let's BACKTRACK

Yay! The MV is finally out~ SJM is looking better than before, but I’m not so sure about the video or song. It just seems so generic (but then again, this is an SM Entertainment group we’re talking about). I might not be able to understand or speak Mandarin, but the singing also seems really weird and out of place. I’m not quite sure why though~ Maybe this song/video will eventually grow on me, but for now, I’m not feeling it.

The only thing that really surprised me and made me watch the video again was how Zhou Mi (0:15) looked. I seriously mistook him for Leeteuk! I hope it’s not just me that thought so. Aside from the boys, Jessica (Girls’ Generation) also looks great in the video (then again, when does she not?).

The Pictures
They were uploaded on facebook because of the sheer size of the originals. If you want to see the originals, I don’t mind sending them through email. Just leave a comment with your email and I’ll send them asap. :]

Video of the last song of the night, “I’m in Love“
WordPress doesn’t seem to want me to embed the video, so click the link~

[edit] It seems I’ve been linked by 2ch! The post is just a summary of what I wrote in my previous post regarding GLAY’s live. It might not seem all that great to some, but it seems pretty cool to me! Don’t know what 2ch is? Time to wiki it.

And how could I forget about the “awesome” (haha, jk chase) person that got me into the concert!?
Thanks Chase for the tickets and ride home from the live (although, I should actually be thanking your uncle, his director friend, and your mom -couchcough-).

US Tour: The Great Vacation

So I just came home from seeing GLAY at the House of Blues and all I can really say is that I am amazed. Amazed at how tall Takuro and how short Hisashi look on stage. Amazed at how much energy they all have despite pushing 40. Amazed at what an amazing live singer Teru is (not a single missed note or voice crack! The epitome of perfection). Amazed at how  friendly and cute the whole band (drummer Toshi and keyboardist Seiichan included) is. I thought Coldplay was amazing, but Glay is on a completely different level (after all, GLAY has 10 years of experience on Colplay ;D).

If you ask me what was the best part of the concert, I’d say there was too many. There were so many memorable things. One of them would be Teru’s adorable attempts at speaking English and then mashing it together with Japanese, saying things such as, “So far, ne~” I never expected so much cuteness and fanservice from GLAY, haha. Teru even played along with the crowd, pretending he didn’t know the band’s albums, XD. Teru (yes, Teru did a lot of things) also showed off the tattoo on his left arm, which reads something along the lines of “The sun is always shining behind the clouds.” They played such an amount of songs, I can barely remember which one’s they specifically played, but I was happy they played my two favorites: HOWEVER and 誘惑 (Yuuwaku). Both sounded just like the album version, except better! There is so much more intensity to GLAY’s songs when experienced live. For the encore, they sang “I’m in Love” from pure soul, and you could really tell the crowd was into it. Despite repeating the “I’m just in love, I’m just in Love / I’m just in Love, oh singing my life” part 5-6 times, they crowd just got louder and louder. You could really tell GLAY was enjoying it as well. There were smiles on everyone’s faces. Even the staff were singing along and moving their hands with the crowd.

There’s really nothing else for me to say except that the live was amazing, and if I had the chance, I’d go again with no doubt in my mind. I’d go again later today, but since I have no ride, I can’t D: I hope anyone (fan or not) within a 4-hour drive from LA will go to LA and see them live. If you’re not a fan, you’ll fall in love with them. If you are, you’ll just love them even more.

The following post has been updated with a video of the second (and last) song of the encore as well as pictures, even though HoB doesn’t allow recordings. Yes, I’m a rebel :]

For those of you who were wondering what the setlist was, here it is:
Bolded are my favorites, Italicized are crowd favorites.

01. GREAT VACATION
02. 誘惑 (Yuuwaku)
03. 生きてく強さ (Ikiteku Tsuyosa)
04. ｻﾊﾞｲﾊﾞﾙ (Survival)
05. 千ﾉﾅｲﾌｶﾞ胸ｦ刺ｽ
06. Cynical
07. STARLESS NIGHT
08. RUN
09. HOWEVER
10. BE WITH YOU
11. VERB
12. Synchronicity
13. I am xxx
14. HIGHCOMMUNICATIONS
15. More than Love
16. 彼女の”Modern…” (Kanojo no “Modern…”)
17. SHUTTER SPEEDSのﾃｰﾏ (SHUTTER SPEEDS no Theme)
18. ACID HEAD

Encore
01. ﾋﾟｰｸ果てしなくｿｳﾙ限りなく
02. I’m in Love

Original Article

Kind of slow catching up on gossip on my part, but don’t these idols ever learn that 1) they are constantly being stalked, that 2) everything related to them is blown to amazing proportions, and that 3) dating is a big no-no (especially for H!P)?

It’s always the same old cycle. H!P artist meets Johnny’s artist. They go on a date. Photos/Purikuras are published. They break up. H!P artist gets sacked. Countless senpais have gone through this, so don’t they know the consequences of their actions? Even if they do, they would still put their careers on the lines for a silly date? If you’re going to date someone, and you’re an idol, at least put on a pair of sunglasses and wear a hat for God’s sake! This whole cycle of scandals is getting pretty old. Sometimes, it’s kind of amusing though.

I just don’t get why idols are not allowed to date. It’s not like they are smoking pot or drinking/smoking underage. (I’m pretty sure the Ohno smoking pot incident is false. I don’t know about Takaki’s drinking/smoking though. I could imagine him doing that.) I guess that’s the Japanese idol industry for you. Trying to keep their idols “innocent”. XD

Here it is! The Official Music Video to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.

I admit, it’s got a very fresh feel to it. The whole thing was made to look like a painting (cracks included!). Overall, it was a nice video, but I just don’t feel that it flowed very nicely. I’m not criticizing Chris’ dancing moves or his acting skills, but they were more funny than awe inspiring, which was what I thought they were going for. Honestly, I feel as if it would have looked better if Apple had shot the whole video. I loved the commercial, with its colourful lighting, and the official music video just didn’t match up to it. The individual stills will make great icons though~ You gotta love Chris’ piercing blue eyes and the whole artistic concept XP

Apparently, The Official Music Video to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida NUMBER TWO!

I admit (once again), that this one is much better than the first. XD It was interesting, with Chris walking down streets in his kingly costume and some kid just staring at him. If I were those people, I’d be taking 21239812 pictures. XD The end was the best part though. The three underlings “wooooo woooo”ing in a white box and Chris on his kingly beach chair. It reminded me of one of those just completely random youtube videos that show how stupid people do stupid things when they’re bored, but it was just better than the first, which is more professional.

What do you guys think? The first or second version?

Well, I don’t think I can say anything about this movie that anyone else has not said yet.

It had such an amazing script. It was a very sad movie (I felt like crying at a few parts), which was not something I expected. There was a good amount of talking, but it was all very interesting. Even though the movie was 2:30 long, it didn’t seem that long at all. I was kept at the edge of my seat the whole time and there were so many twists and turns you really wouldn’t expect (I mean, did you really expect the maiden to die?). I enjoyed Spiderman, but after Dark Knight, Spiderman seems like crap. This movie is a definite Best Script and Best Movie of the Year.

Then of course, what everyone is talking about: Heath Ledger as Joker. He probably created the funniest, most cynical, most life-like version of Joker that I have seen by far. Throughout the whole movie, I felt so bad for him. He had such a pitiful past that shaped him into the Joker he is now. At the same time, you can’t really feel bad for him because he’s just killing people on purpose. You really have to give him props for being so crafty and sly though. He’s a great villain, and I’m guessing Best Supporting Male Actor. But isn’t it kind of sad to be giving him his award after he’s dead? Kind of seems like an insult to say that you weren’t good enough when you were alive – but since you’re dead, you are. I don’t know, but that’s what it seems like to me when they do that to people. It really was an oscar worthy performance though~

Was it just me, or does Mr. Two-Face remind you of Terminator as well? That was what I was thinking the whole time. And who the heck can go around town with a half blown face without being noticed? or the fact that it didn’t get infected? I don’t know. That was the only thing in the whole movie that kind of bothered me. I wouldn’t have minded it if it was a little more bloody in the part. I mean, it’s SUPPOSED to look disgusting. One more thing that kind of bothered me (hah, I lied) was the guy that got a cell-phone stitched into his abdomen. I was literally screaming, “DON’T GIVE HIM HIS PHONE CALL! IT’S GOING TO BLOW YOU UP!” inside my head the whole time Joker was asking for his phone call, but they did it anyway and everyone died. :[ One last thing that bothered me (again!). When Batman donned his mask, his bottom teeth were stuck out and it sounded like he was having a lisp problem and he needed a cough drop as well. I just wanted him to shut up and kill more bad guys. XD

By the way, did anyone else notice Edison Chen? He had a small role in the movie when they were discussing business stuff with Lau and the guy had to turn in his cell phone. I heard that he had come to America after the whole scandal and that he got a role in a Hollywood movie, but I also heard that the movie got scrapped. Apparently not~!

Anyways, it's been a day. I don't remember half the stuff I was going to write about it. The bottom line is, GO SEE THE MOVIE. The movie theater was so packed, we all had to sit separately, so go early if you want to get a good seat. It's worth that $8 and another $10 to buy the DVD. :]

One last thing to add. Before the movie started, there was this 2 minute bit with Chris Martin talking about Viva La Vida (more like, not talking, but who cares?) and that was funny to me for some reason (I dunno, but Coldplay is always win). I want his coat btw. Someone go steal it for me. :3

This one featuring Chinen Yuri of Hey! Say! JUMP. It was from an official photoshop. It’s a shame I forgot who I got it from. When I remember, I’ll post up the name. The title was from a shirt I saw. Yet again, I forgot where, so I can’t give credit. Some expirimenting with light and textures. Enjoy~!

(and yeah, Earth Day was awhile ago. Oh well.)

So here goes last week and this weekend in one big post. :]

• I walked into Matt Halverson’s fist in second period German. He was standing in the way and had his hand out in a fist, so I just ducked and walked past him, but he moved his hand and I ended up running into his fist. That really hurt the left side of my face and continued to hurt pretty much throughout the whole period. I guess I can add that to the long list of things I’ve run into. XD
• Saturday, I went to go help with Color Rally. I got put in charge of painting the two big swords on the poster that was going to be put on the bleachers. The day was REALLLYYY hot and we were painting directly underneath the sun, so Vivian and I kept going back in the shade. We ended up dragging the poster into the shade. We painted till 3, and then Vivian, Stephanie, and Matt decided to go to CVS to get something to drink, but they left without us! So Brian and I went to CVS too. Anyways, we got there, and I realized we had no money, and Brian only had $3, so we both got Arizon Iced Teas. Brian thought the tax would be over $3, and if it was, he would have had to use his $100 bills. How funny would it have been to buy something that’s $3 with a $100 dollar bill? We should have done it just to see the register person’s face, XD. So we got back, and we ended up getting in trouble with the teacher for not telling her that we left. Then at 4:00, we all just left and decided to finish the poster on Monday. Too bad I ended up not going though because I was lazy. D:
• Chase ripped for me Akanezora and Kona Yuki by REMIOROMEN. I seriously can’t stop listening to Akanezora. Someone go and buy me their albums, pl0x.

Hello Kame. 8D

So yes, as you can probably tell, I have a new header, this time, featuring the one and only Kamenashi Kazuya. The scan was from kinoko@LJ, and you can find it under the DUET February 2008 Scans post under the KAT-TUN section of course. Once I saw that picture of Kame and his cute glasses, I knew I had to make a layout for him. Not to mention the nerdiness of the picture matched my name. ;D Anyways, I had started out with a L’Arc~en~Ciel layout, but the scans for the new KISS album weren’t big enough for me to do anything creative, so I switched it when I downloaded all the scans. It took me maybe two hours to get the look and colours I wanted and I still think the colours are kind of funky, but Michelle said they were catchy, so I’ll go with whatever she says. Comments and criticisms appreciated <3

The next layout will probably be of One Pound Gospel since Yamada is in there ;DD There were a few pages of scans with the two of them, but they were a bit off and I couldn’t use them. :[[

PS. Check out Chase’s new wordpress header. His uncle’s art is total pwnage and he’s very good at drawing skulls. I wish I had some of those mad skillz. :[

L’Arc~en~Ciel’s new album, released November 21, 2007.
Please leave a comment if you download.

01. SEVENTH HEAVEN (hyde/hyde)
02. Pretty girl (ken/ken)
03. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM (hyde/ken)
04. 砂時計 ~sunadokei~ (tetsu/tetsu)
05. spiral (yukihiro/yukihiro)
06. ALONE EN LA VIDA (hyde/ken)
07. DAYBREAK’S BELL (hyde/ken)
08. 海辺 ~Umibe~ (hyde/tetsu)
09. THE BLACK ROSE (hyde/hyde)
10. Link -KISS Mix- (hyde/tetsu)
11. 雪の足跡 ~Yuki no Ashiato~ (hyde/ken)
12. Hurry Xmas (hyde/hyde)

Download (Sendspace)