Rating 2009

2009 was definitely an epic year for me. I grew up a lot, matured, spread my wings a bit further and gained a bit more independence.

I did a lot of things:
- Saw Wicked, the musical
- Did a fan video to the Mika song "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"
- Did a dance show
- Went to a Mika concert (first time on my own), was on stage with him, met him for the first time and got my first autograph.
- Went on holiday to Egypt
- Saw my first ever idol on stage for the first time - Britney Spears (Yeah, I see some of you rolling your eyes!)
- Went to the Pub with Mika/Saw him at Popstarz/Received Free IceCream from him/saw him on the Paul O'Grady Show/Got to see him in concert for FREE/saw him on Jools Holland and was also on TV!
- Saw Jimmy Carr live
- Saw Mika at The Union Chapel
- Met some of the cast from Harry Potter
- Was in the audience for The Graham Norton Show
- Improved my Art

...I think that's it. I have done so much and I regret nothing this year. Nothing at all. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not a sausage. (I don't regret anyway, everything happens for a reason in my opinion, but for me the good reeeaaaally outweighed the bad...and there were bad moments, don't get me wrong. The year didn't exactly start off greatly.)

But anyway, I digress. 2009 made me realise that I need to start standing on my own two feet, to think for myself and to start living for myself.

For 2010, I hope to have another job (one that actually pays well) and to do some work experience in magazines. I'd love to just go to events and write about them.

Life's about making stories, you know? I want to make something of my life, and I want stories to tell my children and my grand-children, and just people in general. I want people to know me, smile and say "You know what? She didn't care what people thought about her. She did what she wanted with no regrets and without looking back. She was her own person, she was strong and she knew what she wanted. She went places, saw things and did things that not many people can say they have done. She loved doing what she did and I admire her for that. I really respect her."

(I think if someone actually said that to me, I might just die.)

My eldest sister is a professional dancer, and because of her job it has led her to travel the world: America, China, Dubai, India, Baltics, Caribbean, Mediterranean, you name it. I admire, respect and look up to her so much. Ever since she was little she knew what she wanted and look what she's achieved! She isn't even 30 yet. Nothing ever stopped her, and she's always full of interesting stories! (How many people can say they've performed on the same stage Hitler gave his speeches in Poland? ...Exactly.)

That's what I want (Not to perform on the same stage as Hitler, that might be a tad creepy for me) but to just...do something. And travel.
This is why I love taking photos and making videos...they're my memories, and memories are precious to me.

I'll be celebrating New Years in London watching the Fireworks, plus I'll be going to The Bafta's next year. PLUS more Mika concerts! Who knows what 2010 has in store? Hopefully it can only get better...2009 is a hard year to top!

Happy New Year readers...what are your resolutions?

WICKED March 09


Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) Fan Video March 09


Dance Show April 09


My sister and I at the O2, about to watch Britney Spears June 09


Very flattering picture of Mika and I on stage together, Sadler's Wells June 09


Meeting Mika for the first time: Sadler's Wells June 09


Egypt, July 09



Lady Jane, Autumn 09


At the Pub with Mika, Sept 09



Receiving free icecream from Mika, 21st Sept 09


On the Jools Holland show, Sept 09. (And Mika smiling at us)



Little Noise Session, Union Chapel, November 18 2009



Outside the TV studio, waiting for Graham Norton 2009(Ant and Dec hands)



Meeting some of the Harry Potter Cast 09

A Christmas Carol

Written by Charles Dickens in October 1843, it's one of those stories that can be told time and time again and will constantly appeal to all ages.

It's a classic, simple as. It has an "easy to follow" storyline but one that comes with an important message: To understand how your actions can affect your relationship with people, learning about the error of your ways and most importantly: how you can change and makes things better.

The book has been made into countless films (including actors such as Michael Cain in "The Muppet's Christmas Carol", Jim Carey in the 3D animated adaptation, Albert Finney in the musical "Scrooge", the Disney version plus the famous Musical Score as well, featuring songs "Link By Link", "Lights of Long Ago", "Dancing On Your Grave" and "God Bless Us Everyone".)

Christmas is a time that, if something terrible happens, it's worse this time of year than any other time of year. It's a time when people come together and eat too much Turkey and tell too many bad jokes. Christmas is a time for celebration, and not just about Jesus (What? It's true!). It's a time to be grateful and thankful for what you have and I truly believe that "A Christmas Carol" is partly responsible for it. I'll be damned if I meet a child who doesn't know the story.

The thing about watching this film is that, although it's for all ages, it's actually quite scary. It really makes you think about what you do to other people and it kinda makes you think "I hope people don't think that away about me..."
I've read a few responses on YouTube and several people have said that they feel they need to be more charitable after watching the film. That's what's so amazing about the story - it makes you want to do something good, and all because of one man. Charles Dicken's only wrote "A Christmas Carol" because his previous book didn't do so well. (Crazy, right? He definitely made up for it.)

The Albert Finney adaptation was the first real life "Scrooge" film I ever saw and my favourite scene is when they all sing "Thank you very much".

It's the bit where the townsfolk rejoice over Scrooge's death, people dancing on his coffin and Scrooge joining in not knowing what they're singing about. It always intrigued me as a kid: the black coffin representing a very hated dead person and everyone behind the carriage rejoicing and glad that he was gone. I mean, death shouldn't be that way, so to have this cheery song played at this man's funeral was such an interesting clashing contrast to me. I always liked the scene even though I probably shouldn't have...though I think I only like it after I watched the reprise.



There's something about Albert Finney in this clip, he really reminds me of someone. I'm not quite sure who though, so if anyone has any suggestions don't hesitate to throw them in!

Anyway, this is the reprise. I'm glad they used this song at the Funeral and when Scrooge became a changed man. Everyone's thankful to the same man but for very different reasons. People can be thankful that you're dead or thankful towards you for doing something good, you know?

Charles Dickens is a genius, I'll have no-one disagree with me!

I Am A Japanophile

I have to thank my sister's boyfriend for lending me his Final Fantasy X game. I was already into Animé, but it was this game that introduced me to Japanese music because it came with a "making of" DVD (and I love seeing how things are made). The first ever Japanese song I heard was a very beautiful, soothing song called "Suteki da ne" ("Isn't it wonderful?") and it was the theme song for FFX.

I've always been quite open musically, and I fell in love with the song instantly. I googled the lyrics and printed them off, and began to learn. I mean, how cool is it to sing in a different language? Not everyone can and it's a skill I'm proud to say I possess.

This is the song.



It didn't matter to me that I had no idea what she was singing. I loved the classical melody and it was all about the emotion, and it really made me realise. It's not just words that make a story, it's the way you say it, it's the passion you feel within.
I was eager to learn more, and discovered the song "Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy 9, which is also sung in Japanese and English also.
The good thing about these songs is that they are quite slow, so for me it was a good starting point to learn the pronunciation and really get to grips with the language.

I learned these two songs in Japanese fluently and then Final Fantasy X-2 came out. There were two theme songs to this one - Real Emotion and 1000 Words - and both songs were sung by a very popular Japanese artist named Koda Kumi.
Real Emotion was the first fast-paced Japanese song I learned. A lot of people may well call me weird, but when I got home from school I just wanted to learn Japanese songs, rather than go hang out with schoolmates behind shops while they smoked (I was in a bit of a bizarre crowd, truth be told).



This was when I discovered YouTube, back in 2005. My friend Matthew is also a fan of "everything Japanese" and he introduced me to Japanese all girl pop group Morning Musume.

Thank goodness for YouTube because it's helped me stay in touch with my favourite Japanese artists, and I hated it when they were taking videos down due to copyright issues. I completely understand that of course, but at the same time these videos were allowing others to discover different things about different countries, and I was learning. Plus, it's exposure! Isn't that what every famous person wants, really? To be known? To be discovered? It's not like people were making money from uploading videos, let's face it. Or maybe I'm ignorant? As far as I'm aware, I couldn't see the harm.

The good thing about Japanese songs is that you get to learn some bits of the language from it, from where certain words pop up from time and time again.
I thank the site www.helloproject.com for their Japanese, Romaji and English translations for Morning Musume songs. And Cherryblossom-garden.com, too.

I soon became a Japanophile. (Please don't take that too literally, I just mean I became a bit addicted). I got so bored with the English music scene and Japanese music was a good distraction from it (until Mika came along, that is, but that's a different story).

I want to share some of my favourite Japanese music with you, and show you how different some of it is. I guess Koda Kumi is quite Americanised, but she writes a lot of her own songs, she's amazing live, has her own style...I do adore her quite a lot.
There are some Morning Musume songs that I like, and others not so much. It's difficult to describe this group, because the members keep changing. Members who want to leave graduate, and then they hold auditions for a new person, and everytime a new person (or persons) join, it becomes a new generation. The 4th generation was the "Golden Era".
Morning Musume are under this huge umbrella called "Hello! Project", and there are numerous groups next to MoMusu, like "Mini Moni" for example. They're a quartet aimed at the younger generation but I find them far too cute.
Gackt is mainly a rock guy, but he can sing pop too. I consider him the Japanese Mika in a way, especially in the live version of "Vanilla", because he's a guy who plays on his sexuality, and no-one actually even knows how old he really is. Not much is known about his personal life, as far as I'm aware.
Ayumi Hamasaki is another artist, but not one to get all her kit off. She's quite modest actually and has quite a strong voice. I don't like all of her songs, truth be told, but I adore her song "Voyage" and the video for it.

Anyway, I will stop waffling now and give you some videos to watch, if you are actually interested.

Here are some of my favourite live performances from Koda Kumi, because she's awesome. I want to see her live.

BUTTERFLY


ECSTASY (I love this song)


TABOO




These next videos contain some of Morning Musume's songs. You'll see the change in music, style, and member line-up.

LOVE MACHINE (3rd generation)


THE PEACE (4th generation)


SHABONDAMA (sixth generation)


ONNA NI SACHI ARE (8th generation)


This is the first song that includes two Chinese girls. Tsunku, the producer behind MoMusu, wanted to expand their popularity and so got "exchange students", if you like. This is currently the line up as of right now, but Kusumu Koharu is going to graduate soon. (The girl who is the first to sing in the above video)

And how about this: Koda Kumi auditioned to be in Morning Musume when she was 16, but she got rejected!

AYUMI HAMASAKI - Blue Bird


I would have shown you Voyage but there aren't any videos of it on YouTube, OR Imeem. It sucks, because it's really pretty. Anywho, moving on.

GACKT - Vanilla.
Now, I tore myself up over this song. Do I show you the official video where he looks like Cloud from a Final Fantasy game, or do I show you live footage of Gackt and his band performing very gay? I give you this video.


GACKT - Lu:Na...just to prove that he can be masculine. (Sort of).


The good thing about Japanese music is that you also learn about other foreign artists...like this male group DBSK who are Korean. They sang with Koda Kumi ("Last Angel") but I absolutely ADORE their song "Rising Sun" because it has various musical elements, plus I want to learn the dance.
DBSK are a very talented band, because they can sing pop, R'n'B, rock, and acapella. They're huge in Korea and rightly so.

RISING SUN


I would just like to boast that when I was watching the latest Final Destination film, I was sandwiched between two guys and the song "Rising Sun" was in the background in one of the scenes. I got mega excited but don't think my two friends were that interested and probably thought I was weird. "ExcitedOverForeignMusicAndGushedAboutItToColleagues Failed Attempt Number 2"

BALLOONS (you probably won't recognise them, they look completely different. I barely recognised them myself when I first saw this video! I love how geeky they are. If I did a music video, THIS WOULD BE IT.)


Okay, so that's my love for Asian music over and done with. Sorry it was long and possibly boring, but if you've become a fan of one of these artists simply because of this blog, then yay.

Until next time...

Sayonara!

Wait a second, what happened to Disney?

Stop and think for a moment. Close your eyes.
When someone says the word "Disney", what films come into your head?
Go ahead, and be honest.


I'll be honest with you. Whenever I think of Disney, I think of classics such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Bambi", "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "The Little Mermaid", "The Lion King", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast" etc.

You know, those really old cartoons that were all hand made. Look at all the disney films we have now. They've completely changed and mainly because they've merged with Pixar. Now, I have nothing against films such as "Toy Story", "A Bugs Life", "Finding Nemo", "Up" and whatever else they've made, but in my opinion it does feel like that these Disney films aren't necessarily about storylines and the messages that go with it, but impressive animation to get "bums on seats" or "box office smash". Especially with all the 3D films that keep coming out. I work at a cinema, and I remember when 3D came out for the first time when I worked there. To me, it felt like a one off and a special occassion, but then it kept coming back, and coming back, and coming back again.

To be honest I got used to it, but then I watched some Animé films and the making of them, and these Animé films are made by hand.

Why did they choose to make everything computerised? What's wrong with handmade drawings? Nothing. That's what made Disney, and in my opinion it shouldn't be forgotten.

Storylines, characters and musical compositions should be strong enough to attract an audience, it shouldn't need all the flashy effects. I mean, for goodness sake, imagine Dumbo in 3D. We don't need 3D. Sure, it's impressive, but films should be good on their own, and while I appreciate all the hardwork that goes into all these computerised effects, what about the talented hands?

What I love about old school animation is the art. You don't get art like it anymore and I think it's sad.
I studied Art and Design: Fine Art for a year in my first year of college when I was just 16, and I was into cartoons and fairies and pretty things. My teacher slated my work and said it wasn't art (to which I replied "You're an ART teacher, isn't everything supposed to be Art?" and he did not reply) and he ended up giving me an E at the end of the year. But whatever, he was a dick. These videos which I'm about to show you shows Disney showcasing just how amazing their Art is and how incredible the detail is, and how much hardwork they put into it. They are truly beautiful videos and I implore you to watch them. What I love about the first video is that when you see the sketch animation it flashes between nearly completed versions and barely started versions. You really get the feel of how much goes into it and how hard it is. You start to appreciate the movies you used to watch when you were little a lot more.



Is this not one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen? I watched it in awe.
This next video shows you the making of Snow White, Walt Disney's first full length feature (my eyebrows were raised when the narrator kept addressing the female artists as "pretty girls", but that's a different topic).



You just don't get films like these anymore and I really wish they were created more often. I can't really describe why.

Another thing about Disney is the music. What happened to all those amazing songs? When I was younger we used to have those Disney "Sing-a-long" tapes. Drawing was my first love, then dancing, and then singing. I remember my sister and I singing to "A Whole New World" (I always got the male part, thanks sis) and it was Disney that made me want to sing, really. I treasured those songs as a kid.

This Disney film which I'm about to talk about is one of those films that tends to get overlooked. Even I forget about it sometimes but in fact, strangely, it's one of my favourites. It has a brilliant storyline that actually gets you to think, and has different shades of characters which helps enable the viewer to see things in a different perspective and it also has a fantastic soundtrack.
The film I'm talking about is called "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".

The musical producer of this film is none other than the amazing Stephen Schwartz, the brilliant mind behind the music for "Wicked". (Okay, so Alan Menken did Hunchback of Notre Dame, too) but I definitely think that there is a difference, musically, between this film and other Disney creations.

This is the opening of The Hunbackback of Notre Dame, sung fantastically by a talented man named Paul Kandel, who plays the gypsy puppeteer Clopin. (I have to say, I love the scene where Clopin goes '"Stop!" Cried the archdeacon' because the animation flashes between Clopin and the Archdeacon. It's very well done.)



Another thing I realised is that, when I was little(er), I thought the gargoyles were just there for amusement. I mean, talking stone gargoyles? Totally unrealistic, but when I watched it again recently I began to understand that these gargoyles were actually there to narrate Quasimodo's thoughts. Seriously. Watch the film and you'll get what I mean.

My favourite song from this film is called "Hellfire" because it's a really dark song that, I guess, only adults will get the true nature of the meaning behind this song. When I was younger I understood that he was a man who fell in love with Esmerelda and hated how he couldn't control these emotions, but this was before I discovered the birds and the bees! I watched this film last week (I think), and my eyes were wide open, because I just couldn't believe how dark, sinister and lustful it was. It was a bit "whoa", to be honest, because you really get to understand Frollo's torture and passion. I absolutely adore how you can see him battling his demons, the way they're represented in red-hooded Grim Reaper like creatures and how he runs up and down in confusion and despair, blaming it all on her. You can really feel the venom. It's possibly one of the best scenes in Disney history because it's so powerful. The best two lines in this song, in my opinion, are "This burning desire is turning me to sin" and "He made the devil so much stronger than the man." The amazing thing about Disney is that when you watch them as a kid you view it in an innocent way, but the film is so good that you remember it. Then, when you're older and you think about it, you realise certain bits that you never noticed when you were a child, because you've grown up and understood life a little bit more. A child will never understand Frollo's emotions, but an adult can and possibly relate.
Honestly. Watch this scene and be marvelled.



Another song I love from a Disney film is "I'll Make A Man Out of You" from Mulan. It's sung by Donny Osmond (I know, right? Crazy) and again, I love the lyrics and the music. I just Wikipedia'd the film and am amazed that a critic claimed the songs as unmemorable. Outrageous! "Reflection" is beautiful and "I'll Make A Man" is so powerful. "I'll Make A Man" has an army sound to it and even has army type insults included in the lyrics ("You're the saddest bunch I ever met...You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot, and you haven't got a clue") but towards the end it becomes really uplifting and inspiring. It's just absolutely brilliant and I had the song on repeat in my room. (Yes, I have a Disney CD, so what?)
I love the chorus "(Be a man) You must swift as a coursing river. (Be a man) With all the force of a great Typhoon. (Be a man) With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon." because they incorporated those Oriental metaphors and elements into the song. I know they kinda had to because the movie is based in China, but you really get a feel of that culture (and if it wasn't for the Disney film "Hercules", I wouldn't be into Greek Mythology.)
Anyway. Watch this video. I adore the climax.



Now do you see? The new Disney/Pixar films are so bland in comparison. It's these films listed above that made Disney what it is today, and they should not be forgotten.