Archive for July, 2005
July 26, 2005 – 5:11 pm
Amazing what a difference a stereo system can make to a home.
I’ve been sans TV, radio, stereo, net access, and home computer (relying on laptop-chan) since I moved. That’s nearly three months of supremely low-tech living, pretty much by choice as I don’t ever watch TV (except when Hekiru is on), don’t listen to the radio (except for Hekiru’s shows), and figured that having net access would just prevent me from sleeping.
I think I’m right on all counts, but now I’m starting to realize that, even spending 18 hours a day at work, it’s not much stress relief to just stumble back home and sleep. In fact, even if it cuts out about a half hour’s worth of zzz time, I’m probably a happier camper if I browsed through 5 pages of the latest Economist before turning off the lights.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite hit it either. And with nothing much waiting for me at home, I think I just hang at the office and work more, which may or may not make me more productive, in the long run…
After installing my brand new Denon system (I’ve decided Onkyo is overpriced, overfeatured and underperforming), I tried out the radio and suddenly I was so much more relaxed, just laying back at 2:30am fresh from a shower, after a pretty grueling week revising and revising and angsting over this big marketing campaign presentation. Yes, how strange in this world of broadband digital communication and media, to think that radio still holds a magic.
To celebrate, I scrounged most of (currently meager) Hekiru possessions into a little worship corner for a memorial shot. Cool, non?
Posted in MISC. RAMBLINGS | No Comments »
July 17, 2005 – 1:40 pm
I went to see an indies live yesterday night, at a punk live house called Heaven’s Door in Sengenchaya. The theme was “Heaven’s Icecream”, featuring female-centric bands playing hard-edged rock, metal, punk and such (although I didn’t know it at the time – I only knew about the event because one of the people on our music SNS wacca.tv was playing, and invited me). To my utter delight, it turned out to be one of the most enjoying events I’ve been to!
First of all, the music was really good, very high level. In fact, these guys aren’t amateur, they are all half-way pro, with some radio coverage. Of course, they aren’t signed and cut their own CDs, which still makes them indie.
There were five bands, in this order.
1.ロイヤルキャバレー (Royal Cabaret)
2.熊猫 (Xiong Mao)
3.BO-PEEP
4.MEXICO
5.東京ピンサロックス (Tokyo Pinsalocks)
My friend played in MEXICO. These girls were heavy, really heavy Pantera style. That bassist was unbelievable!! Absolutely amazing lightning fast bassline, god I thought I had died and gone to base heaven! Drums rock, but damn a good bass line tops it all.
My favourite band, music and presentation-wise, was probably XiongMao. It’s a 5 member band, drums, bass, guiter, and two cute female vocalists. The drummer looked like a geek, the girls wore chongsam-like thingies over pants. Then, they kicked in, and shit these girls blew the house with their energy, jumping screaming alternating vocal styles… hell one of ‘em even started rolling on the floor in front of the stage! Great show, didn’t like their lighter stuff but they had some really nice hard riffs and beats. Go to their homepage and get a listen!
BO-PEEP, a 3 girl band + a guest guitarist, was okay, nice and hard and heavy, but maybe not my style.
Royal Cabaret was a Shiina Ringo wannabe… vocal had a great voice, and the drummer was incredibly hard-hitting, but didn’t quite do it for me.
Tokyo Pinsalocks, 4 girls, was probably the most commercially advanced of the bunch, they played poppier stuff that I didn’t really like… but damn, their bassist was really really really pretty. To me, anyway. At first, she had this boring bass line for the intro song, and I was like, great, pretty face, but girl can’t hold a candle to the t-shirt and cargo pants speed monster from MEXICO.
Then she starts playing some good stuff, and she starts swaying and getting into the music, and dude I couldn’t take my eyes off her. For some reason, she was just incredibly hot jamming that bass. So, I hate to say it, but I’m gonna buy their DVD, even though I thought the music was a toss, just so I can watch her play the bass again :D
So, that was the night. Good night.
Hmm, good thing Hekiru doesn’t play the bass. I might fall in love and never climb back out LOL
Posted in MUSIC (Other) | 3 Comments »
July 11, 2005 – 10:06 am
Today at a convenience store, an impossibly frail old woman was ahead of me, paying for a box of popsicles. As she fumbled with her purse, I wondered if she was buying them for her grandchildren, or perhaps she was alone and buying them for herself, or just maybe she was going to share them with the husband or friend waiting for her at home…
After I paid and left the store, I saw her standing just outside opening her umbrella. And as I passed her, heading to the furniture store, frenzic electronic music blasted on my earphones as I wondered if that would be me in 50 years time, and contemplated how lonely it would be I didn’t have someone to share my life with.
The sun shone down but inside my chest, the ache wouldn’t go away.
Posted in MISC. RAMBLINGS | 2 Comments »
July 8, 2005 – 10:57 am
I’m just toeing the line.
Yep, weeks of 4-5 hour sleep days are taking their toll on me. My head is fuzzy, and I fight desperately to keep my eyes open during client meetings. It scares me that I would almost commit murder for the opportunity to take a little nap at that very point when the eyelids no longer fight off gravity.
So, work is busy. I’m working part-PM on the community site, I’m sort of involved in brainstorming for other pitches, and aside from that I have no idea why I’m so busy. Somebody needs to wire me some awesome marketing campaigns for use on said community site promotion project.
Personal life… yeah personal life is kinda messed up too. So I’m being psychologically tortured by the whole Hekiru thing, someone I really liked came to see me and battered down walls which I still could not climb over, and I am too tired to deal with meeting people or building new relationships. So, I still can’t figure what I want. When my mind clears, I’ll write it down, and you can tell me if I’m crazy or not, okay?
Posted in FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH | No Comments »
