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The latest release from the pillows is out! Tokyo Bambi. Had a listen, and very quickly went “squeee!” when I heard horns kick in! HORNS! TRUMPET~!!

I just got myself a trumpet for Christmas so I’m even more psyched now that I have a pillows song to learn!

Video is highly amusing. Henceforth, drums should always be played in a a bathtub. And Sawao does an awesome impersonation of a drunken sarariman at karaoke, ehehehehe!

But you know what was most squee-worthy about this entire track? That man playing trumpet with the cardboard box over his head on the television? Yeah! That’s the guest horn player!

Which guest horn player, I hear you cry?

None other than Nargo of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra!

Skapara and the pillows, together at last!

So….happy!

Oi! Cat Empire! You got some catching up to do!

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Over the last couple of months, I’ve lived on a diet of stress and caffeine. Hair has fallen out. There were tears - TEARS - about school work! I was convinced that this semester’s results weren’t going to be as great as last semester’s results.

Last semester, it was 4 high distinctions and a distinction. I thought that this semester, it would be 1 HD and, if I was bloody lucky, 4 distinctions. Low distinctions, at that. Credits, more likely.

I didn’t think I was going to fail but I was not happy at the prospect of credits. This is my second IT degree. I came back to uni so that this time I could do it right. Four distinctions and a HD would have been a relief, given how hard the semester was, but not grades I’d be ecstatic with. Still, a distinction average would be acceptable.

Exams ended. I had one lousy week of holiday before summer school started again. Most of the time was spent catatonic. Sat on my bed and stared out the window. Slept. Lots of sleeping! Occassionally played video games but not as much as I thought I would. Cleaned the house. Was fairly zombie-like, overall.

The morning of results came and I slept in. That’s how brain dead I was. I didn’t even remember, after all the stress I went through, that the results would be out that morning. Eventually was woken up by a message from a friend asking me if I was happy or if it was time to take Accounting.

I stared at that message for about three minutes wondering what the hell he was going on about before I realised “Oh!! Results are out!!” and he wanted to know if I was happy with mine.

Turn on laptop. Takes an eternity to load. Log into my uni account.

One of the nice things Swinburne does with their online portal is - on results day - redirect you to your results page as soon as you log in.

Page loads. My eyes are still half-glued together after 9 hours snoozing. But I can still make out the straight line of HDs down the page.

Hehhhh….*dies*

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In the spirit of xkcd, I have constructed a graph:

I’m supposed to be studying today. But I couldn’t get into it. My brain kept pulling cruel tricks on me. So in the end I started doing procrastination cleaning. And to accompany my cleaning? Some music! I should turn on my stereo every so often, after all. Ooh! And look! I have shelves full of CDs! Why don’t I put one on?

Hmm, the pillows! Bloody hell, when was the last time I listened to them?

I’ve been living on a musical diet of Triple J and whatever I can hear from my housemate’s bedroom lately. I haven’t had iTunes on in a while and even then I’ve kept it to the whole playlist, rather than the Japanese or pillows-specific playlists. Kyo-kun hasn’t even been charged in the last ….three months, maybe?

As soon as the CD started playing though, I instantly felt happier. Cleaning and sorting the laundry was fun, I had something nice to eat and I could settle down at my laptop to do a bit of study.

I probably haven’t been the easiest person to be around recently. If I’m not bitchy and hermit-y then I’m stressed and slightly hysterical. Apologies to my friends and family who have had to put up with me this semester. It hasn’t been an easy one. Nearly over though.

And now I know the real cause behind my bad moods! It all became so clear this afternoon, listening to My Foot…I haven’t been listening to enough pillows!

Hahaaahaaahahaha!! That must be it!!! All better now!!!

Probably will be better still when my exams are over and I get a decent grade for them, but for now the pillows is the panacea.

Meanwhile, the procrastination cleaning, then drawing up this graph and blogging about it means I’ve wasted three hours that I could’ve used studying.

But at least I feel better about it!

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So!

Waaaay back in 2006, while I was still living in Yokohama, I convinced my then housemate that she needed to call in sick one Sunday so that we could go to Harajuku and the Tokyo Anime Fair. Which we did.

We got up pretty late though and only managed to get to Harajuku at about 1pm. Did our thing (I think L may have bought some GothLoli stuff) and then we tried to navigate our way from Harajuku on the west side of the Yamanote Circle to Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Which is an impressive piece of architecture but bloody annoying to get to.

I think that the commute took us about an hour, but I thought we’d be okay since we left Harajuku at 3.30pm and closing time at TAF was 6pm.

Or so I thought.

We arrived at Tokyo Big Sight where there were surprisingly few people around…suspicious. Walking to the entrance took another 15 odd minutes from the station. We eventually arrived at the gates to the fair and said “Two, please”

“Ahh! Ehhh….no”

“Huh?”

“etou…No more”

“Ehhhhhhh?! It’s sold out? Closed? But it’s supposed to close at 6! It’s only 4.30pm!”

But we weren’t allowed in. I was hella annoyed. I had my Urahara hat on and a wallet full of yen and I wanted to get inside to spend it, dammit! L was distressed too. She told the guy at the gates - and I’ll never forget how she said it - “But we’re from England!”

Wrong, but it seemed to work! The guy at the gate shoo-ed us inside. Then L said in an outraged voice: “He smacked my ass as we went past!”

Bwaaaahahahaha! I told her that she took one for the team, now let’s get shopping!

The place was empty. We were wandering up and down empty aisles - which in a way, was kinda cool, since we didn’t have to fight against crowds of people. Plus we had gotten in for free!

But nothing was happening, the screens were all being turned off, the displays were being dismantled. Only one stall still had merchandise for sale but they were in the process of packing up so I only managed to snatch a few Fullmetal Alchemist items before they too closed.

Why the hell is it closing so soon? Eventually we were told that because it was the last day of the fair, they closed earlier than usual to get a start on dismantling everything.

Admittedly they had a lot to dismantle. I managed to get some nice shots of a huge-ass Ichigo and life-sized Ed, Al and Naruto statues.

A booth babe handed us the last of the showbags and there wasn’t much left to do but leave. I think we were inside the fair for about 15 minutes. Maybe 20. I was kinda pissed about it. We got up too late and spent too long in Harajuku. But then again, it was my fault for not clarifying the closing time.

L and I promised each other that we’d fly back to Tokyo to attend next year’s Tokyo Anime Fair. Heh, that never happened, did it L?

Anyway, that was a fucking long prelude.

One of the showbags we managed to get our hands on had this printed on the side:

Le Chevalier d’Eon

I remember thinking: I’ve never heard of this anime before, but simply based on this one image - I wanna see it!

I still have that showbag too.

Anyway, on Monday I finished the second of my exams. Decided that I’d go home, bloody clean the place and make my housemate some dinner since I’ve been ignoring both her and the house while I’ve been studying. Finally, at around 9pm, I collapsed in front of the pay TV that I hadn’t really used even though I’ve been living here for nearly 3 months.

Hooray for the Cartoon Network and Madman Entertainment, that’s all I can say!

Adult Swim had Le Chevalier d’Eon on that night! Over a year since I’d heard of it an now I could watch it! And luckily it was also the premiere! I could start watching the series at episode one!

Admittedly, episode one in English….but even though I’m a subs-over-dubs anime fan, I could tolerate this dub. Dubs often work well if you know that there’s a particular accent needed, like French. Having Japanese actors speak Japanese in French accent would probably be amusing but it’s not what I’d want to listen to.

Not many characters had French accents in this dub but thankfully they didn’t sound painfully American. They did have some painful timing problems, as is often the case with English dubs, but I was just so keen to see this series that I was going to put up with it this time.

My rant about why Foxtel Digital doesn’t offer multiple audio stream will have to wait for another day!

So! A review of Le Chevalier d’Eon. Or at least, a Chidade-style review. Which basically means, focus on one obscure thing and don’t give any hints about the rest (see my review of Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest for another example)…

…anyway.

The series did start pretty well. I like historical novels and movies so I liked the genre already. It was definitely an adult anime with no dodgy censoring for the kiddies whose parents can’t cope with animated blood. It was going really well for the first 20 minutes. I had it pinned as an action (swordfighting/fencing), crime and espionage, political and historical drama about the times of Louis XV - maybe even something I could recommend to my Dad, coz I’m sure he could enjoy an anime or two if I could just convince him to sit down and watch it!

Then, in the last five minutes of the show, Le Chevalier d’Eon proved that on top of being an action, crime and espionage, political and historical drama - it was above all else, a Japanese animation.

…(spoilers ahead)….

A zombie appeared out of nowhere and the main character passed out and turned into a woman.

Go figure!

Honestly! It’s such an anime thing to do! It can’t be a proper anime or manga unless there’s some kind of monster, or robot, or something weird happening with people’s genitals!

Haha, I love it :D

It’s like that Rodriguez movie - From Dusk Til Dawn. For the first three quarters of the movie, it’s a Tarantino-esque, violent crime movie. Then, suddenly, there’s a bunch of vampires everywhere! Still an awesome movie though, heh.

I’m still liking Le Chevalier d’Eon, despite the obvious genre change. I probably won’t be recommending it to my Dad, though.

Also, I did a bit of research. The anime was originally a manga (common enough) but the manga was actually based on a novel. And the character of d’Eon was actually based on a real historical figure - Chevalier d’Eon who claimed to be born a woman and actually spent the second half of his life living as one!

Truth is stranger than fiction, people. Despite how hard manga and anime try, hehe. I learnt my lesson.

Still, I highly doubt than Hollywood would ever try anything like this. Maybe Rodriguez and Tarantino would - it seems up their alley. But they’ve long said how they appreciate anime and Japanese filmmaking.

This is why I love anime. It’s gives something new and different.

Le Chevalier d’Eon: 7/10

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Dear Chidade,

Your Sincerely,

squiggle line goes here

1. I joined Scouts because:
Peer Pressure. Snark was on my case for a good year before I finally gave in. I think I was also probably dating a Rover at the time.

I had a brother, sister, Mother, Father or other family member in Scouts (please circle):
No. The thought of my sister in a Scout uniform is highly amusing though.

2. I acheived the following Badges/Awards (please tick)
None of the above. I only got the standard badges that they hand to you when you join up. Oh, and that special badge they handed out this year since it’s the Centenary of Scouting. Haven’t actually sewn any of them on my shirt, even after 3 odd years.

3. I took part in Scout Shows such as Gang Show, Camberwell Showtime, Strezlecki Showtime, Whitehorse Showtime (please circle):
Why doesn’t South Metro Showtime get any love? No, I only took part as an audience member. Twice. And both times, I regretted it.

4. I went on outdoor activities such as hikes, camps, water activities and pack holidays (please circle)
Well, there were two occassions when I had to sleep in a tent. I think that more alcohol than hiking was involved, though. Yes.

5. I attended a Jamboree, Cuboree, Venture or Moot (please circle)
Actually, I don’t think any ran while I was a Scout, least, not ones that I would actually pay to attend, as opposed to pay to work my ass off for bratty, snot-nosed, little shits. So no. But only by coincidence.

6. I became a sixer, patrol leader, unit chairman or crew leader (please circle)
What’s a sixer?

7. I attended a Youth Forum at Group, District, Region or Branch level (please circle)
See Number 5.

8. Three things I particularly like about Scouts are:
- Drinking
- Socialising (when I’m not in hermit-mode)
- Shenanigans

9. If I had a magic wand, three things I would change about Scouts are:
Look, I don’t really have anything against Scouts. I’ve just quit because I don’t have the time or the money right now. Scouts is bloody expensive. There’s all those slabs of beer we need to chip into, f’rinstance.

Rovers was fun while it lasted. It’s not very Scout-y. It’s not very much about getting badges for basket weaving and spending every school holidays up to your armpits in mud in some remote camping site. Although, if you want it to be, it can be that too. I’m not a Scouty type person. I don’t have a history of Scouts (while almost all of the members I know at least joined at Venturer level - having a new Scout at Rover level is really weird) and while I’m all for Service to the Community and Goodwill Onto Others and all that, I don’t feel like I need to act like the Queen’s pompous do-gooder militia to achieve it.

That last sentence was a bit of a mean generalisation. There are awesome Scouts and Scouts leaders around. I just wish some of the hierarchy would pull their heads out of their collective asses.

Meh, Rovers. For me it was very much about drinking, socialising and shagging in tents. They are a pretty tight bunch - I think I may have suffered there, because I only became a Scout at Rover level while everyone else knew each other and had stories to tell from Venturers, Cubs or just much younger Rovers. Still, they welcomed me. I was slack though. I never got invested. I was a Squire for the three-years-on-and-off that I was a Scout. And it never really mattered.

Never learnt the Scout Prayer or Promise. Never even learned all the words to Oogie Oogie Oogie.

I’m still going to be friends with all the Rovers I know, mainly through Snark. I’m glad I met these people. I have nothing against them, not very much against the Scout movement, and all-in-all I would’ve stayed if it wasn’t $250+ dollars a year and then another $15 minimum per meeting to do what essentially was socialising and gossip. No one gossips like a Rover.

Plus the time. Once a week and the few long weekend trips doesn’t seem like much, but I have precious little time as it is with university - any free time that I get I want to spend playing Ragnarok or in front of my Nintendo. It’s crying itself to sleep each night, my poor Wii.

No, the things I like doing through the Rovers I can in fact do without being a Rover. So sadly, circumstances dictate that I’ll be handing over my badge and uniform, look, it’s as good as new, only worn 6 times.

What, I’m supposed to keep them? And do what, exactly? Start a collection?!

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Wikipedia is simultaneously awesome, useful and a massive time waster. An example of how it ate up an hour of my time today:

Couldn’t remember the word “pre-emptive” so I Wikipedia’d “Attack on Pearl Harbour” which gave me the word I was trying to remember in the very first sentence.

Nice work Wikipedia.

However, that got me linking to “Pre-emptive attack”, then “International Law” then “Interpol” then “International Police” (because they’re two different organisations, apparently), then “Universal Postal Union”, “International Telecommunication Union”, “Norfolk Island”, “Zealandia” (which is a submerged continent I’d never heard of before), “Geneva”, “Islands of Australia” and then after that I started clicking the ‘Random Article’ link a few times.

Gah!

Worse than Facebook!

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That’s……that’s John Howard…..Prime Minister of Australia…..holding….holding an XBOX 360 CONTROLLER?!

Buh…buh…buhh…*brain asplode*

So it seems like the “biggest entertainment launch ever” even infiltrated as far as Australian Federal Politics. What craziness. I only know about the existence of the Halo 3 launch because I’m a gamer that reads gaming news sites. My housemate had no clue about it and only had a vague idea that Master Chief was a character from a game since she reads a lot of webcomics that parody this kind of thing. I think that this “biggest entertainment launch EVAH!” claim may be a slight exaggeration.

For the record, we don’t own a 360, nor any version of Halo and probably never will. Chick gamer here. Bring on the RPGs, kthnxbai.

Having John Howard pose with a Microsoft franchise figure seems strangely fitting actually.

But more generally…he’s…holding a 360 controller…and CORRECTLY! And he seems to be smiling and enjoying himself gaming! GAMING! JOHN HOWARD GAMING!

Somebody hold me.

Found at Kotaku

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• Have to get up at 6am…downer
• Cat cuddles up to me…upper
• Find Eilix and Bato playing Hexic against each other at 7am….wtf
• See ducks sitting on neighbour’s roof as I pull out of the driveway…upper
• McDonalds breakfast…upper for the tastebuds, downer for my arteries
• Find out that my train is an express…upper
• Train is five minutes late and chock-full so I can’t play my DS…mild downer
• Realised that I just wasted money buying a ticket because I already had one…downer
• Arrive at uni, greeted by friends, do well on the newspaper quiz…mild upper
• Sit through the intelligence-insulting lecture that forces me to be on campus at 8.30 in the freaking morning…downer
• Get worked accomplished in intelligence-insulting tute so I can leave early…mild upper
• Don’t have a break and need to get to the next class…downer
• Realise I don’t have my tablet pen to take notes with…downer
• Lecturer makes me want to fall asleep…downer
• Sleepiness accentuated by lack of sleep last night…downer
• Stomach is dissolving in it’s own acids but don’t have a break until 3.30pm…major downer
• Consider skipping classes and going home to catch up on meals and sleep…upper, although it shouldn’t be
• Realise that I can’t go home even if I want to because I’m having dinner in the city with an old school friend…downer, although it shouldn’t be
• Skip second half of the lecture in disgust so I can at least eat something…downer
• Subway lunch with extra cookies…upper
• Need to take a cash advance off my credit card to pay for lunch and tonight’s dinner…downer
• No money left now until next week’s pay day…downer
• Feel very unhealthy walking up the stairs to class…downer
• Late for class…downer
• Get to class only to find that I have no bloody clues about this subject…major downer
• At least I don’t get pestered my the tutor about my lack of work…mild upper
• Get to next class and can actually make valid contributions…upper
• Battery on laptop went flat…downer
• Suddenly saw a puffer fish on the window…upper
• Have to consider fare evasion because I don’t want to waste the ticket I already had on a five minute journey…downer
• Organise my club membership and get excited about getting seriously involved soon…upper
• Elevator in the Union Building makes itself my mortal enemy…downer

Uppers: 12
Downers: 20

next…class which is looking promising, dinner which should be good but exhaustion will probably stop me from enjoying it properly, commute home which will only be frustrating and finally an evening in bed dead, exhausted and depressed because there were more downers than uppers today. And all this to the background of family trouble, boy trouble and education disorganisation.

It’s crazy how such…essentially unimportant things can change my mood so drastically.

My mind isn’t very healthy right now. I think I’m struggling. It must be the backwash of adrenalin and happiness from seven weeks in Japan. Been home for just over two weeks and haven’t been particularly happy any day. I’m not doing so well right now.

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From a music point of view, this was meant to be quite an exciting second-half-of-the-year. New albums out from my two favourite bands: the pillows and The Cat Empire.

However, while Wake Up! Wake Up! Wake Up! is still enjoyable to listen to, I feel like My Foot was a better album for the pillows. Boat House is a great track, don’t get me wrong! And the fact that Sawao sings a bit in Polish in the track Serious Plan cracks me up. Also a fun track. But overall….some disappointment. It probably won’t be an album I can play repeatedly in the car like I did with My Foot.

As for The Cat Empire…the album is out in September, I’ve already ordered the autographed CD and I’ll be at the album launch at the Prince of Wales in a few weeks time…but I’ve just listened to the first single No Longer There and….

….

…

……..

….it’s fucking elevator music. I see they’ve brought in a guitarist again. Is it the same guy that guested on the Cities album? Cities was a collaborative project, so having new sounds there was understandable and more: extremely successful. But that guitar was guitar at it’s wildest, suckled at the same teat as a sitar! That was guitar that you couldn’t imagine the songs without. Same with the Spanish guitar used in the debut album’s The Rhythm! What awesomeness!

But….The Cat Empire is a band that doesn’t have a guitarist and that is part of it’s appeal, much like Ben Folds Five. Don’t get me wrong, I love guitar-driven music. Look at the pillows, for crying out loud! Melodic guitars up to your earlobes! But…when i first heard Hello, what I loved was the drum solo and the horns. Horns! Trumpet! I love the trumpet! I want to learn it now, thanks to Harry J Angus!

Oh gods, it’s not Harry that plays the guitar in No Longer There, is it?! *cries*

It’s freaking elevator music. Making it finish suddenly and awkwardly like the Cities track doesn’t save it from the fact that it sounds like it should be played on the golden oldies radio station. I heard that JJJ was going to put it on high rotation but I wonder if that will really happen. It’s not typical TCE stuff. Some people say that’s a good thing, that bands should never play out the same thing again and again….I don’t think TCE ever did play out the same thing. They’ve been categorised under as many genres as there are types of instruments! But…this is plain pop. Plain, boring pop. Even Ollie’s piano sounds like something played in the foyer of an expensive restaurant, and nothing more. Kinda stupid lyrics too, although TCE have always had lyrics that tightrope-walked the line between stupid and whimsical. At least, Felix’s songs have. I generally appreciate Harry’s lyrics more.

Is it a Felix thing? All of the other members besides Jumps have side projects - serious side projects - and Jumps may simply be DJing independently as his side project. TCE always struck me as Felix’s baby. Has he taken it all back then? Made it his and his music alone? It’s not that unfeasible. The pillows’ music is certainly Sawao’s music. But…Felix’s songs began to ring warning bells with Know Your Name on Cities…will this be a repeat?

Gaahh! I don’t want to hate it! I don’t want to hate the new TCE album! I already feel a bit miffed about Wake Up! Wake Up Wake Up! - I don’t want the same to happen with So Many Nights! Please, whatever god of music may exist out there, please let the rest of the album be better!

Maybe it has to do with the fact that both the first singles from Wake Up! Wake Up Wake Up! and So Many Nights are ballads…I depend on the pillows and TCE to life my mood, not dampen it. Scarecrow, though, grew on me after a lot of listens….I don’t think No Longer There is ever going to make it up there in the list of ‘Songs I Enjoy’.

Kyo-kun! Tasukete!!

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