Olivia Lufkin’s English panel

WEBLOG:
The first English panel that Olivia Lufkin’s ever done–check it out! (For those that don’t know, she’s a singer/songwriter that’s established a career in Japan, but she’s half Caucassian and half Japanese, and English is her first language, which makes both her music and outlook very unique.)

You can find the other 5 parts of the panel by clicking on the YouTube logo in the screen. The whole thing was recorded by someone using a cellphone, so the quality isn’t good, but you can understand her most of the time, as she’s got a very clear voice.

I was already a big fan before (enough to have made a page about her), but after watching the panel videos, I now see her in a different light and like her even more.

Here are a couple of her music videos, for those that aren’t familiar with her:

Spiderspins – This is Olivia’s heavy rock side:

Into the Stars – This is Olivia’s softer side:

This video shows her backstage getting prepared for a performance. The little operatic vocal exercise she does was a surprise and really cute:

I’ve always been a sucker for singer/songwriter girls, because that sense of affinity I feel towards them. I don’t necessarily feel that way about musician/composer girls though, because I think the attraction come from the fact that singer/songwriters tend to express things that are very personal and emotionally cathartic–something that is different from composers/performers of instrumental music or simply just singing something that others wrote. Singer/songwriters have this unique ability to draw you into their world and make you feel what they feel, and I find that quality particularly hypnotic. I’m also very attracted to girls that are a bit shy or aloof (but not unfriendly/anti-social), soft-spoken with an angelic voice, and unpretentious despite being naturally beautiful–it’s no wonder I’m a fan of Olivia, since she’s all of those qualities rolled into one. The fact that she can go from heavy rock to ethereal trip-hop in her musical sensibility just makes her that much more special.

In the early days, she was still trying to find her musical identity, and her inexperience along with record company management really filtered out a lot of her special qualities. But as she gained independence and became more confident in her own musical direction, it became a joy to watch her take shape and control her own destiny. Her sister Caroline and her brother Jeff are also musicians. It must be awesome to share that passion for music and to collaborate on projects together. Here’s Caroline’s MySpace page. Caroline’s style is more electronic/ambient, and according to Olivia, Jeff is going to school for sound design, which indicates that he also leans heavily towards the electronic side (as evident by the work he’s done on some of Olivia’s tracks). I’m totally looking forward to anything these three siblings will be doing in the future.

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A couple of quickie film reviews:

Miami Vice – I’m a fan of Michael Mann, and I was somewhat disappointed with this film. First of all, the digital photography was grainy as hell–I don’t understand why they didn’t at least do a pass of noise-removal. It’s one thing to want a gritty look, but it’s another to have your film look like it was shot with ISO 3200 setting during all low-light scenes. The lack of character relationships (especially between the two main leads!) was also a let down–even the romance felt forced. The firefights weren’t very interesting either, and felt too staged and convenient. This might be the weakest Michael Mann film I’ve ever seen.

Mission Impossible 3 – I liked the first season of Alias, and I’m still interested enough in Lost to keep up with it (as is Elena), so I was looking forward to see what J.J. Abrams could do on the big screen. In general I enjoyed the film, and he incorporated a lot of the same approaches as he did in both Alias and Lost–in storytelling devices and also directing/cinematography. The ending lost me a little, although (do not read further–SPOILER AHEAD) I understood what he tried to do; he tried to convey the fact that Ethan Hunt’s wife is possibly someone who is a naturally gifted spy/secret agent, as it only took less than a minute of instructions on using a pistol for her to handle it like a firing range veteran. I mean, that’s a novel idea–that his wife could end up getting drafted into the MIF and work alongside Ethan Hunt, but as much as I like the idea, it’s just too much to ask of the audience in terms of suspension of disbelief. Then again, who knows? Maybe one day if my life is in danger, and I hand Elena a pistol and give her a minute of instructions, she’d kill two highly trained agents without breaking a sweat too.