Pop Culture etc.

Pop Culture almost everything. Western pop (but preferrably, mostly american indie pop music) music, kpop, jpop. House music, yep. Music in general. Fandom.   Randomized whatever goes on here and with me. lol.

[popculture-etc]

2021 year in review: all on pop and entertainment (1 of 2)

My last post here was in December 2020. I did not mean to fall of the earth since. I have a post that just me going off on Joss Whedon here in the drafts somewhere. I never ended up posting that here this year when I meant to do so. Lol.

I'm an old school Buffy the Vampire Slayer (or BtVS and Charmed, etc) fan of the 90s, an older millennial born in the late 80s (1987, to be exact) and that post on sh*thead Whedon was something long due to be posted here because I've had it with everything he's done in the BtVS set, Angel to the Justice League set. I've also had it with his shitty storylines for female and black characters on his tv shows and films. I haven't seen him really handle asian characters but I bet he's as shitty at handling them as he does the female and black characters so...yeah...at least I don't have to go off on him on that one. He does seem to not be too into asian characters though and there's really a lack of asian representation on his works so it's pretty telling of how he treats people---asian, black, female, all.

But anyway, I didn't mean this post to be on a**hat Whedon. This post is a year in review of 2021 and by extension, some of 2020. I fangirl and flail on stuff on my twitter, @kg_0917, so I'll base this review of the year on that one.

So what are the highlights of 2021 for me...hmn...???

There's really not much highlights in real life because 2021, like 2020, was a year I spent mostly at home in as a homebody and due to the still ongoing Covid 19 pandemic. We've been on whatever kind of community quarantine since 2019-ish for how long exactly? Yeah, 2, almost 3 years now. It's all thanks to new variants of the novel corona virus, Delta and now, one thing we're looking closely at as Omicron. I feel like we will discover ALL the greek alphabet at this point should this go on.

So yes, since 2019, I hardly go out. I'm always at home. Right...since the company I previously worked in sent us all home and had us all work from home when the pandemic here in the Philippines worsened, heightened. I only ever went out for groceries, some errands, and the occasion hangout with my girls I miss so much now, still. (My bff and I just met up and hung out at the newly opened Tomas Saco branch of Chingkeetea too. It's a local tea place I've been obsessed about since it started here, back when I was in college me thinks, and boomed and continue to be strong 'til now.) I don't really order in a lot either because I'm mostly uncomfortable using food delivery services not attached to the cafes and restaurants I buy from so yeah. No Grab food delivery, Foodpanda and the likes for me.

2021...I don't know. For some, it's boring because we all stayed in but for others, like yours truly, we've found some things to preoccupy and amuse ourselves with while staying home. I know for some it's games---board games, video games and more---and bonding time with the family. For me and a good, really old friend since I was in LiveJournal (and yes, I'm still there now but I'm using the space for something else yet), it's music. We've both been into exploring the discographies of bands, groups and more of the past and present. She's a huge fan of punk rock or punk pop and 2020 and 2021, for me, made me discover that I'm really into mostly pop (indie, some mainstream, too, of course), tropical and chill deep house, and some rock'n'roll here and there. I'm also mostly into the American side of these things.

2020 and 2021 got me into:

1. The Beach Boys

(photo from google)

It's their Sounds of Summer that first got me. I'm notorious now for putting Kokomo on eternal repeat just because of how well made that song is. The beach vibe of that song is just...so strong I'm head-over-heels, very obsessed with it. After that, it's In My Room that basically sums up this series of lockdowns (community quarantine, in Philippines' case's terms) with my stuck in my room most of the time for me, and then Good Vibrations and I Can Hear Music because...well...I'm obviously a music nut.

Brian Wilson is THE songwriter for me. I am aware much of the songs he'd written and his band has put out were completed under the influence of, say, psychedelic drugs, hallucinogens and the likes but I still say and will keep repeating (I'll even bring this to my grave, yes) that Brian Wilson IS a music genius. The Beatles, John Lennon etc, WHO? I grew up on the Beatles but since I found the Beach Boys, I'm just...everything I am looking for is with them so why should I even bother with the Beatles, exactly? I don't even care if the Beach Boys aren't that big all over the world like the Beatles in their time. What I care about is how the Beach Boys' discography really fit me well. My music tastes and all. It's such a glove-fit like...well...fit and yes, I will never part with the Beach Boys' music.

I know of some the Beach Boys songs like Barbara Ann from Toy Story (that famous minions scene, yes) and Big Time Rush's cover and poolside performance of Dance, Dance, Dance in the summer, beach-set Big Time Rush TV movie so I'm definitely no stranger into the Beach Boys before immersing myself in their discography. I'm currently on the hunt for copies of their Sounds of Summer and Pet Sounds even if they're second hand so yes, how much I'm hooked onto them and their music...it's pretty serious. It's as serious as how I follow Big Time Rush's releases and OneRepublics' as closely as I can. Also...Tove Lo's stuff.

I'm also looking into owning some fan made merch or customized merch from the Beach Boys...tshirts mostly since I don't really have a lot of band and artists' shirts yet so yeah, I'll work on that. I did a post on this one on my fashion and lifestyle blog, fashionnutcase on blogspot/blogger and it's this one with the title: wholeheartedly not half-heartedly, on band/group tshirts.

2. The Monkeys

(photo from google, cheatsheet)

....but mostly Daydream Believer (my favorite from them) and I'm a Believer.

I'm still a bit weirded out that people only know of Daydream Believer because of Wanda or WandaVision on Disney+ when I've known of the Monkees who's originally sung and performed that way, waaayy back due to I'm a Believer (covered by Smashmouth, if I'm not mistaken) in Shrek and how Big Time Rush, both the band and the tv show, were modeled after them. The latter is circa 2010 knowledge for me so I'm old in terms of knowing of the Monkees, yes. But I definitely wasn't, then, old enough to even be a huge fan and try to see them live in the USA the couple of trips I had there, when some of them, members of the Monkees, still lived and played gigs all over the said country. But anyway, that's, I guess, a millennial vs gen z thing for you...us.

There's really not much I can say about the Monkees unlike how chatty I am with the Beach Boys. I have yet to really immerse myself into the former's discography because I still can't really get past Daydream Believer especially so yeah... I can only really just talk more of the Beach Boys and their music on this post than I can of the Monkees' music.

I am interested in the Monkees' TV show and that one controversial film they released that had some anti-vietnam war sentiments though. It was deemed controversial because at the time of its release, censorship on anything to do with being anti the vietnam-american war going on in the American media. Yet...from what I'd heard on youtube on a video about the Monkees, their tv show, their music, their film/s, it went right through media censorship and aired in cinemas at the time of its release with 0 problems compared to its contemporaries then. I forgot to take not of the film's title so I'm not going dwell on that much here. I just meant to share or say that I am interested in that film and I'd watch it and the Monkees' TV show should I find them just to compare them to with BTR's show, too.

3. Britney Spears

T(photo from google)

I'm currently contemplating on getting a tshirt of hers, too. Well, fanmade, mostly, because I think vintage ones are difficult to find now. They'd also be very expensive, of course.

I mentioned earlier and I'll say it again, I'm an older millennial born in the late 80s (1987) so I know the 90s decade pretty well because I lived it both as a pre-teen and middle to late teen. I know Britney and I have some of her tapes somewhere and yes, I love, LOVE her since Baby, One More Time. I think I just haven't followed her much since In the Zone (2003), I guess. I do know songs from her like My Prerogative, Womanizer, and yes, I even followed her film, Crossroads but I only ever owned cassette tapes of hers of until the 2001 release, Britney. Slave For You is just...ugh...queen and such a good song for me also, peak Britney! Yay!

Taylor Swift who? Kidding. I also like Taylor, I'm not much of a Swiftie however, since Fearless and especially Red (I know people went crazy for Taylor's Version of Red and that long MV of All Too Well that came out just recently) so yeah...I like Taylor. Not as much as I do Britney, however.

Yes, we ALL know Britney. Or, I guess the younger generation, gen z, do not know her all that much but we should ALL know Britney. She was amazing in her peak in the 90s and a better stage performer than Taylor, definitely, at the time and even until now. Britney is an all-rounder, Taylor isn't much of that. I dedicated some time just recently this year...I think around last month? November? to just watch some old Britney stuff and ugh. I fell in love with her all over again. I'm not even going to talk much about Christina Aguilera here and their rivalry because yeah...I'm not a huge Christina fan and I don't know...I just realized now that Britney and her impressive body of work is something you just can't get over so easily especially if you've grown up with her like I did and still do.

Anyway, yay, SHE'S FREEEEEE!!!! Yes! Go forth, Brit, my love, and do whatever you want now. Your money, the world, everything is yours now.

I actually also love her personality and herself as a whole from what I'd seen of her in some interviews and all that, yes, so I'm just as happy as her and other fans of hers like me that we can witness her be happy, content, free and just her precious, lovely, bubbly self now.

2021. You're grim mostly and bland and boring with most of us paranoid over our health and about contracting the virus and its variants but you gave us this. You had us bare witness to this, Britney being freed from her family's, her dad's conservatorship, and 2021, for that, YOU ARE EPIC! Definitely worlds better than 2020, the year before this, just because of this now.

Yeah, I'm definitely getting myself a replica concert shirt of hers or a fanmade one, one of these days, yes. I kind of can't wait to have that one. I've been scouting these bands and artists shirts on shopee, a local or Philippine national online shop site, and I've found some I like, definitely. I'll get those when I have enough from the part time work I do online these days. (Yes, a very, very random life update here is...yes, I've secured a part time job even if it doesn't pay much week in and week out. It does well to tide me over 'til next year. Until I've secured a much stable paying job that I've been after for a while now, hopefully by then. I resigned from my old company with a good friend and parted ways with them around last year-ish, 2020.)

This post is already long so I'll have to cut this year in review of 2021's in to two...or three at most since I'll also be talking of some tv shows, movies, and more here, too. This review of 2021 is definitely not just going to be all about music, yes.

[popculture-etc]

Kenny Rogers, Adam Schlesinger,...coping with 2020

Worst year ever although there were some good.

It’s too early yet for me to do a quick look back on what 2020 is like here as we’re only going to be in the first of December tomorrow (it’s Nov 30 here) but I just have to as two losses this year broke me. Kind of, well, especially the second one.

You see, before East Asian pop, Jpop and Kpop, Western pop culture was my thing. It still is and this pandemic has made me go back to that recently starting with...the Beach Boys (their westcoast sound caught me, hook, line, and sinker and I wasn’t very fond of the Beatles to begin with...to be completely honest) I’m currently chillin’ to right now, as I write this post. I’m really weak to the westcoast sound. Beach sound/s in general, rather. I’m a big fan of the beach where nature goes, for one. Since some time, a few years ago, deep chill and tropical house music has been my go-to when I want to chill or calm myself down after an outburst of sorts and I put them on when I just feel meh, especially on Fridays. When I dream of being by the sea, the beach or in some island on my own. I live in a country with a lot of beaches and the Visayas here is basically island region Philippines, lol. Like most people, I listen to music according to mood just like the way I dress according to mood. And...it’s no wonder, really that I’m so into the Beach Boys now. RIP the Beatles. My dad played some songs of theirs on the guitar or so but the hold they have on me waned later on and I just think now how overrated they were back then. They did have good songs but when talking of good music, as in really good that it retains the same sound style or so, it’s the Beach Boys for me. Brian Wilson is the man despite his issues and personal struggles.

Anyway, we’re going quickly off tangent. I’ll save the Beach Boys fangirling for another day. lol.

I grew up with western pop culture rife all around me thanks to my American, cowboy country and folk music listening dad, my Carpenters-loving mom and then, college-aged aunts who’d made me see the Titanic film more than my fingers could count---the third is clearly an exaggeration but well...some of it is true and they were why I got into American films like Pretty Woman (we have this in good ol’ VHS in our family home, my grandparents’ in Jasaan), Mannequin, Ghost etc. in the late 80s, coming into the early 90s. So, tired of all the kdrama and uninteresting kvariety shows on tvn and the rebranded local channel, Kapamilya (long story for what we formerly know as ABS-CBN, the nation’s a mess right now and our gov’t’s just...ick!), I’d retreated to my cave and got into old tv shows I’d watched as a kid instead like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and it’s been, well, moving on from there. I’m checking out Twin Peaks later. I’ve been watching old Hollywood films too. Some revisits on this include: Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, and especially A Streetcar Named Desire will always and forever be my favorite. Very young and cute and good looking Marlon Brando, ugh. I have some others in the stash which include Bonnie and Clyde I’ll be getting into much, much later, maybe over the weekends and holidays. In sum, I have a long history with western pop culture, especially America’s, more than I have with Japan’s and South Korea’s. The latter being very, very recent so it doesn’t really compare as much.

Let’s get right down to it...

So 2020 had us lose Kenny Rogers to natural causes on March 20 in a hospice and after, Adam Schlesinger to COVID 19 complications on April 1. I know the latter as the songwriter of The Wonders’ That Thing You Do from the film sharing the same song title. I know Kenny Rogers well because my dad listens to him over and over in the car. In pretty much the same way, I know the words to Islands in the Stream by heart and I accept and revere it as one of the best, if not THE BEST country-pop duet songs of all time between Kenny and Dolly Parton...as far as country and pop music in the US of A’re concerned, of course. Miley and Shawn Mendez’s cover of it I’d seen recently was alright but nothing still beats the OG one, as always. With music, it’s just, really always the case.

Kenny departing from us March this year was alright. He was well cared for in a hospice and at the right age too, to leave us and this mess of a world behind for the afterlife. Sounds grim but not really. Heh. He died of natural causes so we know he was at peace and accepted then that his time has come. Fans and long-time listeners of his should also be at peace with this knowledge. I don’t consider myself a fan but since he’s been around so much because my dad plays his songs in the car often, I’m the same. I’ve accepted his passing away early this year. He’s lived his life well and given us good music to listen to should we like to remember him and his works and celebrate his life and legacy doing so.

Schlesinger’s case was way worse because, well, COVID 19. And it’s well...I guess we all saw it coming, me included, that I’d just learned, watching the one of many national English news on ANC that ‘pandemic’ is the word of the year according to Merriam-Webster. Timely, huh? Yep. Predictable, really. Sarcasm noted here.

So if someone ever asks what 2020 was about, we only have to say that according to Merriam-Webster, it’s the global (COVID 19) pandemic. Short, not-so-sweet, succinct, and grim. Yep.

This one, Schlesinger’s case, is something I still find difficult to accept. He was only 52 years old! He was at the prime of his life and had some projects still he was working on at the time of his passing so WHY?! I suppose that’s all of us who followed him and his extensive work on tv, film, the stage and his own band, Fountains of Wayne when we heard news he’s passed away due to COVID 19 complications. It’s definitely me now though I learned of it late. Heh.

To cope with the sadness of losing Schlesinger, gone too soon at 52 years old and with an impressive Hollywood tv, stage, film resume to his name since and his own band’s, Fountains of Wayne (FoW) really good discography, by the way, I’ve been listening to FoW’s Welcome Interstate Managers---all of the contents of said album/record---and That Thing You Do’s OST with the Beach Boys’ Sounds of Summer Best of in between. My favorite song on Welcome Interstate Managers is the sarcastic take on real life as an everyday worker in sales, Bright Future in Sales. As much as I like chill sounds where music goes, I like me some music with lyrics jolting us back to grim reality in much the same way I like films (indies, mostly, or lesser known short and full-length ones) that tackle social issues not frequently discussed in public or so but we are aware are there, still plaguing much of today’s society. I live for cynical, satirical, ironic, and even hyperbolic stuff about real life actually. It may be why I’m so entrenched and attached to the era where we all hated ourselves---the 90s. Although one would say much of that sentiment or feeling did carry itself to the 2000s, though. I don’t know about you, but until now, I still hate or have heavy dislike for myself and everything else around me, especially our gov’t or current admin here in the Philippines, and people in general so I don’t think it ever really goes away. And going off tangent again for the nth time today.

Anyway, my 1996 was That Thing You Do on HBO in our household...on and off along with other 90s films like The Craft, Clueless, Jawbreakers (I think this still plays in Cinemax from time to time) so of course losing Schlesinger also was...rather, is hard. He’s done so much and he was supposed to be working on more and he’s left such a deep mark here for us, avid fans of American pop culture...I suppose, even the casual ones. Aside from his That Thing You Do, I’d also seen Josie and the Pussycats at some point. I don’t remember when, where...though I did watch some episodes of the cartoon on Cartoon Network (CN) so of course, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the film of it as well. He worked on a track or some tracks there, too. 

2020 sucks. COVID 19 sucks. This global pandemic sucks. But at least there’re films, tv shows, music, stage musical plays turned movies (Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick...Boom! is coming to us soon with Andrew Garfield in the lead---I’m wary of Garfield being a forgettable actor since The Amazing Spider Man because Dane Dehaan was what made that for me, to be quite honest so I’m not so sure of him being Jon here and as a self-respecting Larson fan since Rent, I’d rather they casted Neil Patrick Harris/NPH since he was in the London stage for this way back anyway...) to keep us entertained and fine until then. What would it take for ‘rona, and I’m not talking about the American Corona beer here that’s really popular in the west coast, to go away? I, like the rest of you in self isolation or quarantine, tend to think so but I don’t think we’ll have any answer to that until the vaccines are well underway by spring next year. Or at least, that’s what health authorities and scientists tell us anyway. I get reminded of it often in the news and I only tune in to that once in a while now because even that, following that daily, breaks my mental faculties down due to stress and pressure and all and I can’t have that when I still have so much, at the back of my mind, to do.

But anyway, time to conclude this one with one of my favorite The Wonders songs, All My Only Dreams just to end on a good note, better than the last paragraph’s ending at least and to remember Schlesinger as well that we’d lost this year along with plenty others we’d met in passing who’ve also left this world especially due to COVID 19 complications. I know we know a lot of those. For me, it’s a distant relative or family member I’d known since young but don’t have particular fluffy bunny feelings for because of some things that happened between the guy and me growing up in the NCR/Caloocan City to be exact. There’s also my good friend and former co-worker’s only remaining parent, her dad and a few more, I’m sure. So I hope 2021 would be better but I doubt it...very much. It’s still looking pretty dim, grim and bleak from here, where I’m currently standing in 2020.

Before we really end though, COVID 19 is definitely not a hoax. It hasn’t been since the first cases started in Wuhan, China. It’s just, only been getting worse and still continue to claim lives and spread to more people even those at home. So as someone who comes from a household of mostly medical workers or health care workers here, we should really be very careful about and around it. Let’s take the necessary health protocols seriously like wearing a mask out and maybe the face shield too and always keeping the sanitizers, alcohols in our bags among others---hygiene and sanitation, disinfection. It may come off really anal of me and I am not anal (I don’t like people with Type A personalities in the first place, lol...I’m just a very cautious Virgo, really, and a Type X---mix of Type C and D personalities) but seriously, SERIOUSLY, I can’t stress this enough, COVID 19, the virus SARS-COV2, that causes it is real. Very real and once it’s in your system, it can go the fatal, deadly way or just the mild and you’ll recover later anyway way. It’s not picking which people should die next and which should not, really. It’s really just there making a mess of things that are already messy since the beginning. My point being, it’s just better if we don’t spread it or are careful enough not to contract it with following health protocols set by health experts, scientists to help us get by this...pandemic. 

Well here’s to 2020 being over soon and 2021 creeping in on us soon enough. 

P.S.

Billie Armstrong of Greenday upped a cover of That Thing You Do as a tribute to Adam and the youtube live of the Wonders coming together again to pay tribute to and celebrate Adam’s life may still be up on the ‘tube. I have yet to see the latter but enjoyed the former. They are just so...sweet and precious. Ugh. Adam Schlesinger, gone too soon indeed. :(

PPS

Another songwriter/contributor in the TTYD OST passed away last year, too. Rick Elias. Cause of death is brain cancer. I had a friend from college, young and so full of life and dreams, who passed away due to the same thing so I’m kind of aware how this goes. Ugh. Cancer sucks. All of these are just so...sad. Depressing, actually.

[popculture-etc]

Golden Child comes through for the nth time since GolCha! circa 2017 with Pump it Up!

I’ve been kind of waiting for them to come back to something refreshing and fun since they started out this way with Damdadi way back their debut in 2017. If you’re looking for a kpop/SK boygroup that’s known for refreshing, fun, cheery concepts, there’s only one go-to for that and it’s these babies: Golden Child. Although, arguably, for the mini-album that contained Damdadi, their debut one titled GolCha!, the last track in it titled Sea was and still is my favorite.

Since 2017, Woollim Entertainment’s Golden Child has been known for refreshing and fun and cheery and very energetic releases from Damdadi to With U to Let Me to Genie. They took a good two comebacks worth of cycle break to release darker and edgier sounds like Wannabe and One (Lucid Dream) from the Re:Boot first album era to Take The Leap mini-album and I didn’t mind this break much. I loved Y’s Fantasia from Re:Boot and Re:Boot Repackaged and One (Lucid Dream) wasn’t that bad. But by Take the Leap, I was already craving their refreshing fun stuff again so...lol.

Of course, I became a huge fan when they first started thanks to Sea and I have this on repeat still. Since then, I’d been on golcha train because of such fun releases. Something you hardly see in a lot of other groups out today. They were the anti-thesis to Woollim Ent’s first boygroup Infinite that released mostly edgy stuff (though I did soooo much love Top Seed from Infinite but that’s besides the point...) and yet still the pretty much overlooked group along with Pentagon when it comes to people recognizing their consistency in releasing really fun bops.

Edgy sounds WHAT?!?! No. I’ve had enough of them even though I quite like Wei’s Twilight debut stage I watched yesterday---I had to, I also liked or like Kim Yohan from Produce x 101, yes---so...now, I’m all...RISE, Golden Child, RISE. It’s about time they get more recognition for working so hard to bring us such sunny bops. Truly, we’ve come back to peak Golden Child golden, gilded age once again. :)

PS

I can’t wait for my mini-album copy of this to arrive. I haven’t any Golden Child stuff that I deeply regretted getting since a lot of their albums, mini-albums and full-length ones are well-made, well-structured. Every track in there were thoughtfully placed, too. I think my only least favorites were: Re:Boot and Re:Boot repackaged because it felt too varied for me but still I liked em to a certain degree. If you’ve heard the b-sides to this release, you’ll know what I’m saying. That Guy is one b-side I’m looking forward to because it felt a bit like Lady from With U era but better. Ugh. SUCH. GOOD. MUSIC. Yes. October is saving 2020, where this goes, rn.

[popculture-etc]

Da-iCE’s Hanamura Sota as my favorite Mark Cohen in my favorite Broadway and movie musical, Jonathan Larson’s Rent. ‘nuff said.

Yes, 2020 coming through with the good stuff.

But I won’t be checking out much because I’m still too into the US/American original versions to buy into this Japanese one. lol. But GET THAT GAY CHARACTER DOWN, Sota-bby! <3

[popculture-etc]

Saturday’s Chillin’ to Local Vis-Min Music

Last Saturday was a blast. 

Anyway, sorry I posted just today instead of maybe, Monday or Tuesday or so. I’d been preoccupied by a few other things and then some more. Also, watch out for the links ahead and make sure to click on them and check them out!

So again, last Saturday was a blast. I made a date with a couple bffs to just chill to local music in English mostly in an online event organized and produced by HeatWave Productions: September Fever 4TH. (And yes, you can check the facebook page for HeatWave Prod on the link there and they already upped the whole event of last Saturday on their channel on the link next to it).

Lately, I’ve been more about Sepia Times. I’ve seen them live on a Soft event at Chingkeetea here in my locale last December and loved their cohesive electro-indie-dreamy-pop set and I’ve loved it just as much now. So basically, I’ll just say theirs are my favorite set here too. You can check out the full event on the youtube link posted in the previous paragraph for this. I ended up forming an unhealthy attachment to their lovely, dark-ish track, Fade to Black. All of their music are on spotify.

I got interested in this event, when it was announced days or a week before it came to be on youtube live, because mostly of Sepia Times. Other bands I was familiar with, however, made me tune more into it and anticipate it as the event date drew closer. Sansette is another favorite local Sugbu region band of mine. I discovered them or got into them, too, when they opened for Sepia Times at Chingkeetea’s Soft event last December. If you’re wondering what Soft is, it’s basically a market for local artists to sell their services and products and for local music in the Bisaya region here as well. It happens at least twice a year since it started two years ago here in Cagayan de Oro City but since COVID 19 struck, really, I don’t think we’re having any this latter half of the month. Yes. So...I’m just sad now.

Anyway, Sansette offers easy listening music that reminds you of the beach. I’m soooo stoked now if or when they ever release an album in CD format (PLLLEEAAASSEE) because I’d so buy that if ever or whenever. This kind of music of vibe in music is a weakness of mine. Lol. Since being a tropical islander here for most of my life in the Philippines, it’s been...well...part of me or my identity as one, I guess.

For Sansette, this is my favorite of theirs: Sinking. Mostly...because, well...it’s an easy listen type and melancholic and a bit depressive and makes you think of the sadness or so that follows when summer ends. Its chorus is my forever favorite among many music I listen to, yes. 

Aside from Sansette and Sepia Times, of course, I also knew of Mandaue Nights before all this. Since discovering them thanks to their First Kiss, which is in our own Cebuano or Bisaya tongue, our very, very local language in this part of the Philippines, they came off to me as a band with a similar sound to the 1975. I’ve been a huge fan of theirs since. Another song I’d recommend from them is You & I which is also in our Bisaya tongue. Haha. They do have english songs up on their youtube channel now and likely on their spotify as well.

Bisaya can be such a good language for songs, yes. It’s somewhere between blunt on most things but sweet when we talk of the softer side of things like love (gugma) and some others. If one has REALLY good control of it, it can be quite romantic-poetic. Yes.

A few other things that surprised me and my friends: the solo artist, Sof (short for sofia/sophia) and for me, mostly, it was Mono Nova’s take on a Sepia Times’ song, their most prolific or known one, if I recall correctly: Breakfast. Mono Nova’s music is also quite cool for those who like bossa nova, contemporary pop fusion kinds.

All the bands and artists featured on September Fever 4TH are from the Visayas group of islands, mostly from Cebu area but some are also from other Visayas and Mindanao regions (Butuan/Surigao for Mindanao, Leyte for Visayas and then some).  

The production is TOP NOTCH and I kind of know someone in the said production team. Someone I came to know as a news writer, news associate editor and news editor in the school paper. It’s worth checking out for some bands in this region that are hella GOOD. I kind of prefer them to the ones in the North/Luzon/or the National Capital Region even.

I don’t really listen much to Ben & Ben and a few others from there. Not so much my cup of tea. Heh. 

All in all, Saturday, the past September 26, 2020, was a good night of just chilling and snacking and drinking---I didn’t drink any alcohol since I’ve sworn off beer for eons now so I just had a small can of Dr. Pepper and Mug rootbeer, lol, instead---to equally sooooo GOOD local music.

Let’s keep supporting our local artists, yes! 

[popculture-etc]

birthday week and then some...

Some things that arrived this week.

My fandom nook is coming along nicely, I think, but my room, spacious much as it is, still remains to be in chaotic disarray. Or I may need more space on it soon because a couple others are coming to me soon, likely, next month. Two of my current favorites are coming back this month. 

The week before last was the birthday week, yes and it’s been quite alright with a simple self-treat of vegan dark chocolate cake from Echostore Cagayan de Oro City and a few others and then purchases from so long ago coming in last week after like these three.

Thirty three is the new twenty two, yes.

But yeah, I’m still missing a number of Golden Child mini-albums, especially their earlier ones with the more upbeat lead tracks or a-sides compared to the ones they’d had earlier this year... News is, they are coming back early October with an upbeat lead or a-side track though so, yay! I can’t wait! To borrow from their new release’s title: I’m sooooo pumped for this one.

In the next few days, I’m looking forward to playing ‘pick a prompt’ from and 100+ ones I’m in the process of writing on paper and rolled for easy picking...and just writing more Jimmy and Cindy things from The Advertures of Jimmy Neutron: The Boy Genius. So yep, I’m settling in for more writing week in and week out, some more even when I’m already working on a couple of this already. Well, the non-prompted ones anyway. 

For drabbles using prompts from the Neocities prompt generator I just discovered and am having so much fun with, I’m currently deciding to either 1, open a tumblr to dump these and 2, using my LiveJournal like I did to my one Sailormoon drabble. I’ll figure it out later somehow.

Anyway, I’ve already listened to these three albums way before receiving them so I’ll just say it was a pain ripping the albums to my itunes and manually adding all information about them including the cover arts because basically, it all just said Track 1, Track 2 and so on and so forth as I ripped them a few days ago. NEVER. AGAIN. I sure hope so. Ugh.

So yes, until next time. I still have prompts to transfer, handwritten in papers. I’m also turning in early tonight compared to days before I’d slept at 2 a.m. consistently. guh. 

I still have something to post about last Saturday’s music chilling online with my girls for Heatwave Production’s September Fever 4TH! Sooooo much good cebuano or cebu-based and other visayas and some mindanao-based bands and artists were there and played their music for us from 9 p.m. to 12 midnight including my forever local favorite: Sepia Times.

Such a magical night that one was, yes. I’ll be posting more about it tomorrow perhaps. So watch out for it. I’ll be including links to some of the songs I liked from there and the artists or bands, of course!

[popculture-etc]

If I can get a do-over of my graduate thesis paper/book in the Literary Studies MA, I’d...

....make one on the subject of pop culture.

Since I have been so immersed in it growing up and until now. I practically live and breathe it, walk and talk it.

On a slightly related note, apparently, Sondheim might as well consider me a heathen for liking Rent over, say, his own West Side Story or so. >_< Anyway, this may be a better write up of Rent and how it owes a lot to Sondheim as well, a bit better than the other reviews of it I glimpsed of in passing: Sondheim and Rent.

With this out of the way...

I’m not apologizing for liking Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and their great contribution to pop art (I LOVE EVERYTHING POP ART, yes!) to some extent, Jonathan Larson for Rent even when their prolific works are considered lower forms of art: pop art (for Rent’s case, it’s grounded in rock and pop or just simply, pop-rock).

I believe pop culture is something worth studying. For one, pop culture references do not simply die when much time has passed. Much like trends, they keep getting remade, recycled. In a way, they’re the same with fashion trends that come and go and come again. Examples of recently remade what would now be considered pop culture relics or ‘unnecessary’ history: the Charmed remake I never watched, Sabrina the Teenaged Witch turned darker as is the signature of Netflix nowadays and a few others. Also, a lot of pop culture’s contents everywhere now tackle society’s harsh realities and they also teach us to look to onto the brighter side of things despite this. We have history then, we also have cultural students from then and until now and pop culture studies is a part of the latter and roots from the former. It tells us the state of things around us, the conditions its people’s makers are experiencing at this time and at the most trying times (like now, as in the COVID 19 pandemic). And pop culture, too, is quite at pace with technological advancements we’re making strides on especially in countries like the US so...

Bottom line: I was stupid to do a thesis on modern-ish feminism. >_< I’m an idiot. It has something to do, still, with pop culture but I’d’ve liked to go with just pure pop culture and its roots in today’s society or that of the past or the recent past, too. And what it’ll have to do with tomorrow and the next few days, years and more.

[popculture-etc]

Re-examining Rent the musical and the movie musical in the height of COVID 19

I write this entry as I listen to Will I and Finale B of the movie musical sound track on some sort of eternal loop, yes.

Let me open this entry with my favorite lines from Finale B:

“There’s only us, there’s only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way. No day but today.”

“Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?”

“There’s only now, there’s only here. Give in to love or live in fear. No other life (or is it ‘time’? haha), no other way. No day but today.”

It was some time between 2005 and 2006 when I stumbled upon Rent the movie musical on DVD when DVD rentals were still high in demand. At first, the cover got me into it---I have a weakness for pop art and the cover for this is very, well, pop art the likes of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. A very fitting cover for its just as colorful, free-spirited contents was what ended up in my thoughts when I finished watching it and later found out, like now, that I’d be just as up to revisiting this one as I had formed a momentary obsession of this way back when. If that makes any sense.

You see, as much as I appreciate classics, I get bored by them so easily. I’d studied some classical singing and the piano from some time late high school to early college. Music studies were my stress-reliever from everything to do with school and studying for the (my?) future. So after some musicals like Les Miserables, Miss Saigon---this was like, super hot and still is until now because it’s something about south east asia, which is a rarity in the western-dominated musical world---and a few others like Phantom of the Opera (I had a somewhat attachment to this one as well, way back), I’d finally found a musical that’s more me: Rent. It’s music is pop-rock, it’s message: very liberating, eye-opening, perspective-changing or broadening. LIFE-CHANGING.

So I was maybe in my late teens to early 20s when I got into Rent that’s a musical loosely based on...or to me, it’s more of a modern day, at the time this was conceived, American retelling of an opera titled La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini (1896). Its writer, Jonathan Larson had a knack for adapting literature and older forms of art into stage play much like his predecessor and role model, Stephen Sondheim (fun fact! La Vie Boheme, one of my favorite songs from this stage play mentions Sondheim :D). One thing I’m still sad about until now is Larson’s untimely passing in 1996, a little time before Rent opened and started its run on Broadway. We lost a brilliant man to health mismanaged. A health condition of his was overlooked, undetected and therefore left untreated. Had it been the case, had this condition been detected early on and he’d been given the right treatment, surgery, he’d still have been with us now. Instead, fans like me have to let his legacy and memory live in his works that’s primarily Rent and the kids’ show I grew up with, having watched a lot of its episodes on TV as a very young kindergartner, Sesame Street. Well, weirdly, until now, no one really knows which songs on Sesame street has the Jonathan Larson stamp. All I really know of it is I knew the whole opening theme of it starting from “Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away...” as a kid. lol. A would-have-been as GREAT as Sondheim figure in American musical theater lost so early, taken prematurely from us here in the land of the living. I’m still sad about it, yes.

One thing about Rent that helped it and Larson make its mark in American musical theater and film musicals is it dealing with very controversial, at that time, themes. AIDS cases were on an all time high during Rent’s conception, it’s on a decline now in the US (it’s, however, at quite a record high, but not as high as COVID 19 cases now, here in the Philippines, too, according to my doctor father). Of course we know it’s seat in the East Village of New York. It was a rough time there then? I guess, we could say that. And as much of La Vie Boheme puts it, well it was quite a fun, tad bit chaotic still time. This were the few years or so leading towards 1996, Rent’s official staging in Broadway in New York City. Conservatives are likely still put off by Rent and if I showed this to my bff who’s the same, she’d probably shoved it back at me and shun its existence. But I digress, it’s a VERY timely play and movie musical. Especially very significant now that we have COVID 19 raging in our midst still. 

A lot of the songs on Rent are very relatable still until now along with its characters. I love Mark Cohen, yes, but I love everyone else in the play and movie musical just as much and everything they stand for. Anyway, yes, very beautiful, and some quite haunting songs, this one has like this:

Will I only has 4 lines but it makes you think of what’s next after everything you’ve been through or are going through. It’s, well, a good song for the depressed like me and I’m admittedly a functionally depressed someone. Such a powerful song, yes. You can also relate it to the COVID 19-ravaged world’s circumstance now, especially those that are suffering from the said disease.

There’s never been any more proper time to revisit this stellar musical immortalized on film as a movie musical that’s Rent than NOW. I’m sure you’re into kdramas now or some other, I am too...mostly err...variety shows on TVN but I implore you, if you’ve seen Rent, do revisit it. Or you can revisit it’s music. Protip: just skip the most recent version of it of Fox’s called “Rent: Live”. Some of it’s censored parts is why I don’t recommend it like most people who love the original staging and the move musical. You can read more about what went wrong with it here: https://thoroughlymodernreviewer.com/2019/01/27/rent-live-review/. Another article I skimmed about it mentioned how some words were replaced with derogatory, belittling ones that aren’t at all appropriate for an American modern, timeless classic art work like Rent. This felt, to me, like a half-assed attempt to censor sensitive parts of Rent that’s a failure that’s led to messing up in the delivery of the message that it originally contains, to its intended audience. So yeah...NOPE. Not that one. And I say this as I’d liked Vanessa Ann Hudgens way back on High School Musical. Yes. Well, I’m definitely one of those not following Rent: Live by Fox.

I’ll try to find time to re-watch this favorite musical of mine sometime soon. Maybe I can get others, some friends to watch it with me too. Haha. Yes. One day soon. 

I’ll get around to watching some Sondheim too, after. West Side Story is definitely at the top of my list for this.

I’m not much of a theater-phile as of late nor have I ever been much of one but I thought I should pay tribute to Jonathan Larson and the very memorable and still timely Rent here at the height of COVID 19 today. So yeah, if you haven’t checked this one out, I very much encourage you to do so. :)

[popculture-etc]

friday late night thoughts on jpop/jent in general

In the span of time I’ve been away from Jent in general, I’ve gotten sad, disappointing news one after another. I’ll bullet point them in no particular order:

- Miura Haruma untimely passing away (I was an Amuse JP stan, dammit and this is more sad than just disappointing. And for the record, the only Amuse Inc. talent I follow now is Mizoguchi Takuya, when I can...so...)

- Tegoshi turning out to be an asshat with his tell-all, Avalanche photobook thing. RIP Tegoshi’s career after this one. Let’s see what commotion this will wreck among Jyanis stans. Thankfully I’m not one and have only been there momentarily for some Arashi, very early Kis-My-Ft2 and Ya-Ya-Ya (spelling?).

- Radwimps’ Yojiro Noda’s comments, opinions re: eugenics, euthanasia. I’ve been impartial to Radwimps for a while now but after this and Go Gatsu no Hae (I am/was a Yoshitaka Yuriko fan so...), I’m noping outta here. I used to be a Radwimps fan. 

I leave Jent for a tad it and I see some of it burned to cinders. Well... 

PS I hope Iijima Hiroki from KR Ex-Aid (one of my favorite more recent Kamen Rider?) gets well soon. Ugh. He tested positive for COVID 19. Not entirely sure if asymptomatic or not but still... :(

[popculture-etc]

Golden Child - Take a Leap (4th Mini album): A review

Tonight, there’s a lull and today, I just received this one in the mail. I got the Version B which came with a Daeyol 1/4th-ish huge solo poster and finally, a Sungyoon/Y photocard. Yay! 

Lately, I’ve taken to collecting Golden Child, Infinite’s Kim Sunggyu (I have some coming in the mail soon) and Pentagon albums from Woollim Entertainment and Cube Entertainment respectively since getting a full time job a couple years---I’ve just resigned this year so, yeah. I’m after other opportunities yet even with the pandemic hovering around us still so yep, good luck to all of us at this time moving forward...well, not to sound all that ominous but yeah...

Anyway, should I post a lot of the other purchases I’ve had since getting into kpop just a couple or three years ago? I started with Beast, they’re now Highlight, and it snowballed from there. Lol. Now, I’m settled into both Pentagon and Golden Child and at times, Infinite---I have a bias on Kim Sunggyu thanks to his shining, very charming, sooo adorkable personality in variety shows---as of late.

Yes, back to this one, Golden Child’s Take A Leap...

I’m on the fourth track now and I LOVE how easy going 혼잣말 is! 

Just a quick rundown of my first brush with Golden Child

I first got into Golden Child because of their first release, their debut album. SEA was my first introduction to them and the conclusion of Woollim Pick, their first showcase (it’s on youtube, yes) and their MV for it still are my go-to’s for feel good Golden Child tracks. It domino’d from there and I’d become a solid fan when It’s U, Genie and Let Me came out. It did take awhile for me to get to know them well and until now I’m still unfamiliar with the members outside of Joochan, Y/Sungyoon (he’s my current bias, yes), Jangjun, Daeyol (I know him because of Infinite’s Sungyeol, lol) Tag and Bomin. I’m still more familiar with Pentagon, not gonna lie, because I’d been following this one since their 2016 debut (I had a Yuto bias and I still have a Yuto bias where Pentagon is concerned, yes but I’ve been wavering a bit as of late so...lol). 

But yes, like my attachment to Pentagon, I got into Golden Child because of their music. I had their first and second mini albums on my phone on eternal repeat---I play them along with some of Pentagon’s tracks right before work, when I’m getting for work at the office...when we weren’t home based yet due to SARS-COV-2 pandemic, yes. I did say SEA was my fist intro to them so yes, music is always what makes me get into boygroups, kpop or otherwise.

All of that out of the way, hmn...this album, Take A Leap, doesn’t disappoint. It’s not as disjointed as their first full album and the repackaged one---this, I can confidently say. It’s GREAT for a lull-some friday night, chill and easy listening. It’s definitely money well-spent and a pre-order that didn’t result to disappointment. If there’s one thing I love about Woollim Entertainment, it’s that their artists’ album intros are HELLA GOOD. It’s the one thing I loved with Infinite’s Top Seed, Golden Child’s first full album and it carried onto this one, Take A Leap 4th mini-album. This one didn’t have the solo or duo or trio songs that the full album and repackaged albums have so it’s definitely more cohesive, much like it’s an ode to their older mini-albums that I loved. Golden Child just keeps giving the goods, huh? In my opinion, in my pop-music-loving book, YES! Now, I’m not saying that the full album and repackaged full album wasn’t as cohesive, I just thought some songs from these two were skip-worthy and Take A Leap’s...just has no track worth skipping, yes. 

TL;DR, I wouldn’t skip anything from Golden Child’s Take a Leap, yes. And it’s well sooo...worth the 800-900 Php I spent for this thing on pre-order. (insert a ton of hearts here)

I liked the sunnier, lighter, more GOLDEN, Golden Child way back but I love their transition into the darker, edgier sound too. 

I won’t go too in depth with the tracks in the album but I’ll just say: the songs transition seamlessly from intro to the last one that you’ll want to put the whole album on repeat the whole of this chill Friday night in when you listen to said album in. Off tangent, but what better time to do so than around this time of a global health crisis when movement is very, very limited. Yes. Back on topic, I haven’t watched One (Lucid Dream)’s music video much and given it the number of views it deserves but yes, Take A Leap is no disappointment to people who purchased it for their listening pleasure like myself. 

And with this, I’ll leave this one here: I’ll keep supporting Golden Child (and Pentagon), yes. I’m always up for high quality, easy listening music and they hardly ever really disappoint with every release. 

[popculture-etc]

I’m still alive and fangirling more than ever. lol.

Hmn...so much things to fill in on re: fandom on here. Everything else you will find in @kg_0917. 

I left this space hanging for quite a while. And now it’s time for a quick-ish catch-up. Bullet points are the funnest, yes! I do the same occasionally on my blog on blogger too. Haha. 

Just a few things:

If you remember I’d left this space off as a jpop/jmusic/ent fan and a western music/ent fan. I’m that and much more now after only TVN and Red by HBO are the only ones I can access on our TV along with Animax (and Animal Planet). Those channels are the ones dictating me rn. lol. So in bullet points:

-my kpop phase started with Beast, they’re now Highlight. But stuff happened---it has much to do with Bigbang’s Seungri and other shady, powerful people---so now I’m sticking to Pentagon, BtoB from Cube Entertainment and both Infinite and Golden Child from Woollim Entertainment. So in a nut shell, lately, I’ve been watching some Kdrama here and there but I’m a bigger fan of KVariety shows because of Infinite’s Kim Sunggyu. Currently, I’m watching his Knowing Brothers guesting and have watched Like Likes Like/Kkili Kkili in raw...err...

-I’m still jpop biased. Produce 101 JP just finished last year and I followed it as much as I could? I like JO1. Yes. But I’m Miyajima Yugo-biased mostly. I love Puchimen, yes. And yes, I was late into stanning Wannaone where Produce 101 goes...I also followed Produce X 101 and feel sorry and disappointed with whatever falling out’s happened thereafter. X1 didn’t deserve being disbanded like that. Produce X 101 was such a heart warming show with the brotherly relationships between the trainees and the national producers’ representative, Lee Dong Wook pushed in the forefront. I felt down with the decision was to disband X1. :( It would’ve been fun to follow them and their growth as celebs, idols after Wannaone had such a good run before them. 

Also, yes, I have all of KR Build’s episodes on my pristine-ish new laptop rn. I’m just waiting for the right time to start watching and finishing this one before I go onto ZiOh and Zero One. I also need DVD-Rs to burn these in. >.< I have to take good care of this laptop because it’s the first I’ve bought with my own money I’ve saved from work and all. Yes. Where tech is concerned: I’m thinking of investing on a Microsoft Surface or a Samsung laptop next. I’m trying to avoid anything made in China...yet...err...for several reasons. So yeah, we’ll see. A Mac would be a good investment but I think their quality isn’t as good as before so I haven’t decided much there yet.

-lastly, now that I’ve come full circle from western pop to jpop to kpop and even to local music in general...I’m sick and tired of the jpop vs kpop and vice versa war...thing. It’s starting to feel old now that I’m into all three. >.<

Ah, that’s all the updates I can muster right now. For everything else, just go on to @kg_0917.

[popculture-etc]

SUPPPEERR un-updated and late, this tumblr blog is on the going-ons of a lot of the fandoms I’m into right now but here’s my Pentagon Prism Concert in the TICC in Taipei last year’s report: one october 6 night with Pentagon’s Prism World Tour at the TICC in Taipei

It was SERIOUSLY SO MUCH FUN! I would do it all over again if I could! Especially if I had enough money for another...hmn...

[popculture-etc]

[da-ice-memes]

[popculture-etc]

current addiction: lol’s lolol (first full length album/record)

It’s summer anthem-able everything...

Favorites so far: Hanauta, Blue Ocean

I could put it on eternal repeat and I’d be good. Really, really good. Definitely album of the summer, rather, whole year of 2017 for me. It was worth the wait <3

[popculture-etc]

currently looking back to really good/superb/brilliant 80s pop. <3 hi, supposedly music blog and all...haha...it’s been awhile. >.<

[shoma-uno]

A Kanako interview from 2012: At 2:17, she talks about a pillow that Shoma gave her. “A kid from my ice rink gave me this cushion as a gift. I named it Shoma because the kid who gave it to me is called Shoma.” She always took it to competitions with her, which is why it’s so beat up.