But Michael Jackson is. And it's bedlam again, like Elvis and John Lennon. I'm not gonna lie and say I'm horribly devastated that Michael Jackson is dead. Cos' I'm not. While people wrote long grieving messages as their Facebook statuses or Twitter tweets, I just wrote "Rest in peace, King of Pop." I felt shocked, and a little sad, but that's about it. The only bit of remorse I actually have for the guy is that he'll never be able to make his comeback now.
Don't get me wrong, I love his music. But that seems so far away now. And Jay's comment about his death pretty much sums up the way I feel about Michael too:
"MJ's been dead for a long time to me."
Since he stopped making music and went into hibernation, my love for him just died down. I never believed any of the sexual molestation allegations made towards him, they were all just publicity stunts in my opinion. I believed in him, and I was on his side the whole time. But still, he disappeared, and that's what happened, to me, and it's not much of a difference now than to when he was MIA a couple of years back.
So rest in peace Michael Jackson, you made my childhood cool, and honestly, that is all I can say. This past two months have been celebrity death months, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, David Carradine, who else did I miss?! D8 Oh yes, I nearly died laughing when I found out on Rove that Richard Wilkins announced that Jeff Goldblum died falling off a cliff in Sydney. What's even worse is that Jeff himself confirms his death ROFLMAOWTF. Oh, it's been a week since this announcement, and Rove and his lackeys are still making fun of Richard Wilkins and his mistake.
Speaking of Rove, I just returned from Thomas's place, where Jay cooked up some awesome steak, and we watched Masterchef and Rove. The theme for today's challenge on Masterchef is Christmas in July, and eventhough Poh (MALAYSIA+ADELAIDEPOWER!!) served up a great dish, she is facing the pressure test tomorrow cos' Andre's lasagna was FAIL D8 and dragged Poh down into the water with him. Also, after the steak, we had hot Sara Lee sticky date pudding with ice-cream, YUM.
IT IS CHRISTMAS IN JULY!!!
SANTA YUEN EVEN CAME HOME WITH PRESENTS FROM MALAYSIA!!
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Anyways, my Threadless Tees arrived last week. I abso-fucking-lutely love them. So what do I do? I camwhore. I had an enormous amount of inspiration from the ending video of Jyoushikousei GIRLS HIGH!
This is the cutest. A three-headed puppy named Cerberus. WHAT'S CUTER THAN A THREE-HEADED PUPPY?! This shirt is called "Satan's Little Helper".
This one is my favorite. It says "Video games ruined my life. Good thing I have two extra lives."
This is just some good old pop art doing some magic. It's called "Music Box".
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Also, two years ago, I started listening to old jazz, blues and swing. I grew up knowing these songs, because when I was much younger I listened to most of them on Light.fm. I wasn't serious enough to actually download albums and to get to know these singers. So only two years ago, was when I was really introduced to the magic that is Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland and Louis Armstrong (though I already knew these people before).
And recently, I just woke up feeling that I was born in the wrong era. I realized that I recognize some music playing in the background of some Aussie television ads. I tried hard to remember them, and I realized that some of them were from old movies I've watched on TV, and I only remember a few of them. I Youtubed them, and re-watched classic sequences from The Wizard of Oz, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singing in the Rain, Top Hat and The Sound of Music. And alongside my love for Sinatra, Fitzgerald and the rest I discovered earlier, I have added a new love for the amazing Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and the very very beautiful Ginger Rogers. The films had beautiful scores, and most, if not all could both sing and dance well. Kelly is an amazing tap dancer, while Astaire and Rogers swept the floor with beautiful synch, grace, elegance and gorgeous choreography.
I've only actually really watched Breakfast at Tiffany's (Audrey Hepburn is amazing, she's so talented and so beautiful) and a bit of Singing in the Rain back when they were showing on Cinemax. I'm gonna be completely honest and say that I have not seen Gone With the Wind. I didn't grow up in America, so my parents, my mom especially, didn't get to watch these movies until they premiered much later here in Malaysia. And it was from America, where all this magic started. Even now, these old movies are only available on original VCD and DVDs, and they are selling for insane amounts of money because they're classics. Nobody wants to pirate movies this old.
And then magic happened (Purple for effect). My mom said there's a video store somewhere near where she works having a VCD sale. VCDs flying off shelves for SD6.90. She said she was buying the Sound of Music for my little sister, because she felt it was unfair that my sister was never exposed to it. I asked her to buy Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singing in the Rain, Top Hat and The Swan Princess (because I felt it unfair that I grew up watching it and my sister didn't). My mom also bought Gone With the Wind woot!
I LOVE MY MOM. It's because of my mom's appreciation for the arts that I am who I am today. That, and my dad was in a band when he was young. Shaneil commented it's where I got my rocker blood from.
I LOVE YOU BOTH.
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I've been downloading music non stop since my last blogpost, and I've recently been playing the insert and ending songs for the first season of Honey and Clover, over and over again. They're just so relaxing and calming. They're not your typical J-Pop tracks, which sometimes annoy me to death, and they're not heavily-influenced by your typical J-Rock either. If anything, like Asian Kungfu Generation, these songs have very heavy Western alternative and pop rock influences. In fact, most of these songs resemble to a certain point, Aqualung and Augustana's music, in particular. VERY MUCH. It's those kinds of songs you can listen to in the car on a roadtrip and not get bored. Or you can play them on loop and go to bed for a nap in the afternoon (which I just woke up from).
Mistake by The Band Has No Name (that's the band's name) which was used as the second ending theme of the anime, has a style and guitar riffs similar to some of Augustana's work, particularly Feel Fine and Wasteland off the Stars and Boulevards album.
Most of the insert songs were done by Spitz and Suga Shikao. My favorite song by Spitz done for the Honey and Clover series, is Sakana. It just reminds me so much of Augustana's Sunday Best off their Stars and Boulevards album and their Lullaby, off Midwest Skies and Sleepless Mondays. They've combined great piano music (like what Augustana does in most of their songs), with a steady rock beat. Spitz also did a few slow ballads for the series, like the song Y, and its style is reminiscent of Aqualung's Easier to Lie and Breaking My Heart Again from his Still Life album. It's just draggy and yet so pleasant in the same way.
And then there's Suga Shikao. I cannot describe in words the admiration and adoration I have for this sexy sexy man and his sexy sexy music. Though, when I say sexy music, I actually mean the stuff he did for another anime XXXHolic, 19-sai and Nobody Knows. The music he came up with for Honey and Clover is distinctively different. Most of them are ballads, like Hachigatsu no Serenade and Sorosoro Ikanakucha, and they're very well done. Though when compared to Spitz's music, these ballads are leaning more towards a pop rhythm rather than rock, and some may argue that it's typical J-Pop beat, but Sugao-sama has away of going about it making them sound at the same time completely unique. Especially in Hachigatsu no Serenade, there is a strong Jazz and Blues influence on the entire tune of the song, and it's emphasized by the piano score that accompanies the rest of the instruments. AND FOR A JAPANESE MAN, BOY THIS MAN CAN SCAT. Well, I consider it scatting. THAT IS SOME SEXY SHIT OKAY? Another one of his jazzy/bluesy songs with his sexy "Ooooohs" is Ougon no Tsuki.
His ballad Room 201, also from the Honey and Clover series, is a simple slow tune, and pretty much all you can hear in the song is his *coughsexyhuskycough* voice and the simple plucking and strumming of a guitar. THAT'S IT. While most people may find this song boring (especially if you come from a hard rock background or a bouncy bubblegum pop background), I find it almost soothing. And come to think of it, when I listen to it, strangely enough, I see corn fields in front of me, kinda like Kansas. Yes, it sounds almost country. And once again I'm gonna compare it to Augustana, and the songs in question are Coffee and Cigarettes (from Stars and Boulevards) and Found My Place, Angels and Not Alone off Midwest Skies and Sleepless Mondays.
Then there's Suneohair (which I pronounce SUU-NEH-O-HE-YA lol) and their Waltz, which probably takes the cake as everyone's favorite Honey and Clover song. Waltz, is just....beautiful, I can't describe it in words. I've never liked keyboards or synthesizers being a strong part of a song, but for Waltz, I've made an exception. The melody and the lyrics are beautiful. Their Sora mo Isogashii is also a gorgeous piece of work. Slow, melancholic, but beautiful, and it reminds me very much of Aqualung's You Turn Me Around.
So in conclusion, Honey and Clover is not only a great romantic comedy shoujo anime/manga, with a beautiful real-life perspective of the relationships and friendship between five art university students...it has some beautiful music, and it never fails to set the mood. Slow ballads for the awkward moments between Ayumi and Mayama, roadtrip music for Takemoto's soul-searching bicycle-journey...everything just falls into place, and makes for a great anime that would entertain all sorts of audiences.
Notice that all the bands/musicians on the Honey and Clover soundtrack have names starting with the letter 'S' (except for Yuki who sang the opening, and The Band Has No Name): Suneohair, Suga Shikao and Spitz.
And I'm gonna be honest and say that, as a big Honey and Clover fan, I have not yet watched the second season, and have not really listened to its music (except for Suneohair's Split, I couldn't help it, I just had to) so I'm prolly gonna make another music review on the second season once I've watched it. ^^ I'm also planning to watch the movie and the live action TV drama. Cos' for once, I actually see a resemblance between the actors and actresses and the manga/anime counterparts they play, as compared to other anime-turned-live-action-drama, and I don't mean just physically.
Example of shitty adaptation, Hana Yori Dango. How the Taiwanese pop group took advantage of the name F4 and skyrocketed to fame despite the show being a suck-ass adaptation of one of the most legendary romantic comedy shoujo manga of all time. And they even changed the name of the show.
METEOR GARDEN = FAIL.
It turned me off reading the original manga, and it's a good thing I did read it too, or not I wouldn't know how much FAIL the drama constituted for.
At least the Korean adaptation looks pretty good (though I've never actually watched it). The actor who's playing Domyoji, actually looks like Domyoji, pineapple-styled hair and the works.
Gah, I haven't written such a wordy post in such a long time. All my posts seem to be about music nowadays. Okay I'm gonna sign off and try to switch my biological clock back to its original setting.
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P.S. Liza Minelli, Judy Garland's daughter, famous for her deep husky voice (much like her mother's in her later days) and her cabaret-like performances, actually came to Adelaide, in time for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. I was slightly but genuinely disappointed that I did not choose to go see Liza Minelli. This could've been my one and only chance.
