In the airport right now hogging the free internet! I guess this is one good thing about taking a flight at an unearthly hour... No one's around to fight for things with you.=P
Back to Ann Arbor for me~ It's been a great summer! [I thought I had a summer round up post already.. Hmm..] I enjoyed myself thoroughly doing absolutely nothing. Brilliant stuff. Well yes, there was that whole Kyoto escapade and Sydney side-trip but I think it'll be all the sleep that I got this entire summer that will remain a great memory! Thinking back on all that luxurious sleep... Mm..
So here goes~ On Northwest this time! xP Hope the plane's alright and I get friendly seat companions... ^_^"
Jiamin: Sorry.. Strawberry Shortcake IMPROVED! next year. Haha. I'm sure your sister will be able to make something better than I ever could.=) And I SAID I'm a bad fan... *hides*
1. Where were you when you heard your first GACKT song? Er. Home probably?
2. What was the first video you saw? Personally, I don't really remember. Maybe it was Mizerable or Secret Garden or something along those lines.
3. Have you been to a live show? (If so which one(s), when, and where) Yes! GACKT VISUALIVE ARENA TOUR 2009 Requiem et Réminiscence II Final 〜鎮魂と再生〜, Wednesday, June 24 2009, Nagoya Nippon Gaishi Hall~
4. First CD you purchased? My first Gackt item wasn't a CD actually, it was his The Sixth Day and Seventh Night Final DVD.^_^"
5. Did you listen to the entire CD start to finish? The first CD I listened to in total though, was... MARS I believe. After which I was hooked.O__O!
6. How would you feel if he decided to retire? I would respect his decision but weep buckets because I won't be able to hear more new music.
7. Which song best captures the feel of 'GACKT'? I really can't say. I feel like he has so many styles and variations that pinpointing ONE song is.. hard.-_-"
8. Would you play a GACKT song at your wedding? (which one?) Yes! Love Letter~ =D And maybe 君のためにできること... Not sure what else.^_^"
9. Would you play a GACKT song at your funeral? (which one?) Haven't thought about my funeral.
10. If you met GACKT tomorrow, what would you say? If huh... Probably that I admire his spirit and music very much. Or something like that. [In truth, I'd probably be too shocked to do anything except gawk. =X]
11. If GACKT were a pie...what flavor? The most awesome flavor ever.
12. Do you remember what picture you first put up on your wall? I never put up any photos of him on my wall.
13. Have you ever Cosplayed as GACKT or any band member? No.
~*~
Favorites: Song: Classically, 絵夢〜for my dear〜. But also, Mizerable & 君のためにできること! Newer songs like Oblivious～顔のない天使～ and Suddenly are amazing too~ ^_^ Album: Moon and Crescent, I think this is the most awesome pair of CDs ever! PV: Mizerable and 鶺鴒〜seki-ray〜 Live: His latest concert, Requiem et Reminiscence II was amazing! But really, all his lives are great.=) TV Appearance: They are all funny, enlightening, and interesting.=P Commercial: ema Weather CMs are hilarious, and the newer Takano Yuri CMs are hotstuffs xD Photobook/photoshoot: I can tell you the ones I don't like.. But I love everything else =P Outfit: He usually looks amazing! *ignores fashion faux pas* Hairstyle: His current one and the one he had for the Sixth Day and Seventh Night tour xD xD xD Dorky moment: He's usually dorky and ultra cute.=) G.JOB member: YOU!!!! xD xD xD Ex-G.JOB member: -nil- Character: What character? O__o
~*~
Songs: Best vocals: He sounds great all the time except when he's using synthesizers but those give a different feel too.. hmm.. Best Lyrics: He always writes lyrics that are full of superb imagery... Best guitar line: No clue Best bass line: No clue Best drum line: No clue Best piano: 再会〜Story〜 is amazing! Best intro: erm. Best ending: hmm. Best acoustic: Last Song on piano! Best ballad: This is hard. xP Best visuals: For the PVs? I don't know anything about visuals..
Obviously I am not a very good fan. *frowns* I need to work to improve myself.
Anyway, I just translated 君の知らない物語 by supercell because it is one incredibly good song!!! ^_^ Now all I need is for someone to help me check it... (T_T)
Owing to my severely poor time management and memory, I am finally here to update on summer! The summer is drawing to an end you see, with the fated return to Ann Arbor. So before I start panicking over my empty bags, I thought I'd put in a little update on summer with photos since YX was complaining.^_^
I'm also trying to think of a new theme for this blog because I'm getting very bored with it and anyway, I haven't changed the theme in forever!
May Spells Clubbing, Karaoke, and Food:
Cherry Charlotte The first ambitious cake in a while~ I think I'll take a break from ambitious creations - they are a horror to transport and they take more energy to conceptualize and make than expected. xP
Butter Factory May Lady's night exist forever!
June and July meant, of course, KYOTO! and GACKT!, Osaka, and Kobe~
The up-close and personal brush with geisha [or maybe they were maiko. I've forgotten =X].
Being totally retarded in Osaka with the help of 嵐, 嵐, For Dream~
Indulging in all things food like this! Kyoto style たこ焼き [takoyaki]!
Visiting historical and absolutely gorgeous sights =) This is 伏見稲荷神社 [Fushimi Inari Jinja]~
Going for my first ever Gackt concert in 名古屋！！！ [Nagoya]
Eating at Gackt's absolute favorite ラーメン [ramen] place in Kyoto! It's grubby as hell but in a sense, that has its charms too.^_^
Going for my first real 夏祭り during the festivities leading up to the 祇園祭!~ =D
Eating to-die-for 懐石料理 [Kaiseki food] in its birthplace, Kyoto, or at least that's where it was brought to this almost completed artform with food.=)
July and August was back in sunny Singapore to enjoy the last bits of summer! And of course, there was that little side-trip to Sydney.. ^_^"
Butter Factory once more with the girls~
Gorgeous Darling Harbor.=)
Amazing views from Blue Mountain!!!
Awesome sunset along the river that brought us from the Olympic Stadium to Sydney Harbor!
Cuddling up with the animals at Taronga Zoo which has a super amazing marine section!
Fantastic Japanese food at Yoshii! This is grilled cod with sweet miso wrapped in some kind of special paper and roasted. YUM.
Life-changing dessert at Rockpool which was the most fabulous meal of the whole trip!!! xD I had such a hard time picking which course of the dinner to use (T_T) The creme patissiere in this date tart is seriously the most delicious I've ever eaten [I could have eaten an entire pot of the stuff]!
The brother's birthday Orange Chocolate Cupcakes with Cointreau Cream Cheese Frosting at Relish~=D
It's been a packed summer and there's still one weekend to go! ^_^ In the meantime, I need to get cracking on packing, finishing the magazines and books I don't intend to bring back to Ann Arbor, and of course, think of a new theme for this blog. X__X O dear.
cheers *[-witchstone-]*
[music : 君の知らない物語 supercell + Gackt's Requiem et Reminiscence II setlist] [mood : ^_^;;] [food : I want some date tart from Rockpool (T_T)]
YX: Textbooks count too? Haha...
Sam: Sorry... I want to leave it in Singapore ^_^" Next year maybe! Haha...
No matter what, everytime I hear this song, and this verse is sung, a beautiful image is etched in my mind.
目を閉じて燃え散るキミは花びらのように 夜闇を朱く染め続けてゆく 風よ舞え 哀しみは舞い散る灰に乗せて ゆらゆらとキミは闇に消えた In Flames, Gackt
Rough/direct [unedited!] translation from me: Eyes closed, the burning you scatters like flower petals Continually dyeing the darkness of the night red Dance Wind, the sadness rides on dancing, scattering ash Slowly swaying, you disappeared into the darkness
Translation from another website (linked!) With eyes closed, your burning form scatters like petals continuing to stain the darkness of night crimson Dance, oh wind, the sadness carries the fluttering, falling ash with a flicker, you vanished into darkness
Obviously you can see the difference in grammar and stuff.=P I need improvement. Though I think the first line isn't super duper well conveyed. You can think of the image, but it's hard to describe in a concise manner. Unless of course, you choose to translate directly as per Japanese grammar.=P
But despite the partially gruesome imagery, and even with the english translation being a pale copy of the actual meaning, it conveys this.. beautiful and vivid evocation which is fully appreciated if you know Japanese [and it helps too! if you know some Chinese characters =P]. I think it's partially the grammatical structure of Japanese which makes it so hard to translate into another language. Particularly this finicky creature called English which is horrendously concise and doesn't lend much to all this fantastic imagery that comes from Mandarin and Japanese [and maybe other Asian languages? But I don't know Korean or Vietnamese or Thai or ... so...].
It always stuns me to read/hear of poems/writings where this super vivid image that is highly complex and very much real is conveyed in a few words. It's amazing. Language must be one of the coolest human inventions ever.
And while I ponder over that..
May Gackt continue writing lyrics with such amazing imagery [see! limitations of english force me to continually use this word!].=D I am dying to see what's next. *:.｡☆..｡.(´∀｀人)
Having been laptop-less for days, and having been privileged enough to steal usage of the laptop [and internet] for measly hours, I have finally decided this blog needed an update. Somehow.
I've realized, without laptop and internet, that returning to the stone-age [with TV and books that is] isn't quite so bad after all.=) Thanks to the lack of laptop and internet access, I've not only had to rely on self-entertainment [cue twiddling thumbs and staring aimlessly out the window at the beautiful sky], but also more ancient forms of entertainment such as baking [ooh happy recipients!], reading [my bookshelf has never looked more content], watching television [I've not watched so much television in years], and generally being a nuisance around the house. Looks like people can survive in this day and age without the internet! Provided, of course, that a phone is available so sudden urges to text people at random can be sated.
Anyway, thanks to this lifestyle, I've read more books this summer than I have in say, 2 years or so. It's crazy! And it's great! =D I remember once again the joys of reading by the truckload. And I'm trying to ambitiously finish more books before I leave. Hopefully, it works out somehow.^_^"
What I've Read [because I'm boring like that]: - The Old Capital by Kawabata Yasunari - Quicksand by Tanizaki Junichiro - The Innocent by Ian McEwan - Thousand Cranes by Kawabata Yasunari - The Mile-Hi! Club by Janet Chew - Kafka on the Shore by Murakami Haruki - Yakuza Moon by Tendo Shoko - Out by Kirino Natsuo
And gosh. More that I can't remember right now.
Currently though, I'm reading Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson which is enticingly funny in that British humor kind of way and deals with the American author who was a long-time resident of England and is now returning to America but is going on a last journey around the British Isles. It has made me laugh a fair number of times and reminds me how enjoyable dead-pan British humor can be.=P
Anyway, despite my best efforts, photos will still have to wait till my laptop comes home. It's currently in the Fujitsu Factory somewhere on this island [oh, how I can only presume...] awaiting fixing before coming home to mee!
Ok. I shall resume what I'm supposed to be doing. =P Helping the mother with technology. Haha.
It's that time of the week again when we can learn all more about the strangeness that carries on in the Japanese advertising industry! I don't know how they conceptualize these advertisements but they are extremely entertaining and I wouldn't change them for the world.=P
ANA Singapore CM
Merlion anyone?
ラクベジ CM
Vegetable juice with a touch of Yamapi!
サントリー プロテインウォーター ＣＭ 夏祭編
Get your protein fix at your local Summer Festival with Matsuda Shota!
スイカ ＣＭ
Hang out with a cute penguin if you need to pay for stuff via your cellphone or card! Just tap, and go!
オロナミンＣドリンク ＣＭ
All you need is KAT-TUN to brighten your day and inspire you toward college with this energy drink!
e-ma CM
Trust Gackt to tell the weather with e-ma by his side~
Coca Cola Zero CM
With Namie promoting Coca Cola Zero, who wouldn't buy it?
There's a wealth of fantastic Japanese CMs on Youtube.=D Not just funny ones [anything by a goodlooking idol boy] but glamorous ones [try Shiseido] and cool ones [like the Coca Cola Zero example]. ^_^ I could watch these all night! Haha!
cheers *[-witchstone-]*
[music : Suddenly Gackt] [mood : ^_^] [food : something for the weather..]
We are the clouds that veil the midnight moon; How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon Night closes round, and they are lost forever:
Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings Give various response to each varying blast, To whose frail frame no second motion brings One mood or modulation like the last.
We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep; We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day; We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond foe, or cast our cares away:
It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow, The path of its departure still is free: Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mutability is a good way to describe life now I suppose. Haha.. With no job, no school, and nothing much happening in general, it's one muted day after another with the occasional highs and lows of life.^_^ I kind of like this change in pace considering all the "excitement" that's been going on lately... Well, maybe not lately but recently at least.^_^"
However, my computer is now wonky! thanks to some virus that's deep deep inside. (T_T) Sad. I guess I'll have to send it in to get fixed while I'm away..
My Emotible!
starry-eyed: filled with such youthful hope and optimism that one's eyes twinkle even when it's dark
Wish List
ie: motivation to save money!
- clothes
- shoes [heels! boots!]
- the perfect tote
- coats/outerwear! [Soïa & Kyo, Burberry...]
- Gackt - nine*nine
- Gackt Photobooks:
1 The Gift The Sixth Day & Seventh Night Tour Document (2004)
2 Crescent Photobook (out of print)
- Cookbooks!
1 Thomas Keller The French Laundry Cookbook
2 The Nobu Cookbook
3 Emily Luchetti A Passion for Desserts
4 Alice Medrich Pure Dessert
- Anime/Manga
1 Rurouni Kenshin
2 xxxHOLiC
3 Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-
- Proficiency at Japanese!
- Learn French for Food!
