A quick update (edited to be a full update)
I know.
It's been more than a year. And as I only have less than 30 minutes inside the internet shop *remember good old days? ;o;*, many things urged me to make a quick update on LJ, as this has been one of the places where I could maintain a balance of being myself both in RL and fandom. Well of course it was mostly the fangirl in me who created those entries, but even though I'm not active in the fandom nowadays, it's the confident, formidable fangirl personality that needs to take centerstage now. Recently I was trying to get back into NEWS updates on LJ and that's how I discovered that Tinypic has closed!! Most of my banners, edits and gifs were there, gone forever.
Just look at what happened to my LJ. Had to temporarily change the background to a plain black HD photo on Google. x_x
So anyway!!! The ONLY fandom-related stuff I could share here, after 1 year, is that I got to attend NYUSU.ph's EPCOTIA and Strawberry Concert Viewing/NEWS' 16th Anniversary and NYUSU.ph 10th anniversary! Here's a photo, courtesy of ate Botz:
*OMG, 30 minutes is almost done?!! Alright, I'm going to continue this post next time! Bye for now!!*
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EDIT, NOV. 1
I'm now using the mobile app so the formatting has changed and it also affected the above pictures (would fix once I get on PC again).
As promised, this post is continued! It results to not being a very, very quick update anymore so the title has been edited too. And guess why I had to do this today--because it's the first day of November, meaning it's just 10 days to go before Tegoshi's 32nd birthday and I still can't wrap my head around the thought that I missed one whole year and more. Didn't even feel Tegoshi turned 31, except that I always have it in mind because his birthdate is one of my reliable units of time measurement. Crazy stuff of a fan. Well, always a fan. ♥️
But I did not actually update this post to talk about Tegoshi's upcoming birthday. I wanted to talk about how my life has been, and inject some of my current interests, to which I find taxing as I also only find the will to make entries usually after work. So imagine how sleepy I am now. :'(
So let my sleepy state do the update with bare edits: Posting the full update, no one would probably care to read the whole thing but if you did, wow thank you~
**LJ mobile app has no Cut or Spoiler option? smh**
It was June last year, 2018. Middle of the month I was still posting heavily on social media about NEWS; especially those were the times KoyaShige/Tegoshi issues were very relevant to the Japanese media. I even had efforts to make this absolute lovely crap and it's one of my most-reacted post up to date:
(Shucks I dunno if the photo got cropped because here on mobile it seems like it's cut to accommodate the format of the text field... aww I'll really just edit once I get back on a PC)
It was also the time of World Cup. Livejournal was no stranger to my soccer/football interest featuring Messi and FC Barcelona, but the thing was, I did appreciate soccer as a sport then. Behind the scenes, not just by Tegoshi's influence, I already was a casual viewer/follower of the sport.
When in 2014 WC I only cared for the fact that the event was a WORLD cup and cared more for NEWS singing ONE -for the win-, in 2018 access had become so much easier. Live matches were shown on local TV that's why I was also able to watch extensively, not just a mere effort of searching thru our good ol' friend Google.
And it just grew. By the end of June and early July, I was still posting about NEWS. But I was trying to gear towards life too; I was 23 and haven't had a real job, I felt pressured, like there was so much on my plate when the thing was I didn't even have a plate. It basically means that I worried/was scared about many things (mostly irl) and did not have the healthiest mindset to handle them all at once. Didn't have the focus. I had to drop the undroppable--guess right--my NEWS fangirl life.
*insert Lovin' U lyrics*
And suddenly avoiding the fandom on purpose was one big guilt trip for me. I had to soften that cushion. When Japan lost to Belgium during Round of 16, I thought "why not follow this through." Japan exited the tournament in the classiest fashion, while I was already in turmoil from my transition, it was quiet and miserable. The winning team impressed me because I already felt like a total loser that time. I decided to follow Belgium.
Well, now I can say that was the gist; but during that time of course I was not consciously thinking "Oh I have to follow Football to distract myself for leaving NEWS!" Nope. The winning team impressed me for how they came back from the losing end of the scoreline to claim the win, and for how they played. Up to this point I was still a casual audience but I just knew Belgium's style of football was good.
My quiet appreciation for the sport solidified during the World Cup. It was another 'turning point' for me. If I would describe how my life is going on lately in only one paragraph, "Football" would get the most number of words. I still do mention that I'm a fan of Japanese pop though that is only in passing, and with soccer I would randomly pull up my phone and watch highlights in front of my colleagues lol
There's not much to say, but that really is how I am so much immersed in Football. It is basically my main fandom now, and honestly I'm not regretting entering this world. The best desciption, at least for me, of how it is to be a fan of the sport is: Passionate but not Emotional. The same hype as it is with musicians/idols/artists is there, the adrenaline, the excitement. The need to cheer them on. Also the same frustrations and disappointments. But it is not the kind of emotional where I cry myself to sleep at night thinking of my favorite player or my supported club. Hurling abuse at rivals is common, though, and that's how I expend the negative energy instead.
How strange it is talking about NEWS fandom as a second fiddle to... something Tegoshi is passionate about. At this rate, we could talk about サッカー all day Tego 😂
Anyway, on the music/entertainment side, it goes just like how I discover other artists/idols during my active NEWS fan periods. Sometimes I listen to a lot, sometimes I focus on one. The main difference is, since I started working I also have subscibed to a monthly music streaming service, so listening to as many acts as I can became a priority and I would inevitably focus on all. At a time. To be honest I'm quite on the western side nowadays, and the only Asian act I cared to check out so far is Arashi because they've gone international (by this, I mean expanding their reach to mainstream social media and post their music and videos to streaming services!). Even when I'm not so much keen on Johnny's today, it really makes me envious how the expansion only applies to--understandably--the biggest group in the agency. When are we gonna hear WORLDISTA on Spotify?
Here are some acts I could list off the top of my head, and maybe add a blurb for each:
- Alan Walker - a Norweigan DJ notoriously famous for a song called Faded, this DJ whose signature fashion style is wearing a mask is the 2nd artist from Norway that I dig so much (the other one is also a DJ named Cashmere Cat but I've been listening to his work since 2017--and LJ never knew! Sorry I stopped making year-enders :p). I love his style of ethereal EDM with deep, personal themes, it honestly helped me get through some tough times in the office.
- One Direction - are you weirded out? Because I am. It's a pretty shallow story how I got into 1D, but what can I do when I find that they're actually charming af? One of my Football crushes is often teased that he looks like a certain 1D member. I curiously but cautiously delved into 1D material only to feel a strange nostalgia hearing their bops which I've heard non-stop at some point in my teens but failed to acknowledge these catchy tunes are from the band I never was interested in. So that got me interested. In the songs, and in the boys!
- Bebe Rexha - I already have a little admiration for her as I Wiki-ed her before, after liking one of her songs. Hence it's easy to check out her full discography. In Pop where uniqueness is a major key for stardom, I wonder why Bebe is underrated? She has a very distinct, powerful, yet "in" voice. She's a songwriter you'd never expect to write songs across different genres, but she does, and sometimes doesn't even get the credit for it. Now I digress, she reminds me of Miss Universe 2017.
- Bazzi - now into a more RnB/Hip-hop territory, I like Bazzi similar to the reason I like Alan Walker: their music sounds dreamy but not too far-fetched from mainstream sounds. And I like that most of his songs are short, like 2-minutes short--sometimes I treat them as snippets instead of songs so that I don't have to worry too much about analyzing them lol
