Mokona Modoki

i swiped this meme from my friend sallow_carrot.  and i made a few ghibli and non-ghibli additions.

( Animation Go! )

The Red Queen
Fall On Your Knees
Peter Pan
Blade of the Immortal: Dreamsong
The Holy Bible  (maybe i'll actually read the entire thing this time around)

The Geisha Army.  founded 2001.  it started out as a fictional band i created and wrote short stories about.  a small rock band that had a great heyday in the massachussetts area.  i was quite proud of the band name as it really does have a strong image.  the geisha army came to life outside my stories as well.  i started recruiting friends to be part of my own personal Geisha Army.  i even made Geisha Army t-shirts for many of them.  and that's pretty much what The Geisha Army is and what it means.

5 albums that shaped my 2008
( the albums are... )


5 Stand Out Songs of My 2008
( and the songs are... )

Dir en grey @ The Marquee, Tempe, Az
28 November 2008

Dir en grey, a popular visual kei japanese rock back is currently promoting their latest album Uroboros with a US tour.  The recently played a show here in the Valley. prompting all our j-rockers (American and not) to crawl out of the woodwork, dress up to their Hot Topic nines and gather together on this auspicious night.  The opening act was a heavy metal band The Human Abstract.

( Let's rock. )

Wicked is a musical with songs by Stephen Schwartz, based on the Gregory Macguire novel Wicked:  The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  It is a story about the Elphaba,  her rocky relationship with Galinda (Glinda the Good) and the events leading to her becoming the Wicked Witch of the West.  The musical debuted on Broadway fall 2003, with Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth starring at Elphaba and Glinda, respectively.  The musical songs performed by the Menzel and Chenoweth and the original cast were recorded and released on cd.  This album has been my current ear-obsession.

here's a little video from mr. alex shen, of Gashapon Shop fame. this is a little short he did for gamepro.com. it pertains to metal gear solid 4.
http://www.gamepro.com/video/player.cfm?vid=128700

check it out and vote ridiculously high on it. i'm sure he'd appreciate it. and it's pretty funny.

holy shoes!  when the hell did this happen?! O_O'  i can't believe this came at me out of nowhere.  i'm so excited, you have no idea, i have no idea!  http://youtube.com/watch?v=R7oacpg-TPQ

 

GO!GO!7188 is a three piece rock band hailing from Japan.  Their sound varies from song to song, album to album, ranging from your standard alternative rock to punk to a little surf rock.  They seem to draw from different sources that give their sound a little more life and colour.  The fifth album 569 is a prime example of this.

 

Hotel Cafe Tour 2008. March 11, 2008. The Clubhouse, Tempe, AZ.



This tour has a long lineup of artists of all types, who are rotated between shows. Five to six artists perform at any one show. For The Clubhouse lineup included: Jim Bianco, Cary Brothers (co-organizer), Kate Havnevik, Greg Laswell, Jessie Baylin and Ingrid Michaelson. The show was divided into two sets. Each set featured all six artists, each peforming 3-4 songs at a time.

( --Set Two-- )

  

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool... (It will compromise the divination :-) )
7. When you're finished tag some other people to do it!

 

  

Here's the deal: People who have been tagged post their answers and replace any question they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves. Tag 5 people. Those who are tagged cannot refuse (well, I'm saying you can refuse if you really don't want to do it). These 5 people must state who they were tagged by. You cannot tag the person who tagged you.

Note:  i will not tag, for i have no one to tag, but i do like to answer questions and surveys.

  

TRAVIS is an amazing live band.  they performed tonight at the Marquee Theater in Tempe, AZ.

photo credit:  anne heefner, travisonline.com

   

演歌の女王 - Enka no Joou - Queen of Enka


This is a 10 episode Japanese drama that aired last winter. If you're not familiar with enka, it's a type of japanese music, mostly known for its melodramatic, sad themes and crooning nature. it's mostly regarded as music for the older generation, but it's a good piece of japanese pop culture.  you can wikipedia enka and come up with this lovely entry.

In this show, we follow Ookochi Himawari, a woman in her late twenties, still trying to realize her dream of becoming an enka singer.  Unfortunately, she is a woman of extremely bad luck and, perhaps, bad decisions.  At the very start of the series, she meets Hitoshi, an old flame who  just happen to be a pitiful excuse for a human being (he's always apologizing for being alive).  He quickly pulls her into more misfortune, and you're shaking your head at Himawari for ever listening to him.  This goes on for a couple of episodes, and it's almost unbearable to watch Himawari endure so much trouble because of him.  But soon more characters are introduced, and while Himawari's misfortune continues, the show becomes more interesting as she interacts with and helps these various characters.  As pitiful as Himawari appears to be at the start of the show, you come to admire her unselfishness and determination to help others before herself.

Slow start. Superb characters.  Random unfortunate events.  A heartfelt ending.  This all adds up to a a great show.  I'd dare say it's now one of my favourite dramas.

NOTE:  It's hard to review a show without talking too much about the events and risk spoilers.  This review is pretty lame.

  

after a little work, i figured out her tour schedule, and even got some ticket prices.  there may be mistranslations on my part. my apologies.



tour dates seen here:
http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/speedstar/-/Information/A008352.html#concert

Personal Notes:  she has a show on my birthday. i wish i could be there for that show.  and she has a show in sendai, lilly!  but it's ¥6500. i don't expect you to get yourself there.  still, wishful thinking, na!

  

at the end of this month, UA is going on a short tour in support of her latest album Golden Green. it'll last through the month of september. she'll be traveling across Japan.  i can only say i wish i had an opportunity to go. i've read she has an incredible stage presence and is an intuitive performer. i'd like to see for myself.

 
 

this is the first official review for this newly established review journal. this is the b-side. you can catch the a-side at http://didnti.livejournal.com

and so, Zeitgeist has finally made its debut, and, finally, the Smashing Pumpkins has returned.

i, like many other pumpkins fans, have been looking forward to this new album. but i don't think i was anywhere near anxious as other pumpkins fans. and like some fans, i had my reservations. could the pumpkins still be the pumpkins, while missing half of the band? billy corgan and jimmy chamberlain (BC & JC) want you to believe so.

jimmy kicks off the album (Doomsday Clock) with a grand drumming intro, and is quickly joined by billy thrashing away on his guitars. they truly want to announce to the world the pumpkins are back, and they succeed in doing so. the first track takes you back 10+years and leaves you wondering, "did the pumpkins ever leave?"

by track 2 (7 Shades of Black), i'm already noticing a lack in backup vocals. it's all billy, and while he did a great job, it really does seem a little flat with just him. i know in previous albums he did the majority of the writing and playing and recording, but i think you could still hear the other members chiming in. though, i should listen to some previous albums before i actually go off on this point. it has been a while since i last listened to the pumpkins. you can correct me if i'm wrong.

billy did a nice job creating a mix bag of tracks. some tracks strong and driving (Doomsday Clock ,Tarantula). others softer and somewhat tender (Neverlost, That's The Way). there's even an rallying of the troops for a revolution. but despite the mixed bag of tracks, overall, the album starts off with a killer edge and dulls out toward the end.

two tracks that stand out to me are 7 Shades of Black and Neverlost. the first one showcasing jimmy drums and billy croon at maximum output. it's downright sexy. the latter taking a more alternative sound that reminisces the Adore era.

i'm sure i have more thoughts on Zeitgeist, but i shall leave this review as is. short and lacking.
  

hello friends.

since i rarely use this livejournal. i decided to turn it into a supplemental review journal for my sister's music review journal. i have already named myself the b-side to her a-side, which you can find here. http://didnti.livejournal.com

while the reviews seem to focus on music, i'm sure i won't just leave it at that. i may do books, movies, tv, and whatever else i may chance upon. i believe my sister and i will try and review the same things so there is actually both an a-side and a b-side for one particular item, but as i'm moving across the nation and she's moving across the globe and adding the fact that we do have different taste in media consumption, i don't think it will be feasible to maintain this gimmick at all times. so i am sure we'll be reviewing items on our own as well.

i apologize for any inconveniences this journal change may cause. and rest assured i won't be offended if you rid me from your friends list to save you from yet another poorly written review journal. i just thought it would be proper of me to give anyone of my current friends a heads up on these changes.

take it easy.

malia

haha, i don't update this thing much, do i? but here's an entry because i figure some of you know what i'm talking about even if i dont. so here's what i think...

so last night, while poking around the homestead, i found a Serenity. about the only dvd they own. seriously, they have no dvds.not even the harry potter dvds, which i find absurd, as big of a harry potter fan she is. she has 3 different sets of the books. and two copies of "quidditch through the ages" and "fantastic beasts & where to find them" each. i can't believe she has not one harry potter movie on dvd.

anyway, back to Serenity. so i watched the movie, without seeing any of the series Firefly that it's based on. (no, i think i did catch part of one ep in AZ, no clue what was going on though.) i had never heard of any of this until all the ruckus about it coming to dvd and Serenity coming to theatres. so i watched Serenity. it was odd. i'm expecting the complete sci-fi thing. i get that and the quasi-space pirates, along with a vibe taken straight out of a john wayne western.

even the bg music. at times, it was very heroic and something like you'd hear in a swashbuckler movie. and there are other times when it's rolling with a drawl, and you're expecting a shoot-out at the local corral. even the way talked was something very western. i can only wonder how much western joss whedon was watching and reading while working on this show.

also mixing with western drawl and talk was chinese. at first i wasn't even sure they were speaking chinese. but the subtitles told me they were. i listened more closely and decided it probably was chinese. some of the chinese did not sound like chinese, i tell you.

the Serenity Crew. mix-n-match crew. it boils down to this:
the captain
the captain's old soldier buddy from the war days
the pilot of the ship (also husband to the captain's old war buddy)
the cutsie mechanical genius girl
the raging testerone with muscles and guns
the preacher (called Shepherds in this universe)
the geisha (minus the make up, callled Companions)
the doctor
and the doctor's psychic sister

they're all over the place. i compared them to the One Piece crew. and they dont really seem to fit together, but they do anyway. i still dont care for the companion girl inara. i'm still not sure what she was doing on the ship. but i suppose i need to watch the Firefly series to figure that out.

today i did watch 3 eps of the Firefly series. they actually had one of the dvds here. they were enjoyable. and i got a listen to the theme song which is very very western-like. even the opening theme sequence ends with a group of horses running. heheh. these three eps were enjoyable. one of them was the ep i partially watched in AZ. things make more sense this time around. and i managed to put together enough of the basic relationships between the crew members as well as some basic background information of their times. not all. it is an interesting world. i think i can see where the fandom comes from. maybe one day i'll finish watching the rest of the series.