Listened to lots of Rona Kenan today. I think I may become a fan. The six blurbs for Natalie's and my foreign music article are below. I haven't listened to Natalie's bands yet. (It should be obvious which ones they are.) I'm a bit concerned because four of these are rock, including all three of mine, even after I said, "We should try to do different genres." Dx I was originally going to have Swedish folk, but Garmarna has been inactive for a while, so I switched to Eurodance, but I don't really like Basshunter's music apart from "Boten Anna" and "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA," so I switched to Rona Kenan, whom I didn't think counted as rock, but evidently, she does.
But 'sall good, 'sall good. I cut the article to 42 lines. I'm so proud of myself.
England – Deportivo
Deportivo is a fairly new London band, whose music is influenced by 80's English pop musicians. Although they have not yet released a CD, their music "has honesty and integrity" as Brad Middleton, from Last Broadcast, put it, "… [and] there's definitely potential for real success here."
Germany – Tokio Hotel
Extremely popular in the German-speaking world and successful across Europe, alternative rock band Tokio Hotel's tunes range from headbang material to soft rock ballads. Their first English-language album, Scream, consists of translations of their German songs.
Finland – Apocalyptica
While the bulk of metal artists use electric guitars, the distinctive progressive metal band Apocalyptica uses cellos and drums. Formed in 1993, the band is still as strong as ever, despite numerous member changes.
Israel – Rona Kenan
Rona Kenan is known in Israel for her warm, smooth voice and the understated elegance of her catchy yet haunting Hebrew- and English-language tunes. Taking influences from countless genres, her music is as diverse as it is unusual.
China – Xiao Yu
Identified by his chic hair and unique style, Xiao Yu worked in the shadows of other famous artists before the release of his eponymous debut album on Jan. 25. Xiao Yu takes on all roles in his album, including composing, writing, arranging, rapping and singing, for a style completely his own.
Japan – girugämesh
Chaotic and inspiring, girugämesh blends soaring melodies and screaming vocals to create their own brand of alternative metal. The addicting quality of their music will have you singing along, whether you understand the lyrics or not.
(Subject from "My Prison by the Sea" by Rona Kenan.)
Can it be?! My Vox has not a single mention of Tokio Hotel!
D: NO.
Oh dear, oh dear. This will not do! I have been in love with this band for the past month, singing in bad German nearly every day, and going to YouTube for fixes of the same songs over and over. (Although I fixed that today by starting a list of links to every song in their discography.) How can I not have Voxed about Tokio Hotel? All right. Here goes:
Tokio Hotel is a German band that is 1. not that good, 2. really good, and 3. Bill. <3
No, no. Let's start over. The most notable aspects of Tokio Hotel is that they are 1. very young (the band was formed as Devilish when Bill and Tom were 11), 2. international (won MTV's InterAct award, popular across Europe, released songs in German and English and one half in Japanese), and 3. Bill. <3
You know what? I'll just show you.
Bill is second from the left. ;D From left to right, they are Tom Kaulitz (G.), Bill Kaulitz (Vo.), Gustav Schäfer (Dr.), and Georg Listing (Ba.). Tom and Bill are twins, but they've kept their distinct styles since their days as Devilish. I've ranted enough about them today, so I'll leave you with a link to my song list (here) and a few videos I like.
(Subject from "Spring Nicht" by Tokio Hotel)
Show us your job.
I don't have a real job, but I'm on staff at Equivalency, a manga-based Fullmetal Alchemist TCG, and Trading Academy, a Japanese anime/manga/game TCG. The former isn't open yet, but I make chapter decks, and I'll eventually be making black and white character decks and managing Sunday, monthly, and ongoing games. For the latter, I'm a card maker, although none of my decks have been released yet. (There's a huge backflow of unreleased decks, which has caused the owner, Rahenna, to release seven decks this week instead of three.) I used to manage Card Claim, which had better pay, but the TCG needed more card makers, so my superior, Mamori, requested that I become a card maker. I get paid in cards, haha. xD Three random cards per deck, plus an extra credit grade, which can be traded for a card of choice.
TCGs are so pointless but so much fun. I started playing them in eighth grade, I think, but I stopped playing for a long time and rediscovered them last August. Right now, my favorites are Trading Academy and DuckSoup!, a video game TCG. I keep trying to get some of my real life friends to play them, but I guess they're too pointless. Dx Yuji and my sister both started playing Trading Academy, but Yuji stopped after one update (she had more fun making her trade post), and my sister is now on hiatus before reaching Level Two.
I take consolation in the knowledge that my trade post is very attractive. And Robin says that gradients don't look good on websites. Hah! He just doesn't know how to use them well.
(Subject is from Smam's latest update at DuckSoup!, lol.)
What's your favorite game to play?
(L to R, T to B) Game Title – Platform – What makes it fun (game play-wise).
Bahamut Lagoon – SNES – Tactical squad-based board-style combat. Dragon-feeding.
Bang! – Card Game – Multi-player party game atmosphere. Strategizing. Figuring out who's on your side.
Guitar Hero II – PlayStation 2 – Keeping rhythm. Good music. Various difficulties.
Kingdom Hearts II – PlayStation 2 – Action-based battle system. Reaction commands.
The Sims 2 – Windows/Mac OSX – Amazing customization. Making people. Building houses.
Soul Calibur II – GameCube/PlayStation 2/XBox – It's a good fighting game. Enough said.
Street Fighter EX3 – PlayStation 2 – Lots of fancy combos. Dual-character combos.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo – PlayStation X – Ability to attack other player. Chain attacks.
Tales of Symphonia – Skills system. Ability to change controlled character. Affection system.
I can't find my GameCube memory card, what the hell. This is very distressing. If I don't find it, I'll have to get a new one and unlock everything in all my GameCube games again, and if I play Tales of Symphonia, I won't have any Grade bonuses. T___T (It's kind of exciting, actually, but still not preferable.)
(Subject from Chapter Four of Bahamut Lagoon, as translated by Tomato.)
OH MY GOD LOL.This is the wrapping paper I made for my Smoke Signal Secret Santee because the only wrapping paper I had was pink and girly, and he'd said that he wanted Daredevil and X-Men action figures before changing his mind to the Superbad DVD. When I actually wrapped it, I used five different scraps of paper taped together because 8.5x11 is not big enough to wrap a DVD. >_> I hear he hella liked his gift. :) He probably likes the wrapping paper, too; I saw him carrying it and the DVD after fifth period. xD I don't think he knows yet that it was me.
LOL I LOVE MAKING WRAPPING PAPER.
I think we're cursed.
Show us a book that scared you as a child.
These two books by Dean Marney scared the shit out of my when I was a little kid, but I adored them. What makes them so scary is that bizarre things happen to the main character in familiar places– in her home or in her school– and nobody ever believes her, nor does she remember them unless they are currently happening. That type of vulnerability is really frightening. After all, if you can't run to your home, where can you run? If your family, your teacher, and your friends won't save you, who will?
It's really trippy stuff. A crepe turkey turns into a the labyrinth of the Minotaur. A girl gets trapped in a fortune-telling machine. A creepy man hops outside the main character's window on a pogo stick. It's all so random and crazy and all so scary.
There are four more books in the series, which I haven't read. Apparently, some of them have a different, male protagonist. I am curious.
I'm wearing my Halloween costume!
...a day early. Sonia came over to borrow my maid outfit, and she wanted to see me in full costume, hair, and make up. The make up on my right eye and my lips is pretty, but my left eye is very messy because my eye prescription is like 700 or 800, so I can't freaking see when I'm applying make up. I'm getting contacts in ... December, I think?
I so did not follow my checklist, lol.
1. Get hair straightened.
Did not do this. I just set my hair straightener to the highest setting and made do with that. I'm going to straighten my hair some more tomorrow morning because it's starting to curl again around my face.
2. Get haircut.
Did not do this. I may get a haircut this weekend, but for Halloween, I clipped my ponytail high and to the side with my dead fish clip and put beads in it. It's a cute style and a little bit VK.
3. Figure out clothes.
Haha, last time I only knew what pants I was wearing. Now I've scrapped those checkered pants in favor of long pinstripe pants to match my trenchcoat because I'd be cold without it. I settled for a white sleeveless button-up top and the
arm warmers I got back from Tinabox. Instead of my schoolgirl shoes, I'm wearing my Skechers. I did order suspenders from Clown Antics, but instead of black, I ordered checkered black and white ones.
4. Make hat.
Did not do this. I tried on a fedora, but it made my hair look awkward, and I imagine any hat I made would, as well, because I'm wearing my hair rather high.
5. Make up.
I have a big star over my left eye, and my right eye has black on top and white all around. I bought pale purple lipstick at Daiso but didn't use it. I covered my lips with lip balm/gloss and foundation instead. I love not having any lips. I couldn't find my sister's liquid eyeliner, so I bought it from Longs for $10. Ew.
6. EW MY GLASSES DON'T MATCH MY OUTFIT.
I'm wearing my old glasses, which aren't as conspicuous. I can't see.
7. Halloween Dance?
Didn't go.
OMG I NEED TO PAINT MY NAILS.
Totally x-posted from LiveJournal.
"Visits Dark" | "Visits Dark" Illustration
It's one of my best and most complete pieces of art (yeah, really), but I sorted it as a Scrap because I have part of the poem on there. How unsightly. I should have gotten a complete scan before coloring it instead of coloring a partial photograph from my cell phone. But I wrote the poem and drew the picture at 10 PM the night before it was due, and I don't think I'll be getting it back, so this is as good as it gets.
I love that the guy looks so much more anorexic when he's colored. I'm considering giving the Publications Committee a post-it with the url of the colored version because it's so much nicer than the pencil sketch. But who the hell is going to bother visiting it? Maybe some people, but they won't really care.
Well, it's exciting for me!
(The poem is also on devArt, but I linked it on my site because it's prettier there.)
Have you figured out what your (or your kids') Halloween costume will be this year? What's it going to be?
A clown. I think.
I'm preparing everything next weekend. Huuuuuaaah, I have a lot to do. I'd better get organized. o_o
1. Get hair straightened.
EW. Money. But the haircut I want looks so, so bad with wavy hair. It's disgusting. I don't want to have to style my hair every day. But the costume won't look as good with my current hair because I have weird layers in weird places, and it's all chunky. I don't want to go back to that place in Chinatown, but I can't find anywhere else that straightens for as low as $60. T____T
2. Get haircut.
I looking to get a Miyavi-Kisaki-Anubis!guy-Jui-esque mullet-thing. If I get my hair straightened, which I won't, it will be a short Miyavi-thing. If I don't, it will either not happen or it will be a long Jui thing that my hair is actually not long enough to do.
3. Figure out clothes.
I know what pants I'm wearing. I might know what top. I need to get my arm warmers back from Tinabox. I doubt it'll look good with my schoolgirl shoes, so I'll have to test that. I may order suspenders from that clown site, but I don't think they have black.
4. Make hat.
I need cloth from Joanne's or whatever that store is called. And I need cardboard? EW CRAFTWORK. Maybe I should have gotten started this weekend, but I've been playing The Sims 2 like a maniac.
5. Make up.
My favorite part. :) I'll have to do my thing, figure out what I need, and go to Daiso for cheap make up if necessary. Why is the inside of my desk hot? That's so weird. I hope I can find my sister's liquid eyeliner. Maybe she took it with her when she moved out.
6. EW MY GLASSES DON'T MATCH MY OUTFIT.
I am so getting contacts next time.
7. Halloween Dance?
I don't want to sweat with all that crap on my face. Dx If I have time, I'll figure out a second, simpler outfit for the dance.
Gghhghgggghhhhghghhh. I need to find a nice cut that works with wavy hair and just straighten the hell out of my bands that morning and the night before.
I live for Halloween. :D Except not really or I'd be prepared by now.
OMG I NEED TO PAINT MY NAILS. OMG I NEED TO DYE MY HAIR. omg maybe I'll dye it blue-black right now because I'm about to shower anyway.
Ta.
I don't know if you're still planning on being a fan, but you can definitely count me as one now.... read more
on Days go by, and I forget what you looked like. Let me out of this prison by the sea.