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the distilleryme... 100 proof November 27 Snowed In... and I opened Pandora's boxSo just yesterday i enjoyed an 8-hour drive back from Vancouver due to the snow and rain... normally takes 3 I'm told... and that's with an hour wait at the border.
On hearing of the impending traffic doom this evening, I considered work early today but had a 4:30 meeting.
After waiting about an hour and a half for the bus (in the driving snow and cold) I opted out - went to the 7-11... only to recall that I couldn't find my wallet this morning! Fortunately I had enough for a cheeseburger hot dog - which I have to say was really good. Really good. Anyway, walked back several blocks to the office to reconnoiter with hot chocolate, some powdered sugar donuts, and my internet. my sweet sweet internet.
Let me say now that MSN Radio powered by Pandora rocks. Note, that MSN radio did not rock* before it became powered by Pandora - so you do the math. First thing I did to test their power was plug in "X Japan." Not only were they able to construct a station of like music (Hammerfall, Slaughter...) but they are even throwing some X Japan songs in the mix! That is what really surprised me. Totally cool. Did I mention it's free (Ad-supported)?
Trivia: Per Wikipedia, Yoshiki is providing an original score for the movie Catacombs - currently in post-production they say. Anyway, from the people who brought you SAW, SAW II, and SAW III, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
* Actually, MSN Radio did briefly rock. A few years ago they had a bunch of free stations, including "Hair Metal Madness." This was the station that helped me through many a long night shift. Then, one day, they made it a Premium channel that you had to pay for. At that point, the service ceased to not suck.
UPDATE: Pandora TOTALLY rocks. Now my X Japan station is playing LORDI ("My Heaven Is Your Hell"). It's like.. they know me... November 18 DHS goes Postal, or, Rain or Snow or Sleet or Hail, or Anthrax or SmallpoxI was catching up on my junk mail last weekend- the real junk mail that is- the stuff that gets shoved through my front door most days - and came across an interesting post card from the city of Seattle. It was a notice, perhaps a warning, to not be alarmed as that Saturday (the day I was reading it) the postal service would be delivering small, empty boxes to my neighborhood as part of a bio-terror training excercise. It seems they were running a test of the postal service as a delivery mechanism for emergency medications in case of a wide-spread bio-terror threat.
The box arrived that day - and oh yes... I'm keeping this one. Nothing says post-911 like an empty box that would hopefully have been filled... had it been a real emergency. Someday I hope to regale future generations with a 'back in my day we had to worry about BIOLOGICAL AGENTS being used against us in a TERROR attack, kids! See? Here's the box! So quit whining about how your iPod iNplant is itchy."
August 01 Otakon 2006 - Yoshiki musical guest...and X in unXpected places.I'm sure i'm the last person on the North American continent to find this out, but Yoshiki is a musical guest at Otakon 2006, in Baltimore.
Looks like, he's not performing, though... he's a celebrity costume judge.
Man, still... how cool would that be...
Nice update to his site - but looks like the MySpace for violetUK is broken... too bad
 Forgot to mention- a few weeks ago i was in a video game shop downtown and i hear...this... familiar... holy crap, they were playing X in the store! It rocked. I'd just had a huge sushi meal and was feeling pretty good and that just great to hear at the moment. Talked to the guy there who was the big fan. Cool dude, maybe i'll buy a DS Lite from him. May 20 Slate Likes Metal, I think...I have a sneaking suspicion that Slate likes Metal. They had that piece i blogged about awhile ago on the perseverence of the genre, and today I happened to be reading up on the Slate blog about Eurovision - and lo and behold of the 37 contestants, they only mention a handful in the article- one of those being scary metal rockers from Finland - Lordi.
Lordi - now, this is what metal can be about sometimes.
I clicked on the link to Lordy's site, and the video is a high school zombie romp through some seriously deranged music. That's the song they entered into the contest to represent their country. And that's awesome.
Slate, you metal-lover you, I salute you -
\m/
In other news: I have a mobile music problem- my small iRiver 256 MB mp3 player just isn't cutting it, and my smartphone has an unconventional audio jack (grrrrrr....) that truly makes it a hassle to listen to MP3's on - even though i put a Gig SD card in it. Geez- so i'd been looking at the Creative Vision:M, but then the new iRiver Clix caught my eye... but i think i'm still leaning towards the Vision:M.... I know, huge difference in size and function... yeah, i think i'll get the Vision. April 23 Spring 2006Well! it's been a while. I know, it's a little awkward me just springing in on you like this unannounced, but i saw something that reminded me of you the other day and thought i'd say 'hi'.
Much to report on since last met.... updated colours, for one thing. But that's easy... what can one expect from me over the next few if you keep reading?
Hmmmm...
stick around...
August 29 Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest
Quote
Yes! Probably putting certain other reality shows to shame, China's reality show for "Super Girl" finaled yesterday. I'd just like to say I supported this show from the very start (of when i heard about it) and I think you're all winners! Interesting that the Man wants to shut down the successful, and money-making, show. Time will tell shortly whether the Yuan or the old guard will win that one...
Just don't go posting any Cranberries anti-war lyrics online. That just crosses the line. August 20 METAL RULZ! -- Enter Japan's BorisSlate - yes, Slate- has an article on the peristance of Metal. Not the return of Metal, but the persistance. And, as a white, middle class male from a relatively redneck part of the world it is my solemn duty to have read this piece.
and i did. and what do my wandering eyes did appear? But yet another band from Japan making an entrance into my musical world - Boris.
The name taken from a Melvin's song, Boris is droning, down-tuned long term metal. You can stream some samples from here or order the music from here.
I haven't got to the best part... they're of course coming to Seattle! September or October, the dates I've found online are ambiguous. I'll keep you posted. Whoever you are. I don't actually think anyone reads this but me. August 11 Sony.jp not hip to iTunes?so, i've long bemoaned the lack of good JP stuff online... Slashdot has a discussion about a Business Week article about some Japanese artists under Sony ignoring their contract and putting stuff on there anyway... vive la revolution!
featured artists in the article:
Motoharu Sano http://www.moto.co.jp/
(#13 on HMV's top 100 Japanese pop artists... that may be a blog musing in and of itself...I am woefully ignorant... but on the other hand, plenty of new music to look up... sigh... if only i could get it on iTunes... MSN Music - are you listening to me???)
July 12 Afrirampo - Green Millk From The Planet Orangeso, i totally missed AFRIRAMPO on the 5th because of work.
and then i missed GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE on the 8th out of ignorance. But at least their site has some free MP3's - nice!
All i have to show for the last week is having read issue #1 of Sanctuary, and watched a disappointing anime version of the manga.
Am I Nerd? I am.
btw, i'm looking for some music by a Chinese punk group Pangu. Evidently you can go to jail in China for posting their lyrics online. The band, evidently, lives in Sweden now.
--b-- June 21 Brian: 9400... PuffyAmiYumi: 7600
oh yes... Match wits with Puffy Ami Yumi! Careful, they're pretty sharp (pretty, and sharp). For the record, though, I won - 9400 to 7600 :) But I got a lucky guess on who their record producer was- the famous Tamio Okuda. Check him out, he has some audio and video on his site... so far i like very much... I found some new music today. BTW- Puffy is back on Tour hitting the East Coast in August- GO SEE THEM. THEY WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY, and they will rock. 8/18 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza laters
May 30 Memorial Day - Hide... X...I meant to post this one on May 2nd, the 7 year anniversary of the passing of Hide, former guitarist for X Japan and later a successful solo artist. It was seven years ago that i woke up that morning and was taken off guard with this fascination for Japanese rock and pop. I remember clearly- I was getting ready for the day and I had turned on the international news for some reason. I really didn't have a reason, maybe I thought i'd educate myself about the goings-on in the world. Didn't help much, since it was all in Japanese that morning. Anyhow, I saw a story that showed clips of this HUGE-haired rocker (we're talking Motely Crue here) playing live and then cuts of Japanese schoolgirls crying. "Well," I thought, "Something's happened." The images of this over-the-top rock guy stuck in my head and wouldn't let me be... who was this he? What was the band? What did they SOUND like? I had to know. After a little investigation on the internet it turned up that Hide was found dead that day of an apparant suicide, and he had left behind quite a bit of rock and metal that I'm still digging through. The band was legend across the Pacific. About the time I was hearing the first chords in "Smells like Teen Spirit" they were packing out the Tokyo dome, standing the music industry in Japan on it's head with huge hair, boorish behavior, and sweet sweet brand of rock the Japanese call visual kei. It is often said that the Japanese don't innovate, they only perfect that which has already been invented. While X Japan certainly didn't invent rock music, the power ballad, or big hair- they did a damn fine job perfecting it. And don't get me wrong: these guys grew into something so freaking Rock it makes me want to cry sometimes. It's a shame Hide is gone, but I do have him to thank for opening my mind up to this beautiful, strange, alternate universe of music. I won't begin to tell the X Japan story here. There's a better bio here and elsewhere. I just wanted to post a tribute to a band, and a guitar player, that have sunk their nails into my imagination and really haven't let go yet. You can get some of X's music over at Tofu Records - at domestic prices :) Thanks, Tofu! Keep rocking. And thank you, Hide-chan.
PS Paul: PM Junichiro Koizumi did inded claim to be an X Japan fan... I'm sure you'd appreciate that... May 16 Melt Banana - Neumo's May 12thwow- they did it to me. Check out their tour list and see them- they were the best Japanese Bubblegum Noise band i've ever seen. Okay, the only one but i'd put that show right up there... top ten? yep. I bought the 56 song singles ('94-'99) album - i don't personally have the vocabulary to describe their sound so check out their site (and see if they're coming near you!): Nice moment: you know how there's always some seen-it-all jackass who loves to hear himself tell his friends (just loud enough so that we all hear him) that he has truly seen it all and is just so bored, yet nevertheless he shows up anyway? So, I'm standing beside *that guy* when MxBx announces they are going to do a Devo cover - "Oh great," he sighs dismissively, "they're going to do 'Whip It'". When the band started playing "Uncontrollable Urge" I could swear he was hiding behind cigarette smoke for the rest of the night- perhaps a little smaller and hopefully, a little wiser. But I doubt it. April 24 Puffy AmiYumi - Seattle - April 23rdWell, I can't say that I'm still not disappointed about missing Over the Rhine at the Tractor Tavern on Thursday (sold out!?!?!) but the feeling I had leaving the PuffyAmiYumi show last night was dang near bliss. As a typcial cynical teenager/young adult I always eschewed 'buble gum' music as i deemed it shallow and bad. I think I just didn't know how to have fun. Too bad it took this long to figure that one out. I have never had as much fun at a concert. I think they played pretty much every song on the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Rock Show album - and did I know they did a song on the Scooby Doo 2 soundtrack (Friends Forever)? I had no idea. I don't know all the songs, but I visited the site enough to recognize when they were being played. There were a lot of little kids there- but don't be mistaken- the 'grown ups' section where they were serving alcohol was still full. We were on the floor, and it was great. As I said in my last post- pretty much perfect pop music. Best part? Was it the Teen Titans theme song? or the set-ending Hi Hi PuffyAmiYumi show song? I'd have to say it was the encore performance of Green Day's "Basket Case". Yep - they're big fans of Green Day, and evidently Green Day are big fans of Puffy. It was a great show, it really was fun. And that's all I could hope for. Paul- you've got a t-shirt coming. The opening band, quietdrive... what a waste of talent. They were like... The Calling meets Third Eye Blind while having dinner with Hoobastank. Disney MTV is what it was. Those cats need to quit, live in squalor living off of tips as servers for a few more years and come back and show us how they rock. I know they've got it in them, but it certainly isn't showing. Speaking of knowing how to rock- i couldn't help but get a little teary during the guitar solo of the Teen Titans theme- you know, Seiji from Guitar Wolf played that at least in the video on the Cartoon Network web site. Well, some kindred soul has arranged a showing of "Wild Zero" on UW's campus Thursday night - guess where i'll be? Paying respect, that's where! May 2nd is coming up- Hide Memorial Day...pink spider... |
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