Category: Music

  • The Beijing Blesses You Guessing Game

    Another four years, another Olympic ceremony [1].

    After the Mandarin-class-favorite song of Beijing Welcomes You [1], Jackie Chan — ever the eager kid in class — has managed to gather even more artists willing to lend their voices than for the Beijing Welcomes You song, which boasted an impressive number of music stars.

    No music video of Beijing Blesses You (北京祝福你) has been released… yet. But there are clips of the making of the MV [1] doing their rounds on YouTube and Sina Video, so we’re all up and guessing who’s singing which line in the massive 8min. song. It wasn’t enough for Jackie to get more names than the Olympic committee… no, he needed a song that’s even a bit longer.

    I think it’s pretty fact that Han Hong is at 1.11. The rest are up for grabs from the likes of Leehom, Chris Lee, Sa Dingding, and BiBi~ going through the voices of Li Bingbing and Fan Bingbing. So there you go. xD

    Video is here, if you’re interested. xD

  • The Nubeluz Throwback: Twenty Years Later

    YouTube had been conspiring against me showing me a series of videos of my childhood over the weekend, making me feel older than I should. One of these videos had to do with one of Nubeluz‘ host — aka. a Dalina — her name, Monica Santa Maria.

    Her tragic ending in a bizarre high profile case of suicide wasn’t really registered in my subconscious. Maybe I was too little to understand, but I don’t think I realized she killed herself well into my years. Watching the videos of the case, looking back at those times with my grown mind, all one can really infer is that she had a deep troubled mind… one way or the other, it was going to end up bad. It’s terribly ironic that she never did what she preached — to enjoy life, embrace it… whatever small beautiful things you may get because life was short.

    It’s such a sad thing to see.

    ANYWAY. I remember that Nubeluz was celebrating their 20 years — GOSH! — and I ran into this clip of Almendra Gomelsky and the whole cast of the show back together. EVERYONE came back, however big they became… actress Daniela Sarfati, actress Rossana Fernandez Maldonado, twin hosts Anabel and Antuanet Elias, host Maria Pia Copello, and etc. Phew.

    They sound atrocious, but it was damn fun. I don’t think Peru has ever developed as good a show as Nubeluz ever was. It has nothing to do with nostalgia. I don’t particularly think the show translated well into English, but I think they had a really good deal with the concept and songs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82p_YH-I5TA

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    Part of the Time Machine: Back to the 90′s Blogathon

  • From Hong Kong to the World: Chochukmo – Good Night

    I really REALLY REALLY am loving Chochukmo, and not because I interviewed them. I actually accepted to interview them because I really liked their first album, which you can listen to on Xiami or Bandcamp ;O

    Don’t forget to check out my interview with Mike Orange from the band.

  • The Girl in the Mirror… was her.

    I have a really special and complicated relationship with Britney Spears. Despite my moving on from fandom in the early millennium, I think… deep in my heart (I know it’s only you, xD) – deep in my heart there’s always going to be a soft spot for Britney. The one side of me that’s always going to get happy when something good happens to her, and the side of me that gets preoccupied when something bad happens.

    I think in terms of ‘true’ Britney fans — you can recognize them by how much they love her ballads. Because Britney is not necessarily famous for her powerful vocals, but her long-time fans love Britney and actually miss her ballads — I actually love I Will Be There with those lyrics of… “when you’re feeling low, baby, let me know… and I will be there.”

    Then there\s Girl in the Mirror — she must’ve sung that song when she was 19 or 20 years old… but there’s an unequivocal innocent… almost too naive character to the song. It’s the kind of inner drama that 15 year old girls used to listen to and have ultimately stopped.

    Despite of the technical qualities of this fan video, it’s a very VERY sad and emotional clip. Especially with its beginning with a very young Britney and showing all those clips. It just… it almost breaks my heart… as if I had forsaken her.

    Time will take us apart, but I will still love you. I promise.

  • Look at you, Chris Lee!

    Li Yuchun, you’re doing a world tour? I suspect you’re not including me… but, oh well. Your promo poster is flawless. I mean, nothing out of the design-ordinary, but you look like pure gloss.

    You know when BiBi had her make-over [1], I was flabbergasted? I don’t think it ever happened between you and me. I’ve been more interested in your film career than music, to be honest. You weren’t bad in Bodyguards and Assassins, and you definitely had your scenes in The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate. xD

  • Korean Goodies from the Vault

    I love saying that now, “From the vault.” xD

    Anyway, I’m sure you guys know this video. It’s a classic one. One from when you first started using YouTube. It’s that hilarious video of the two Korean girls dancing to Yoo Chae-yeong’s Emotion [MV] — this is what years and years of listening to Kpop and watching variety shows does to you. I think even Hyori has danced to this song on Family Outing.

    I can’t remember when I watched the video exactly, but it’s definitely one of the first videos I watched and re-watched laughing out loud with my friend before we began truly listening to Kpop.

  • Gianmarco – A Tiempo Lyrics Translation

    Hey, guys.

    I’m back on the Spanish song translating business. xD I hope someone find these translations helpful. I have a feeling that the lyrics on this album are going to be slightly more difficult to translate than the ones on Entre la Arena y la Luna. We’ll have to see about that~~~

    For other translations, just hit the translation tag ;O

    1. Se me Olvido
    2. Al Otro Lado de la Luna
    3. Su Encanto en Mi
    4. Te Mentiria
    5. Por Ti
    6. Lamento
    7. Simplemente Espiritual
    8. No Logro Entender
    9. Retrato
    10. Mujer
    11. Ave Maria
    12. Volvere
    13. Sentirme Vivo

    Here we go~
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  • Diego Torres’ Recuerda Lyric Translation

    Well, this one is an “oldie” alright.

    I remember in 1999, I was obsessed with this song — at least, it was one of the many songs I obsessed over in those years. It has nothing to do with the video, even though I probably taped the video a million times over on VHS. Hey! We didn’t have YouTube back then!

    The video is… very 90s Latin America. Floating face hovering on top of the movie — because Recuerda was the main theme song for an Argentinean movie called La Venganza. You would notice the use of Mistral in one of those scenes. It’s hilarious to watch the video now.

    The song is pretty simple in lyrics. Diego Torres is an apt vocalist and songwriter at times, but nothing too extraordinary, so his songs tend to be easier to translate. He’s got some pretty good singles, though.
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  • My Current 2012 Albums Heard

    I haven’t done one in a very long while, huh?

    Since the demise of the LivingSocial application on Facebook — TuneSocial — and my shift from downloads to streaming… it’s been hard to keep track of the music I listen to and rate. I tried Discogs.com, but I’m thinking of dropping it because they’re such an uptight community. Every time you add an album that doesn’t adhere to their guidelines of barcodes, catalog numbers, and milimetric genres, you get voted down.

    I don’t buy or sell anything there, and I find myself adding more than I’m actually just searching for… and still there’s people who vote me down and are bitchy about it, instead of helping out and finding the lacking info themselves.

    I rather keep my own database without hassle. I’ve added about 350 albums tonight… in the time it took me to add just a few albums at Discogs.

    These are the albums I’ve heard this year. There aren’t TOO MANY amazing ones yet, but there are a few very good singles that shall be contenders for the Top50 list this year~

    This year I’m doing better with my music than with my movies. LOL I’ve only seen like new movies this year, hahaha. If I don’t work harder on that, I’m not going to be able to pick my Best Movies this year.

    Light blue highlight only points out a “special edition” xD

  • Imogen Heap’s Album 4 and Asia

    When did this begin?

    [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1051864″ params=”color=ff0090&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=” 100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

    I wasn’t a very HUGE fan of Imogen Heap’s last album Ellipse, but she is still more interesting than 95% of people out there. I got really excited with the first track, Xizi She Knows, because it partly reminds me of my Yat Yi Sam song… but you know, in Mandarin xD

    That one and the Indian track one. xD

    The first five tracks of the album are pretty good, I wonder when the album will be up for purchase.