Thank you my teens

Today I turned 20! In the words of YUI:

I though I didn’t want to become an adult
But I am turning 20
Thank you my teens

Goodbye my teens….but still is 19 really any different than 20? Well who care? This will be the only day in my life where I can listen to Thank you my teens and have it actually apply! I must enjoy it =)

Besides that, I have to say I’m pretty sad that YUI went on a break, but the good news is that she’s going to be collaborating with stereopony! When I found out, I didn’t know who Stereopony was, but all the same I’m excited to see what kind of song YUI will compose for another group! Apparently they met unexpectedly in a recording studio in Okinawa and decided to it then (hm…no pun intended?). and of course I had to look up stereopony and let me say, I am pleasantly surprised.

X

= ???

AZN invasion (of American music of course)

If there’s any J-pop fan out there who still doesn’t know that Utada Hikaru (or just Utada) and BoA are preparing for their English-language album release, I have to ask – why have you been?!

vs.

But that’s not really the important part – what’s really important here is how will they fare? Or how will they fare against each other? With one release being March 14 and the other March 17, are they asking for a competition? Seriously, why are the release dates so close together?

I think these three are what it essentially break down into:
1. Promotion
2. Production / Content
3. Existing fanbase

Short and sweet ANNIVERSARY!

I was going to write something special, but actually I didn’t really have anything prepared and I had a midterm today, so actually…there’s really nothing but this short little message.

IT’S MY TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY! =D

I still have more posts in the works, but for now I’ll just list some albums I’ve been enjoying lately
MONKEY MAJIK – TIME: this album is so good! The singles on the album were really good (esp. Tada, Arigatou) but there are also some great new tracks (like brokedown) I want to write some more on this later….
ayaka – Sing to the Sky: there are a lot of singles that I hadn’t really paid attention to but I am soo in love with Te wo Tsunagou, Okaeri, and Jewelry Day
OLIVIA – Trinka Trinka: as if I hadn’t said enough about this album, I LOVE it! It was so worth the wait, every time I listen to the album, I like it more and more.
Rie fu – Tobira: have been listening to this more often lately and am re-realizing how lovely this album really is.
Fish Leong – Sunrise: my very first Fish album! though I hadn’t really listened to it too much last year, lately I’ve been going back to my roots and it really is quite beautiful.

That’s it for now, hopefully I can get together my drama preview/review soon =)

A blonde streak?

For some reason, there have been a couple of new hairstyles that are….less than attractive. I don’t go looking for these things, and well, usually, it’s not that big of deal that I would want to post about it but I really feel the need to.

First was Shige from NEWS.

I don’t really follow Johnny’s, but NEWS is one of the two groups (+Arashi) that I know more about and that I can actually name names! (seriously, only two groups, and as a side note, H!P scares me in this aspect). But I saw this and first off, didn’t recognize him. And after I did recognize him, I was kind of appalled, and really only for one reason: the hair color. It’s disgusting and the dark roots make it look like he didn’t keep up with a bad dye job. Another bad hairstyling choice would have to be the height that it sticks up to. Way to accentuate a bad look.

Next was Mizushima Hiro.

Apparently he’s going to be starring in a new movie called DROP (http://www.drop-movie.jp/) and that’s why he dyed him. But no matter what image he’s supposed to have, wouldn’t you think that the producers could just forget it because it looks TERRIBLE?! Unless that’s the look they were going for, in that case, they’ve done a great job. Even that great face can’t help him anymore. I was at the bookstore and saw him in a magazine and my jaw literally dropped. I forget exactly what hairstyle it was, but it wasn’t the ones I just posted. I didn’t find those anywhere online (or haven’t yet, though I don’t really want to search for ‘em anyway). And if you can imagine, he looks better in these pictures than he did in the magazine (which one you say? can’t remember). Thankfully I hear that he doesn’t like his blonde hair and will (has?) dye it back to black after filming is done. I wonder if he’ll do the promotions in that hair, though…

As a side note, Narimiya Hiroki (who’s co-starring) also has this weird hair (buzz cut – fire engine red) but it’s doesn’t look as bad as Hiro’s does. The poor boy(s).

And that’s it. I am overdue for a bunch of music reviews, drama reviews from last season, and a drama preview for this season. They’ll probably come in a condensed format. Somewhat soon…by the end of this month? School has been killing me.

fixing up some stuff

so please excuse the momentary mess of my categories and tags.

Also, a note to say that since the drama season has pretty much ended, I have written up a bunch of drama reviews. Some of them are still being worked on, since I’ve only written bits and pieces of them. Also have a few Taiwanese drama reviews coming up and maybe a movie review or two that I’ve been lazy about finishing.

A new blog? sort of

So, this summer, I decided that I should try and brush up on my Chinese a bit. After all, it’s no good if some of my cousins think I can’t speak any (I can, seriously!!). So I started up my old livejournal (which I’ve used on and off for the past how many years now?) and I’ll be posting in traditional Chinese. well, I’ll try to. Sometimes I’ll just write in English phrases if I don’t know how to say it in Chinese. At those times, I hope that people who are better at Chinese than I am will help me out a little and tell me how it’s supposed to be said. And same goes for me writing anything that doesn’t make sense. I’m sure some people can understand how mangled Chinglish can get. After all, the whole point of this blog is for me to practice and hopefully improve.

If anyone is fluent, semi-fluent, wants to practice reading, or just wants to look at Chinese characters, please read! All posts will most probably be pretty short, as I’m pretty slow at typing in Chinese. And I often have to look up words to make sure I’m writing the correct characters.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Let’s go!

True Life Seek survey

I have to admit, I rarely read TLS (and a great deal of other blogs) mainly because I’m not a Hello! Project fan. So, I didn’t notice this survey until IW posted the results from some other bloggers. But it’s an interesting and somewhat deeper look into blogging. Here’s mine (yay!)

Goals:

* Why do you blog?
because I feel like it. I have something to say, so I just post it. It’s been so long since I’ve started blogging and this is probably my third or fourth blog (not to mention sillylittleme.net is my third domain name. actually now that I think about it, I miss my first one…maybe I should change it back next year…), but my first blog to be non-personal. In the end, I got tired about talking about myself because really my life isn’t very exciting and I had other interests that I’d rather talk about instead.

* What long-term goals do you hope to accomplish, if any at all?
generally, I don’t have any long term goals for this blog, maybe just to keep posting semi-regularly, as in the past I struggled with keeping the entries coming

* Where does your blog fail to meet your goals?
I’ve been pretty good about updating except for a few occasions…I suppose this is because unlike writing about myself, it doesn’t get boring because there’s always new releases or discovering new artists, new dramas, discovering old dramas, watching random movies and the like.

* If you do have goals, what will accomplishing them do for yourself?
boost my ego?

* What do you want to gain out of blogging? A creative outlet? Praise from others? Personal satisfaction? Money?
of course, I enjoy reading people’s feedback and comments, but in the end if I posted just to get comments, I’d have stopped long ago.

* Do you feel that your blog should meet a requirement for amount of entries? Do you feel any particular entry should be a certain length?
I used to, but then that became burdensome so I stopped having a set format for my reviews and just wrote in whatever form I felt like. because if blogging feels burdensome, then why should I spend my free time feeling stressed about keeping the right format? actually, a year or two ago I closed my wpr (web page review) site after having it open for about 2 or 3 years. before while it was open, I at first had a pretty rigid review system. then I changed it to be slightly more vague. then I changed it again to be even more vague to give myself the room to write in whatever way I felt like. I even removed my grading system and now I don’t have a final grade for my reviews. it’s just not worth to me anymore.

* For any particular entry, what motivates you to start and finish blog posts?
I can’t publish an unfinished review after all. if nothing was finished, nothing would be posted and then I wouldn’t be posting regularly anything, would I?

* Do you actively consider long term goals for each individual post?
not really

Subject Material:

* What do you blog about?
japanese and taiwanese music, drama, and movie reviews. but calling this an asian media blog lets me pretty much talk about anything asian that I feel like, so I could expand into whatever I feel like whenever I feel like I suppose

* Would you be keep a blog even if it wasn’t about the subjects you tend to cover?
probably not. I’ve done the personal blog thing and it’s too boring for me to keep up with anymore. And if I wanted to blog about something else, I think I’d just put it here anyway.

* Do you write about the material to promote it to others?
sometimes, but not really. since my posts are reviews, by nature they come after all the promotion is done but I suppose if someone were to read one of my reviews and discover an artist, then it would be promotion, right?

Readership:

* How much do you care about readership?
of course, it matters to me, but it’s not the biggest thing.

* Does it satisfy you to know people are reading, even if they don’t comment?
sort of, but not really. when I used to have downloads, it was a good way for my to gauge how many readers I had, but now that I don’t have them anymore, I can’t really tell.

* What effect does receiving a comment have on you?
for the most part, it gives me encouragement and I wish people commented more, but I’m not really one to talk because I’m not much of a commenter myself.

* Do you write with a particular audience in mind or an unspecified general audience? Why?
anyone who is willing to read is more than welcome. when I started this blog, I didn’t have one in mind and I still don’t really have one.

* If you write for a particular audience, is it International Wota? If yes, why?
—

Community: (The International Wota section)

* If International Wota didn’t exist, would you blog?
actually, I didn’t know IW existed until maybe just a few months ago, so I would still blog.

* When IW covers an entry of yours, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
it’s nice to be covered, so I always feel more encouraged

* When IW does not cover an entry, are you encouraged to blog more or less?
IW hasn’t been covering my blog for very long, but I guess lack of coverage would make me want to write more to hopefully have an entry covered

* How often do you read other blogs?
at least every few days, sometimes every day

* How often do you comment on other blogs?
not very often, though I often think I should. comments are always encouraging, I think, no matter how many you get.

* If another blog covers a topic that you wanted or wished to cover, do you still blog about that specific topic? Why or why not?
I’ll still cover it if I have something to say about it. plus, my reviews usually come some time after a release, so if I only covered things that hadn’t been covered, I’d have nothing to post. then it’d just become a burden to be the first to post something.

Commitment:

* How serious is your attitude towards blogging? Do you consider it just as something to do for fun?
for me, it is just for fun and an outlet

* How often do you blog? How often would you like to blog?
anywhere from everyday to once to week. generally I try to post at least once a week but sometimes I write a bunch of reviews and then post every day or every other day

* What priorities do you or have you put aside in order to blog? Why?
I don’t really consider blogging to be a priority, it’s just for fun and sometimes I’ll write reviews while I’m procrastinating but this is pretty unusual as I often procrastinate from writing reviews too.

* Do you see yourself blogging in 6 months? Why or why not
sure why not, I don’t see myself getting bored of music anytime soon. If I suddenly stopped liking music, I think this would be a sign that I need to see a psychiatrist. Getting tired or writing is an entirely different story, though. I think the question is, will anyone still read my blog in 6 months?

Personal:

* Would you say you blog for yourself?
yes and no. I write for my enjoyment, but I hope others can enjoy it too.

* What is your feeling after posting an entry? Is it relative to the time and effort you put in an entry?
of course, I feel a bit satisfied after I’ve posted a review, but it’s nothing too special

* What needs does blogging fulfill?
I don’t know if there’s necessarily a need blogging fulfills….perhaps to be heard? maybe to have everyone bow down to me in complete adoration? I think that would be rather nice.

* Do you consider yourself a writer?
although I consider myself to be a decent writer, I wouldn’t really consider myself a writer. If I did, I would probably be majoring in something more English or literature related.

* Do you consider yourself good at writing? Good at blogging?
sure, why not. although I do think there’s a definite difference between blogging and reviewing. I will say that in hindsight, I think my personal blogs must have been pretty damn boring.

* How much of your personal life do you share on your blog? If none, why do you leave this out?
I’ve done the personal blog thing already and it got boring, but I don’t have a problem including a few details about my personal life.

I am the worst procrastinator. ever.

It’s true, really. I have all these albums and dramas and movies that I want to review just swirling around in my head somewhat already written. But do they get actualized….no!! And the more time I have, the less I get done. A paradox? An oxymoron? I think so.

For instance, this morning, I woke up at 4:30 am because of my horrendous jet lag. (from my week-long trip to tokyo and seoul!!! but that’s another story.) And because no one else was awake, I was bored out of my mind. So I thought, “hmm…now’s a good time to write up some reviews because no one is awake to interrupt me.” But actually all I did was write one review and walk around my house aimlessly, waiting for someone to wake up so I could bother them.

But actually what I wanted to say is that there are a few artists that I listen to regularly and will eventually review! And I wanted to announce it here so I can make it a big deal when it’s really not.

First off, there’s BONNIE PINK. Love love love BONNIE PINK! but she has such a sprawling discography so I’ll start with her singles collection, Every Single Day. It’ll take some time, though, because there’s 28 songs altogether on 2 discs. So I suppose if I write a review for one song a day, it’ll be done in 28 days. and I estimate that I’ll be lazy 10 out of 28 days, then it’ll be ready in 38 days.

Next is ayaka. I’m amazed that this tiny girl has such a soulful voice. It really does amaze me. I just don’t understand the physics of it. How?! Why?! Who cares?

Last is Utada Hikaru. I’ve listened to her for sooo long and probably no one even knows. But her latest album is great and it’ll get done someone. Hopefully soon. And maybe I can even get to some of her older albums too!

And I know I’ve been skimping on music reviews lately. Maybe that’s because my favorite artists are skimping on their releases. (sorry that was kind of mean, but it’s totally true)

Ayumi Hamasaki loses her hearing?!

I suppose most J-media followers know this already, but TeamAyu has released a statement saying that Ayumi Hamasaki has lost all hearing in her left ear. The translation is literally everywhere, so I’ll be short: she got an ear check-up last year and found out that she has lost all hearing in her left ear. Although she has lost hearing in her left ear, her right ear is fine and she wants to continue singing until her right ear has lost function. She won’t give up or make excuses and will continue to keep working hard.

One year anniversary!

Hi everyone! It’s been exactly one year since I posted my first review (Ai Otsuka’s Renai Shasin, which you can notice is in a slightly different format than I write then now).

Since then, I’ve written 59 reviews including 31 single reviews, 17 album reviews, 11 drama reviews, and 1 movie review. Though most of those are Japanese releases, 3 album reviews and 1 drama review were Taiwanese releases. (I plan on a few more Taiwanese reviews sometime!)

So, to celebrate my one year anniversary, I have these four reviews for you all!
[Jdrama] LIFE
Kimura Kaela – Yellow
Chieco Kawabe – Kizunairo
abingdon boys school – abingdon boys school

Enjoy!