake of upload times, it was.
Oh, I guess I gotta watch NHK all day to get fed all their upcoming series — at least for January. We all knew that Kenichi Matsuyama would be doing this year’s Taiga (Time really does fly!), but who knew Hikari Mitsushima (Love Exposure [1], Sawako Decides, Villain) is ending up on NHK?
The Pioneers, which is wayyyy easier to type than Kaitakushatachi (開拓者たち), showed a small clip while I was watching and seemed pretty good. According to Tokyograph:
A special “documentary drama” mini-series to commemorate the launch of its BS Premium channel and the 40th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Japan and China. […]
The story is set in the region formerly known as Manchuria and is based on the groups trying to resettle there in the years after the Manchurian Incident. The central characters are a family of four siblings who live there, but who are forced to flee due to the Soviet invasion of the region and Japan’s defeat in World War II. As a result, they return to Japan and attempt to forge a new life on a farm in the Tochigi prefecture.
The clip looked really good. We all know Hikari Mitsushima is a pretty good actress and this seems to be one of those projects. But as anything Japanese, no clips online to embed so I stole these: (more…)
Kenichi Matsuyama looks so grown-up now… promoting his upcoming NHK Taiga, Taira no Kiyomori — all I know about Kiyomori I learned in Yoshitsune [1] haha. Anyway, as you know I was pretty pumped [1][2][3] for Gou and I defended Juri through it all [1], but I knew Gou’s fault.
Anyway, I’m pretty pumped for Taira no Kiyomori, and this promo for it with a manly Kenichi Matsuyama is kinda… really inspiring haha. I kinda really love that photo.
