Tag: latin america

  • Early 2014 Music Highlights~

    Last time it took me 2 years to get my 2012-2013 list out. LOL This year, I’m early. I’m pretty happy with my picks at the moment, so I hope nothing mind-blowing pops up in these last remaining weeks of 2014. In the meantime~ you know where to go.

    amys-2014-music-highlights


  • No te vayas, Chavo~

    Y se nos fue, Chespirito. RIP, Chavito.

    chavo-del-8-chespirito


  • The Girl and Her Dad

    The Boy and the World screen print that reminded me of my dad, who is ‘turning one-year old’ this week. Us, sitting together and looking up at the sky.

    o-menino-e-o-mundo-dad
    But you know what takes the cake? O Menino e o Mundo opened in Brazil on my dad’s bday: January 17th. You gotta be kidding me.


  • El Peñón de las Ánimas vs. Ram-Leela – FIGHT!

    It’s another double feature!

    La Doña has been in the mood for fighting this week [1], and this time she’s taking Deepika Padukone- or I suppose El Peñon de las Animas (The Rock of Souls) is taking Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela, where both balas and golis are exchanged nonchalantly, and music is spared in between two families that have been warring for generations.

    penon-de-las-animas-ram-leela

    Though Maria Felix is playing much more of a señorita role on this one (than usual), and this western musical (that’s what all rancheras are, right?) gets some pretty nifty cinematography and sassy moments and lyrics, there’s one thing that Ram-Leela has~~~ and that is Supriya Pathak.

    ram-leela-supriya-pathak

    Are! Mashallah, mashallah~


  • Queen Christina vs. La Monja Alferez – FIGHT!

    Oh.mah.gosh.

    queen-christina-greta-garbo-monja-alferez-maria-felix

    It’s a battle of the horse-riding sword-brandishing tough ladies that -actually- existed in real life, with lives brought onto the silver screen, beautified while being personified by THE faces of their own Golden Eras.

    In the case of Greta Garbo, of course, with Hollywood in her most fun and most relaxed Queen Christina, often mistaken for a man and featuring the infamous scenes of Garbo kissing a lady and being romanced by John Gilbert while in mannish get-up. Then there’s the Mexican and Latin movie classic diva La Doña Maria Felix as Catalina Erauso, escaping a convent and dragging it up as Don Alonso, making the ladies of the Peruvian Viceroyalty swoon in La Monja Alferez, with a twist ending to match Some Like It Hot.

    And to quote Toni Collette:

    We’re women dressed as men dressed as women!

    This is a tough one. I do have a terrible Greta Garbo bias, but I think I’m handing it down to La Doña on this one. Maria Felix is like the awesome fusion of everything that’s good with both Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.


  • The Late 2012-2013 Music Highlights

    amys-2012-2013-music-highlights-yammag

    I think I could work more on the 2013 list, but then it will be 2015! LOL I also hate that I don’t have my font pack at hand because this graphic is UHHHH-GLAY. My Frankenstein Computer is back! I’m so happy~

    Anyway, here are 30 album picks by all different artists that released (almost) full-length albums these last two years. And here are all their covers in gallery form, and here’s a Facebook Gallery, it contains some playlists and iTunes links. And here’s a Xiami playlist, where you can (almost) access all the albums. And a Weibo post in case you’re there.

    And here’s the YAM Magazine list that contains all my ramblings, with playlist/streaming and buy links.


  • In Progress: 2014 Film Count

    This is the first time in my movie-counting life that I’ve seen over 50 movies by the middle of the year. As a general number, I picked 48 a year, to make sure I -at least- watched one film a week for my end of the year list.

    amys-2014-film-count

    There’s a LOT of bad and meh movies so far, but there’s also a decent Top10. Not unbelievable, but decent. It’s a working one that would do for a Dec.31 or Jan.01 publishing date. LOL


  • Hyde vs. Beto Cuevas vs. Sanam – FIGHT!

    We got a triple FIGHT!

    It was the second half of 2003 when I was listening to La Ley quite non-stop, since it was only one of the handful CDs that I had taken to Canada, when my friend grabbed my headphones and told me, “Do you know l’Arc en Ciel? It sounds exactly like him, but in not-Japanese.” I’d always kept that at the back of my mind until today when I found this new Indian band called Sanam, and had a similar thought.

    Of course, l’Arc en Ciel has over twenty years of history already, so it’s an obvious imbalanced fight. Though I do kinda chuckle whenever people refer to lead vocalist Hyde as a “chibi” person, as well as measuring other people as “one hyde and one inch tall” LOL

    Note: Also love how the fans sing as a prelude.

    Of course, if La Ley hadn’t decided to split mid-noughties, they’d have a couple of years into l’Arc en Ciel, and the image that I have of Beto Cuevas wouldn’t be so quite embarrassing.
    (more…)


  • From the Vault: Y2K + the Internet with J. Lo

    Remember when Jennifer Lopez debuted with If You Had my Love? I listen to On the 6 from time to time, especially because her duet with Marc Anthony No Me Ames [MV] is one of my favorites to lipsync xD

    Remember when 1999 had every single music video in metallic colors and had a Y2K theme or similar? Remember when J.Lo was with Puffy, pre-Ben, pre-marriage to Marc, and could dance… and didn’t make ridiculous performances with Pitbull for the World Cup?

    People may think that this song is so un-Latina of her, but the album actually has a good mixture of Latino in there~