First post of the year. What.

How is it that I managed to not post anything until 31 days into the new year? Clearly, I should have made blogging more regularly my new year's resolution.

As it turns out, my brief obsession with the GazettE was, well... brief. I don't follow any news about them at all, aside from major things like the Tokyo Dome concert (and by that I mean that I know that it even happened, not actual details) and the Heresy fan club closing its doors to international (i.e. non-Japanese) members/applicants. I still like their music, I just don't fangirl over them anymore until I see Reita being all sexy as always.

I suppose the same could be said for SS501; I don't really follow them anymore, though I would say I'm a little more interested in their current endeavors than I am in the GazettE's. Speaking of which, the SS501 members are finally becoming more active, albeit individually. E.g., Park Jung Min recently released his first solo single album (he is looking FINE these days, btw) and Kim Hyung Jun is going to have a second season of that progamer show. I'll probably watch it, as long as it's as lulzy as the first season.

I also started listening to Park Hyo Shin recently; omg, that man's voice is just... I don't even have words for it. Unfortunately, he got drafted for the military last year December so we won't be seeing anything from him for a couple of years. To be honest, I'm not much of ballad lover but the few songs that I do love from him are awesome.

Man, I gotta started doing my obligatory monthly updates earlier so I don't have to rush. Or maybe just post more often than once a month.

Listening to right now: Edwin McCain - I'll Be

Happy holidays~

Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year!

Still need to come up with some New Year's resolutions to fail at again. In the meantime, a relaxing picture of palm trees...

Flo to the rescue!

I recently played the game Diner Dash: Sizzle and Serve for the DS and let me tell you, that game is hella addicting! Either that or I just have no self-control. Basically, it's about a woman, Flo, who quits her boring and stressful office job to open her own restaurant. Which apparently entails waitressing at (and saving?) a number of different restaurants before opening her own dream restaurant. Although seemingly monotonous, this game becomes surprisingly challenging and does manage to hold your (or at least my) attention throughout. There are different types of customers all with their own little quirks and paces, as well as different "freebies" that the restaurants eventually offer to their patrons which really just make your job a whole lot more complicated and hectic than it already was.

Which makes me wonder if Flo really thinks that this job is any better than her office job where she was doing basically the same thing (catering to the whims of other, highly demanding people) except that she didn't have to run around like a chicken without a head in her previous job. But whatever floats your boat, right? Follow your dream and all that jazz.

All in all, I really enjoyed the game and managed to unlock all the unlockables and essentially finish the game. So when I realised that there was a sequel, Diner Dash: Flo on the Go, I practically squealed with excitement at the prospect of more waitressing happiness. Until I actually played the game.

Flo on the Go is a massive step down from Sizzle and Serve. The graphics are worse, the music is lame, gameplay is less responsive, the upgrade system is barely flexible, and it's hard to tell what the heck is even going at each table. Probably the sole redeeming change was that you don't have to switch the screen between the waiting area to the dining area (though admittedly this actually made Sizzle and Serve somewhat more challenging). Granted, I only played through the first level (but each level has 10 stages) and the first stage of the second level but I doubt that it would've gotten much better. Especially after the introduction of the "love-bird" customers who apparently refuse to sit at tables with more than 2 seats and will suck each other's faces off if you leave them alone for too long. Um, what?

Overall, I am highly disappointed in Flo on the Go. However, Sizzle and Serve is significantly better as well as ridiculously addicting.

Listening to right now: Standing Egg - 사랑한다는 말

The sole October post... huh?

I can't believe an entire month (and more) has passed since I last posted anything here. For some reason I kept thinking that I had posted at least once in October but I guess my sense of time is worse than I thought.

Life's been so busy that I really haven't had much time (or spare energy) to follow up on... anything, really. I have some idea of what's been going on with different bands and such but no time to really fangirl over any of the news.

Oh, but there's roughly a month and a half left before the GazettE releases their new single, "PLEDGE". I wasn't too much impressed by their last two singles, "SHIVER" and "Red"; they weren't bad (in fact, they're quite catchy and I've looped them quite a bit) but they also weren't amazing. The B-sides were a bit more interesting but even those didn't hold my attention quite as much as some of their previous singles have.
I am also really, really, really hoping that Reita gets rid of that extra piece of cloth that he has wrapped around his forehead. Something about it just doesn't suit him, aside from it just looking plain silly.

Speaking of visuals though, I also hope that the "PLEDGE" PV is more interesting than the last two. Both "SHIVER" and "Red" must have had the same director or something because there was the same annoying jerky-I-don't-want-to-focus-on-any-one-thing-in-particular thing going on. "Red" was definitely not as boring a PV as "SHIVER", although the cameraman needs to learn that there are more members in the GazettE than Ruki, Aoi, and Uruha. Like seriously, Reita and Kai got practically no face time. Although, Reita looked so damn tired in the few shots he did have that maybe it's actually a good thing.

Guess I'm just gonna have to cross my fingers for an awesome single/PV this time around.

Listening to right now: ONE OK ROCK - Liar

Let's brew!

So instead of studying for my 6 hour exam like I should have been, I ended up watching the Korean drama 개인의 쥐향 [Personal Taste]. I found it pretty amusing, although at first there were a few too many characters whose eyes I wanted to claw out just because they were hella annoying. Somehow the writers managed to redeem pretty much ALL the characters, save for one (in my opinion), but the one character I was fairly conflicted about throughout the whole series was Han Chang Ryul. That's pretty much all I have to say about the drama, since I watched it a couple of weeks ago and my memory is crap, lol.
Oh. But I never knew how FINE Lee Min Ho is. o_O

I also watched the anime もやしもん [Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture] which has been around for a while (2007) but I never got around to watching until now. Basically, it's about a boy named Sawaki who can see microbes with the naked eye; not in a oh-look-spores-like-under-a-microscope kind of way but rather in a chibified and ridiculously cute kind of way. And they can talk. Yes.
Needless to say, I fell in love with the so-called main character of the featured microorganisms: Aspergillus oryzae. Since this is centred around agricultural microbiology, the microbes that appear are usually fungi, sometimes bacteria, and very rarely viruses. The only viruses I recall explicitly being pointed out were rhinovirus and influenza. But then of course, we could get into a whole debate about whether or not viruses are actually "alive", right?

What really motivated me to finally watch the Moyashimon anime was the fact that I happened to see that they recently (this year, in fact) made a drama adaptation! After finishing the anime I started the drama but so far I've only watched the first two episodes. It's interesting, and obviously a bit different from the anime (e.g. Sawaki's best friend Kei takes a leave of absence right from the get-go; this made me very sad). The microbes also seem to be much more vocal and in general noisier than their anime counterparts. I have yet to decide how I feel about the various character portrayals, so we'll see how it goes after a few more episodes.

Listening to right now: SID - 「すぐ傍で」

Oh, the irony

I mentioned in a previous post that I was thinking about going to one of the US Dir en grey/Apocalyptica shows this year. Happy to say, I made plans and did indeed make it to the venue. Right after Dir en grey finished playing.

T_T

As it turns out, my master planning skills did not take into account a number of various scenarios that ended up happening, thus resulting in my absolute disappointment at not being able to see Dir en grey perform. To be fair, everything that happened was completely unavoidable so that actually does make it a little better.

And I did get to see Apocalyptica perform so it wasn't a total waste. Not to mention that they were totally badass and rocked out on those cellos so hard. I also was not expecting such hot eyecandy to be flaunted before me. I'm quite happy that I got the opportunity to see them that close up but it's a little sad that there weren't more people at that particular venue because they definitely deserve more love.

The one thing that's really kind of depressing, despite the fact that I'm really not that big a Diru fan, is that the venue was pretty small and there weren't that many people (at least not for Apocalyptica's set). So I could see the band ridiculously clearly and when I think that I was this close to seeing Diru that close up... yeah, I kind of die a little inside.

All in all, it was a worthwhile experience and it was awesome watching Apocalyptica's performance. I'm sure Diru will come back, and when they do I hope that I'll have the opportunity and the funds to actually see them this time, preferably in a venue as small as this one.

Listening to right now: the GazettE - Without a Trace

The stigma against visual kei

It's always interesting to see people's reactions to visual kei. I happened to show a Shoxx magazine to a couple of my friends and their reactions were something like a mix of shock, disgust, denial, and dislike. What was even more interesting though, was my own reaction to their reactions. Mild annoyance and discomfort aside, I was surprised. I guess I've been exposed to visual kei so much for so long that effeminate men wearing make-up and girly clothes just seem so normal, lol. What also helps though is knowing that it's a style that is (technically speaking) specific to a particular genre of music. I've begun to realise that people who are not acquainted with visual kei, and who only see pictures in magazines, automatically assume that this is a lifestyle that these men adopt. That they run around everyday in their crazy make-up, flamboyant outfits, and highly styled hair. Which in turn seems bizarre to me because who would really do that?

It also seems to be hard for people to understand why anyone straight would 1) choose a profession where they would have to dress like that and 2) actually like the artists who do this. Apparently because a man chooses to dress like a woman (though in reality it's usually androgynous) it must mean that he's gay. Or wants to be gay. Or is in denial about being gay.
Of course, cross-dressing in Japan dates waaaaay further back than visual kei. Kabuki, anyone? Not only that but sexuality and orientation markers are viewed/interpreted differently in Japan than it is in, e.g. some Western cultures. And just because a man engages in so-called homosexual behaviour does not automatically make him gay anyway. Gay-for-pay, anyone?

I'm going off-topic here, lol.

The whole point of this post was not to go into the finer details of sexuality and culture or to lament the fact that all my friends now think I'm a freak for liking cross-dressing/androgynous Japanese men but just to say that it's interesting how desensitised I've become to the whole notion of visual kei. It's a completely normal style in my eyes, and I am no longer shocked or disgusted by VK bands (with a few exceptions). I've always found the androgyny in VK to be fascinating and attractive, not only because of the omg-guys-dressed-as-girls-woohoo-feed-the-fangirl factor but also because of the make-up, the outfits, and just the style in general. Not to mention that photography plays a large part; I'm sure if I saw J-rockers prancing down the street in all their VK glory I wouldn't find it quite as attractive as a well-taken picture. Maybe, if they were really, really far away?

Listening to right now: DJ Earworm - United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop)