山下智久 – Loveless

I was going to start password protecting my fangirling.. but I decided to split it into two posts, with this one public. You guys know I’m weird anyway.

Anyway. I was lurking on the JE site, which is what I tend to do when I procrastinate. Despite the fact that it uses pink Disney-ish font… it’s also… good Jap practice *looks shifty*. My Jap is horrible. I literally need to sound out stuff when I read, probably what I did when I learned English at around 5yo.

So. Came across this.

山下智久 2nd アルブム　「Loveless」ラジオ　出演情報!!

(The bonus of having my laptop die is that I now have reverse conversion! Awesome (Y). Sadly, half my mp3s seem to have become corrupted, so guess what I’ll be wasting my bandwidth on…)

Okay, I admit I just copy-pasted the last three kanji because I can’t read them yet *looks at floor*.
I’m getting there. Eventually -_-”

And I admit that my mind immediately went to the wrong image when ‘Yamapi’ and ‘Loveless’ turned up in one sentence *whistles* Well, I’ve been watching Gokusen 3 because I feel deprived. And I really disliked each Gokusen series by about the 6th episode… so that should sort of indicate how desperate I am.

Without further ado – Yamapi’s LOVELESS (à la English subs). Filmed in New York, too.

His first solo (single) in about three years, supposedly <3. What was the last one – 抱いてセニョリータ? Sorry. Reverse conversion is very cool xD

I liked it. Okay, the ‘tear’ at the start was a little.. *facepalm*, but overall it was fairly nice.. and it was Yamapi! Come on, what more do you want? Well, I did prefer his hair more.. normal-ish. But whatever. It’s better than the 恋のABO clip. Disco is not cool.

And don’t psychoanalyse the fact that I like the song – I find it so irritating when people assume what I’m listening to reflects some weird, deep inner conflict. Trust me – I just like the song.

As solos go… it was infinitely better than the solo he had on the last NEWS album – MOLA was terrible. Wait, that's a little harsh. Well, it never grew on me. I mean 'hey sexy lady.. let me make you numb' in engrish really isn't that attractive. I'd say MOLA was even less attractive than LOVEJUICE. Yes, that's a name of a song. But you know, if I knew enough Jap in 6 months to compose something like LOVEJUICE… well, then I'd be pretty impressed with myself. I wonder what I'd have been doing those six months… no pun intended.

I still think this concert solo was the best – once it sped up. ゴメンネジュリエット　is the reason I started listening to NEWS – the first song that convinced me that they weren’t just some fruity J-pop band. Okay, they may be a little…

But seriously, he even makes white pants with silver hearts look attractive *nods* And even his dancing in 指輪 wasn’t that bad.

カラフル was also pretty good, as was ‘Love Song’. I haven’t heard some of his older solo tracks though.

Yeah. I was just over the moon because I found out that the single will be out on the 18th or so of November =D And he’s having a solo concert as well! (Also discovered via my oh-so-pro Jap skillz. Yeah. I’m hardcore like that). About time, considering Nishikido Ryo had one ages ago.

Not that he’s really replaced Ryo in my fangirling. But Yamapi’s lack of SUPERMASSIVEEGO does help. As does the Anan photoshoot. Kidding. I’m not that perverted.

Large egos annoy me. I can’t help it. I read some of the med forums and BoS and internally rage at arrogant, egotistical people. I don’t know why. I guess I just find arrogance as irritating as dishonesty and well… a general lack of morals. Not that I can talk, I guess.

On a non-JE note – 君がいるから, the Final Fantasy trailer song mentioned here is out in full. Leaked? Google it.

And it’s a little late, but I really love LAST ALLIANCE’s ‘Hekireki’ – the guys who did the Ouran anime’s closing song. I think it was the opening for the new はじめの一歩 series. I don’t think the clip’s fantastic, but the song is

Wow. They seem very..manly.. in comparison to everything else that I’ve been listening to. I’ve had the song sitting around for a while, but never imported it into iTunes. Fixing my Mac means that I have several gigabytes of music to listen to. Yay for pre-HSC-finale procrastination.

Something tells me I should have password protected this after all. Ah well.

I’ll have a deeper, more meaningful post soon. And a password protected one, since that seems to be trendy xD. The hint will probably be something along the lines of ‘what movie do I want to watch in 2010?’… and you’ll only know if you’ve been talking to me during HSC. If you don’t know it and want to know, ask me. But the password’s really just to protect you from an entry of fangirling and other stuff =)

/fangirling. Wait, that reads as ‘slash fangirling’, doesn’t it? Oh dear.

Sorry this post is boring for about 80% of you out there. I need to go back to my tourism notes – screwed am I for Geography HSC -_-’

Vocaloids and semi-nostalgia.

There was so much I wanted to blog about at the start of the week, but I didn’t feel like it. Now I feel like blogging but can’t remember what I wanted to say, so I apologise for the lack of structure of this post. Yes, because I always have structure *nods*

I should be working on English, but Eels are playing tonight so I probably won’t get much done. I’m not really expecting a win, but it’d be awesome =D

First things first. As Tim kindly advertised – here’s the 3D chibi Vocaloid video. I love the stoner one. And yes, the leeks are a reference to Inoue.

Cabaret Night, anyone? Just kidding. I’ve had responses of ‘cute’ (Tina-ama) and ‘sped’ (Hillbirley-nonma) – up to you to decide.

I didn’t do any work last Saturday, so I googled ‘Vocaloid’ because two groups did a Vocaloid dance at Animania (there’s bits of it in the video in my last entry). Heh, I tend to live in Carlingford under a rock now and then. I assumed it was some obscure anime, but then found out it was some singing synthesiser application software by Yamaha.

For anyone who is as lost as I was – one of the cool featured vids on Youtube explaining it.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, I haven’t been too impressed by the few songs I’ve heard. メルト gave me a headache – sounded a little like a castrated chipmunk. I didn’t like the PVs I saw, so here’s a Haruhi-style fanvid instead.

While I’m not a fan of Keito’s ‘voice’, the ice cream parody of the song was awesome. Probably need to read the English translation of the song first. Loved the illustrations <3 (why can’t I draw?) Lyrics are much more believable too =D

Returning to the first video on this blog – I’ve had Caramelldansen (speedycake remix) stuck in my head for a week. Here’s some random JE video to the song, complete with homo moments (courtesy Arashi, 1:03). Holy, the guy at about 1:26 looks like he can actually dance D=

I really do prefer J-pop to the limited K-pop I’ve seen. Probably because you can’t take their slutty manwhoring seriously. Refer to homo moment previously mentioned. Or this. Start from 0:44 and watch to the end (or it just seems weird)- 42 seconds of your life well wasted

Yuck, Today Tonight is on in the background. It’s some story that’s right now subtley hinting that immigration to Australia sucks. Because your ancestors weren’t migrants at all, right? But I guess the stuff about food and housing and environment sounds reasonable. Even though everyone said that a few centuries ago.

Anyway.

Junior uniform Monday. I found mine about an hour ago – smells of mothballs and still too big for me. The uniform ladies lied when they said I would grow into it! xD

It really feels like Year 12 is ending now. I think the massive camerafest helps with that. I’m itching to go on Facebook, and defend some of the more retarded luvos, but I guess it’ll have to wait until HSC’s over. Not that keeping off Facebook has made me study more.

Awards Day, Year 12 Luncheon, beach. It’ll be weird being the grade it’s happening to, instead of just watching.

I’ll definitely miss school – mainly all my friends. I still don’t know half the grade, but to be honest, I’ll still miss everyone else a fair bit – probably more the feel of our grade, I guess.

I’ll cut the nostalgia short. Here’s a weird baby picture of me. Definitely not the photo I like most, but my parents wanted this one xD

Not much changed, right?

I had a better photo of me eating cake – I was wearing blue and had cake all over my face. It looked a bit like I shoved my head into it. And I looked much better. Sadly, it’s probably decomposing in some garbage tip – we had some homework in Year 8 PE where we stuck on a baby photo of ourselves, and doing it the night before, I just stuck on the original. AND WE NEVER GOT IT BACK. Anyone from MLC remember this? Anyone want to ask the PE staff if they actually filed it away somewhere instead of throwing it out? *clutches shreds of optimism*

Study can wait. Time to make the most of the next 1.5 weeks

P.S: I’ve been asked to advertise this on my blog by someone who is not Joanne =)

Forrest Gump, Letters from Iwo Jima and the end of the holidays.

First of all.. I’m going to fill you in on my oh-so-exiting holidays.

I’m actually sort of happy with how much I’ve gotten done. Sort of. I’ve worked on all of Chem, revised Search for Better Health up to what we’ve covered in class, made Geo notes for all topics (except Ecosystems at Risk – Ms Wratten gave us awesome stuff), done a pile of MedEntry/F2F papers. Replaced my additional text for Belonging and rewrote the bits on The Crucible from scratch, then started my Module C essay. Found an additional text for 3u (I’ve used the same one in each essay, then got owned when I did another one) then rewrote my 3u essay (actually, it sucks – gotta do that again ==’).

I haven’t actually learned any of my notes yet, or started memorising essays. I’m wondering if I should bother memorising them – I always do better when I just walk into the exam with 8 or 9 points and make it up. Hmmm.

After I finish this blog and eat lunch, I’ll draft my Reflection Statement for 4u, then maybe write my 2u and 3u stories. Bludgey English stuff. Maybe do the second volume of UMAT practice questions.

I haven’t done any work for the last two or three days. I sat down to do my Module C essay on the sofa downstairs.. and then my sister started watching the Battlestar Galactica miniseries. The next time I looked down at Hughes’ poetry, three hours had gone by and I had a sentence on my laptop. I’m too easily distracted xD

And that concludes my boring holidays. Apart from going to Parra once, I haven’t gone further than a suburb away from my house. It’s also the first holidays in the last five or so years that I haven’t gone to the city.

I’m looking forward to these summer holidays. I don’t feel like I’ve had a relaxing summer for ages – in Year 8/9 holidays, I spent every day on maths because I was freaked out about what everyone said Ruse was like. I was actaully ranked in the 40s that half-yearly *beams*. Not to be egotistical, though – my rank’s in triple digits now, so it makes me feel better about myself xD

In Year 9/10 holidays, I was all motivated for Olympiad. I actually refer back to the notes I typed up then for HSC Bio. Year 10/11 holidays was studying for the ANU camp. Year 11/12 holidays was studying for Monash.

But this summer.. I plan on relaxing. Maybe camping in front of the TV watching ABC Kids or something xD Reruns of The Bill, Law and Order and whatever else is on in the middle of the day.

But I’ll probably get bored and fat(ter) and then go off to do something constructive.

Anyway!

Forrest Gump.

Loved it. I was actually itching to use it as an additional text, but then realised that I was already doing a film for both 2u and 3u And my 2u one also has Gary Sinise, so I’ll look like such a fangirl xD

I think I really loved the..epicness? of the movie. I’ll try not to spoil it, in case anyone hasn’t seen it (or is as deprived as I am).. but I liked how it just has the most ludicrous moments. I guess it’s because I detest most ‘teen movies’ – you know, the sort where you can predict the entire plot from the first five minutes.

I guess I’ll spoil it if I say anything else. Sorry. I’ll just settle with.. Tom Hanks is awesome =D
And I’d say that it was one of the better movies I’ve seen^^

Letters to from Iwo Jima (sorry about the typo in my last post ><')

I didn’t really know anything about this movie before I watched it. I knew it was ‘some war movie’ directed by an American but set in Japan, so I assumed it’d be about how Americans valiantly won a battle or something. And I knew it had Ken Watanabe and Ninomiya Kazunari.. but I assumed Nino had a small role, because he was always listed second.

I was completely wrong.

The film’s entirely in Japanese, showing the Japanese perspective of the battle. It’s meant to be the companion to ‘Flags of Our Fathers’, another Clint Eastwood film, which shows the American view (thank you Wikipedia). And Nino pretty much is the main character, playing Saigo

..and most of you don’t have a clue who he is. Well, he’s actually from Arashi, who featured in this post. He’s the guy in the bottom right hand corner of the last video.. with considerably more hair than these photos. He’s the first person from Johnny’s Entertainment to turn up in a Hollywood movie =D

Anyway. I’ll keep my fangirling to a minimum. But honestly, his acting was awesome. I think he was cast well for the role – he’s someone who naturally comes off as honest, someone who… tries hard without being a tryhard? Blergh, can’t explain it well ><'

Anyway, the movie’s mainly from his point of view, with flashbacks from other characters. Overall… I liked the structure of the movie, and how it presented the battle. But… I wasn’t a huge fan of some parts. I guess there are some things that you expect in a war movie, but I just didn’t like them. No, not the violence and blood, that’s ok. I didn’t like.. how the the movie tried so hard to show the concept of war.

That made no sense. OK, I’ll try again.

*spoiler warning*
Skip the next two paragraphs.

There’s one part where a few Japanese soldiers attack a defenceless American. But then of course, when you next see an American soldier, you know that someone’s going to save him. And of course, the Japanese soldiers will suddenly realise that he’s really just like them, and that he has a mother and a family too, and that Americans aren’t that bad after all. Then some Japanese soldiers will go try to surrender, and then some American soldier will further reiterate that war brings out the worst in people, and go shoot them.

I guess it was unavoidable, considering that Eastwood was trying to show the battle from both sides. Maybe I can’t judge the film, because I have gaping holes in my WWII knowledge, lack of experience with war movies and I haven’t seen Flags of Our Fathers. But personally, the movie started to lose a bit of its appeal there. It felt a bit like watching kids shows now, you know, the ones with oh-so-subtle messages on how we need to protect the environment.

*end spoiler warning*

That being said, overall, it was a good movie. There were a few cliche lines, but nothing overdone. I found some of the subbing a bit strange – they never seemed to translate ‘ikuzo’ (sp?) and a few other words, and they literally translated ‘urusai’ to ‘it’s noisy!’ – I know that’s what it means, but I think that might’ve been one of the times to translate it for the context. Wouldn’t an English-speaking audience just find that weird? And I was a little shocked when they said ‘raifuru’ – according to Wiki, that wouldn’t have been that common back then, so I wasn’t unjustified. Ego +1 xD

But it was pretty good. I haven’t seen many war movies, but I think it’s one of the better ones. Despite my criticisms, it was well-crafted and believable. And some parts were just awesome.. like when Saigo gets saved by the pot. Epic.

Oh crap. Just realised I could have used it for Conflicting Perspectives. Meh. If anyone wants to do it, go ahead. It’d be good for the module.

I’ll leave you with a video of Nino’s solo from some Arashi concert. I’m assuming this was a fair way into the concert.. hence explaining why he’s pouring sweat -_-’ I’m not sure if he actually wears glasses though. This comes with Chinese subs (I think?), if that helps anyone.

Actually, here’s some more random videos.

Tackey & Tsubasa’s video with random dancing curries. Are they trying to pull off curry dancing in the chorus? I swear Tackey looks like he’s about to try bhangra in one shot. I can’t work out why this song was a success.

The reason I did no work for the last two days was actually because I bothered listening to more stuff by Asian Kung-Fu Generation. They were actually the first Jap band I liked – you might remember then from their FMA (original series) opening, Rewrite.

It was the first time I bothered looking up a song by a Japanese band. But I didn’t bother getting many – I had about four, as of last week. Somehow Haruka Kanata was in my files, and I haven’t watched Naruto.

But anyway, I came across this song. Love it Supposedly they’re influenced by bands like Weezer?

I don’t think the clip has anything to do with the song. No, I can’t explain the lobster thing. Mind you, they have weirder clips – try the first 30 seconds of this one.

But I love the song – lyrics, vocals, bass, guitar, drums =D

Hmm. Better go eat lunch. Woah, 1500 words D:

Enjoy the end of the holidays!

明日の記憶

`tis the holidays! I should probably be studying for Trials, but I’m taking a six-hour break.
..fine, I didn’t do anything today, except go to Jap tutoring.

On that note – what textbook would you guys recommend? My Jap tutor said to find a new textbook I liked, and I’m really quite lost. Since I know a fair number of you guys have done/are doing Jap, any recommendations?

I’ve finished Kimono 1 and Kimono 2, but I don’t really like them enough to go on with Kimono 3. They feel quite unstructured.. good for the Year 7/8 level they’re targeting, but I’d prefer something with more focus on grammar. Something like the equivalent of Tapis Volant for French. In hindsight, that was a pretty awesome textbook – nice and structured, with tables and everything. With Kimono, I feel like I’m sort of.. disorganised, I guess. We learn negative and imperative forms before learning the actual verb, which drives me crazy x)

I was thinking of maybe going straight to Wakatta!, but I don’t know if I’m ready for it. That’s what Jap Continuers use, right? I don’t think I’m anywhere near that level. My Jap feels like it’s full of gaping holes.

I was also thinking of Hai or Mirai 3/4.. maybe Isshoni? What did Ruse use for Year 9/10 Jap, out of curiosity? Which textbook would you pick?

Does anyone have an old copy of Ohayoo lying around that they wouldn’t mind donating btw? I don’t mind if it’s been written in or anything. Yep, after looking at prices in Kinokuniya, I don’t think I’m rich enough to go on a shopping spree for textbooks just for revision purposes =(

I wish I did Japanese in Year 9/10. But then I’d regret not doing French or Commerce. I’m a conspiracy theorist when it comes to Commerce. Useless subject – it exists just so that parents can prove that kids still believe the ‘it’s good for you’ line. Well, I guess it’s good if you’re considering Eco or something in Year 11/12. And maybe I did learn a bit more about taxation and investment… but I wish I did Japanese instead. I really would regret not doing French in the end – I’m glad I still remember a bit. I know enough so that I understood a fair bit of the text in the opening of Saikano.

Anyway. I threatened to publish JE themed blogs, so that’s what this actually is. Sorry x). I found this video a while ago, and it’s a very good explanation of why I’m probably a little obsessed with Johnny’s Entertainment. It’s not because of their looks, choreography or their costumes which look like they came out of the Mardi Gras.. but because they make me smile. I find them entertaining, at least, and that’s a good enough reason for me to follow their stuff.

As the title says, it’s a random Arashi fanvid to Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone, AKA the Numa numa song or whatever it’s called.
(Surprisingly, not everyone seems to know what it is. I thought it was universal.)
Reaction #1: That was a weird video.
Reaction #2: After watching it again.. it’s quite well made. Timing was handled well – I’d probably still appreciate the video without being a fangirl.
Reaction #3: This is addictive.. and it’s the fifth time I’ve seen it. Something about the dance moves; the bit just before the 1 minute mark makes me crack up^^

There’s lots of MatsuJun for Andrea as well. x)
Arashi still isn’t really cemented as a favourite band for me. They’ve grown on me a lot, I’d love to go to their concerts, I like a fair few of their singles, and they’ve been climbing up my Last.fm chart.. but I’d still prefer NEWS or KAT-TUN. But I do find them entertaining =) (and I loved MatsuJun in HYD and Gokusen 1)

Today I finally listened to’ 明日の記憶’, the single Arashi released a bit more than a month ago. Kind of late, considering they’ve just released their single ‘Everything’ a few days ago, but I haven’t been downloading getting much new music recently. The clip’s quite nice – wait until about the chorus, where they start taking photos. I love the photos – I wish I took spectacular photos. And I want a wall like the one at the end of the clip *sigh*

The song’s been growing on me. It feels like everyone gets more equal turns at singing compared to other songs – even though Ohno Satoshi’s voice is easily the strongest, I prefer it when the others get more than the occasional line. It’s a reason why I don’t like the huge JE groups such as Hey! Say! JUMP as much… but that’s also because I find it hard to identify ten individual voices x)

The clip probably has a link to the ‘Crazy Moon’ PV, but I didn’t like that half of the single much – it sounds a bit too generic for me.

I really don’t feel like studying. I actually want to go watch the next Harry Potter movie – I don’t know why though, I didn’t like the 6th or 7th book. I also kind of want to watch Ice Age 3 and Bruno. Heh.

I haven’t done any work in the last week. I swear our entire school has swine flu xD Thankfully I’m getting better (or so I think) – after sleeping for more than 12 hours for a few days straight, I feel almost normal. Amoxil’s clearing up my cough; not the nice syrup stuff, the boring capsules =(

I should be frantically making notes right now, right?

Hmm. I’ll go stare at my computer screen for a while and wait for notes to magically appear in front of me, then.

強く強く信じ合えたなら 何色の未来が待っていますか?