animejpop

Finally the highly forgotten! anticipated unveiling of the results to my 2nd favorite music meme! god knows i've put it off for waaaay too long

( favorite song meme #2 [14 out of 30 guessed] )

Kimi-chan wins again XD

Maybe next time I'll do a favorite song by composer/producer one *big-evil-grin* Thank you for playing!

[ history : 1 | 2 ]

I'm going to follow boogiepop03's lead, and promote this really crazy thread at AnimeLyrics. Asato Megumi has started this game to count backwards from 1000 to 1, posting one consecutive number per post. The thread was started on 12/20, and is currently down to 537. We're really going to have to haul ass if we want to finish in 68 hours, before 2006 XD

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I saw Memoirs of a Geisha with my family, and it was quite good. It was mostly in English, with some Japanese mixed in, but only unimportant or obvious things. I thought it was a nice touch when Chiyo would call Mameha onee-san.

Apparently critics were talking about one particular scene where a kimono was worn in reverse, right-over-left. I guess wearing it reversed that way is reserved for the dead, somehow. I heard about this ahead of time, so from the beginning of the movie I was watching out for it, and sure enough I spotted it. When Chiyo sneaks a newspaper clipping out of a drawer, her kimono is worn right-over-left.

The main thing I had an issue with was the dance (during the play). It seemed to be a very modern-style dance, whereas a more traditional one might have been more appropriate (not that I'd know what that would look like).

Other than that, it was an amazing movie, and I recommend it. I learned a lot about the art of geisha, which I never really knew much about previously. The cinematography was breath-takingly beautiful. The soundtrack worked as well.

1) Cool Joke - Cool Joke (2005.10.26)
2) Yoko Takahashi - Anata wo hakemashi, toki ni sasae to naru mono (2005.12.7)
3) Akino Arai - Sora no uta (2005.11.23)
4) Berserk OST (1994)
5) Marmalade Boy Best Album (1995)
6) Ai Otsuka - Love Cook (2005.12.14)
7) Kou Shibasaki - Hitori asobi (2005.12.14)
8) Kiroro - Wonderful Days (2005.11.23)
9) Spitz - Hachimitsu (1995)
10) Hironobu Kageyama - Cold Rain (2005.12.7)

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I should really post the answers to that music meme soon...

My 2nd favorite song meme is still active, so feel free to take guesses; even if you already have. Only 13 songs have been guessed out of the 30 total artists so far. I'll wait at least a week before posting the answers.

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( maaya sakamoto mix 3 )

About track 9: It was nice to finally see the play, Letter ~bring to light~. It seemed very low budget, and kind of silly at times, but both actors have very nice singing voices. Tracks 5, 10 and 16 are from Yuunagi Loop.

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( yuki kajiura mix 2 )

I duplicated a couple songs from my first Yuki Kajiura Mix, just because that mix was completely Noir and .hack//Sign music XD

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( dj mix 35 )

I had a little fun with this mix. There are a couple song couplings (3 & 4; 5 & 6; 10 & 11) which follow a certain relationship: One song by an artist who used to be produced by the producer of the other song. The last example doesn't quite follow that rule, but it's close. There's a good chance that tracks 13 through 15 are all top hit singles from 1995.

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I finally got around to romanizing the tracklisting for FictionJunction Yuuka's upcoming first album, Dimensions. I posted it on yukikajiura :)

In celebration of Maaya Sakamoto's new album (which should be coming out about now in Japan, being ~13 hours ahead), I've decided to do another favorite song meme! Very similar to last time, and I didn't reuse any artists. It's up to you guys to guess what my favorite song by each artist is. You can guess once per artist at a time. The first person to guess the right song, gets credited. Good luck!

( favorite song meme #2 [14 out of 30 guessed] )

I've been completely obsessed with Densha Otoko lately. I had a mini-marathon recently, and I was so inspired by episodes 4 and 7, that I decided to make wallpapers based on them.
( densha otoko wallpapers and reviews with possible SPOILERS )
For those of you who know nothing about Densha Otoko: The premise is how an otaku and a "normal" bijin hook up through an incident where the otaku (Tsuyoshi) sticks up for the woman (Saori) on a train. It's a live action with an anime inside of its universe (I forgot the name of it, but it's animated by Gonzo). Half the time is spent in real-life, and half on a BBS for single men (even though there seem to be a lot of couples and even females on it hehe). In fact, the drama is supposedly based on a true story, which was published in a book in BBS log format. Saori is played by the same person who plays Natsumi in Taiho shichau zo! Live Action. And I could swear that one of the people on the BBS is the same as Miyabi in GTO Live Action, but I can't seem to find proof of it. If you haven't seen Densha Otoko, definitely try an episode at TV-Nihon.

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I was chatting with one of my buddies a fews days ago about Urara Takano, one of the seiyuu in Sakura Taisen. He was desperately trying to find a place that sold her major album, so I went to her website to find some info...
( fillipe & i make fun of urara takano )
Ahhh... We're so mean LOL

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( dj mix 34 )
I guess the significance of this mix is that tracks 1, 3 & 5 were all from albums which I recently downloaded, romanized tracklistings, tagged & renamed, and then uploaded to Jpopsuki. I sure wish my ISP weren't blocking Jpopsuki at the moment... As far as I can tell, Why? is a cover of Rin''s Yachiyo no kaze, mostly because of the date each came out, but I can't be sure.

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I submitted the tracklisting I romanized from my last post to maaayasakamoto.net, and it got posted. I even got credited! ^^ They have even more info, wheee.

Oh yeah, I can't wait for FictionJunction Yuuka's album to come out later this year entitled Destination! It will come out on 2005.11.23.

I was excited to see that CD Japan updated their Yuunagi Loop entry with song titles! I romanized it:

maaya sakamoto - yuunagi loop (2005.10.26)
1. hello
2. honey, come
3. loop
4. wakaba
5. paprika
6. my favorite books
7. tsuki to hashiri-nagara
8. no fear ~ai suru koto~
9. unison
10. fuyu desu ka
11. yuunagi loop
12. a happy ending

In other Maaya news, it's interesting to note that she played the voice of Aerith in FF7: Advent Children. It's too bad she didn't get more lines XD

I realize it's very late for an Otakon report, but I've had this written up forever now and just haven't gotten around to posting it XD
( every thing i wrote about otakon right after getting back )
(And that's as far as I got, and here's the rest now.)

I got to see The Indigo in concert and Otaku Idol Concert. But what really caught my attention was the Spoony Bards, who played for 30 minutes in OtaCafe for Band Night. I guess they're a group of talented musicians, and 3 of them appeared for this particular set:
1) A female vocalist dressed as a moogle with an incredible voice. She also played flute.
2) A male guitarist, who also sang for one of the songs.
3) A female violinist, who also shook a moracca for one of the songs.

They were simply amazing. They got mad applause for the more recognizable songs, despite there not being a huge crowd at the time. Some songs I remember:
-Noir - Cante per Me
-Chrono Cross - opening theme
-Chrono Cross - Radical Dreamers ~without stealing the jewels~
-Metal Gear Solid song of some kind
-Haibane renmei BGM
The first 3 being absolutely amazing.

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Well, I guess that's it for now, for the sake of just getting this post up. Hopefully I'll get some pics up in the near future as well.

Oooohh yeeaeah. I just got an Artist Newsmail from CD Japan, and some things are more definite about Maaya Sakamoto's 5th album coming out on 10/26/05. The title will be Yunagi Loop. It will contain Loop, Fuyu desu ka and Honey, Come. Man I wish I could afford to pre-order it!

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I'm getting all ready for Otakon this weekend; collecting karaoke tracks, grooming them, finding lyrics, making indices; making nigiri; doing laundry; cleaning out the car; going shopping. Fun stuff.

Let's see how many people I can list that I know are going: Me, pottassiumman, Tien, his cousin, resuka, lmekko, Jeff K., that guy who's on Otaku Idol staff with me XD, Andrew Z. (on Karaoke staff), Alik & her bf, Goki, Sam, Scott M., Kitty, chibiragdoll, shinobihime, Nikki, Desmond, Fusoya & his friend, luna_hoshino, deaddude, and probably many more people I know, but will find out they went when I see them XD (23 so far).

I'm looking forward to seeing The Indigo now that I finally acquainted myself with their music and even made a mix of their stuff to listen on the ride down. They have a nice mellow feel to them and sort of have hints of country & jazz.

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I'm waaay backed up on mixes & photos, but I'll see what I can do about that after returning ^^

I sit at my computer, once again, thinking to myself I should ~sooo~ be sleeping :3 Time for a couple mixes and a couple photo galleries!

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( dj mix 30 )
I made the mistake of putting 2 Negima! songs on there, but I was soo addicted to both of the songs, that's it's not really too bad. Ame-agari no tenshi could seriously be my top song on AudioScrobbler next update LOL

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( dj mix 31 )
I was very happy when the OP single for Tsubasa Chronicle came out :) I can't wait for the OST.

I had way too much fun with this mix. There's this slow progression which starts at track 7 and goes all the way to track 18 with the song titles. I start at little things like "hana" and "flowers" and work up to bigger things like "world" and "hoshi" XD

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Last Saturday, I went to Animerathon as usual, minding my own business, and as I was about to park, I happened upon...

   

o_O It was an impressive sight to observe, but it sure seemed like a waste of food. I, of course, parked right behind the pile.

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2 days ago, Tien found an air conditioner near his apartment complex's dumpsters. He said it looks like someone took a light saber to it, and he wasn't kidding...

 

Using a nearby shopping cart, we hauled the A/C to the mailroom which had a power outlet and at first it spit out dust, but surely enough, the room started getting cooler! It may not look pretty, but you can't beat free =D

I haven't updated in a while, so here's some fun stuff like con updates, a new mix, and answers to my music meme.

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( Katsucon, ConBust & AnimeBoston Reports )

People I saw this weekend... regalia31, Goki, Sam, Doug, Katja, potassiumman, Jennifer, Desmond, some guy on tech I met at ConBust, ryodark, Joe, Chloe, Kathy, brend (Yuki from Genericon), Kyou from ConBust & Genericon, Hatsuharu from ConBust, Erica, Beth, Rachael, Erica's mom, Stephanie, Scott S., Sarah, Israel, Steve S.

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( D.J. Mix 28 )

Three of the tracks follow the Sakura theme for the time of the year. And tracks 10 through 13 would be the rap-ish section.

I'm baffled by the Love for Nana album. Sugar Guitar came off of it, but I'm not sure whether it's music that kind of goes with the original manga which started in 2000; or maybe a newer release; or even the movie that came out this year based on the manga. What I have figured out is that in the story, there are 2 very different girls, both named Nana. My best guess is that both of them end up in different bands, Black Stones and Trapnest. I'm intrigued by Nana in general now, though, since Love for Nana has some very prominent artists on it like Tommy heavenly6, tetsu69, abingdon boys school (which is TMR for some reason), Do As Infinity, Zone, and Ai Ootsuka.

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( Answers to my music meme )

My latest mix ^^

d.j. mix 27 of 2005.3.30
1. tetsu69 - scarecrow
2. zwei - find me
3. bonnie pink - Private Laughter
4. hekiru shiina - reverence
5. HAL - al di la
6. day after tomorrow - lost angel
7. the brilliant green - Forever to me ~owari naki kanashimi~
8. nana mizuki - Tears' Night
9. T.M.Revolution - white breath
10. yuki kimura - Summer Rain
11. kokia - yume ga chikara (2004.6.23)
12. tsubasa ~resevoir chronicles~ - loop ed (maaya sakamoto)
13. Yakitate!! Japan - Houki kumo op (rythem)
14. asuka hinoi - Wanna be your girlfriend
15. Shiho - Ever Stay Snow
16. avenger - shoujo junchi (ali project)
17. ayumi hamasaki - carols

Track 12 is the ripped from radio version, which I intend to replace with the cd rip version when it's available. Guess I'll have to wait until 5/11 or so XD It's kind of cool that, while wrong, feikusa guessed 2 of the tracks on my new mix (6 & 17).

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My favorite song meme is still going, and only 9 of 30 songs have been guessed so far. Feel free to take more guesses XD I'll give my answers next time I post.

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Tien and I are talking about doing a Tsubasa fansub/fandub. I'm not sure how far we'll get, but I've already translated 7 minutes of ep 1, so I figure it's worth finishing at least an ep. Format will be .ogm. Does anyone know a good subtitling program? Also, is anyone interested in voice acting? If so, let me know what parts you'd be interested in doing ^^

[Edit:] Tien and I have decided to take the dubbing all the way: We intend to dub the opening and ending songs as well! We will be transliterating and translating the songs, but the trick of making the English lyrics work with the melody will be the challenging part. If anyone is interested in working with that, let me know!

I've selected 30 of my favorite artists, and I'm leaving it up to you to guess what my favorite song is for each of them. I'll be away for a while, but no ties. I'll credit the person who gets it right first.

( and on with the artists )

You can take multiple guesses, but I ask that you only guess once per song at a time, and wait for a while before taking another shot.

For my own reference: [ xazy-chan | kimi-chan | otaru-kun | azu-chan | potassiumman | thefreefall ]

Oh yeah, Tsubasa ~resevoir chronicles~ episode 1 aired in Japan 2 hours ago ^_^

I usually don't do meme's, but for the first time I'm making an exception because it's music related.

( Music Meme )

I've watched over 50 eps of One Piece this week @_@ Oh yeah, ConBust is this weekend -- Should be fun!

Oh yes! This is the perfect opportunity to pimp my first real update at omg_look_music! My update has songs which sound similar to each other, but weren't covers. If you're interested, check it out, but you do need to request membership if you're not a member already :)

Update to my Ali Project Mix: I realized how large of an undertaking this has become. Ali Project has a ~lot~ of music! Ever since I noticed hallucino had a few songs on his mix I'd never heard of, I went searching for them. And I kept finding more and more albums which I didn't have! At this point I have a list of about 120 songs, about 75 of which I've managed to grab, but I want to try to get most of their stuff before hammering out a mix.

I usually don't burn mixes in such quick succession, but I had been putting it off for a while, so here it is!

1. mahou shoujo ririkaru nanoha - innocent starter op (nana mizuki)(2004.10.06)
2. starship operators - radiance op (mami kawada)
3. jinki:extend - fly away op (unicorn table)
4. Kiki's Delivery Service - Tori ni natta watashi (Arika Takarano)
5. rythem - tenkyu~
6. brain powered - ai no field ed (kokia)
7. Samurai 7 - Fuhen ed (rin')
8. paranoia agent - Dream Island Obsessional Park op (susumu hirasawa)
9. Maki Gotou - Sayonara ~tomodachi ni wa naritakunai no~
10. slayers - Alone (Yumi Touma [Sylphiel])
11. w ~wish~ (ps2) - can you feel crying alone? op (tiaraway)
12. Rozen Maiden - Toumei Shelter ED (refio & haruka shimotsuki)
13. Avenger - Mother (Ali Project)
14. l'arc~en~ciel - larva & butterfly's sleep (dj edit)
15. inu yasha - grip! op4 (Every Little Thing)
16. Mariko Nagai - Ready Steady Go!
17. lassie - owaranai monogatari op (jun morioka)

While the last mix seemed to feature a high ratio of jpop, this one overcompensates leaving only 4 non-anime jpop songs (not that that's a bad thing). My goal was to tell a story using songs and still keep a flow.

I'm working on an Ali Project mix currently. Got any ideas of songs which need to go on there? I have a bunch of common ones in the to be considered folder already (including the 2 featured on this mix).

d.j. mix 25 of 2005.2.27
1. l'arc~en~ciel - killing me
2. takui - Calling You
3. minami kuribayashi - chiisa na hoshi ga oriru toki
4. jinki:extend - mirai to yuu na no kotae ed (angela)
5. full moon wo sagashite - Focus (changin' my life)
6. boa - Power (Japanese)
7. Gundam Seed Destiny - Pride op2 (high and mighty color)
8. Rozen Maiden - Kinjirareta asobi op (ali project)
9. Psycho le Cemu - gekiai merry go-round
10. do as infinity - rakuen
11. Janne Da Arc - Heaven's Place
12. you're under arrest live action - galaxy op (nana katase)
13. sayaka - jougen no tsuki
14. Hyde - Shallow sleep
15. asian kung-fu generation - kimi no machi made
16. Beni Arashiro - Infinite
17. Bleach - Thank You!! ed2 (home made kazoku)

Genericon was once again, a great success and a blast. I found myself working pretty much the entire weekend, but I had a lot of fun doing it. I'll go into more detail later, but for now...

( my schedule & songs i sang )

It's been a while.... I guess I've been busy XD

new house
My roommate, underwatercolor, bought a house in Rensselaer, where we're living now. The moving went quick, but the unpacking -- That's another matter XD The kitchen's been great so far, which has inspired me to do a lot of cooking. The neighborhood isn't the best perhaps -- I'm already boycotting the convenient market just down the street *cackles*

upstate ny cosplay society
We've had 2 meetings now, and I've become the secretary. So now I take notes at meetings, post them on-line, and otherwise just try to help the group in general. I'm their Genericon liaison so far, and I'm working on getting us an ad in the conbook, as well as some panel time for a panel on the basics of cosplay :)

jrock band
In December, Goki recruited me and 3 other members to form a jrock cover band. I'm on vocals, Goki's on drums, and we also have lead/rhythm/bass guitars. So far we have Luna Sea songs and a L'Arc~en~Ciel song basically covered, and we'll see if we get the chance to perform at Genericon! We tried doing our first recording today, but it ended up being more like a day for setup. This is pretty exciting, and I look forward to seeing where we go ^^

genericon
It's coming up -- Are you pre-registered? They were supposed to close it yesterday, but didn't yet, so do so quickly before time runs out! I'm looking forward to the cosplay, which will be the first ever for us! And as usual, I will be helping out with karaoke, anime trivia, anime name that tune, etc. With any luck, they'll let our new band, as well as shinobihime's band perform for an hour or 2!

outbound
My job description has changed. Instead of getting calls from various customers, now it's my job to harass them. Before, the hard part was figuring out what they were calling about, and then making things right. Now I need to convince the person that picks up the phone that I am who I say I am as well as remind them who we are, and then I fix the application which was missing information when they submitted it. A new swing.

audioscrobbler
Know about it? I'm pretty obsessed with it as of a week ago. It's a plug-in which you can download for common players which automatically tracks which songs you play on their website. On their site you can see which songs/artists you listen to most frequently as well as see the top songs/listeners for artists! Check it out and add me to your list if you download it :) If you add me, let me know so I can add you back -- I don't think their friending system is as smart as lj's unfortunately. I just posted on their forums today XD

Until next time...

Here's my car's track record this week...
1) Monday - 1 stall
2) Tuesday - 2 stalls
3) Wednesday - 3 stalls

So here's my informal poll to you:
1) How many times will my car stall tomorrow?
2) How many time will it stall on Friday?
3) Will I make it to the end of the week? XD

I will post the answers on Friday! *cackles*

( a related conversation i had with tien )

a little more about my job
I am a customer service representative at CSC supporting Community Care Rx, Criterion Advantage, and Golden Buck-Eye (which are Medicare approved Drug Discount Cards). This means I answer incoming phone calls and answer to the best of my ability whatever questions beneficiaries, beneficiaries' acquaintances and pharmacists have. I field calls of many types including general information, enrolling over the phone, trouble-shooting prescription claims, giving drug quotes, having another card sent, or even explaining why the card doesn't work the way a caller thinks it should.

The short story: I get yelled at by old ladies all day on the phone *cackles* (*jk!* nah, it's good fun most of the time, but a grumpy caller can really be the bad apple that spoils the bunch)

( and now for a manga quote )