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Tag Archives: music

Girl in blue: a 25-year journey through time and colour

16 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

aesthetics, blue, fandom, girlhood, growing up, hipster, indie, internet, lana del rey, life, music, personal, personal development, social media, tumblr

Processed with VSCO with s2 preset

It was the opposite back then: I was always a pink girl. When I was the age girls are when all they want to do is become a princess, and so make up for their lack of birthright by dressing up thus, I wanted everything pink. Pink for my Barbies and me. Pink stickers, pink toys, pink hairbands and clothes. Of course, my complexion means that Continue reading →

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An afternoon’s worth

26 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Beauty, Petit Passages

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aesthetics, art, classic music, music, prose, writer, writing

light tumblr

Light is fading, and with it the sun’s warmth. The room—golden and glorious just then—seems bigger and impossibly empty without that radiant guest. Drenched of the life it bestowed upon them for that brief, sacred moment, what adorned the room now shrunk in size. They will swell again, in size and in beauty, Continue reading →

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One Direction who? Meet Harry Styles, solo rocker

01 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Reviews

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album, album review, harry styles, music, pop culture, review, rock, singer, song, writer, writing

harry styles.jpgWe all know who he is—or do we? On the cover of his self-titled album Harry Styles is rather naked and definitely distressed: the singer bares his back to us in a pool of murky pink water, his downcast head inside cupped hands, a soaking wet study in vulnerability and penitence. The face, hair, and tattooed torso adored by millions across the globe are hidden almost with a trace of shame; the overall impression this image leaves is that of the star’s sensitivity as opposed to sexiness, Continue reading →

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A sound note on music’s unique, equalising ability to evoke human emotion

11 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

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academia, arts, culture, emotion, human experience, music, Opinion, sociology, thoughts, writer, writing

How to begin a manifesto? Fiery-veined passion propelled me to grasp for words that equalled Chopin’s effect. Then, having failed that, I scrambled for pictures; moving pictures, still pictures, pictures of girls posing as dryads, twirling ballerinas—I even enlisted the help of one Joe Wright, filmmaker extraordinaire. All of this, to no avail. My folly, I realised with aching clarity on this cold winter afternoon with only his music for company, stems chiefly from the vain belief that Continue reading →

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Dancing in the woods: a visual essay on the soundscape of Chopin

16 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Beauty

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art, chopin, cinema, feelings, imagination, mood, mood board, movie, music, nature, romanticism

atonement.gif Continue reading →

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The King Is Not Dead

05 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Notes, Opinion

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1950s, america, culture, elvis, elvis presley, icon, music, musings, Opinion, pop culture, rock, thoughts, twentieth century

elvis.jpg‘There’ll never be another Elvis,’ said the old man to the impersonator. But there needn’t be, not when he is survived and granted eternal life by his works, influence, and legacy. Why would we need another Elvis when he is the one and only? The king never died; he is unsurpassable; long live the king.

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Can’t buy me love

26 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

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life, love, marriage, music, musings, Opinion, romance, song, the beatles, thoughts, writer, writing

the beatles.jpg

“Tell me that you want those kind of things/That money just can’t buy/I don’t care too much for money/For money can’t buy me love”: these are the words of wisdom sang by Paul McCartney on The Beatles’ 1964 hit “Can’t Buy Me Love” which he wrote with John Lennon. They send me soul-searching every time I hear it, and I hear it a lot because A Hard Day’s Night is one of my favourite albums. Continue reading →

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My Anglo-American Christmas

27 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Opinion

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

america, books, charles dickens, christmas, cinema, culture, england, family, film, food, harry potter, history, holidays, j. k. rowling, life, memory, movie, music, nostalgia, pop culture, reading, television

vintage christmas.jpg

I am Chinese, my family is small and we are not religious. We don’t do gifts and parties, nor do we transform our home into a tricolour tinsel and cedar wonderland. I never even believed in Santa, thanks to my mother’s casual ‘Santa and magic and stuff are not real, it’s all made up’ when I was very young.

For Christians, Christmas is the birth of Jesus. For the non-religious, it is about Santa, reindeers, and snow. For us, it is a time to eat together: we mark the day celebrated by many with food and family, the pillars of Chinese culture, and I would not have it any other way.

But Christmas itself—be your take on it Christian or capitalist—is not Chinese, no matter how I celebrate it. Christmas in my mind is a kaleidoscope of Anglo-American sights and sounds. Continue reading →

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The Last Shadow Puppets cover Leonard Cohen’s “Is This What You Wanted”

29 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Beauty, Reviews

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Tags

alex turner, icon, leonard cohen, music, singer, the last shadow puppets, tlsp

the last shadow puppets.jpg

In the timely yet cruel way the world often works, it just so happened that three weeks before legendary singer-songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen’s passing UK indie duo The Last Shadow Puppets, comprised of longtime pals Alex Turner and Miles Kane, uploaded Turner’s cover of “Is This What You Wanted” onto their YouTube channel. I already penned a piece on Cohen’s death so do pardon my focus here on Turner, a legend in the making with and without Kane. Continue reading →

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Leonard Cohen is dead

12 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by Betty Zhang in Uncategorized

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Tags

arts, culture, death, leonard cohen, music, musician, poetry, prose, singer, writer, writing

leonard cohen.jpg

I heard it on the radio this afternoon so it must be true. When I got home social media confirmed the news, but unprecedented election outcomes in the States stunted the outpouring of grief for this legend of modern music and poetry. Much of the world is still reeling after Continue reading →

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