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		<title>Guitar in Popular Culture</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:50:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Stu</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Entertainment]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Next week you will have the normal film reviews. But for now I will share an essay I did last year on the popular culture of guitars. Since the beginning of time we have seen the guitar evolve in numerous ways. We have seen the guitar as it was back in the 15th century. We [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Next week you will have the normal film reviews. But for now I will share an essay I did last year on the popular culture of guitars.<span id="more-3606"></span></p>
<p>Since the beginning of time we have seen the guitar evolve in numerous ways. We have seen the guitar as it was back in the 15<sup>th</sup> century. We have seen the guitar in its famous classical and acoustic form . And we have seen the guitar making the weirdest and strangest sounds in its electric form. But today, the guitar has dominated our society through various successful mediums. These mediums include Film, TV, Internet, Music and Video Games. Video Games being a massive and major success due to the appearance of both Frets on Fire and Guitar Hero. Film and TV being a big part too with Films like Rockstar and Rock School and TV programs like Rockstar INXS, Australia&#8217;s Got Talent, Australian Idol and Gene Simmon&#8217;s Rock School. Internet has been an interestingly good way for the guitar to increase popularity and connect with other guitar enthusists or players. Sites like Youtube, Facebook and Myspace will always be a good place for those people who are into guitar to gain contacts. Music will always be the top area for the guitar because that is what it was made for. Sure, not every band uses the guitar as an instrument, but the majority of bands do even if their music is shit.</p>
<p>In 2005, the video game company&#8217;s of Red Octane and Activision released Guitar Hero for the Sony Playstation 2. The package came with the game, a plastic Gibson SG guitar, a strap and some precautions booklet. Guitar Hero required you to have your fingers over the five buttons which are supposed to be frets and press the corresponding button that matches the one on the TV screen. The more correct notes hit equals a higher ranking and better achievements like bonus tracks to be bought from the shop. Needless to say Guitar Hero took the world by storm making over $1 billion in sales and has since gone through many titles like Legends of Rock, Through the 80s and World Tour; it even found its way onto other consoles like XBOX360, WII and even the DS. But all in all it is a major success and has gotten people picking up the controller and playing the songs with no actual real guitar experience at all. I would assume that some have gone onto to learn the actual thing from this game. That would make a big advancement in the guitar&#8217;s timeline. <sup><a name="sdfootnote1anc" href="#sdfootnote1sym"><sup>1</sup></a></sup></p>
<p>Frets on Fire is a clone of Guitar Hero. It was developed with the python engine and is for the computer. The game involves the person using his keyboard as a guitar with buttons F1 to F5 as frets and the return key as the strumbar. Even though Frets on Fire is made to use the keyboard as the guitar. People can get a usb adapter and plug in the original guitar hero controller for easier playability. The game isn&#8217;t really that popular but one of its high points is that you use its custom song editor to create your own guitar hero like tracks form just a standard mp3. This has seen Frets on Fires users posting their own custom tracks on the site&#8217;s forum for other user&#8217;s to download and play with. Thus, making the reception for Frets on Fire bigger and the guitar in general evolved more.  <sup><a name="sdfootnote2anc" href="#sdfootnote2sym"><sup>2</sup></a></sup></p>
<p>In the film and TV industry the guitar has been an important symbol and tool. Whether it be shown in part of a film, part of the musical composition for a film, or part of the storyline in an episode of a TV show/Cartoon. Like in the first back to the future film, Marty Mcfly played by Michael J. Fox picks up the guitar at the school prom and plays Johnny B. Good as a way of saving him and his family from vanishing into fin air. In an episode of South Park called Guitar Queer – O the boys are at Stan&#8217;s house and are playing a guitar hero like game on Xbox. It then later show s Kyle trying to find his way to that top score in the game. We also see Stan&#8217;s dad playing the real electric guitar but the kids just ignore him. The documentary of rock school shows us how young kids can be and yet be great guitarists. One is around the 9 yr old mark and can play all the major scales flawlessly. But then the doco gives a negative insight int the reality of their attitudes. Reality TV shows like Rockatar INXS, Australia&#8217;s Got Talent, Australian Idol and Gene Simmon&#8217;s Rock School all have that guitar influence but also show competition between others and how tough it can be to make it.</p>
<p>The evolution of Internet has shown us numerous ways of broadcasting your work on the guitar and making contacts with other guitar enthusiasts. Or even musicians for that matter. Youtube is a powerful broadcasting tool for musicians, enthusiasts and just plain wannabes I guess. This is because of the means of uploading your work to the site for everyone else to view, rate and five comments/feedback on. So basically musicians can upload videos of themselves or their band playing songs for people to view and give feedback. Its useful in a way that they might have a record producer comment on their works and then take them on. Facebook and Myspace are useful in that you have a profile with all your work and stuff on it and gain contacts through the means of PMing and chatting to people. It is similar to Youtube but is more focused on social and chatty aspect where as Youtube is focused primary on videos. They play a role in the guitar as many bands have a Facebook or Myspace.</p>
<p>Music is the tops for guitar. Its its home, its where it lies and where it really and most truly belongs. The history making, drug tripped, hippy festival of Woodstock in the late 1960s showed just how powerful the guitar can be. This was mostly thanks to a man, who is now dead, named Jimi Hendrix. Jimi made headlines at Woodstock playing Voodoo Chile with his Fuzz Box and playing Star Spangled Banner. Jimi wasn&#8217;t the only artist to use the guitar at Woodstock, There many others using the guitar like Janis Joplin, Santana and The Who. <sup><a name="sdfootnote3anc" href="#sdfootnote3sym"><sup>3</sup></a></sup>Today&#8217;s music we see the guitar inspired from these old classic artists and bands. But still I try to enjoy it but just can&#8217;t. Its too modern. Maybe one day I will enjoy the guitar music of today.</p>
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		<title>Breaking Up is Hard to Do</title>
		<link>http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3552</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:55:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>DM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Entertainment]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[When I started doing album reviews in late February/early March, one of my first was of Melon Kinenbi&#8217;s final album &#8220;MELON&#8217;S NOT DEAD.&#8221; Now that we&#8217;re back with a slightly new outlook in life, blogging, and the interwebs; and let&#8217;s not mention how I miraculously found it the other day; I am reviewing Melon Kinenbi&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When I started doing album reviews in late February/early March, one of my first was of Melon Kinenbi&#8217;s final album &#8220;MELON&#8217;S NOT DEAD.&#8221;<br />
Now that we&#8217;re back with a slightly new outlook in life, blogging, and the interwebs; and let&#8217;s not mention how I miraculously found it the other day; I am reviewing Melon Kinenbi&#8217;s final concert and DVD, entitled (horribly, I should add) &#8220;FINAL STAGE MELON&#8217;S NOT DEAD.&#8221;<br />
Because this concert was so long (albeit, it&#8217;s pales in comparison to the three hours long Morning Musume&#8217;s 2009 Fall NINE SMILE DVD was, since <s>the horse</s> Koharu was graduating), I&#8217;m going to condense my review a tiny bit. I took six hundred screenshots throughout the concert, and only a small number are included here. I&#8217;ll probably post more on my writing journal and will post the link when I do.</p>
<p><span id="more-3552"></span></p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/melonbow.jpg"></p>
<p>I have to say; this was well worth the wait. The DVD came out in in July, and I <b>just now</b> found some way to get it. I was expecting someone to cut it up and put it on YouTube; the same way that I watched the NINE SMILE concert. While someone did do that with quite a few of the songs, all of them weren&#8217;t there; and only two of the songs I wanted to see live were on there. </p>
<p>To serve as the VTR (the introduction), the Melon Kinenbi theme plays (from the 1st Aniversary album) as the screen behind the stage shows all of the various logos for the group&#8217;s live tours. The last logo is shown on screen, and I&#8217;m sure on the screen behind the stage showed it as well:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/melonsnotdeadlogo.jpg"></p>
<p>This is also the logo that&#8217;s on the girl&#8217;s t-shirts and wrist bands (later in the concert). All I can say is it&#8217;s amazing.<br />
And I really want one of those shirts or wristbands.<br />
I think I&#8217;m going to go searching.</p>
<p>The concert starts out with a few songs that I, personally, would not have started out a Melon Kinenbi concert with, nonetheless their final concert. Neither of which are my favourites, but I still love them; &#8220;Kousui,&#8221; (&#8220;Perfume&#8221;) and then &#8220;Natsu no Yoru wa Danger!&#8221; (&#8220;Summer Nights are Dangerous!&#8221;)  If this was me, I probably would&#8217;ve started with &#8220;Unforgettable,&#8221; but this isn&#8217;t me. It goes onto the first MC where each of the girls introduce themselves.<br />
I was surprised with this to be honest. There were really only four MCs (speaking spots between songs), whereas most concerts there&#8217;s eight. I&#8217;m not enitrely sure why, but whatever. My Japanese is so horrid I can&#8217;t understand anything so it works out for me. All I can pull out is the girl&#8217;s names, and Ootani randomly playing hype (wo)man with the crowd and making the wota (wotadachi, as I believe Hitomi regarded them; combination of wota ["fan," basically] and tomodachi ["friend"]) go crazy.<br />
After the talking comes one of my favourite B-sides, &#8220;Girls Power, Aisuru Power.&#8221; (&#8220;Girls Power, Power to Love.&#8221;) I actually did not learn of this song until I got the concert rip the day after the concert (albeit it was horrible quality; but I could still hear the music), and as soon as I learned of the song I made sure to get my hands on it.<br />
I love hearing this song performed live. I love the choreography. I love it all.<br />
They perform the A-side of the single, &#8220;Saa! Koibito ni Narou&#8221; (&#8220;Hey! Let&#8217;s Become Lovers), which is another song I quickly learned to love. After all, how can you say no to Ootani Masae and Shibata Ayumi rapping? </p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/ayuootanirap.jpg"></p>
<p>The song&#8217;s longer than usual and the girls play on the crowd, and it&#8217;s just really really awesome; especially when Hitomi screams at them to shout &#8220;AI NO BOTAN RENDA RENDA.&#8221; And then when the songs launches back, the crowd just like&#8230;jumps. It&#8217;s amazing.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/rendarendarenda.jpg"></p>
<p>The awesome songs continue on with &#8220;Natsu&#8221; (&#8220;Summer&#8221;), the B-side of &#8220;Chance of LOVE,&#8221; which the lyrics of make me laugh so hard. &#8220;MY MONROE WALK.&#8221;<br />
The choreography of this song is pretty awesome. I love how they do the monkey in the beginning.<br />
You can also tell by the girl&#8217;s expressions that they&#8217;re enjoying theirselves. They&#8217;re all smiling and laughing and having fun.</p>
<p>After &#8220;Natsu&#8221; is a song I&#8217;m not really that big on, &#8220;Enryo wa Nashi yo!&#8221; I didn&#8217;t watch it though, so I don&#8217;t know what happened during it. While rewatching the concert (I watched it yesterday, and then again later as I did this review), I did catch Ayumi looking adorable and breaking the fourth wall:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/ayumienyro.jpg"></p>
<p>I just skipped far enough to the next part, which is the second MC part. Again, I have no clue what is going on here. All I know is Ayumi is running around like she&#8217;s high, and Murata is showing off her hype guy skills. </p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/mc2hypemura.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/mc2hype1.jpg"></p>
<p>And the wota eat it up.</p>
<p>They go through &#8220;Akai Freesia,&#8221; (&#8220;Red Freesia&#8221;) which I didn&#8217;t really like either (I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it), so I skipped past it.<br />
Next was &#8220;Unforgettable,&#8221; which was my second Melon Kinenbi song (my first being &#8220;Melon Tea&#8221;). &#8220;Unforgettable&#8221; was also their last song under Hello! Project. It was also featured on the really awesome album called &#8220;Melon Juice.&#8221; I&#8217;ve heard the song live before, but it&#8217;s still really awesome live.<br />
&#8220;Koi no Shikumi,&#8221; (&#8220;Structure of Love&#8221;) which comes next, is nice; but I&#8217;m not as big on it as I am any other song. But there was something cool they did; which was they set up the screen to show the girls pictures when they sang:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/shikumi1.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/shikumi2.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/shikumi3.jpg"></p>
<p>I wish they had done that on &#8220;Girls Power.&#8221; That would&#8217;ve made it a lot easier for me to colour code it for ProjectHello. Had to play that damn song at half of it&#8217;s regular speed to make sure I got everything right.<br />
Anyway&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8220;LEATHER&#8221; was another song that I didn&#8217;t know until this concert, and I actually just recently got it after biting the bullet and downloading &#8220;FRUITY KILLER TUNE&#8221; for only two songs.<br />
This song is so wicked live. I love the images on the screen, even if it does just look like a Windows Media Player visualization.<br />
Not that big on &#8220;Kawaii Kare,&#8221; (&#8220;Cute Boyfriend&#8221;) so I skipped it as well. To me, it just wasn&#8217;t Melon Kinenbi.<br />
&#8220;Denwa Matteimasu&#8221; (&#8220;I&#8217;m Waiting For Your Call&#8221;) comes next, and it was so awesome. And watching it live has taught me one thing.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/hitomidenwa.jpg"></p>
<p>Hitomi really wants you to return her calls.</p>
<p>After &#8220;Denwa,&#8221; they go into a block of the songs I wanted to see performed live the most. &#8220;sweet suicide summer story,&#8221; which was SO AMAZING I VERY POSSIBLY MIGHT&#8217;VE&#8230;oh, this is a PG-rated site, never mind.<br />
But there were like strobes and out of focus video and it was so dark all you could see besides the girls in the strobes were the light sticks the wotas had.<br />
IT WAS SO AMAZING I VERY POSSIBLY&#8211;oh, still a PG-rated site. Never mind.<br />
And on a completely different note, the song after it is the slow, &#8217;70s classic rock slow jam &#8220;Seishun on the Road&#8221; (&#8220;Youth on the Road.&#8221;) There isn&#8217;t any dancing or anything; the girls just stand in a straight line and sing, but it&#8217;s still great. This really was one of my favourite songs from the &#8220;MELON&#8217;S NOT DEAD&#8221; album, and I&#8217;m glad they picked it. But really, now that I think about it; everything from the album was performed, saved for the rock version of Melon Kinenbi no Theme.<br />
I am so ADD.</p>
<p>A coupling of every live tour that Melon has been on comes next. Starting with their first, and ending with their tenth anniversary concert (home to the second best performance of &#8220;This is Unmei&#8221;).<br />
Some samplings (you can see the video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-rAckJ-894">here</a>):</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/1stanniversaryzepptokyo.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/whateverthisis.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/lockon.jpg"></p>
<p>You never realise how much Masae changes her hair until you see this&#8230;</p>
<p>They go through more of the songs from their latest album, as well as a costume change.<br />
&#8220;Don&#8217;t Say Good-Bye&#8221; is amazing, as are the other songs they perform in this little block of &#8220;MELON&#8217;S NOT DEAD&#8221;-dom. (&#8220;Ai Da! Ima Sugu ROCK ON!&#8221; &#8220;Romantic wo Tsukinukero! ~Break it now~&#8221; and &#8220;ALL AROUND ROCK.&#8221;)  </p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/costumechange.jpg"></p>
<p>What you can&#8217;t see in this picture is that Ayumi looks like she was ate by a quilt of goose down feathers.<br />
After the block, they perform the song they did on the THE BLUE HEARTS tribute album, &#8220;Kisu Shite Hoshii.&#8221; (&#8220;I Want You to Kiss Me.&#8221;) I was able to get my hands on the song thanks to a friend who is a massive fan of THE BLUE HEARTS (here&#8217;s looking at you, Em) and it quickly became one of my favourite songs.<br />
Also, I know it&#8217;s supposed to be a motion for kissing, but I don&#8217;t like how they keep holding their fingers to their mouths. Almost looks like they&#8217;re smoking&#8230;<br />
Next comes &#8220;Onegai Miwaku no Target,&#8221; (&#8220;Please, Attracting Target&#8221;) which makes me happy in the pants and the all over. This is, by far, my favourite song by Melon Kinenbi. They don&#8217;t do a lot of dancing on this one; as they&#8217;re standing behind microphone stands, but they do enough to look cool. And when the song is this awesome, who cares if they&#8217;re dancing?<br />
Also, is it bad of me that I&#8217;ve already memorized when to &#8220;hey&#8221; and &#8220;ohhh&#8221; on this song? Thanks, wota.<br />
They continue to make me happy with a performance of &#8220;Melon Tea&#8221; (in the same manner) and then the first of two performances of &#8220;This is Unmei.&#8221; (&#8220;This is Fate.&#8221;) I don&#8217;t like this performance as much as the other, but it still has it&#8217;s redeeming qualities.<br />
Like&#8230;</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/unmei1.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/unmei2.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/unmei3.jpg"></p>
<p>Yes, that <i>is</i> a whip in Megumi&#8217;s hands. But it could also be like a conductor&#8217;s baton, like Yasuda Kei had during the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rymtrAvuV-c">2005 performance of the song with all of Hello! Project</a>.<br />
But I like to think it&#8217;s a whip.<br />
It starts out a little weird and to be honest I got confused singing it, but it&#8217;s still &#8220;This is Unmei,&#8221; and it&#8217;s still awesome. </p>
<p>&#8220;Pinch wa Chance! Baka ni Naroze!&#8221; (I have no clue what this is. Pinch is Chance, Stupid&#8230;derp, that&#8217;s where you lose me) is a little&#8230;odd. The girls go absolutely fricking crazy, there&#8217;s a clown on stage with a camera (and in the second disc near the end [I guess it's special features] it shows Ootani with a camera) and so it&#8217;s kind of like a candid take on stage.<br />
Lots of antics ensue. I&#8217;m uploading enough images with this, so I won&#8217;t put them up here.<br />
The last song on disc one is &#8220;Saa, Sassoku Moriagete Ikou ka~!!&#8221; (&#8220;Now, Let&#8217;s Get Pumped Up~!!&#8221;) and it&#8217;s as awesome as ever. They&#8217;re still wearing their towels on their heads and around their necks like in the previous song, and there&#8217;s like&#8230;jumping&#8230;and&#8230;win. And yeah.</p>
<p>You would think the concert ends there, but ohhh you are wrong.<br />
On disc two, you are greeted with wota chanting &#8220;ME-LON ME-LON ME-LON ME-LON,&#8221; and the PV to their first song &#8220;Amai Anata no Aji&#8221; (&#8220;The Sweet Taste of You&#8221;), which I didn&#8217;t like at first but is now growing on me as I watch them perform it.<br />
The PV plays on screen while the girls come out and perform to it. It&#8217;s really cool to watch because you have them as they&#8217;re older in front of the screen where they&#8217;re younger. </p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/amai.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/saitouamai.jpg"></p>
<p>After &#8220;Amai,&#8221; they perform &#8220;Sakurairo no Yakusoku&#8221; (&#8220;Cherry Blossom-Coloured Promise&#8221;), which I guess is okay. It&#8217;s not my favourite song, but it&#8217;s not my least favourite. </p>
<p>During the MC that comes after it, it&#8217;s safe to say the girls lose their cool. They&#8217;re only a few songs away from officially breaking up, and to be honest, I&#8217;m surprised I didn&#8217;t see more wotas with tears running down their cheeks. I can think of one that did though&#8230;<br />
Ootani seems to keep it together, as does Ayumi, but Megumi was really the first to lose it. I began crying myself, but I wasn&#8217;t that that bad until Hitomi began crying. After I listened and learned more about them, I began loving Hitomi the most and she became my favourite member. Once she started crying, I lost it myself. I was so embarrassed to be honest, but I was glad I was alone.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/muraramc4crying.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/saitoumc4crying1.jpg"></p>
<p>I don&#8217;t know what they were saying during the MC. I was too sad to try and translate and probably couldn&#8217;t have even under normal conditions anyway.</p>
<p>What didn&#8217;t help out was they did &#8220;ALWAYS LOVE YOU&#8221; next, and that was just&#8230;that was the nail in my coffin. The other girls actually stayed pretty strong through it though. But being honest with you, I don&#8217;t think I stopped crying until long after I finished watching the concert.<br />
What they did was simple. They sang the song, and the screen behind them had a shot on each of their faces. It was quite nice, actually.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/alwaysloveyou.jpg"></p>
<p>They run off, but then come back shortly after. There&#8217;s a little more talking and a lot more crying, both from the girls and me. They perform &#8220;Endless Youth,&#8221; which I really began loving after hearing the concert audio, and now you can see everyone&#8217;s officially down and out. They can&#8217;t stop crying, and no one really finishes their solo lines. Which is fine, because I&#8217;m too busy crying as well to notice.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/saitouendless.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/ayumiendless.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/ootaniendless.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/murataendless.jpg"></p>
<p>The credits roll; and if I hadn&#8217;t heard the concert audio, I would&#8217;ve been really angry. But I have heard it, and I know of the awesome that comes next.<br />
The final song they perform is &#8220;This is Unmei,&#8221; which is pretty much how they end most of their concerts (it&#8217;s how their tenth anniversary concert ended, anyway). It was so amazing. Absolutely amazing.<br />
You can tell they&#8217;re still pretty busted up about what&#8217;s going on, but it&#8217;s so amazing. No whip, but I don&#8217;t care. It&#8217;s just&#8230;wow.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/hitomiunmei.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/ayumiunmei.jpg"></p>
<p>And the end:</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/behindthecurtains.jpg"></p>
<p>The DVD ends with the girls all holding each other back stage after the concert and just&#8230;letting go of everything. Moments like this make me wonder why they even decided to do this, but after eleven years of touring and being away from friends and family, it&#8217;s understood. Hitomi has since married, Masae has released a solo song to cell phones called &#8220;killing my caddy.&#8221; (Spoiler alert: it&#8217;s as amazing as she is.) Ayumi has opened up a blog (powdered by Ameba; and no, that&#8217;s not a typo on my part), and I do believe Megumi did the same. </p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/behindstage1.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/behindstage2.jpg"><br />
<img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/final.jpg"></p>
<p>I&#8217;m not reviewing the bonus features (this article is long as is); but the basic thing is a behind the scenes of the concert, and showing other parts of their tour, as a live version of &#8220;Skip!&#8221; plays. There is also another version of &#8220;Pinch wa Chance,&#8221; showing the clown&#8217;s POV from the camera, as well as Masae&#8217;s.</p>
<p>All and all, this&#8230;was incredible. It was worth the wait for it to be uploaded. It was worth the three hour wait for the .flvs to download. It was worth everything. </p>
<p>So, thank you, Melon Kinenbi.<br />
And may sweet angels of rock sing you to your eternal sleep.<br />
Or whenever you decide to do a reunion.<s> Preferably in America and somewhere near Detroit please. </s></p>
<p><i>Credits</i>;<br />
Translations: <a href="http://projecthello.com">ProjectHello</a> and myself<br />
Images: Myself, via VLC Media Player, edited in Paint Shop Pro.<br />
The DVD rip of FINAL STAGE: MELON&#8217;S NOT DEAD: <a href="http://station.mgoon.com/arambia">Arambia</a> at <a href="http://www.mgoon.com">mgoon.com</a> and <a href="http://savevideo.me">Savevideo.me</a>, and AT&amp;T for taking three hours and twenty minutes of pure, unadulterated torture and waiting to download it. </p>
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		<title>Ugh — Bed Bugs.</title>
		<link>http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3532</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:36:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Light</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[First, watch the following video: Next month, Toronto will host it&#8217;s annual film festival: TIFF : Toronto International Film Festival.  Earlier this week, a patron of the venue that will be screening the films, Scotiabank Theatre; complained about red spots and an itchy sensation. Oh frak. Bed bugs.  TIFF officials responded by tweeting that they [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>First, watch the following video:</p>
<p><center><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="480" height="385" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WfKCcSPCOQo?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WfKCcSPCOQo?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object></center></p>
<p>Next month, Toronto will host it&#8217;s annual film festival: <em>TIFF : Toronto International Film Festival.</em>  Earlier this week, a patron of the venue that will be screening the films, <em>Scotiabank Theatre</em>; complained about red spots and an itchy sensation. Oh frak. Bed bugs.  TIFF officials responded by tweeting that they were in contact with Cineplex, the company that manages the theatre, to make sure the film festival would be bug free.  Days later, Cineplex declared that not a single bed bug was found in the theatre.  It was a close call, but for some, it was too close for comfort; considering how the cases of bedbugs in Canada and the United States have increased dramatically over the past several years.  Ohio, has been the hardest place hit, with all four major cities (Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton and Cincinnati) reporting high amounts of bed bugs &#8212; no word on whether <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutus_Buckeye" target="_blank">Brutus</a> has been infested yet. </p>
<p>After a few evenings with Brian Williams, I managed to pick up a few tips; on how to keep your environment, a bed bug free zone. <img src='http://www.lightwp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p><span id="more-3532"></span></p>
<ol>
<li>Don&#8217;t ever, ever, buy furniture from second hand places; especially beds. Dateline NBC once did an investigation, furniture may look new; but some of it may be made using old parts (which may have had bed bugs).</li>
<li>When in a hotel (1 in 4 rooms are said to be infested), remove the sheets and inspect the mattress and the seams. Look for apple seed like bugs, and for tiny stains of blood.</li>
<li>After returning home from a place, where contact with bed bugs is likely, check your belongings for them.</li>
<li>Since bed bugs travel with humans, they have also been found in department stores. Before you model what you wear, take it home and wash it.</li>
<li>Do not ever pick up furniture that has been thrown out. This is common sense.</li>
</ol>
<p>Since bed bugs are known not to transmit disease, they are Snooki bugs more than anything; bugs that are a pain in the ass.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">- &#8211; -</p>
<p>Remember! No place is safe! If Sesame Street was a real place, Big Bird would be covered in red spots by now.</p>
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		<title>Smoking Baby</title>
		<link>http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3524</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:40:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Light</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[baby]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ramen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smoking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3524</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[IMPORTANT EDIT:  The toddler has now quit smoking. A few months ago, video surfaced on the Internet, of a toddler who smokes two packs a day. The toddler, who was taught the habit by his father; lives in Indonesia, and is currently in rehab provided by the Indonesian government. If you haven&#8217;t seen the video, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><center><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/856091--buddha-like-toddler-quits-smoking?bn=1"><strong>IMPORTANT EDIT:  The toddler has now quit smoking.</strong> </a></center></p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="640" height="385" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x4c_wI6kQyE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/x4c_wI6kQyE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object></p>
<p>A few months ago, video surfaced on the Internet, of a toddler who smokes two packs a day. The toddler, who was taught the habit by his father; lives in Indonesia, and is currently in rehab provided by the Indonesian government. If you haven&#8217;t seen the video, it&#8217;s above .. that kid is so bad ass. So, being curious; I decided to crunch some numbers. The child at the time of the video was 2 years old; and started to smoke at 18 months. Give or take a few months, the duration of his addiction lasted only about 6 months; but that was enough to get this child addicted &#8212; so much so, that he throws a tantrum and gets sick, if he doesn&#8217;t get his two packs a day.</p>
<p>Now, every day, he would go through approx. 40 cigarettes. It is estimated that one cigarette takes about 7 minutes of your life away. 7 x 40 is 280 &#8212; the boy loses 280 minutes of his life every day. Now, multiply that number by the number of approx. days in 6 months (180 days). 280 x 180 is 50400. There are 1440 minutes in a day. 50400/1440 gives us 35. The boy has lost approx. 35 days of his life.  Now, let&#8217;s look at the financial cost to his father.</p>
<p>His father told the news media that it costs him about $5 dollars USD to pay for his son&#8217;s fetish.  That means, over 6 months; he spent 900 dollars for his son&#8217;s addiction. That money could have bought a lot of ramen.  Now, you know.</p>
<p>I want some noodles now.</p>
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		<title>The Night of Goodbyes</title>
		<link>http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3484</link>
		<comments>http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3484#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:43:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>DM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.lightwp.com/?p=3484</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Don&#8217;t ask where the title came from. I had to come up with something. I swear. I don&#8217;t know why I can&#8217;t keep track of the days. Atleast I realised it before it was a weak too late. It didn&#8217;t take much thinking on what I&#8217;d write about today. In fact, all it took was [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Don&#8217;t ask where the title came from. I had to come up with <i>something</i>. </p>
<p>I swear. I don&#8217;t know <i>why</i> I can&#8217;t keep track of the days. Atleast I realised it before it was a weak too late.<br />
It didn&#8217;t take much thinking on what I&#8217;d write about today. In fact, all it took was my shuffle on Windows Media Player being on and hitting a song called &#8220;Papillion.&#8221; Then I came up with my idea: ten reasons you&#8217;ll like Iida Kaori.</p>
<p><span id="more-3484"></span></p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/iidakaori.jpg"></p>
<p>I&#8217;m not going to lie. The music of Iida Kaori, also affectionately called Johnson, isn&#8217;t for everyone. I have this thing about orchestras and kinda slow music, so I think that&#8217;s why I attached to Kaori&#8217;s music so quickly. </p>
<p>For a bit of a background, Iida Kaori was one of the original members of J-pop super group Morning Musume. She stuck with the group the longest of any member, leaving in 2005 with the song &#8220;THE Manpower!!!&#8221; albeit personally, I wish she had stuck around until the next single, &#8220;Osaka Koi no Uta,&#8221; but since that song already saw Ishikawa Rika&#8217;s and Yaguchi Mari&#8217;s (unplanned) graduation&#8230;<br />
Then Kaori left, I think part of Morning Musume died. For some reason, they were never really the same; and then that was amplified by the graduations of Fujimoto Miki, Ogawa Makoto, Konno Asami and my love, Yoshizawa Hitomi.<br />
(Note that Yossie is not my love. Although there is a picture of her with a potato floating around I absolutely love. It&#8217;s my desktop. X3)<br />
I wish I could go back to the time when Iida was in, and so was Nacchi and Yossie and Konkon and OgaMako and Mikitty&#8230;<br />
I could go on all day about all the reasons I miss the older gens of Momusu, but that&#8217;s not what my review is about.</p>
<p>Overall, Iida was not a fit for H!P; and especially wouldn&#8217;t be now. You don&#8217;t dance to Iida&#8217;s music, you enjoy it. Mano Erina is also similar, and even though they&#8217;re finding ways to keep her music interesting (&#8220;Genkimono de Ikou!&#8221; sounds amazing, fyi), I&#8217;m afraid she&#8217;s going to go the same route of Johnson and end up not releasing anything else soon. (I&#8217;m not trying to curse her, Em; I swear)</p>
<p><img src="http://www.lightwp.com/wp-content/uploads/aiaraba2.jpg"></p>
<p>I heard Iida&#8217;s first single, &#8220;Aegean ni Dakarete&#8221; on J1FM and fell in love. So then I went through and began downloading her discography, until I had every album. So now I have every song, I can very fairly name my ten favourite songs, and my ten reasons why you should like Iida Kaori. </p>
<p><b>10</b>; &#8220;Aegean ni Dakarete&#8221;<br />
<I>From &#8220;Avenir ~Mirai~</i><br />
Of course the first song I heard by Kaori has to be added. I don&#8217;t like this song as much as some of her other songs, but it&#8217;s still good. It&#8217;s fairly upbeat compared to her other songs, and it&#8217;s got a bit of an orchestra, but it&#8217;s still has a little bit of pop. It&#8217;s a wonderful song. I love it.</p>
<p><b>9</b>; &#8220;Aruite Yukou&#8230;Mirai e&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Avenir ~Mirai~&#8221;</i><br />
I didn&#8217;t like the introduction of this song, but I love the lyrics and I love it once the chorus gets going. It makes me feel like I&#8217;m in France, or on an episode of &#8220;Madeline.&#8221; Also, she WROTE THIS SONG. How cool is that? Very rare now to find artists that write their own material. </p>
<p><b>8</b>; &#8220;Downtown&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Osavurio&#8221;</i><br />
A redo of the almost-classic English song of the same name, it takes her style and puts a spin on the song. It sounds really great; but I&#8217;m afraid I just have a teensy little problem with how she pronounces &#8220;Downtown.&#8221; She says it like &#8220;Downton.&#8221; Like wonton, only it&#8217;s down instead of won. I can&#8217;t blame her, but still&#8230;it is a little amusing.</p>
<p><b>7</b>; &#8220;Lila no Kisetsu&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Paradinome ~Koi no Mi wo Yudanete~&#8221;</i><br />
If my ears are right, and I think they are, she&#8217;s singing in French. I think a lot of Paradinome is French? She speaks it great, I can tell you that much.<br />
But even though this isn&#8217;t quite a way to start an album, although the first track is amazing, it&#8217;s still a beautiful song.</p>
<p><b>6</b>; &#8220;Paradinome ~Koi no Mi wo Yudanete~&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Paradinome ~Koi no Mi wo Yudanete~&#8221;</i><br />
Speaking of.<br />
I love everything about this song. The music, the words. The music is so different, but it&#8217;s so good. I don&#8217;t even have a way to describe it. I love the chorus the best, partially because it tells me how to pronounce &#8220;Paradinome.&#8221; Partially because I love the pan flute. </p>
<p><B>5</B>; &#8220;Oh Shanzerize&#8221; (&#8220;Oh Champs Elysee&#8221;)<br />
<i>From &#8220;Paradinome ~Koi ni Mi wo Yudanete~&#8221;</i><br />
This almost sounds like the Golden Girls theme, but it&#8217;s still a nice song. There&#8217;s also a little bit of horn with the piano and the drums and everything.</p>
<p><b>4</b>; &#8220;Ipanema no Musume&#8221;<br />
<I>From &#8220;Osavurio&#8221;</i><br />
Let me first say that I didn&#8217;t know this was originally a Portuguese song. I&#8217;m not sure if she&#8217;s singing it in French, or if it&#8217;s actually Portuguese and my listening skills suck (I&#8217;m assuming for former), but anyway.<br />
I beamed when I first heard this song. I first knew the one by Frank Sinatra, which is &#8220;The Girl from Ipanema&#8221; (which is pretty far off from the Japanese title, which translates into &#8220;Daughter of Ipanema&#8221;). The beginning sounded familiar, and then I was like &#8220;Ipanema&#8230;and wait, she just went &#8220;ahhh&#8221;. IS THAT &#8220;THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA&#8221;?&#8221;And then it was.<br />
End TL;DR.<br />
It&#8217;s not that far off from the Sinatra version. And that makes me happy.</p>
<p><b>3</b>; &#8220;Osavurio ~Ai wa Matte Kurenai~&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Osavurio&#8221;</i><br />
This song is really <i>sad</i>. Like, really really sad. Beautiful, but sad. Not a good way to open up an album, but beautiful. But sad.<br />
Also short. <img src='http://www.lightwp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif' alt=':(' class='wp-smiley' />  </p>
<p><B>2</B>; &#8220;Marine Blue no Hitomi&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Paradinome ~Koi ni Mi wo Yudanete~&#8221;</i><br />
I love the title of this song. &lt;3 It reads as &quot;Eyes of Marine Blue.&quot;<br />
It&#039;s a beautiful song, with the piano and such, but then there&#039;s a GUITAR. AND IT&#039;S AWESOME. AND I CAN&#039;T THINK OF ANY OTHER WAY TO DESCRIBE THIS SONG&#039;S AMAZINGNESS EXCEPT FOR CAPS.<br />
Should I dig out the Robot Unicorn Attack comic I used for my last review?</p>
<p><b>1</b>; &#8220;LA NOTTE DELL&#8217;ADDIO ~Wakaru no Yoru~&#8221;<br />
<i>From &#8220;Plein D&#8217;Amour ~Ai ga Ippai~&#8221;</i><br />
Unlike the French she sings in, this is actually Italian. And it&#8217;s absolutely amazing. By far, my favourite song by Kaori. It&#8217;s beautiful, the perfect mix of everything, she sounds great speaking Italian. All of it is amazing.<br />
I&#8217;ll go get the Robot Unicorn Attack comic now&#8230;</p>
<p>But that&#8217;s about it. My apologies for forgetting my article. I feel so stupid for forgetting. Forgive me?</p>
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