Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
October 29th, 2008 | FoxesA cute video with sleek design and animation.
Related Posts:What’s Happening Wednesday
October 22nd, 2008 | FoxesSo you might think that, with my last two posts being somewhat close together in times they were written, my schedule has been freed up since I started this graphic design job in this crazy world of politics. And you’d be half right. Time has freed up, but not at home – at work!
Have you recently gotten way-too-long e-mails from me lately? That’s because work is dead but I still need to stay! Noticed I’ve been making more friends on Facebook? They’re all co-workers, equally as bored and eager to kill time as I am!
In other words, blah blah blah, I have been working more than a month straight with nary a day off and with each day spanning anywhere from the standard 8 hours to an awesome 12! (That’s like, half a day!) So I have been going a little nuts, listening to hours and hours of music on my iPod, playing Tetris like a maniac, buying a Chocobo-themed Nintendo DS cover for my non-existent DS, and of course, blogging.
Tonight I will once again be too tired to do anything productive with my time, eat sushi with too-much-wasabi (a ritual I started following the demise of Tumbles), watch Tyra do her thing on ANTM, mourn the loss of Project Runway and probably end up watching music videos on YouTube of the finest band to sing about New England to a redonk degree, Vampire Weekend.
What’s happening with you?
Related Posts:What’s Happenin’ Friday
September 5th, 2008 | Foxes
In an attempt to get back into the swing of working on my own blog (most of the time I spend editing and toiling over R’s blog, which has a new design up by yours truly), I’m going to write about what I’m into at the moment every Friday.
Design: I am seriously digging the design for logo of the new Prinny game R wrote about today. (see above) As I was editing his post, I could not get over how frickin’ adorable it is! So wish I had that kind of creative freedom at work.
Music: I am about a year late into this, which is ironic considering I was in Japan when the album came out, but I have been listening to Rip Slyme’s Fun Fair album at work non-stop on my iPod for three days straight now! Seriously it is the best thing to happen to my ears since…I can’t even remember! The video for Speed King has been taken down from You Tube for some reason (seriously: from a design perspective that video was pure eye candy. Also: DJ is friggin’ hot) so here is the video that should receive an award for most blatantly being in cahoots with Sony VAIO laptops. It’s basically just a giant commercial. (Also: What is Maicching?)
Movies: Taking a break from my usual excessive Food Network watching, R and I watched Men in Black the other night. It remains one of my favorite movies, along with Jaws and Jurassic Park. Seriously! Let me tell you why:
- pre-I, Robot-Will Smith
- Tommy Lee Jones
- witty dialog
- still-believeable-kinda CG effects
- comic book cred
- pre-Law & Order: CI Vincent D’Onofrio
- (my favorite) D’Onofrio’s character’s wife’s (yeah that was a mouthful) crazy bastardization of how to say “sugar water” (more like “shuhur wahdur.”) I quote this phrase more than you might realize (usually when watching Law & Order: CI)
TV: Wednesday night I watched the premiere of America’s Next Top Model (rooting for the transgendered Isis, baffled by the behavior of Korean-Japanese-American Sheena for simultaneously saying things like “race doesn’t matter!” but then saying things like “you ain’t ready for this yellow fever!”), followed by Jurassic Fight Club because I need to get my weekly dose of Dinosaur George, and then I fell asleep (yes a show about dinosaurs fighting can be THAT boring), missed an episode of Project Runway, and thus had to avoid on the following day reading on how awesome the episode was on my regular blog reads. X(
Japan: I miss you.
Misc. Love:
- The Cho Show
- Staying awake past 10pm
- V8 Acai Berry concoction thingie–although I’m pretty sure a purple carrot doesn’t exist (or does it?)
- Wii Fit
Misc. Hate:
- Heroes
- Missing Project Runway
- Waking up at 2am and, after doing a series of scared jigs, seeing a freaking beetle fall out of my shirt
Well my friends, that concludes my first week of stuff that’s happenin’. What have you got going on?
Related Posts:Female Blogger Wins Coveted Akutagawa Award
March 25th, 2008 | Foxes
Kawakami Meiko turned blogging into a literary art form when she won the highly acclaimed Akutagawa Award for best new writer. Originally started to promote her music career, Kawakami started to get attention from readers for her writings instead.
Kawakami won the award with her third novel that was compiled with her prose-like blog entries, which stand out from your run-of-the-mill shlock that come with more personal blogs. There is, of course, some criticism from the more conservative literary critics (what else is new?), but I think Kawakami’s winning the Akutagawa Award is a great breakthrough for Japanese women writers.
…Kawakami’s voice is winning accolades for exploiting the drawling dialect of Osaka, the western city where she grew up, which is emerging as the hip language of modern-day Japan — the language of the standup comics and vernacular slang.
Adding to the appeal, Kawakami’s award-winning novella, “The Breast and the Egg,” explores the ideas of divorce, the questioning of beauty standards and other themes of solitary womanhood that are still relatively new territory in Japanese literature. Kawakami’s stories in some ways are those of Japan’s Everywoman.
For now, she said, she wants to stay away from stories of relationships with men and sexuality that characterized past Japanese female writing.
“It’s about living, our body, the changes of the heart that accompany the body, the urgency, the problems being born, moment by moment,” Kawakami said. “The fact that we are always doing our best at living.”
Amen. You can read her blog at her official site here.
Related Posts:Time Bombs Records in America Mura, Osaka
March 9th, 2008 | Foxes
If you ever find yourself in America Mura in Osaka, keep an eye out for a small vertical neon pink sign pointing to a little CD shop called Time Bomb Records. Follow the sign downstairs and you will find yourself in place that could be only described as the basement of a friend who is a music aficionado, only times a hundred. Little indie band and concert flyers and adverts are pinned to the walls. You will come across boxes and boxes of used CDs and LPs from all over the world, every artist is a band you’ve never heard of or have but could never find their music in a physical embodiment.
You are in heaven.
Founded in 1990, Time Bomb Records has become famous worldwide for their meticulous selection of hard-to-find music. Underground music lovers across the globe make Time Bombs Records a priority stop when in Osaka. Going there, you will immediately see why. The people who run the store love music as much as you do–maybe even more, since each artist has it’s own little label with the name handwritten on it. In fact, almost all of the signs pointing to genres and artists are also handwritten. There are many opportunities to listen to CDs of rare bands, with descriptions of the band’s origins (also handwritten!) to accompany them.
You can easily spend hours examining all the artists, listening to the tracks and finding new favorites. I listened to three random CDs that were recommended by the staff and enjoyed all of them. I even stumbled on a new genre that I never knew I liked–60’s mod music, and my very first purchase of this genre was, appropriately enough, of Fox’s album For Fox Sake
As for R, he became ecstatic when I found for him a CD by Neptune, an otherwise rare band to find in stores. Even the music played while browsing was in good choice, and R liked it so much that he impulse-bought it. It was Why?’s album Alopecia
Not just for those into the underground music scene, Time Bombs Records also carries oldies in LP format for those who appreciate the classics. Had I a record player I would probably not hesitate to stack up on the rare LPs they had, but I can see how those who do own one might lose their head (and money) over this place. For the more adventurous, there are boxes of really cheap CDs where you might find hidden gems and bands you would otherwise never encounter.
I can’t urge music lovers to visit this place enough–despite being in a rather unobtrusive place, do make the effort to find it. You won’t regret it!
Related Posts:Music: Hajimari no Uta by Sukima Switch (はじまりの歌／スキマスイッチ)
February 23rd, 2008 | FoxesI caught this as the number 3 on MTV Japan’s Top 10 Countdown for this past week. It’s off of Sukima Switch’s debut single, Hajimari no Uta , which means First Song. It seems a little boring at first, but stick with it and you will be in for a treat. It starts off with three school girls loafing around, when one of them knocks a banana out of her bag. Suddenly a fight ensues, and you witness a charmingly choreographed fight scene between the three girls, some more ass-kicking, and finally, a cliffhanger ending.
The song itself isn’t too bad, it’s pretty catchy and I hear it in stores everywhere, but it’s nothing write home about.
Related Posts:Music: Enka Singer Jero
February 20th, 2008 | FoxesEnka is a classic style of Japanese folk singing. You might recognize the sound from various old school Japanese samurai films. Quentin Tarantino ventured to use some of Meiko Kaji’s songs for his films Kill Bill vols. 1 and 2. Since I was little I couldn’t stand the sound, often comparing it to what sirens might sound like, trying to lure sailors off their course.
But over the winter break, there wasn’t a channel that didn’t have some holiday special which featured famous enka singers. One new star, a foreigner who calls himself Jero and wears hip hop clothes, is gaining attention as the first African-American Enka singer. Watch this clip and tell me you don’t get goosebumps:
I think it is awesome for someone outside of Japan to break into a musical genre that is inherently Japanese, especially as an African-America. Jero actually went to the same school I am studying abroad at now, and the other day he came to visit and I was able to see him in person, followed around by a camera crew. Having seen him on TV before, I have to admit I was really starstruck–any other foreigner that makes it big in Japan is no big deal to me, but Jero is a special case in that he has actual talent, and isn’t just getting by as being a foreigner (although that is part of the appeal.)
Related Posts:Design: Colette
January 28th, 2008 | FoxesI discovered a cool online fashion website that sells designer goods that look as beautiful as the site: Colette. You can tell that a lot of hard work has been put into the site–the graphics are interactive and cute, and the use of Flash is impressive without being overwhelming. (Despite the convenience of Flash-based websites, I always hate waiting for them to load for some elaborate introduction that I usually skip over.) On top of that, the site has a lot of amazing music that plays while you surf.
I could easily idle my time away exploring this site–not just yearning for the amazing hard-to-find goods (Scissor Sisters t-shirt!?), but also looking through various works of art and news. Why can’t other sites put a little effort into their design and make it more user-friendly? (I’m looking at you, H&M.)
Related Posts:Music: Ca Plane Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand
January 27th, 2008 | FoxesAs it so often happens on the Web, through chance I (quite belatedly) discovered Plastic Bertrand’s (one-?)hit Ca Plane Pour Moi, a song that launched him to popularity in the late 70s. The song has been re-made many times by various artists, and it’s probable that you have already heard this catchy punk inspired song in one form or another.
Performing live on TV, back when everything was lit in magic and it was OK not to have a live band and just dance, dance, dance your heart out. I love the hand gesture near the shoulder. He should do dandruff commercials!
This is an animated version of the song for you French-learners out there.
Related Posts:Music: Tomodachi no Uta by Nakamura Ataru
January 21st, 2008 | FoxesI first saw Nakamura Ataru (中村 中) last fall on TV with this stunning music video. The song is haunting, and the vocals are as beautiful as the artist herself. A little research revealed some surprises: 1.) that she is my age and has been musically inclined as young as 10 years old (boy do I feel like a loser), and 2.) she is a MTF (male-to-female) transsexual. I think it is amazing that she has come so far as a transsexual, the likes of which I haven’t come across in the states. Her name also translates to being in the middle, using the Chinese character for “middle” in both her last and first name.
(Also, for those who can read Japanese, she started a blog on her website since Nov. ‘07. )
This makes me wonder: it is true that more and more respected entertainers in America are coming out, but are there transsexuals like Nakamura Ataru who have made a name for themselves through talent, with their sex transition being a “side note” or a “by the way”? Will that day come in American entertainment?
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