As the Worm Turns...

Just deleted my whole Inoran discog (but left the Fake best-of), my incomplete Ryuichi discog (except that "i'll give you my whole thing / even if you don't want" song), that Inoran/Ryuichi collaboration that i never listened to ever (i already forgot the name!), and every single one of J's albums & singles & EPs -- but i kept the live dvd audio rips, because there ain't a single song of his that isn't better live, and now I've got all the good ones in two convenient packages (with a third DVD on the way this march).

Sugizo remains untouched... for now!

review: abingdon boys school | "abingdon road" (2010)

Abingdon Boys School
Abingdon Road
2010

A pleasant spin, but I'm not hearing the breathtaker that was "Howling" (off their debut).

"Dusk til Dawn"'s still a great song for reading your high school yearbook to, and "Siren" is the angriest track they've ever done, and "Blade Chord" is more mechanical than I recall.

Cool stuff, lots of riffing and professional all the way (songwriting, performances, production...) ...just not the burst-onto-the-scene shock that we got to indulge in with the first album.

rating: :)

Are Non-Latin Alphabet Domain Names a Phishing Threat?

Yes. Look:

Maximum PC:

Shit. (Also, chuckle at "cyrilliac"which sounds like some sort of disease.)

review: vidoll | "monad" (2010)

vidoll
monad
2010

Ten tracks. A small album.

"Darwinism" has a SADSy swagger; "Focus" starts out like Blink182 wrote it a decade ago, but then strangely transforms into the usual Vidoll fluff; "Ikaros" tries to be heavy and perhaps Pierrotesque (late-era unimaginative/crappy Pierrot); the singles are the singles and you can imagine exactly what they sound like without ever hearing them.

"Whoa, who are we? We're *in* this band?"

Not even the album title is interesting (via wikipedia):

Monad (from Greek μονάς monas, "unit"; monos, "alone"),^[2] according to the Pythagoreans, was a term for God or the first being, or the totality of all beings, Monad being the source or the One meaning without division.

Monad is competent enough, but a bore.

The Monad limited edition is almost $50, as it includes some sort of live dvd, but if, you've seen one Vidoll live, you've seen 'em all.

rating: :\

Huey Lewising the News

via reddit

I want this guy to do a j-rock PV next. [cut to shot of a rose, cut to long shot of band in the woods, cut to close up of guitarist looking up to heaven yearningly, etc] :)

Downfall Director Digs the Downfall Meme

Film:

Until now, we haven’t heard Hirschbeigel’s take on the meme. Vulture got him on the phone, prompted by the new version written around the Conan/Leno strife, and learned that he loves it.

The director says he’s often emailed new versions, and that he’s seen almost 150 variations. “You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director,” he says. His favorites include the one where Hitler learns that Billy Elliot is sold out on Broadway:

More to the point, the meme actually works in concert with his intentions as a filmmaker. “The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality,” he says. “I think it’s only fair if now it’s taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like.”

It's nice to know there are talented directors who GET IT.

review: l'arc~en~ciel | "bless" (2010)

l'arc~en~ciel
bless
2010

Our first review of 2010 material!

"Bless" is all lush strings and smoothed-out acoustic guitars and Hyde's balladeering croon, sure to make the ladies swoon. Like "Pieces," slightly modernized.

Then there's the standard "Hydeless" (karaoke) version, with strings, guitars, and lightweight drums.

Then there's an additional "concerto" version of the song -- not simply the backing strings from the song, but an entirely new piece, much like the "Symphonic" X Japan and Luna Sea releases of years past.

L'Arc~en~Ciel are:
Yucky Hero, Tits Ew, Highly Paid, and Jon Ken Pun.

After that there's the P'unk~en~ciel'd "Route 666" that vastly improves upon the spineless original (from 2000's barely adequate Real). I don't wanna blow the surprise, but Motley Crue fans especially will find this new version a little bit better than it used to be.

And then the Punk'd Route 666 again, only Tetsu-less.

While okay, this single ain't gonna light your pants on fire or anything. It's just ol' dependable Ken & Co. dropping off yet another delivery of post-millenial L'Arcness for you to add to your growing pile of other so-so L'Arc stuff that you already have and mostly ignore.

rating: :\

Because iPad, iPad (Really Really Bad!) C'mon!

And the whole world has to answer right now just to tell you once again: iPad!



I totally bought the hype.

Laptops are great for most computing, and portable, and do a lot.

Smartphones are great because they're always on and you can whip it out when you're in line at the store, on the train, on the couch, on the shitter, and get little stuff done.

I did not see where a tablet would fit into that.

I was thinking the big "Ah-ha!" moment would involve a magical combination of content agreements and internet access -- it's always online, for less than smartphone, and you can watch HBO on it, and read Architectural Digest on it, and pay $5/mo to play Call of Duty online -- something that combines all that shit into a super-convenient "bundle", instead of paying $20/yr here, $50/mo there, etc...

But, no. It's just a laptop...

• without a protective lid,
• without a real keyboard, and
• without the ability to multitask (literally! it's ONE APP AT A TIME ONLY!)...

I'd still choose it over a netbook, I guess, but I don't want a netbook either. I want a Nexus One but with better software design and a 4.5" screen!

The Apple Cymbeline

This tablet lay upon his breast, wherein
Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine:
and so, away: no further with your din
Express impatience, lest you stir up mine.

I predict the Apple Tablet will cost $500 to build but will sell for only $99, and the costs will be made up with subscriptions to content from Conde Nast and the New York Times and FOX and ABC and HBO...

In other words, cheap up-front but with charges on the back end -- however, those charges will still be MUCH cheaper than a standard volley of dead-tree print subscriptions, and vastly cheaper than cable, and so supremely attractive to anyone who consumes more than a little media.

reviews: dead end | "ghost of romance (remastered)" (2009)

dead end
ghost of romance
2009

Too eighties!

The songs might be awesome (though not really) but I can't get past that thin, brittle, '80s glam metal production.

I feel so bad for the guy who had to do the remastering, listening to this over and over and over again... >_<

Make some *new* magic, Morrie!

rating: :(

Name That PV #2!

Happy Monday.

Can you name the three videos these three screencaps are from?

Mwuah ha ha!

review: "2012" (2009)

You know what was wrong with 2012?

There was no way for the smart, lucky, or hard-working to survive. Most apocalypse movies, you can lie to yourself and think, "I could survive!" but this one was just UN-LIE-To-YOURSELF-ABLE.

Took all the fun out of the eyeball-blowing visuals. :\

Judge slashes "monstrous" $2 million P2P award by 97% to $54,000

arstechnica:

...He noted the difference between what Thomas-Rasset did and the commercial infringement the statutory damage laws were written to stop.

"In the case of individuals who infringe by using peer‐to‐peer networks, the potential gain from infringement is access to free music, not the possibility of hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of dollars in profits," he wrote.

"The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music."

Because of the Seventh Amendment's guarantee to a trial by jury, Davis' decision to change the damage award means the RIAA has to make a choice: it can accept the new $54,000 award or it can exercise its right to go back to a jury for a third full trial.

Wow! So there is *some* sanity in the world...

The New York Times Co.'s Plan Sucks

There's a nice summary in Slate about why the NYTimes' idea to build a pay wall sucks.

I check the New York Times several times a day (and read maybe one article therein). If there's a pay wall, here's how I expect to deal with it:

1. Read as normal.
2. Hit the limit.
3. Find a workaround/replacement.

If the workaround's too much trouble, there's other news sources; no biggie. (I mostly rely on Google News nowadays.)

Rumor has it the new Apple Tablet will support some sort of NYTimes reading experience, over something WhisperNet-ish, for a minor fee. Not interested!

(Though I'm about to buy a 3rd gen 32gb iPod Touch -- it's too much hassle to speed up podcasts anymore, the Touch has that feature built in... also, I want something to watch while on the treadmill... -- after the Jan 27 announcement, of course...)

Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew!

via reddit

How long will it take YOU to realize?

thx evan!

Took me ~exactly~ two minutes >_<...

Awesome con.

Mystery visitor misses Poe's birthday

Yahoo! News:

"A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer's birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago."

Perhaps he was eaten by a lion or a shark:

review: versailles philharmonic realdoll quartet | "serenade" (2010)

Versailles - "Serenade" pv

I like the song's purposeful deliberateness and the "Endless Rain"-esque twin guitar solo.

I dunno if this song is about their late bassist Jasmine You or not, but if it is, it's a fitting tribute.

On the toher hand, this PV!!! I've never seen real humans trigger the Uncanny Valley effect before. Especially the blue dude on the left whose face has apparently rigormortised.

wikipedia:

Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong revulsion.)

Daaaayum!

At dinner, K said that not only only was Toshi gettin' divorced, but that his woman had been sleeping with the cult leader THE WHOLE TIME, and siphoned off so much money from He with the Protruding Jaw that he had to file for bankruptcy!

(In case you needed another reason not to buy CDs.)

You Do What You Want Any Time That You Like

Whatever show this is, it's the best coverage of a band any television camera crew has ever attained! Also, I still love this band to death, especially Klara. And that's live audio, not lipsynching like those Japanese music shows... :P

Stewart vs Yoo

What's great about this extended interview is that Jon Stewart tries to put SO MANY WORDS into Yoo's mouth, and tries to entangle him for better television, and Yoo just asnwers EVERY SINGLE QUESTION straightforwardly, honestly, succinctly, accurately, and almost inevitably not to Stewart's liking, and it frustrates Jon to death! And I love seeing Stewart truly vexed. (Not fake-vexed like he pretends to be 99% of the time.)

Toshi Divorces Cult Wife, Leaves Cult

Good for you, Toshi!

芸能人の離婚 - Y:

「Ｘ　ＪＡＰＡＮ」ＴＯＳＨＩ　元アイドル妻と離婚へ 　ロックバンド「Ｘ　ＪＡＰＡＮ」のボーカリストのＴＯＳＨＩ（４４）が、「ＷＡＮＫＵ（わんくぅ）」の名で歌手活動中の香夫人（４０）と離婚に向けた話し合いを始めたことが１５日、分かった。ＴＯＳＨＩは、夫婦で参加していた自己啓発セミナーの主催団体「ホームオブハート」から脱会。団体主宰者のＭＡＳＡＹＡ氏（５２）とも決別し、音楽活動に打ち込む意向だ。(スポニチアネックス)

He was quoted as saying, "Now that I'm back with Yoshiki and X Japan, the cult and the woman seemed redundant. I mean, really, how many brainwashing needy moneygrubbing whores does a man need in his life?"

Trent Reznor Legal Troubles Comin'!

OiNK.cd:

On 15 January 2010, Alan Ellis was unanimously declared not guilty.

If you would like to get in touch with Alan, you can do so here: contact@alanellis.co.uk.

The solicitors representing Alan Ellis in the case were Morgan Rose with Alex Stein as the barrister.

Which is all well and good, except he passed the buck onto Oink's users just the other day:

TorrentFreak:

"I didn’t think the site was abusing the copyrights,'" he said, and in the above context he was right. But if OiNK wasn’t abusing copyrights, that responsibility must fall elsewhere – at the feet of the site’s members.

"If these people chose to download music and in doing so were breaking the law, then that was their responsibility, not mine," Ellis told the Court.

So look out, Trent Reznor!

Securitybots; or, Japanese Media is Japanese

JRock Online - Fundy Photographics:

As I look at the masses I wonder what happened to the reported cranes that were parked on the sidewalk to the left...



Oh look, is that a stormtrooper in the photo? I zoom closer to take a look and discover this:

thx kytrax!

Apparently this image was *only* published at Barks.jp [link], so amazingly, Yoshiki's big head might escape castigation this time around... the whole debacle more likely lies at the feet of some doofus intern at Barks that thought he was improving the photo.

edit: Ah! And it *is* a stormtrooper in the photo!

Name that band!

thx eee!

And there's more @ Tokyo Scum Brigade!

Every Frame is a Painting!

Utseende moder jag snackar svensk!

Are they gone? Go! Go go go go go!

L.A. Confidential

"I have to pay all these people to be, uh, around me, and of course I am happy, more than happy to, really, because... it is, it makes me feel like, um, relevant and... important, or, no, it's like, no one is ever around me just for fun, you see, there's always profit motive or something in it for them, you know? So this spectacle, it helps filling the hole. God I am so depressing myself!"

[pix @ LAWeekly.com]

edit: really dull (but tripod-steady!) HD video of the shoot here:


Shooting a video is a lot like posing for a family reunion photo, where you have to smile uncomfortably for several minutes while everyone hands their camera over to the person who got stuck doing the photographing. It's awkward, it's not especially fun, but the final product is usually worth it. (Probably not in this case, but, eh.)

Glad Sugizo was there, so at least there's ONE interesting person to watch.

The End of Television

24 on 1/17, Lost on 2/2,
and THEN I'M DONE!

Well that's depressing!

You know my 8gb red Zune2?

Well I dragged ALL my starred (rated) music onto it...

...and barely filled HALF the player.

787 songs... 10 hours of listening. Ten lousy hours!

(Cormac McCarthy and some 1.5x'd tech podcasts round out the total, leaving 2.59gbs devoid of usefulness.)

Name That PV

This might be too hard, but I suspect it'll be too easy...

Name That PV!


Name That PV!


Name That PV!

Yeehaw

review: spiv states | "viva sonic" (2009)

Jun & Iori (both ex-Phantasmagoria) are Spiv States.

spiv states
viva sonic 2009
Fake Hide is fake.

You could make the argument that the track is just as good as any one of Hide's non-hit/non-single tracks, just as well written, played, and recorded, maybe even moreso in some cases, but... Hide was fuckin' HIDE, man.

Even Miyavi was smart enough to strike out on his own road, developing his own style pretty much from the beginning.

And turn the fucking colors down! My monitor only goes to 16.7 million, you're gonna break it.

rating: :(

nina gordon "straight outta compton" album art for your mp3 :)

400x400 on the left, 300x300 on the right

I still love the duplicity of Nina Gordon's acoustic version of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" [youtube], the pretty voice wrestling with the ugly words... and the coincidence of NWA and NINA in the Mistral font was too fortuitous to not memorialize...

This Coming January 9, 2010 -- NOT *Next* January 9, 2010, which is ten billion years away after the universe collapses on itself and restarts time

thx cliff!

"You can be part of the filming process and see ALL members of X JAPAN in their first public appearance in the U.S.... together!" [jrocknation.com]

"ALL members"! They're exhuming Hide for this! Get me on the next plane!!!

Did "In My Dream" Have Album Art?

(edit) one more...

if not, it does now. ^_^m

the other one:

review: ipod touch 4th gen (2010)

I had the 3G Touch for a year, purely for the 2x playback it offered (for slow audioobooks and podcasts).

Gradually I started using it for twitter, email and most recently ebook reading, which has been awesome in much the same way that the MP3 revolution was awesome, making it possible to get and have whataever you want, wherever you want, easily and instantly.

Soon I hope to eliminate BOOKS from my shelves, just like I did with CDs & DVDs.

The best feature is the Retina screen resolution: it makes ebook text much more Kindle-like, which makes reading more pleasant, ~but with touch~!

There are many other awesome features (consistent design interfaces between apps, excellent usability, etc) but the screen is the only new one. Well, that and the "Airplay to AppleTV" function was pretty neat this Xmas.

Kate@TKD
(untouched, taken with the iPod Touch -- click for full-size)

Less awesome:

• The camera is a cell phone camera, not a real camera.
• Apps (like Stanza and Pulse, used several times a day) crash sometimes when I'm tooling around with the settings, which is new -- they were fine on the old Touch 3. 
• The new A4 processor feels as unspeedy as the old Touch 3's processor, which is disappointing. Transitions occasionally chug. the occasional button press is missed, etc.
• I also don't like the new volume buttons, which are on a weird angle and require contortions to use.

But the display is so great that going back to the old 3's screen is like going from a Bluray movie back to a VHS tape! (And I never had a problem with the old screen til this new one came along!)

So I still heartily recommend this thing, just for the screen, which makes everything -- music, pics, email, Netflix, Amazon -- better.

rating: :)