Hungry’s Movie Reviews: Pain & Gain (A Michael Bay Film)

This was one of my most anticipated films of the year and although I didn’t expect it to be in the same league as Oz, Gatsby, Star Trek, Iron Man, or anything else that might actually be a “good movie” I figured that I would enjoy it. I thought it would be one of those stupid funny movies making fun of bodybuilding with some slapstick comedy antics thrown into the mix. The trailer made me think it was about a bunch of stupid bodybuilders that wanted to get rich so they decide to kidnap someone or rob a bank to get a big pay day. I never expected it to be based of real events or to just be so dark in its comedy. Do I have a problem with darker comedy? No, not generally… but I think (and so did everyone else in our theater) that the advertising was misleading. Here’s how it went, play by play.

Alana and I were planning on seeing it Saturday morning until we found out how nice the weather would be, so at that point we made a last minute decision to see it opening night at a theater farther away at premium ticket pricing. What a mistake. We got there early and were the first ones in the theater. I’d like to add that AMC Flatirons Crossing is a beautiful and clean place where I recommend families and individuals to see their movies at that location. As we took our normal seats (the last row of the bottom section) despite having full freedom for choice, we saw a diverse selection of groups and individuals walk in and sit down.

AMC first look was boring enough (talked about some new shows called The Dome and Longmire, etc.) and the previews were so-so. It was mostly movies we already decided to see or not see so there was little excitement value. And then there was the movie.

Michael Bay provided us with lots of pain and almost no gain. The cast was excellent but it did not work. Ed Harris, Tony Shaloub and Rebel Wilson delivered and kept smiles on our faces. The Rock is always one of my favorites and maintained great balance in his role but I wanted something simpler and with less darkness. There was some controversy over the film because it felt like it was made to make you sympathize with the criminals, while family of the victims expressed that they do not want people to feel that way. It was not what we expected and it felt like it was four hours long… not two. That is a bad sign for me when it comes to movies. The Lord of the Rings extended cuts feel like a TV show because they’re so good.

I wanted a stupid version of Pumping Iron with some highway slapstick robbery thrown into it. It felt like a total waste of time and money and failed in finding its niche as a blockbuster cast not-quite-mockumentary. The fake Sun Gym Gang and Michael Bay do not deliver and I do not recommend this movie to anyone. His attempt to satirically provoke thought in achieving goals and the American dream are lost in the puddles of blood he creates.

Apr232013

The Best of Best of Boulder County 2012

This is a review of a review. Every year the readers of Boulder Weekly vote on the Best of Boulder County and while it is all opinion, local businesses love to hang their awards throughout their shops and eateries. Although we haven’t even lived here for a year, we have tried to eat and venture to as many places that our busy lives allow. We are also very opinionated, especially when it comes to food. People can claim they love food as much as me but I would challenge you to put your money where your mouth is if you doubt our hunger. So I’m essentially going to flip from page to page and rant when I feel necessary so hang in there.

The cover features a picture of Naoto Kanda, the owner of Sushi Zanmai. His restaurant won Best Japanese Restaurant. Despite recommendations from my boss, Ryan, and our family/friend, Fred, we have yet to try this location because every time we walk by it is closed. Despite mediocre Yelp reviews, we’re going ASAP so look for an upcoming review.

Before I move on, since I have already gone through the whole magazine, I would like to say that this isn’t really a fair judge of the Best of Boulder County. I would venture to estimate that 90% of the votes received are from people living in Boulder like ourselves. Other towns in Boulder County, with lower populations and population density, most likely are not fairly represented but it is a poll for readers and everyone acknowledges that truth.

Best American Bistro… who cares. I don’t eat bistro sized or priced portions typically so I can’t say much about the top five here. Best Appetizers went to The Med and the one time we went we did enjoy the multitude of appetizers that our large group got so fair enough. Who cares about best brunch? Not me. I want more meals so I break them down… not combine them.

Megan's Graduation...and Chris has Bell's Palsy here so no judging!

Megan’s Graduation at The Med…and Chris has Bell’s Palsy here so no judging!

Here is the first crime. Best Asian Fusion Restaurant. Chez Thuy won with Japango coming in fourth place. Chez Thuy was one of our worst dining experiences yet. We ordered a lot of variety and nearly everything we had was bad. Not decent, but bad. The pad thai was awful. Second worst I’ve ever had to Pong Sri in New York City. Japango was also a bad meal and the menu did not represent many Asian cultures. You want good Asian Fusion… go to Kho’s Asian Bistro in Longmont. It’s New York or L.A. quality.

Kho’s

I’d have to give Best Bakery to Spruce Confections. Their pies and croissants made our family from across the country and world very happy on Thanksgiving. Breadworks serves “fresh” bread at the Farmer’s Market and by fresh I mean stale. Dot’s Diner rightfully wins best breakfast for the bucks. Don’t sleep on The Buff or Turley’s for best breakfast even though they place third and not on the top five. And please try the Panaderia on 28th Street. It has a museum’s worth of delicious Mexican and Latin American baked choices. That should definitely be on the top five for best bakery now that we think about it.

Our latest trip to Spruce

Dot’s Diner breakfast

Us at the Buff! (that's my brother on the left)

Us at the Buff! (that’s Alana’s brother on the left)

Racks of delicious baked goods at Panaderia

Larkburger winning best burger is a sham. It was the worst burger I’ve had in town yet. Expensive, slow, small, and worthless. Mountain Sun takes the cake for me, and Mustard’s Last Stand is the best burger for the buck. Moe’s bagels and service has been awful every time that I have gone and we have Einstein’s in Pennsylvania so it wins by default for having locations near New Jersey and New York.

Tempeh burger at Mustard’s (basically what Alana gets)

Las Palmeras in Longmont has the best burritos along with some Taqueria on Lashley Street. Seriously, if Boulder locations win best burrito with the population of Mexican Americans that exist in Longmont, it’s obvious where people have eaten. Not in the right place. China Gourmet and Tsing Tao are the best Chinese restaurants. China Gourmet is one of the best Chinese food places I have ever eaten in my life. If you want a good restaurant dessert, you need to go back to Kho’s Asian Bistro or Pasta Vino in Boulder. They have a tower of puff pastry and fresh fruit greatness that tops anything I had at The Med.

Pasta Vino awesome dessert

I have no quarrels with Best Fine Dining because we’ve only been to John’s Restaurant and The Cork. Ripple and Glacier win as they should for frozen yogurt and ice cream. Tibet Kitchen should win best Indian/Nepali Restaurant or whatever category it fits best into. We haven’t been happy with any Italian yet so that’s that.

Tibet Kitchen…heaven

Snarf’s sandwiches are the best. Sun Deli has some good sandwiches as well, definitely better than Deli Zone. Best overall restaurants are Kho’s Asian Bistro and Korea House. Tibet Kitchen and Mediterranean Market are best non restaurant style eateries. Abo’s is the best slice and pizzeria… the makers of this poll don’t know what a pizzeria is. The best gyro is Med Market and not Falafel King. Kho’s and Korea house have the highest quality fish for sushi we’ve had so far. Much higher than Tora and Japango. Tibet Kitchen is the most vegetarian friendly so says Alana the veggie. It also gets the best chai drink. You can tell where we like to eat right? Well that’s enough of my ranting. I’ll stop there before we get into gyms and grocery stores and useless things. We’ll try more restaurants and have a better input for next year. Stay hungry and fit!

Alana's choice...Tuna Melt with everything from tomatoes to lettuce to hot peppers

Snarf’s

Mediterranean Market platter

Mar242013

The Invasion of MMORPGs

Nerd alert post–no cooking or working out in this one. What is a MMORPG? It is a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game. Think World of Warcraft–the most popular and successful of them all. There have always been some: EVE, EverQuest, and so on. But now, big companies and big game lines have really started throwing themselves into this genre. Don’t get me wrong, I used to play WoW a lot, it’s a lot of fun, but my feelings start to get mixed once my beloved game series get involved.

This post is inspired by my playing Skyrim yesterday. I love the Elder Scrolls series, with them choosing different homelands of each of the playable races and being able to experience each one. Skyrim, which is pretty much all snow, is for the Nords. I usually either play as a Khajiit or a Wood Elf. I started thinking how cool it would be when Elder Scrolls finally got to their homelands. The desert land of the Khajiits with endless sand, or the forest-cities of the Wood Elves. How awesome it would be to explore it, especially now with such improved graphics and the ever-present attention to detail Bethesda offers.

My Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim character

And then I remember. Oh yeah, they’re making an MMO. That might mean that there will never be another Elder Scrolls game after that. And that kinda breaks my heart. I know they’re trying to make it as Elder Scrolls-y as possible, but it will still be an MMO. It will never be the same. I find myself wishing that they would choose not to jump on the bandwagon and instead, work on Elder Scrolls VI. Perhaps they still will, but that will be a lot to take on.

Star Wars: The Old Republic by BioWare (probably in competition with Bethesda for my favorite company ever) jumped at a huge MMO project like this as well. Of course I was excited–one of my most favorite series by one of my most favorite companies, it had to be good. And while I do enjoy playing SWTOR, it’s just not the same as Knights of the Old Republic. I would much rather have another single-player sequel to that amazing series with all its tough choices, exploration, and story than the impressive huge universe BioWare created. But KOTOR is a lot smaller than the Elder Scrolls games, so I doubt there will be another since TOR is out.

I’m not sure why MMOs are trending so much–perhaps because of the big money gains, the success, and fame? World of Warcraft certainly made its mark on gaming history and will continue to do so. But just because it was wildly successful doesn’t mean that every big awesome gaming company needs to do it. For me, the Elder Scrolls series is truly unique and I love the worlds they create, the attention to detail, and the openness of gameplay that is hard to recreate in an MMO. I hope the MMO format doesn’t kill it, but it probably will.

What are your feelings about the increasing number of MMOs? Cheers!

Mar192013

Movie Review: Oz The Great and Powerful

It’s Saturday morning and we are thinking about how little we have gone to the movies this year. Luckily, Disney provided us with a new option, Oz The Great and Powerful starring James Franco and a trio of Hollywood’s finest and classiest ladies. We took advantage of a morning showing in 3D at 10:55 a.m.

Alana said that she saw The Wizard of Oz (1939)… so have I and everyone else in the world. I have also seen Return to Oz (Creepiest movie ever), The Wiz, and have read a few of the earlier books in the series, before Princess Ozma gets to comfortable on her throne. So, of course we know something about the story. Neither of us has seen Wicked, but I know all the songs thanks to my brother.

Without giving any spoilers, it was two hours that felt just about two hours long. There weren’t any scenes that were a total waste in my opinion. Everything contributed to the development of the story and the characters. It shared many similarities to the stories and changed some details without altering the story too much, with the exception of developing relationships between certain characters that we never really saw before. It has been 113 years since the first book was published so it’s not unreasonable to say that it could use some modernization. Gilbert Godfried might have fit the original Oz’s description more accurately, but James Franco created a solid character by the end of the movie.

The visual effects were sufficient and sometimes awesome, Danny Elfman brought a stellar soundtrack as per usual, and Michelle Williams provided the best performance of anyone in the film (in my opinion) as the witch that she was. There were small details that I appreciated, such as the parallels drawn between Oz’s world in Kansas and his world in Oz.

All in all, I enjoyed this film. It started very slowly but James Franco and the cast turned it around by the end. Alana was not as pleased with the film due to her lack of positive feelings for Franco. I read that Michelle Williams signed on for a sequel so I am excited to see in which direction they take L. Frank Baum’s magical series. Disney rarely fails.

On a side note, we’re looking forward to a strong movie showing in May, with back to back to back weekends of: The Great Gatsby, Iron Man 3, and Star Trek Into Darkness.

Stay hungry and fit.

Mar182013

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Alana getting into cooking/cleaning mode

Yesterday we had the privilege of celebrating one of our favorite Americanized and distorted holidays. This year we were lucky enough to have it fall on a Sunday, so we decided to hold a little celebration since we are so far from our homes. I’ll try to make this brief because I’m still pretty full.

Kittens hoping for some scraps

We woke up early and headed to do a few chores. Target for prescriptions, King Soopers for groceries, Marshall’s for another large pot, and Sprouts for produce. We already had corned beef from the day before. Five pounds of it… for three omnivores and four vegetarians. Whoops.

Our grocery trip

We cleaned the house and I threw the mixture of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes (not telling you the secret recipe) around 11:00 a.m. We started eating at 3:30 p.m. Alana made a very good Irish soda bread with her friend’s mom’s authentic recipe AND a spinach-feta pie-like dish. We also had some good Irish cheddar cheese, jack, and cranberry goat cheese with matzoh. That’s right… straight from Jerusalem.

Our tunes for the day…

For drink, we were provided with George Killian’s irish Red, a nice refreshing light tasting beer to compliment the dishes. (I know nothing about beer.) Afterwards, I made vanilla Bailey’s milkshakes for dessert. We Skyped with family, chatted and caught up with one another, and gave the kittens tons of attention. All in all it was a very fun time together. Thanks to everyone for coming and everyone that celebrated this holiday the right way!

remnants of milkshake

Kitchen hit by tornado

Even after a feast like this one, stay hungry and fit!

Mar042013

Jack the Giant Slayer Review

Bryan Singer’s (director of Many recent X-Men adaptations and Superman Returns) Jack the Giant Slayer was our most recent trip to the movies. A trip was long due since we think we’ve only been to one or maybe two other movies this year. (We’ll have to double check that for our end of the year wrap-up.)

With some makeup it was difficult to tell who it featured, but we knew that Ewan Obi-Wan was the personal guard for the princess and Bill Nighy (Do you feaaaaar deathuuuu!) was the leader of the giants. It seems that Stanley Tucci (my ever so evasive uncle) was the fiancee of the princess. Ian McShane (why didn’t they use every captain from Pirates?) was the king and Jack was played by the guy who Alana recognized from About a Boy (also Beast from X-Men First Class… convenient casting). So it’s got a good cast and the princess did a great job… whoever she was.

It was loosely based off of Jack and the Beanstalk… the treasure, the golden harp, the giants in the sky, the magical beans, etc. However, there are a lot of giants in this adaptation. I mean an army’s worth of human-blood thirsty giants. I think they were trying to make a movie that kid’s could watch and enjoy while their parents wouldn’t be completely bored. I think it lacked that witty humor that movies such as Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2 has but it wasn’t awful for adults… and we’re not real adults. The effects were okay, the sets were convincing enough, but the king’s armor was awful. They might have done that on purpose. As for the acting, it was good enough to fit the movie. We couldn’t tell if Jack’s father was the worst or best actor ever.

This isn’t a long review and we don’t do spoilers but if you have some young teenagers and want to spend some time with them take them to this movie. If you don’t mind some death and exploding heads then take your younger ones too. It’s a fun and exciting interpretation of a very well-known fairy tale… and it moves quickly. It didn’t feel two hours long, although at one point it seemed it was going to end thirty minutes short.

If you’re going to watch it for the golden goose… then don’t bother going. But seriously, who would go for that reason?

In the end, it isn’t a very good movie. No morals or values really projected well in my opinion. They pushed the idea of follow your dreams and don’t fear an adventure, but there was nothing very moving to get that across. Let’s just say it’s not going to win any Oscars next year but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it with the young ones in the family.

Next Up… Oz: The Great and Powerful (next weekend)

Feb262013

What We Thought of the Oscars

Bollocks. Well–mostly. It was a tough year, tough competition, for a lot of movies and actors that deserved awards. This will be just a quick review of our night and what we thought of the beloved Academy Awards. And let me insert that I didn’t quite pay attention to all of it. However, I enjoy everyone getting together to celebrate actors and movies.

Well, our night was filled with cuteness from baby kittens to a baby human. Regardless of who won, it was going to be a good night for us–pizza, bread and brie, salad, homemade banana bread, girl scout cookies, family, and more. We came over hungry and ate a lot, watching the Awards as the night went on. We didn’t watch the pre-show where everyone shows off what they’re wearing because we don’t particularly care for it. We tuned in at 6:15 MT, right before Seth McFarlane went into his introduction.

So, McFarlane pretty much lived up to his reputation, being funny sometimes, trashy many of the times, and awkward most of the time. He was also laughing at himself a lot, which I found amusing. I didn’t hate him as a host, but would rather have Ellen DeGeneres instead (good God, she was hilarious). Now I will just highlight some of the parts we either loved or hated (maybe we are extreme-type of people).

Anne Hathaway winning Best Supporting Actress. Yay! We were happy about this and think she deserved it. Though Chris didn’t like the new Les Mis that much (because he had seen better productions of it, I thoroughly enjoyed it however), we both agreed that Hathaway threw herself into that performance and really gave it her all. That’s when I think people deserve awards, when they act through passion and really transform into the role. Cheers to you, Hathaway.

Daniel Day Lewis winning Best Actor. Okay, so yes it’s Daniel Day Lewis. And yes, he’s an incredible actor. He completely transforms himself into whatever character he’s playing. We Saw Lincoln and it was creepy how much he looked and acted like him, as if we were seeing the real Lincoln before us. He did deserve it, of course he did, it’s Daniel Day Lewis. However, Chris and I both really wanted Hugh Jackman to win it for Les Mis. He completely carried that movie, he was incredible in it. We knew Daniel Day Lewis would win, but wish somehow there could be a tie for Jackman.

Les Miserables Cast Singing. We loved when seemingly the entire cast of Les Mis came out to sing their Oscar-nominated song (I now have Les Mis Pandora station on, I’m doomed to have it in my head forever again). It was a powerful performance and great to see everyone singing. True talent there.

The Hobbit Not Winning Anything. Now, we know The Hobbit was not nearly as good as the LOTR Trilogy, but it deserved something. Make-up (how did it NOT win that), costumes, visual design–come on, something! That was something that definitely ticked us off.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi Not Being Nominated. This was Chris’ favorite movie of 2012. It was a brilliant documentary of a brilliant Sushi chef and his sons. It deserved great credit, and should’ve at least been nominated for Best Documentary. Very, very disappointing. If you haven’t seen it yet, do so. It’s on Netflix Instant.

Beasts of the Southern Wild Being Nominated for Best Picture. We obviously don’t do our research, so we were very delightfully surprised that it got a nomination for Best Picture–good for them! It was one of our favorites for the year, extremely real and honest. Chris found it the most emotionally-provoking out of all the films we saw in 2012, even more than Les Mis. There was just something about it, hard to describe. Can’t wait to get it on DVD. That little girl was amazing.

Quvenzhané Wallis being nominated for Best Actress. WOW. Speaking of “that little girl,” we had no clue she had been nominated. This was definitely a high point of the night. She was absolutely incredible. We loved her spirit, her voice, her view of the world–the acting was just flawless in our opinion. So happy to see her get recognition she deserved. She was truly amazing, she made the movie.

Life of Pi winning so many awards. We were shocked to see that Life of Pi got so many awards including Best Director! We are happy though, because we feel it deserved it, though it didn’t get as much attention in the Box Office as we thought it should have. It was great to see such a wonderful adventure and story get great recognition. And who doesn’t love Ang Lee!

Brave Beating Wreck-It Ralph in Best Animated Film. What! I know it’s Pixar, and it’s about a kick-butt little girl, but this Pixar movie didn’t live up to its other excellent movies. And Wreck-It Ralph–what a movie! It was so well done, with a star-studded cast, great humor, and awesome throw-backs for us nerds. Maybe that’s why it didn’t win, because it definitely spoke to nerds. Well whatever with awards, Wreck-It Ralph left us smiling the whole time.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that is a quick run-down of our highs and lows for the night. Tell us what you thought, too!

Cheers!

Jan312013

Follow Us!

Drum roll please…Hungry and Fit now has a Twitter and a YouTube. Yes, this isn’t an exciting post…at all, but we try to keep you updated with what’s going on with us in accordance to this blog. Both are pretty easy to access…twitter.com/hungryandfit and youtube.com/hungryandfit. Pretty simple, no?

We will be updating it as regularly as we can, probably more so the Twitter than the YouTube, but the YouTube already has some cute kitten videos up on there! So you can follow us (our twitter handle is now on the left side of the blog page) and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

For the Twitter page, we will be updating it with workout tips, eating/cooking tips, and lifestyle guides. Much similar as to what you see us posting here, but in very short condensed form!

For the YouTube page, we will be putting up videos of kittens (duh), workouts, home cooking, and more! It will be well worth it to keep an eye out as we will keep them to a shortened length.

Sajah ninja-attacking Chris

Thanks for following/subscribing to us, stay tuned, and as always…stay hungry and fit!

Jan282013

Movie Review: The Impossible

It’s been awhile since we hit the movie theatres with our busy schedules, work, and sickness. But today, we did. It was a movie that I’ve wanted to see for a while now: “The Impossible.” It’s a true story about a British (though in the credits of the actual family members, we think they are Spanish) family of 5 (parents and 3 boys) on a resort in Thailand when the 2004 Tsunami hit the Southeast Asian area. It was very gripping and intense.

Countries most affected by the tsunami, with the earthquake’s epicenter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is an underlying tension from the beginning, seeing as the audience knows what’s going to happen as they show the date and time continually. The family is happy travelling to Thailand and having a blast on a beautiful resort, lots of love and joy. But we know what’s going to happen. We just don’t know how it specifically is going to happen to these people. So right from the start, there’s that gripping tension of waiting.

Once it does happen, the movie becomes very intense and consequently emotional, family members trying to find their others. And in the midst of the tsunami actually passing through, a feeling of panic and terror rose up even in me as I was sitting safely in my cushioned movie theatre chair. The thing that made this harder to watch and comprehend was that it happened in real life, all of this occurred to real people and I kept remembering back to the catastrophic death toll of this event.

The Impossible (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The family, split up, travels to different locations, sustaining horrific injuries and struggling to survive through it all. I won’t spoil it by telling you if they do or not. Despite the terrible event that triggered the horrors, there was something incredibly heartwarming about many parts. People, when they were significantly injured, stopping to help others in need when it could cause their own death. A village of Thai helping out two rich anglos, going completely out of their way just to save someone’s life. During these scenes, I felt an incredible warm feeling of hope and the beauty that still thrives in humanity, despite scenes of horror.

The acting of this movie was splendid–I mean, how could you go wrong with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGreggor. Also, the oldest son was an incredible actor and took up a big role of the movie. It really felt as if you were thrown into the situation with them. The only downside to this movie for me was that, at some parts, it was a little bit too dramatic. Sometimes you didn’t need the drama of Hollywood because you had the drama of nature–a real-life event.

English: Naomi Watts at the Cannes film festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It was tough to watch in some parts, but highlights what’s good in humanity in the worst of times. Take the time to go see it, or catch it on DVD when it comes out.

Cheers!

Jan232013

The Record Volume 1: Live Music Collaborations

This is a very specific post. It’s a list of my three favorite male-male live music collaborations, the best performances. I just thought of it while watching YouTube this morning while trying to wake up for the day (we don’t drink coffee). It doesn’t include every performance; it’s the first three that popped into my head but they did for a reason. They are three of my favorite songs of all time, easily top 100 list for each. Potentially top 10 and probably top 20. Here they are, in order, and why.

1. MOBO 2007 – Kano ft. Craig David – This is the Girl: First of all, this is the second most played song of all time on my iTunes, out of well over 8000 songs over the past seven-ish years. Kano is one of the most underrated rappers ever, and in my opinion, the best out of the U.K. Off his London Town album, this track has a great energy to it and I can use it in any workout. Nothing vulgar, not a bad message. It’s classy. And it has Craig David on it, arguably my favorite artist of all time. Born to Do It is my favorite album of all time and was ranked the 2nd best album ever behind Thriller by MTV viewers in a large poll. As for the performance, it’s pretty simple. Some flashy lights and big screens, but mainly these two guys just going at it. No lip syncing, no faking… this is top notch live performing just the way everyone should do it.

2. The King Stays King Sold Out at Madison Square Garden – Romeo Santos ft. Usher – Promise: This 75% Spanish/25% English bachata based love song was my song of the year for 2011 along with the last live performance. It makes sense that they both make the list then, since they are fresh in my mind. Romeo Santos, the lead singer of Aventura (band of Dominican boys from the Bronx), is a large man with a soft delicate voice that comes out of nowhere. He is the king of modern bachata and royalty in New York City. Not everyone can sell out MSG: it’s big, especially in this economy.

Usher can dance and his style and voice fits bachata nice as well. So what makes this performance worthy of the list other than the fact that I like the song. It was at the end of the concert and no one actually knew Usher was coming. Everyone went crazy when he emerged from under the stage. They both brought top notch vocals, the band has great skill and energy, tons of smooth dance moves and the two worked off one another, harmonizing beautifully. At one point, about four minutes into the over ten minute performance, the band breaks it down and everything melts like butter. One of the best moments in a live performance I have ever seen. Good work, boys, keep making teenage girls across the country happy.

3. SBS Inkigayo 2011/10/30 – Tablo ft. Taeyang – Tomorrow: This performance is on the top three list more so because of its significance than anything else. This is one of my favorite songs, and top two from 2011 along with Promise, but this isn’t the best possible performance they could have done. Tablo, the leader of Korea’s “founding” rap group Epik High, had some background tracks running throughout his verses. I did like how they made it seem that Taeyang, Big Bang’s smooth moving and singing heart throb, wasn’t actually there as they were just using the film from the music video. When he came out for the last minute it made it that much better.

This was so exciting because it was Tablo’s first release after signing with YG, my favorite Korean music label. When the two “dapped” (NY’s terminology for the hand shake hug) it signified Tablo’s joining of YG with one of YG’s most popular and marketable artists. Throw a little big of Taeyang’s dancing and vocals in there, along with Tablo’s lyrics and style and this was one great moment on Inkigayo. (Inkigayo is a weekly television show with small audiences that features popular artists and songs in Korea at the time.)

So there you have it, top three live male-male crossover collaborations. I’m not surprised there is an English, Spanish, and Korean song. Maybe if MC Solaar and Garou threw something together there would have been a French one too.

Cheers! Listen and love your music and don’t let anyone tell you to stop listening to something you like!