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Showing posts from December, 2017

A DAMN. Good Time: The bestest music of 2017 (a playlist)

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Another year, another holiday party. This one flew by, didn't it? In 2017 we should all realize we're not perfect. We are a nation that elected Donald Trump as our President. We are a human race that still allows the horrific regime of North Korea to exist. We have laughed at Louis C.K.'s jokes and watched Charlie Rose ask the tough questions while all along there were Big Little Lies being swept under the rug. We are all flawed. Even Jay-Z, the penultimate cocky billionaire looked into the mirror and saw the pitfalls of the id and egomania. Leonardo da Vinci was gay. The polio vaccine was developed from cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her consent. There is so much of history to come to light - we don't have all the facts and we never will. We don't know enough about each other. We don't know jack. I guess Kendrick Lamar said it best: "Bitch, be humble." There was plenty of great music released over the last year and some change. I ha

A Stranger Day: HBO Asia's supernatural charmer "The Teenage Psychic"

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While I've been laughing along with the return of Larry David's hi-jinx in the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm , there's a new show that quickly became an all-time favorite and it arrives imported from HBO Asia. The Teenage Psychic , a six-episode Taiwanese mini-series, combines the supernatural bent of Stranger Things with the tugging heart strings of Edward Yang. Reminiscent in naivete to Eleven, sixteen year-old orphan Xiao Zhen (Kuo Shu-yao) struggles to balance her medium powers with the typical high school drama. Xiao Zhen lives at a temple, run by her surrogate father of sorts Teacher Kim (Akio Chen), who carts out Xiao Zhen as "The Holy Maiden" as local villagers seek romantic advice and he peddles love potions. But despite some snake-oil shenanigans, "The Holy Maiden" does perform rituals to ward off evil spirits possessing the living and can see the dead to help grieving survivors. Despite her gift, Xiao Zhen would rather be a normal te