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mercredi, mai 23, 2007 Y 7:58 AM
in the mood for jazz out of a dazed craze (see previous post), i went out of my way to snag some CDs! it was a coincidence that they're all somewhat jazz-related... subconscious must be telling me to slow down. so after a week's worth of easy listening pleasure, here goes the gavel  being an irrepressible MB addict, why shouldn't my hands be all over his new album? :) his recently released 3rd major effort definitely proves he's the lean, mean Michael machine... retains the smooth, hip vibe that makes him a great performer. he conjures up a wondrous spell with his takes on the complimentary swing and big band to the more contemporary pop and bossa nova. "The Best Is Yet to Come" is a fantastic opener, along with "It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Strasera)". in my opinion, "Me and Mrs Jones" has a great arrangement, and "Always on My Mind" is getting terribly romantic the more i listen to it (or is it because i'm such a oldie softie?). i liked the collaborations, 2 on this disc: with Boyz II Men on "Comin' Home Baby" (i think they complement each other very well); and with Brazilian Ivan Lins on the Eric Clapton classic "Wonderful Tonight", tinged with a Latin flavor. but what i loved best on this album are Michael's own songs, "Everything" and "Lost". "Everything" is co-written by him along with the same team that penned "Home" from his second album It's Time (Alan Chang & Amy Foster-Gilles)... it's fun & catchy, and very refreshing to listen to. (i saw the video last week, cute! ^.^;;;) "Lost" gets you in a pensive mood, with its aching lines... wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a hit (a bit surprisingly, this song is co-written by Jann Arden... remember "Insensitive"?) ... this is one LP i'd enjoy listening on repeat :)Rating:4.5 out of 5  another one who's got the 3rd album stretch is our girl Norah Jones, who veers away from mainstream pop and goes to her traditional blues / country folk roots. comparing it to her debut Come Away With Me, you'd see a lot of difference -- more mature and quite dark. most (if not all) were written by Norah on this record, giving you a perfect glimpse of her soul... as always, her distinct mellow voice cuts you through. aside from the radio-friendly "Thinking About You", Not Too Late has the aura of an intimate, smoky lounge. among all other tracks, i love "Sinkin' Soon" because of its playful tune. for those new to Ms Jones' music, they can give "Wake Me Up", "Until the End" & "Not Too Late" a listen. a personal favorite of mine would be "My Dear Country", since it reveals Norah's anti-war (and anti-Bush?) sentiment, and it could very well fit into our country's current situation. *hee* ... just a thought, i find Norah's musical progression from her three albums to be getting... sad. (really?) such as it is, i still love her :) ... breaking away temporarily, i'm making a cute little segue to Norah's debut acting role in "My Blueberry Nights" (yummy title!) opposite the ever-hott Jude Law and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai. she attended at the opening of the 60th Cannes Film Festival where the movie premiered... might i say she looked gorgeous? would want to catch it :)Rating: 3 out of 5 (plus points for the lovely cd jacket)  last but not the least, i'll be introducing my latest 'discovery' (late bloomer as i am). i've grown up with Kenny G music played on car stereos for so long that it wasn't so surprising that i'd come across another great talent, Chris Botti. he's a brilliant jazz trumpeteer, and i got 'acquainted' to him by way of his collaborations with Michael Bublé ("A Song For You") and Renee Olstead ("Someone to Watch Over Me" & "Sunday Kind of Love"). he makes jazz instrumentals sound so beautiful -- puts me in a dreamy mode, man. this album has been around for more than a year actually, but since i (subconsciouly) always notice it, i decided to take it once and for all. To Love Again is a thirteen-track LP featuring 9 vocal collaborations and 4 trumpet solos, and believe me i couldn't put it down for days! each track possesses such wondrous charm... "Embraceable You" provides the perfect opener if you're up for a romantic ride. the duets found in the album are amazing: Sting in the classy "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life", Paula Cole in the absolutely mesmerizing "My One and Only Love" (my favorite), Jill Scott in a modern rendition of "Good Morning Heartache", and Paul Buchanan in the quietly radiant "Are You Lonesome Tonight?". Bublé and Olstead themselves appear in here with "Let There Be Love" and "Pennies from Heaven", respectively. what i love about these collaborations is the way the music and the vocal complement each other -- the result doesn't overwhelm or come off underhanded. i might sound like a grandma stuck in a teenager's body (*okay*) but listening to this album made me appreciate jazz music more and wish i can transport back to the 1930s-40s that was such a glamorous era for jazz. :) ... and before i forget, you wouldn't believe who's closing up To Love Again: the Aerosmith rock god Steven Tyler lending a soft touch to Charlie Chaplin's "Smile"! now, isn't that fantastic... =DRating: 5 out of 5 (yeah!) because of all the ambiance, i'm itching for some Banana Java Chip right this moment.... mmmm.... coffee..... afterthought: if you're into lounge music, check out the newest radio station in the metro, 92.3 XFM. a good way to chill out folks! Libellés : music samedi, mai 19, 2007 Y 1:48 AM
aprés moi... le déluge oh yes, i've obviously slacked off my blogging duties (that monday post said it all). i'll egotistically lay the excuse first on whoever said "if you don't feel like blogging, then don't!" ... for the past few weeks, i have been nothing but a sack of lard, wasting away. there was this 'lousy need' to fill 'some sort of emptiness deep within me', so it seems. i turned to food (which made me flabbier), TV (which only left me half-comforted), and the comp (which made me erratic). still, a small aching urge to just kick it all out. this summer has been the most uneventful perhaps, but then... ...the answer was RETAIL THERAPY. it was only now did i discover what millions of women in the world scream to be the be-all-end-all-cure to any kind of emotional / personal / whatever female ailment there is. the words "shopping" and "me" don't really mix, save for two blessed Sundays (consecutively) when i had a crazed impulse to unleash the Paris Hilton in me (no, not the jailbird thing, and not the video goddess schtick!). it was sublime. even my mom gaped in disbelief when i told her i'm in the mood for a spending spree. (she must've thought since i'm not the type, might as well agree with it. dead wrong! happy belated mommy's day *lol*) i've never known why women can be so keen to shop. to wait on a long queue to try something on, to find out it's the last pair (that's well-worn through fitting), to see something cute that didn't have your size, to straddle through sales, to willingly surrender head and wallet to temporary whims. i have some obscure reason to say i shop like a man; i usually buy things only when the need is urgent. i guess i'll never understand this facet of the "feminine mystique" that's so often maligned and lampooned by the opposite sex. the gods must be sedated when they stuck me into this phase. i am inclined to think that this is one of the rarest moments in H History that i acted out of the Hotel Heiress Handbook, so allow me to have this moment. the inventory (as i recall): 2 pairs of footwear, a couple of shirts, a snazzy messenger bag, cool shades, exclusive personal care products, perfume, a new brolly, 3 CDs, classic novels, and beachwear (which i wonder if i'll even use!). when the shopping spell lasted, it actually felt good. you can feel so lucky that there's those beautiful products seemingly custom-made for you and how the world must be conspiring to make everything sellable. tired feet and pockets aside, nothing beats the thrill of "the perfect buy". Libellés : shopgirl lundi, mai 14, 2007 Y 6:52 PM
election 2007 just so, if i ever looked back on my blog on this date, i'd like to recall that today i voted for the first time. it was altogether an exhilarating kind of feeling, knowing that somehow you're one of those who took part in deciding the fate of the nation. postscript: give it time... behind this avowed cynic, she still has quite a bit of idealism intact. =) Libellés : elections samedi, mai 05, 2007 Y 1:04 AM
it won't be soon before long  A Rundown: What's on Ellie's Mind?the French presidential election (guess who i'm rooting for...), our own local elections (i only have half a ballot's worth of sure votes -- and 3 of them are from a lesser-known party. let me think!), the new single from Maroon 5, "Makes Me Wonder" ~ seen the vid and Adam's so damn gorgeous *drool*, the trailer of The Simpsons Movie (woohoo!), the HP5 movie & the HP7 book, TAR-All Stars finale (i still don't want the BQs to win...), AI finale (3 weeks, i'm sure a girl wins this time *har*), plans for a friends' outing (?).. ... conveniently summing up yours truly as a flagella in a petri dish. Signal Fire i haven't posted lyrics for the longest time... love love that song. that's from the OST of "Spiderman 3" -- which leads us to my most underweight film critique. :) we watched the movie on its opening day ~ i think this was one of the rarest times i did so ~ as an escape from brutal heat and brutal boredom. it was crazy that almost all theaters were premiering "S3" due to massive crowd expectations, and massive it was. there were so many people lining up, and i thought with a bit disdain that the snivelly cinema owners in the whole RP struck gold. (last time i heard, i think "S3" raked P50+M on its first day here!) ... but anyways, we were lucky the cinema we entered wasn't packed at all. ... moving on (i know i'm boring you out! =p): "Spiderman 3" was at most enjoyable. it had (as with the past two Spidey movies) all the elements of a hit blockbuster crowd-pleaser -- CGI, action, romance, comedy, a little drama, sob stories, etc. i believe this is supposed to be the "final" installment, that's why they gave much emphasis on the Peter-MJ-Harry relationship and introduced 2 more villains (explaining the runtime), but then we'll never know. well, three villains are hot, but... bad Spidey is wayyyy hotter. i liked it when Peter had his 'evil' thing going on, eyeshadows and all. (i'm sure you'll love it too *hee*!) ... although i was kinda sleepy (i slept at 3AM some hours ago before that ~ because of this blog! haha) i couldn't manage to doze at all since you'll always catch some action scene going on every 15 minutes! ... about the new characters: 1) Venom was most visible only at the latter end of the movie, hmm... 2) Sandman - i find it hard to recognize Thomas Haden Church here from his schlep role in "Sideways"!... 3) i wasn't so comfy with Gwen Stacy. am i the only one who thinks she looks old? =| ... another thing would be i somehow expected the Dr. Connors character to morph into some evil guy since in the past they had plans for that (but then if there's some more room for another sequel...) ... i'll reserve the last words for my fave -- Harry! there were so many times in the film that i had to restrain myself from making noises *lol*. he rocked this flick, actually ;) there goes. i wouldn't say S3's my fave from the franchise (i think i prefer the first one), but then again what gives? movies like this are hard to come by. why is it that we are at a dearth of big/good films whenever summer rolls around? i haven't had any to look forward to anymore (save for "Pirates 3" maybe)... Libellés : boredom, movies, music mardi, mai 01, 2007 Y 2:52 AM
nouvelles choses (new things) well, what can i say? everything's turning up dandy this side of town: finally! after 5 months, my tiny corner of the world has found itself brand new again! i always thought my old blog layouts look so cluttered, and i so wanted those neat rectangular boxes to fix 'em up. leaving blogskins resigned, i got the idea from Vic and searched around this fantastic icons & graphic resource. so it's still Scarlett in the header -- Cinderella, nonetheless -- but the LJ-style code & background image were mainly Jessica's, so many thanks to her! :) ... this version doesn't have a definite theme, but since my favorite song while i worked out the kinks was Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes", i'd say it was amply inspired by that. (P.S. : OMG it took me two & a half frickin' hours just to troubleshoot this in the Blogger template! i'm such a retard when it comes to technology. let me know what you think of the layout -- whether it's a mess on your browser, etc. thanks a bunch!) i'm starting a new blog (apart from this) @ The Casual Observer where i can 'stretch' my ability to write creative nonfiction, i.e. essays and social commentaries. yup, there's The HT Project but i'm working this out as my own summer assignment (so it's a clean slate)... my goal is to produce as much as 20 posts this vacation, and i hope this could be the impetus to resuscitate my languishing quasi-journalistic career AND well-being (lol). i've always wanted to be some magazine / newspaper columnist, so i thought "why not start here?" ... wish me inspiration, and wait for further updates. ^_^ over the weekend, i've seen two very different films on dvd. The first, Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno), is a Spanish film set in the 1940's Franco dictatorship that revolves around a young girl and her fantasy world -- well, at least that's what the premise is. at first thought it would be a 'kiddie' movie, but heavens i was dead wrong! not to distort your idea of it, but the film really was dark and gruesome and more appropriate for adults. 30 minutes into it, you'll see people getting murdered, blood, a crazy faun, disgusting frog spew... you get the picture. (goodness gracious, the girl's imagination definitely IS wild. :p) also, the political background of the movie provides allegorical undertones, which makes some scenes unsettling. on a cheery note however, this would make for a great escapist afternoon. Ivana Baquero as our protagonist Ofelia is simply terrific. how they were able to create those fascinating magical realms were amazing. it's easy to delve into Ofelia's world if you allow yourself to, and be swept away. the second one would be The History Boys. it's set in Britain circa 1983 where a pack of small-town, bright but unruly young men are up for an 'intensive' preparation process by their motley crew of teachers to the university admissions for Oxford and Cambridge. this one made for a sweet consolation after reeling from "Pan's" (i watched them back-to-back)... very entertaining to watch. the film's entitled such because their main focus would be the history subject, of which a new teacher was ushered in to bring a shrewd approach to the boys' learning. you'll pick up a lot of interesting tidbits, trivia, melodies -- not to mention a soundtrack smattering of 80's rock. the characters are absolutely likeable, the guys shine in their respective parts, and i'd say the most memorable performance would be by Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon of "Harry Potter" fame) who plays an aging teacher on General Studies (boy, I'd love that subject.) one more thing, "Bewitched" by Rufus Wainwright haunts around if you stick till the credits. (late rave: the folks & i might just be watching "spiderman 3" today -- that is, if we aren't so fazed about the first-day rush. but i wanna catch it! :D ) last saturday, mom brought home fresh seafood from the Seafood Market, and 'twas a rarity that we'd feast on home-cooked seafood aside from fish (ok, i'm getting redundant using that "s" word!), so it was definitely a new thing for me to try my "occasional cook" powers on crustaceans. i soooo LOVE shrimps & prawns & crabs that i decided to make an extravaganza out of them! it was pretty laborious but rewarding anyway -- cooked up 1) prawns sautéed in butter & garlic (which reminded me of the Yellow Cab pizza, only better harharhar), 2) shrimp fried rice (yay!), and 3) seafood soup (with all the ingredients in). lavish praise from the folks, really good dinner. there's more on the fridge :D as you've witnessed the launch of my new layout (chic, isn't it? *lol*), there's got to be some cool stuff. another one of those would be the "Language" function somewhere at the Links bar (atop the header!) ... powered by Google Translate, schizoesque can now be accessed by the French-literate, or say, "Look Ma, my blog's in Chinese!" you can also try the site in Italian, German or even Japanese! though i must tell you, they aren't perfect and accurate in parsing out my babble... but they're worth a try ;) it's cool to see my blog in a different language. let's go international baby! speaking of "going international", i've reached a new height of Francophilia by... well, 'trying' to speak it! i bought a phrasebook entitled French for Xenophobes *rofl* which i plan to devour during the stretch of summer. this hilarious little book tells me that i can converse in perfect French by pronouncing them in English! so far i've learned the days of the week, the months, the four seasons, and how to count from 1-10 both written and orally. et voila! ^_^ yes, i expect the self-education won't come off as fluently-tongued (more like tongue-tied!) since it isn't complete like a manual or a dictionary or an audio instruction, just some common phrases & words here and there. (and for heaven's sake, i don't know where French actually comes useful in my life -- backpacking through Paris & Marseilles, perhaps. how i wish!) ... i can go ballistic wondering how to use gender in things (yes, there is -- a cabbage is male, and a potato's female!) and all those vowel sounds, but then it's just my new pastime. there are even funny pick-up lines in the book. here's one (English - bold, French - italics, pronunciation - parentheses): Is that a baguette in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? C'est une baguette dans ta poche ou tu est juste content de me voir? (Say / tune / bag ett / don / ta / posh / oo / too / ay / con ton / dur / mur / voo are?) *wink, wink* A tout à l'heure! ♥ Libellés : blog, food, francophilia, life, movies |
miss pollyanna.  Ellie. legally mature but not acting quite like it. a number-crunching gal who'd take gigs on broadway any day. erstwhile essayist, currently a bum. will become a useful student of tomorrow... yeah, right! ;p playthings. idiosyncrasy. Me @ 2BU! The Casual Observer En Français En Chinois doppelganger. speakeasy. as seen on.  lovely people. Des // Jubi // Bern // Shuri // Tea // Peach // Mysh // Steph // Hazel // Raissa // Kathy // Sel // Kaira // Kim // Tiff // Cathy // Diana // Vic // Ozy // Pau // Well // Maxi // Mark // PJ // Rich // Mervs only yesterday. mood: tired song: Gravity - Sara Bareillesdear loy... let's go summer Maroon 5 @ March 5: won't go home without it good vibrations some hearts hollywoodland infinitesimal you've got to hide your love away N.O.W. it's the most wonderful time... memoirs. mars 2005 avril 2005 mai 2005 juin 2005 juillet 2005 août 2005 septembre 2005 octobre 2005 novembre 2005 décembre 2005 janvier 2006 février 2006 mars 2006 avril 2006 mai 2006 juin 2006 juillet 2006 août 2006 septembre 2006 octobre 2006 novembre 2006 décembre 2006 janvier 2007 février 2007 mars 2007 avril 2007 mai 2007 juin 2007 juillet 2007 août 2007 septembre 2007 octobre 2007 novembre 2007 décembre 2007 janvier 2008 février 2008 mars 2008 juillet 2008 reprise. on IE 800*600. code. design. face. stock. ifx. Blogroll me! Who links to me? |