Full Moon and Loneliness

Getting swamped with work and becoming lazier when at home leaves me less bloggish lately. So here's my past week in a nutshell:

1. Raya shopping all done last Saturday. Shopped til we dropped, didn't we? Thanks Farah and Nwar.
   
2. LUNA SEA announcement on 25st August 2010 regarding an urgent press conference to be held on 31st Aug. The very same night as I came home from work, I saw the most beautiful full moon swathed in clouds ♥
   
3. Compulsively joined and am following Luna Sea Malaysia Slaves group, their World Wide Team group and the World Wide Team twitter because I am dedicated in that way. Will finally meet up other M'sian fans! ABOUT TIME!!
   
4. KinKi Kids having their KKL moment on SDK means they still love each other. Coupled with the 24 Hour TV special clip of them both wearing Christmas theme tees? A great balance between KinKi and Luna Sea, I say.
   
5. Watched that hilarious CM for Koichi's BPM [ver 1] and super cool [ver 2]. Hahaha! Dorky Kochan ftw. The album comes out next week! :D
   
6. Dongwan finally noticing that he's Donnie Yen's long lost brother. Please compare their nekkid tops. Even their name is similar.
   
7. Having proven that Takumi still keeps in contact with Satsuki, aka Sacchan his darling bestfriend, and Mika AND shows up at their lives (from his latest post) has made me miss Rentrer again. But him talking a lot about regret lately is making me depressed. I know he's had drinks with Ryo and Ryo is now playing with Satsuki. Only person left is Shun. Where is he?

Returns

Recently Takumi has been blogging frequently about Rentrer en Soi especially since last week's announcement on RES' revamped official website.

Today's post is confusing, no thanks to Google Translate, because he talks about "missing his smile when performing lives"... O_O Which I haven't the foggiest idea if he either meant his idol Hide's smile since he mentioned about Hide-sama's death-niversary in his previous post. Or he's missing his (former?) bestfriend Satsuki's smile. *cough*

Is it too much of me to silently wish that he (or him and the guys) are planning a reunion? After all, what use is it to maintain and renovate a website of a disbanded band other than to announce a: new CD / new DVD / comeback concert / anniversary? -- AND I GLADLY WOULD ACCEPT ALL IF THEY DO. So what else can I anticipate if not a project where Takumi will rejoin forces with Satsuki, Mika, Shun and Ryo?

Maybe I'm just reading too much in between the lines. Perhaps he just misses his old band right now. T_T

Hey, this afternoon I just heard about a SADS comeback. Kiyoharu pulled his magic and got the band to reunite for Hide's memorial issit? *0*

p/s: I've been reading a yaoi novel called 'Little Japan' about pretty hosts and just couldn't help pasting the faces of Satsuki and Takumi onto the main characters. There's even 1 character whose name is Takumi woh. kekekekeke.

Satsuki. One of my Top 3 Best Vocalists.

Goodbye to a Decade. Gokurasama, 2009!

Here's a not-so brief recap of my life from 2000 to 2009. No big accomplishments. But I take life as it is (with a grain of salt) and although resolutions aren't my thing, this is definitely the right time for a milestone post :)

My head's merely going with what I can dig up from my weak memory.

1. [2000] Final year of school life. Aah~ the bittersweet times of being a teenager.


2. Death of my love for L'Arc~en~Ciel. It was a joy knowing them but I have moved on. Thank you for introducing me to Jrock, Hyde-san ;)


3. Malay-dominated Matriculation course in Pulau Pinang killed my English. Seriously. So few English-speakers to befriend. Malay songs rotted my brain :[


4. Death of a loved one [2002]: My mother. Al-Fatihah.


5. Shortly after that, I enrolled at UKM studying Computer Science. Another major reason why my English proficiency died. XP


6. But if it wasn't for UKM, I wouldn't have berjinak (sorry, can't find a better word for it) with Korean entertainment. And I wouldn't have met my beloved separate-end-of-the-Pole twinnie Farah. ♥


7. Koreans overtook my heart. I flitted around a lot at first before stopping at Shinhwa and Park Hyo Shin. Hmm actually I've now cut down to only Shinhwa. Even just the six of them hurts my money.


8. Rise and fall of a kingdom. Heart still pains over this. "Gaining Through Losing" is an apt metaphor.


9. SHINHWA IN SINGAPORE! Enough said. *eyes crinkle from awesome unforgettable memories*


10. The trials and tribulations brought us all closer. ILY, Orenji Famili.


11. My slow but sure return to Japanese rock with the help of several bands I call my saviours: Gazette [2006], MUCC [2006], RENTRER EN SOI [2008].


12. My very obvious rekindled love for LUNA SEA [2007]. They were my sole reason I could survive in Penang for 1 year without reliable Internet connection. Although I couldn't forgive them for disbanding, their comeback made me realise where my loyalty truly lies.


13. A 'steady' career working with Elderaan Technologies, if I may call it that, ensures that I have an almost steady supply of Kpop and VK. And no, I'm not thinking of continuing my studies.


14. Har har. So much for Kpop eh? Jaded-ness has ruined my respect for the Korean music industry. Goodbye, fake love.


15. Family rifts. I'm neither here nor there nor on the fence. I sway whenever it pleases me. However, I will NOT end this cold war with that asshole of a person I should be calling Brother.


16. Sarina Abdullah Thani and Siti Aishah Khairazan (+ her sporting hubby). My bestfriends and soulmates? ILY as well. ♥


17. My disgraceful yet verrry satisfactory downfall into Johnny's and Associates fandom. All thanks to KinKi Kids, my newest heroes who protected me from a period of depression during early 2009.


18. Japan. Oh my God, JAPAN. My utmost travel dream came true. ♥♥


19. Visual Kei and Orenji Famili. Highly impossible to be crossed over was my first thought. LOL. Look at us now. We're even holding concert nights :D


20. Two weddings in a year [2009]. My eldest brother and my younger brother.

A lot of good and bad things happened this year. I may have even changed a bit eventhough I'm still generally young at heart. *cough*

I dunno if I'll be able to think up of more because you're in danger of falling asleep from boredom. Guh.

Visual Kei sleepovers

Since Fridays are 'Whee No Work!' days this month and Mish is on holiday, lets have Visual Kei concert screenings? I have Luna Sea and Luna Sea and SUGIZO and abingdon boys school and Rentrer en Soi (and X Japan if anyone is interested in old men).

I'm willing to share fandoms :)

August VK Reviews

Title: Ain Soph Aur *AWEFUCKINGSOME* Band: RENTRER EN SOI Verdict: 4.5 stars. 3 years ago, having a weakness for strong vocalists, Satsuki's lyrical prose and emotive voice inspired me to follow them. Their guitar play and compositions changed drastically throughout their 6 year stint. Highlighted in this compilation are hits from the effeminate (pre-) Sphire Croid era with songs like the wondrous "Shinwa", "Full Moon" and "Eyes of Forest" which I have only begun to familiarize with. Their later major albums started the expansion to Europe based tours and at that time RES' music swerved to angura-kei territory with "THE ABYSS OF DESPAIR", "I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO..." and "PROTOPLASM". The crown definitely goes to their 2008 works especially "STIGMATA" and "Last Scene" which in their final year happens to be their finest products. 32 of their best hits will not revive them, no matter how many times I replay this. They held so much promise that it's a shame for Visual Kei to lose one of its better bands. RES' powerful combination could've outdone so many bands of recent times that lack the quality they had. But they were ill fated to break during their prime. Sigh. Go for: 'Shinwa', 'STIGMATA', 'LAST WORD [ ]', 'Last Scene', 'JUST MAD PAIN', 'wither', 'JUDE', 'Eyes of Forest', 'I HATE MYSELF AND WANT TO...', 'Full Moon'. New songs: 'STAY GOLD' & 'Tsuki ga Maioriru Koto no Nai Daichi'.

Title: UROBOROS Delux Unplugged Disk (First Press Limited Edition) Band: Dir en grey Verdict: 4 stars. Honestly there ain't much to review about this disk except that the four unpolished songs are definitely out of character. What you have here is Kyo's crisp voice bleeding your ears off (in a good way). The amount of changes he's screwed his voice over has culminated into this ingenious and mature style which I can't help but be grateful for. The packaging is a beauty in brooding black and red. And weighing at almost 2 kg, I lugged this back home on the LRT with a crick in my left shoulder for 2 days! But it and the bargain price are so worth it. I only need to figure out what to do with the LP records... *sweatdrops* Go for: -

Title: under-world Band: Merry Verdict: 1.5 stars. I downloaded this in February right before my old PC went kaput and after I recently successfully got to save all that data, I thought "Yay! Something to review in early August" but uhm I remember now why I don't like Merry. There are a few acceptable songs only because the rest is poorly written and leaves you wishing they'd pick up a few copycat abilities. They used to be monotonous and boring. But now this album is just unbelievably lazy. Go for: 'Piranha', 'Canary', '[human farm]'.

+ Bonus review: I’ve been unable to download Luna Sea’s GOD BLESS YOU concert for a year so when I found this cough pirated version at Amcorp Mall... (Insert squealing fangirl). Had I not felt the inexplicable pull to enter the pirated DVD shop I always ignore, I guess until forever oso I wouldn’t be able to watch the full concert. Since it’s expensive and it’s in sucky Region 1! Sigh. Anyway, since I’d already spazzed about the performances here, I’ll only spazz review on the DVD aspect and features.

Title: GOD BLESS YOU ~One Night Déjàvu~ DVD*AWEFUCKINGSOME* Band: LUNA SEA Verdict: 5 stars. The lighting, the passionate crowd, the unseen moments and sheer brilliance of the production captured in this DVD is the best way to experience a Luna Sea concert. There are almost no areas left untended by cameramen and seeing how vast the minimalist stage is, pretty amazing shots of the band and pans of the whole stage are abundant. I just love the swift camera work: plenty of close-ups on those legendary twirls and spins by J and Ino and oooh the beautiful shots with one or two members (especially when Sugizo and Ino are at the wings) aligned in the background of the same frame while Ryu gets emo in the foreground. I also really love the amount of screen time Inoran is given here *pinches his cheeks*. The ‘Miracle at Holy Night' TV broadcast of the concert has a couple of missing content here and there. So now I finally get to see the Shinya drum solo get rescued by J's rowdy bass solo and then the performances for "Fate" and "Mother". I've seen the cut-down version of this concert for the nth time and this DVD twice, but it hasn't become stale and I doubt it ever will be. So if anyone wants to try listening to Luna Sea, I'd suggest them to watch this first rather than downloading their full discography (I can pinjamkan too). The perfection of this concert will bowl you over, I promise. Go for: 'Rosier', 'Déjàvu', 'Desire', 'TONIGHT', 'Fate', 'Breathe'.

Title: Kimi no Uta PV *HOT* Band: abingdon boys school Verdict: 5 stars. YES! A hot new song to go with an equally hot PV. 10 seconds into the intro and you instinctively know these folks won't be disappointing you this time. I love the burnished tint and the Babylon-esque ruins as if abs dropped into a Lost-slash-Transformers movie set. Even the whole wind whipping works wonders with their cool hoodies. Can't wait for the new single AND album. Go for: -

Bloody H***!

Why is the connection so slow right when I'm trying to download DIM? =__=

So in the meantime, I finally read through Sugizo's latest MySpace blog posts from the past month. Apart from him being melancholic after turning 40 (that old geyser kekeke) he mentions quite a lot about being holed up in his studio again. Hopefully a Luna Sea reunion/comeback! Sigh.

And um the X live in Taiwan which is no doubt one of the most (more) ridiculous Yoshiki-made decisions considering he kept cancelling the European and American tours. Gee. What a way to rule the world, Yoshers.

Anyway, Kochan's single is...... mmm typical Kochan? Now if DIM is done I can actually cleanse myself with rabid drumbeats and roaring guitars but apparently I can't. Hurr. Bloody Streamyx.

Guess I'll return to Rentrer Land then. La la la~

RENTRER EN SOI

RES Disbanding!

Rentrer en Soi will be officially disbanding in October after a tour promoting the release of their future (final) mini album T____T

Received an update from FB's RES group just now and thought it was a rumour but then I double checked at jrocknyc. And AAARGH!! WHY?!

They were soooooo good, in terms of pre-Maggots-Dir-en-grey goodness. Ok so I haven't really followed their lives very close but I still love their music! This is like Pierrot breaking up all over again. *wails*