My Friend

Slamdunk OP and ED. Slamdunk. How long ago was it? The OP and ED kinda takes me back to the time when I was first introduced to animes and mangas. :)


Slamdunk OP/ED

The last song from the above clip was My Friend by ZARD (Izumi Sakai). One of my favourite songs from ZARD.


My Friend - ZARD

ZARD's lead vocals, prolific singer/songwriter Izumi Sakai passed away about 5 months months ago. Her songs. Her melancholic smile. Eien.


Eien - ZARD


Makenaide - ZARD (Lucky Star version)


Thank you for the music! Arigatougouzaimashita.

Zurich Stained

Always a joy to listen to Malkmus sing about staining his sofa, furniture or whatever.



Zurich is Stained
Artist(Band):Pavement

i can't sing it strong enough
'cause that kind of strength i just don't have
if you watch the light change
don't hold them hanging
you think it's easy, but you're wrong
i am not one-half of the problem
zurich is stained and it's not my fault
just hold me back or let me run

what does it mean, a mistake or two?
if it's the kind of mistakes no one can trace
to the fountain where we sold it
and held them hanging
you think it's easy, but you're wrong
i am not one-half of the problem
zurich is stained and it's not my fault
just hold me back or let me run

you think it's easy, but you're wrong
i am not one-half of the problem
zurich is stained and it's not my fault
just hold me back or let me run

20 Best Pavement Songs ever

Nodame Mongoose

This is Nodame Mongoose.



Nodame Cantabile ending.



GYABO! MUKYA!

Huge Ass Pavement Malkmus Compil.

Messed around/abused imeem.com. Results:



flux=radical edward

Merlion in Bebop

Bad-ass Faye Valentine

Trivia- The Merlion was featured in episode 24 of Cowboy Bebop (on Faye's video.) It may be implied that Faye spent a portion of her childhood here in Singapore. The whole time I wanted to dive into the TV to point out to Faye the "water-sploosh" thing is in Singapore lol. But it made me smile a little, as does this song Green Bird, by Yoko Kanno, every time I hear it.


Yoko Kanno

For memories


Cathedral Fight - Ballad of Fallen Angels
Music - Greenbird


Compilation AMV (spoilers)
Music - Blue


Episode 24 - Hard Luck Woman
Music - Call Me Call Me

Come See The Duck

There aren't many Deerhoof vids/youtubes with good audio quality. These are some more Deerhoooofs-












Deerhoof rocks. Go, Satomi!

Mp3s

myspace

Panda Panda Panda

pan-da-pan-da-pan-da-pan-da-pan-china!

bunny bunny bunny bunny bunny- bunny! i can't get u, lalalala! i can't have it, the monster Rabbit!













DEERHOOF! SATOMI MATSUZAKI! YAY! :O GREAT BAND!

Mantis Technique

I always love the blizzard forums. You often get crazy, sometimes intelligent and funny posts.

In this case, someone was blabbering japanese on the WoW forum in this thread. Had everyone confused and folks tried to decipher it.

Then, at the end, a guy Layoth came out and commented: "insolent whelp! try my mantis technique"

(shrug) I don't know, but that made me laughed. :D

Hope

This song was playing somewhere...

(overheard)
"At the back of my mind, I was... always hoping that I might just get by."

Lrn2Heroes

The title is something invented from the World of Warcraft forums. Say, in the game, someone complained about a nerf to his/her particular class or character-in-game, the common response on the forum would be to tell him to "Lrn2play" (learn to play (the game)). Extend this to almost every other aspect of life- lrn2shutup, lrn2timemanagement, lrn2parent, lrn2(insert anything) etc. You get the drift.

Anyway, I'm hooked on this new NBC series, Heroes. It's like your X-men (folks with altered genes display special abilities) show, except they give these gifts to the common folk. For example, this cheerleader gained the ability to regenerate. What did she do with it? She tried to ram a car into the wall, with this guy (who had tried to date-rape her earlier) in it. The guy would suffer multiple injuries and she would escape, regenerated later, to come out virtually unscathed from the intentional accident. Another example is a policeman who suddenly gained the ability to read thoughts used his skills to try to repair his broken marriage.

It has aspects of J.Michael Straczynski's comic series Rising Stars and X-Men.

It sounds cheesy but it's not. Very engaging and the story is pretty well done. It's interesting to see where the story will take us. Try to catch it if you haven't.

"Save the cheerleader. Save the world."

The Oscars

Wanted to watch this year's oscars, if only to catch the moment Martin Scorsese wins Best Director. And he did won it. :) And the montages were great. And Ennio Morricione. But the moment was fleeting. So I guess it's better to sit down and watch Martin talks about films he likes in the documentary "A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies". It's like having a glimpse into a walking film-book. Like browsing through my thick Timeout Film Reviews book. Or sitting through film school Day One again. D.W. Griffiths, F.W. Murnau... Pretty interesting.

I was still thinking about Adaptation, the movie I watched yesterday. It is fascinating how the movie went from passion for orchids and the beauty in that to mere obsession with drugs. :D Dug out this amazing quote from wikipedia-

"There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to think that the reason it matters to care so passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. (Susan, in the book)"

That wisdom can be applied to so many things- passion for orchids, turtles... (spoiler) to passion for orchids-"whittled"-down-to-chunk-sized-drugs. :P

Found out from the earlier oscars too that Philip Noiret (actor from Cinema Paradiso) has passed away. Somehow what Forrest Whittaker said was true. There's a connection between the actor and the audience somewhere. I'm reminded of the first time I watched Cinema Paradiso in the cinema. And that Ennio Morricione music was playing. It's all coming together.

The Ending In "Adaptation"

This is the first time I've watched Adaptation. Talk about "twists in the ending/the final act". This one blew me away. I was expecting the ending to just "coasts along". I really wasn't prepared for that.

Very fascinating and engaging (on many levels) film.

The Ending In "Lost In Translation"

"Lost in Translation" was shown on tv earlier. It is, for me, one of those rare films that hits the right notes just about everywhere. Both actors were endearing. Brilliant soundtrack with music by Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine).

Unfortunately, the ending on this tv-version was snipped. I remember it was fairly shorter than the original. The ending was integral to the film too.

In anticipation of Oscar-day, which is Monday, another movie will be shown on tv tomorrow night- "Adaptation", which I planned to catch.

The fillers have ended for Naruto too. The new Naruto series which deals with the Akatsuki saga has started, named Naruto Shippuuden. Naruto and friends have grown older and Gaara has become the new Kazekage of Sand Village. :)

Movie Music

Nothing much. Happened by this blog earlier. The blogger discussed movie music that he liked. In it were a couple of my favourite films and true enough, they all had memorable theme music.

One of which caught my attention- the Indian film Pather Panchali. He wrote that he had put up the music from the movie, by well-known musician Ravi Shankar. The link didnt work though. It pointed me to another site and through some searching I found the sample music I was looking for.

Here's a part of the music from Pather Panchali-
http://hype.non-standard.net/track/228415

The music echoes familiar scenes from the movie. Such is the brilliance of wonderful movie music.

Now and Then, Here and There

I remember watching this anime long ago too- "Now and Then, Here and There", days before I was due for enlistment into army. It was a moving and sad anime. The anime made me ask myself a fundamental question- "Can I bring myself to die before I'm forced to kill a person in a war?" I don't know the answer and probably never will. This uncertainty scares me more than anything else.

"Because ten billion year's time is so fragile, so ephemeral... it arouses such a bittersweet, almost heartbreaking fondness." -NTHT

NTHT ending song



To prey upon stillness,
to suffer dawn,
to bow before God,
to administer grace,
to unveil space, to
be spirited away,
to lift a child
into the reigning air
where the voice of heaven
chirps like a bird
- Patti Smith

The Groundhog

This chubby fella is special; a day is dedicated to its name. ^^

Tradition has it that - "If a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks."

Reminds us of the endearing actor Bill Murray too.

Groundhog's Day Wikipedia

In Dreams Begin Responsibility

Those are the words of Irish poet/writer William Butler Yeats. He urges us to take responsibility for our dreams.

Dream is often featured as a poster-boy, deemed capable of launching big things, big worlds. You read slogans such as- "Dreams create hopes, which in turn provide strength for us to forge a better reality."

Dream may be just a little kid who has to shoulder these huge ideals, responsibilities. Perhaps it is our responsibility then to watch over the kid and not pound it with such heavy burden, grant it freedom to roam.

Dreams are merely imaginations, meanderings of the mind, without intrinsic value. It is like a loosely-structured story-book of trivias. Sometimes individuals can read well into it and find stories of value. Most of the time Dream is just a kid, always looking for a purpose, to find none. Perhaps we should let it wander free and relish in Irresponsibility.



Neil Gaiman Sandman series

Buncha Yolatengos

Had some time to slip in a few Yolatengos youtubes.

This is an old Yo La Tengo youtube that I managed to dig up. The dynamic duo of a couple Ira Kaplan + Georgia Hubley. :)


Ira Kaplan & Georgia Hubley - Teenager In Love/Everyday

Another old Yo La Tengo and a favourite song of mine by them- Tom Courtenay


Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay

The fleshed out mtv of the song Tom Courtenay.


"Julie Christie, the rumors are true. As the pages turn, my eyes are glued... As the music swells somehow stronger from adversity. Our hero finds his inner peace..."

Tom Courtenay's Wikipedia

Tokyo Story

The Hirayamas. Watched Tokyo Story again the other day. This image stayed in my mind. I almost forgot how sad and lovely it was.

Watched a bunch of old films (A Bout de Souffle, Alice in the Cities, Pather Panchali) the last couple weeks. A thought came to my mind- If there's anything I could pass on to good friends/children/grand-children when I die, it is only this knowledge and discovery of these wonderful films. To all my friends- Keep watching/making your films and stories. :)