J-Pop: An Cafe

Will my sporadic presence online recommence? We'll see.

These guys are totally rocking my world right now. Especially this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaekLMnv9lM&feature=related
I would karaoke this all day long.

I'm Still Alive!

My apologies for disappearing for so long. Class and work have been keeping me occupied from dawn til far past dusk, and I haven't had time to wash dishes, much less blog. In fact, I'm only on here because I'm taking a break from writing my latest paper. I have a few announcements to make, just to catch up with myself-

Miyavi will be performing in Dallas on my 21st birthday (in less than one week). I'm not going. I don't want to discuss it.

Last Drink Bird Head is on its way to my doorstep! It's the latest anthology from Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, and I'm terribly excited about it! It's a limited edition, 160 page collection of flash fiction from 80 writers (if my counting can be trusted) including Hal Duncan, Felix Gilman, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Jeffery Ford, K.J. Bishop, Jay Lake, Cat Rambo, Ekaterina Sedia, and Jeffrey Thomas. I'm so excited about this book that I sacrificed Miyavi's concert for it. Even better, all proceeds from the sale of this book go to ProLiteracy.Org, which is just as totally awesome as the book itself. Anyone who hasn't bought a copy yet should order one- it's a guaranteed keeper and it benefits a great cause. Now I just have to order Jeff Vandermeer's Booklife...after another paycheck or two.

Halloween is this weekend! I have to work on Saturday, sadly, but I'll be working in my costume. Beware the zombie elf behind the counter at the bookstore!

World Fantasy is also this weekend. Again, I won't be there, but this year's lineup for the World Fantasy Awards is, naturally, pretty freaking badass. I may have to stream the ceremony at work, because (except for every category Gaiman is in) there is some seriously stiff competition. I'm not even sure who I want to win in some cases...

In fact, Ekaterina Sedia's The Rhetorics of Fantasy , which I've already posted about here, is up for an award, and I just found out that she's written another book on the genre with Edward James, A Short History of Fantasy. Jeez, I'm going to need another shelf by the end of the week. That, and another job.

Gackt Update

Got the album in. It is everything I could have hoped for, and more. Oh, so pretty... I'm going to make the upstairs neighbor hate me for playing this thing...(unless I convert her to Gackt fangirl-hood as well...hmm, new mission, perhaps?)

Gackt!

Yes, today I not only bought a CD (which I never do- they've been proven to be Not Worth the Investment, in my opinion) but I totally scored a freaking Gackt import album for $8.92! I've NEVER seen one of these damn things for less than $20- ever. Ever, ever, ever. And believe me when I say I've been hunting for years... dammit. The album is Mars, and it contains the outstanding tracks Vanilla, Mirror, and Oasis, as well as a number of other songs I'm not as familiar with. I like what I heard on the little soundbytes offered on Hasting's website, though, though I do believe I will be thoroughly pleased when the disc comes in. (Holy cow, I just bought a CD! I haven't done that in AGES!)

In the meantime, here's a (translated!) video of a live performance of Vanilla...complete with Gackt in tight snakeskin pants, humping his guitar player (Masa) onstage. Life is good, people.

And have I mentioned how much I hate this man for being so damn pretty? Gah! Just look at him! It isn't fair!