Lady Gaga - Disease

Lady Gaga has had an awesome year.

Joker 2 gave her a starring role. I wanted to watch it, but I didn't watch the first and rumour swirl (and later confirms) that the movie is a disappointment, so I forewent it.

But she dropped Die With A Smile with Bruno Mars, which I found to be kind of a random collaboration (btw, a great year for Bruno Mars it seems). I didn't quite enjoy it.

Some of her songs for Joker 2 were good though. Happy Mistake was a critically successful song that truly showcased her vocals.

Then she dropped the news that she'd be releasing Disease, a new single on 25th of Oct, at noon. It was a Friday, and it was a working hour.

OMG

I have been a Lady Gaga fan (but not a diehard one) since she released Bad Romance. She has truly influenced my life.

Needless to say, I immediately listened to it once it was released. Thank God for Spotify and internet.

Like all her usual songs, it didn't click on first hearing. But after giving it a few more tries, I must admit, it's one hell of a song.

Can't wait for her full album!

ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT. (Official Music Video)

I never expected to like this song, nor did I expect this to become an ear worm.

Just as someone commented, this is a collaboration between two singers we never knew we needed and wanted, but which now everybody loves.

There might be a latent Gen-Z in me after all, it seems.

July 2024

Oh wow time flies, doesn't it?

I've generally become less active here, as you probably can tell. I'm providing less updates and at the moment it doesn't seem like I'll reverse this course, partly because, well, life changes, and I do not find it necessary to keep updating this blog. But I do not want it to die - after all, this is something I created a very long time ago, and had been a very important part of my life, and had been, and still is, an important part of my life. I won't let it die, but I'm diverting my energy away to something else at the moment.

Well, July 2024. Half a year has passed.

I'm one year now in the new company, and I love it. Surely, wherever I go, there are flaws. But currently the company I'm working at is perfect for what I need at the moment. Things might change down the road, but at the moment I'm content here.

I have to relearn many things I have long forgotten, and do things I had never done before. I love the challenge, but I am getting a bit 'old' to tire myself for things like this. Many people of my age have slowly abandoned the pursue and settled with what they are good at (or lack thereof) already, but I am thinking, I'm still young, I can afford to work hard a few more years. I'm sure it'll bear fruit eventually. Hopefully.

I've got an exam in September 2024. I'm a little panicky now, because I'm woefully underprepared.

Hopefully things will work out for me, as it always has. 

Usually...

AHS: Apocalypse

 I know I've been away and I'll try to provide some updates as I can, but allow me the opportunity me to share just how mind-blowingly good a series was.

I just finished American Horror Story: Apocalypse, and boy......my mind was blown, reconstructed, and blown, and reconstructed, and blown, repetitively in a seemingly infinite loop.

It started off a little unassumingly. The first episode kicked off rather....meh. So the world is crumbling and living beings are being slowly faded into nothingness, and a group of people were held together in a bunker as the 'survivors' to allegedly propagat
e mankind when things are over.

It sounded. Meh. Okay. Not very impressive, but at least it was original, and it looked at least a tad promising, so let's give it a try. AHS had never disappointed me once after finishing all 7 seasons thus far. Even Cult and Hotel were good, though the online consensus was that these two were rather inferior (and I was sad Jessica Lange no longer acted in the show, real sad).

But by the end of second season when Cordelia emerged and the way the episode ended......I knew the good ones are coming.

Apocalypse attempted what AHS never attempted, and I guess this path was never visualised when Murder House and Coven were produced. Apocalypse is about the AntiChrist from the Murder House rising and threatening the Coven's legacy and the world's being by ultimately bringing the Armageddon to the world, and the witches trying to stop Michael Langdon from gaining his goal.

It is a surprisingly brilliant crossover that had not at any point disappointed me at all. 

It was brilliant. And Jessica Lange returned for two episodes and was featured prominently for one episode! And seeing every character return was just somehow....an Endgame moment for AHS fan I might say.

I might want to nitpick a little though. The way Michael died at the end was just a little anticlimatic. It seemed such an easy death for such a powerful figure. 

But otherwise, solid season. Solid plot. Solid show.

I'll continue to sob that Jessica Lange will not return anymore, and I've just learnt Kathy Bates also did not return to another season, and Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson would begin to reduce their features from here thereon. But I'll continue to have faith that AHS will not disappoint.

Lady Gaga - Hold My Hand (Acoustic)

I'm a Gaga fan. I have been since secondary school, when I first heard Bad Romance. Lady Gaga was a very controversial figure and celebrity, and her fashion sense was asinine. But I like her for her music and her talent. Not many singers back in the late 2000s (or even now) could deliver a performance as powerful as she can. Taylor Swift can't, despite her fame. There's just no comparison between these two.

But Lady Gaga has slowly retreated from the music industry and has ventured into its entertainment counterpart. She has since appeared in several films and series - including American Horror Stories, which I absolutely enjoy - and will soon appear in Joker 2.

Her last album was in 2020 - 4 years ago. I really wish she makes more, but perhaps a pause is appropriate, so that her creativity could be maximised. Chromatica was also released 4 years after its predecessor and it was marvellous - Stupid Love was catchy. Sour Candy was a unique collaboration that would have even been more wonderful had Covid not hindered a music video production, and Replay was extremely emotional. I didn't like 911 although it was ok.

But in 2022 she released a song for the movie Top Gun: Maverick. Hold My Hands was not an album, but it was the theme of the movie. And man, it was very Gaga. Mature, soulful, emotional, and like the movie, it moves every listener with its raw soul.

This acoustic version is the work of an amateur, but it somehow highlights her vocal by a vast magnitude and amplifies the emotions a few notch. This is awesome, and I wish more songs like this can be featured online. Magnificent.

April 2024

How's life ya'll?

I haven't been active here for a long time, because for a long time there hasn't been anything interesting to update.

So I thought I just randomly insert a topic as a record, to keep the liveability of my blog.

I love Netflix. I'm sure many of you know. And I favour watching TV dramas over movies.

But I have a pet peeve. After watching a few American drama, I had a tendency and urge to find a British/Australian drama to indulge in instead, because a change in taste is always welcoming and refreshing. Believe it or not, there are many subtle differences between productions of different countries, and these minor ones make quite a huge difference.

That is when I stumbled upon Wentworth. I did not think the show would be to my liking, seeing it's about all female cast in a prison. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sexist - it's just that I usually like crime drama, not soap operas, and Wentworth strikes me as one.

But the show received critical acclaim, so I thought, why not give it a try?

And I did.

And holy mother f*cking God. The show was awesome.

Granted I've finished only season 1 and am in the middle of season 2. But honestly speaking, I thought season 1 itself was mind-blowing, but season 2 proved me wrong - it blew my already blown mind. I am afraid to say, I do not know whether I'll receive season 3 as well, or better, or worse.

The hard work put in to produce such a stellar show was amazing. I do not understand how I did not learn to appreciate this and let it slide for so long.

For those of you who like crime dramas, trust me, Wentworth is absolutely worth watching. 

Giveon - Heartbreak Anniversary

I've developed a rather nasty habit recently, one that I vowed never to pick up - I love scrolling reels in Instagram.

It's just a lot more meaningful than scrolling Facebook. Facebook has become a junk place - full of gossips, unwarranted accusations (politically, economically, socially, whatever), and negativities.

Instagram, on the other hand, contains people's diaries - they share what they see, what they think and, most importantly, what they appreciate. This contrasts with TikTok, where people literally just do stuff for entertainment. Not my type.

Anyway, I chanced upon this. I've never known Giveon, but damn, his emotion is real and raw, his voice is gold, and this song delivers hard.

What an amazing piece of art!

Jan

 And there goes a month in 2024.

January 2024 has been very eventful and meaningful.

Well, I've hit 30. That's a big milestone.

Thankfully people say I still look very young, so that's a plus.

But I'm getting a bit tired to be updating my blog.

I'll come back later with some updates, at the moment, I probably just need a lot more rest than I used to need.

2024

 Happy 2024 guys!!

I haven't been updating lately, because I'm just getting lazier. Well, I'll try to rid myself of this laziness.

Anyway, 2024 did not start well for me - I got Covid-19, since 29th Dec! 

The moment I woke up, I knew down to my bones that something was not right - I felt tired. Weird kind of tired, and I had chills. It felt like the first time I had Covid-19.

I did a quick test, and as suspected, a very faint line popped up in the kit.

The fatigue was real, powerful, crippling. I went to sleep.

I woke up hours later, brought myself to buy lunch. Brought lunch home, took about half, but felt too tired, I ended up went to sleep.

I woke up 2 hours later, with my lunch still unfinished.

It was a Friday, and since the GP wouldn't be open for the next 3 days, I pulled myself to the clinic - where I was checked to have a degree of 39. 

Anyway, the doctor gave me very generic medicines. Still, my main point was to get them for free - I'm covered by my company insurance, else I needed to fork out my own money to buy them from NTUC and I didn't want to.

I had Covid-19 for five days. On the third day, the T line was literally black. I mean, black, not dark purple. Imagine the toxins I was harbouring.

Anyway, 2024 was not off to a good start. But hopefully it gets better.

Happy 2024!