Tag Archives: recomendations

Jun 03 2010
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Music, Pop/Dance

Lady Gaga

Back in January I did a post about my year in review for 2009, and while that’s still all fine and dandy, I mentioned how I had a completely inability to understand people’s fascination with Lady Gaga– this was due in part to the fact that the only song I’d heard of hers was Just Dance, and I still hold to the fact that that song completely eludes me in its ability to create rabid fangirls/boys.

That being said, I /do/ get Lady Gaga now, having actually gotten around to listening to her album The Fame Monster, I found a plethora of songs I actually enjoy, including Monster, Dance in the Dark, Paparazzi, Bad Romance, Poker Face, and… a crazy lot more.

This isn’t to say that I still get the attraction to her off the wall style (I don’t get it, still), but I do understand the attraction to her musically, as a lot of these songs are fairly catchy and can get in your head in that kind of way you don’t expect from a woman you’d have claimed to detest six months ago. I just honestly wish she’d try a hand at some more of her classic sound (yes, I found the videos on youtube of her before the ‘make-over’ from Hollywood and her own personal Fame Monster, and she was beautiful and talented).

On the subject of her fashion, I have the feeling a lot of it is meant to elicit exactly the reaction it does– shock and horror. How better to get yourself out there than to wear something completely ridiculous or off the wall. You will never fail to be in the tabloids or on e-News sites as long as you’re donning some kind of frog look from hell. It’s also a hell of a lot safer than drug binging for attention like some celebrities do– to use fashion as your marketing tool is actually quite brilliant, because as long as you don’t mind looking like your mother wrapped you in sixteen yards of red lace, you get the attention to yourself you need to promote your music without the bad connotations of being one of those troubled stars.

I could be completely wrong, however, it could be just that she enjoys the stylings and finds it to be a kind of eclectic and eccentric sense of style that fits her– but having seen her before the fame, I doubt that very much.

All in all, Gaga went from hated by me to a somewhat usual suspect in my last.fm, even if it is currently defunct to a degree after the computer wipe of 09, and someone I can at least get on board with in regards to her ability to make danceable pop tunes.

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Jun 01 2010
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Internet

Wakoopa.com

Recently I’ve gone on a joining spree through sites all over the place to try and get my blog a bit more out there, and by far the most interesting little thing I’ve stumbled across is what they offer at Wakoopa.com. It may seem like the most completely nonsensical thing you’ve ever seen, but it’s actually rather interesting to see what crops up.

What it is, in a nutshell.
Wakoopa is meant to keep track of your application usage, whether web-apps or through Windows itself. It’s insane to see just how much I go through in a single hour with things running, being done, and what sites I’ve been going through that actually have any kind of merit, so to speak, such as Facebook, or Twitter, or even YouTube.

Weirdly, it’s even managed to catch some of the random things I was just looking at while browsing for new communities to join– some things I wasn’t even aware were relevant (one had to do with real estate, I don’t even know why that was suggested to me by this other site I was browsing, but it was). It tracks /everything/, and in the end, after a short period, it will start giving you application recommendations, and keep track of your usage overall.

Why It’s Really Interesting.
It’s not just the fact that it tracks things, or offers you recommendations, it’s all of that put together and the fact that it is a pseudo social community network that will help you meet like-minded people. The fact that it makes note of applications you may have forgotten about in a late night haze of finding new things to work with is just a bonus, in a way. I’m hoping, in the end, to make the kind of networking connections I need to make friends and perhaps further myself as a blogger– though I honestly hate the term blogger, I just write stuff.

Most people won’t find it as interesting as I do for these reasons, but it’s still a good way to monitor what exactly is going on with what you’ve done in the last day, to see if you actually worked on that project you swore you were going to dedicate an hour to, or whether you just hallucinated that in order to get back to your game of Animal Crossing– maybe it’ll make us all a bit more responsible?

Ease of Joining.
It took me, oh, I don’t know, ten seconds to join. It really was decidedly simple, and while there’s a plethora of information you can fill out after the initial join phase, it really was so easy to join that I’m sure that my boyfriend (who often has me setting up accounts for him) could even do it and not give me five minutes of whining about how it’s better when I do it. That right there is enough to get most people to at least try it out.

In Closing.
This kind of thing might not have a major market, but people though the same thing about people in the beginnings of Twitter, how no one was going to want to post little tidbits about the inner workings of their day, or links to interesting things. It’s been happening for ages– Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Steam– all these things started as ideas that people weren’t fully sure would be backable, but interest in them caught on in one way or another and they’ve grown.

I’m not saying that Wakoopa is the next Twitter, but it’s interesting enough to get me invested, so… that’s saying something. If you want to try it out, and then see about adding me as a contact, feel free to check me out at wakoopa.com/aidorei.

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May 30 2010
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Television

Weeds.

I recently went on a binge of watching episodes of Weeds and managed to polish off the entire series– it’s funny because I started watching it when it first came out and just lost track of myself, and it, after a point– so basically I just caught up on five seasons of Mrs. Botwin and her dealings.

I really, really enjoy the show as a whole, it entices me in ways I can’t explain because even though I don’t, personally, have any investment in the idea of marijuana or anything of the sort, I find the inner-workings of the whole thing kind of interesting– the way she tries to convince herself she’s not doing anything too bad because she has to provide for her family, when a normal job isn’t exactly all that out of the question (especially after they moved to Ren Mar and she didn’t have the McHouse to pay for anymore, I mean c’mon.)

I am, however, a bit put off by the fact that the woman seems to want to sleep with everything. When the show first started and she seemed to have this gung-ho, “I can’t get off without my husband and he’s dead so I’m going to be a miserable old shrew” attitude… I could kind of relate with it, but somehow her newfound “Sex is my power and I’m going to use it at every turn even though it makes me seem kind of cheap and trampy to /everyone/.” point of view leaves a bad taste in my mouth, if only because the woman doesn’t seem to have any moral compass of what’s right and wrong.

I realise saying that will raise a debate about the definition of right and wrong, but I do believe having sex with a drug Kingpin just because you needed to have a little more power in your inner circle of drug workings is not at all moral, nor is it being done for her children. If she wanted to have sex with the man because it was just sex, and it was detached, and it wasn’t going to completely eff up her life, fine… that I can deal with, but somehow this thought process she runs is that as long as she’s sleeping with someone on the inside she will always be in the know– she will /always/ be on top.

She has this ability to complain about the workings of her life as if they are somehow out of her control. No one has ever forced her to do any of the things that have led to her subsequent downfall, and the corruption of her children, but her. She wanted the easy way out and loss the moral high ground about five seasons back. I understand doing what you must to provide for your family, but sooner or later you’re just being a greedy little bitch about everything.

That being said, the show is still amazing– it has enough to draw you in and keep you on board (like this last season’s finale, eee), which leads me to wonder just how everything is going to pan out. You learn to miss Conrad and Agrestic, but things seem a bit less annoying by Season 5. The woman’s been married three times in the last five years, two have died, one could die next season, her middle son is a complete sociopath, her eldest has no bone in his head to tell him when to stop, and her baby is barely being mentioned anymore (it’s kind of sad that he was a gimmick that got tossed). Her friends are all devoid of any ability to manage their own lives as well– the new drug cartel (I laugh) of Celia, Doug, Sanjay, that one guy whose name I don’t remember, Dean, and Isabelle, is just… going to be ridiculously slapsticky, I think. Also, wondering where the hell Andy ran off to, leaving his pseudo-fiance with a psychopath– I’m working under the delusion that he went to get help and wasn’t just bailing. I’m kind of hoping they pick up the ball and run with it, though, because honestly… the show has so much potential and needs to be expressed.

All in all, I’d say the series is at least worth a watch, because the acting involved is rather up there the scale, and everything seems to have a kind of… leaning towards greatness.

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Dec 30 2009
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Movies

Best Movies I Saw in 2009.

Taking a page from Kathleen’s post in the same nature, I’m going to try to post the top ten movies I saw this year– from her list it doesn’t look like they had to come /out/ this year, but just that I saw them this year, so let’s go from 10 to 1, shall we? Also, honorable mentions for movies I have yet to see but have good hopes for: Inglorious Basterds and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

  • 10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – While I found a lot of it kind of convoluted, and it didn’t have a lot of the Deadpool I’d love to see, it was still rather entertaining with enough plot twists and actions to keep me interested. Plus, comic book nerds unite.
  • 9. Julie & Julia – I realise the movie wasn’t a major accomplishment or anything for anyone, but it was cute, and I enjoyed watching it, and Meryl Streep as Julia Child was just… amazing.
  • 8. Four Christmases – All right, I love me some Reese Witherspoon and I kind of like Vince Vaughn, so it was definitely a movie to drag me in, and it was quite entertaining and funny. Not an amazing achievement but definitely worth a watch.
  • 7. Veronika Decides to Die – While not one of the more well-known movies, or even touted this year very much, when I watched it I fell in love with Sarah Michelle Gellar all over again– she’s an amazing actress, and David Thewlis is convincing as the Doctor who hides behind his patients, but ultimately is trying to make them see. I adored it, nice look inside the mental health epidemic.
  • 6. Dragon Hunters – A really under-appreciated animated movie that has a design and style unlike you’ve seen elsewhere, the characters are compelling and the story is different enough to pull you in, but familiar enough that you feel at home with it– to be fair it smacks of World of Warcraft at times, but in a good way. Definitely worth seeing.
  • 5. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – I seem to watch a lot of animated films, but that’s because they’ve evolved a long way from just stupid humour, as shown best in this film where I don’t think many children would be giggling their heads off, but adults can find subtle humour in little things within. <3
  • 4. Up – Pixar usually hits them out of the park but the mix of humour in this film with the almost making me cry was just overwhelming at times. Besides, Dug was enough to make anyone love this film.
  • 3. Coraline – The adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy/”horror” title was actually rather provoking– I was actually disturbed several times in that way I /like/ to be when I’m experiencing Gaiman genius– definitely great.
  • 2. Zombieland – Mixing humour with shooting the skulls off of zombies has to be one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever seen– honestly, I wish I had thought of it, but it still stands as one of my favourite movies this year.
  • 1. Marley and Me – All right, you might be going ‘wtf?’ or at least thinking I’m a bit cracked out to have this on the top, but if you’ve ever had dogs die on you and had to take them to be put down, you know exactly why this movie affected me the most, I actually had to pause it and bury my face in my boyfriend’s lap to sob at one point. That’s a movie that evokes feelings.

Now let’s go this one better and point down the biggest let-downs of this year that I saw. Should be interesting. In reverse order again.

  • 4. I Love You, Beth Cooper – Again with the disappointment on the comedy front, even though I very much like Hayden and what she does– just felt kind of meh about the comedy aspect and the general story, it’s been done.
  • 3. Year One – Jack Black usually makes me think of Comedy, and especially when the movie is touted as a comedic endeavour, I expect there to be delivering– I was sadly disappointed when the jokes were ‘funny’, but not enough to make me actually laugh, more like “Oh, that’s kind of funny.” then I move on to the next scene– I think I laughed /once/, then it was over. Mreh.
  • 2. Watchmen – I had such hopes for this movie as well, considering the hype it got, but in the end I was underwhelmed and found the only things in it to be worth the time was the fight scene in the prison hallway, and Rorschach as a hole as a compelling character, but still not enough to save the film.
  • 1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – the biggest let down of all was the one I was most excited about. I cannot believe what they did to the story and how convoluted the plot got– they left out everything that made the book good and added in stuff that made the movie terrible. Elaborated on more here.

I invite you all to do the same and reflect on the movies– you might agree with me, you might not. <3 Comment with opinions, obviously.

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Dec 23 2009
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Music, Pop/Dance

Rated R, Rihanna

So, for the last few weeks I’ve been listening to Rihanna‘s new album, Rated R, and hoping to think of something to write about it– it had to grow on me, for one thing. At first, I only liked a couple of songs, but now I find myself listening to the whole thing and kind of wanting to shimmey or dance to it, or at least feeling somewhat motivated by the /entire/ thing, which is a big deal. It’s not the kind of album you have life-changing revelations about or anything, but it is definitely an album worth having if you enjoy catchy music that makes your hips move.

The album has an entire different feel that you’d expect, in many ways, from Rihanna. It’s like she’s taken off the kid gloves and is coming at you as a grown-up. While they aren’t totally provocative songs, there are themes that most would consider a bit on the side of ‘edge’.

The following will be a detailed track-listing and what exactly I think of each song– as well as a link to where you can buy each song, or the entire album if you want it. :P

Rihanna– Rated R

  1. Mad House – 1:34 — The opening song, which sets the pace for the entire thing with the ‘disclaimer’ that isn’t really to be heeded.
  2. Wait Your Turn – 3:46 — Granted, not one of my favourite tracks on the album, but it still has its catchy moments, and the beat is danceable.
  3. Hard – 4:10 — as odd as it sounds, this song makes me feel like the biggest bitch in the yard and you know, wanting to dare anyone to step to me- it works so well for some RP I do. Also, mucho catchy.
  4. Stupid in Love – 4:10 — this song speaks to me crazily- it’s slower paced, much like Unfaithful, but with a different kind of feel, like she’s the one been done wrong and too ‘stupid’ to realise it but swearing up and down she isn’t that stupid. It’s great.
  5. Rockstar 101 – 3:58 — one of my favourites off of the album, even though it’s lyrics are simple and the beat isn’t all that intense- the guitar with it somehow draws it in, that and it has a general swagger feel to it.
  6. Russian Roulette – 4:47 — the first song I heard from the album and the reason I wanted to get it- it gives that feel that she’s grown up, considering she’s talking a bit about straight up murder/suicide. Regardless, /I/ think it’s a kind of nod to the risks you take with anyone, also, extremely catchy.
  7. Fire Bomb – 4:17 — I love this song, it’s such a me song with all the fiery attributes, and the fact that she’s got this whole ‘someone has to understand me, and what I’m going through’ feeling. It’s also rather catchy in the chorus, though the beat is something more mellow.
  8. Rude Boy – 3:42 — Actually one of my least favourite songs, while it can be catchy, it just doesn’t speak to me at all, but I could honestly see it being a club hit. :\
  9. Photographs – 4:46 — Even though it’s kind of a reminiscent song rather than a love song, I do absolutely think of it as a love song and enjoy it as such– will-i-am adds so much to it’s crazy. A favourite.
  10. G4L – 3:59 — Another song that kind of crept up onto me, and I’d have said I loved it before even knowing it’s name, but it reminds me of a lot of characters I’ve played over the years, and it has that ‘biggest bitch’ and swagger feel to it. Mm.
  11. Te Amo – 3:28 — Though it’s not something I’d consider a favourite song, it does have this danceableness to it, that kind of comes out as a seduction and fear more than anything else.
  12. Cold Case Love – 6:04 — Sadness personified, but also in that way that Unfaithful was, beautifully done and one that I could fall in love with over and over again.
  13. The Last Song – 4:16 — Probably the softest song on the entire album, and fitting as she ends the whole thing on a note of beauty. I do love Rihanna’s voice, especially when she’s /singing/.

download from Itunes • download from Amazon.com

While some people are going off about how Rihanna has given up on her roots and is no longer any good, I found this album to be amazing, and what some would probably consider a Senior album, when the artist comes into her own and finds her own voice, outside of exactly what everyone else want. I hope to see more songs and albums from Miss Rihanna that are this catchy and danceable.

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