Monday, February 28, 2011

Shangrila February 2011

Had a blast performing this past weekend at Shangrila @ The EndUp in San Francisco :) The crowd was amazing! It felt really good to be on stage again. Many thanks to all of my friends and fans who showed up for my show. For those who didn't manage to make it because of various reasons, here are the videos:

Firework


F**k You


Lotsa Love,
JJ

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hot Mess + F Bombs = Bad Teacher

Like I'd mentioned in my Green Hornet review, Cameron Diaz should not be acting as the "hot chick" anymore but here we are: another movie of her about on her "hotness". Dear Producers, CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT SHE'S HECKA HAGGARD AND FUG NOW? Also, why pair her with Justin Timberlake? Didn't she and JT have a history together (they broke up in 2007 if I recall correctly)? Is this some kind of April Fools' joke? OT: I think I speak for everybody when I say that Justin Timberlake should return to making music because the last time he released an album was way back in 2006 and a follow-up is long overdue. This, and cos JT can't act to save his life. Who can forget his bland performance in The Social Network?

Complaints aside, I think it might be a pretty funny movie, mostly because we get to see Cameron Diaz hit in the face by a dodgeball and also because we get to see Jason Segel's ballsack. But I'll most likely be waiting for this mess to end up on Netflix instead of paying to see it in theaters.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I Love You 爷爷

I would greatly appreciate it if you could all please pray for my grandfather.
Thank you kindly.

Born This Way Hay


This crazy bitch.

Don't you think you're taking the whole "born this way" schtick a little too literally with the egg metaphor? I personally found it rather tasteless and blah. You're Lady Gaga for goodness sakes. Try harder. I was half expecting you to emerge in a velociraptor/Godzilla baby suit, but you came out with a pink ponytail, some shoulder horns and an egg yolk(?) hat. You went to the MTV VMAs in a meat dress and this is the best you can do? Wow. I think your knack for gimmicks may have run its course. If you wanna do something, go all the way. Don't be a tease, like how Britney Spears is with the daily, 5-8 second long "teaser" clips of her Hold It Against Me music video; IT'S ANNOYING AND HAS ACTUALLY KILLED ANY SEMBLANCE OF EXCITEMENT I HAD ABOUT THE VIDEO. I digress. Back to Gaga.

I'm sure by now most people have compared Gaga's Born This Way to Madge's Express Yourself a million times and more (Madge's people even uploaded her 1989 clip of Express Yourself to YouTube right after the debacle started, hur hur - see this), so I shall not talk about it further. Here's what I gotta say about the song though: you don't declare your song an anthem until the people decide to crown it so. It's really contrived and unnecessary. Oh, and PS: Asians don't like to be called "orient"; it's derogatory and very offensive. Just FYI. The next time you spend 10 minutes writing a song (which she apparently did, see this), double check on your language; you're a role model after all.



On the bright side, this song marks Gaga's sort-of departure from her dark era of Bad Romances and Alejandros. In some ways, it reminds me of Michael Jackson's Black or White, in the sense that it tries to encourage people to look away from their differences and embrace diversity because "baby I was born this way". It feels like a good middle ground between her The Fame and The Fame Monster era. I do miss the good ole days of her singing about dancing and poker faces though. She was so much more fun back then.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Truth


As we grow older, we develop a greater propensity for lies and deceit. Sometimes, we lie so much that we don't even know where the truths end and where the lies begin. The blurring of fact from fiction is so powerful that even the best men and women can't tell the difference. Why has honesty become so cheap? Is it really easier to live with the burden of a lie than to come clean with the truth?

I'm still looking for an answer to that.

It is true that sometimes it's easier to lie about how we feel to get the reaction we want - some people call it white lies, I call it bullshit. Somehow, it's easier to dole and receive bullshit because we've become so caught up with our lives and accustomed to fulfilling our selfish need to satisfy our "me me me!" To sit down and examine the truth seems so far-out. Lying is the easy way out, but not necessarily the right way.

I've still yet to come to terms with how I've dealt with certain situations in my life, but I know that lying is definitely not the be all and end all of it. I know, but I still do it anyway because it's always convenient to blame it on my human nature instead of having to deal with the reality of circumstance.

In fact, the hardest thing anybody could do is to be honest, to express how they really feel.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

23

Another year
Another year older
Another year wiser (hopefully)
Another year happier with myself
Another year to be thankful for
Another year that has come and gone
Another year for me to laugh and cry
Another year to be grateful for the lessons learnt
Another year for me to learn to live and love

Thank you to all who have come into my life
Who've taught me to be a better man than I was before

Monday, February 07, 2011

Stung by The Green Hornet




Have you seen the trailer? If not, watch it. The good parts are pretty much all in there.

What It's About

Basically the premise is that Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), party boy and good-for-nothing, inherits his father's newspaper, The Daily Sentinel after the man dies from a bee sting in his own garden. He meets and teams up with Kato (Jay Chou), his father's go-to guy for cars and coffee (yes, coffee), who also happens to be somewhat of a brilliant engineer, scientist and martial arts expert. Together, with the advice of Reid's secretary Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they blow up meth labs and pick fights with the gangs of LA in an attempt to appear as villains to the press so as to infiltrate the criminal underworld. They inadvertently rub the kingpin of LA, Chudnovsky (Christoph Waltz) the wrong way and he tries to kill them, climaxing in an elaborate fight scene between the duo in the Daily Sentinel building.

The Good

The script was fun and entertaining for the most part, kudos to Rogen for his contributions (he did co-write the award-winning Superbad afterall). Waltz did a good job in portraying the jaded kingpin of the LA underworld and the fight scenes were very well choreographed. It was also a nice surprise to have James Franco cameo at the beginning of the movie.

The Blah

3D, 3D, 3D. I don't know why so many movies are made "3D" nowadays. Is it for the receipts? Does an additional $4 on every ticket make a difference? Or is done simply to show off "Hey, we can do this cool shit with his eyes! Check it out!" or "Hey look at this other cool shit we can do with the lights!"? I mean, c'mon, most of the movie wasn't filmed in 3D. And for the parts that were (aka the fight scenes), they were mediocre, save for the ending credits that actually looked pretty amazing in 3D compared to the rest of the movie.

The Nasty

Where should I start? Hmmmm. Let's talk about Jay Chou's acting. One word: FAIL. Seriously. Whose bright idea was to cast this joke of an actor who only has one (yes, ONE) facial expression i.e. the perpetual frown, to act in a big budget Hollywood movie? Granted, he's a great musician and singer, but he can't act to save his life. I cringed every time he delivered a line and I stifled my laughter when he tried to emote. Actually, I think I LOLed in real life for a couple of times in the cinema.

Also, I'd like to know who decided that Cameron Diaz should play the role of the "hot secretary"? She was hot fifteeen years ago, not anymore, and probably not ever again. I mean, she was nominated for "Most Desirable Female" at the MTV Movie Awards in 1994. Yes, 1994. Damn, now I feel old. She looked real haggard and washed-up in the movie, and I actually felt bad for her. Poor thing. Dear Ms Diaz, please say no to roles like that in the future. You need to move on from the "token hot blonde" roles cos you don't fit the bill no more. Just sayin'.

Should You See It?

It's really up to you. If you're up for some mindless fun and can put up with bad acting (since Jay Chou is in almost every other scene), this is the movie for you. If not, wait for it on Netflix. Just don't watch it in 3D.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Ri-Session



Maybe it's the superb management team behind her, or maybe it's because she's too hot to be ignored. Regardless of the reasons, you can't deny that Rihanna's one of the world's biggest stars right now. Granted, the radio stations over-play her songs (on the Top 40 stations, you can literally hear Rihanna songs played almost every five minutes), but that's only because they're so catchy (yay for a great song-writing and promo team!)

The trick to having increased radio presence is to do it the Rihanna way - release a couple of singles at once. See how she did it with "Only Girl In The World" + "What's My Name" and again with "Raining Men" + "S&M"? Genius publicity move. Ok, back to the topic: how many girls can pull off a Ronald Mcdonald-ish hairdo and still look sizzling? This girl can.

Today, she debuted the video for her latest single "S&M" and I'm lovin' it. I love the cheeky and playful concept of the video, especially her costume changes. Like her album title, it's loud, in your face, and it's unadulterated, risque fun. Definitely NSFW and NSFK. Check out some of the screenshots of her various costume changes:


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I also liked how all the pseudo-journalists were chained up, S&M-style. Very kinky. Nice allusion to the life of celebrity, where photogs and paparazzi restrict freedom and trap celebs with their presence. Her team did a great job in making fun of the world of celeb stalkers with the chains, whips and costumes.


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And who doesn't love seeing Perez Hilton being RiRi's b*tch? Seems like he got into the role pretty easily. Heh. Anyhoos, I'm sure it's every Perez-hater's dream-come-true!


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Enough talk from me. Check out the video for yourselves and tell me if you like it (or hate it). Enjoy! :)