Videos

  • Canadian Phase, Vancouver and Bif Naked

    I won’t lie to you- I searched for “Naked Beef” first, then for “Beef Naked” LOL

    I had been using my wiz google skills to try to find some songs released circa mid early millennium (2000-2002), once that failed a couple of times, I went in deep into my disc backups. After some digging around through old-OLD really purani school files… which were mostly poorly labeled (Hey! I found a Psy and Jolin Tsai tracks with no names downloaded circa 2005), I found what I was looking for et more~

    What’s rare and I might post?

    • Amanda Latona – Can’t Take it Back
    • Amanda Mumba – Everybody Doesn’t
    • Ano – 4 tracks of Fruits from the Tree
    • Marit Larsen & Marion Raven – Synger Kjente (or ten tracks off it)
    • Out of your Mouth – Music (Madonna Cover)
    • Tangleroot (20 tracks)
    • The Sunwater Diaries [1] (2 tracks)
    • Capitanes de Lata (the Gloria Maria Solaris children play)

    so if any of those search words bring you here, let me know.

    Anyway, down the rabbit hole of Amy’s memory lane that included pop, country, r&b, hard rock, metal, electro hip hop rock and what not~ I realized that I have Canadian years gap compared to many of my friends, knowing Canadians bands that had only-Canadian hits between 2003-2006. Out of your Mouth (above), GOB, Our Lady Peace, Billy Talent, Barlow [1] are some…

    … and of course I remembered this video of Bif Naked. I knew she was ingrained in my mind because of Buffy, but this video for Tango Shoes and Bif Naked on a tank cruising through downtown Vancouver, Pender St. with spottings of Tinseltown and whatnot. Can’t get more Canadian than that. I remember seeing the video on Much.

    Oh, man~ it does take me back.

  • From the Vault: Winona for Bjork @ the Oscars

    It’s been 15 years, nothing has knocked Dancer in the Dark out of my #1 favorite movie. I hardly remember the Oscars ceremony (of any year), but Bjork’s Swan dress is a classic in the public consciousness. Her performance of I’ve Seen it All, though shorten for the ceremony, is still better than the would be mash-up with other songs from previous years. And if I’m not mistaken, this year’s performances were even more rushed… yet, the broadcast never seems to run on time.

    I can’t wait to get Vulnicura in my hands.

  • Titanium Hanko Seals?

    Of course I need this in my life~

    When I visited China — already nearly a decade ago — I got myself a seal with my name on. It’s made of jade, square, and it’s pretty big, to be honest. I’m also not fond of the font used, so I scanned the print to illustrate it and did a digital seal of my own that I use to sign photographs and whatnot. But ever since, I’ve wanted to get a new proper seal. I’ve only got my grandfather’s old seal.

    Though most websites dealing with Japanese seals (hanko) look sketchy, I finally ran into Hankoya.com — I didn’t know they made titanium seals! Woah~ The website is, of course, so chunky and hard to browse if you can’t read Japanese. I doubt they’d do international shipping.

    But~ my gosh~~~ they even do silver and gold seals! There’s also wood ones (like maple or sandalwood), but how sketchy is it with ivory and horns? Is it legal to even sell anything remotely done with ivory?

    The amber resin and the Satsuma cornus kousa (薩摩本柘) look so good too~

  • Su Yunying’s a Wild Child

    … and, BAM!

    You gotta love a contest that focuses on material, composition and production. That’s my main problem with singing contests, there are soooooo many great voices out there, but when albums are released, they turn out to be very boring in production. Sun Yunying’s (苏运莹) voice isn’t even bad at all, she sounds great and unique and she sells Wild Child (野子) so well right from the start.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-1ciY-psAs

  • Damn, Who Knew Christina Was Good at Imitating?

    Damn, Christina Aguilera sounds pretty good as Cher and Britney. Her Shakira sounds a bit Cher-y for my taste, but her yodeling sounds legit. But apparently, it’s pretty big news that Christina does old school Britney better than Britney herself because my mother came over with an already set comment on this before I showed her the clip.

    Thing is, Christina can do voices, BiBi does gestures [1].

  • Mayday Can Always Hit You Right in the Feels~

    Oldie song, but new performance at… what seems, the Bird Nest Stadium in Beijing.

    Mayday has just released the Nowhere Concert Movie in four editions: 3D BR + Live in Live Making-Of the concert DVD, Simple BR, Free Region DVD, and the DVD with the Making-Of.

    They’ve also re-released their albums in Chinese versions, and I’ve seen (super expensive) Vinyls, as well.

    I still can’t believe Asian Blurays are so expensive compared to their US counterparts. Now we all gotta way for Asian movies to be released in America.

  • Sonam is not as unlikable with Rajkummar Rao

    If you read this blog and/or have stumbled upon a post on the subject or -somehow- seen my comments on social media or… maybe a review or feature I’ve written, you’d know I’m not very fond of Sonam Kapoor [1]. Or I wasn’t. At the moment, I’m not sure anymore. A while ago, I saw her on Khoobsurat, which in normal circumstances I wouldn’t have picked, but it was Disney (!) so I couldn’t help myself.

    It’s perfectly fine light entertainment, though I think this is the first time I’ve seen a Disney movie where our female protagonist gets (though admitedly quite endearingly funny) pissed drunk, who then later accepts a bottle of soda with ruffies to end up kidnapped (don’t worry, it’s still Disney so nothing happens), and finally ends up with a (hot) prince that was engaged to some other woman. Anyway~ since then, I found myself not hating Sonam as it seems like she’s TRYING. Like- you can sense a change of pace/vibe.

    Dolly ki Doli doesn’t look awful.

    And in this segment for Anupama Chopra’s The Meeting Ground, Rajkummar Rao (who is also in DkD) makes her palatable. It gets a bit awkward when they keep going on their talk on star children and their upper hand in the industry. Sonam tries to make a point, but Angelina Jolie didn’t make her starring debut in a studio picture with a brand director. Angelina’s credits went from a small role in one of her dad’s films, to straight-to-video releases and shorts until Without Evidence.

    Gwyneth and all her Gwynethness is a bit more lucky, but not as lucky as star children in India. TV Movie debut directed by her dad, small role on a movie until she cameo’d on godfather Steven Spielberg’s Hook. It wasn’t until a few years later when she landed Se7en with Fincher and PTA’s Hard Eight.

    Nobody goes to Eva Amurri or Rumer Willis and tells their parents Susan Sarandon, Demi Moore or Bruce Willis, “I want to launch your daughter with this banner.”

    LOL, this seemingly harmless post turned into a rant. But honestly, no one would care if a star child would begin with small roles in movies, working their way up. Instead, they are given starring roles in medium-big budget films to launch them.

    Rant over.

  • Miyavi Lets Go on Ellen~

    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.

  • Occasionally Still Think of You

    Though I haven’t made successful contact with Milk@Coffee on Weibo, they’re still one of my favorite Chinese mainland artists, though I feel like they peaked with Give You a Little Color (给你点儿颜色) in 2010. Last year, they released Shine of Memory (时间的光) [Xiami] and though I picked Young Conviction (信仰年轻) as one of my pick songs of 2014 [1], Occasionally Still Think of You (偶尔还是会想起你) is the song that brought the most feelings ‘coz it made me think of my dad (even though it’s totally a love song).

    Milk@Coffee just released a music video for it.

    My dad’s bday is this Saturday.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U_kK1iamNE

    The lyrics go something like this:

    Occasionally still think of you
    in the middle of the night, when people are quiet.
    Maybe I’m still not used to being without you.

    Occasionally still think of you,
    repeating over the familiar scenario-
    similarly, I still can hear the sound of your voice.

  • Welcome Back, Nic~

    I think it’s been a long time since people saw Nicole Kidman being so damn cute, funny and… I suppose, relaxed. In some strange parallel universe, there is a Nicole Kidman that has been giggling for the past ten years with her alternate universe relationship to Jimmy Fallon.

    If you didn’t like her, Fallon made you like Kidman. If you don’t like him, she made you like him.