Jpop Summit 2012

Last weekend we went to the Jpop Summit Festival in Japantown, watched the h. Naoto fashion show, browsed around the vendor booths, and ate ramen. I saw the most lolitas I have ever seen in my life, and everyone looked so magnificent! It was rather cold that day and I felt like I looked very windswept the whole time, but anyways, here's some pics! (from my phone, forgive the bad quality >_<)

(h. Naoto Gramm and Frill fashion show, the designer's in the pic on the right, with the red and black skirt!)

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(me, derping around)

As for the loot, I bought a new little hat/hair accessory (worn above), as well as my new little friend:

Jedi Master

Once upon a time, I was a padawan. Let us not forget that one spring break during high school when I spent over half of it reading The Hand of Thrawn trilogy. Nor let us forget the time I did my makeup like Queen Amidala and wore an old maroon velvet dress and posted pictures on livejournal.
As hard as I try to see Star Wars as just a cheesy space opera made in the 70's, I can't - I can't help but feel a resonance deep within myself that reaffirms that this is indeed my favorite movie, that there is something special about this trilogy, something that has irrevocably become one with who I am.

Yoda is my jedi master, and at times like these when I feel like I'm losing myself, it helps to look to him for guidance. I fear I've become dangerously close to losing control of my emotions and giving in to the dark side. Anger, fear, hate - emotions I've kept quite well under control for a lot of my life, but now I am finding difficult to suppress. It's time for me to revisit my old jedi master.

Peace, love, George Lucas and tauntauns...
<3 p="p">

The Good Life

It's one of those days when I am feeling really unrealistically nostalgic for Utah and consequently eat lots of jello. Sometimes I miss the Utah-me, I miss my old bravery and creativity and ability to find meaning and wonder in everything. Now I live a life of a hermit, constantly struggle with nihilistic thoughts, and am just about ready to sell my soul for money. Was it the place and time or just my frame of mind that's changed?

I literally almost cried over my degree the other day - I've been angry at myself for making such a poor life decision, leaving me with all of my nonexistent career opportunities. But today I realized, what if that's it? What if that intellectual stimulation is what's missing right now? I do firmly believe that studying philosophy helps enrich your life. Why have I quit? I'm masking my emptiness by living for the next concert, the next convention. Maybe it's time to get over myself and pursue the good life again.
I'm at a weird turning point in my life right now where I'm approaching my past through the lens of an adult and trying to mend past relationships and struggling to overcome anxiety over past fears that are no longer anything to worry about. Sometimes I'd rather be 700 miles away back in Utah running away from my problems than so close to home... but so be it, this is where the Lord has led me.

Firsts

Some time ago I realized, I am almost halfway through this year, and there's still a lot I want to accomplish that I haven't yet! So I grabbed a friend and up and went to Japantown, dressed in full gothic lolita garb, fake eyelashes and all, spent lots of money, and had lots of fun. Could you imagine if I lived in the city? I would practically live in Japantown, and be forever broke!
So I had a couple "firsts" on this last Japantown trip:

1) First time eating a dango! I watched Clannad sometime last year, gushed over how cute Fuko and Nagisa were, cried during Clannad Afterstory... and of course a main theme in that show is the "big dango family" so when I saw a dango stand in the shopping center, I jumped at the opportunity to get one. So, I guess they're basically just mochis on a stick, which I didn't know before, but these ones from Japantown were especially good, really fresh tasting. :3

2) First time eating a macaron! (I told you I was going to, didn't I?) Not gonna lie, I didn't have high expectations because I had eaten a frozen packaged one a few weeks ago, and I was like, "that's it? that was dissapointing..." But when I went to buy one at the New People Cinema cafe, it was amazing. The real ones are chewy, and the filling is better, and there's even a secret hidden filling in the very center that's like an explosion of flavor and it is soooo good! Success!

3) First time buying "brand"! I bought that h.Naoto sweater that is on the poster I have in my room from their grand opening, I've been ogling it in the picture for months, and now I own it and keep it on a dress form in my room, which serves as my lolita clothing mannequin/awesome room decoration. The shop girls were so nice, and there was so much pretty stuff, and I just thought, how many times am I just gonna come and go and never buy anything? You only live once. So I bought it!!! And I'm gonna wear it to the Rhapsody concert in a few weeks! What's funny, is I have now been at 2 events where I could have met h.Naoto himself, but I didn't. I didn't really have a desire to before, but apparently he's a really awesome and friendly person, so maybe someday I will, since we seem to cross path quite often ^_^

Until next time, and don't stop adventuring!

For "Those Days"

It's easy for me to get down on myself, feel my self-confidence slip away sometimes, or most times, just feel hopelessly boring and get existential about everything...
Sometimes I need to remind myself of what I'm proud of myself for, either accomplishment-wise or gutsy-wise, things that sometimes are so crazy I can hardly believe I did them myself. We all have those things, eh? Let us not forget.
Here's a list of things I think about, for those times:
1) I played violin in a metal band
2) I drove up to Seattle and shook Mana's hand
3) I moshed during Ozzfest
To be continued.
Cheer up, ne? We are in the prime of our lives, we have our whole lives ahead of us... let us not get bogged down with stress, and let's live a little.
/self encouragement

A Study in Pink

It seems I've been buying lots of pink, sweet things lately. <(^_^)>

I thought I'd take a picture of them all together, like all the cool people who take pictures of food and stuff. 

...I have yet to master the skill of taking pictures of my "stuff"!

This picture is also quite telling of my devotion in reading celebrity blogs (I guess I am a little celebrity obsessed, as my sister pointed out, just not with celebrities most people know about, hehe)

Mana keeps blogging about stuffed animals and Yan Yan, and Simone Simons got me curious about these cute little EOS lip balms. All these subliminal things, influencing my life decisions...

It's past my bedtime. Laterz!

Versailles - "Rhapsody of the Darkness" Single

 The firt thing I did this morning was roll over in bed and grab my phone to buy the new Versailles single, "Rhapsody of the Darkness" off iTunes. I had moderately high expectations for the song - this being the single and all, I wasn't expecting that it was going to be one of the best songs on the album, but since we were told that this new song would have harpsichord and organ in it, which are like my favorite sounds EVER, I expected greater things from this than the average single. (Also I think the fact that the song title sounds like a rip-off of Rhapsody of Fire's band name subconsciously raised my expectations too, my being a huge Rhapsody fan and all ^_^). The release contains two songs, "Rhapsody of the Darkness" and "Illusion."


The single "Rhapsody of the Darkness" starts out with a baroque harpsichord intro with church organ behind it. Surprisingly, the use of those keyboard patches did not make them sound like a Malice Mizer rip-off (even though I would be secretly happy if it did XD), their use of harpsichord was much more baroque and rococo sounding, with more trills and flourishes, also more upbeat and less dark sounding than Malice Mizer and Moi Dix Mois. Actually, the harpsichord parts in this song remind me of Rhapsody's harpsichord parts on Symphony of Enchanted Lands, funny coincidence there... The harpsichord intro then transitions by means of a cascade of dual guitar runs into the main song. This song is very varied! It seems like Versailles has been in the mood recently for writing more experimental, epicly long songs with lots of different "movements" so to speak, and this is alongside those lines stylistically, even though it is only a 5 minute song. It alternates between an epic symphonic part with ominous vocals, a verse with heavy riffing behind it, and a straightforward chorus, with segments of neoclassical/progressive instrumental guitar harmonies strewn in between all those sections. Stylistically, it's nothing that Versailles hasn't done before, just some more of the same good stuff. I'd say the biggest difference from their old stuff is the harpsichord. In relation to their other songs, I'd say it's along the same lines of "Masquerade," not quite as epic, but still very much a symphonic progressive metal song. I thought "Masquerade" was just average when I first heard it, and then it eventually grew on me to be one of my favorite songs off Holy Grail - I think this song will grow on me as well, I'm already liking it more the more I listen to it!

"Illusion" was actually my favorite out of the two songs upon first listen. It's one of their more mellow pop-ish sounding songs, and it always cracks me up whenever Versailles writes songs like this since they're usually a metal band, but man, they're pretty good at this! It starts out with ambient electronic percussion, then goes into a rocking guitar riff, and they bring back the same electronic percussion again when the vocals come in. This song really showcases Hizaki and Teru's good guitar phrasing. Even though it is basically a pop/rock song, there is still intricate guitar work (as always, with Versailles), interesting bass lines, and some tasteful drum fills in here. I just think it has good composition and cohesion, everything just seems to work together really well in this song. I like it! We'll see if it stands the test of time though, sometimes I like these pop-ish songs better at first but then they get old and I like the more experimental ones better later... we'll see!

Overall, I am very pleased, I like these songs better than a lot of their last singles, so this is promising for their next album! The thing I am most displeased with, however, is the fact that this was a digital single. I mean, yes, it is cheaper than a physical single, and yes, I do actually get to hear it on the release date rather than having to wait for it to ship from Japan, but I just paid $3 for songs (or at least one song) that will be on the album anyways, basically I just bought it so I could hear it now. Oh well, seems like it'll be a while before their next album anyways, plus, for $3 I'd say it's worth it!