He was one of the good guys. This blog entry about one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre was featured in May 1st's Vox Talk, which was e-mailed to me. Although hype surrounding the massacre has lessened, and in a way this is good as it is time that those who were directly or indirectly affected move forward, touching and inspiring stories such as this one transcends time or date. It just does not need a reason or occasion to warrant a read.
05/01/2007
04/28/2007
04/19/2007
Themed Music
A song form an anime:
If I had to choose a melancholic and emotionally charged song to listen to when I'm down, I'll pick Kotani Kinya's Anti Nostalgic from the anime 'Gravitation', as it's so emotional and beautiful.
A little bit of rock:
From the 'Scarecrow' single, comes this mid-tempo rock song by the ever sugoi The Pillows. It's catchy, it's fun, and in some ways it sounds like Asian Kung Fu Generation [or should it be that AKFG sounds like them?] And it's mid tempo, chilling out type of rock. So give it a listen? ^^
Now for some hip-hop:
I really like this song, although I'm a little sick of it now due to heavy duty repeated listening. Technically speaking, it's also an anime song, which has already been represented by Anti Nostalgic earlier on.... but I had to have this song here in the hip hop section. It's an upbeat, fun, poppish hip-hop/rap song that's quite cute and sweet. It was used as the ending theme to Naruto Shippuden.
Girl Power! :
Haha... this song is so girl band type of cute, that it'll make you feel lighter and happier after listening to it. The lead singer sounds so adorable! ^^ Don't get me wrong, though. It's got a 'band' sound that's pretty strong, mixing feel good pop with light rock and slight hip-hop beats. Sounds interesting? Well, it is. Btw, this is another Okinawan band, and the fact that Okinawans produce a lot of good music should be reason enough to try out this all girl group XD
Now for some hip-hop:
Girl Power! :
04/14/2007
Presenting... ONE OK ROCK
I once read somewhere in a blog that in Japan, if one is looking for some of the better indie and live bands, those with weird names are a pretty good bet. XD It's kinda true, since group names like Bump of Chicken, Plastic Tree and ELLEGARDEN don't make much sense but kick ass produce good music nonetheless.
Same thing goes for ONE OK ROCK. It's a silly group name that can be hilariously interpreted in numerous ways and yet their music sounds great. I wouldn't have discovered it [well, not this early while they're still an indie band] if it wasn't for Taka and NEWS though. Haha... Taka who and what does he have to do with NEWS, right? XD
For NEWS and JE fans who go back long enough to remember NEWS before and when they first debuted [the good old days ^^ ], they had not 8 [and definitely not 6] members but NINE! Moriuchi Takahiro [who had one of the best vocals in the group] was the 9th member who quitted JE after the release of NEWS debut single. Yes, it was scandal-related and this guy has been linked to so much scandal that it's heartbreaking. Anyway, a few years down the road and he's emerged as the lead singer and lyricist for a relatively new group - ONE OK ROCK. Anyway, he's ditched his JE era family name too [icky divorce between his parents resulted in him taking up his mother's family name instead].
ONE OK ROCK so far have 2 mini albums to their credit, both which were released during the second half of last year. April 25th will be marked by the release of their debut single, 内秘心書
The group started off with 4 members but now have 5, after Tomoya who is also the oldest, joined in March as drummer. The other members are Toru [vocal and guitar], Alex the hot one [guitar] and Ryota who's kinda cute too [bass]. They're all pretty young and range in age from 18-20 this year.
My favorite-est ONE OK ROCK songs [sendspace d/l links] :
Keep it Real
Rose Blood
P.P.S.H.
04/08/2007
04/07/2007
03/27/2007
Graduation Clips + Yamapi in France
Thanks to globalisationa and the Internet, news clips of Kei-chan's graduation ceremony at the Nippon Budoukan yesterday are already available for download and for viewing at YouTube. He was one out of only three students from the 7,000+ graduating classes who received a 'model student' award. Feel even more proud and motivated by his achievements now. Must ganbatte and study hard like Kei-chan did~!! XD
One of the clips I saw also had Pi-chan filming a MOW commercial in France, and speaking sexy French =p
To download Kei-chan + Yamapi+ Hoshi wo Mezashite No.1 on Oricon news clips:
http://yamaperfection.livejournal.com/149409.html
To view:
To view just Kei-chan's post graduation clip:
03/26/2007
For a very special graduate of Meiji University <3
Kei-chan, Omedetou! ^_^
Hehe... I'm just so happy for him. Feel really proud like I'm his okasan or elder sister =p, and the lucky guy got to study under the Japanese and Chinese Studies department, something I would love to do. This post is actually kinder late since he graduated earlier today, and it's already somewhere around 11.50 Japanese time [almost the next day]. But I'm sure he would be feeling extremely happy and possibly still be celebrating now XD
It's so cute how Ryo was the one who asked him to contact Meiji University to find out how he did in his exam. So like an onii-chan =p
I love this pic of him as he looks so dreamy and serene in it. And he looks like he's got something really nice on his mind. ^_^ To spread the Koyama love, here's his best solo so far [in my opinion, but I still think he can't rap] - Love Addiction.
03/25/2007
I'm currently addicted to....
Recently, I've been catching up on NEWS' new single. Hoshi wo Mezashite's alright [I've uploaded it in a previous post], and NEWS' best ballad so far. I like the chorus too, and their voices sound better especially Tego's but it's not really one of my favs from them. I love Best Friend, though. It sounds so sweet and gives me this really warm feeling. And I do want to be their best friend [or something more =p ] and have them sing this to me, and go out together with Shige and Koyama to eat ramen or somehing... haha, fangirling XD
I really like the cover too. So refreshing to see them in colour schemes and outfits that don't temporarily blind you or make you cringe. Although, Mr Kitagawa, the cover would look even nicer if you add in Uchi and Kusa.
I was a little slow to discover this song, partly because I've sort of lost touch with V6 and partly because *runs away from V6 fans* the title sounded so silly ^^ I heard it on Music Station tough, and fell in love [it's another genki song from Johnny's that perfect for motivational purposes]
03/13/2007
Something to chew on....
Do you honestly think that some Japanese artistes and groups release too much material too often? For example, AAA has a long discography list taking into consideration the fact that they first debuted only in September 2006. And who can forget Koda Kumi's [successful] marketing stunt that saw her releasing 12 singles in 12 weeks?
Perhaps the super competitive and punishing Japanese music industry is to blame, eliminating those who fail to promote themselves sufficiently to the fickle public. However, does this compromise the quality of the releases? Does it leave singers and musicians exhausted and uninspired?
Anyway, for all GYM fangirls [I know there are a lot of you] XD, here's a little something.
I personally can't decided which member I like best. All three of them are so kakoii.
Most prefer Mike but I think Golf's cute too. He looks less innocent and sweet but I love it when he does the bossy elder brother act =P
Because I can't resist a cute guy in Japanese school uniform, even if it's just a fictional one.
Yamapi + dark hair + light curls = hotness. Really. I've hated some of his hairstyles. Dark wavy/slightly curly hair suits him, a lot. Fine boy indeed.
Most prefer Mike but I think Golf's cute too. He looks less innocent and sweet but I love it when he does the bossy elder brother act =P
Because I can't resist a cute guy in Japanese school uniform, even if it's just a fictional one.
Yamapi + dark hair + light curls = hotness. Really. I've hated some of his hairstyles. Dark wavy/slightly curly hair suits him, a lot. Fine boy indeed.
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