SITE NEWS:
The latest batch of Kitty Cat Diary entries are up:
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A couple of Korean indie bands recommendations:
I’ve mentioned Fanny Fink‘s first album in the blog before, and now here are two songs from their 2nd album, 7 Moments, that I really like:
Fanny Fink – Snowdrop
Snowdrop lyrics (translated by gogoparty.livejournal.com):
It snowed yesterday
The world changed a bit
I’m going to walk slowly
Signs, billboards, stoplights (this trip doesn’t need any of that)
Anywhere I go, I’ll be walking on the road towards you
I want to warm my day and give it to you
I want to warm my day and give it to you
It snowed yesterday
The world changed a bit
You don’t have to promise, you don’t have to be perfect (just stay like this)
It’s ok even if everything fades away soon
I want to warm my day and give it to you
I want to warm my day and give it to you
I want to warm my day and give it to you
I want to warm my day and give it to you
Today disappeared a bit
The world kept changing
I love the combination of the ethereal beauty and faint melancholy intertwined with tender love. It’s as if she’s holding on to that moment walking in the snow, knowing that maybe the relationship, like the snow, will eventually fade away. But in that moment, the warmth she feels in her heart is enough.
Fanny Fink – Hear Song
Hear Song lyrics:
(I didn’t find any credible translation for the Korean part online, but I did use Bablefish to translate that one single line of Korean in the whole song, which is repeated, and it gave me this: “Buys the radio, the ancientness cassette tape.” I guess you can guess the meaning from that broken machine translation.)
ë¼ë””오를 샀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
ë¼ë””오를 틀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
hear song hear song hear song hear song
ë¼ë””오를 샀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
ë¼ë””오를 틀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
hear song lalalalala hear song lalalalala
hear song lalalalala hear song lalalalalala
Listen up
No one’s out there
파니핑í¬(Fanny Fink) Hear song Lyrics
I’m singing away
singing away
Where I am
Holding your eyes
No one’s out there
I’m singing away
ë¼ë””오를 샀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
ë¼ë””오를 틀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
hear song hear song hear song hear song
ë¼ë””오를 샀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
ë¼ë””오를 틀어 아주 ì˜¤ëž˜ëœ ì¹´ì„¸íŠ¸í…Œì´í”„
hear song lalalalala hear song lalalalala
hear song lalalalala hear song lalalalalala
Listen up
No one’s out there
I’m singing away
singing away
Where I am
Holding your eyes
No one’s out there
Only for you
It’s just a really cute song, with very catchy melody and arrangement, combining acoustic and electronic instruments.
I was introduced to Nell recently, a Korean indie band (via the big Asian music thread on head-fi.org). Some of their songs are really poignant and moving. Here are a couple I really like:
Nell – Tokyo (in English)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfJzzHR-l0&feature=player_embedded
Tokyo lyrics:
The love we make
The tears we cry
Sometimes they’re just not real
The heart we break
The wounds we make
Sometimes they just don’t heal
I think i’m losing weight again
I think i’m losing taste again
I think i broke my heart again
Will you stay with me
I think i lost my love again
Maybe i sold my heart again
I think i’m left with none but pain
Will you stay with me
The things we say
The things we hear
Sometimes they’re not real
The thing we touch
The thing we feel
Sometimes they’re just not real
I like how the lyrics address the fact that when love goes wrong and no matter how broken we might feel, there’s always the understanding that it’s all an illusion, and everything will eventually come to pass.
Nell – “Last Advice” (with English subtitles)
http://youtu.be/ac_dLg-Wp6g
(The video didn’t allow embedding, so please use the link)
Last Advice lyrics:
Be quiet please
Please shut your mouth
and stay in the corner quietly
Don’t overreact
Whenever you do that
I feel like going crazy
While I do you the favor of ignoring it, stop it
If you continue, this is only going to get ugly
Until now, this is what I’ve suppressed,
my very last advice
(A)
Your thoughtlessness
disguised as intelligence
Makes me nauseous
Gives me a headache
It’s driving me crazy with disgust
I can’t take it anymore
(B)
Your sleaziness
disguised as elegance
Makes me nauseous
Gives me a headache
It’s killing me with disgust
I’ve run out of patience
How far would you fall?
Stop, Please stop
Until now, this is what I’ve suppressed,
my very last advice
Repeat (A) & (B)
Your wickedness
disguised as virtue
Makes me nauseous
Gives me a headache
It’s driving me crazy with disgust
I can’t take it anymore
Repeat (B)
This is my last advice
my very last advice
Anyone who’s ever fallen so far out of love with someone, to the point of becoming totally disgusted by the person, can relate to this song.
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Quickie TV/Movie reviews:
Flashpoint (season one) – I found out about this Canadian TV show because I was looking up Claire van der Boom. She’s not in the first season, but the show’s not bad. Some episodes are a bit formulaic and outdated compared to American TV shows, but the good episodes are quite entertaining. It’s focuses more on the psychological and emotional aspects of being part of the Canadian’s version of a SWAT team. There’s very little action, which I think was on purpose. The show’s sometimes a bit too sedated for its own good though, especially when it has to compete from edgier shows that really know how to hook the audience.
Drive – A surprising film, combining the subtlety of a quiet, indie drama with the tense action of a thriller. Carey Mulligan is always a pleasure to watch. And Ryan Gosling–well, he’s Ryan Gosling. You know what you’re getting when you watch him.
Captain America: The First Avenger – Out all the Avenger’s solo movies, this one was the least interesting one. Iron Man, Thor, and The Hulk all had much more interesting solo movies. I’m definitely looking forward to The Avengers though, being a big Joss Whedon fan.
The Wrestler – Darren Aronofsky is one filmmaker whose work I follow without exception, not necessarily because I love the movies he make, but because I respect his clarity of vision and talent as a storyteller. The Wrestler, like his most of his other films, is about broken people who could only find meaning in their lives through obsessions, even if it might cost them their lives.
I liked the movie a lot, but the whole subplot with the daughter was a bit too predictable and familiar. When she mentioned the missed birthdays, I almost rolled my eyes. Really? With so many different ways to fuck up a relationship, the most clichéd missed birthdays was the one that made it into the screenplay?
13 Going On 30 – I couldn’t sit through this derivative, overacted, contrived, saccharin mess. I thought it might be something like Big, but with a female protagonist. Not even close.
Final Destination 5 – There’s no other reason to watch this franchise than the creative deaths. After five movies, it’s still fun (I think this is the last one though, since it reaches full circle with the first one).
Dogville – I hated Lars von Trier’s Dancer In the Dark (it was a contrived mess without any logical motivation for the protagonist’s needless sacrifice), but I enjoyed Dogville a lot (if the word “enjoyed†could even be used to describe a Lars von Trier film). It’s clear how disappointed von Trier is in humanity, and in some ways, I share his pessimistic view about human nature, but I think this movie’s a bit too pessimistic. Genuinely kind people are the small minority in our population, but they do exist, and I wish the movie could have addressed that.
Contagion – An enjoyable, fairly low-key epidemic thriller. Soderbergh is an excellent director, and although I haven’t seen all of his films, I’ve seen about a dozen, and I’ve liked them all.
True Romance – Revisited this one recently because people keep talking about it. I didn’t care for it when I watched it all those years ago, and I still don’t care for it now. I think it’s probably one of the weaker screenplays Tarantino’s written, and compared to Pulp Fiction, which came out just a year later, Tony Scott’s direction was also kind of immature.
The Skeleton Key – A decent gothic horror. A bit hokey in some spots, but watchable.
