come all ye faithful
so much to say. important bits are bolded.
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~i wanna be with you~
i'm in a jpop mood today. an utada hikaru--or hikki as her fans like to call her--mood, to be exact. she was, i believe, the first japanese artist i was introduced to way back when. born in new york to japanese parents, she's lived in both america and asia and has become one of the best-selling female pop stars in japan next to ayumi hamasaki. in my opinion, utada's by far not the greatest singer ever, but she does come up with some nifty tunes.
distance
distance made its appearance on utada's second album and was meant to be released as a single until she heard some saddening news. there was a shooting at a japanese high school in which schoolgirl reina yamashita was killed. that girl had previously won an essay competition by writing hers about how she wanted to become a singer just like her idol, utada hikaru. utada then decided to change the song into a ballad and thus created final distance.
final distance
m-flo [my favorite group by far] also appeared on the final distance single, redoing the original song and giving it a stronger beat. taku of m-flo is one of the best mixers/remixers in the asian music industry; he's been called on to work on songs by many other artists. i personally like listening to his version more than the original distance.
distance (m-flo remix)
- jessica came over. we were supposed to go over the movement for tonight's performance, but we wound up watching the village and straightening our hair. haha.
- at around 4:45pm, we picked up justin and ventured off to meet up with sienna, alex and lindsey at marcie's house. then mr.marshall drove the bunch of us through winding roads to happy valley camp.. place, where marcie's church camp thing was taking place. the trees there were absolutely huge-gantic.
- we rehearsed for an hour, i guess. probably would've gone faster if we'd remembered the choreography from previous rehearsals.
- the room we practiced in was hotter than colin farrell in s.w.a.t. i was literally sweating buckets after only thirty minutes. my exhausted-osity was probably also due to the fact that i haven't seriously danced since i-dance's concert and that hiphop workshop with the cute guy about a month and a half to two months ago.
- when we got into the performance area (basically the lodge area with the furniture pushed to the side), the kids' faces lit up and everyone clapped. it was a nice feeling.
- we had a good run; few hitches that i knew of. i fudged my double and forgot a count of choreography, but that's not too bad considering my out of shape-ness.
- the little-uns applauded and got up for an impromptu dance class headed by marcie. it was a cute, simple thing, but i was so drained that i had to pull faux energy out of my ass. the kids were absolutely adorable when they performed what they learned for us. the confused expressions, the wild flailing of the arms.. i wanted to steal one of the munchkins so bad.
- afterwards, they all came up to each one of us and asked us to stay for the campfire. how could we refuse those cute little faces, right?
- we had some awesome dinner. stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegan pizza, lemon custard cake?, peach cobbler, salad. i gained back all the weight i lost tonight and then some.
- off to the campfire we went; when i got there they were already in mid-song. there was singing, games, and even a story time. i felt a tad uncomfortable what with all the references to a higher power so i kept my mouth shut when they were chanting godly stuff. i hope i didn't offend anyone.
- my favorite segment was when the kids got a chance to tell everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up. small children with big dreams; seeing that was probably what made my night.
- at the end of the night, we all joined hands in a gigasmic circle, and one of the adults led a prayer thanking their lord and savior for all that's happened and for bringing us dancers to them. he also wished us a safe drive home. i thought that was really sweet.
- the kids ran off to bed in their cabins and the grown-ups stuck around to make s'mores. i had my first s'more then; damn, i've been missing out.
- the adults once again thanked us for coming, and we thanked them for having us. we got in the car and drove off on a good note.
-----
~i wanna be with you~
i'm in a jpop mood today. an utada hikaru--or hikki as her fans like to call her--mood, to be exact. she was, i believe, the first japanese artist i was introduced to way back when. born in new york to japanese parents, she's lived in both america and asia and has become one of the best-selling female pop stars in japan next to ayumi hamasaki. in my opinion, utada's by far not the greatest singer ever, but she does come up with some nifty tunes.
distance
distance made its appearance on utada's second album and was meant to be released as a single until she heard some saddening news. there was a shooting at a japanese high school in which schoolgirl reina yamashita was killed. that girl had previously won an essay competition by writing hers about how she wanted to become a singer just like her idol, utada hikaru. utada then decided to change the song into a ballad and thus created final distance.
final distance
m-flo [my favorite group by far] also appeared on the final distance single, redoing the original song and giving it a stronger beat. taku of m-flo is one of the best mixers/remixers in the asian music industry; he's been called on to work on songs by many other artists. i personally like listening to his version more than the original distance.
distance (m-flo remix)