Take, Eat; This is my curry.

Well, since I havent posted on this thingy in a while, here goes.

I moved into my new apt. It's in Minami-Nagasaki. Quite spacious (for a 1K (1 room/kitchen)) but that might be because i lived in a closet last term. (not that it was a bad thing, but yknow.)

Regardless, its a nice place, in the middle... of... a residential area, i guess you could say. I'm about 5 min by train to Ikebukuro (if i can ever find my train station that goes there...) and about 30 min from school.

School... well School's interesting so far. I'm taking a some BS classes and some core, but nothing too interesting. Though my Japanese class is half full of (pretty much to completely) fluent people, so its really quite difficult. I mean some of the kids in the class ARE Japanese. (like born and raised!! Not like me!!) But regardless, it is a fun (if terrifying) class. HW is a bitch tho.

Other than that, classes are usual. I'm taking a japanese culture class for the hell of it too. It's a bit boring, but interesting at the same time if you know what i mean.

Recently, I've been reading a shitload of X-Men comics (i got a huge book for christmas) so I've been continuing my Marvel Comics reading trend. (this was since i got House of M) Nerdy? Perhaps, but its too damn good!

Also, Jump! Ultimate Stars. Best DS Game ever! ...for the moment. I got Ouendan, which is a lot of fun, but Stars has the edge in multiplayer fun. For instance, now that i bought myself a USB DS Wireless adapter, I can play with anyone and everyone in Japan! Sweet! Its quite tough playing some of these people, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Those of you who dont have this game. What are you waiting for?? (Well unless you dont have a DS or dont read Jump Manga.) But even if you dont read Jump Manga its still a kickass handheld fighter. In fact, I dont know 50% of the manga that are in the game.

Anyway if you get the game, which i hear you can play online even in the USA, you can get a "Friend code" so you can play with your friends. Victoria and I have used it, and it works perfectly.

Damn I sound like a commercial... but hey, good games deserve it.

Oh also, if you cant read Japanese its quite easy to navigate, so no worries about language issues.

Next month looks sweet as far as concerts go. Angra and Blind Guardian is going to be incredible. (Victoria can ignore this as I have been blabbering about it for ages) Also, we have tickets for D, Balzac, and Merry.

Those of you who are seeing E6 in the coming months, tell me how it is okay?

Sheesh enough rambling... I'm outta here. (FOOD!)

Hey just wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year! Make sure to celebrate Jesus' (and my) b-day and have some fun and whatever traditions your family does!!

See y'all around!!

You guys want anything from Japan? I'm coming back the 7th so I'll "take your orders" so to speak.

Longyin, You're already covered.

...and i expect to be paid back... but that goes without saying.

Thanksgiving today was pretty fun. First one where i didnt eat any turkey. Kinda weird but awesome at the same time. 柏は楽しいんだぜ。

So I saw Iron Maiden on Saturday, and I must say it was pretty epic. My seat was a perfect view from the fourth row. Incredible view.

( Up the Irons! )

I feel sorry for those of you who DIDNT GO see maiden because no one would go with you. Thats a bad excuse! I went by myself and I'll tell you, You missed an amazing event that will never happen again.

Anyway are you guys up to anything new? I hope these live reports dont bore you too much but damn i had to do one for Maiden.

My english class is quite boring (im tired of doing all this race crap... but it fufills two core classes...)

The best girlfriend in the world helped me get tickets to see IRON MAIDEN in Tokyo International Forum on 10/28. Fourth fucking row. Unfortunetly said girlfriend cannot make it to the concert because of a prior engagement...

Anyway, I'm just fkking excited to see THE heavy metal band for the first time. (i know eric, youve already seen them) Laura Harris (Steve Harris' daughter) is opening... crappy? we'll see.

anyway anything cool happening to you people? I barely get to speak to any of you... kind of saddening.

UP THE IRONS!!

My school has a free music download service, so if anyone has any bands they can recommend me id be grateful.

My camp is having a sleep over thing on July 13th. OF ALL DAYS it had to be the day i have tickets for an Electric Six concert.

So this means i cant go.... argh

if anyone wants to go and doesnt have a ticket yet, can you buy it thru me? i'm selling them at face value.

Why is it that people come out of the woodwork on the last day of school?

People who passed me in the hallway for most of the year and never said a word to me say they will miss me and stuff. Such bullshit feelings that i cant return.

Honestly, why say "look me up" if you dont mean it? Why say "I'll see you around, right?" when you wont?

I just hate how people are so fake, thats all.

Cuz all i know is that most... if not all... the people i never talk to/hang out with outside of school, i will lose contact with. Thats just how things happen. I just wont be fake about it.

and with that HS is over. I had my interview with my school's Dean for a scholarship... it went well i think. Cant fkking wait!

have you ever gone back to your old middle school and saw the teachers you had like 10 years ago? Wow its pretty crazy.

Today my old music teacher retired so I went to the event. I managed to see my Music, Pre-k, K, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, ARt, gym teachers from way back when. It was of course, a little awkward as some did a double take (woah is that you seiya?? youve grown up?) then they did another double take when i told them i was going to japan for college. (wow! are you excited??)

Anyway, anyone else went thru this?

From JHouserock:
"SATURDAY 6-17-06 8pm D'espairsRay Concert at CBGB

That's right D'espairsRay will be playing at the world famous CBGB's in Manhattan as part of the METAL NIGHT lineup. There will be a total of 5 bands playing, and tickets will be sold through the venue. D'espairsRay should take the stage first around 8pm."



anyone else wanna go? I'm still waiting to hear Maverick Live lol.

Sunday i went to the food fest with eric. it was pretty cool...

this week has been pretty busy for me... a lot of projects are coming up... shouldnt we be winding down already???

today was my last Japanese Honor induction ceremony. Sensei won some sort of award + grant which is really cool. she gave an emotional speech and what not.

but i digress, for the real reason of this post!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9182750246443326569&q=lordi

my new fav visual band! and yes i know they're from Finland. and yes, i am joking.

Lordi rule tho. Seriously. Yeah.

HARD. Rock! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!

DragonForce rocked the fkking house on tuesday. great show. nuff said.

today i saw a play called the Lieutenant of Inishmore. I highly recommend those who like dark humor and dont mind gore. (the onstage gore was impressive)

the irish accents might take some getting used to, but all in all the writing/back and forth of the characters makes it great.

Max, you should go see it as its by the same guy who wrote The Pillowman.

I think my acting teacher might be getting a few more tickets later on this week, so if you wanna go tell me and i might be able to hook you up.

I have to say, i was expecting a lesser show. Perhaps thats why i thought Electric Six rocked the fkking house. it was great to say the least.

The Rinse went on aroudn 9:20 or so... I thought they were the usual indie rock crap that keeps getting pushed these days. I noticed some of the "indie hipster" girls liking it a lot, but i thought it was really boring. Not much else to say besides i hope to never see them again.

Electric Six was beyond words! The crowd was kinda weird. It was really just 10 or so (maybe more?) in the very front/center who were getting into it, like jumping around and stuff. Everyone else, (mostly girls/older ppl with kids/boyfriends) surrounded us and did not move at all.

There was this really annoying asian boyfriend who kept trying to push us all back. I mean "protecting" his girlfriend was okay and stuff, but he was just being obnoxious about it. I hope i elbowed him enough times... probably not.

Notable songs: R and R Evacuation! Danger Danger! Gay Bar! etc. all the staple tracks of Electric Six goodness.

Props to John and Max for telling me to go and for rocking the hardest. i guess thats what i would have done too if i knew all the lyrics! haha. (i'll learn em for next time! but knowing just hte choruses made it fun too so w/e)

Set list:

1.The Root of All Evil
2.I Walk Beside You
3.Another Won
4.Afterlife
5.Under a Glass Moon
6.Innocence Faded
7.Raise the Knife
8.The Spirit Carries On
~Intermission~
9.Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2nd set with FULL ORCHESTRA!!!)
I.Overture
II.About to Crash
III.War Inside My Head
IV.The Test That Stumped Them All
V.Goodnight Kiss
VI.Solitary Shell
VII.About to Crash (Reprise)
VIII.Losing Time/Grand Finale
10.Vacant
11.The Answer Lies Within
12.Sacrificed Sons
13.Octavarium

Encore:
14.Metropolis Part 1

Amazing show. incredible.

EDIT: I'm too lazy to post a live report so i'll put some thoughts instead.

-disappointing set list
-2nd half picked up
-orchestra was really cool
-they played the worst octavarium songs........
-...but the concert was so good!
-no guests ;-;

i still liked it a lot but it makes me really happy taht i went to NJ cuz that setlist was beyond words...

anyway, what did you guys think?

I'm really tired... just got back home.. .but before i forget i'll post up the set list and then tell you how it was later...

1.The Root of All Evil
2.These Walls
3.Another Won
4.A Fortune in Lies
5.Take the Time
6.Innocence Faded
7.Speak to Me (!!!!!)
8.Strange Deja Vu
~Intermission~
9.The Glass Prison
10.This Dying Soul
11.Never Enough
12.Octavarium

ENCORE
13.Wait for Sleep
14.Learning to Live

so...amazing...

TAKE EVERYTHING YOUVE HEARD ABOUT DREAM THEATER.
TAKE EVERYTHING YOUVE HEARD ABOUT LABRIE AS A VOCALIST

MUTIPLY THAT BY... ok ok im just joking around... (if you got that-haha) my live report is as follows:

Pre-show: So Dan and i took the 3:08 train up to Asbury Park (took about 2 hrs to get there) Asbury Park is pretty run down... anyway so we took a taxi to the venue and went to a really rundown diner/bar for some food... Ugh it was so undercooked and disgusting... and over priced... but i was starving so whatever... So we gave $50 each to the eBay guy (we bought the tix semi off of eBay) and got on line... around 645 ish...
The line was massive... (like... twice Deg line size... probably more...) and it took them forever to let us in... So the show started a bit late, like around 8:00. So we get in, and take a look around the theater... the venue was pretty rundown as well, but whatever my seats were fkking amazing. We hear the intro music and...

Show:Portnoy comes out as the lights flash and starts hitting his drums to loud cheers from the audience. We hear guitar and oh yes, the show had started. I really cant get into how good it was cuz i dont wanna sound like an idiot... but it was great fun.

Dan went crazy during These Walls. It was amusing, since he really likes that song.

Apparently the shows they play on this tour are very historical. Also, like Octavarium, everything goes back full circle. They started with Root of All Evil (1st track on Octavarium) and ended with the title track. the historical part was that they played at least 1 song from every album.

So they play Another Won, which is of course, a song from their Majesty Demos. Lets just say James LaBrie sings it much better than Chris Collins (lol) and of course it just sounds a lot better than that crappy 1986 demo recording.

Next, i was hoping for some Only a Matter of Time action(as it is one of my fav DT songs), but alas it was not to be. Still, Fortune was quite a fun song to hear live.

I have to admit i went crazy during Take the Time... you could probably ask Dan about that. This was the first song that LaBrie started banging away at his tambourine. (oh boy)

I noticed that Mike Portnoy is very fun to watch. They all have a certain stage presence but Portnoy, is just so much fun to watch... Myung impressed Dan (i think he liked his basslines/finger movements) and Petrucci was doing his head nodding/pointing into the crowd stuff that he always seems to do. I love watching Rudess too... if only for his funny faces (haha i kid, he is pretty crazy on the keyboards!)

I was suprised that Mr. LaBrie could keep your attention as well. It was probably because he was spot on for the entire show... he only went flat here and there, but nothing to complain about, especially since his vocal parts are so high.

So skip to Speak to Me. (argh pick a better Awake song for Saturday!!! Lie! The Mirror!! Space Dye Vest??? pleaaaase Kevin Moore?) Speak to Me, of course, is one of hte songs that was cut from Falling Into Infinity. A bit disappointing that they didnt play any FII songs but regardless. LABrie did a little Emcee where he was talking about songs that got cut (i was going Speak to me speak to me!!!) and im so happy i got to hear this gem live.

Anyway skip ahead(i dont want to repeat "playing ~~~ was AWESOME" but everything was played well. Though during Never Enough and These Walls some annoying guy next to me was singing really loudly.. It didnt help that he was massively flat... ouch) to Octavarium. Jordan Rudess, master of funny faces...er i mean keyboard got an extra 5-6 min or so for the intro. I'm not a big fan of the notorious "we're pink floyd!!" intro but i do have to admit it was fun watching Rudess have fun with it. Labrie nailed his entry of "Trapped inside this OCTAVARIUM!" and stuff which was cool (i heard he missed it a cpl of times in other concerts...)Also, during a short cartoon was played during the song. It consisted of the band members playing in a maze and LaBrie running away from a spider. at one point they all turn into an Octopus and then Rudess turns into Santa Clause...needless to say it was really silly.

I was hoping for Wait for Sleep/Learning to Live for our encore, and boy was i happy to hear Rudess play the intro and LaBrie sing in his fruity way. They played a different/extended solo for Learning to Live, and La Brie hit the F# a little rough but very nice nonetheless. Anyway, with that the show was over.....

and i must say, it was the best show i've been to yet... Well maybe until Saturday... but being so damn close to Dream Theater will be an experience i'll remember always.

Post Show:Getting back home was a pain in hte ass. as you can see by this posting time... i got home so late, and the show ended around 11:00. ouch.

Tomorrow. heh. I shouldnt be up right now.

uh i'll post up a live report monday... (Asbury park is the middle of nowhere......... damn NJ)

MAY 2nd! YES! since we missed their first NYC concert, we are not missing their 2nd.

Who's with me?

Dir en grey live rule #1:

Absolutely no photography/video of any kind
INCLUDING: Photos/Video taken from cell phones
If you are seen with a cell phone in your hand during the live, we will have to assume that you are doing so to take a photo/video.


wooooooo. that is too good.

PS: Longyin is the only one who paid me. c'mon guys, i want the money soon.

from tanya/last.fm
( Music survey )

i think we're just gonna get there whenever... but if we start lining up early dont expect us to save you a spot if you come waltzing in at 600... meaning dont rely on us to save you a spot, you get there when you get there.

if you wanna meet up with me though, give me a call or IM me. otherwise youre on your own. harsh yes, but i dont want anyoen to rely on me waiting for hours, so they have a good spot on line.