Star Sparkle Blog

Happy New Year from Starsparkle Blog! Here's the video for Auld Lang Syne by my favourite singer Mariah Carey.  Hope you have a great 2012! :)

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! :) I've now decided to have a weekly music video rather than the random one, so I'll post them more often. This week there's more than one video and they are by the Korean group Dong Bang Shin Ki .  In Japan they're known as Tohoshinki (I first heard of them as Tohoshinki) and they're also called TVXQ (Tong Vfang Xien Qi) which is Chinese. Plus fans also call them DBSK (short for Dong Bang Shin Ki). So it's a bit confusing really! lol. Their name translates as "The Rising Gods of the East".  The group started off with 5 members, U-know (his stage name) Yunho, Max Changmin, Hero Jaejoong, Micky Yoochun and Xiah Junsu. They formed in 2003 and were successful, but in 2009 they stopped performing due to problems with their Korean agency SM Entertainment.  They returned in 2010 as 3 piece JYJ consisting of Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu to perform at a concert but now they are a duo (U-know Yunho and Max Changmin). A bit

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've had computer problems. But I've got it back now, so I'll start posting again! :) More posts to come!

This is another performance by former Bellydance Superstar Jillina. She's dancing to a song called Leilet Hob by Mohammed Abdel Wahab. Jillina performance

This video features the song Babuji Zara Dheere Chalo from the Bollywood film Dum. Hope you like it! :) Update 26/12/19: The original video is gone due to copyright claims, so I've had to replace it with the official lyric video.

Here's a performance by another  Bellydance Superstar Rania. I don't think she's in it anymore either, the line-up seems to have completely changed. I'll post videos of the more well known dancers who used to be in the group first and then move on to the newer ones later. In the video she's dancing to a piece of music called Ice Queen by Dinletir aka Paul Dinletir. He's a composer who is married to another former BDSS member Jillina. Rania performance For more information about Rania check out her site:  http://www.raniabellydance.com/ There doesn't appear to be a lot on it but hopefully they'll update it soon. And for more info on Dinletir visit: http://www.myspace.com/pauldinletir

Here's another Bellydance Superstars video. This is a performance by Jillina. I don't think she's part of the Bellydance Superstars anymore because she's not featured on their site. On her own site it says that she was the Artistic Director and Main Choreographer (for the Bellydance Superstars) from 2003-2009 and principal choreographer until 2010. She is now working by herself on her own show Bellydance Evolution. For more info on Jillina, check out her personal website: www.jillina.com

These are my Top 5 favourite horror anthology films. It was originally going to be a Top 10 post but since it was taking me a while to do (because there are multiple stories in each film) and I couldn't actually think of 10 films to make a Top 10,  I decided to do a Top 5 instead. I'll do a follow-up post later of other films that I like but aren't favourites. Posts contain spoilers. :) 1. Creepshow (1982) Based on comics from the 50s, this film by Stephen King and George A. Romero features 5 different stories. The wraparound story is about a boy called Billy (played by Stephen King's son Joe Hill/King) who loves to read comic books. His father disapproves of this pastime and gets so angry he slaps his son. Billy wants revenge on his dad. That night the Crypt Keeper appears to him and the stories begin. Father's Day  The first one, "Father's Day" is about a family who gather together every Father's Day. They are somewhat unusual and the gr

I thought I'd post another Hiromi video. This one is for the song YES, which is from her album Rainbow. The video has English subtitles. YES- Hiromi The video won't post in the blog, (I keep having problems with that), so follow the link instead. :) Happy Bonfire Night to readers in the UK (and anyone who celebrates it elsewhere)! :)

This time it's not exactly a music video but a song but I put it under that heading anyway, lol. It's called One Night Stand and it's by Japanese R'n'B singer Hiromi featuring the rapper Jamil . it's one of my favourite songs at the moment. One Night Stand is from Hiromi's first mini album True Colors, which was released in 2008. Hiromi- One Night Stand

I was thinking about the old kids TV series I used to watch. There used to be some really good ones. One of them was Century Falls which was about a girl and her mother moving to a weird village called Century Falls. I couldn't find any videos of that on YouTube but will look somewhere else. There was another one called Earthfasts (1994), based on the 1966 book (also called Earthfasts) by William Mayne. It's about two boys Keith (Chris Downs) and David (Paul Nicholls) who hear drumming under a hill on the Yorkshire moors and go to investigate. A cave opens up and a drummer boy named Nellie Jack John Cherry (Bryan Dick) comes out. He tells the others that he was in a castle and walked down a passage looking for treasure, and ended up coming out of the cave. Along with Keith and David, he returns to the castle in search of  his regiment, but is shocked to find it in ruins. It turns out that Nellie Jack John comes from the year 1742 and somehow the passage has transported him to

I'd like to learn Hawaiian or Tahitian dance but there are absolutely no classes in my area (Sussex). I found a few videos on Youtube. There are some DVDs you can buy but I need to get a new DVD player. So I bought a Hula dance set with a CD and booklet from Ebay. I think it will only be very simple moves but it's better than nothing, lol. Here is one of the videos I found on Youtube: I also found another one which is Part 2 from a documentary about Tahitian dance. It doesn't seem able to find the video in Blogger, so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAMKCJ8tnck&feature=related If anyone knows of any classes in Sussex, please let me know! (Preferably in the Brighton area). :)

Here is another Indian music video. This one is Maha Maha, the Telugu version of the Black Eyed Peas' song My Humps! It's from the film Mantra/Manthra. I think there is also a Tamil version as well. Update: 17/12/11: I thought I'd also post the original Black Eyed Peas video, so you can compare!                 For more Black Eyed Peas videos, visit their VEVO channel on YouTube: Black Eyed Peas VEVO                                 

I realised that I hadn't posted anything belly dance related, so today I'm going to post a belly dance video. This is a performance by the Bellydance Superstars (an American belly dance troupe), where some of them dance with Isis wings, which are two bits of sparkly material joined together in a "wings" shape and worn around the neck. The dance is called Entrance of the Stars.                                          For more info about the Bellydance Superstars (also known as BDSS), visit their website: Bellydance Superstars

I thought I'd start a new feature where I post a random music video every so often! The one I'm posting today is a Telugu (Indian language) one. The Telugu film industry is known as Tollywood, like Bollywood.  There used to be this Sky TV channel called Mana Telugu where they showed music videos. I liked some of the songs but they never showed their names. Recently I decided to have a look on YouTube to see if there were any songs I recognised and I found one of them. It's called Koncham Koncham (or Konchem as it's called in this version- I had to post another video) and is from the film Dee. If anyone reading this speaks Telugu and could do an English translation of the lyrics, that would be good! :) Koncham Konhcham- Dee

I went to see the new Fright Night two Mondays ago. I knew that it would never live up to the old one for me but I thought it was worth seeing. And it was quite good, I enjoyed it. I saw it in 3D (the first time I'd seen a 3D film), which was strange, every time there was glass shattering or a spark from a fire I kept thinking it was going to get in my eyes! lol. In this story, Charley Brewster (played by Anton Yelchin) has recently become popular and started dating one of the hottest girls in the school, Amy (Imogen Poots). He can't quite believe his luck. He has a new group of friends and has left his old ones behind. However, one of his old friends "Evil" Ed Thompson (Christopher Mintz- Plasse) resents (quite rightly!) being ditched and when he needs Charley's help, he uses their role playing past to blackmail him. Kids have been disappearing from their high school and noone seems particulary bothered apart from Ed and his friend Ben, who has now also vanishe

Sorry that I haven't posted much here again! I don't think I have many readers here yet but I'm sorry anyway. I've had a lot going on lately, including computer problems. Also, I think part of the problem was that I was doing great, long posts which were taking a lot of time and energy. So in order to post more regularly, I've decided to do more smaller posts (although of course I will still do longer posts sometimes such as Top 10 lists). Hope anyone reading this is having a great week! :)

The new TV series Teen Wolf  started in the UK a few weeks ago. It's based on the Michael J Fox film about a teenager who becomes a werewolf. Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) is a typical American teenager. Just before school starts he goes into the woods with his friend Stiles (Dylan O'Brien), looking for a body. When Stiles' dad (who is a policeman) shows up, Scott hides from him and is left alone. He is pursued and then bitten by a wolf. Afterwards he discovers he is changing in unexpected ways, not only is he faster and stronger (which improves his performance on the school lacrosse team) but he also transforms into a werewolf on full moon nights (or when he gets angry)! Around the same time, he meets new girl Allison (Crystal Reed), whose dad happens to be a werewolf hunter. Scott also comes across another werewolf, Derek (Tyler Hoechlin) who he suspects is the one who bit him. Derek denies this and tells Scott his attacker was another wolf, an "Alpha"  werewolf.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been having a lot of computer problems lately, but I'll try to get back to posting regularly. :) More posts coming soon!

These are my favourite music related websites and applications. :) iTunes Great for buying/downloading and listening to music. Once you download iTunes onto your computer you can buy music from the iTunes store (and listen to samples before you buy) and also upload your own music to iTunes. Visit the site to download it. Amazon This online shop is good for buying music, as well as books, video games and lots of other things. You can also listen to samples on Amazon. They don't always let you listen to samples on the UK site, so I sometimes go to the American and German sites instead when I want to hear album snippets.  HMV Website for the CD, DVD and game shop. You can get good deals on here and also listen to music samples for some CDs. Spotify This is an application that you download to your computer and then you can listen to music for free. The account I have is Spotify Open (the free one) and you can also get paid accounts, Unlimited and Premium, which cost £4

The original trailer I posted was removed from Youtube by the user, so here's another one: It says "Full Movie" but it's just a trailer and to watch the full film, you've got to go to a website. I'd rather wait for it to come out officially though, lol. This one shows more  scenes than the other one. What I can say about the remake so far is that it just doesn't have the atmosphere of the original! But then I don't suppose it would really, lol. Jerry seems a bit more menacing in this version. I'll post more info about the remake when it's available. Edit 28/5/11: This trailer has been removed too!

So this is my follow up post to the Top 10 Vampire Films one. Here I'm going to write about some films I haven't already mentioned. They aren't in any particular order. Please note that this post contains spoilers! Unless otherwise stated, the videos are trailers. Near Dark (1987) Farm boy Caleb (played by Adrian Pasdar ) lives in the American Midwest with his dad and little sister Sarah. One night while out with his friends, he meets a girl named Mae ( Jenny Wright ) who he is attracted to. They go off together but before long Mae becomes desperate to get home before dawn. Caleb thinks that she is probably worried that her dad will find out she's been out all night, so he messes around by stopping the car. He and Mae kiss but all of a sudden she bites him, then gets out of the car and runs away. Unable to start the vehicle again, Caleb attempts to walk home through the fields but grows increasingly ill and starts to burn as the sun rises! As he is struggling along

Teen Mom 2 just started in the UK. For those who don't know, Teen Mom is a spin off series from the TV show 16 and Pregnant, which (as I'm sure you can guess, lol) is about pregnant teenagers. There is also a series called Teen Mom which follows the lives of four teenagers from the first series of 16 and Pregnant, Maci, Farrah, Catelynn and Amber. Teen Mom 2 is about four more girls, Leah, Chelsea, Kailyn and Jenelle. Here is some info about the girls (based on the series currently showing in the UK): Leah Messer  Has twins Aliana and Aleeah with Corey Simms. She and Corey had only been together for a little while when Leah got pregnant. At the end of their 16 and Pregnant episode they broke up because Leah cheated on Corey with her ex-boyfriend Robbie. At the beginning of Teen Mom 2 Leah wants Corey back. In last week's episode, Leah is concerned because Ali is developing slower than Aleeah and has taken her to the hospital. Chelsea Houska Has daughter Aubree with

 Hadise Each month I'm going to do a post featuring a particular singer. This month I'm featuring the Turkish Belgian singer Hadise.                                                        Image from Wikipedia Born on 5th October 1985, Hadise Açıkgöz   grew up in Belgium but has Turkish heritage. She was a contestant in the Belgian TV singing contest Idool 2003 and although she didn't get through to the final, was later offered a record contract.  She released her debut single Sweat in 2004, followed by her debut album, also called Sweat in 2005. Hadise went on to release 4 more albums (two Turkish language and two English language), Hadise, Fast Life, Kahraman (translated as Hero) both of which came out in 2009 and her latest Aşk kaç beden giyer? As well as being successful in her home country, Asia and other European countries, Hadise has a Turkish fanbase. In 2009 she represented Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Dum Tek Tek and came fourth. U

The Fright Night remake is due out soon. Acording to Wikipedia it comes out on 19th August in the US and IMDB says it will be released on 2nd September in the UK.  It stars Anton Yelchin as Charley Brewster,  Colin Farrell as Jerry Dandridge and David Tenant as Peter Vincent.  In this version Peter Vincent is a Las Vegas stage magician. Other characters are Charley's girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) and best friend "Evil" Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Toni Collette plays Charley's mum. I couldn't find much info on it but this site gives a bit more: http://www.allmovie.com/work/504999   According to that Charley (or Charlie, maybe they've changed the spelling?) becomes part of the in crowd, ditches Evil and starts going out with the most popular girl in the school. And then Jerry shows up... Here's the trailer: Hmm...not too impressed! It starts off more interesting, with the tag line "It was a normal ordinary predicable life..until things got fr

So I thought I'd start off with my Top 10 vampire films! Please note that these contain spoilers. :) Unless otherwise stated, the videos are trailers. It's easier to say that than keep writing "Trailer" under them, lol. 1. Fright Night (1985) The story of a teenage boy called Charley (played by William Ragsdale ) who discovers that his next door neighbour Jerry Dandridge ( Chris Sarandon ) is a vampire! His girlfriend Amy and best friend "Evil" Ed don't believe him and they ask former horror actor turned Fright Night show host Peter Vincent ("The Great Vampire Killer") to help them prove to Charley that Jerry is human. Things don't go quite according to plan when Peter (played by Roddy McDowall ) finds out that Charley is telling the truth. Also Jerry has taken a fancy to Amy who looks very much like a woman he used to know. Can Charley convince Peter to help him defeat Jerry before it's too late?                             

This is a blog about various things including films, music, books and belly dancing! Just my different thoughts and favourite things. I will try to post at least once a week or more often. Not much else to say for now, more coming soon! :)