Ooh,
change is in the air! I just put up a guestbook, so please feel free
to use it! It's on the introductory
diary page.
In
doing that, I also did some other admin-y stuff, and learned that
3,096 "separate computers" have visited Jrocknyc.com since
i started the diary in June! Even if everyone only logged in once
from home and once from school or work or something, that's still
a hella-shit-load of hits, ne? I was thinking maybe 100 people total
had ever heard of this site before. So that was a nice pick-me-up.
(I've been a little bummed lately... Thanksgiving's here and I'm eating
instant ramen and McDonalds. Not even good/fresh ramen from ramen
shops -- but the INSTANT crap, the stuff that tends to make me feel
wonky. And even the killer collection of CDs and DVDs I've amassed
are no consolation for all the friends and family I left behind and
kinda miss.) (Well, the DVDs are -some- consolation!)
And
VisualTokyo (my new site, kind of like a Lonely Planet guidebook,
but only for visual kei shit) is coming along nicely... I've got the
look and nav of the site down, now all I gotta do is make some maps,
write some blurbs, and insert some pix of all the clubs and CD stores
you should go to when you visit Tokyo. That's what we professional
designers call "content"! <insert General Lee carhorn
honk here> <"Doo doo do do do da la do doo dah doo!">
Hey,
also, Nightwish (nightwish.com)
is a fucking cool band. They're not Japanese (they're Finnish) and
they're not visual kei (they're proggy-metal with a gothic touch),
but they are heavy and they are tight and they have got some cool
fucking tunes. They have a female singer doing some rather operatic
vocals, too, rather than the typical grunting/shrieking death metal
thing. It makes for some intriguing listening: a little goth, a lot
of metal (which is two of the three descriptive phrases I used when
explaining visual kei to people who had never heard of it -- not that
Nightwish is kei at ALL)... anyway, all I can say is that I'm gonna
go out and buy Wishmaster tomorrow at full price -- that's
the
highest recommendation I can give for a disc! So maybe you wanna check
'em out, maybe not.
And
in between the Nightwish tracks, acting as a foil, is some cool alternativey
Shiina Ringo stuff which my friend Erik has been gently forcing upon
me for, god, three years now? And it's starting to sink in. Blame
that damn promotional video of her getting dragged by the horse. Monthly
DDE Samplers are available from DDE Audio Labs, btw. I'll try and
dig up an address for ya in tomorrow's posting.
On
to the Backstreet Boys, one last time. I was flipping through the
CD booklet for Black & Blue, and would you believe that
two of them (AJ and Brian) actually thank God in a Bible-beating,
psalm-quoting, make-me-puke kind of way? The drippiness of their thanks
was just embarrassing. Even Nick was guilty of a little bit. Kevin
was the only one who wrote a level-headed, vaguely intelligent thank
you paragraph, so he's my favorite. Or my new "least disliked"
anyway. (Although, that's not totally fair... they have some okay
songs, and they are good singers... I wouldn't actually BUY the albums,
but you have to admit, a few of their songs are VERY memorable.)
And
while I'm complaining, one last thing: Why is it every gaijin who's
been here more than six months constantly complains about Japan and/or
the Japanese? Sometimes they make such bitterly obtuse comments that
I could hit them. And a lot of the time, the complainer does it RIGHT
in FRONT of their person they're complaining about, as if the complainee
isn't able to understand body language or tone of voice, or even half
the friggin' words the complainer is mumbling! Unbelievable. And so
fucking rude. It's like, they're LETTING you be here -- you're a guest,
you fucktard -- and so you could at least try to be a little bit more
respectful. Bah! Nevermind, I'm getting all pissed off now! I better
play that Wishmaster track again.
Oh!
Enjoy the Cocoon PV vidcaps at left!
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