Ume no Kare no Kimi by Watanabe Hamako

Vintage-ness kicks in... A wonderful song dated back from 1951.
夢の彼の君 - 渡辺はま子

People of the World by J-Friends

Another vintage song from 11 years ago. Kinki Kids, TOKIO, and V6 are not really that popular anymore...

I For You by Luna Sea

A vintage song from 12 years ago. I still get shivers when I listen to this song. Flying through the city and along the shore edge is very nice too.

Miinah BONAMANA by Super Junior

Yesterday I posted a video of Super Junior's June 19th performance on MBC with their new song Miinah BONAMANA, today I'm going to post the official music video. Supposedly the music style was named Super Junior Funky, and the dance moves were inspired by figure skating.

Check out Super Junior here: http://superjunior.smtown.com/

Miinah BONAMANA by Super Junior

This is one of Super Junior's performance of their new song Miinah BONAMANA on MBC on June 19th, 2010.

I just have to say I love Heechul - only he can pull off a dress (or should I say long top?) with patterned leggings as a guy in a boy band. And really, he is just so trendy and lovable! Close up shot right below...

Opening by Philip Glass

The original music was composed by Philip Glass, now combined with wire frame stimulator graphics for ever better experience. See the youtube link for more details about the performer and artist.

Geometry of Circles by Philip Glass

The music was composed by Philip Glass for Sesame Street in 1979. Still amazing after 30 years.

Is it just me or I found this fascinating?
Philip Glass + geometric shapes + rainbow colour = speechless

Squarepusher - Tommib

Beautiful video.

Highspeed Drift by Gary War

I can't stop listening to Gary War's stuff after my friend mlex sent me the following video. Cute triangles too ∆ ∆ ∆

Check out Gary War here: http://www.myspace.com/garywargarywar

Voices for Beijing by Jonathan Borofsky

I was very fortunate to be able to encounter Jonathan Borofsky's mini show at the Pyo Beijing Gallery inside the 798 art district, roughly 2 year ago in the same summer as the Beijing Olympics 2008. Now whenever I feel very paranoid or pissed, I always turn to Voices for Beijing (2008) to calm myself down. It really helps me to clear my mind.

Jonathan Borofsky is an installation artist from the States, and had projects over North America, Europe, and East Asia. His official website can be seen here: http://www.borofsky.com/

The film piece is 8 minutes and 8 seconds long. Sound was done with artist's own voice, digitally altered with a computer system.

And did I mention I adore his installation work revolving on the theme of people, on top of this film? He's ranked second after Andy Warhol on my favourite artist list. Claes Oldenburg can only come in third after Jonathan Borofsky.

DJ Project

It is absolutely brutal to go through the lyrics of DJ Project's songs. Before I read the English translation of the different songs, I just thought of them as being great dance melodies or pumping music. But now... the lyrics are disturbing me intensely.

Selection of DJ Project's lyrics in Romanian and their English translations:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/dj-project-lyrics.html

Selected music videos (the videos aren't that interesting, but I adore the melody of the songs):

Esti tot ce am

Soapte

Doua anotimpuri

Inca o noapte

Lacrimi de înger

Privirea ta

Blue Jeans by Ladytron

Yes this is another song by Ladytron. Another favourite of mine. A song from a while back.

Check out Ladytron here: http://www.myspace.com/ladytron

Air and Kilometers by Kaki King

Kaki King is amazing. The music video for Air and Kilometers is amazing too.

Check out Kaki King here: http://www.myspace.com/kakiking

Playgirl by Ladytron

I'm not a big fan of this music video, but the song itself is lovely. I can't stop playing it on repeat.

Check out Ladytron here: http://www.myspace.com/ladytron

200 Pounds Beauty

Many of you know I'm pretty outdated on so-called "popular" stuff. The past Sunday I finally watched 200 Pounds Beauty (2006, South Korea). Yes I'm 2 years late. Whatever.

It's funny because the movie and its theme songs reminded me the time when I was very into Korean entertainment and culture years ago (hey, there was sort of a reason for it. I was curious to know more as a lot of non-Koreans thought I'm Korean! My tiny eyes are just a stereotype... geez. Plus all the Korean girls are so pretty nowadays. I don't resemble them at all, not even close, okieee?). I was doing my first work term on main campus, and all I did for free time during that 4 months was to watch (not so new) Korean dramas and movies. Then on every weekend I would stopped by Finch Station to go home (I haven't discover the greatness of Go Train at that time yet). I also went singing Japanese and Korean karaoke with my high school night-class classmates in K-Town and ate yummy authentic Korean barbecue with my family at that restaurant on the SW corner of Finch and Yonge. And one thing irrelevant to any of the above - I permed my long hair the first time that term. It's weird to think that now I've straight short hair. Those few months were like a dream, floated by and gone. However I'm glad I did got over the want-for-cosmetic-surgery period. At that time I did thought of having my eyes done by making them a bit bigger, not double eyelid nor doll-like though, but depuffing and elongating them so they look less kiddish and better looking visually yet maintaining my signature features (my eyes will turn into lines when I smile, and apparently many people remembered me because of that). Fortunately I discovered the magic of bold acrylic glasses soon enough (well I kinda know it all the way since early high school) to save myself from going under the knife.

Anyway, enough mention of my memories and past struggles. While watching the movie, I really enjoyed one of the theme songs, Maria, sang by the main lead Kim Ah Joong herself. But soon I realized the song was actually a Korean adaptation of Blondie's Maria. No wonder it sounded familiar... Here's the Korean one clipped from the movie:

And Blondie's version:

Check out the plot summary and review of 200 Pounds Beauty by clicking here.

Sketchbooks Patterns Illustrations

Argh. I can't wait until I finish my current sketchbook so I can move onto my new one - which is a pocket-sized Moleskine with squared pages. I want to draw patterns and design little things with the grid layout in the background as a guideline. I think I'm better in those than to doodle freely on totally blank pages. Maybe I'll archive something amazing like Malex's too-much-time-on-your-hands-during-work illustration done solely with Autocad.

Check out the visual blog here: CAD CAD CAKE

Talking about illustrations and graphics, I found Ladytron's music video for their song Runaway is very inspiring. (or I'm just obsessed with electro-pop and Mira Aroyo at this moment. She looks like an androgynous Greek/Egyptian goddess that makes you drop your jaw.)

Tomorrow by Ladytron

Hope this will make your day as someone else made my day:

Check out Ladytron here: http://www.myspace.com/ladytron

March 8th: IWD

What is today you might ask. It seems they don't really mention about it in Canada, as I don't remember it being talk about in school at all, nor any commercial significance regarding today's celebration. Maybe Canada has a pretty decent system on providing equal rights for all people hence there's nothing big going on? (Hey, we are not that behind in same-sex marriage after all.)

International Women's Day, which is on March 8th, celebrates the long route of activists fighting for women's right. I don't see much of it political awareness in Shanghai here. My co-workers just talked about how they would have good deals and discounts at department stores. Like you will get 10% off or something. (Ridiculous. Everything is so emerge into the consumer culture. Just like Christmas too. They market it as an event that makes money. Lots of money without the presence of religion or what so ever.)

To talk about the current women's right here in China, there is improvement if you compare the situation of many years ago. But people are still strongly believing in the idea of "being a good wife and obey your husband", "marrying a rich man and you will live well for the rest of your life", and "delivering a baby boy will make your mother-in-law and your husband's extended family happy." WTF. I prefer to be a good partner to someone (gender and title of the person don't matter), not to get marry (currently I'm not interested in doing so), not to have babies (girl or boy, I'm not ready emotionally nor financially ready for them yet), and I dress to please myself and maybe the people I love but not the general public. Certainly not entertained by your judgmental comments too.

It is pretty depressing when I hear female friends, co-workers, whoever else talked about being their understanding of the "perfect woman." I mean, is that your life goal? To please men? To submerge yourself into fully supporting patriarchy culture? During a recent hang-out, I got to know that one of the younger co-worker chose shoes based on how much guys would think the heels will be attractive and cute and sexy. WTF x 2. (Is it just me who is a feminist here??? Helloooo?) I think I would accept that reason better if you said the shoes make you feel confident or attractive in them, not that you would think guys will like them. Personally I'm not against heels, but they hurt my feet and I can't catch the bus with them on bumpy Shanghai streets. I don't mind wearing them occasionally, after all they do make ME (not others, not guys) feel sexy sometimes. Sigh. I know I cannot force my believes onto others as I don't like others dropping theirs (aka patriarchy) on me. Yet I feel really sorry for those who still buys the idea of being the submissive, dependent, obeying, men-pleasing women.

Another incident was my experience at a club recently. A boy asked me to dance with him. I was being nice so I stood up from my comfortable sitting position and danced. He tried to grine at me. I pushed him away. He fell onto some people. People gave me strange faces. Ya know, I really don't like people touching me without my consent. And no I'm not going to cooperate and participate in your little fun. F*ck off. What's wrong with you? I thought you think that I'm a dyke anyway. Go dance with someone who's willing to be grined at just to boost their self-worth value and attractiveness from your actions. But again, I feel really really sorry for those girls that are willing to get manipulated by you. May those girls be enlightened one day and realize they don't have to live under the patriarchy tree. Remember that all people can run freely as they enjoy! (Oh yeah, as a side note, I hate those girls who kiss each other just to catch male attention. Kate Perry is not cool, okie? Stop obscuring our relationships.)

Let's celebrate the day with Keep On Livin' by feminist punk-rock band Le Tigre (check them out at http://www.letigreworld.com/).