Time flies: my 6 month anniversary here.
It really does. I'll have been in D.C. now for 6 months at the end of this week.
But I've been trying to keep myself busy - or at least busy-ish.
I got to see Front Line Assembly live which was ok. I can't admit that I'm a huge fan of them but it was generally worth it for the experience even if by the time they got on stage I was almost ready to leave (as it was already after midnight and I was tired of all the previous acts).
It was really sad to see Conjure One with only the Front Line guy there to perform for it because one of the other bands had to bow out (Deine Lakain, was it? Or maybe Die Krupps?). I saw Conjure One at Dracula's Ball in Philly and thought it was fantastic but this parred down DJ-version was very underwhelming. Ah well.
I also went to a rather fun industrial club called Electroschock in Baltimore the day after and was so happy to get my gothy-dancey-dancey on which I haven't done in a while. I miss real goth clubs like Das Bunker - that are actually in a club setting and not in an underground bar with a small space set up for dancing. Makes me want to leave D.C. for bigger, better cities - or to even return back home to L.A. But at least I got to meet up with the fabulous alumiere and co. Definitely a good night!!
As to what else? Not too much. Had a real crappy day at work on Monday - I wonder if it was because the world didn't end after all?? I had so many bitchy and mean people on the phones; it was the worst day I've had at work in a long time - or perhaps ever. I was so glad when Monday was over.
Besides that I've been keeping myself entertained with my Kindle and lots of random books. The new Bordertown book is out today and I really want to read it but I'm grumbling at Amazon charging $11 for an e-book and haven't bought it yet. But I did really like the original and I'm a huge sucker for most of the authors in the anthology and the idea of a bordertown between here and faerie is just such a fun idea that I'll probably break down in the next couple of days and buy it anyway.
And now the most recent of what I've been doing -
I caught all 10 episodes of the Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge drama and.... WAT?! What was with that last episode?! If something like that happened to me I would have been furious about it, regardless of the reasoning behind it!
I think the acting was pretty sub-par and as much as all the bishis have been in dramas before it seemed like if all of them were in a room and talking no one knew how to act natural besides just standing there vaguely awkwardly unsure of how their bodies should naturally act. Though, that made it kinda funny, too, actually but not in a good way. No wonder when the casting for Memoirs of a Geisha came out it was given to a non-Japanese actor. Is that harsh of me? Probably. But I always have this problem with younger Japanese actors. They just can't act. Or maybe is it that they just can't act like foreign actors and I'm putting my foreign lenses on them and critiquing them too harshly?
With that said, I think the older actors did much better. I quite liked Kyohei's mom in this. There were actually quite a lot of actors that I recognized from other dramas but only the older ones could even somewhat hold their own. The main bishi actor, erm, Kazuya something-or-other I suppose was ok for Kyohei - and I suppose he was a good fit as he's been a heartthrob actor for numerous years now and must know by now that he has a pretty face. I think in general his acting wasn't bad in a lot of the scenes but man I kept thinking of him as that little high school kid in Nobuta wo Produce and wondered if I am getting old. Haha. It also made me sad that Yama-pi wasn't in this because I have a small girly crush on him and I haven't caught any of his dramas since Kurosagi. Er wait, I saw Proposal Daisakusen as well and that came after but isn't really worth mentioning.
I suppose the biggest thing that I didn't like about this drama is that some things cannot be translated from manga to live action without losing something. I love the Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge manga - hell, its the only manga that I've religiously collected since vol. 1 and will continue to get until the very end - but Sunako just... fell flat for me. She was kinda annoying, her "creatures of the light" scared moments were pretty awful, her fighting scenes sucked, and her amazing transformation make-overs weren't quite as fantastic as in the manga. I was very underwhelmed and felt that the comedy element in here was almost completely lost if not overlooked most of the time. And the ending was rushed with an absolutely stupid plotline, even if Kyouhei managed to act somewhat ok during the finale the chick who played Sunako had some horribly pitiful expressions on her face that made me want to choke her with that silly collar that she had on. Ugh, her acting was like a block of wood. *le sigh*
Wow, I'm just babbling now, aren't I? I'll leave it at that, I suppose.
As for anything else, upcoming events include Tronik this Thursday - the once a month industrial club that is not in a basement bar in D.C. - and I've got tickets to see the Folgers Theatre's production of Cyrano de Bergerac at Shakespeare Library next week. Sweet!
And the one thing I need to do soon: get my A/C installed because bloody hell its getting humid here in D.C.! Ugh!
But I've been trying to keep myself busy - or at least busy-ish.
I got to see Front Line Assembly live which was ok. I can't admit that I'm a huge fan of them but it was generally worth it for the experience even if by the time they got on stage I was almost ready to leave (as it was already after midnight and I was tired of all the previous acts).
It was really sad to see Conjure One with only the Front Line guy there to perform for it because one of the other bands had to bow out (Deine Lakain, was it? Or maybe Die Krupps?). I saw Conjure One at Dracula's Ball in Philly and thought it was fantastic but this parred down DJ-version was very underwhelming. Ah well.
I also went to a rather fun industrial club called Electroschock in Baltimore the day after and was so happy to get my gothy-dancey-dancey on which I haven't done in a while. I miss real goth clubs like Das Bunker - that are actually in a club setting and not in an underground bar with a small space set up for dancing. Makes me want to leave D.C. for bigger, better cities - or to even return back home to L.A. But at least I got to meet up with the fabulous alumiere and co. Definitely a good night!!
As to what else? Not too much. Had a real crappy day at work on Monday - I wonder if it was because the world didn't end after all?? I had so many bitchy and mean people on the phones; it was the worst day I've had at work in a long time - or perhaps ever. I was so glad when Monday was over.
Besides that I've been keeping myself entertained with my Kindle and lots of random books. The new Bordertown book is out today and I really want to read it but I'm grumbling at Amazon charging $11 for an e-book and haven't bought it yet. But I did really like the original and I'm a huge sucker for most of the authors in the anthology and the idea of a bordertown between here and faerie is just such a fun idea that I'll probably break down in the next couple of days and buy it anyway.
And now the most recent of what I've been doing -
I caught all 10 episodes of the Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge drama and.... WAT?! What was with that last episode?! If something like that happened to me I would have been furious about it, regardless of the reasoning behind it!
I think the acting was pretty sub-par and as much as all the bishis have been in dramas before it seemed like if all of them were in a room and talking no one knew how to act natural besides just standing there vaguely awkwardly unsure of how their bodies should naturally act. Though, that made it kinda funny, too, actually but not in a good way. No wonder when the casting for Memoirs of a Geisha came out it was given to a non-Japanese actor. Is that harsh of me? Probably. But I always have this problem with younger Japanese actors. They just can't act. Or maybe is it that they just can't act like foreign actors and I'm putting my foreign lenses on them and critiquing them too harshly?
With that said, I think the older actors did much better. I quite liked Kyohei's mom in this. There were actually quite a lot of actors that I recognized from other dramas but only the older ones could even somewhat hold their own. The main bishi actor, erm, Kazuya something-or-other I suppose was ok for Kyohei - and I suppose he was a good fit as he's been a heartthrob actor for numerous years now and must know by now that he has a pretty face. I think in general his acting wasn't bad in a lot of the scenes but man I kept thinking of him as that little high school kid in Nobuta wo Produce and wondered if I am getting old. Haha. It also made me sad that Yama-pi wasn't in this because I have a small girly crush on him and I haven't caught any of his dramas since Kurosagi. Er wait, I saw Proposal Daisakusen as well and that came after but isn't really worth mentioning.
I suppose the biggest thing that I didn't like about this drama is that some things cannot be translated from manga to live action without losing something. I love the Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge manga - hell, its the only manga that I've religiously collected since vol. 1 and will continue to get until the very end - but Sunako just... fell flat for me. She was kinda annoying, her "creatures of the light" scared moments were pretty awful, her fighting scenes sucked, and her amazing transformation make-overs weren't quite as fantastic as in the manga. I was very underwhelmed and felt that the comedy element in here was almost completely lost if not overlooked most of the time. And the ending was rushed with an absolutely stupid plotline, even if Kyouhei managed to act somewhat ok during the finale the chick who played Sunako had some horribly pitiful expressions on her face that made me want to choke her with that silly collar that she had on. Ugh, her acting was like a block of wood. *le sigh*
Wow, I'm just babbling now, aren't I? I'll leave it at that, I suppose.
As for anything else, upcoming events include Tronik this Thursday - the once a month industrial club that is not in a basement bar in D.C. - and I've got tickets to see the Folgers Theatre's production of Cyrano de Bergerac at Shakespeare Library next week. Sweet!
And the one thing I need to do soon: get my A/C installed because bloody hell its getting humid here in D.C.! Ugh!