Archives For Music

I’m not a social media fan, though I do spend a lot of time posting links on the YAM Magazine Twitter account. Less active on Facebook, though I regularly use my own profile. No Instagram or any other site. I’m mostly active on movie websites— still active on IMDb, because they make searching for stuff easier [year, country, language, etc. filters], still active on MUBI (and helping with profiles and database submissions), and Letterboxd coz they help keeping an orderly diary of movie-watching.

No longer have music sites, and Living Social FB apps have long gone.

I’ve always been reluctant in creating new profiles, new accounts, new emails and different passwords. However, my level of obsession with Mamamoo has reached such point that I finally logged in V Live with my real-life identity, and though I’ve only left like 3 or 4 comments (so far), I’m a Level 5. Each artist you follow starts with a Level 1, adding points by watching videos, leaving comments and who knows what else, but I digress~~~ I wanted to comment on V Live as a platform. I’m amazed by it. I don’t exactly know why. I’ve seen countless of web stream concerts [1][2], I’ve seen a couple of Facebook Live sessions, but somehow V Live sessions make me feel closer to artists.

Of course, they can start a random session just like in Facebook, though FB is always a 1:1 ratio, no? There’s comments, and the artist can actually reply to your comments, which is something V Live doesn’t have since comments are live, they scroll as they keep coming just like in a YouTube stream. But YouTube streams always seem so impersonal, more like online TV broadcasts, which is actually GREAT for TV broadcasts [KBS World 24][KBS World]. Add to V Live multi-camera broadcast, HD quality, multilingual subtitles and there’s just this added something to it.

I recently saw Brown Eyed Girls’ JeA’s Orgel Live with JOKER, a 50-min multi-camera phone shot in portrait. I didn’t watch it live, because the show began at 6AM, but the replay was available quite fast — in probably just a few couple of hours — with subtitles in English, Chinese, Viet and Korean; and available auto-translate for others like Spanish. They started reading some of the comments, I lamented not being able to say hi to JeA [this is what I’m talking about], and proceeded to perform a couple of songs, while also going through the live comments.

Fans are also allowed to give ‘hearts.’ Though, I haven’t actually figured out how to give hearts (it’s not by clicking the heart icon, lol), I supposed it’s just pasting hearts in the comments, and that’s why users can give multi-hearts all around. Since a video can have 200k views and one million hearts. :P

And apparently, if you have the V Live App, you can chat with your faves. I don’t have mobile, so……………….

jea-joker-live-v-live

If you could do this for movies, it’ll be amazing. About 8 years ago, I wrote a proposal for screening movies like this xD but I didn’t know how to go through with it. Imagine you have a screening event, fans gather online 30min. before the movie begins, they chat among them. The movie streams, and afterwards there’s an online Q&A with the cast/crew. Because videos from the Q&A and the movie to be screened are different video sources, you can only have the Q&A available for replay instead of the movie.

See? Someone make it happen.

Someone, please, call 911.

And they’re all wearing their suits. Blessed.

After the initial hiccup with the release of the Decalcomanie MV, we’ve put that behind us (but shouldn’t really, because it’s important to talk about these things). RBW has promised to release a brand new video once Decalcomanie (all CJ+Mamamoo uploads combined) reaches 3M views. At the moment, the CJ one has 1.127M while the Mamamoo one has 211k, so do the math.

Oh, and there’s also that one-shot M Countdown fancam.

Moonbyul looks so happy with all those layers of clothing and actual pair of pants. lol

I can’t wait for all the other performances, once the jitters of the first performance has gone.

Someone please call 911
Tell them I just been shot down
and the bullet’s, in my heart~

Coming back in the Korean sense of the word, that is~ Mamamoo’s released 3 songs [sub-unit songs Dab Dab and Angel, as well as New York], and they’re back again with the release of a proper EP/Mini, despite having released their first full length this past February.

And despite the fact that everyone was worried about the red sequin gochujang dresses, having Solar to tell us to love the gochchujang in her most recent solo VApp,to later flip tables over when Moonbyul (and Hwasa) slayed us all with their tuxes.

Now RBW is telling us that their Decalcomanie comeback might have a Bond Girl 007-related theme?

mamamoo-decalcomanie-001

Everyone’s dead. Everyone.

And the girls did another crazy VApp where Whee-In is wearing crocs and playing with a stuffed panda, Moonbyul plays with Solar’s new braid and turns her into a propeller, and Hwasa tickles Solar to release her dolphin seal laugh.

Dead, I tell you.

I am obviously not a true Mamamoo fan, because I wasn’t aware of this performance until today. I’ve reached a point in my fandom life where a Mamamoo-related site is one of my top visited websites. I visit it three or four times a day, at least. LOL I’m shameful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzEVl9aPQGE

I’m also saving money for a YesAsia purchase of their Moosical DVD and/or their upcoming album/mini, and possibly other stuff- I mean, have you seen The Handmaiden? LOL

1000 Days of Xiami

October 10, 2016 — 1 Comment

I’m about to clock 1000 days on Xiami logins xD

xiami-1000-days

Sad for this excitement, I know. LOL But I get obsessive-compulsive over these things easily. I took a screen grab because I don’t know whether the count will reset to zero or continue. Back in March when I went to Japan, I told my friend to login for me, so I don’t lose my clocked days, and there was a weird bug that made the counter go back to zero, so we thought for a while that it was done. A couple of days later, it went back to normal :P

I’ve been using Xiami for a lot longer, of course. And gone are the days when you could find everything on the site for stream and download :P Though you can still find stuff and download, it’s often the case when albums are empty. Recently, Xiami has taken to just be able to stream music (which is better than having blank albums), without download capabilities— Faye Wong’s most recent track is only available for stream, so you gotta find it elsewhere if you want it. The site is still a great source for Chinese music, especially from the independent scene. However, now Xiami-approved artists are allowed to mark their music as only-Mi tracks, meaning that you have to have Xiami credit on your account and not download music from your VIP free-tracks perk or use your red envelopes (points).

Having said that~~~ I have like +500 points (you get points for single days and months counted, albums added and music shared, etc.) and haven’t used them in so long. What the heck~ What are the perks of the VIP account if you still gotta pay for the Chinese music that you download; at least make it so that you use twice or thrice the # of downloads for those.

I still haven’t figured out what the note reputation is (eg. Re*), but I’m just a few hundred away from reaching the other level. Increasing my stars is a little trickier because English reviews don’t get as many likes or comments. lol

Also~ OMO! 1000 days on the 10 of 10. xD

Mina-san! Genki? Ha!

Forgive the complete absent from the blog recently (two entries last month, and this is the first one this month!), I’ve been generally “more busy” updating the MUBI (the site formerly known as The Auteurs lol) database than even actually keeping up with news (trailers/music) on YAM Magazine or watching movies and shows. I’ve also been occupied watching Korean shows, which tend to make everyone procrastinate. And it’s not like it was priority-watching, either~ I’ve been watching Solar and Eric Nam’s We Got Married episodes, but my favorite watch and re-watches was Mamamoo x GFRIEND’s Showtime.

I don’t actually stan GFRIEND, and I already have biases. Bless.

moonbyul-sinb-new-girl-crush

Bless, SinB. Bless SinB with Moonbyul, Bless New Crush Star. LOL

Continue Reading…

So I was browsing album covers on Xiami when I ran into the one for Ivana Wong’s latest single, Goi Sei Dik Faai Lok (該死的快樂, translated to Damn Happy)… which turns out has a brand new video. And I was like- where have you been all my life when I started going down her discography~

Jyu Jat (如一, As One) is great. Siu Sau Seot (小手術, Minor Surgery) is amazing with the Lyrics Video. It’s also helping me practice my Cantonese xD My jyutping game is totally poor. I also hate that sometimes I’m fixing my music library and it’s not Cantonese but Mandarin, so I gotta fix my romanization. But I’m totally digging her music. More her less popular songs that are not straight up sappy ballads. Her piano skills seem to be on point.

Not new talent, but total new discovery.

Oh, man~ I got it bad~~~

Look who’s totally officially a Moomoo. First time ever with a Kpop group, too!

amy-the-mamamoo-moo

Bonus of Su Yunying, though~

But I’m totally rocking the radish onesie!

Kigurumi is probably out of stock again.

Just got the chance to watch Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol and have gotten properly acquainted with Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf— I was impressed. He’s got a great voice, and he’s quite good looking! He’s also got the grace of God on his side, coz’ gosh~ really.

Full album is available on iTunes.

I know it’s horrible to say this, but I’ve been wasting a lot of time watching (and re-watching) Mamamoo clips on YouTube — thank you, Mamamoo Trans, Mamamoo Comedy and Rara Dish. You’ve reduced my productivity hours. You guys are awesome and hilarious.

I’ve just re-watched this re-upload of MMMTV from 2014 near Xmas. It’s glorious, I could watch Mamamoo rehearse all those two hours without editing.

My dream is that Marca Peru, who has -for a number of failed years- tried to lure Asian tourist into the marvelous sights of our country, will get in touch with Mamamoo, pay them their sponsor fees on top of 3 months to tour the WHOLE country. Eat (weird things, among others)… because turns out Mamamoo girls love choncholi~ though they say they love “intestine soup” (it sounds to me like ‘desang tang’ but I couldn’t find the actual name of the dish) and we eat intestines more like their Gopchang Gui (곱창구이) counterpart.

Imagine three months of Mamamoo travel adventures sailing the Amazon river, sand-boarding, visiting the sea lions of Paracas, visiting Machu Picchu; eating anticuchos, choncholi, picarones, all our varieties of ceviche (conchas negras ‘black conch,’ paiche), Arequipa soups, Juanes, Tacacho with cecina, high on sugar of perfect manjar blanco, suspiro a la limeña, and enchant them with a their daily dose of Queso Helado (‘frozen cheese’ that is not literally frozen cheese, but just milk and cinnamon ice cream). Just feed Mamamoo and let them be hyperactive, record it and present it as a 15-episode variety program of cross-cultural integration between Marca Peru and the Visit Korea program.

End the thing with a small unplugged concert. Ta-da! Broadcast tourism program~

Or we can just get Donnie Yen.