I am just going on and on in my jealous rage, thinking of all the awesome live performances I missed, so just skip down to the post below this one if you want to read something that's actually more than just complaining (more specifically, the J-pop Summit festival (: )

Well, maybe not exactly at this moment - but it is happening August 27 and 28 in Japan. Animelo is a huge annual live concert that has many performers of anime songs. I seriously wish I could just go to Japan right now, but of course I have school. :\

Really want to see Kalafina, May'n, ELISA, Minori Chihara, and Nana Mizuki, who according to Wikipedia (feel free to laugh at me here) are performing at Animelo. Though I really think going last year would've been more epic because Marina (who is the singer of GirlsDeMo, the fictional band in Angel Beats) and Lia were there. They actually sound really good live, unlike some singers, unfortunately (for examples: listen to fripSide's 2010 live of Only My Railgun, and Nomico's live of Bad Apple)

Also, apparently there was something called Anisama in Shanghai (ARRRRGGGH and May'n toured Asia back in May, she stopped by Shanghai that time! If only I could trade places with my retired relatives!!!), and Ali Project, Yoko Ishida, May'n, and even Miku Hatsune (though of course it wasn't really...HER, if you know what I mean) were there.

Then there was Anime Expo back in July...Kalafina was there, and of course there was the "live" Vocaloid concert that I was eager to go to (they ran out of tickets, and my mom's foot is injured, so it wasn't really convenient :\ ). 2010's Anime Expo would've been awesome to attend, too, because May'n and Megumi Nakajima were there.

The final straw has got to be when I saw videos of the Nico Nico Daikaigi on Youtube. There was a concert in Taiwan back in May, and a bunch of the singers from Nico Nico Douga went - Dasoku, Pokota, Nero, Clear, Gero, che:Sakurai... (By the way, you should definitely look up che:Sakurai's Magnet duet. It's amazing how she can sing as...well, I won't spoil it for you :p ) All I can say now is FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF---


- Er, enjoy some gifs of the Bad Apple PV, I guess. I don't want to go to be completely angry. (note: I didn't make these)

Labels: anime expo, animelo, bad apple, concert, japan, japanese, may'n, nico nico daikaigi, nico nico douga, shanghai, singer, singing, taiwan

Some covers of Vocaloid songs that I found on Youtube and liked. Do listen to them if you have the time.
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Labels: aimou, akahitoha, cover, dancer in the dark, electric love, gumi, hatsune miku, hirari hirari, luka megurine, meltdown, mozaik role, music, sing my love, singing, songs, sweet devil, tori no hito

The book I just read and the book I'm reading now are both similar and different at the same time. I'll start off with the differences.

THE QUEEN'S SOPRANO by Carol Dines
- A girl named Angelica Voglia living in Rome. She has a wonderful singing voice.
- She wants to be able to sing freely, but the pope has forbidden women to sing in public. She has fallen in love with a French artist named Theodon. But her mother dreams of riches and a luxurious life, so she tries to marry her daughter off to a noble.
- In order to escape her fate, she pretends to be going along with her mother's plan but then moves to the palace of Queen Christina, who rules one of the two quarters not dominated by the Pope. She becomes a singer for the Queen.
- The man who was going to marry Angelica was very upset, thinking that Angelica's mother had lied to him. He punished the Voglia family by slicing the cheeks of Angelica's father and cutting off the ear of Angelica's brother. After the incident Angelica's mother wanted nothing to do with Angelica. Eventually she descended into madness.

SISTERS IN SANITY by Gayle Forman
- Brit Hemphill, who lives with her father, stepmother, and baby brother, is sent to a center that is supposed to provide therapy to girls with problems (drug abuse, depression, even being overweight). At the place there is terrible food, cameras to spy on you, and you can't complain to your parents about the camp (in fact, you have to reach a certain "level" before you're even allowed to write letters to anyone).
- Brit starts to suspect that the reason why she was sent away (she doesn't really have any major problems; despite being a musician, she is not into drugs) is that she is similar to her mother and her father fears the same thing that happened to her mother will happen to her. They used to live together as one happy family, but then her mother developed mental problems. She refused treatment. Eventually she ran off and they haven't seen her since.

It's kind of spooky that I unintentionally selected two books on the same day at the library that both have mothers who go insane. Is it some weird talent or is it just a coincidence?

Labels: abuse, books, carol dines, coincidence, family, fate, gayle forman, history, insane, italy, mental, rome, singing, sisters in sanity, the queen's soprano, therapy

This is a phrase that I learned from orchestra, which I used to take back in 6th grade. I think it was on a wall hanging that my teacher had.

Music didn't used to be a big part of my life. Sure, I'd always heard classical music and the sort of music my dad listened to (John Denver, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, and so on). And I started taking piano around the age 5 or 6. But at first it wasn't a big deal for me. It grew in importance only after time passed.

We would take music just maybe once or twice a week in elementary school. Mostly we sang, but occasionally we got to play the drums or xylophones, and I always loved that. I thought it was fun - it was something I didn't get to do often, unlike piano, which I had to practice everyday, and I was frustrated by playing piano. I had already accomplished my original reason for starting, which was playing the song Fur Elise (it's really not that hard a song, but it's pretty famous). I was not too good at controlling my temper (and I'm still having trouble in that regard...) so sometimes I would get violent and try to punch the piano or scratch it. Usually resulted in me getting hurt. One time I got mad at Bach (sorry, Bach, but I can't say I'm the biggest fan of your music) and tore part of my book. Not a good idea. Now I can't really put it back together.

I wasn't really a prominent singer either. I suppose I wasn't the worst (no matter what you think, there are always people better than you and always people worse than you, simply because we're all different, and anyways, how good your life is also depends on how you perceive it) but I wasn't the best, either. I mean, I couldn't hit certain pitches and I just really hate it when I'm trying to sing something and it sounds off tune and messed up. I suppose maybe if I practiced very seriously I could improve it, but I'm a lazy person, and anyways I wasn't really considering a career as a singer.

But in seventh grade, I started to listen to music. If you've watched anime, you've probably noticed that there are opening and ending songs, and there's also insert music you might hear during episodes. After a while I started a playlist, and that's when my exploration of music really accelerated. I didn't even listen to English songs much before, but then I started listening to music in Japanese, and even a little in English and Korean. (No French yet, I'm afraid, but maybe someday I'll try it out)

I didn't used to enjoy playing the piano so much, but now I do. I feel like it's a way to unwind at the end of the day by hearing something nice that you yourself worked hard to create (by practicing all these years). And it's a good way to relieve stress, at least for me. I think music is how people who can't necessarily put their thoughts into words express themselves.

I feel guilty because I used to be so mean to my piano. I was often frustrated by not being able to get a certain part right or not being able to play loudly enough (my hands were small - and they still are - and I didn't have much muscle strength). It seems funny now, because I hear the younger students of my piano teacher have trouble making a loud sound on one of her pianos, but I thought it was fairly easy. I suppose they'll be able to handle it when they're older.

My piano has always been there for me, ever since I first obtained it so many years ago. It's always been sitting in the same spot, patiently waiting for me to play it. If I were to tell my problems to it, there is no risk of the piano telling anyone else or being repulsed by what I say. (Though it might look a bit funny, if I were talking to an inanimate object. There are psychologists near my house, after all.) That does make me concerned, though; if I go to college and I can't live at home since it's far away, what can I do about the piano? Should I have it moved? (But if I lived in an apartment or dorm, it'd probably take up too much space.) Or do I have to give up playing the piano? The latter choice seems painful. (I don't want to have to buy a stand-up piano just for when I'm away from home, however, so I don't see what I can do about it.)

Not long ago, I read a bout called A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. It's not a difficult book to understand, but I thought it was pretty nice. What piqued my interest was that the main character plays the organ. I've never played the organ and have always thought of it as an antiquated instrument seeing as I've only really seen it in old churches and other historical, touristy buildings. Apparently, the organ needs to be turned on and various rhythm styles (this leads me to think it is actually kind of like a keyboard...). I've never met anyone who has played the organ, so I'm really curious about it.

Labels: a crooked kind of perfect, anger management, anime, bach, best friend, book, challenge, college, expression, fur elise, instrument, moving, music, organ, piano, school, self, singing, strength, stress

I saw my mom reading a Chinese newspaper, a common activity of hers. There was a page featuring, France, Paris in particular, and I saw a picture of a food dish with the words "Au Chien Qui Fume" under it. I said, "Oh, it must be something like a dog who smokes." My mom read the Chinese translation and said I was right about that. She seemed a little surprised. Well, I guess learning French is doing some good at last. (I mean, I really can't read Chinese...)

Au Chien Qui Fume is the name of a restaurant in the Paris. See if you can understand anything on their website. XD I can vaguely read it...And considering that whoever is reading this right now understands English, you could probably guess at some of the words.

I recently heard that there was some regulation being passed in France saying that you couldn't smoke in restaurants anymore, I believe it was Paris in particular... So then people went outside to smoke. However, some restaurants are open late at night (bars too, I guess?) and so the smokers outside make noise. People who live upstairs above the restaurants get annoyed by it and have complained so restaurants/bars had to close at an earlier time. This made people upset, saying something along the lines of, "It's Paris! The city of lights! And now you're taking this away from us!"

You know, I've always wondered why countries where people smoke seem to have such long average lifespans. France and Japan are both countries where there are quite a few smokers and yet the average life expectancy is quite high in both countries. Perhaps other factors like diet end up outweighing it? (My parents actually question whether smoking is bad, but I don't think that is debatable. I mean, if nothing else, it makes your breath smell bad.)

Friday, being the closest day to Valentine's that we were in school (next week is a week off!), was the day Singing Valentines were going on. Just to get you up to speed if you don't have that at your school, a Singing Valentine is something that you can buy for a few dollars from the school for a friend or significant other. The recipient will be sung to by students from the school choir, as well as a card from the sender and a piece of candy. I didn't send any this year, because I really wasn't thinking about it at all, but one of my friends did send me one.

One of my teachers was sick of all the Singing Valentines. At first I was shocked by his attitude since the singers had probably practiced their songs and choreography, and anyways it's easy for me to respect those better than myself at something, but then my teacher said that during third period, there were 9 Singing Valentines. That's a lot of singing. In my period, one student got 2 Singing Valentines.

There were various groups of students, like a group of people wearing white shirts, ties, and red hats, a group of people with pink outfits and fairy wings, a group of people with plaid shirts, and a group of pizza deliverers. I liked the pizza group the best because I liked their songs. (And they were unique since they had two guys in the group...I bet those were the only two guys in the school choir. It's kind of sad how there's such a huge difference between the number of girls and guys. I wonder if it's any different in high school.)

Speaking of high school, it is really starting to loom near for me. On Thursday, I went to the high school that I will most likely be attending to listen to presentations about science, math, and language arts (since history isn't offered for freshmen, there was no presentation for that) and to get information about the electives offered at the school. My dad says the teachers there are pretty cool, like college professors. I am not sure what to think of this because I'm not that sure about what college professors are "supposed" to be like.

Anyways, the school newspaper looked pretty cool. It was pretty different from my school's newspaper, that's for sure. Does four years really make that much difference? My school's newspaper was fairly amusing - the bad advice column was great - but now it's not even there anymore because Journalism was cut from the electives (Not enough money! Not enough students! UGH!). The articles in my school's newspaper weren't all that long most of the time and some of them were just kind of unexciting, corny descriptions of school dances and rallies. But the high school's newspaper talked about actual issues, and showed the car accidents that have happened. There were also pictures of the crossing guards, which I thought was nice - they should be recognized for their work.

I wonder if I should take Journalism when I reach 11th or 12th grade? I've always worried that it would be really hard work, having to stay after school and interview people and slave away typing articles on laptops. I guess I'm just really lazy and fearful of hard work. I can't always stay this way... (As much as I'd like to retire, it's simply not that likely to happen in the near future. I'll have to get used to studying or working for long hours and dealing with more burdens over time)

Labels: au chien qui fume, chinese, choir, french, gender, group, hard work, high school, journalism, lifespan, newspaper, paris, restaurant, singing, smoking, teacher, valentines, website

That's my name for a male singer, but his real name is Michael Bublé. My dad thinks he's cool, though I find him kind of annoying, particularly because of the way the women scream like fangirls when he comes near them. I can't tell whether they like his singing (because he sings love songs a lot) or if they think he looks good. It's beyond me, either way.

I am now in the possession of two red cow/bull stuffed animals. One of them is supposed to be something that you stick to a car window and the other one is sort of like a beanie baby. I have no idea where the beanie came from, but I do know that the car decoration came from China, since this is now the year of the ox (on the Zodiac calendar). Right now, if someone came to my house, they would see the beanie on the computer speaker and the car decoration on the lamp. For some reason it actually sticks on the lamp. (By the way, the lamp is the kind that will light up depending on how many times you touch it with your hand. It's too bad yanking on the stuffed cow doesn't turn it on.)

I was woken up early this morning by the most annoying sound ever - the smoke alarm. It wasn't beeping like crazy like in a real fire but every minute it would let out one shrill beep. I can tell from experience that my mom must've turned on the heater again. She insists she turned it on because she thought I was cold, but I would've slept longer into the morning if she hadn't. I tried to get back to sleep, but the beeping doesn't go away for a long time, so I eventually gave up and read a book. Typical thing for me to do when I'm bored.

On the shelves above my television, there is a clock, a strange porcelain statue (probably the Buddha?), my Ancient Civ 3D model from last year (this being a clay figure of Hatshepsut), a plastic container with dinosaurs in it, a flower pot, and some trophies. I have not added anything new to my trophy collection for such a long time. Probably the only chance I'll get will be the upcoming piano recital, which is around the end of March. I'm always quite nervous due to my fear of performing in front of people but I guess I can't get out of it unless I somehow get in an accident. (And that would have much, much worse consequences.)

I probably need to get more pencil cases or another rack for my pens. I have so many of them by now, that if I disturb my desk (mostly for storage rather than use, hehe) the pile of them will topple and I'll have to spend five minutes meticulously reorganizing the pencils. The only salvation I could find was a wooden container which could serve as a pencil holder if necessary. My parents just insist it's because I'm such a hoarder and a packrat...That may be so.

Labels: cow, heater, lamp, michael buble, packrat, pencil, pens, piano, reading, recital, shelves, singing, smoke alarm, stuffed animal, trophy, year of the ox

My history grade went down a bit lately. The first was caused by stapling my China test in the wrong order and losing 5 points, making my perfect A become an A-, I think (you may know what I'm talking about if you've read my previous posts). So I almost forgot about that, except Mr. Blair passed back the history tests today, and he said in front of the class how he was calling out to me at the end of class back then because he was giving me the chance to fix it. I feel terrible because I wanted to get my lunch and had just run out on him, therefore ruining one of my grades.

And then it turns out I did pretty bad on my Japan project speech. I got a C, in fact. This is a major embarrassment to me and now my mother is considering signing me up for public speaking classes. I took Speech & Debate class last year in the summer and it was literal torture. I figured I would have to commit a crime or something to avoid it, but I'm reluctant (I heard there are some really scary people in jail). I was considering talking to Mr. Blair about these happenings, but then again, I brought it on myself, so I'm just wallowing in misery in the meantime. (I still have an A in history but it's not a high A like it used to be.)

Anyhow, on to some lighter news. Today is Friday the 13th, so that became part of the question for Dialing for Dollars. That's our school's game show, held every Friday. One of the counselors and the vice principal run the show. Your class can win prizes if they can answer the question asked correctly. (The classes are randomly drawn from a box and then are called via phone, so that's why it's called Dialing for Dollars) The answer turned out to be August. I had guessed it might be August (but this was a random guess, and Room B didn't get called). Still, I suspect I may have a sixth sense. Ooh.

Also, as Valentine's Day is tomorrow, but tomorrow is Saturday, we had Singing Valentines today. The days before you could've ordered SVs for a friend/someone you want to embarrass/someone you "like". You pay $3 and on Friday the people in FAME (acting, singing, dancing elective) and Dynamics (school choir) will come by in one your classes, give you a card the sender wrote plus a lollipop, and then they'll sing and dance around a chair (which you sit in, like the hot seat). It's entertaining to watch, but kind of weird to be the recipient, which I was, twice. The first was sent by one of my friends and I got a disturbing song about lips (apparently it was from the Ella Enchanted movie?). The second time, nothing was written on the card, but I suspect it was another friend, who didn't have enough time since the bell rang. They gave me a song about the letters in the word love. Both disturbing songs.

Oh well, the day's over now, and I might as well keep on living (even if it means I have to play music on purpose to fill up the dead silence). February break, here I come.

Labels: break, dialing for dollars, emotions, friday the 13th, history, school, singing, speech, valentines

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