How do ninjas raise their children? From the dead.
***Birthday...s?
It's been a long time since an update, and aiso a long time since I uploaded pics. This mainly part of my uncle being here for a week and a bit, hence taking up the computer room.. reducing me to laptop usage. Grr to relatives!! haha jk. I learnt much about Thailand, for that is where he works.. and the stories about differences in culture, and of course the difference in how he's treated being Australian. Different to "gaijin smash" told by Azrael in his "I"m a Japanese school teacher" blogs, but smiliar in some general aspect. Very interesting.. The political aspects of Thailand are just.. wow.. But yeah, beyond that another reason why I haven't updated is kinda due to crazy assignments. I need to find time to study too. One small break for me before Easter, then I really gotta get cracking. FA and PBL study, PM and EPM assignment.. and people who aren't at uni seem to quickly forget people have assignments. Just because you've graduated doesn't mean we're free to party every weekend.
Anyways, happy birthday to me again! hahaha here are some pics from the bowling escapade for some people who couldn't make the dinner. Click for bowling alley mayhem!
Birthday shoutouts this time around goes to:
- Sloo had her bday on the 26th of Feb (yes it's been a while), where you hiding?!
- Sam had her bday on the 8th of Mar, all the way in Malaysia
- Janet had her bday on the 16th.. a river cruise dinner!! How posh. haha seasickness was not an issue, here are some pics. Click for smooth sailing bday goodness
- KK happy bday for the 18th. I know we haven't spoken forever and we're like worlds apart now, but you're not forgotten. I understand you're going through your rollercoaster ride of lovers, I hope you can find a nice girl to settle with and be happy. Living up to the KK name.. hahaha
- Nance the 27th!! Sorry!!!! hontou ni gomen ne.. dou shiyou.. *sigh* shitsureishimasu ne.. tanjyoubi omedetou!!
- Lil, happy birthday, 5th of April!! and Happy Chinese New Year. Smile and the world smiles with you right? Cry.. and YOU CRY ALONE!! How sad is that? haha
General Pics Update
***Busy Busy Busy
So the reason for the hiatus is partly uncle's "fault" but also my being extremely busy. I've resorted out my timetable which you can all
Time
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
8 am
9 am
Financial 301
Architecture-Prince Philip
Lecture
10 am
EPM Meeting
EnterpPerf 302
Babel Middle Theatre
Tutorial
Project Mg 372
ICT-135
Workshop
Financial 301
Architecture-Prince Philip
Lecture
Financial 301
Doug McDonell-Denis Driscoll Theatre
Tutorial
11 am
Study
EnterpPerf 302
Babel Middle Theatre
Tutorial
Princip.Bu 103
Th:Law-GM15 Theatre
Lecture
EPM Meeting
Princip.Bu 103
Law: 317 Comp Lab
Tutorial
12 pm
Study
EnterpPerf 302
Babel Middle Theatre
Tutorial
Princip.Bu 103
Th:Law-GM15 Theatre
Lecture
Gym
"Consultation" Time
1 pm
PM Meeting
Gym
"Consultation" Time
WORK
Gym2 pm
Project Mg 372
Th:221 Bouverie St-Theatre 1
Lecture
Project Mg 372
Th:221 Bouverie St-Theatre 1
Lecture
WORK
3 pm
WORK
MEL - Concepts
WORK
4 pm
WORK
WORK
5 pm
WORK
WORK
As you can see I've been crazy busy, especially with all these bloody meetings and being Project Manager for Project Management (PM4PM) I've had to give up a lotta time too just doing seemingly worthless, meaningless crap. At least with IP you're doing something substantial.. right? lol who knows. EPM is a bit of a drainer.. why do I need 2 meetings >__< OMG. Anyways, this sem is going to be pretty full on, glad I could get away with some of the stupidness. One of these was career fair and of course, the freebies which come with it. The best was the foam cube puzzle. It takes a while to do as shown by THESE IDIOTS
***EE Jump!***
Some of you may recognize the group name consisting of the "naughty" bro of Gomaki and Sonim. Well this has nothing to do with them except the second part of the group name. Before I write another emo and morbid entry, I thought it'd be best to talk about this stuff, otherwise you'd all think I'm suicidal :P Falling.. it happens in so many ways. You trip and fall, you drop something and that thing falls, you fall in love, you fall in with the wrong crowd, you fall into a spiralling abyss of depression. What do these imply? Lack of control. We fall, but we don't mean to. To free fall, we openly choose to feel free, to allow ourselves to fall and let the natural world control our journey. How does one begin to free fall? We have to jump. We control our destiny through jumping, taking leaps of faith perhaps, which could very well lead to falling. I've never quite understood the suicide thing.. if you're strong enough to take your life, I think you're quite capable of many other things. When we reach the stage in life where nothing else matters, isn't that when we can take those big chances we wouldn't have taken if we have things dear to us to keep us grounded? To be able to leap off a building physically means we can mentally leap onto so many opportunities. If I were going to kill myself, I'd use my death as a statement.. possibly in a way to mentally and emotionally scar someone I hate for life. *tapes "This is your fault" on chest* hehe
The general stereotype of depressed people waking up with no reason to go on.. to want to escape from all there is in this world that's hurting them. I reflected on this.. this reason to live. What do I wake up to? Why do I wake up? I've said before that there need not be a meaning or reason right? Fate.. destiny.. everything is preordained. There's nothing to rely on or blame, just a lack of real control.. we believe we have control and that's all that's enough to keep us going. haha two quite contradictory thoughts I know.. life is full of contradictions.
If we have no control of our lives, if we stop.. is that giving up? To take a leap of faith.. that doesn't mean anything if we believe in nothing. Perhaps there is a faith in ourselves, a faith in the outcome to be how we picture it to be. Usually we know to stop when we fall a few times after jumping the same gap. Sometimes, we fall a long time, shattering ourselves at the bottom of the.. canyon (abyss is way too emo). What if though each time we jump, we don't fall.. we.. sorta bounce back to where we started.. when do we stop jumping. Do we jump until we fall hard enough to know it's time to stop? Perhaps try to find a way around. If anything, a bridge built would be the best..
***Fulfilment.. Yakusoku?***
It sounds pretty much the same in Japanese (Yakusoku) and Korean (Yahksoh).. anyways a promise made is a promise kept. Promise to myself that I'd do this.. muhaha reviews are an indulgence I think. I'm not going to bother doing indepth movie reviews though, you all have access to the cinema movies I've seen. I recommend Stranger than Fiction it really written well, the acting is good and just well made overall. Ghost Rider was a disappointment, the script and everything was very.. childish.. amateurish. It's like a bunch of rich CG undergraduates got together and put together a movie using all the special effects they know. It comes out as a bland movie with lotsa sparkles.. I need depth! Rocky Balboa was good, not the greatest but Rocky, but inspirational. The Illusionist is not as good as The Prestige but yeah.. twists have to be really twisted for me to be interested, it does't compare.
New Music - PV Reviews
Leah Dizon - Softly
Leah Dizon is a Chinese/Filipina/French/American model who did mainly car stuff. One of those racequeens, and now.. she's a singer. Makes perfect sense since she moved to Japan, gaining quick celebrity status with her unique looks and gaining a big fanbase. So.. the question is.. is the song any good? Well firstly, the song is in Japanese and yes, her pronunciation is quite good. On TV shows she appears with an interpreter but does OK without to some extent, few grammar errors but very brave of her. The song is a soft ballad, quite fitting for her sweet voice. The song is very generic sounding, and the PV.. mmm..
Well on a second preview, I'd say the PV was fitting in terms of scenes as well as voice.. it was slow moving and showed Leah either sitting, standing or walking slowly around various places.. a pier, a beach, a room, some stairs, next to the pool. It's a very laid-back PV.. this, for me, equates to boring. I'm not that big a Leah fan.. even her photobook (PB) is quite uninspiring (which perhaps had to do with me getting sick of translating the PB for everyone). Later on in the week, I found something which put the last nail in Leah's musical career coffin...
DJ Kawasaki - Bright Like Light feat Lena Fujii
So let's continue to the "Leah killer" and my current (at time of writing) most played song.. Bright Like Light. For those who listen to any club/lounge/house, you might know that DJ Kawasaki is one of the most prominent Japanese DJ exports.. and for good reason. His tracks are really cool chill songs, they just make you relax and think of sitting on a warm breezy day next to a crystal clear pool. The lyrics are pretty cool too and really positive. All English lyrics and Lena delivers them with a slight accent.. mmmmm yummm. This deserves a youtube preview.
The PV is not as high budget as Leah's, no exotic beach location or OC-ish house. It's mostly in a studio and hotel room of sorts. Much of it is Lena standing in front of a white wall and singing, in different clothes, making it look like a behind the scenes photoshoot. This is where Leah failed; she didn't give anything of herself for the PV. She posed alright, but Lena seems to jump out at you and oozes personality. That and I think Lena is much better than Leah, haha sorry Leah fans.
Namie Amuro - Funky Town
Namie is still the Queen of Hip-Hop and still the hottest mum ever to walk this green earth. The song is a little jazzy and little clubby and overall hot in so many ways. It's Namie at her best. I'm just loving this on so many levels. I can't fault this apart from the general fault of Namie; her voice isn't as strong as it can be and sounds like at times she's holding back. She makes up for it with looking great and dancing like a pro and just oozing charisma. Let this do the talking:
What would have made this better? Those little black gloves she had in her Shine More PV. In fact, this clip reminds me a lot of Shine More; the short black ruffle skirt, the black boots and the awesome dancing. Much more interesting than Namie's previous clip Baby Don't Cry in which she walked around the city in the early morning - though I really liked this song too.
Yurika Ohyama - Sayonara
There are 3 things that hit me with this PV. The first thing is the opening scene; Yurika's voice fits this type of ballad well, very summery. The scenery in this too is both fitting and really nicely shot. The opening scene is of a very very blue dark sky with a streak of orange, later on we see Yurika standing in front of a blue/green coral thing. The second thing is, wow it's rare for Asians to have freckles huh? Especially Japanese. The third thing was.. ERIKA TODA!! She plays this girl hanging with this guy throughout summer, and when the music pauses in the middle she comments on how the time to say goodbye always comes around - sayonara being goodbye. Very nice.
Yurika Ohyama - Haru Iro
So comes Yurika's latest song; she's had a haircut and we now know why Erika Toda was in her other clip. They're like best of buds!!! The clip is about Haru Iro - Spring Colours, and is very simple. Yurika sits in a restaurant singing whilst clips of Erika walking and looking at spring type things are thrown in. Eventually Erika arrives and sits next to Yurika, they order and eat. The rest of the restaurant seem to be singing/mouthing the lyrics.. it's really lame yes. The two gal pals go for a stroll.. lol nothing special, though the ending they have a bit of dialogue (thank you for the day blah blah blah, sorta cute but I'm not that huge an Erika Toda fan).. but yes.. Yurika knows what she's doing with her songs, her voice is very soothing.
HALCALI - Tougenkyo
A few people have commented on how HALCALI had become commercialised. With their last PV Look I would have had to agree, but I think this new PV says it all. Sure, the sound is crisper and is generally much better produced than their previous tracks, and just because they rap less that's not to say they've abandoned their underground roots and whacky sound. We have to keep in mind this is HALCALI; they have no set style, they're constantly changing.
Having said that, the staples of a HALCALI PV are evident: crazy dancing, irrational pace breaking singing/talking, air guitar, random rap choruses, yes.. HALCALI are BACK. This song is just a lot of fun to watch and listen to and the girls are having a lotta fun. An experimental song too, as it's the first time they've used a live band to record with; putting their HALCALI hip-hop over a punkish-rock sound.
The PV is as random as HALCALI can get. Not as funny as Tandem and Giri Giri Surfrider, but still up there. Much of it is them dancing in their HALCALI way in front of a boombox at random places around town. Outside different restaurants, where one scene the music abruptly stops cuts to them eating inside. Brilliant stuff, look out for HALCALI's 3rd Album coming soon.
GAM - Lu Lu Lu
Well, guess you can't ride on lesbian overtones forever. The bass is solid, the song is.. typical? I don't know, I'm kinda in a non-H!P music phase atm as hard as it is to believe. The whole "I love you forever" is too over used I think. Mikitty's voice and Ayaya's voice.. they're both good, but they can't do harmonics. It doesn't sound as good as Aibon and Nono... T___T Aibon.. don't wanna get into that right now..
Guess I should actually do the PV view rather than just the song. Mmm.. where's the budget? Cheesy special effects, really poor cinematography. What's with the Abba-esque close-up shots?! It was either that with the "chocolate" background or the girls sitting in a shirt and hat on pink swiss balls. Great. lol well actually that latter scenes were quite good, but I'm not a fan of the chocolate wall. When reviewing this I tried to look for it on my iPod, then realised I didn't even bother converting it. My fave GAM song is still Shinkirou Romance
Emyli - Day By Day
It's been a while since I listened to Emyli since her debut a few years back. Given a chance to work with M-Flo so early in her career definitely boosted her to stardom. Apparently on her blog she was very excited about this new song.. why is anyones guess, but you know, artists are excited about new stuff of theirs most of the time. I've reviewed Emyli before and this clip confirms everything I've said and thought. Emyli is Christina who can dance. Emyli has a slightly softer edge to her voice, but it's just as powerful as Christina Aguilera's.. her dancing though is on another level.
This is what saved the PV. In general the PV lacks colour, a style I know, but not very effective for this club song. The scenery is basic and typically done: bunch of kids who've turned some underground basement thing into a club. So what saved this seemingly mediocre PV? The dancing. Some of the quickest locking sequences I've seen for a while, and synchro too!! One gripe - Emyli still looks really small. Not necessarily short or immature looking, but her head is still big. It looks like a bobble head on her small body. haha harsh.. but true?
And I think I'll leave it at that. Due to my long hiatus I've accumulated a lot of music and PVs so it'll take a while to get through them. Albums next: DBSK, Kaela Kimura, Perfume, Lyn, Baby VOX Re.V, An Cafe, Lee Jung Hyun, Loveholic, MoMusu, Tomiko Van, YUI
It's been a long time since an update, and aiso a long time since I uploaded pics. This mainly part of my uncle being here for a week and a bit, hence taking up the computer room.. reducing me to laptop usage. Grr to relatives!! haha jk. I learnt much about Thailand, for that is where he works.. and the stories about differences in culture, and of course the difference in how he's treated being Australian. Different to "gaijin smash" told by Azrael in his "I"m a Japanese school teacher" blogs, but smiliar in some general aspect. Very interesting.. The political aspects of Thailand are just.. wow.. But yeah, beyond that another reason why I haven't updated is kinda due to crazy assignments. I need to find time to study too. One small break for me before Easter, then I really gotta get cracking. FA and PBL study, PM and EPM assignment.. and people who aren't at uni seem to quickly forget people have assignments. Just because you've graduated doesn't mean we're free to party every weekend.
Anyways, happy birthday to me again! hahaha here are some pics from the bowling escapade for some people who couldn't make the dinner. Click for bowling alley mayhem!
Birthday shoutouts this time around goes to:
- Sloo had her bday on the 26th of Feb (yes it's been a while), where you hiding?!
- Sam had her bday on the 8th of Mar, all the way in Malaysia
- Janet had her bday on the 16th.. a river cruise dinner!! How posh. haha seasickness was not an issue, here are some pics. Click for smooth sailing bday goodness
- KK happy bday for the 18th. I know we haven't spoken forever and we're like worlds apart now, but you're not forgotten. I understand you're going through your rollercoaster ride of lovers, I hope you can find a nice girl to settle with and be happy. Living up to the KK name.. hahaha
- Nance the 27th!! Sorry!!!! hontou ni gomen ne.. dou shiyou.. *sigh* shitsureishimasu ne.. tanjyoubi omedetou!!
- Lil, happy birthday, 5th of April!! and Happy Chinese New Year. Smile and the world smiles with you right? Cry.. and YOU CRY ALONE!! How sad is that? haha
General Pics Update
***Busy Busy Busy
So the reason for the hiatus is partly uncle's "fault" but also my being extremely busy. I've resorted out my timetable which you can all
Time
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
8 am
9 am
Financial 301
Architecture-Prince Philip
Lecture
10 am
EPM Meeting
EnterpPerf 302
Babel Middle Theatre
Tutorial
Project Mg 372
ICT-135
Workshop
Financial 301
Architecture-Prince Philip
Lecture
Financial 301
Doug McDonell-Denis Driscoll Theatre
Tutorial
11 am
Study
EnterpPerf 302
Babel Middle Theatre
Tutorial
Princip.Bu 103
Th:Law-GM15 Theatre
Lecture
EPM Meeting
Princip.Bu 103
Law: 317 Comp Lab
Tutorial
12 pm
Study
EnterpPerf 302
Babel Middle Theatre
Tutorial
Princip.Bu 103
Th:Law-GM15 Theatre
Lecture
Gym
"Consultation" Time
1 pm
PM Meeting
Gym
"Consultation" Time
WORK
Gym2 pm
Project Mg 372
Th:221 Bouverie St-Theatre 1
Lecture
Project Mg 372
Th:221 Bouverie St-Theatre 1
Lecture
WORK
3 pm
WORK
MEL - Concepts
WORK
4 pm
WORK
WORK
5 pm
WORK
WORK
As you can see I've been crazy busy, especially with all these bloody meetings and being Project Manager for Project Management (PM4PM) I've had to give up a lotta time too just doing seemingly worthless, meaningless crap. At least with IP you're doing something substantial.. right? lol who knows. EPM is a bit of a drainer.. why do I need 2 meetings >__< OMG. Anyways, this sem is going to be pretty full on, glad I could get away with some of the stupidness. One of these was career fair and of course, the freebies which come with it. The best was the foam cube puzzle. It takes a while to do as shown by THESE IDIOTS
***EE Jump!***
Some of you may recognize the group name consisting of the "naughty" bro of Gomaki and Sonim. Well this has nothing to do with them except the second part of the group name. Before I write another emo and morbid entry, I thought it'd be best to talk about this stuff, otherwise you'd all think I'm suicidal :P Falling.. it happens in so many ways. You trip and fall, you drop something and that thing falls, you fall in love, you fall in with the wrong crowd, you fall into a spiralling abyss of depression. What do these imply? Lack of control. We fall, but we don't mean to. To free fall, we openly choose to feel free, to allow ourselves to fall and let the natural world control our journey. How does one begin to free fall? We have to jump. We control our destiny through jumping, taking leaps of faith perhaps, which could very well lead to falling. I've never quite understood the suicide thing.. if you're strong enough to take your life, I think you're quite capable of many other things. When we reach the stage in life where nothing else matters, isn't that when we can take those big chances we wouldn't have taken if we have things dear to us to keep us grounded? To be able to leap off a building physically means we can mentally leap onto so many opportunities. If I were going to kill myself, I'd use my death as a statement.. possibly in a way to mentally and emotionally scar someone I hate for life. *tapes "This is your fault" on chest* hehe
The general stereotype of depressed people waking up with no reason to go on.. to want to escape from all there is in this world that's hurting them. I reflected on this.. this reason to live. What do I wake up to? Why do I wake up? I've said before that there need not be a meaning or reason right? Fate.. destiny.. everything is preordained. There's nothing to rely on or blame, just a lack of real control.. we believe we have control and that's all that's enough to keep us going. haha two quite contradictory thoughts I know.. life is full of contradictions.
If we have no control of our lives, if we stop.. is that giving up? To take a leap of faith.. that doesn't mean anything if we believe in nothing. Perhaps there is a faith in ourselves, a faith in the outcome to be how we picture it to be. Usually we know to stop when we fall a few times after jumping the same gap. Sometimes, we fall a long time, shattering ourselves at the bottom of the.. canyon (abyss is way too emo). What if though each time we jump, we don't fall.. we.. sorta bounce back to where we started.. when do we stop jumping. Do we jump until we fall hard enough to know it's time to stop? Perhaps try to find a way around. If anything, a bridge built would be the best..
***Fulfilment.. Yakusoku?***
It sounds pretty much the same in Japanese (Yakusoku) and Korean (Yahksoh).. anyways a promise made is a promise kept. Promise to myself that I'd do this.. muhaha reviews are an indulgence I think. I'm not going to bother doing indepth movie reviews though, you all have access to the cinema movies I've seen. I recommend Stranger than Fiction it really written well, the acting is good and just well made overall. Ghost Rider was a disappointment, the script and everything was very.. childish.. amateurish. It's like a bunch of rich CG undergraduates got together and put together a movie using all the special effects they know. It comes out as a bland movie with lotsa sparkles.. I need depth! Rocky Balboa was good, not the greatest but Rocky, but inspirational. The Illusionist is not as good as The Prestige but yeah.. twists have to be really twisted for me to be interested, it does't compare.
New Music - PV Reviews
Leah Dizon - Softly
Leah Dizon is a Chinese/Filipina/French/American model who did mainly car stuff. One of those racequeens, and now.. she's a singer. Makes perfect sense since she moved to Japan, gaining quick celebrity status with her unique looks and gaining a big fanbase. So.. the question is.. is the song any good? Well firstly, the song is in Japanese and yes, her pronunciation is quite good. On TV shows she appears with an interpreter but does OK without to some extent, few grammar errors but very brave of her. The song is a soft ballad, quite fitting for her sweet voice. The song is very generic sounding, and the PV.. mmm..
Well on a second preview, I'd say the PV was fitting in terms of scenes as well as voice.. it was slow moving and showed Leah either sitting, standing or walking slowly around various places.. a pier, a beach, a room, some stairs, next to the pool. It's a very laid-back PV.. this, for me, equates to boring. I'm not that big a Leah fan.. even her photobook (PB) is quite uninspiring (which perhaps had to do with me getting sick of translating the PB for everyone). Later on in the week, I found something which put the last nail in Leah's musical career coffin...
DJ Kawasaki - Bright Like Light feat Lena Fujii
So let's continue to the "Leah killer" and my current (at time of writing) most played song.. Bright Like Light. For those who listen to any club/lounge/house, you might know that DJ Kawasaki is one of the most prominent Japanese DJ exports.. and for good reason. His tracks are really cool chill songs, they just make you relax and think of sitting on a warm breezy day next to a crystal clear pool. The lyrics are pretty cool too and really positive. All English lyrics and Lena delivers them with a slight accent.. mmmmm yummm. This deserves a youtube preview.
The PV is not as high budget as Leah's, no exotic beach location or OC-ish house. It's mostly in a studio and hotel room of sorts. Much of it is Lena standing in front of a white wall and singing, in different clothes, making it look like a behind the scenes photoshoot. This is where Leah failed; she didn't give anything of herself for the PV. She posed alright, but Lena seems to jump out at you and oozes personality. That and I think Lena is much better than Leah, haha sorry Leah fans.
Namie Amuro - Funky Town
Namie is still the Queen of Hip-Hop and still the hottest mum ever to walk this green earth. The song is a little jazzy and little clubby and overall hot in so many ways. It's Namie at her best. I'm just loving this on so many levels. I can't fault this apart from the general fault of Namie; her voice isn't as strong as it can be and sounds like at times she's holding back. She makes up for it with looking great and dancing like a pro and just oozing charisma. Let this do the talking:
What would have made this better? Those little black gloves she had in her Shine More PV. In fact, this clip reminds me a lot of Shine More; the short black ruffle skirt, the black boots and the awesome dancing. Much more interesting than Namie's previous clip Baby Don't Cry in which she walked around the city in the early morning - though I really liked this song too.
Yurika Ohyama - Sayonara
There are 3 things that hit me with this PV. The first thing is the opening scene; Yurika's voice fits this type of ballad well, very summery. The scenery in this too is both fitting and really nicely shot. The opening scene is of a very very blue dark sky with a streak of orange, later on we see Yurika standing in front of a blue/green coral thing. The second thing is, wow it's rare for Asians to have freckles huh? Especially Japanese. The third thing was.. ERIKA TODA!! She plays this girl hanging with this guy throughout summer, and when the music pauses in the middle she comments on how the time to say goodbye always comes around - sayonara being goodbye. Very nice.
Yurika Ohyama - Haru Iro
So comes Yurika's latest song; she's had a haircut and we now know why Erika Toda was in her other clip. They're like best of buds!!! The clip is about Haru Iro - Spring Colours, and is very simple. Yurika sits in a restaurant singing whilst clips of Erika walking and looking at spring type things are thrown in. Eventually Erika arrives and sits next to Yurika, they order and eat. The rest of the restaurant seem to be singing/mouthing the lyrics.. it's really lame yes. The two gal pals go for a stroll.. lol nothing special, though the ending they have a bit of dialogue (thank you for the day blah blah blah, sorta cute but I'm not that huge an Erika Toda fan).. but yes.. Yurika knows what she's doing with her songs, her voice is very soothing.
HALCALI - Tougenkyo
A few people have commented on how HALCALI had become commercialised. With their last PV Look I would have had to agree, but I think this new PV says it all. Sure, the sound is crisper and is generally much better produced than their previous tracks, and just because they rap less that's not to say they've abandoned their underground roots and whacky sound. We have to keep in mind this is HALCALI; they have no set style, they're constantly changing.
Having said that, the staples of a HALCALI PV are evident: crazy dancing, irrational pace breaking singing/talking, air guitar, random rap choruses, yes.. HALCALI are BACK. This song is just a lot of fun to watch and listen to and the girls are having a lotta fun. An experimental song too, as it's the first time they've used a live band to record with; putting their HALCALI hip-hop over a punkish-rock sound.
The PV is as random as HALCALI can get. Not as funny as Tandem and Giri Giri Surfrider, but still up there. Much of it is them dancing in their HALCALI way in front of a boombox at random places around town. Outside different restaurants, where one scene the music abruptly stops cuts to them eating inside. Brilliant stuff, look out for HALCALI's 3rd Album coming soon.
GAM - Lu Lu Lu
Well, guess you can't ride on lesbian overtones forever. The bass is solid, the song is.. typical? I don't know, I'm kinda in a non-H!P music phase atm as hard as it is to believe. The whole "I love you forever" is too over used I think. Mikitty's voice and Ayaya's voice.. they're both good, but they can't do harmonics. It doesn't sound as good as Aibon and Nono... T___T Aibon.. don't wanna get into that right now..
Guess I should actually do the PV view rather than just the song. Mmm.. where's the budget? Cheesy special effects, really poor cinematography. What's with the Abba-esque close-up shots?! It was either that with the "chocolate" background or the girls sitting in a shirt and hat on pink swiss balls. Great. lol well actually that latter scenes were quite good, but I'm not a fan of the chocolate wall. When reviewing this I tried to look for it on my iPod, then realised I didn't even bother converting it. My fave GAM song is still Shinkirou Romance
Emyli - Day By Day
It's been a while since I listened to Emyli since her debut a few years back. Given a chance to work with M-Flo so early in her career definitely boosted her to stardom. Apparently on her blog she was very excited about this new song.. why is anyones guess, but you know, artists are excited about new stuff of theirs most of the time. I've reviewed Emyli before and this clip confirms everything I've said and thought. Emyli is Christina who can dance. Emyli has a slightly softer edge to her voice, but it's just as powerful as Christina Aguilera's.. her dancing though is on another level.
This is what saved the PV. In general the PV lacks colour, a style I know, but not very effective for this club song. The scenery is basic and typically done: bunch of kids who've turned some underground basement thing into a club. So what saved this seemingly mediocre PV? The dancing. Some of the quickest locking sequences I've seen for a while, and synchro too!! One gripe - Emyli still looks really small. Not necessarily short or immature looking, but her head is still big. It looks like a bobble head on her small body. haha harsh.. but true?
And I think I'll leave it at that. Due to my long hiatus I've accumulated a lot of music and PVs so it'll take a while to get through them. Albums next: DBSK, Kaela Kimura, Perfume, Lyn, Baby VOX Re.V, An Cafe, Lee Jung Hyun, Loveholic, MoMusu, Tomiko Van, YUI