bii bii Dome

Vermont on Fire

2008-11-04T09:12:00.009-05:00

Me and My mom were driving merrily about Hanover, Lime and Etna NH. As we gazed at the brightly colored dead leaves still clinging to many of trees up here, my mom noticed 3 jet streams above us. She loves those, so we followed them, just as she commented on one particular stream which seemed to spiral downward, we noticed a very, very large cloud of smoke billowing out toward the sun. i thought the plane had crashed. So we began to drive toward the beast of a cloud. It turned yellow and white as it floated away from itself , but whatever the source, it continued to belch brown and black ugly puffs into the clear autumn sky. it was totally hot. So we followed it, zigzagging about the state until Mom narrowed it down to the West Lebanon area or White River Junction, Vermont. And dude, she totally nailed it. as we took the lil' deadly bridge into White River from West Lebanon, the smoke monster in all its magnificent glory reared to its full height and rolled its eyes back in its head. a guy on the bridge held his cell phone up to it, as though to say,"Take that, Smoke Monster, feel the radiation from my cell phone!!!" OK, maybe he just wanted to take a picture. anyway, upon seeing him, i did say,"Hey guy! good plan!" and i took out my phone and took these pictures:So the smoke monster was later discovered to be a Tire Barn by the railroad tracks down the bank from 25,000 gifts. God i love it here.

At Last The Trees

2008-07-31T20:29:00.020-04:00

Yes, i must've died and now move backward to make up for lost time...i spent a week and heaven almost and now, though i sit weeks later listening to Clinic circus music-ever creepier as she grows-in a different but shockingly similar (albeit slightly more cumbersome) adulthood, i really, really wanted to share this haven for my lonely brain and my "wish i were a writer" soul....(HOLY GAWD, just started listening to Clark's "Turning Dragon"...HOLY HOLY Holy...) So i house-sat, alright? i house-sat for my friend the bear who'd jaunted off to Provincetown to a festival of bear-ish proportions...they needed someone to collect their mail and water their numerous plants...i needed a place in the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain to run away to...course, when does one not need this? almost an hour out of my way, i rearranged my work schedule so i could get every bit of everything i needed from this Vermont wonderland.

This is the entrance to one side of the walkway to their expansive woodland property, i love it because it looks strikingly similar to the entrance to the Pet Semetary (I can pick about 10..mmm...maybe 12 horror movies out from every corner of their land). I got there around 3:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon...so quiet and hazy, it had rained and i HAD to walk down these shaded paths of doom...

Only a few feet beyond the entrance, there are two signs warning you to turn back, as the paths become muddled and overgrown, but your's truely could not resist...plus, you could totally still see the paths so it wasn't that scary.

peeling birches and silent birds, i waited for some pitter patter of some murderous foot steps to bring their body to wrap its hands around my throat...nah, it'd have to be a stabbing implement...definately more of a Jason or a Michael.

Then, if you've followed me, you come upon this mountainside where all the trees seem to have been mowed down but the land remains undeveloped, and up on the other side, there's a neighbor! a neighbor with dogs who yipped unnecessarily in my direction, so after stealing this shot i ran. i ran back up toward the other entrance to the Pet Semetary, which, had it been there, was most likely where the dogs barked-angry because "dead is better" (>.<)

Then i stumbled upon this...fire pit? That's what the Bear claims, though i suspect he may've been skirting some truths about this place. Crystals in the fire and various stone arrangements plus a whole shelf in the library dedicated to witch craft would lead one to suspect...many things...mu-wa-ah-ah-aaaaaah.....But it freaked me right out when i found it, as i had been introduced to it before but had forgotten its existence.The wall dividing two towns that's been there for about a century is underneath this fallen tree.

the wall again, leading up and out of the wilderness.

This is the Pet Semetary entrance at sunset. nice, eh?

The view from their front porch.

This is the view OF their front porch FROM their front porch, i just couldn't stop taking those ever-so-difficult-to-make-beautiful sunset photos! forgive me! These photos were all taken different days. the first night i spent watching "The Mist" (which is rather horrible-as any horror fan would know before watching) and looking out into the blackness beyond, listening through the thunder for coyotes but there were none. BUT, i did see these guys DO IT:

They hung leisurely across the porch roof from the doorway, watching me all day, they didn't move at all till dark...then oh yes, did they ever move. and a third one appeared to try and fight for the already impregnated female. I watched the spiders in the lightening and thunder while they had sex and threatened each other with their front legs, doing that cool spider thing where they're all like, "Yeah boy, you wanna piece of me? Whaaah? NO?!! You want a piece of my WOMAN? PSHUH?!! whatever you, jerkie, c'mon, let's go!" but then they didn't kill each other, as all 3 were alive and spunky the next morning...God it was gross. Shortly after the bears returned home, they put a permanent end to my spider soap opera, stating that the creatures were "Too big and gross to live". i would have to agree.

Here is a far less disgusting friend i made. He ran into my foot and looked up at me, then ran under the grill in terror as he realized i am not a tree, but then he popped out in case i wanted to take his picture. no seriously, he sat there like that for like a minute while i fumbled with my camera.

this is just a satellite, on top of one of 3 old, creepy barns i found to be wondrous.

And then i swam in the large, inflatable pool for hours and went home, to my mini Vermont sanctuary, which is trying desperately to compare with this monster of perfection in South Royalton. It was a monumental experience, just pretending i lived there and sleeping in the cold, cold basement, filled with volumes of beat poets, classic Sci-Fi and Wicca...plus every Steven King novel ever...yeah, totally gay, but SO HOT...so spooky and so fiendishly inspiring...yet here i sit, now listening to the hum in my right ear...

She & Him

2008-05-07T13:07:00.005-04:00

Oh, i don't even think i'm qualified enough to write about the colossal greatness that is contained within this CD. 'She & him' is Zooey Deschanel and indie singer/songwriter superstar M. Ward. I would normally never be caught dead buying something associated with something so opposite of everything i believe i stand for (M. Ward is extraordinarily talented, he is, i believe this and i respect him, however i find most of his work to be excruciatingly boring and it deeply offends my new pop sensibilities)...but...they're singing 50's and 60's pop songs!!! now you can understand why i'm so in love. instantly. You know Zooey has an awesome old-school vocal set from her singing in 'Elf', she sounds a little like Judy Garland...in that film. Here, it appears Ms. Deschanel has transformed (finally, we got one!)into one worthy of being compared to the great and powerful, Patsy Cline. Her voice coupled with the style of music, the connection is unmistakable and one can only assume Deschanel is a fan and M. Ward must be too. But don't get me wrong, it doesn't sound like they worked hard to make it sound exactly like Patsy Cline (and it doesn't sound exactly like her), because there's beauty and real love behind this collection of tracks and also, think of the people who made it. If it was simply made to sound like Patsy Cline to sell records, it would be painfully obvious, and probably painfully horrible too.

This is the first english language CD i've bought in years that i needed to hear the whole way through, from the first note on. It blows Wilco's last effort out of the water...which is quite a thing for me to say, i know. But let's face it, 'Sky Blue Sky' is recycled. We've heard it all before, which for me, was a tremendous let down where Wilco is concerned. But since 'She & Him' has never done this before, the fact that a lot of the songs are covers* doesn't matter at all, in fact it breathes even more nostalgic sepia toned exuberance into the first few numbers, all originals penned by Zooey Deschanel. According to an interview i read in Nylon, which is how i found out about this glorious record, Zooey has been hoarding songs for years, casually glancing about, hoping to find the right someone to help her bring them to be. And amazingly enough, M. Ward lends his superior musical skills brilliantly to Zooey's classic pop dreams. Maybe i need to listen to more of his stuff, eh?

I brought up Wilco because a lot of 'She & Him' makes me think of various Wilco pop/country songs and it also makes me hope against hope that Jeff Tweedy will hear Zooey sing and think "hmmmm, maybe i should sing with her..." Dear GOD, i'd, like, totally die, than get up and listen to it again, cry a little, then die again. Anyway, i am so dazzled and needed to write about this right away, but now i have to go listen to it as much as possible and memorize all the lyrics and dream about hoop skirts and big bows, set to an acoustic guitar twang...

*no they're not! sorry, my excitement rendered me incapable of doing the proper research before writing this, like reading the liner notes, and figuring out that actually, all but 2 of the songs are by Zooey Deschanel. the sound is just so authentic, i thought they must be covers. but nope, Zooey is just more amazing than i already thought.

ON OVER AND OUT

2008-04-28T12:13:00.027-04:00

I got to Cambridge Town yesterday at around 2:30. This is what you can see of the store till the sleep depraved, hungry and heartbroken (or all of the above!) finish gutting the poor, doomed beast on Wednesday.

I worked in this store for 6 years and helped out whenever i could (mostly by making Scott tons of distracting Japanese DVD's) afterward. Scott and i worked together nearly every day for 6 years, when i finally left Boston, i thought the separation might kill me. Various other CD Spins kids (the store was CD Spins first) helped out here and there, especially Sophia, who has recently gotten many honorable mentions here in the Dome. I met the 'Squee' here as well, and we became secret friends after i finished hating the world and taking it out on her! OOPS!

this is the Logo you would see when you walk in and look up and straight ahead.

Dudes! This is the wall where the DVD racks used to be! and the lonely, stripped wall straight ahead is... *chokes back sobs*....THE WALL OF QUALITY!!!!!

That's the main RPS wall before Dawn took the drill to it.

These are the stairs were we all consumed many delicious Lee's lunches. Remember how you could curl up on the top step and set up your lunch like a picnic and watch the goings on below with your sybjects completely unaware?

Above are the remains of those wretched drawers that you always wanted to just pull off their runners once and for all...well, they're gone now, being used as suitcases for worthwhile product.

And what we all know was the best part of that store, the hilarious notes we wrote and/or faxed to each other captured the spirit of the place better than anything else. and yes, i took them ALL. We lost nothing, people, except the physical location. But don't worry, i'm sure we'll haunt the new tenants for a long time still. Scott and I were discussing how even years down the line, the next business to move in (a Mexican shop for Mexicans) will still suffer questions and mind boggling inquiries like : "Hey! I remember when there was a record store here!" and "Did you know this place used to be a record store?" and then they'll stand and nod their head for a while and talk mostly to themselves about how they haven't been in the area for years but how they used to shop at the record store all the time...and the clerk will stand there and smile and nod and act like she/he hasn't heard this statement a million times already and then the 'customer' will wish the clerk a nice day and leave without buying anything. *SIGH* Cambridge.

My Anger Management chart from Scott (it really worked!), the list of jerks and some classic photos and post-its. who can forget the celebritiy cameos?

ok, so it's mostly Xtina, but what can i say? i love her. besides, there was also British Lou Barlow, Diego Luna, Shakira, Tori Amos, the guy from Versus, Johnny Depp, Spider Man, Mr. Ed, Jimmy Fallon...

SO like, this is incredibly long but, ya know, i did try to fit 6 years (considerably longer for Scott) worth of life altering memories into one blog. so just accept that it's the longest one EVER and don't even read it. just look at the pictures and wish you were there. Scott and i made a bunch of trips to the dumpster in the alley, to throw away mountains unspeakable crap (CD's) and as the dumpster crushed them, the cases snapping and crunching, i said (because it was just so darn appropriate) "Scott, that's the sounds of our hearts breaking..."

So There It Goes

2008-04-26T09:52:00.008-04:00

GAH! GAAAAAAAAAH!! Did i mention...Gah? OK, in reference to the last bit of sillyness, Kumi was actually making a joke at her manager's expense and many people (kids, mostly, i hope) defending her seem to think this 'dried up fluids' thing is a 'scientific fact', which makes me sad. ANYWAY, just wanted to clarify in print (but she still got temporarilly banished from the pop star kingdom and lost her ad campaigns with Visee Cosmetics and almost had her tour cancelled).

OK!! i have returneth from 'The Project', which, by grand finale, had converted 2 of 3 non-believers. The professor liked it a lot (even the end part which i found to be a little heart wrenching because in Nagano, the joy kind of morphed into the sorrow of impending doom and it shows with the music i picked.) For those of you who don't know what i'm talking about, when i went to Japan last summer, the last half of the trip was spent in Nagano, meeting my friend's family and being blessed by the High Priestess of a Buddhist Temple (Zenko-Ji). And It was overwhelmingly awesome and everything, but because it was so awesome, because everything about Japan was so amazing, i was a miserable little lump upon my return to the states, so like, re-making my trip, as it were, brought back all the good and not so good memories. It was like leaving my friends and Japan all over again.

ok, but the very end of it came out way funny, so it leaves you light hearted. i hope. SO, 3 months i worked endlessly on 'The Project' (which, incidently, i named 'Lines, Wires and Love' after the dorky little quip on the side of this blog) and now it's done and i can write and draw again and yeah, i think my fluids are dried up (>.<)

i can't draw and HAVE to draw because i have other projects! 2 of them, one is a gift and one is an assignment (I'm sorry Sophia, sooooooon!!). Hopefully the misery of having to bid farewell to the only constant in my life in Boston this weekend will bring about some ability. I'm actually hoping just thinking about it will make the artistic gears turn this evening at work. I did this one during the project too, thinking of impending projects, i don't know if you'll be able to see, but she's picking jelly beans off a cupcake...SOPHIA!!! On Church St. is closing its doors for good. On Church St. was the safe haven where i worked, and just about lived, i spent so much time there. It was CD Spins before my dear friend and at one point, my employee, decided to buy it when it went up for sale. Then he became my boss and all heck broke loose. He got me into Japan. it's entirely his fault. how can i ever thank him enough? i wouldn't be who i am today without that place and everything that happened inside and out. Sure, there are some horrid memories (stalkers and ex-boyfriends, junkies, drunks, thieves, horrible little gay men with little dogs and/or big bellies), but there are some really brilliantly hilarious ones as well (stalkers and ex-boyfriends, junkies, drunks, thieves, horrible little gay men with little dogs and/or big bellies). I guess it was suitable that E.P.H came in last time i was there to tell Scott what jerks we are for never buying his awesome stolen Miles Davis box sets and that he just sold them to Newbury comics and hopes they put us out of business...well, that didn't happen really, it wasn't Newbury, because no one shops there either.

But we'll let Mr. H continue to believe what he wants, whatever makes a junkie happy, you know, America? anyway, i'm saying goodbye to this big ole piece of my heart on Sunday, i get to help tear the place apart!! Hooray for destruction! then i plan to become very, very drunk. Then, i'll come back here and write about it! Yay!

SAVE KU-CHAN!!

2008-04-06T19:19:00.012-04:00

well, i've just sucked down the last drop of beer and yes, the rum is gone. BUT, i've also just finished my taxes! Hooray!! i don't have much of a point today, i'm afraid. i just found out a bit of disturbing info that may only disturb...me. here, let me tell you about it anyway! it seems that one of my beloved Japanese pop idols, Kumi Koda, has been banished from the J-POP Idol Kingdom by her own label, Avex Trax. SO the girl doesn't have much going on upstairs, she still writes super pop songs and she's a great singer, dancer and what a hot piece of...OK, maybe she's a little ho-ish, but i love her anyway, don't you? you better, considering she sang ALL the songs for my FAVORITE MOVIE EVER: Cutie Honey. Anyway, so i may not like EVERYTHING she's done, but she's always got a place in my heart for attaching herself to such a perfect film. She had a little slip of the tongue that unfortunately offended apparently the entire country of Japan. She said something to the affect of "your 'fluids' dry up after the age of 35 if you're a woman...." Now, i don't know about you, but i thought to myself upon reading this; "Jeepers, that sounds like it was taken out of context since it makes no sense on its own..." Well, Kumi was talking about how she wants to have a child before too long because (insert said offensive statement here). Of course, poor Ku-Ku was just talking out her cute lil' butt about having a family, as many famous people often do...i don't think she put much thought into her statement considering it's completely inaccurate. Kumi, honey, your femme juices NEVER dry up. till you die. you got 'em.So her label and the TV networks found her statement vile and offensive to women in that 'dried up' age bracket. Kumi issued a televised as well as several written apologies, stating that the statement was taken out of context and she didn't mean any harm. Her label is halting all promotion for her newest album and you can't find ANYTHING recent about her online, her videos are NOT ON YOUTUBE!!!! Thankfully she hasn't been dropped from her label, as it is a monster major label for all the super best J-POPsters like Ayumi Hamasaki, Sifow, Hitomi, Every Little Thing & Namie Amuro, to name a few.

Anyway, i just wanted to give a holla to my girl Kumi cause she messed up, but she's been punished enough! People should know she's a young pop star who's appeal is largely based on her astounding ability to integrate various acts of copulation into every dance routine she's ever choreographed, and that intelligence isn't generally part of the equation for the perfect pop-tart. Yeah, i was going to post her video for Cutie Honey here...but now i fear Avex would hunt me down and destroy my blog...so i'm not gonna. But the thought was there, so that counts. dammit.

"Mother of Sweating Jesus! I thought."

2008-03-22T09:52:00.007-04:00

If there were subtitle capabilities for this thing, the subtitle would be: "Just grommet truth soul う!". The real title is from an article on the NFL love Hunter S. Thompson, called 'Fear & Loathing at the Super Bowl'. I am going back through a HST phase, mostly because i love having his voice in my head. And he's a big fan of paragraph sentences, which, as you may know, i strive to become the queen of. He writes just how he talks, it's perfection. I'd seen 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas' many times before, of course, but the most recent viewing (I christened my apartment with it first night i stayed here) stirred something back up and then i discovered the Rolling Stone dedicated to him after his timely/untimely death in 2005 amongst my things recovered from warehouse storage hell. I re-read a couple of the friends' accounts and decided it was about time i actually read some of this man's work. I've watched the documentaries on the Fear&Loathing DVD and read clips of his writing, but i don't even own any of his books.

In a semi-frantic love state, i sat on the floor in the book store and skimmed through biographies and a huge, beautiful coffee table book called 'GONZO' but began to pout in frustration as i realized none of this was written BY HST. So what the hell, why can't i find his own writing? I looked through the 'Modern Events' and 'Social Studies'-and CHRIST, every politician, journalist or general 'person of interest' has a goddamn book of 'Why You Should Trust Me'-then after sitting with 'GONZO', a little, frantic muttered voice said "Turn around dumbass" and i was all "WTF?" and i spun myself around and right behind me on the bottom shelf were all the works of my beloved Duke.

Well, all the ones they had anyway. I ended up with the first volume of Gonzo papers, called 'The Great Shark Hunt'. And now, though i don't have a head full of acid, i do have a head full of Hunter S. Thompson's eternally mad journalistic achievements. God, he was good. He makes reading about football entertaining. well, for the most part. Some of it i struggle with because i don't know who any of these mysterious '70's icons are. For such a pop culture fanatic, one might think that i would have at least heard of some of these people. But nope, Hunter has to teach me, but this is a task i think he is not only up to, but quite clearly, he enjoys. He loved what he did, even when he loathed what he did, when he loathed what was going on around him, which was most of the time, but really he was so fascinated by this reality that everything through his eyes becomes something. He wouldn't miss anything because Jesus, isn't that strange? Let me tell you about it, wait, let me tell me about it. Genius.

The only draw back to being wholly enthralled with HST all over again is that he's gone on to chronicle the after life, which could mean wonderful entertainment for those beings, but we're left with what he had. oh well, he had a terrific body of work and i'm gonna read ALL of it before i really start to morn this loss.

In other news, i drew this: Sachi in sweat pants and a sports bra i had in college that *GASP* i actually wore....Been looking at some old, hilarious photos. I've done some things, yes, even some things i'm not proud of, but you bet your sweet bippy i took pictures of EVERYTHING. Anyway, i thought Sachi is hot enough she can wear just the sports bra and sweats. And the multi-shoe concoction Judd Nelson wore in the breakfast club. i still love that shit. This picture is the only one, i think, to come out during this project i am still working my life away on. It's well over an hour now with 30 plus songs in the soundtrack. it's also on 2 DVD's because the quality on the first one has gone from "excellent" to "very good" to "good". But oh well, i can't cut out the text because then i can't talk about the pictures, and with the text being lengthy it needs to stay on screen long enough to read and with the timing needing to be perfect, the songs are many.

I've managed to only repeat a couple of the artists and include music that was actually there when the pictures were taken...well, you know, it was playing in my head or in one of the shops or something. Or it just goes really well with the mood, even if the lyrics don't match up. I found a Go!Go!7188 song (they're a Japanese girl punk band, now don't cringe, they're actually quite skilled, though they do scream quite a bit, but any punk band that can do the punk-rock thing AND the pop-punk thing and then some JAZZ is OK by me) called 'Ukifune' that perfectly describes my feelings inside Shinjuku, it also fits the text intro to that section PERFECTLY. OK OK, enough about 'THE PROJECT'....

The subtitle of this was taken from hitomi's blog, i'm sure that's not what she said, but Babel Fish yields such hilarious 'translations' sometimes, i couldn't resist sharing that one. As usual, i love hitomi. i finally saw and own her first attempt at a film 'Nightmare Detective', which is a Shinya Tsukamoto film, the man behind 'Tetsuo:The Iron Man'. So hitomi's already got one up on poor old Hyde and Gackt, in that she chose a film to make her debut in that was made by an established and very well respected feature film maker, where as the guy who directed 'Moon Child' had previously done...porn. So props to hitomi. So many props. My god, i was clapping at the end and yelling...and i was sitting in the dark, alone in my apartment...

But anyway, the film itself tries to play some serious mind games, and i think it accomplishes some of that successfully. But it's hard to say whether it's from the script or from the odd sort of all over the place acting of it's cast. I learned from the 'making of' that Tsukamoto likes to let actors do mostly their own thing, so that's cool for them, but then you also get very different performance styles which sets different moods in the same scene...does that make sense? It's already got a pretty confusing premise (God Bless the Japanese, it wouldn't be Japanese if it weren't somewhat confusing); There's this guy (played by Ryuhei Matsuda, whom you may have last seen being sodomized by a doomed old samurai and tugging poor Asano Tadanobu's heart strings with Beat Takashi overseeing the whole mess in the film 'Taboo') who can hop into people's dreams through a series of questions and mind melding, and he tries to help them discover the root of their nightmares. But sometimes it's horribly dangerous for him and the dreamer, of course. And then there are murders which appear to be committed inside the minds of the victims, enter hitomi as the 'socially inept' detective who wanted a taste of hands-on crime investigation so she had herself transferred to this department.

Then in the police department, of course all the top dogs are intimidated by the presence of this esteemed female super detective. But one of them tries to understand her a little, enough that she'd like to share thoughts with him but he's too dumb to understand (and dudes, this dumb detective is played SO AWESOMELY by one Masanobu Ando whom you may remember played the crazy blonde kid who kills just about everyone in Battle Royale?). So the characters themselves are pretty straight forward, and giving the actors free reign gives the characters their individuality...and i actually think it worked for hitomi instead of against her, because she just let the ever kind and patient Tsukamoto mold her virign performance because she'd just never done it before. He said he casted her because of her epic command of the audience at her shows, with very little going on in the background. Her shows don't have acrobats and dancers and big stage production, it's pretty much hitomi and her band. So he thought he might like to put forth the many sides of hitomi on the screen too.

i think it was a really good film, the dream imagery is, of course, beautiful and the story makes sense if you're willing to take the intial leap that someone can get into someone else's dreams. It's a complete story, though Tsukamoto says he's already written the 2nd and 3rd 'Nightmare Detective' stories. That's another thing about this, there's all these reminders that it's a Japanese horror film combined with music and levels (the hushed, monotones of the actors when they're awake) of a David Lynch movie crossed with a '50's detective movie. You know, it's like what's good, what's great, actually, about Brian DePalma's 'Black Dahlia'.

'Nightmare Detective' completely decimates 'Moon Child' (which, BTW, is a film Gackt wrote to top off his Moon Series of albums, about a group of misfits trying to get by in gangsta times and also, hyde's a vampire, it's super hilariously awesome, but you gotta know who they are in order to truly enjoy the experience) i'm sorry hyde and Gackt, i love you both eternally but ya'all better bow down to the unyielding powers of HITOMI: SUPER EVERYTHING!!!! Her music is the best, her films are the best. She's the best. well, OK, not the best, but better than 'Moon Child'. Which isn't really saying much. But I would recommend 'Nightmare Detective' to anyone interested in this kind of film. i think that aside from the fact that the aforementioned 'queen of my heart' is one of the stars, the movie itself is really quite good. Maybe not as good as 'Tetsuo', as i've heard that film is one of the best Japanese films out there. N.D. is NOT the best film ever by any means, nor is it the best Japanese film ever. In my book, that'll always be Cutie Honey: Warrior of Love. But 'Nightmare' is definitely worth beholding, so please go rent it RIGHT NOW. OK bye bye!

I'm Gonna Start an "I Hate Ellen Page" club before anyone else!!!

2008-03-02T20:22:00.009-05:00

OOOOOOO!! I have been working dilligently (spelling? does the spell check work yet?) every free minute of each and every day on this project for the class I'm taking. no drawings involved...well...except ones I've already done and some are years and years old. I'm making a slide show to end ALL SLIDE shows. well, at least, in my mind it does. For me, it is very easy to become obsessed, but it's very hard for me to explain my obsessions to others...in 1000 words or less. Sure, I can ramble on for days about my Japan obsession...but how to contain it into a (*GASP*) 15 minute presentation?!!!! I CAN'T DO IT!!! I've tried and I've tried and mommy I can't do it!!! So it may be,like, 30 minutes. and believe me, I am working desperately to edit it down to the absolute necessities so that all those newbs won't recoil under their desks, rocking back and forth and muttering to themselves, praying for it all to be over soon....well, actually, that'd be a pretty hot response.

I had simply wanted to show a slide show of my pics from Japan (which, for those of you who may not know, are in considerable number (1,099 >.<) . But as i sifted through my trip, I began to recollect and wanted to be able to share stories, decided I would include some commentary and OOPS a soundtrack...and it was all downhill from there. Then I decided I should explain the obsession's birthing. Now it's spun wildly out of control....but if i can reign it in...this shall be...my finest hour (enter Jaws [SPEAKING OF WHICH OMG ROY IS DEAD ROY IS DEAD OH THE HUMANITY ROY IS DEAD!!! R.I.P. Roy, I will always love you, and now you'll be on the biggest boat.] rising from the depths to bite the floating device under my sail boat that I just friggin' re-inflated...son of a....)

ok. what was I talking about? explaining massive, all consuming obsessions in under 1000 words, was that it? HUH?! Was it. yeah well, good luck to me.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD!! best movie ever. I just saw it again in the theatre. MY GOD it's perfect. I wish I was DDL's mustache. wouldn't that be nice? and jeepers, the second time around it was over in 2 seconds. we were like 4 minutes late and he'd already fallen in the well when we walked in....and then I laughed and laughed and BAM! it was over. I'm finished!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! SO F**KING AWESOME!!!!!!

Oh, and well all this project crap was and is going down, I talked to my pseudo landlord about becoming the official tenant here and he said he'd love to have me, I think because I vacuum. So soon this Vermont paradise shall be MINE!!! ALL MINE!!!! and i will love it and hug it and call it squishy...I'm gonna go nuts with the decorating...omg I can't wait....but I have to get a second job to support myself so like, I'll never see any of you again! but I'll always be in the Dome.

2008-02-23T10:00:00.002-05:00

i too have seen this eclipse! first one i ever saw! i was at work and stood outside with half the rest of the staff and watched. then some guests came out too, and the whole lot of us puffed away on our cigarettes and 'ooooo-ed' and 'aaaawed' during the whole thing. it was hot. i took crappy pictures with my cell phone!

GAAH!! 2 in 1 day? Maybe 3!!

2008-02-18T17:08:00.008-05:00

eeep! i have been working on this gosh darn picture of Izumi for THREE WEEKS!!!! She just would not let me draw her! i tried and i tried to make a pen and ink like the rest but she was all "Whatever you, I should be in color!" So i fixed her little red wagon. I made her REALLY colorful. Izumi would mostly likely never be caught dead in such colors, but the clothes work. She is difficult to draw because her style is all over the place. I thought she'd be easy, she came to me before the Gyaru did, but she appeared with dark skin and white blonde hair. This is because she is dark and menacing and is very much on the Visual Kei scene, which is another music scene/fashion trend in Japan. It's what Miyavi was before he went solo, it's what Blood, that goth/industrial band i saw in Boston, is. Visual Kei is usually a style reserved for androgenous men, and when girls dress like it it's generally considered Goth Lolita. But they too, bleach their hair and wear insanely elaborate costumes that are goth mixed with punk. So usually Izumi would wear more black and if there were a color involved, let it be red. But here Izumi's gonna go half gyaru because as i stated earlier today, i can't get them outta my head.

So Izumi is the bitch of the pack. She isn't mean, really, she just doesn't care at all what you think of her or about your opinions. She will argue with you at the drop of a hat, but her arguements are very frustrating because you know right away, you can never win this. Izumi is studying to become a lawyer. She is very anti-social and a huge RPG nerd, when she is emersed in one of these games, the other girls may go for weeks without hearing from her. But when she comes out to play, she can get them into any club and she is a great singer so karaoke is one of her favorite past times. She also can drink most of the other girls (save Sachi, that darn westerner) under the table. Sachi is terrified of Izumi for the most part and thinks Izumi doesn't like her because she is not Japanese. This is false, Izumi doesn't dislike Sachi at all, she doesn't care either way. Aside from disappearing into video games, Izumi frequents the countryside to visit her Grandmother and sing enka songs for her. Izumi is a skilled cook and will make you a 3 course meal (at least) if you catch her at home when she's not playing video games.

i apologize for the color pencil. it's all i have till i get a decent paint program.

These are some examples of Visual Kei, it's Mana,an innovator of the style (visual kei means Visual Style). Then Vidoll, a band that's way better than Vidoll....They got a lot better over time, but have always looked awesome. Then my new Mana, Hizaki, HE rules the metal/industrial side of the visual kei fence right now. and look at him, isn't he pretty?

GAL REVO-TRANCE

2008-02-18T11:15:00.024-05:00

Big smile now! This is my Halloween costume. It's February now, but i want to share these pics and the influences for them because the 'Gyaru' is on my mind all the time lately. Gyaru is a Japanese fashion trend amongst teenage to early 20's girls, they have very dark tans (Ganguro= very dark tan & usually pastel or white make-up down the nose and under the eyes, these girls are...somethin'!) and dye their hair to more Western colors like blonde or auburn. Gals often put colored streaks in their hair to symbolize their moods and some wear colored contacts or these super weird ones which make their whole iris black, this is to make them appear more cartoonish. The Gal is attempting to look like an over-the-top California girl. And right now in Japan this craze is pretty big, i saw these girls more frequently than any other of the stand out trends in Japan (ie: Goth-Lolita)

Before I went to Japan, i had discovered the J-pop artist Sifow. She has this hilarious video that opens with her in a tanning bed and she goes on to sing of 'LOVE & PEACE' (the name of the song) with the help of her body guards, two giant black body builders in little gold speed-o's(sorry for bad spelling!). So i became obsessed with her and music like her's and realized all this fashion and style, and the sped up euro-beats were all the language of the wonderful and very not mysterious Gyaru, which is simply the word 'Gal' phonetically sounded out in Japanese. The pic on the top is Sifow with the para-para pop group Gyaruru, which i came to find out Sifow actually put together and produced, she really is quite talented.

While in Japan, much to my friend's horror, I set out on a mission to find out more about Gyaru Nation. Now, my friend is horrified because these Gals aren't exactly model citizens. They are percieved as frivelous twits who'll do whatever it takes to get those label clothes and bags. They live to shop,dance and look good, and hope to marry wealthy so they can live this sort of anti-Japanese life style for all their days. But as an outsider, i think it's easier for me to think that these are just kids having fun and most of them grow out of it, and some of them are awesomely successful music producers, fashion designers and singers or models, or all of the above, like Sifow. All over Tokyo there are these 3 story New & Used entertainment shops, called 'Book Off'. These stores sell new & used CD's,DVD's,Manga and magazines. I began to find Gyaru specific magazines, such as Ranzuki, Agenda & Es Possh!. My favorite is Ranzuki but I gathered information and inspiration from all of them.

I couldn't make my hair quite that large.....

but thanks to my sister's make-up talents, i got the 'Blue Face' i was hoping for! and you can make yourself uber tanned without risking your skin through many wonderful lotions and foundations. I used L'oreal Paris' True Match C7 cool nut brown foundation for my face and their Sublime Bronze Tinted Self-Tanning lotion in Medium Natural Tan. Both of these coupled with some stage tanning powder give fair skin a very deep and frightening tan. For my eyes, my sister used liquid eye liner from Cover Girl and various white and blue powder shadows. So all in all my Gal costume was a complete success, except I'm.like,SO not Japanese so i kind of ended up looking like a Jersey house wife and i happened to unvail this costume IN New Jersey sooo...I was definitely a hit with those Jersey boys. No one knew what i was but I knew i looked exactly like i wanted and those that know Gyaru seem to agree.

For more pics and Gyaru awesome-ness, stay tuned as I am working on my two Gyaru characters AND you should go to the sight CherryPop.Over because they are totally on top of Gyaru culture and the best source for pics and music. The sight is in French or Japanese but it doesn't really matter! dozo!

BLOOD-ing

2008-02-06T10:52:00.001-05:00

MU-ah-ah-aaaaaah!!! This weekend i went to see the Japanese goth/metal extravaganza known as Blood at the Middle East upstairs in Boston. Having lived in Boston for so very long and having now been away from Boston for so very long makes every visit there super special, but specialness overfloweth when you include something as mind boggling as Japanese goth/metal show. Because this means the music AND the fans. Oh the fans. they dress up almost more than the band, so much so that some of them don't even look human anymore. it's amazing. Plus this band LOVES Boston so that makes us all feel so special. I bought a

bunch of stuff at the show and got their autographs and my friend got his bloody rabbit signed by the crazy DJ! The DJ who opened for them was this crazy looking dude who is what being on acid looks like. I swear he's actaully made of candy. and then of course, i got my picture taken with the band. sadly, i was too nervous to be standing next to such a perfect specimen of Japanese androgenous beauty to even try to look cool. plus i was severely underdressed, i just wasn't expecting this opportunity to present itself!! so embarrassing, but SO satisfying.

Also, i have to mention the other band that opened for Blood, called 'echostream'. They were an interesting little number, female vocals & percussion,then a guy on keyboards,electronic percussion and guitar. The sound was pretty shoe-gazie, but it was really nice, a nice change for an opener for one of these bands. Last year it was a horrendous goth/industrial band called Absynth(which is so bad we all blocked them out and it takes an hour to recall their name and then none of us actually can and we have to look it up online). So anyway, last year's unfortuante choice made echostream all the better. except they played 'creep' by Radiohead. a song i never needed to hear again. but oh well, a pretty Japanese girl with a great voice almost made the song tolerable! When echostream played, i had a much better spot, it was before the little blonde bitches pushed me out of the way and stepped on me with their giant platforms. i might add that the blondies stood where i was, they fought me tooth & nail for that spot and then they left when the headlining band started playing. and so i hate them. BUT, i did get some nice shots of echostream while i had that coveted spot.

Love Love Airplane!

2008-01-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

below us now is Miyavi, the Japanese guitar-spaz sensation. He is the inspiration for the earlier posted picture of Sachi, he is long and thin and oh so enticing. He is always contorting in pics like in this one, and his features are so feminine, he is easilly turned into a woman. Hence this drawing of Megumi. Megumi does not normally dress like this. I had Miyavi on the brain and she just kind of, popped out in his homage. She usually wears 70's jogging shorts/short shorts and a skinny T-shirt with some catchy engrish phrase on it like, "SPRINGTIME HAPPY" or "MAKE LOVE". She is the coolest of the cool kids. Megumi is rocking the indie-tronic underground in Tokyo and planning a move to the States once she's saved enough money. She is constantly writing and recording sounds around her, being heavilly influenced by the found sound movement of electronic greats, like Matmos and Felix Kubin. But she doesn't do field recordings, no no, there is ALWAYS a beat. She likes to sing too and writes mostly ridiculous lyrics no one understands (like the title of this blog, though ONE of you understands, Laurie). Megumi also has a dark and disturbing obsession with Japanese pop star Mor itaka Chisato and sometimes cosplays as her when she is playing a show. Megumi is happy and she is content, she is the event planner for the group, and she's the only one who's got a boyfriend at this point (whom i can't name because he's only just arrived in my brain), thusly making her the envy of all her friends...although not really, just Sachi. Tomiko doesn't know what 'envy' is, Yuki and Megumi's dispostions are very similar, the only thing Yuki is envious of is that Megumi has is a man who loves her. Then there's the 'yet to be written about' Izumi who would never be envious of anyone for anything, ever. But Sachi has a huge crush on Megumi and rarely speaks to her because she doesn't want Megumi to know, Sachi doesn't think this would do much for their friendship. Sachi and Megumi only begin to bond when Megumi's little sister Haruka is shuttled to Tokyo to live with them because she's gone gyaru(gal) and their parents don't know how to fix it.

Queen of My Heart

2007-12-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

Since hitomi is what i eat,breathe and think i wanted to share my glorious Christmas present with all of you, er..all 3 of you that read this. it's a box set of all Her Majesty's music videos, singles and a live concert for her most recent declaration of awesome-ness (her most recent album 'Love Concent' rivals Chris Clark's 'Body Riddle', Clinic's 'Visitations' and Ayumi Hamasaki's '(miss)understood' for my number 1 album of 2006). She inspires every piece of art i've created lately and she is always in my head, her music dragged me through the worst time in my life and i will always be grateful. i know, cheesy,eh? well, cram it. this song was my favorite song by her for a long time and it still is one of them. It's from many years ago so it's got some serious contenders by this point. But i wanted to share this beautiful video and song, its about how when you are gone, when her world is shattered and empty, there is still her love for you. and that love floats her to the surface, over and over and cannot fail. i think this is a beautiful, no matter how romantic, thought, and i want to live my life this way. the idea of love that i cling to and worship is the basis for the entire 'Japanic' storyline and the reason i can go on day after day. So this song kinda makes me want to kill myself, but in a good way...i hope you like it! (don't worry, you don't have to like it as much as i do...i may actually be her number 1 fan in the States)

i think i will probably upload more of her videos too because i can. She's got SO many great songs that not nearly enough people know about, her popularity ain't what it used to be in Japan and it never was in America. But she's one of the most original J-pop artists in that she doesn't copy what's popular in the west, she has done her own thing for a long time and yes, of course she's been influenced by other cultures and music, she loves 80's pop as much as the next girl...but aside from the influence everyone knows about, which would be Madonna, whom she admires as a business woman and a human being...yeah, it's questionable, i know, but get a load of the rest of the influences she's sighted over the years : Bjork, the Soft Pink Truth (which is Drew Daniel from Matmos along with friends who include one of the Blechtum kids),Chicks on Speed (hitomi really likes electronic glitches and weirdness),Kings of Convenience (Indie-tronic folk right?), the Underwolves, International Pony,Hotel Costes & Grand National (the last 4 i have no knowledge of, but considering her other tastes, i bet they rule)...and lastly, i found the one other person on the planet who owns AND recommends the Minotaur Shock album besides me! it really is a great little record of indie-tronic flava'. you go out there and you find it. i bet it's all of $2 at your local used CD shop.....OR..online...

but i'm for supporting the artist and our innate need for THINGS. go buy the actual CD if you're gonna get it, ok? ok. so there's hitomi, fashion icon, as fashionably challenged as she may appear, model of extraordinarily jagged proportions and a beacon of hope for the future of pop music. She cranks Chicks on Speed while her peers long to be JUST LIKE BRITNEY. i hope this helps you understand my love and adoration for her, even if just a little.

and i guess that's all for the next couple of minutes. i kind of have a back log of crap i want to write about so hopefully i can write more in the next few days. i know you're just aching to hear more. yeah that's right. aching.

Space and Time

2007-12-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

Tomiko! this is Tomiko! she is the space cadet of the crew, one of Yuki's oldest friends. Tomiko is very uh...distracted! She is by no means dumb, but she has a habit of literally wandering off while you're talking to her. She really does live primarily on Planet Tomiko, a land that no one but her could ever fully grasp. She loves Ayumi Hamasaki and para para music and belongs to several dance troops. She thinks, eats and breathes dance, but when she's not thinking, eating or breathing, she loves baseball and may appear to be somewhat of a tom boy. She is pictured here in very fashionable fatigues, waving to greet you, even though she'll almost immediately forget who you are! please forgive her, she doesn't mean it.

Yuki means 'SNOW'

2007-12-17T00:26:00.000-05:00

This is YUUUUki, not YUKI. you see, if you don't hold that 'U', you've got the word for snow, but this Yuki isn't snowy....she's a guardian angel. i'll explain that some time other than now (if you read this before i apologize for the mix-up there XD)This is Yuki. She is my very first Japanese character. Yuki gave Sachi her name, Sachi is nameless through the whole first half of this series, she is drifting along trying to escape and she ends up in Japan, in a bar, with Yuki. Yuki is pictured here not in a festive holiday outfit, but as she was originally imagined, she was wearing that lil' sweater and hat when she waltzed into the bar and sat down next to Sachi and then assumed Sachi would understand her as she began to drunkenly rant about her boy troubles. Good Times. Yuki looks an aweful lot like the pop singer hitomi, because hitomi is the queen of Japanese pop music to me. and she's wicked hot. Yuki is not a pop singer though, her personality more closely resembles my friend Chie, who actually named Yuki AND Sachi. Yuki is very, very important for she accidently keeps Sachi alive which,you know, is really good for the story because if the main character bought it at this point, it wouldn't really be much of a story. even less than it is this minute. which, as i've stated, isn't much... OK!!! go bask in Yuki's glory, this is the first drawing i've finished in my new sanctuary! SANCTUARYYYYY!!!

Just Put It In The Bag Hutch!

2007-12-15T12:49:00.000-05:00

After countless (actually, not countless at all, maybe like...five)trips to and from my parents', i have arrived in Vermont, in a place with all my things...in many,many bags. and as i cleaned and arranged and threw things away and picked things up...the bags seemed to multiply...and over and over in my head, Jeneane Garafolo said,"just put it in the Bag Hutch"...and then i could hear her laughing...over and over "BAG HUTCH...PUT IT IN THE BAG HUTCH...BAG HUUUUTCH!!!" and i was all,"Well, where the hell is it bitch?!!!". *pfhuuh* bag hutch. if only.
This little 'Shire girl moved to Vermont! My friend at work, his son got in this horrible car accident and smashed his hip and shoulders so he can't make it up the jagged stairs to his apartment, he'll be OK, but for now he had to lose the apartment...and me being the fantastic person that i am, volunteered to sublet.... so now, i am out of my parents' house and into this adorable little place. It was covered in boy, but i've cleansed it. several times. and now it's filled with ME!!! i finally get to put out all the little house items i bought in my the far east! JAPANESE POP MUSIC SHALL EXPLODE ALL OVER ROUTE 4!!! That little whale up there, the wind chime, he was the first thing of mine i put up. he is small and blue and i believe he is telling you to enjoy a refreshing summer breeze...he doesn't know, he's just a whale! anyway, i moved in our first snow storm and those fantastic icicles hung there for my first week. i love them.

I Love Hair

2007-11-27T01:10:00.000-05:00

Can't you tell? OK, so like, this is very exciting for me because this drawing...well, it just came out really well. You always imagine how your finished product will appear, but it never seems to be exactly right. At least, not for me. until this. Laurie ('everything in blue blogger' & Esty shop OUOU totally rules go there and you won't know what to buy first!) told me that i should just post what i'm working on. The trouble with that was that i haven't been drawing, at all. i mean, little doodles here and there, but nothing that i considered good enough to share.
Then i went sifting through some photos i like to look at, and i began to go over the same pose over and over and then i decided i needed to make Sachi look bad ass once more...she's been such a cream puff since she turned happy! When she was first born, she was a crazy,drug addled mess with a mostly serious demeanor, but then She started to turn her life around and her hallucinations faded and she started to always appear smiling and laughing! the nerve! k. So i make up characters and story lines much like a comic book writer might, except i never finish them, i have a nasty habit of just drawing the exciting bits. we'll call them"spots". So these "spots" had been the bane of my existence until i realized that maybe they could stand on their own and people could assume story lines...you know, like post cards or greeting cards? Yeah, well, When i went to Japan, i saw my dreams realized through many, many others. Kaori Wakamatsu (see Graffiti Bunny link) is responsible for making me see (or remember) that absolutely beautiful comic art can be used with no words or just one phrase and be just that, just a beautiful piece of artwork. So i want to do that. i want to make beautiful lines make beautiful faces and hair and clothing.
So this is Sachi, she's the heroine in my as yet unfinished comic 'JAPANIC'. And this is her first appearance online. But she's not nervous. So please, please stare at her! I hope to make many more 'spots'. but maybe with paint involved too. Sachi and her friends are very colorful, but black and white will have to do for now, so please enjoy!

Stephen Colbert,Prince of Dreams

2007-11-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

First post. A DREAM? GAAAAAH! I don't wanna read about some girl's stupid dream, i HATE it when people try to make their dreams entertaining for others! is that what you think? well my pessimistic friend, this will surely change your mind! BEHOLD: MY DREAM ABOUT STEPHEN COLBERT!!! YAY!!!! You're SO excited!!!! k. here goes, are you reading, Stephen? i love you. and i dreamed about you naked.

ok ok. so i work in this office building. Stephen Colbert was my boss. Violent and verbally abusive,he presides in his giant corner office, hidden behind a smokey glass door hurling his opinions forth like apples from an angry tree, over a loud speaker system somehow projecting out from underneath the desks of his victims..er...employees. One day, Mr. Colbert was particularly upset over some goings on in the office. He called me into his office. and i was afraid. I was more afraid when i opened the foreboding glass door. He stood behind his desk, pointing and hollering at me to close the door.
i did as i was told, quickly shutting the door behind me and folding my hands over my stomach,biting my bottom lip and staring at the floor, for as i turned to face him, i realized he was naked. Naked as the day he was born. A stack of paper work that sat on the edge of his desk piled up high enough to shield uhm...the manly bits...you know....from view. But i was still so shocked i had to look at the floor. Anyway, he told me how angry he was over...something...i had trouble understanding what the hell he was so upset about because...he was naked. Then he said that he wanted to go give everyone else a piece of his mind, but that he couldn't,because he was naked. So this is why he needed me. He wanted me to walk in front of him,to shield him from all those gaping eye-balls as he gave them what for.
It all made perfect sense to me. So i turned to face the door and he came up behind me and stood right on my heels as we went out into the main lobby area where all the other employees sat, bewildered,at their cubicles. I was taking awkward baby steps so i wouldn't get too far ahead of him, fearing the repercussions of exposing him. The only thing i found to be unfortunate about this whole bit was that he chose me to stand behind, so i couldn't even catch a glimpse of that cute little bottom he must have.
So we went from cubicle to cubicle,Stephen shouted orders and obscenities from behind me and commanded me to make messes of all the papers and personal articles all over each and every employee's desk. i threw papers and spilled coffee on keyboards. i was quite destructive. then suddenly, other screams could be heard over Stephen's...But these were not screams of anger, these were screams of terror. All the commotion in the office came to a screeching halt as we all listened....Stephen was very agitated that someone was infringing upon his special time with his employees. He ordered me to walk us over to the nearest window as it seemed the hollering was coming from the outdoors. Now comes the part of the dream where we're reminded that it's a dream, but it's almost over, so please read on:
We gazed down the 15 or so stories to the ground below. Apparently this building was located in the middle of a large mound of dirt. Like an island, but not made of sand. it was dark, rich soil. And in the middle sat the building we all worked in. And directly to the building's left, a cave. Running around the cave? Two unknown Red Sox players. They were screaming at each other, laughing and circling the cave...Stephen watched on from over my shoulder, now it was he who felt bewilderment. He ordered me to go down to the dirt and shut the men up. i obeyed, as i left Stephen's presence i became increasingly frustrated as now i couldn't even see him, never mind his butt.
The Red Sox seemed to be daring each other to do something...then one of them threw a Nerf Football into the mouth of the cave...both men stopped running and there was silence for only a moment.Then a bear, a giant grizzly stumbled out of the cave. He stood on his hind legs and roared. the man who'd thrown the football took off toward his friend and the bear galloped behind them. i had been standing on the opposite side of the cave, and as the 3 of them came thundering toward me, i reluctantly understood that perhaps i too, should run. So we ran to 3 evenly placed trees and climbed them...the two Red Sox players and myself, i mean...and once all of us were sufficiently trapped, the bear stood up again, and shouted,"NOW I HAVE TO KILL YOU!!!! I'M A BEAR!!!! IT'S MY NATURE!!!!!"

Then i woke up. this dream is SUCH a dream. as a front desk employee at a currently off season hotel, one might watch a lot of TV. And then one might have a dream much like this. complete with product placement. I watch the Colbert Report and baseball. Let us keep in mind that Stephen Colbert is terrified of bears, he's always talking about how they are the number one threat to America. So this is completely made up of images from the telly, and compiled by my subconscious into this hilarious romp. well, i found it to be hilarious. but hey, maybe it was just another boring dream you didn't have. but you read it anyway!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!