Music Obsessions – July 2019

We’re at the next Music Obsessions! Passing the halfway point and its been a fun month of discovering a lot of new music and whatnot, mostly inspired by the variety shows and TV series that I’m watching. There’s quite the mix here from rap to pop to boy groups to upbeat and fun. Hopefully you will have fun and discover something new!

Let’s check it out!

別叫我達芬奇 Don’t Call Me Da Vinci – Lil Ghost 小鬼

Kicking off one of the members of Nine Percent’s single that came out in April (I think). Because of Beautiful Youth, I had a new appreciation for his talent since he didn’t quite appeal to me when I was watching Idol Producer. While I’m not exactly into his rap style, I like this one a lot. Its been on my mind a lot and its very catchy. Not to mention, after watching Beautiful Youth, I like his personality so I’m looking forward to see what other music he comes up with.

3201公里 3021 Miles- 费启鸣 Qiming Fei

Talking about Beautiful Youth, this is one of the songs for the show sang by one of the members. Ever since watching Lipstick Prince, QiMing Fei has been on my radar. He has a really nice voice except he hasn’t quite had a lot of original work yet. He does mostly covers but this one is an original song and its really nice. The perfect road trip song, I’d say.

Rule Breaker – Nine Percent

Because of Idol Producer and Beautiful Youth, its without question that they have some link to the Nine Percent music and showcase a few of their songs. In the process, I discovered this one which I like quite a bit. Its upbeat and highlights on all of their strengths as both dancers and singers and rappers. So far, I’d have to say that this group is pretty well-rounded talent as one of the groups to come out of these boy band training camps/competition although I’m not sure the concept behind why the group disbands after a certain time frame (which is in October of this year, I think).

R1SE – R1SE
(MIB: International Promo Song for China)

The most recent group to come out of these training competition things is R1SE from Produce Camp. I was a tad skeptical about this show at the beginning but I’m going to admit that while I think a few of the members have some training to be more well-rounded in their skills, there are some that are quite impressive. Plus, they do have the attitude for it. They’ve only been a group for a little while and have this one song which is being used as the China promotional song for MIB International, which you can’t expect anything less when you have Tencent being the production unit for the show in the first place. Still, its an upbeat song with some badass-ness to it.

Let’s Shut Up & Dance – Jason DeRulo, Lay Zhang, NCT 127

Man, it seems Idol Producer has really gotten into me lately. The host of Idol Producer is Lay Zhang and he was at the MET gala lately and after some more research, he was actually in a collaboration with Jason DeRulo and and such. Its pretty awesome because he’s very talented, especially in the dancing area. Plus, his songs are always a ton of fun and really catchy like Sheep and Namanana. His latest song is Honey which I like but still getting into it.

That’s it for this Music Obsessions!
I have a lot of new music so I bumped some of it to the next round-up (since I’m sure music is the lesser priority in the coming month).
What have you been listening to lately?

What’s Up-Week 22

June is finally among us but the weather here definitely doesn’t feel like its anywhere near the summer. Perhaps its also the reason why we’ve been less in the mood for certain things and more just doing nothing. Whatever it is, this week still went relatively well. There was some time-crunching (particularly in the reading department) and some random spontaneous things (mostly with movie choices) and then some inactive bits as well.

READING

• The Space Between Time by Charlie Laidlaw (Review)

Currently reading: Osgoode as Gold (Toronto Comics #5)

Despite a bit of a time crunch to get the book finished and reviewed for the month-long blog tour for The Space Between Time, it finally was done and the book while unsure at first, turned out to really pull itself together and became one that actually made me think a little about it. The review is already out so you can check it out in the link above. After finishing this second book from Charlie Laidlaw, I have to say that he is a very creative author with some really nice ideas and plot execution. I’m looking forward to what else he has to offer.

Taking a little novel reading break to cut through some of the heavier reading I’ve had, I decided to check out another graphic novel that I’ve had (and I think contributed to on Kickstarter) called Osgoode as Gold which is the fifth instalment of Toronto Comics. I’ve been reading books for Toronto Comics for the last few years and its always delivered. You can check out the review for its 4th instalment HERE.

PLAYING

NOTHING…

We haven’t finished The Witness however also didn’t move forward in it either. I am however playing a bunch of mobile games on the go. Suffice to say that things are a bit behind as May Mobile Games Round-up hasn’t gone up yet but will very soon (if not already when this post has gone up). Its been a bit of a search for games and a lot has gone down to spontaneity and more like a one sitting game than something more long-form hence why not mentioned as currently playing but more suitable for the surprise in the roundup post. I have worked out a list of what to play next so worries. Game Warp took a bit of a hiatus as we sorted out a bunch of other things but we are also resting up to come back in full force with E3 only a few days away.

You should definitely follow our blog to see all the coverage for it including recaps on all the conferences, podcast recaps as well as Top 10 Indie and Top 10 Mainstream Games. It’ll be a busy week or two coming up but we’re gearing up for it.

WATCHING

• Perfect Stranger
• Red Riding Hood
• Hoodwinked! (rewatch)
• The Ritual

Good thing is that movies are back on track. I was running a bit low on the double feature content so had to get to some solo movie watching for the P and R selection. They were pretty average in my opinion but I’ll talk more about it in the upcoming double feature. I ended up doing a rewatch which I realized that I hadn’t reviewed either however, it was for a Friday Film Club HERE. Putting aside the rewatch, the most impressive movie out of what I’ve watched is The Ritual. It had some troupes as does most horror thriller in the woods sort of style has BUT…they do a few things really well and the threat is also put together effectively. Netflix Original movies are a bit iffy sometimes but I’d say this one is a definite win. Review coming up since it seems maybe I’ll have a double R selection also.

BINGING

• Beautiful Youth (Season 1, 2019)

Currently binging: Le Coup de Foudre, Produce Camp 2019, Your Highness “Class Monitor”, Great Escape, Love Timing

I’m trying to lower the TV binging right now. Its getting a bit numbing sometimes. However, I did burn through the entire Beautiful Youth season just in time for the season finale to air. Man, that is one good show that I’d love to see them do a Season 2 but with hopefully the same crew or at least a majority of the same crew. Plus, it had such a nice travel and reality show blend while getting to know some of the new talent in the entertainment business. Its a really nice blend especially to see these bromance develop as well. Everything is coming to near end with Great Escape at episode 10 or 11 (variety shows usually has 12 episodes per season) and Produce Camp 2019 also is at their 9th episode with the final live show coming up as well which will also be the last episode. Le Coup de Foudre also is ending soon with only about 6 to 8 episodes left. The new addition this time is Love Timing which is a little past halfway but I just started it, literally one episode a day to catch up. Its a show similar to Dream Space (which was on MangoTV) but run by iQiyi. Plus, a new TV series, Your Highness “Class Monitor” (which makes me wonder if its a same category as Accidentally In Love because of the similarity in their Chinese titles) which is also quite fun so far but I’m liking the second male lead 6 episodes in, which has been a while that I’ve gone back onto that route.

Thats it for this What’s Up!
What have you been reading/watching/binging/playing?