Faces, Pages and Places

… that having Jet Li AND Jackie Chan starring alongside each other in the same movie would be nothing short of kick-ass, they release a trailer like this:

I am so disappointed, I won’t even tell you the name of the movie. I don’t know if they’re trying to appeal to both the action stars’ target audiences or what, but the chemistry is just plain sad. Jet Li is all in his own Hero zone, while Jackie Chan seems as if he simply fell out of the latest Rush Hour set right into the scenes of this movie. Wrong, wrong, it’s all so wrong! The last trailer I saw with this much “flop” written all over it was Glitter. And that one stars Mariah. Go figure. Skating. E~hehh…

On a different note, it’s cool to see Jackie Chan’s moves more choreographed to suit the fighting style in that “kung fu world” setting. But, who are we kidding, we all know that Jet Li can wushu the shit out of Jackie’s crap-hole any minute of any hour of any day. Booya!

Alicia Keys: Won 2 more Grammys this year including Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. This is why she’s one of my favourites.

The now 11-time Grammy Award winner opened the show singing a special duet with Frank Sinatra on his song “Learnin’ the Blues”. It’s awesome to hear her sing big band/swing; proves that she has the chops to fit right in with the best from that music era. Believe the hype people, ’cause it’s true!

After a style and wardrobe change, she took the stage once more to sing her hit single “No One”. Incredible performance, and what a surprise to see John Mayer joining her on the guitar towards the end!

Kanye West: Won 4 more Grammys last night including Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group (with Common for the song “Southside”), Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album. I didn’t think his latest album was as great as his previous 2 efforts, but the singles that were released from it were off the hizzle fo’ shizzle. Dizzle. I be rollin’ wit ma bizzles. That shit’s whizzle. Am I making sizzle?

Anyway, Kanye gave the baddest, meanest performance of the night, if not ever. He performed “Stronger” with Daft Punk, and the whole stage concept was insane! He is the ultimate manifestation of every sense of the word “cool”. I mean, check out the glasses!!!

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Disappointments: Daughtry was nominated for 5 awards but went home empty-handed. I thought they’d at least win Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, but that one went to The White Stripes. Oh, well.

Other worthy mentions: Amy Winehouse was the biggest winner of the night with 5 Grammys. They say she sobered up for the ceremony, but I really couldn’t tell. Her singing was a mess compared to how good she usually sounds. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken the Grey Goose away from her. At least she still dressed like a crack-whore and danced like she’s suffering from burning sensations while peeing. I also thought it was cool that she dedicated her Song of the Year award to London. Go, London!

Herbie Hancock pulled the greatest upset and surprise of the night, winning Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, a collection of his interpretation of some of Joni Mitchell’s most famous songs. Personally, I enjoyed his previous album Possibilities that featured collaborations with various up-and-coming artists during that time, but, from its description, this one sounds too solely-made-for-artistic-aural-appreciation for me. I’ll give it a listen, out of habit of downloading torrenting every Album of the Year winner, but I’m betting I won’t enjoy it.

I was out to get some lunch today and as I turned the corner into Gloucester Road, I was met with a sea of people crowded outside the tube station and sprawled across the entire street. At first, I thought there had been some accident (or worse, a bomb-scare), but then it didn’t make sense that there would be so many who had emerged apparently from nowhere. Then, I got to thinking that maybe some superstar was in the vicinity and got pretty psyched up (we were just talking last night about how we’ve yet to chance upon meeting a celebrity walking around London).

Walking further up the road, I started to realise that everyone was decked out in black and got a little worried I might have walked into a throng of voodoo/witchcraft fanatics. It didn’t help that I noticed someone waving a faux axe in the air. As I made my way cautiously around them, I caught sight of a few wearing T-shirts printed with the New Zealand national flag. So I finally came to the conclusion that there must be some rugby match on and was very certain that I had got it right this time. But then again, who were they playing against, and where were the supporters of the opposing team? In the end, I gave up jumping from one silly assumption to the next dumb deduction and simply asked a hot chick standing nearby what really the heck was going on on a seemingly normal Saturday like today.

As it turns out, February 6 was Waitangi Day (New Zealand’s national day) and every year on the Saturday closest to that date, New Zealanders in London go on a pub crawl around the tube’s Circle Line. However, I think saw more people celebrating outside on the street than inside Stanhope Arms itself. LOL. Haven’t seen a mob this size since last Chinese New Year in Trafalgar Square. Which reminds me, this year’s celebrations are being held today as well! I wonder if the two congregations would inadvertently meet somewhere and cause the biggest human traffic jam in London history. That would be an amazing sight (from far, far away). Heh. In any case, Happy Waitangi Day to all my friends from/in New Zealand!

Sorry I’m 2 days late in posting this! Was a little busy with some University stuff. So, another year’s come and gone on the lunar calendar and yesterday we ushered in the Year of the Rat, which, incidentally, marks the fact that I will turn 24 real soon. Whoopee.

Had an overkill of a reunion dinner with my “framily” - Lance, May, Melissa and Yew Vern. Picture this: 3 guys and 2 girls with a total appetite size of 3⅔ times the average Joe gorging and feasting on 8 different dishes served with rice. These [and their made-up names] include:

Salted Mustard Greens Soup
Plum and Lemon Sauce Chicken
Deep Fried Haddock with Ginger and Spring Onions
Drunken Soy Chicken
Chili Pork with Crispy Aubergines
Boiled Pak Choi with Oyster Sauce
Stir-fried Leeks and King Prawns
Steamed Asparagus and Dried Chinese Wolfberries

Took some photographs to share with you, but it turned out pretty shitty, so I won’t bother. The food lasted us till tonight’s dinner, so that’s about 4 meals worth.

Ever since I grew up to be a little kid smart enough to not let my cousins decide every single thing I watch, I’ve pretty much detested childish, Disney-type adventure/comedy movies, but this one I gotta post about.

So basically, Nim is a little girl who lives on an island…

… and this is funny because Nim is also my 23-year old Indian friend from Taman Tun(and not because I enjoy googling for pictures of random machas with afros ala Alleycats and photoshopping them into posters of cheesy flicks starring Jodie Foster).

Now this is something we can all look forward to. No, really.

Happy February, everybody! As promised, I’ve gotten myself a copy of his new album, listened to it, and now, I’m giving you my review of it.

Album: Special Company
Artist: Josh Kelley

♪♪♪♪ (out of 5)

Special Company is Josh Kelley’s fourth album in the span of his five-year career and is an eclectic mix of alternative, indie rock and jazz-tinged pop. Listening to it for the first time in one sitting is like opening up a box of chocolate selections that have no labels on them - once you’ve tasted your first piece, you can’t wait for the wonderful surprises that lie beneath the colourful wrappers of the next and the rest. Disparate and stand-alone as the songs may be, one common thing that courses through the veins of the CD as a whole is the impression that they leave you with. Each is a gem, with just the right amount of instrumentation delivered by an amazing band slipping and sliding effortlessly in and out of genres cool and clever.

Remembering the last time when I commented on his vocal styling and compared it to Michael McDonald, Adam Levine and Chris Martin, I realise I might have been a tad misleading. After all, I only gave you one song as a sneak preview to completely support my judgement. Now, normally I would post a couple of songs in which he sounds like the aforementioned artists just to prove my point, but instead, I think I’d compromise on that and compensate it with 4 of my favourite tracks off the album.

How about that?

First up, I thought it a must to share with you his latest single Unfair to boost blog traffic because I’m awesome that way. The next one I have is Hey Katie, a song he wrote for his new wife, who incidentally, was recently voted AskMen.com’s Most Desirable Woman. Say it with me, “Damn you Josh, you lucky bastard!” Last but not least, I have 2 other songs that showcase the different sides of his incredibly versatile musicianship. Enjoy!

Unfair

Hey Katie

My Kind

Fallin In Love With You

Click on the image above to view and purchase Special Company on Amazon.com

Came across an interesting site some time ago, forgot about it for awhile, but now that it has crept back into my conscious, I thought I’d introduce it to you guys. Basically, it’s a game of sorts whereby you are given a word and you are to choose, from a list of four, the word that most closely parallels it in meaning. In other words (har har), it’s a vocabulary challenge.

The fun thing about it is that they’ve grouped words into several “levels” according to their difficulty (i.e. their rarity) so that you can gauge how good you are and not attempt to learn words that are too bizarre for you. Progress is made to subsequent levels when you accomplish 3 correct answers in a row, but you lose a level if you make just 1 mistake.

Coolest thing is that for each correct word you choose, a donation of 20 grains of rice is made through the United Nations. I know it doesn’t sound much, but play it and before you know it, you would have amassed quite a significant contribution. Gets a little repetitive after awhile, but it sure beats reading the dictionary during your spare time. Ahem. And it’s a nice way to do some charity (size does not matter here folks) and to promote awareness regarding poverty. An awesome idea and a worthy cause, so check it out!

This is why I can’t wait to start the month ahead.

Was surfing YouTube and I came across this very rare live medley of Goodbye and Butterflyz which was left out of the Unplugged album/DVD. They’re two of my favourite songs off her debut, and possibly off her entire repertoire, so I’m definitely feeling the excitement of hopefully witnessing something like this… soon. Heh.

Goes to show how some things you just can’t learn by incessantly playing some video game.

Jake Shimabukuro: OK, so what this guy is playing is actually an ukulele, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less amazing. Wait for the bridge and watch him go berserk on the poor instrument - I’m surprised all the strings survived this one.

Andy McKee: Now this bald dude here shows you how a guitar can be used beyond convention. Very cool mix of hammering and plucking, plus, extra kudos for composing an awesome original piece.

“… and if that’s the case, you need to use a brain…”