This little fellow reminds me of an orangutan.
The one I have been slavishly and hopelessly imitating most of my life.
And this is probably my favourite painting of his. I can't look at his work too much because it always makes me wonder why I bother.
Happy Solstice!
Worlds greatest Kitty painter.
1. おはようミカ
Ohayou Mika
A glam rock fans wet dream. Voice is quite harsh, aggressive, snarling, all raw rock star ego. But its also spectacular in its honesty, and incredibly versatile too. Ryohei Shima is one of the most talented and charismatic vocalists to appear this century. He has the gift of chaos, a discordian pope if you like, but he also shows a vulnerable side, hiding away behind his hair. It's so charming! And his band is just superb! They've really got the lot.
2. 人生
Jinsei
This song is on fire! Punk glam orgy of sound. The bass player is so powerful! Women always make the best bass players. It's because we have the rhythm in our hips.
3. ハートブレイクマン
Heartbreak Man
Sudden change of pace. This is SO Flippers Guitar. All smooth and seductive. A glittering gentle fishy song.
4.非・生産的人間
Hi Seisan Teki Ningen
All noise and chaos. This is more Hanatarash, right down to the Eye style dragon shrieking.
5.ジャーニー
Journey
I fucking adore this song! Very very impressive. Everyone is shining on this track. That hip grinding bass demon most of all. And the guitar stuff that starts about one and a half minutes is just fantastic! Wow! To be honest I am shocked. I thought rock and roll was dead and buried, but seemingly it aint! :D Really goes off around 3 minutes, turning into a blistering psychedelic masterpiece. These guys have all the intuitive psychedelic brilliance of Rallizes de Nudes and 100 times their musical skill. There's a superb live of this on You Tube:
6.ライデイン(愛と笑いのロード)
Raidein (Ai To Warai No Road)
Another great song. Very Lust for Life, very get up and dance you bastards. I really think they are doing something totally unique and new here, for all their retro referencing. It's a mutant sound of epic and future shocking proportions. I can't wait for the next album :D Not to mention the world tour, because I'm telling you, everyone would love this band. And I think the time is over when language barriers or corporate hegemonies had any relevance whatsoever.
Onwards and upwards!
This is an important novel to read if you really want to understand Mishima. Brilliantly written of course. That goes without saying. But it's not nearly as much fun as Forbidden Colours.
It's pretty obviously heavily autobiographical, as most first novels are, dealing with the periods of childhood and adolescence. And as is usual for Mishima, dealing for the most part with sexual and emotional matters. It is all about his bizarre and violent fantasies revolving around the heroic death of muscular young men, preferably not at all intellectual. There's something very suffocating about the frustration of his true desires and his futile attempts to live "normally" and have an affair with a woman. It's all very oppressive, as is appropriate when someone is living a lie.
Mans heart is very wide, says the Dostoevsky quote at the beginning, wide enough to encompass both Sodom and the Madonna. His love for women, and particularly for Sonoko is a kind of spiritual feeling. Totally unsexual, but still significant. Maybe this explains why he has always written such fascinating women characters. And often very spiritual ones, like Satoko.
I think what I liked least about this novel was it's lack of humour, compared to many of his novels, and its tendency to wallowing and self hatred. The only truly funny scene is that of his first orgasm, occasioned by the original St Sebastian. It's an appropriate device for a novel about adolescence though as it's a well known fact how humourless teenagers are. Life for Kochan is far too out of control to risk laughing at. How does it come about that a person becomes so obsessed with fetishes of death and dying at such an early age? He doesn't even begin to explain. I'm not sure he knows himself. Some things are beyond rational explanation. I suppose that is the whole point of the book.
The Cro-Magnons
「FIRE AGE」
2008.10.15
So Fire Age. The Cro-Magnons discover the many uses of fire. There's a problem with the order of the albums though, because you can't have a Cave Party without fire...can't do any cave paintings without a torch either, just like I can't paint without music. Anyway that's assuming they are going forwards in time. If so I have to point out the next logical stage is the Matriarchal Age XDD That came along with the discovery of agriculture. Settle down, learn to cultivate and worship the goddess for a few thousand years.
This is a great album, I think my favourite of The Cro-Magnons so far. I managed to get it half way down the currency collapse. Now it's bottomed out I think the only way I could justify buying any more new Japanese releases is if Marcy starts singing again. Unless the currency recovers, which its not going to do in a hurry, I'll have to just review old stuff I already own from now on, because I refuse to review mp3. Luckily I bought up all the Marcy solo while we were still in the first world. Excepts Rabbits which need to be rereleased.
Like I say this is a great album, awesome songs from both of them, but if only Marcy would sing a couple of his songs it would all be so much better.
1.エイトビート
(EIGHT BEAT)
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
This version is different to the single. Apart for the arrangement. It seems calmer and more relaxed. Wonderful single anyway. Best one they've released I think and that's a hard competition.
2.ゴーゴーゴー
(GO GO GO)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
Darker than I expected, Really great song, especially the ending. The Mystery train. This does really sound like a train song, like you are travelling along. Marcys songs are always painting scenes, and taking you on rides. Very strong visual and visceral imagery. The end is like going through the tunnel into the Land of Snow. :D Really love that bit.
3.ぼうふら
(BOUFURA)
mosquito larvae
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
Excellent song! Dark, again, and wild, just the kind of mad cow punk I was raised on. I think that's why I like them so much. AWESOME chorus! Been infesting my head all week.
4.独房暮らし
(DOKUBO KURASHI)
solitary cell life
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
Yeah I like it. Not addicted though, yet...Maybe this one is more amusing if you understand the lyrics. I'm sure they all are actually, which is annoying. Makes me think about a TV show I saw with all these homeless people in Japan living in cupboards with the internet looking for jobs. A good incentive to put up with horrors like Music Station appearances I suppose.
5.自転車リンリンリン
(JITENSHA RIN RIN RIN)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
Totally addicted to the bicycle song. Yet again we are being taken for a wild ride :D Can't get enough of the guitar, as always.
6.ニャオニャオニャー
(NYAO NYAO NYAO)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
Guitar riff with just two notes repeated is awesome! Makes it all feel kind of urgent and demanding, like this cat really wants to get some action :D
I laughed all the way through this song when I first heard it. Hiroto going Nyao Nyao Nyao! = PRICELESS! XD Suits you sir...
And the backing vocals towards the end...XDD....Marcy has been taking lessons from real kitties. I'd LOVE to hear him sing this song. Altogether one of the most amusing songs I have ever heard. *wants to see a godamn live RIGHT NOW*
7.海はいい
(UMI WA II)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
Like this alot. The sea is better than everything. Of course it is.
8.スピードとナイフ
(SPEED TO KNIFE)
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
Another incredible single. Love the way he sings this song.
Hiroto is on fire.
9.ナントカドン
(NAN TO KA DON)
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
LOL! Didn't get this at first but now I love it. I wanna be a creature too! Oh wait, I am....
Gaaaoohhh Gaaaooohhh!!
Guitar is lovely.
10.太陽さん
(TAIYOUSAN)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
Superb song. Best on the album. Marcy should have sung it, but Hiroto does a brilliant job as always. This song is really what THE SUN feels like. At first its warming and invigorating and revitalizing, but towards the end there it is beating down and scorching. You need a hat and a long sleeved shirt and lots of water to drink or you are literally going to die. Hahaha if you've ever had sunstroke you'll understand.
11.まーだーまーだー
(MA DA MA DA)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
And this song is just the cool refreshing drink you needed. Something very very pleasing about the skittery shuffly rhythms Katsuji is making here, especially during the harmonica parts.
12.化石とミイラ
(KASEKI TO MIIRA)
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
OH yeah! This one gives me the shits for some reason. And I think a lot of it is the OH YEAHS. I dunno, maybe its funny enough to get away with it. I wouldn't know.
13.ジェームス・ディーン
(JAMES・DEAN)
作詞・作曲 真島昌利
REALLY like this one. Awesome guitar. Awesome bongo rhythm spider. XD
Not only is humanity in general both crap and awesome, but each individual is too. Learn to love your crap man. This is what I have learned this month.
LOVE YOUR CRAP!
14.ドロドロ
(DORO DORO)
作詞・作曲 甲本ヒロト
Heh! Very funky.
LOVE IT! :D
Guitar is just :D~~
Singing...oh yeah! Choruses I love them. And the ending too. This isn't the kind of song that seems to require anything sensible said about it.
In fact you could say that about the whole album.
All that is really needed is LOVE.
Which reminds me there was a Beatles riff in there somewhere...
Best singer ever. Instant emotional overload. That there will never be another Edith is everything that is wrong with the world.
^_______________^
And I had to get rid of all those flames...they were making my brain overheat every time I looked in here. Whew.
Thanks to Kiluuna for the scan. :)
