Daily WTF moment

Brought to you by none other than... Gackt.

Anyone who has ever watched Gackt on a variety show knows exactly where I'm coming from. Magnum? Crotch splitter? Cross-dressing? Naked curry-making? Uh huh.

Today I had the disturbing interesting pleasure of finally knowing what kind of underwear Gackt wears (or at least used to wear, seeing as this was from way back when). And what TMI moment about underwear would not be complete without mannequins to model examples? For those of you still wondering, he wears thongs. He also brought thongs to proudly hold up, despite the background shots already showing the back and front of the mannequins wearing them.
In all honesty, judging by the extreme tightness of his pants, it doesn't really come as a shock that he wears/wore thongs. I bet a lot of J-rockers who sport similar pants also wear thongs. Or go commando.

Other facepalm- and headdesk-worthy Gackt-ness that I discovered today:
- Openly molesting the mannequin of a woman's naked torso on stage during "Blue Lagoon".
- YFC tour. Stands for Yellow Fried Chickens. 'Nuff said.

Oh, Gackt. Never change, you weird, weird man.

Listening to right now: THYME - Hello

P.S. Although I headdesk every time I see Gackt, regardless of whether he's being relatively normal or not, I acknowledge that the man has talent. Just not my kind of talent. Also, I haven't heard most of his newer stuff, but with regards to his older stuff I prefer his ballads to his faster songs.

Automatic fail

Because the trailer for the newest Harry Potter movie has been released and I have yet to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Even worse, it's actually been sitting on my desk for the last month or so, patiently waiting for me to find the motivation time to watch it.

And also because for some odd reason I thought that Half-Blood Prince was split into two parts just like Deathly Hollows.

And finally, because I do not remember what happened in the books aside from overall plot line. :(

Thank heavens for Wikipedia. I have roughly half a year to reacquaint myself with the first half of the last book.

The trailer for Deathly Hallows: Part I looks pretty good though. And the two parts supposedly aren't going to be released that far apart which is nice.

Listening to right now: FLOPPY - everything

Hyde, bleach, and the ultimate treasure known as adult magazines

Just when I thought that Hyde (hyde? HYDE?) had outgrown his cross-dressing tendencies, he proves me wrong with the new VAMPS PV for "ANGEL TRIP". Not that there's anything wrong with Hyde looking like a girl. But he's also blonde again. Apparently he didn't learn his lesson about bleach during his solo endeavours.

Many things ran through my mind as I watched the PV, besides the initial "omg Hyde is blonde (again)" and "omg Hyde looks like a girl (again)". These included, in some form or another: hippies, Jack Sparrow, rum (well, really, that's just redundant after having already mentioned Jack Sparrow), drug dealers, and "DRIVER'S HIGH".

All this being said, I really liked Hyde's eye makeup and the song itself is pretty catchy. It's the 6th single from VAMPS, and to be honest I haven't heard enough from them to compare it to their other stuff. But come on. It's Hyde. The man can do no wrong except when he sings in English.
And really, he doesn't look that bad as a blonde.

Listening to right now: VAMPS - ANGEL TRIP

P.S. If you don't understand my title for this post... then clearly you have not done yourself the great favour of watching the "ANGEL TRIP" PV. Do it. Now.

Twitter mania

I just found out that the guitarist Aoi from the GazettE is now on Twitter. *insert mild fangirling moment* The novelty must not have worn off yet because he tweets like every 3 hours, lol. Perhaps I should try harder to brush up on my Japanese because Babel Fish just ain't cutting it, yo.

I'm tempted (yet again) to sign up for Twitter just so I can follow him, though really I could just check every once in a while for his updates (tweets, whatever). But if Reita joins Twitter I am SO THERE.

And excitement ensues

I ordered new picks a couple of days ago and got them today... whooo! They're 2.0mm and have grooves specifically for better grasping. The picks that came with my bass guitar were thin and got worn down extremely quickly, so I'm pretty excited for these new ones. Not to mention they're purple! Who doesn't love purple picks?

And on a totally random side note, I was recently reminded of this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5yPkxCLads
Sad to say, the awesomeness of this song will be completely lost on any non-scientist.

Listening to right now: Infinite - 맡겨

Keep your shirt on

I'm going to have to stop fangirling every time I watch a SS501 performance otherwise every other post is going to be about how sexy they are much better their performances are getting. I watched their Inkigayo performance for this week and they switched to grey/silver suits. I like these and the white suits more than the black ones, just because it sets them apart from their back-up dancers, visually. Their singing is much better than their comeback stages last week so I assume that that was just due to nerves and overall trying too hard. I think the special effects that the Inkigayo people added into the video were completely unnecessary but at least their cameraman isn't as spastic as Music Core's. -_-;

I also watched one of the debut performances of a new boy band called Infinite. Their song "Come Back Again" is pretty catchy and their dancing is really clean and sharp; I'm pretty impressed. Hopefully their subsequent stuff will be even better.

One of the other performances I watched was MBLAQ's "Y". I facepalm anytime I watch an MBLAQ performance though... I get that Lee Joon has rockin' abs but come on, choreographers, please let the man keep his shirt on for once. Now that I think about it, 2PM's performances were also facepalm-worthy whenever Taecyeon ripped his shirt off. It just seems so overdone now.

And finally, I meant to comment on CNBLUE's new mini-album a while ago but I lost motivation and never got around to it. I don't really have much to say about it except that it's really good. Upbeat and catchy, and a nice change from all the auto-tuned dance songs dominating K-pop these days. Definitely loop-worthy.

Okay, one more thing, lol. I never understood why Super Junior's new song "Minah (Bonamana)" was so popular. Up until 5 minutes ago I had only ever seen/heard it in music show performances and it didn't seem like a very interesting song at all. So I just watched the MV and it's actually pretty catchy. Damnit, I think it's even growing on me now.
Oh, and look, Leeteuk also has no shirt on. *facepalm*

Listening to right now: Super Junior - Minah (Bonamana)

I am a fangirl, hear me squeal

Warning: Major fangirling ahead!!


I just watched SS501's performance on Music Bank for this week and....

omgomgomgomgfaint!

Haha, just had to throw that in. But seriously, their dancing was so crisp and clean in this performance; I'm really impressed at how much better it is compared to last week. And the white suits... niiiiiice.
The only problem I had was that the stage was so small... I felt cramped just watching them dancing in that tiny space. I would say they should cut back on their back-up dancers but that would probably mess up the whole choreography, etc. I liked the contrast between SS501's white suits and the dancers' black outfits though... it helps in distinguishing SS501 from a distance, haha.

So basically throughout the whole video I was going "niiiiiice" like every 10 seconds and grinning like an idiot. Not totally unlike every other SS501 video I watch.

Listening to right now: SS501 - Love ya (Music Bank performance - June 11, 2010)

Edit: I just re-watched their comeback performances from last week and their dancing was actually pretty good in the Music Bank performance. I think it's either the white suits or the stage backdrop this week that helps to emphasize their movements and make them look more crisp (or maybe they really are more crisp). The singing seems to have improved though. On the other hand, last week's Music Core performance was overall not that good. Also, the Music Core cameraman needs to calm the fuck down, holy shit.

There's a glass between us

Came across this video yesterday and thought I'd share it. Potential inspiration for a poem?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvjZ6VkLuCM

I don't really know what to think about the ending though... it was a little creepy and it almost seemed like the girl went crazy. But overall it's incredibly touching and I like it a lot. There's a another, updated, version that the guy (I think it's a guy) did with a different music track but I think I like this one better.

Listening to right now: Otsuka Ai - Cherish

Damnit, I want to be in a fanvid too

I was on Youtube a while back and I don't remember exactly what I was looking for but somehow I stumbled across a fanvid of this Chinese malexmale couple. As it turns out, there were a number of fanvids of these guys who I assume are just random bloggers that happen to be a fairly good-looking, gay, Asian couple.

Man, I wish people found me interesting enough to make a fanvid about me.

I'm sure that back when I first watched the videos I had much more to say but since it's been practically a month, my apathy (or bad memory) has more or less kicked in. However, I decided to give this roundabout back story so that I could post a poem I wrote that's loosely inspired by the idea of this couple (or more broadly, by gay relationships or any "forbidden" relationship in general), and written to Yiruma's River Flows in You which happened to be the background music for one of the fanvids.

Anyway, since my poem blog is lagging ridiculously far behind due to my somewhat anal resolution to post everything in chronological order, I decided to go ahead and post the poem here. And, surprise surprise, this one actually had the fortune of being given a title!


"Love Story"
An exchange of shy glances
My heart throbs anytime you come near
Gentle laughter that sets my heart aflight
Tingles that chase my nervousness
We spent so much time together
And wasted just as much apart
Never thinking this forbidden love could be
I finally gave into your smile
And a single whisper made me yours.

An exchange of heated sighs
Hands gliding across glistening skin
Your fingers playing a tune that only we can hear
Passion igniting a rain of kisses
Your breath hitches as you release into me
Riding on your pleasure I do the same
Never thinking this forbidden love could end
I wanted to always see your smile
But in a single moment it all fell apart.

An exchange of angry words
Voices battling to drown the other
Those tears that once betrayed my happiness
Gradually became tears that held my pain
You watched my back as I walked away
Our hearts breaking with the distance
And in the midst of it all there was relief
Never thinking this forbidden love could survive
A single choice was all it took to break.



Listening to right now: Yiruma - River Flows In You

All it takes is good hair

So SS501 made their comeback this weekend and I've been watching their performances for "Love ya" and "Let me be the one" on Youtube. They really nailed "Let me be the one" and even threw in a little choreography which I thought was a nice touch, even though it's a ballad. It's too bad that they sang a shorter version of the song and not the whole thing since it's a such a good song. The "Love ya" performance wasn't as impactful (is that even a word? lol) as I thought it would have been. The choreography works better in the video than on stage, imo, and I'm not sure I really like their outfits that much. At least their hair looks better this time around so I can overlook pretty much everything else. I also liked that they had live instruments on stage, and even though I complained about the rapping in my previous post, that was surprisingly the part that they pulled off the best.

One thing that I'm a little disappointed about is that SS501 is not that consistent with their live vocals. I can understand that some of their dance choreography is very demanding and that affects their overall stamina and hence their vocals, but there are other groups that also dance and sing at the same time and can still stay on key more consistently. I know that they have talent up the wazoo because they always pull off their ballads beautifully, and they can sing well in their faster songs, so I think it's just a matter of stamina or something when it comes to the dancing while singing. With regards to "Love ya", I'm hoping that as the weeks go by they'll be able to polish their performance a bit more since they'll be doing it so many times anyway.

Listening to right now: SS501 - Let me be the one

P.S. The title doesn't really have any relevance to the post itself but I've found myself lacking inspiration for witty titles lately. Though I was watching some of SS501's older performances (e.g. U R Man) and I was reminded of how much difference a good hairstyle can make.

Let me love ya

SS501 just released the MV for their new song "Love ya" off of their new mini-album "Destination". But before I get into what I think about either of those, let's backtrack a bit.

Pictures were released a few weeks ago of their new look and the concept was... wow. Personally, I liked the first set of pictures (the ones with the mask) because the look was incredibly sexy with a touch of BDSM. Park Jung Min pulled if off especially well. However, the set of pictures where they kept the BSDM theme but lost the mask wasn't quite as good, imo. I don't know if it was the hair or the make-up but I found that there was something excessively feminine about the whole look. Key word being excessively because we all know how much I enjoy watching effeminate-looking men.

I was a little bit disappointed that the new album ended up being another mini-album rather than a full album. I mean, anything at all is great but at the same time I was hoping to hear more from them. The songs themselves are really good (quality over quantity, I suppose); I honestly like the songs (and their new look) on "Destination" a lot more than those on "Rebirth". I'm especially addicted to "Love ya" and "Let me be the one" even though there isn't that much choice seeing as there are really only 4 different songs to choose from.

And now back to the "Love ya" MV. The song itself is a strong, catchy, and altogether addictive track. The rap (does every K-pop song these days have a rap?) sounds a little clumsy to me; something about it doesn't flow... I don't know if it's the lyrics themselves, or if it's the fact that none of the SS501 members are really rappers. I think the best part of the song is at the end of the chorus when Jung Min sings all gravelly and then Young Saeng follows up with this smooth voice. Great contrast. Kim Hyun Joong doesn't really sing that much which is a little disappointing simply because I like it when all 5 of them sing a significant portion of the song. While I was watching the MV I was actually thinking "huh, not that much Hyun Joong" and then BAM! solo dance.
Overall, the choreography is pretty decent, though I could do without the air humping; luckily, they don't do too much of it. Strangely enough, the gunshots (or whatever that sound is supposed to be) totally remind me of the yaoi game Zettai Fukuju Meirei [Absolute Obedience]. (Good game, btw.)

I haven't been following SS501's activities as closely as I did last year but I'm looking forward to their comeback performances and such. I get this warm, fuzzy feeling whenever I watch them nowadays because they've matured and improved so much. They also don't sound like almost every other K-pop group out there which is refreshing. Now if they would only release another full length album.

Listening to right now: SS501 - Love ya

P.S. Rabbit rabbit, bring me good luck!