I remember when I was in fifth grade I saw my grandfather die. There he was, lying motionless on the bed. I was close to my grandfather. He taught me how to write. I remember thinking, “If this is the end of life, that means we don’t have to take everything too seriously.” Children who grow up without seeing death don’t have that realization.
Archives For china
Just been discovered!
Escape Plan (逃跑计划, Tiao Pao Ji Hua), aka. Perdel Band. Spotted on CNN Travel… as always [1]. Their Rock in China page isn’t up to date, but it’s always a good spot to start with. Besides their 2008 EP titled Take Me Away (带我离开), they released a full length album in early 2012 titled Earth (世界), which contains all the songs from their EP in more slick production, as well as a version of Zaijian Zaijian (再见再见) with lyrics instead of the instrumental piano.
From all the endless bands coming out of China, they seem to be a good substitute of Yuguo while I wait for their new album, which is supposed to come out this March (if I didn’t read wrong)
Sorry, no music embeds.
You can preview web shorter versions of their album on their Douban page or Weibo Music.
Cloud Atlas was one of my highlight movies of 2012 [1] given that’s been a meh year — don’t fight me, less than 10% of the films I watched this past 2012 were rated higher than 8 on IMDb. So I’ve been waiting for its release on Bluray because I haven’t heard of theater releases in my country. The rumor I had heard was that it was going to get a release by February 5th, which of course it’s my birthday x)
To top it all, it appears Cloud Atlas its making its push in Mainland China with my favorite girl, BiBi doing a song. And another song featuring a bunch of artists [1].
On first listen the song, titled Under the Stars (星空之下), is so-so. But on further replays, I really like the verses, more so than the chorus. Of course I think pushing Cloud Atlas with a pop song seems completely misplaced considering how awesome the soundtrack to the movie is, but I’m game. I hope it’s a hit in China so it can recoup its missing budget, as it deserves more positive vibes than it has gotten.
I was browsing some photoshoots and doing some research, when I ran into this photoshoot for Madame Figaro China featuring Zhao Wei on the December issue of last year. Photographer unknown by me. However, when I saw Zhao Wei, I got a striking shivering reminder of Joan Crawford.
It’s the EYEBROWS.
And possibly the stern expression. Also, Zhao Wei has really big popping eyes (you can’t tell on the photoshoot), but it’s quite impressive on movies.
You know Jackie Chan’s upcoming movie, Chinese Zodiac (十二生肖) [Trailer], which has so much numerology~~~ twelve signs, opening on December 12 of 2012. And you know Jackie Chan is best-buds with Leehom [1] … so much so that Jackie smooches Leehom for fun, so Leehom is apparently doing the main song for the movie because this song is titled like the movie.
It’s so chinked-out. Reminiscent of his The 18 Martial Arts album, which I have already gotten accustomed to. I kinda love the song, not a solid 4/5, but possibly close to it at first few listens.
I don’t know what pushed me to read the Red Dawn remake IMDb board — I mean, it’s a real task to get through any thread on IMDb without rolling your eyes or getting pissed off with humanity, but here I was… doing it.
Among all the trash talk about race, sighs… there was this post, and… I got depressed. LOL But as depressing as a movie like this would be, I feel it would be 100 times much more interesting than what the remake of Red Dawn looks like. I don’t think it can be marketed as an action film with American-made heroes, though. It would be a spirit-crushing film… almost like the perfect companion piece to John Hillcoat’s The Road, which is another downright depressing movie.
I’ve never liked Barbie. I’ve never seen a true system engineer Barbie, or a true Barbie chef (don’t argue with me, that Barbie is a home cook!), or a Barbie restaurant administrator — I’ve never seen a Barbie that resembles any of the women of my family (except for my younger cousins)… let alone me. I have never been represented by a Barbie doll, so it’s all the same to me that the Barbie store in China had to close shop.
And no, I don’t think it’s entirely the fault of Barbie being “too strong” for Chinese girls. Sure, some Chinese girls (and boys) may grow up like princesses (or princes) in moderately rich households. But middle to middle-low-income families would still want their daughters to help out at the family’s business as well as getting good grades, or in the case of the very lucky ones just be given the best to reach excellency [1]. Putting your kids through school with extra-curricular activities, it’s a sacrifice… so over-paying for Barbie products would be pointless.
Women today, they can go out and do anything,” her grandmother said. “They can do big things.
And I know the example above may sound like a privilege Chinese girl, but her family’s back story isn’t that of a rich family, considering the girl’s grandmother made her mother work to put her two uncles through their studies. Sounds like a lot of hard work to me.
It’s been roughly… four years. Give or take. It’s been a good ride, and it’s still going strong… so we still got a long way to go. Guys, if you would’ve gotten me at my “good” times, you’d be millionaires by now. Back when I was in high school I bought anything I could… even if I only like one song- I would have bought your whole album for that one song. I’ve got around 30 physical album with music in Mandarin — that’s roughly 7 albums a year… which is about an album every two months. Trust me, it’s not a bad deal.
Plus, imports are expensive…
All of the albums’ artists have their tags on the blog except for SingerSen. I haven’t talked about her much on this blog… yet. But maybe one day in the near future, I’ll add her own tag.
This is also not counting the music DVDs xD so there’s a couple more.
As a fan, I think I’ve been good to Chinese music fandom.
