It has been a long time since I last did anything important to my blog… maybe a little over two years. I really didn’t know what to do while the WordPress coding has changed over the years. It seemed I needed a new theme with new capabilities… though I do think WordPress has begun acting a little too much like Tumblr~~~
There had been some very beautiful new WP themes (some you need to pay for), when I saw Matala I immediately thought “this is the one.” But I needed to change the graphics, as much as the original theme looked nice… I didn’t want to look like all the other blogs that might be using this theme.
So I was playing around Photoshop… without knowing exactly what I wanted, and ended up with this Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, and Memories of Matsuko mash-up — I call it “Suffering Heroines of Cinema” o “Heroinas Sufridas del Cine” in Spanish~ I almost added Amelie in it instead of Matsuko, but felt she was too off against these two Von Trier characters. LOL
I’m not completely feeling this theme, though. How about you?
I know it’s pretty late, but I guess that I always put the list off because there was always that “haven’t listened to that yet” issue. I will be probably adding 2010 stuff later on, but it won’t hurt to put my top rated songs — according to iTunes and iPod numbers.
Surprisingly, or not surprisingly… the majority of top-rated songs that are equal or greater than 5 stars are Asian artists with their Asian songs and albums. LOL As you know, I’m trying to mix everything up with languages, so I’m also trying to pick one song per artist xD
I hope you like this compilation, there are links to preview the tracks… and also links to buy the albums via affiliate programs, so if you like anything – please support this blog (or YAM)
I’m not entirely sure when my parents first decided to take me to the cinema, because my parents worked a lot so most my outings were with my aunts and cousins. And my parents think little kids who don’t behave themselves shouldn’t be taken on too many activities, so it is likely we didn’t properly go to the movies until I was 5 or more… so Jurassic Park it is.
I saw it with my aunt and little cousin, who’s now… 20 xD
3. First film purchase:
VHS: None
DVD: She’s All That and Loser
When I grew up, it was a troubling time for the economy. We didn’t buy tapes – my dad, however, used to bring a lot of rentals from a place who used to watermark its videos with “videorama” – of course my dad taped all those Disney shorts and old movies.
Sometimes when my uncle would visit Miami, he would bring a tape or two of Disney’s Sing Along Songs. I also remember my auntie gave me an X-Men tape (the one were the color palette is earth colors – Cyclops head is all covered and Wolverine is all brown), and my uncle gave me the tape of Winnie the Pooh’s Wishing Star story.
My first two DVDs, I bought when I turned 15, so you can’t hold me accountable of the purchase. It was on my bday trip to California, and bought those discs thinking they were VCDs for some weird reason, and having to wait a couple of months before my family actually bought a DVD player.
4. First Crush:
Carly Pope and Christopher Gorham
Weird, huh? They’re not really Film crushes, though both have done films.
I mean it is rather silly to be a 11-year-old girl watching Titanic and swooning over Leonardo DiCaprio. First, I wasn’t THAT interested in film back then – TV was everything to me… and pop music, so it’s only fitting that my first “crushes” weren’t Film crushes.
Once I get a crush, I am rather faithful. My interest may wain, but it will never truly disappear unless said object of imaginary affection does something truly bad.
And god, Carly Pope’s striking face — and those eyebrows! Hmm.. I might have an eyebrow fetish (Crawford and Garbo, anyone?) — and Christopher Gorham’s sexy nerdiness. It’s killer to me. And they both supposedly speak more than one language? It’s a killer combo for me.
So… today it’s voting Sunday. And I’ve also setup my About page… and got rid of my Favorites page because… well, it seemed redundant to have two pages about me. LOL
When I was about 7, my dad opened a Karaoke bar (how Asian, non?). But by then, I had already grown up with the likes of the music of La Nueva Ola (the new wave) — you know, the type of Rock n’ Roll from The King… Jailhouse Rock or Houndog but in Spanish. My favorite tunes were probably La Plaga (the plage, the Spanish version of Little Richard’s Good Golly, Miss Molly), and La Mantequilla (the butter, the Spanish version of Cliff Richard and the Shadows’ Move It).
Of course, I was a little kid going to Chinese/Peruvian school, so my repertoire also included the Cantonese Counting Song Yat Yi Sam, as well as the counting Elefantes song… as well as the Sukiyaki song. So from the very beginning… I had a predisposition for all types of music in many different languages. (more…)
Okay, I really must admit posting directly to Twitter is easier and faster. I decided there are some things I must post twice… or maybe more, and Bjork is one of them.
I met Moomins on my trip to Sweden! Those hippo-looking like creatures, my cousin said “they’re Moomins!” – Oh, how lucky little kids are in Scandinavia to grow up with a children song (?) from Bjork. xD Did I tell you all my niece used to only sing Los Pollitos Dicen? She was like Marylin singing Los Pollitos Dicen. xD
Anyway… this song is for the Moomins movie xD There’s going to be a Moomins movie!!!
Ahh… I hope I can finish this post in less than 30min. LOL Or sure I’ll be whining with the people at Anomalous Material for posting so many Memes xD
But we’re lazy, so we’re doing a 31-day Meme into one post. Just like we did on the TV Meme… only with more pictures! Because I think that TV Meme needs photos, right?
1. A Sequel that Shouldn’t Have Been Made
You know there should be something wrong when all the sequels went straight to DVD. That’s a sad sad ending for a good cheesy film like Bring it On. The sequels bring so much shame when mentioning Bring it On, which by the way had Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku… and Gabrielle Union. And cheers. I said Brrrr it’s cold in here! There must be some Clovers in the atmosphere~~~ LOL a perfect introduction to setup what the cheese will be about, and a more poppy-end-of-the 90s-rendition of Hey, Mickey!
YAM011 is almost done. The Lima Film Fest ends tonight, so I’ll be closing the issue — hopefully on time, for a release on the 15th at 00.00hr. My timezone, not yours. GMT -5, FYI.
While I was writing the editor’s note — and addressing everyone on the Facebook group — I wondered what to call YAM readers. I thought YAMMIES would be nice, but then the Urban Dictionary told me those are tits/knockers. But then again, Penn & Teller said that pretty much any noun in plural can mean knockers. LOL Watermelons, lemons, air bags. There you go, wouldn’t be much of a difference.
So… then I thought about YAMMERS, but that can’t be good, right? So maybe YAMMIES is fine. Sounds a bit like “jammies” because you know… I’m a Spanish speaker. To me, the sound of a Y with a vowel, and the sound of a J with a vowel is the same. When I first moved to Canada, Yellow and Jello were the same to me. Well, I still can’t get it right. Frak.
Anyway, it’s getting late. I just wanted to post the streams to some of the albums we are reviewing and rating in the new edition of YAM. Not all, but most of them~ Thank you, Xiami ;P
Unlike Bjork, I feel Salyu is approachable, or it must be that politeness that plagues Japanese language as a whole… anyway, Salyu seems nicer than she appears with those crazy eyes. You know? When she’s singing in this performance of Glide, which by the way is one of those songs that don’t get performed enough for being part of the Lily Chou Chou repertoire, instead of Salyu’s. Because Salyu IS Lily.
Listening to her is one of those experiences, imagine it LIVE~ O.o
You just get to watch it as a YouTube stream, while I enjoy it on my 5.1 Surround sound dvd – and Bill… well, he gets to see Salyu live. I’ll stick to Bjork… unless Salyu decides to come here. Wink wink nudge nudge.
If this clip doesn’t get you to listen to other Salyu songs, I dunno what will.
