chrryblssmninja: (onlion_helena)
Wasn't able to continue doing Solstice Specials anymore.

But I've continued keeping track of full TV episodes watched!

episodes watched April - June )
chrryblssmninja: (tragicradiance_jessicahyde)
An FFA friend posted a link to this today: In Celebration of Old-School Livejournal

I had stayed off of f-list and tumblr dash the past two weeks to make time to watch movies for a "Best of 2010-2014" poll for YAM-Magazine. The vote actually ends in fifteen more days, but I want my life back! So I'm slowly returning back to social media and all the TV and other things I had put off during that period.

I also had a really nasty sore throat; last week during an overnight shift I had to keep running back to the water fountain whenever I got violent, suffocating coughs that required lots of water to help me recover. (I made sure to cough into my elbow instead of the clothes I was fixing at the store, though.) Today, I'm still coughing a little, but recovery's going well.

Ranking some of the movies I've seen recently for the poll, from excellent down to pretty good:

  • The Boy and the World (O menino e o mundo), 2013: a dialogueless Brazilian animated movie that I first couldn't get into when I was tired, but when I woke up and sped up the movie a little (I thought the poll deadline was that midnight) it was perfect. Doesn't matter that the message is blunt- it's relevant to Brazil and done really well.

  • The Missing Picture (L’image manquante), 2013: The director, Rithy Panh, made clay figures to illustrate his life in Cambodia before and during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Some commenters said it was slow but I thought the pacing had good speed. This is the only movie I actually paid to watch, since I streamed it with Amazon gift credit, and I was so captivated I had finish the film at wayyy too early in the morning.

  • The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Kaguya-hime no monogatari), 2013: It's great, but I have minor quibbles about things that stand out after reading the Yasunari Kawabata prose version of the tale.

  • Whiplash, 2014: Definitely my tempo.

  • Grey Matter (Matière Grise), 2011. It starts out a little meta, following a young director in Rwanda trying to put together a movie. Then you see the movie he had in mind. Some early parts seem really iffy but pay off at the end. Only wish for a little more to the final full circle scene, but otherwise a great debut that has me anticipating more from Kivu Ruhorahoza.

  • The Selfish Giant, 2013. Really plunges you into the lives (and accents) of two kids who try and make a little money from selling scrap metal.There are a couple of moments that made me gasp, and the last third of the film is so intense.

  • The Prize (El premio), 2011. Very good with performances and atmosphere. Though made in Mexico, it's based on the director's childhood under Argentina's dictatorship.Good interview in Spanish here.

  • Nostalgia for the Light (Nostalgia de la luz), 2010. Chilean documentary that makes a brilliant connection between astronomy, archaelogy, and the experience and aftermath of life under dictatorship.

  • The Dark Horse, 2014. An outstanding entry from New Zealand in the usually middling "troubled coach helps troubled kids through training in a competitive activity" genre.

  • Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (Jigoku de naze warui), 2013. A Sion Sono hyperexplosion of blood and color about yakuza wars and filmmaking.

I saw other good movies, but these are the ones I felt most compelled to write about at this time. Okay, special mention to the macabre Canadian comedy Eddie: The Sleepwallking Cannibal (Thure Lindhardt should really get to do more comedy!) and trippy Russian movie Generation P. The animation style in Le tableau is so gorgeous and the meta concept so innovative that I wish the script was better for the first third of the movie. Oslo 31 August really messed me up, and I was able to recognize quite a few of the performers in the end montage of Bombay Talkies.
Made some other discoveries, like: Tom Hardy does a really good Welsh accent and I can easily identify Andrew Scott's voice (Locke), and Matthias Schoenaerts in Bullhead/Runskop really looks like Tom Hardy. Looking forward to future significant roles for Amrita Acharia (Jeg er din), Saleh and Adam Bakri (Salvo, Lamma shoftak, Omar), Aniello Arena (Reality), Karidja Touré (Bande de filles), and so many of the actors in Starred Up. Also glad to see quality features from female directors such as Paula Markovitch (El premio), Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant moreso than The Arbor), July Jung (Dohee-ya), Annemarie Jacir (Lamma shoftak), Tanya Hamilton (Night Catches Us), Alice Rohrwacher (Le meraviglie and Corpo Celeste), Iram Haq (Jeg er din). Amma Asante (Belle), and more.

Finally, the reason for which I actually intended to make this post:TV episodes watched between January 1 and today. )
chrryblssmninja: (fromthewind_iceisland)
slowly getting back into things after my social network hiatus.

Episodes watched between October and December 2014 )
chrryblssmninja: (fromthewind_iceisland)
Finally changed up some of my icons. I am, at default, an island of frost.

Been busy with retail work (survived Black Friday!) and family. The latter dragged me to the Exodus movie yesterday but at least I was vindicated when everyone realized how bad it was. The most entertaining part was 11-year-old Isaac Andrews' performance as Lil' Punk Almighty.

Frustrated that I might never get into making movies ever with the way life is going, (lol I know I'm only 26 but you don't know my life dude. Maybe I could direct or at least write a better Biblical short than 99% of what is made.) Maybe I'll try and edit some footage I still have, idk.

Catching up on Adventure Time and Elementary and other current watching includes Brooklyn 99 and Key and Peele. aw man Jakob's leaving Kollektivet but I wish him the best. Need to find some time to watch Over the Garden Wall and Blue Blazes (the Japanese live action show about anime creators in college) and other shows and movies from 2014 I can manage to find before the year ends. Anticipating the Black Mirror Christmas Special but I won't get my hopes too high for it just in case. Also cautious about the upcoming Star Wars film, although I like many in the cast.

Music I've been into recently:

Ladytron - "Melting Ice"

Shiina Ringo - "Shuen no Onna (Leading Lady)." I want to make a tribute to '60's Japanese crime movies that is set to this song. I also like how the title and sound contrasts with "Arikitari na Onna (Ordinary Woman)" (great live performance there) from the other album she released this year.

Utopia 2 OST - "To You All Kids Will Come"
Separating this from the events it accompanies in the show, this piece puts me into a state of euphoria. Ecstasy. Maybe just euthymia If I'm not able to play it at its best settings on any media player or in my head.

Music Go Music - "Shine Down Forever"
THE BAND IS INSPIRED BY DISCO AND SIMILAR MUSIC FROM THAT ERA SO THE CORNY LYRICS TOTALLY FIT THIS SOUND OK

Small Faces - "Runaway"
I was looking up covers of Del Shannon's "Runaway" when I found this. Thus, I found out about Small Faces a few days after their keyboardist died. RIP. At least I found out about them?

need to play music to fight the Christmas music mix on loop at the store where I work. Also, my supervisors are pretty good but so many of them are younger than me and this is one of the things (along with current events and family arguments!) that gets me crisis-ing in my mind now and then.
chrryblssmninja: (maru)
I have been burned by so many things lately that now I'm ranking the shows I watch by their ability to disappoint. This isn't so much best  quality as "I know what to expect of your capabilities and flaws and strengths and are you going to sink below that?"

From top to bottom, least likely to most likely to disappoint amongst the currently-airing shows I watch:

Orphan Black - Paul and the names of the villainous organizations are the weakest points. Sometimes the sci-fi requires some hand-waving but the emotional bonds still drive the drama.
Adventure Time - It's episodic by nature, so any mytharc is a bonus.
Elementary - the second season was bumpy, but I liked most of the stretch of episodes in between Mycroft's latest appearances. Even the weaker episodes have a scene or idea in their favor.
Brooklyn 99
Broad City
I kveld med Ylvis
Kollektivet
Boardwalk Empire
Game of Thrones - the source material isn't perfect, but I still expect to shake my head or clench in dread/anger at least once an episode due to misjudged adaptation choices.
Hannibal - it's not just the Beverly fiasco (and I understand the overall reasoning for Alana/Hannibal), but since that event, it seems like it's more plot than character that's motivating events. Things are getting too heavy-handed with themes and soundtrack - the florid metaphors only suit Will's character. It's below GoT because GoT showed its problem cards right from the pilot on.
Doctor Who - I have hopes for the Capaldi era, but every good idea Moffat and Co. have is undercut by one poor decision or another.

I'd have to wait until after a few episodes to place the upcoming seasons of In the Flesh, Utopia, Flowers of Evil (Aku no hana) and Les Revenants on this list; as well as next year's seasons of True Detective and Inside No. 9.
chrryblssmninja: (jessicahyde)
Roundup for the first three months of 2014:
I wrote reviews of Boardwalk Empire season 4, Dhalgren, Navidad & Matanza, and True Detective season 1.

The top two movies I watched happened to be from India: The Lunchbox (Dabba) (2013) and Pyaasa (1957).

As for books, my favorites were Bernardo Axtaga's Obabakoak and NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names. Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries was pretty exciting to read for the first 700 pages, like a more clear-eyed version of Victorian multi-character melodrama, but after that the fated-luck-astrology themes were a bit much, even if the book was structured around them. The story's  good overall, though, so if the TV miniseries version actually gets made, I might give it a try. The opening six-story run in John Ajvide Lundqvist's Let the Old Dreams Die is great; after that the quality goes up and down until the solid novella sort-of-sequel to Let the Right One In. I also started reading the brilliant Moomin comic strips, and appreciated Joseph McElroy's experimental A Smuggler's Bible as a whole..

TV episodes watched from January through March 2014 )
chrryblssmninja: (jessicahyde)
Overheard while my mom was watching The Expendables 2:

Mom: They should get that Japanese-looking woman from that movie, you know, the Transformers-like movie.
Brother: You mean Pacific Rim?
Mom: Yeah, she's good and pretty.

:)

- - -

I just helped my brother with his Media Lit homework by directing him to a gifset on my tumblr.

- - -
Just watched Kaizers Orchestra's Siste dans concert and aw man is this really the end?
I did chuckle a bit at the people crying in the crowd, but they were chuckles of understanding.
- - -
Speaking of Norway, Ylvis brothers' shows subbed in English.
With these guys as well as Norwegian movies and my attempts to sing Kaizers songs, who knows what linguistic mishmash of Norwegian regions I'll pick up...
- - -

TV episode roundup July-September:

I really didn't watch much these three months. )
chrryblssmninja: (jessicahyde)
Fall means that I'm starting to fall into more a TV-watching mood again.

Adventure Time has been good, and Elementary returned well. Boardwalk Empire is inconsistent as usual but it's always been a character actor show and some of those characters are still entertaining.

Agents of SHIELD was here and there but Mike Petersen's (J. August Richards) speech towards the end really got to me. If I had watched it the night it aired, which was the night I also had to end one job, I think it would have hit me even harder in the gut.

Currently tumblr gif-watching Sleepy Hollow until I feel comfortable enough with how the arcs are going to invest time in actually watching the show. The leads seem great, but I know there's more to the show.

After I finally finish Shirokuma Cafe, I've got a list of shows to try out: Flowers of Evil (Aku no hana) (it's on Hulu, but subbed or dubbed?), A Touch of Cloth, Rectify, Orange is the New Black (I don't know if I can add another show this season where I watch for side characters and not the main person, based on what I've heard), and Peaky Blinders.

Random observation: Iain de Caestecker (The Fades) and later on Ruth Negga (Misfits) will be on SHIELD. ABC also has Michael Socha (Being Human on their Wonderland spinoff. I won't watch the latter, but it's nice to see one of the Socha siblings getting work on American TV. How many more actors from across the pond who played young supernatural/superpowered people will show up on the network? hmm. k k just rambling
chrryblssmninja: (mortgraphics_flower)
TV episodes watched from January through March, with some comments )

JANUARY - MARCH MEDIA RECAP

Fringe, Being Human UK, and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ended.
Shows I started and continued to watch: Utopia, Les revenants, In the Flesh.
I also plan on watching all the rest of Peter Gunn on Hulu in the future.

The only movie I saw from 2013 was Something Necessary, a pretty good Kenyan movie that MUBI streamed for free on the day of the Kenyan elections..
Movies I gave the highest ratings to on this year's movies-watched list:
The Saragossa Manuscript (now I want to watch more stories within stories movies), Chungking Express (finally watched it!), Fists in the Pocket (I pugni in tasca), and the entire trilogy experience of The Human Condition (Ningen no joken)
Favorite viewing surprises: Paranorman, La main du diable, A Matter of Taste (Une affaire de goût), Miss Minoes
ok not really a surprise since I'm a fan of Johnnie To's work already yet the choreography of lighting and movement in Throw Down deserves a mention
Faces added to my to-watch list:
Hideko Takamine, Rachel Mwanza, Pierce Gagnon
Funniest moments:
the dinner scene in Vulgaria
the proposed graveyard scene from Seven Psychopaths
when the titular character gets a gun in The Gingerdead Man

Favorite books read so far this year:
Historia universal de la infamia, Jorge Luis Borges
A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness
Works that I can imagine as a good (or better) film or TV adaptation:
Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues. Jazz musicians of African descent stuck in Berlin and occupied Paris in WWII. At least it wouldn't shift more focus towards the white characters like what I saw of Dancing on the Edge.
Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (Tiger! Tiger!), in a way that would get the epic sci-fi look and themes right, treat the problematic aspects as problematic, and not gloss over the character flaws and twisted relationships.
Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key, in a modern (though not modern day-set) adaptation that would include the book's meditative aspects, without being slow for the sake of self-importance.
John Ajvide Lindqvist's Little Star. Probably best as a miniseries.
Favorite short stories read:
"Four Rajeshes" and "Bibhutibhushan Mallik's Final Storyboard", by Rajesh Parameswaran
"Nights Can Turn Cool in Viborra", by Charles Portis

The only new music I've played on repeat so far: various selections from Cristobal Tapia de Veer's soundtrack for Utopia.
chrryblssmninja: (BMOnoire)
Adventure Time's "Simon and Marcy" episode gave me so many feeeeelings with the Cheers theme song and Simon's irrational insistence on the exclusive healing powers of chicken soup and Marceline and pink goo

In the Flesh got much better as the second episode let the "rehabilitated zombie (Partially Deceased Syndrome)" concept breathe and feel more natural with the drama. And now I have a ship! I wonder how the last episode in this three-episode series will tie everything together.


New pay-what-you-can comic book limited series The Private Eye:
Welcome to Panel Syndicate, where artist Marcos Martín and writer Brian K. Vaughan deliver original comics directly to readers around the world, who pay whatever the hell they want for each DRM-free issue. Our first new storyline is THE PRIVATE EYE, a forward-looking mystery we created with colorist Muntsa Vicente. Set in a future where privacy is considered a sacred right and everyone has a secret identity, The Private Eye is a serialized sci-fi detective story for mature readers. You can download our 32-page first issue right now, for any price you think is fair. 100% of your payments go directly into our greedy mitts and will help fund the rest of a story that we're both very proud of (we hope there will be around 10 issues total; an old-school "maxiseries!"), so thanks for reading...
The first issue is already here.
Immediate download of 32-page comicbook in your choice of PDF, CBR or CBZ.
No DRM, no encryption, just plain files optimised for on-screen reading. Available in English, Spanish & Catalan.

It's got a future-noirish feel. I wish I could actually pay them something.
chrryblssmninja: (spiderbaby)
At least this transition into February brought with it light breeze T-shirt weather in the daytime.

TV ROUNDUP

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
I am still very emotionally involved in their version of the P&P plot, although the mechanics for conveying that plot are getting creaky. Seriously, couldn't Gigi just have a personal and not corporate account and have her test-drive Domino there instead?

Adventure Time
these Lemongrabs and their disturbing yet also bizarrely sad stories

Utopia
COLORS.

Conspiracies.

Characters.


I CANNOT HELP BUT CAP THIS SHOW. I first thought that, while the look and sound were striking, they might be too much? Now I think they totally fit this dangerous world where the mundane is supersaturated to be made strange.
I'm not sure if it can pull things off by the end, yet all the speculation is fun to follow. Remember going crazy with theories for Lost and other shows? Memories.
And I read what happens when UK viewers called the number posted on screen for the search for the boy Grant!

Elementary

emotions.

Hetalia: The Beautiful World
Pretty and funny. SEYCHELLES AND RUSSIA'S SCARF

UP AHEAD:
Sunday has a new Elementary episode after the Super Bowl. Being Human UK series 5 is also premiering. Monday has the premiere of Dancing on the Edge, the jazz drama starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthew Goode, Angel Coulby, Anthony Head, Jenna-Louise Coleman, and Jacqueline Bisset. I have a nagging feeling that there is something else I forgot. Hmm.
chrryblssmninja: (pikkupenguin_reflection)
I've been trying to write a proper post for a while, but my feelings shift with the tides.

So here are handy year-end links instead!

My year in new music!
Other highlights of the year in movies, TV, and books

Favorite new shows: Elementary and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
New favorite cartoon: Adventure Time

Feature-length movies I watched during the year: http://chrryblssmninja.tumblr.com/films2012
Films of the 2010's, ranked: http://chrryblssmninja.tumblr.com/cinema2010s
Rankings don't necessarily correspond to ratings.
Books of all sorts read during the year: http://chrryblssmninja.tumblr.com/books2012

aw man I need to update my cooking posts, because I did get to improve on this pasta sauce by simmering Roma tomatoes for a long time. I'll try heirloom tomatoes next when they're on sale.
Lots of stuff went down offline this year but I think I'll dump all that negativity in 2012 and only focus on catching up on food/restaurant/cooking posts in 2013. My next assignment: making acceptable masala chai tea (or even latte) with Assam tea base and pre-packaged garam masala spice.

ETA: whoops I forgot to finish up my "TV episodes watched" list!
episodes watched from October 1 to December 31 )
chrryblssmninja: (baelheit_zetsubou)
I was going to finish all of the Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei series and watch the latest Around the World in 80 Plates...and then other stuff happened.

TV episodes, with not-too-spoilery comments and liveblogs, watched from April through June. )
chrryblssmninja: (guncrazy)
The day started with me watching Adventure Time and then listening to The Kills while I exercised. The bus didn’t come on time (and I waited 10 minutes after that, so I think it just got bunched up somewhere) so I just walked to work. Didn’t mind, and I still got a bank errand done at the ATM. At work, I coasted on tea and chocolate caffeine and got a sale. On campus there was some event with the Latino clubs and fraternities/sororities, and I had just enough money to try a pupusa (a Salvadoran dish). It was okay, but my curiosity was sated. My family met me downtown, having obtained whatever free comics were still left from Free Comic Book Day. We left my dad in the line for the 4 PM film (not digital) showing for The Avengers while we went to eat at Subway.


HULK SMASH LOKI
THE THEATER APPLAUDED THAT

not sure if it was focused direction or just that we saw it on film and not digital, like we've seen most movies in the past few years- the action was busy but not dizzying

Focus on humans within cosmic warfare. Lives -at least of the innocent or those on the good side- were mentioned. They mattered more than in some other blockbusters.

could have had even more of the little alternate perspective shots to maintain the theme

really great how the camera revolved during one part of the climactic New York battle

German eye extraction ooh

poor Erik

Natasha’s ledger and vulnerability ploys

Clint was awesome. Can’t help but think of him teaming up with Katniss

trolling Loki is best Loki

Jokes - from lines to visuals - very welcome
A few clunkers but no sinkers

R.I.P PHIL
YOU NEVER HAD YOUR CARDS SIGNED
AT LEAST YOU HAD AN EPIC DEATH SCENE

Also really liked Steve as eternal soldier in all his interactions

How they made fun of Asgard talk

liked seeing how Nick would slowly push people with the cards and such
Anita was cool

NOW I WANT SHAWARMA
LOL THE REACTION OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO WAITED FOR THE POST-CREDITS SCENE

Unexpected Alexis Denisof as The Other/Thanos?

Hey Enver Gjokaj!

NEW YORK CITY FIRE AND POLICE HELPING PEOPLE OUT

Blonde woman who thanked Cap - her parts reminded me of Busiek’s Marvels

Eel-like soldiers - great detail in how they removed their masks for war cry

I hope Bruce was able to return to the sick people he was helping

Tony lashing out at Steve is sort of like Tony lashing out at Howard

Nice symbols in the credits although it could have been even better

Drinking game: whenever someone gets thrown over the side of something and crash falls, or whenever Loki says “not”

Some pacing problems but it surprised me and didn't feel overhyped.

ETA: did anyone get slashy vibes from the scene where Loki turned Clint to his side
or is that just Jeremy Renner's general aura

also, any crossover interaction between Loki and Daenerys Targaryen would be interesting
shippy or not

I also agree with most of this:
http://io9.com/5907585/several-reasons-why-avengers-kicks-ass-that-you-havent-already-heard




There was also a pre-local-election community event next door with bounce houses, as well as free make-your-own burritos and drinks. Then we bought some food from Kim’s Korean Mart and the Davis Food Co-op and walked home.

January 2018

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