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10 Years After As If

January 23, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Oh, man. I remember when I used to diligently run the As If fanlisting. Hadn’t even bothered to check on it for the past 5 years, so just deleted the whole thing because it all broke down. However, Pete brought to my attention a two-part piece that Digital Spy has run for the 10th anniversary of the show’s final episode- in their “retro” section nonetheless.

It’s a lovely catch up piece, and it just basically crushes what people had -somehow- hoped for~ a DVD release. Music licensing is just too damn expensive, and the show just relies too heavily on its music. Very much like the Popular conundrum. It’s a good read, catching up with almost everyone. I always giggle (and get giddy) when I spot anyone from the cast in other projects I’m watching.

I *cough* caught the show a very very VERY long time ago. *cough* You know where.

Oh, man. Sooz was my life.

The bad thing is that the show is not readily available… the good thing is that only the really cool people know it. xD

I said it before and say it again~ the best thing to come out of Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken was to see Miyavi being fabulous on carpet events in the US where so many oblivious in the west got to see him. [My favorite is Lainey who’s gushed over Miyavi twice] And now to see him on Ellen playing his guitar- that’s really more than I could hope for.

And I love that he did a bit of What’s my Name on top of Let Go.

ESPN has been re-broadcasting the best bits of the Sochi Olympics, and in true Winter Olympics nature, la creme de la creme of winter sports is usually women’s skating. It’s hard to pin-point what the most popular event at the Summer Olympics is (is it football? volleyball?), but the women who skate are the queens of the gala.

This year, there was a rather nasty controversy between eventual Gold-medalist Adelina Sotnikova (back then only 17) and eventual Silver-medalist and retiring Kim Yuna. The name-calling online got ugly and tiring, proving once again that -as a general rule- fans can suck so much. I can imagine what a cesspool YouTube commenting would be like if it didn’t require Gmail account linkups.

As far as the skating goes, I was dazzled when Kim Yuna won Gold at the Vancouver Olympics, where she skate for her life with such delicacy and grace. In Sochi, though, as much as she could have been pitch perfect in technique (we all do admit skating looks effortlessly when she does it), I was a bit bored. Then again, I’m just a fan who’s never picked up a pair of ice-skates in her life. I’ve never seen a frozen lake or ever stepped on an ice rink before. I’m just mostly disappointed of her fans.

Sotnikova’s choreography, however, surprised me the first time I saw it, and still manages to thrill me to no end. During my second time watching, I thought I might have been influenced by the ESPN Latino commentator who was pretty darn excited with her program, so I decided to look it up-

Still gives me the chills.

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Of course I’ve managed to watched Haider already. Three times. Over the weekend. In a month, I see it topping my list of favorites this 2014. Anyway~ there is a wonderful wordy article on Tabu by Raja Sen — titled The Stunning Actress Who Dared to Age, Seduce Her Son— and Confound Bollywood — where he sings praises left and right of Tabu’s latest performance [which has, in fact, trumped all her performances], and talks about her most (critically and commercially successful) notable roles.

In other news, it’s unlikely Rajeev Masand will take off the geo-block on his YouTube account, but the Actress Roundtable [1] is available on the IBN website. It’s got some very good moments, despite the Me, Me, Me, It’s All About Me attitude certain someone displayed. I was amazed. I always expect it, but this is taking it to a whole new level. LOL

Oh, who am I kidding. What I love about the end of the year is all the Best Of lists, rankings and voting. Expect my annual Top50 Songs of 2014, My fave movies of the year, and My fave local 2014 releases. I might even have enough material for a 2014 Music Highlights.

We started voting early on the YAM Magazine lounge because we are all lobbying for our favorite films, and prepping our personal End of the Year lists. I’m the most serious of all because lists can only matter when you grab the biggest possible sample. Not watching Indian movies meant that I wasn’t watching roughly 30-35% of the worldwide output.

So this is my first year online voting for Indian movies! I actually kinda like how MANY categories there are for actors to get a nod. LOL They don’t always make sense (Superstar of Tomorrow, hahahahaha and the Male Thriller/Action is quite rubbish), but I’m generally happy when I get to vote for Tabu, Madhuri and Rani without much conflict. So~ YEAH!

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You can vote here.

For the International HIV/AIDS day, Ranveer Singh (ever the sexy) got together with MTV India and Durex to try to demystify sex in the country, where the topic is usually completely hush-hush or chup-chup. He’s straight-forward, candid, sexy, funny… and gets to awkward moments when he conjures the images of everyone’s parents creating us. Though, he does have a point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SFTkE-Zzuo

It’s been a while already – over six months, to be exact – my quiverations for Ranveer are still pretty consistent. Like, he seems completely changed, focus and serious funny in the latest Anupama Chopra interview he had where he even makes her laugh. Polka dotted suit and all. His last test will be sitting on a couch with Arjun Kapoor and NOT BE THIS EVER AGAIN.

I do enjoy where his personality brand is going.

Y se nos fue, Chespirito. RIP, Chavito.

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I swear, for a while now South Korea has been trying to clone Aoi Yu. [1] Thank gods, Yu-chan’s switched styles and has been sporting different hair, and has sorta moved on from her Mori Girl vibe.

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Yu Aoi has a brand new book release simply titled 8740 DIARY 2011-2014, which is (from whatI was able to get) a collection of text and photos gathered between those years from different directors, screenwriters and co-stars. I am pretty sure there were texts from Shunji Iwai, Yuki Tanada and photographer Yoko Takahashi among many others.

The book is fairly priced… and the yen is down, so I think I might get it. We’ll see. In the meantime, Yu’s been promoting it with this cute little video for MORE Magazine, as well as the customary press event.

You can get the book on HMV Japan, which is my usual choice for Japanese items, even though YesAsia also delivers (but I find it extra pricey for them).

Wait, what? Are you telling me Faye Wong smiles in pictures? [1]

Faye Wong graced the October cover (in three versions) of Elle China for the 26th Anniversary, with a photoshoot by Chen Man. She’s always glorious when shot by Chen Man.

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You can check more of the photos and a brief (Chinese) interview with Faye at the Polysh. I tried the Elle website, but it’s not happening for me.

She also has two new songs out this year [1][2].

Only ONE of them can make it to my list. I need translations of the songs for that. At the moment, Fleet of Time is winning… mainly because I liked translating the title with such nostalgia feelings. lol

— EDIT Nov 7 —

Better quality photos at Fashnberry.