Tag: internet

  • 1000 Days of Xiami

    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

  • Identity and DNA

    We’re living in a world obsessed with identity, origins and DNA. I’m starting to believe this is a conspiration to get us all to test our DNAs -paying and very much willingly- to see where we ‘really come from.’ No, like- really, where YOU REALLY come from. First it was this overly dramatic flights company, Momondo ad. Followed by this DNA test Buzzfeed video, which got me really really wondering.

    Then this Joanna Rants Flama video about hyphen identities~~~ with a shout out to Asian-Peruvian (Protestant)! xD Which in the end sent my head spinning mainly because of my dad’s side. Peruvian isn’t really a racial identity, though some would differ. I don’t know much about my dad’s side of the family, but I know more than my mom’s side~~~ one thing is certain, I’m positively certain my mom is 99,9% East Asian xD which makes me, at least, half East Asian (if not half full Chinese, despite having two Chinese last names~)

    I know my grandpa on my dad’s side was mixed Chinese and I know my grandma on his side was mixed Spanish-Afro-Peruvian, but not certain on percentages. I’ll have to ask my aunt around now. But that would make my dad, at least, half Spanish creole (if not more) Afro-Chinese Peruvian xD and that would make me…… Chinese Spanish creole Afro-Peruvian? xD A Queer Catholic-by-culture Franciscan-by-school Agnostic Chinese Spanish Creole Afro-Peruvian. And that doesn’t even paint the political colors. xD

    But interesting.

    I’m totally into the idea of finding out what’s in me, but at the same time, I’ve been watching too much Orphan Black. lol

  • I could watch 2 hours of Mamamoo rehearsals~

    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.

  • Richa Chadha is Great at Film Companion for Anupama

    Richa Chadha is currently promoting Sarabjit and Cabaret, so she sat down with Anupama Chopra for a lengthy chat. Sit-downs with Anupama usually don’t last this long, but Chadha is great in it– she’s open, witty and entertaining, and manages to make you wish the best for her. I know she’ll probably hate on this, but she reminded me of Tabu on this, for reasons unknown.Just gave me those vibes.

    Happy watching!

  • First Look at Yu Aoi’s Azumi Haruko

    Last October I reported about Yu-chan returning to the leading-lady gig with Daigo Matsui’s AZUMI HARUKO wa Yukuefumei (アズミ・ハルコは行方不明). Twitter has just shown me a first still. There’s also a music video by Ishizaki Huwie (石崎ひゅーい) titled Flower Vase (花瓶の花, Kabin no Hana) attached to the press release on natalie.mu, but it’s geo-blocked :*(

    yu-aoi-azumi-haruko

  • Sing My Song: Because You are Mavis Fan~

    So I’m late to the party (as always), and just started watching this year’s season of Sing my Song (中国好歌曲), which has been airing for a couple of weeks. It’s honestly my favorite of these many music contests because it’s new songs. I never ever stay through the actual contest, but… I do enjoy their blind auditions for the surprises!

    Episode one, so far, has given me that awkward moment when Laurence Larson 罗艺恒 sings better Mandarin than me… nobody turns for blues singer 黄晓宁 Huang Hsiao Ning which makes David Tao cry (and reminds me of my dad, hence also making me teary), and gives us the meta moment of the night (and probably of the season) when Liu Wei 刘维 sings Because You Are Mavis Fan (因为你是范晓萱), using many Mavis music and lyrics cues, to make Mavis herself cry.

    I’m a Mavis fan and I love I Want Us to Be Together to bits, so of course I loved it.

    The song is available for download over at QQ (apparently, officially), but you gotta download their APP, sign up for an account (maybe pay to get the 320kbps version)… and for sign up, it’s asking for a mobile number to send a verification code, and I don’t use a phone, so I can’t sign up [Hipster First World Problems]~~~ so I only got myself a 128kbps from somewhere murky on the net LOL. If you happen to get the 320kbps one, do share it with me pretty please.

    And it’s not like EVERYTHING is available on iTunes. On time.

  • If Rabbi Raquel is ready…

    … you are supposed to be ready, man~ Get your sh!t together!

    kathryn-hahn-transparent-raquel

    But the Pfeffermans are such awful messed up bunch of people xD I’m so glad (kinda) that she’s out of that whirlwind. Here’s a spoilery interview with Kathryn Hahn about her character in Season 2, and she’s wonderful. I’ve been having a major girl crush there for a while.

  • My 2015 Letterboxd Year in Review

    I know… Letterboxd is trying to get me to pay~~~

    Though I’m still kinda mad that they reset my movie-view count a few couple of hours before midnight, I do kinda appreciate their stats~

    letterboxd-2015-review

    Being the obsessive compulsive person that I am, I was kinda disappointed that I didn’t reach my 1000hrs of movie-watching, but was also glad because it turns out I’ve spent like 11% of my year watching movies. That’s like more than a whole month during a year. I’m so glad I’ve taken up exercise while watching movies xD

    According to this, my bias Zhao Wei was my Most Watched Actor –though I’m missing actual numbers, I think I saw 8 films with her (including cameos) — and about 6 Anurag Kashyap movies (without the ones he’s produced). That doesn’t match the 23 movies I watched of Tabu in 2014 (LOL), and the 13 movies prior to that.

    But overall, these skin-deep newsletter shows a good reflection of my movie-watching~ a little bit Chinese, a little bit Indian, a little bit European, a little bit of animation, and some Taiwanese melancholic rom-com.

  • Anushka Sharma for the Film Companion’s FaceTime

    Anupama Chopra’s Film Companion just published their interview with Anushka Sharma, where she talks about being an actress in the Indian film industry, Hollywood gender numbers, being a producer and a public figure. It all comes down to the simple~

    At the end of the day you want respect.

    It’s a big on the long side (33min. long), but it’s worth it. Anushka is really outspoken and it’s great to listen to with her back and forth with Anupama.

  • Kangana and Irrfan for The Film Companion’s Meeting Ground

    I like these one-on-one interviews, especially when you have performance-oriented people. Too bad Nawazuddin Siddiqui doesn’t feel comfortable speaking English- 1. Maybe these Meeting Ground interviews are always in English. 2. If they’re not necessarily in English, I wouldn’t understand a thing he says in Hindi. xD

    This time Kangana Ranaut and Irrfan Khan are one-on-one after the commercial success of Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Piku, respectively. In the brief 20min interview, they talk about acting nuances with a super brief Acting 101, as well as people’s obsession with Box Office numbers (in this case, making the 100 crore club), the -now- discerning audience (and the massy one), not longer being a working actor who needs to constantly do movies to make a living, being an outsider, PLUS! the strength and vitriol that is social media.

    Happy watching!

    On the Box Office obsession and audience talks, it’s a general worldwide problem, you guys. Last year headlines declared How to Train your Dragon 2 a box office flop when it made “just” $50M USD. Joining the $1B USD club is big on studio heads, and having the most profitable franchise is a plus for actors.

    The audience everywhere is half and half- good movie don’t make money, bad movies that make loads. The audience and press vitriol on review and social media. They’re not solely Bollywood problems ;)