Archives For Music

You know I’m a sucker for traditional music fused with modern music, so it wasn’t a surprise that I’ve gone pretty nuts about the Yoshida Brothers thanks to this post.

Though I am unsure on how their discography works (Japanese releases and International releases), since I don’t know if all of the albums contain different songs, or if some of the releases are just compilation of others.

Anyway, Rising blew me away.

as did KODO (literally meaning palpitation)

https://youtu.be/Ron17xFNBf0

but not only do they do this, they also do fusion with blues, latin music, and even celtic!

Hmm… wouldn’t it be GUERRILLA? Just saying.

Julz has decided to send me anything regarding Hyori (or Bi), and well… can’t really complain, can I? But to be honest, this Guerilla Date show scares the crap out of me. Fans in hordes scare me.

Having said that, Hyori is such a good idol. She is SO charismatic, and she’s not scared of making fun of herself — maybe that comes from hanging out so much with Jaesuk. OJO! I didn’t say she’s a great artist or performer, I said idol. She’s got so much personality, and you can’t help but keep looking.

Hyori cracked me up with talks about comparisons with Beyonce and Lady Gaga… blond wigs, and smiling with her gums. Don’t worry, unnie. Your smiling face is the best ;P

Continue Reading…

I totally spit everything on my desk, when my friend sent this over.

Of course, you do know I pimped Bi and Hyori to western audiences last week.

Oh MY GAWD.

I know there’s so many posts today, but this is so frakin’ contagious. It is a bit unsettling to put Hanson and the word “dancing” in the same sentence, but this song is just… so… damn catchy. I can’t even remember the lyrics, but I want to clap my hands and learn the dance. I am suspecting I am so totally buying the album next month.

Also, maybe not a candidate for Breakthrough video… but definitely a candidate for Music Video with Dance in It… I might just not give it a choreography title, but it’s a dance video nonetheless~~~

Does anyone feel back in the 90s with this?

I have never enjoyed Beyonce’s music, ever since she began her solo stuff, but then again… a lot of people seem to like her when I read stuff online. I think it’s funny no one I know really likes her music.

Anyway, apparently… this is new stuff. And Beyonce here looks totally committed to the look. I don’t like the song, but the style of the video is nifty. However, with videos like OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass, and M.I.A’s Born Free – I doubt this particular one has any chance of making it to the list of Best Music Videos this year.

https://vimeo.com/11465235

Another video by Olafur Arnalds directed by Argentinean motion graphic designer Esteban Diacono, who also happened to direct Light last year.

Hægt, Kemur Ljósið = Slowly, Comes the Light

Beautiful story, and visuals… though I wished the bird moved more gracefully.
Coz… it does move a little stiff, right?

The Hollywood Reporter has a piece on how Voltage Pictures is uniting with the US Copyright Group to sue individuals that have downloaded movies via BitTorrent, one of those films? The Hurt Locker…

The war against movie piracy is getting downright explosive. The producers of the Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker” are preparing a massive lawsuit against thousands of individuals who pirated the film online. The case could be filed as soon as Wednesday.

Voltage Pictures, the banner behind the best picture winner, has signed up with the U.S. Copyright Group, the Washington D.C.-based venture that, as first reported in March, has begun a litigation campaign targeting tens of thousands of BitTorrent users.

We have heard this before when the music industry try to do it, right?

On this blog, we keep on bringing “distribution” up, because we keep on watching and listening to stuff we can’t get locally. How on earth would I be a Yu Aoi fan if I hadn’t download All About Lily Chou Chou illegally? Same goes for Shunji Iwai, and Salyu…

How could I have ended up owning all the studio albums by the Dixie Chicks, if I hadn’t downloaded Without You from Napster more than a decade ago?

And yes, I may not buy as much as I used to when I was a teenager, but that’s only because I buy pricier items and I’m more exigent with what I want. Dude, I just made a $50USD pre-order from Japan… for ONE ITEM. Without counting the 9 films I just bought from a second-hand store. Sucks to be you, but really…

How do you want me to feel happy spending my dollars in a product sponsored by someone I don’t like? As good as the product can be, I’m not letting my money get into your pockets that easily. And that producer from The Hurt Locker is just making it easier to feel less guilty over not paying for his film.

Hi Nicholas, please feel free to leave your house open every time you go out and please tell your family to do so, please invite people in the streets to come in and take things from you, not to make money out of it by reselling it but just to use it for themselves and help themselves. If you think it’s normal they take my work for free, I’m sure you will give away all your furniture and possessions and your family will do the same. I can also send you my bank account information since apparently you work for free and your family too so since you have so much money you should give it away… I actually like to pay my employees, my family, my bank for their work and like to get paid for my work. I’m glad you’re a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference. Until then, keep being stupid, you’re doing that very well. And please do not download, rent, or pay for my movies, I actually like smart and more important HONEST people to watch my films.

via Cinematical.

Once again, I take the time to highlight the fact that you may not be losing your money to the people who download the most, because it is very likely they are the ones that buy the most DVDs, albums, or pay for a digital copy when it is finally available. However, you are losing money if the people are watching your film from the pirated copy that someone has sold them.

As much as you’d like to fit your car-lending to a stranger metaphor , it isn’t quite like that. Toyota can’t tell whether me or not I can lend my car to my cousin, or that I can’t borrow his Nissan for a spin. Sadly, Social media has established that you do not need to be close to call someone a “friend”. Hence, all people borrowing and lending from each other online wouldn’t really be just “people in the street”, but just friends doing what friends have done since they have been able to copy stuff from one source to the other.

As a person working with design and art, I do understand the concerns. I don’t mind if people save one of my photographs in their hard disks or print them, however, I would mind if someone took my photograph, uploaded it somewhere else and said that they’re selling photographs.

Anyway, I leave you with the reasons Why Peter Serafinowicz Steals Movies… Even One He’s In.

Well, no wonder I hadn’t heard about Lady Rouge since her appearance in the Lady Dior series’ Lady Noire. It’s because Marion’s been so busy, that they didn’t have the time to make it happen… instead? They made a music video featuring Eyes of Mars by Franz Ferdinand.

*spazz* Marion in a red dress… and Marion in a suit. I’m a little iffy about her singing voice in that song, but the visuals more than make up for any of it. She’s rocking, and looking smoking hot.

It would look so SO good on HD.

But alas… I can’t access the video through the Lady Dior website at the moment.

Anyway~~~ I am posting because Lady Blue has just been released~
and you can view it over at the Lady Dior website.

Directed by David Lynch (Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire).

Look, I like Lynch’s films as much as the next cinephile, and I appreciate his storytelling and the things he does… but seriously? Lady Blue? It looked too much of a student film to be a high fashion piece. I could accept the hand-held camera and the dim moody lights, but the blurry lights (which I usually love) and the whole “this looks all shaky and stuff because it’s not reality” was just too much. I could barely pay any attention to the purse.

Also, you do not get Marion on a Dior piece and make her gorgeousity blurry.

but you know… you can watch for yourself, and have your own opinion.

People are saying it’s time that LimeWire is put to sleep
or most likely…

According to the article, 60% of people use LimeWire. Really?

I haven’t used LimeWire in… at least, 8 years? I do know about two or three that use it, but that’s because they pretty much suck with anything related to computers. And I mean really suck.

I have recently used aMule because I needed to get three albums (of an artist… Ding Wei, if you must know), and the only place I found it was on this Chinese website that only supported aMule/eDonkey files. However, I haven’t used it for anything else.

After Napster — does ANYONE use that for legal downloads anyway? — I went through a lot of other programs, including AudioGalaxy, iMesh, Kazaa, eDonkey, LimeWire… and maybe a few others, but the lines have started to blur already.

What I have been doing for music? I have been listening to a LOT of stream music over at HaoTing.com [literally meaning “good music” or “good sound” or “pleasant to hear”], and whenever I decide the album is quite good, I download via any place. Those MP3s sit on my HD for a while until I finally add them on my iPod, and once they become my favorite “albums” [hint: albums, not single tracks], I look them up in different online stores, and actually buy the physical album.

The last album that has defy that system was Salyu’s Maiden Voyage, which I pre-order for fear of losing my copy of the limited edition with DVD concert… like I lost Seo Taiji.