Blog subject to change

What’s better, movie or the band?

yoyokirby — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:11:26 +0000

While I’m sure many of you know of this masterpiece of a movie, and if you’re not I suggest you make yourself aware of it, but many of us don’t know about the band of the same name. Well, let me clear things up. One of them is good, and the other just makes me laugh for 102 minutes.

Please enjoy this small clip of a boy punching a dog in the face, an angry old man with a shotgun, a crazy young man that can’t speak any language, bad lighting techniques, and a labyrinth inside a house.

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Although, I hope I didn’t scare you away..

People under the stairs, however, is a really good hip hop duo comprised of self proclaimed break dancers (b-boy) Thes One and Double K. PUTS is an underground hip-hop (alternative hip-hop) band from California. I’ve been blinded by radio-rap,and thought that this was a showcase of the best rap. I mean it’s popular enough to get on the radio so, by that logic, it must be the best. After conversing with people over the internet, notably Ryuu, I’ve understood that most rap on the radio is in fact not the best, and in some cases the worst. Often times lyrical content of said broadcasts would revolve sex, sex,sex. I know sex sells, but this is just asinine. It used to be symbols to allude to sex, but now it’s plainly obvious because half the words in the song are ’sex’. This alone makes me fear for humanity.

But I digress. The reason I love this group is because all of their songs are comprised of real instruments. What’s more, they’re quite catchy beats. You might have a jazz guitar riff combined with a hip hop drum beats, the bass is stuck in the middle and why not throw some piano in there. That’s why this is my favorite group in this genre. I love their vocal tones, and they don’t sing about generic things!

Now I couldn’t pick, so you’ll have to. You have a choice between the L.A. Song or Acid Raindrops. Hell, pick both if you like them.

Takin’ a break

yoyokirby — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:58:48 +0000

Don’t worry all of my five viewers, I’m not dead. I’m taking a break.

Got lots of crap to do, so don’t expect anything new for a few weeks or so.

Some sort of newspaper or something?

yoyokirby — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:11:27 +0000

If you were to really think that, you would probably know me personally. The GazettE 「ガゼット」 is a Japanese group that are classified as rock/metal. Granted, most of their songs probably sound as such, but there are some that have a smooth/easy going feel to it. Hell, some of them fuse easy listening to rock, if you can imagine that. Heavy listening?

Their appearance is quite strange because they follow a movement called “Visual Kei” (V-kei for short). For those of you with prior knowledge to Japanese bands, this should not be news to you. For those of you who haven’t, run while you can! Just kidding. Basically a Visual Kei band is a group who dresses up eccentrically. Makeup us usually worn. Sometimes cross-dressing is involved, so don’t be to quick to ogle over those hot ‘chicks’ because chances are they are dudes.

Anyways… They’ve been in the music business since 2003 and are doing a pretty good job at what they do. Honestly though, this is one of my favorite bands from Japan. I like them because the bassist stands out. Reita plays the bass, and when he does, it sounds funky. So, if you will, add that to the mix. You’ve got heavy funky easy listening! It’s an interesting concept.

Reita plays his bass with a pick, and I don’t really like when people do that but in this case I won’t let it bother me. His riffs aren’t super complex, but do take a certain degree of bassmanship to play, and always sound good.

There are two guitarists, Aoi and Uruha. Each of them are both really good at their instruments and complement each other very well. They will sometimes do their own guitar parts in two different channels. Stereo means two channels for those of you who don’t know. So Uruha would be doing his thing in one channel, while Aoi does his thing in the other. Sometimes they will do this, and do a call-and-response.

Kai is one of my favorite Japanese drummers. I’m a drummer and I like to hear good drummers perform. If you’ve ever been there when I was practicing drums, you may have noticed me playing some GazettE. Chances are that you’ve never been there when I was practicing, but I just thought I would throw that in there. His beats are incredibly fun to play, from his simple to complex ones. All in all, a very good drummer.

Ruki is the singer of the band and he has a unique voice that really draws you in. Sometimes unique can be weird, and we can all relate to that for modern bands, but Ruki is an essential part of this band. Also, uniqueness is always a good thing because it’s never boring.

So enjoy this PV (Promotional video) of The GazettE. This is one of my personal favorites!

The GazettE – Sumire

Wii Would Like To Play [The Shamisen]

yoyokirby — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:49:44 +0000

If you’re a fan of not-so-usual bands, then you’re in for a treat! The Yoshida Brothers are a musical group in Japan that play a Japanese classical musical instrument called the Shamisen. Although their style of music is not classical Japanese, it does take much of it and creates a fusion of sorts. Their Shamisen playing is often times accompanied by a typical rock band backing (Drums, bass, piano, etc…).

Believe it or not, many of you are already familiar with this group. Have you ever turned on the TV and had a commercial for the Nintendo Wii come on? You guessed it: The Yoshida Brothers did the music for the Nintendo Wii commercials! If you didn’t like the music in the commercials , don’t let it scare you off. I implore you all to wait until you reach the end of the page, and click the final video before you make your mind.

And this is the actual song that is being played. It’s a really nice performance. Although this is just a Shamisen performance between the brothers, no music backings.

Now I know there are a lot of videos in this post, but bear with me. This is a song I have personally picked called “Nikata”. It has all above mentioned backings whatnot, and they present it in a fun and interesting manner without really breaking the classical barrier. It’s a sort of twist between rock and Japanese classical and my personal favorite song.

My top 5 list of all time favorite game (series)

yoyokirby — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:26:15 +0000

#1 Kirby

Kirby is by far my favorite game series because it’s just so much fun. Each game is different in itself so it’s hard to correctly define kirby as one specific game, although we can all agree that it’s a 2D platformer. Each game is different in different ways (if that made sense). In one game the enemies don’t give powers. In one game there are animal helpers, which you can ride (It gives your power a different effect depending on the animal). In one game you can create helpers with powers. In one game you can COMBINE powers. In one game you move according to a line you draw. So it’s really hard to say.

My favorite: Kirby Super Stars

Why: It’s the first one that introduced a wide variety of mini games and the first one that you could create a helper with an ability. The helper makes it possible to be a cooperative two player game, which is a definite plus for me. I love coop games.

#2 Ratchet & Clank

Ratchet and Clank is a phenomenal game series. It’s an action/adventure game in which a small creature (wombat) is put up against intense tasks along with his mechanic buddy.

My Favorite: Ratchet & Clank (the first one)

Why: Every other game than this makes you rely on your projectile weapons and I’m not very fond of that. I’m a wrench man and you can’t make me change that! Also, for some reason the voice of Ratchet after the first game doesn’t appeal to me as much.

(Image source: Psychonauts home page)

#3 Psychonauts

Psychonauts is an action/adventure game in which a young boy named Rasputin, Raz for short, is on a quest to be one of the worlds greatest psychic minds in under 3 days. This sounds like a task only obtainable in the fantasy realm, which it is.

My Favorite: There’s only one Psychonauts game

Why: The level designs are fun and pretty. The levels are interesting because each level has some sort of influence on what the person’s personality is like. For the macho-man war hero, we get a mind full of war memories and obstacles. For the party girl, we have really big party, spanning to several different rooms. For a deeply disturbed guard, we have a level that literally makes no sense. The roads aren’t even consistently flat, up is down, down is up, and everyone is a spy. (This is my favorite level, it’s just so darn funny).

#4 Katamari

Katamari is an incredibly innovative game in the sense that you can’t quite put a genre on it. Basically you’re a small ‘prince’ of another planet and you’re rolling up objects on Earth to put into the cosmos. The size of the object you’re rolling is based approximately on the size that you can see them in the sky from Earth. This is just… wrong, but anyways it makes the moon the biggest in Katamari Damacy.

My Favorite: Torn between Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari

Why: There really is nothing big wrong with this game. The game play is fun, the level designs are creative and the scenery makes funny noises when you are near them or pick them up. This game makes me laugh and smile constantly. The very premise of the game is just so absurd, you can’t help but enjoy it!

#5 Parappa The Rapper

Parappa the Rapper is a a really overlooked game when it comes to popular choices because more then likely people will have a problem with the graphics. That’s the trademark Parappa style, you can’t make them change it. The game play is that of a rhythmic dance game. The story purposes a problem and you have to do your part by rapping it away.

My Favorite: Parappa the Rapper 2

Why: It’s easier and that, in turn, makes it more fun. I love the graphic style (2D characters bending on a 3D level). I love the idea behind the game play. I love how each rap session is set up. In Parappa 2 there are mini-games and you are allowed to save replays of your sessions.

I WEEP FOR YOUUUUU

yoyokirby — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:30:52 +0000

OH YEAH

WHEN I FIRST SAW YOU

ON THAT DAYTIME TV SHOW

SITTING BEHIND THAT PLATE OF SPAGHETTI

I KNEW THAT YOU WERE NO ORDINARY CAT

HATERS WILL HATE ON YOU AND MAKE NEGATIVE COMMENTS

SUCH AS THAT CAT LOOKS SCARED

AND A CAT SHOULD NOT BE EATING SPAGHETTI

BUT YOU JUST KEEP ON EATING THAT SPAGHETTI

BECAUSE YOU WILL ALWAYS BE…

SPAGHETTI CAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

I WEEP FOR YOUUUUUUUU~

Queen feat. T-pain and the Kool Aid Man

(Just kidding)

Joe Frank: You probably don’t know him

yoyokirby — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:05:28 +0000

Joe Frank is the title of a radio show hosted by a man of the same name. He’s a storyteller and his stories are always twisted, humorous and often times philosophical. When you hear him, you can’t help but wonder how the heck he comes up with it. He has won a number of awards such as a Lifetime Achievement award, an Emmy, and he is a Guggenheim fellow.

If I were to describe him in one sentence, I would probably just use this one because it’s really quite perfect in it’s entirety.

“Frank’s radio programs are at times dark and frequently ironic, humorous and absurd. Adding to the atmosphere of Frank’s monologues.” -http://JoeFrank.com

[Side note: Please do not realize that there are two sentences in that quote]

He tells short stories, monologues and acts out (staged) phone calls. The majority of his work is accompanied by a musical backtracking. I believe people do send him their songs for the background music sometimes. [Citation needed]

[Side note: Please do not realize that I just pulled a Wiki]

I’d like to write the transcript for one of his shorter segments to give you a vague idea about what it’s like.

My Crimes (Monologue):

“I embezzled money from an old neighbor woman who lived down the street.

On the way back I stole a garden rake.

I burglarized the apartment of a blind paraplegic.

I stole quite a lot of toilet tissue from a paper manufacturer in Wisconsin.

Then I burned down the Harrison’s place on the corner there… Killed both of them.

Turned me into a homicidal maniac…

Passin’ bad checks out in Montana.

I have a skiing resort…$780 worth of cocktails and shrimp.

I killed a shop keeper, because I didn’t like the location of his shop.

I killed an interior designer, because I did not like her sense of style.

I killed a real estate broker one time, because he showed me the wrong apartment, and I killed the occupants of that apartment as well.

Fact, that was a murder that kept me very busy because I had to kill the superintendent and the door man too, just to make my getaway.

I killed a woman bar tender, for wearing a bow tie.

I killed a male bar tender for letting her wear that bow tie.

I killed the manager of that saloon, for hiring them both.

And I finally tracked down and killed the owner, because I didn’t like his watered down drinks.

At last I decided… to try to kill myself… driving head on into a little Porsche one time.”

(Around 2~ minutes of story)

Now what was your reaction? Really weird, right? But it also makes you think. He kills the things he doesn’t like, then he kills himself. Why? Does he not like himself? He doesn’t like what he has become maybe? Why was he so descriptive about how he was going to kill himself? He merely stated that he ‘killed’ the other people, for absurd reasons too. Maybe he was killing himself for some absurd reason as well; it certainly flows that way.

I’ll leave the interpretation up to you, for that is the magic of stories!

I don’t quite think my post is just in describing Joe Frank, but I hope I have influenced you into listening to him so you can fully understand for yourself.

Free segments can be find here: Joe Frank Podcasts (free)

I recommend these:

Joseph:

A third person narrative through the eyes of Joseph (Non-biological father to Jesus) in which he explains how he is envious of Jesus which in then turns into hate. (Fantastic background music, very fitting)

No More My Lord:

A first person narrative. A dream in which Joe Frank finds himself at a party, attended by mass murderers and (relatively) lesser murderers. He develops the characters (Hitler, Pol Pot, etc…) as fairly intelligent normal people talking about everyday subjects such as tailors and floral arrangements. He then questions why he’s there at this party. This leads into more questions and then delves into religion and philosophical debates as to why should anyone should believe when such atrocities, explained by Joe Frank, can occur.

Bank Robber:

A monologue in which a bank robber explains how he can get away with stealing from a bank. The things he steals escalate in significance. It’s really quite humorous and absurd.

Suicide Bridge:

An announcer for something unknown is talking about a bridge in which it is favorable to commit suicide at. It’s favorable because it is at a point where the water level is so acidic that your body dissolves in impact. This doesn’t sound funny, but Joe Frank makes it funny. It’s also absurd, of course.

Ode To War:

This one is a monologue about why war is glorified. He explains how war gets a variety of things, such as parades and then makes note of the absurdity of a “peace parade”. He further explains his point with reinforced statements about how peace gets nothing, and everyone glorifies war. This one is a serious monologue, and is backed up by talking about other absurdities.

I’ll let you guys check out the rest. I’ll be interested in what you think! Don’t be afraid, just leave me a comment.

One last quick thing. If anyone copy+pastes the transcription, I ask you to just make note of me in whatever you are writing for. Just a short “Lol, thanks YoyoKirby” would suffice. Possibly a link back to this post, as I do not believe credit has been given where credit was due.

Need a name change

yoyokirby — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:40:16 +0000

I need a new name for my blog… Something more unique. Preferably something that reflects what I write about. Please give me some ideas as to what I should change it to. I feel that “Blog subject to change” is really not that unique and most likely will not be shown on search engines and stuff like that.

UPDATE

I’m think I’m gonna call it blogular… maybe…

UPDATE
I’ve got a plan! Name stays.

Internet websites unite!

yoyokirby — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:24:00 +0000

I’m gonna use this post to reveal some of the web services that I use, and some of the other websites that I like to visit. It’s really just to give a little info about what I do, but it’s also an opportunity to show people nice places on the web.

Services I use:

So I have a Disqus account and I’ve been using it for one website and never really bothered messing around with it aside from commenting. I’m assuming lots of you have them, so going to expand my horizons of sorts. Everyone, I request that we be friends. :]

Likewise for Twitter, I haven’t really been using it much, since I have this thing and 140 characters is definitely not enough to articulate my thoughts. So I’ve been meaning to do some sort of informative thing on Twitter, that is why I’m going to post updates on my Twitter page. At least, that’s the plan.

Blawgz (Blogs):

Tofugu is a really cool place! It’s ran by a few people named Koichi, Erin and Viet. Koichi makes youtube videos which are worth watching at least once. His blog covers many different subjects of the Japanese variety. He also teaches Japanese at eduFire, but good luck finding a spot in his classes! He’s insanely popular in the J-blog community, so he is always full to the brim for his classes. He has a few other blogs in Japanese, and the co-authors of the site have their own personal blogs too. You can find the links to those blogs in Tofugu’s website and any info I haven’t covered can be covered in Tofugu, and most likely will be.

Engadget is a phenomenal blog because not only is it a tech blog that was up to date information it has anywhere from 7-20 new posts a day al with loads of information. I’m not writing much about it, because you need to really see it for yourself. It covers like every aspect of technology, and even games if they’re pertinent enough.

Friends Blogs:

royalcrown’s blog is neat. He talks about music as well as philosophy. He’s pretty much a philosopher, so go check his site out.

PeaceMachine’s blog is nice because he covers a great deal of things. He ranges from artistic writings to cool things that he finds on the web.

Rocky’s Blog is cool. He writes about Japanese music and things that happen to him in chatrooms.

Alternate Drawings

yoyokirby — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:23:58 +0000

I recently came across a few alternately drawn pictures from our favorites. Most of these I’ve seen before, but some are just pretty darn cool so I just had to post ‘em.

The warden from Super Jail

Scooby Doo!

Our favorite Fast Food mascots

Badass Shaggy from Scooby Doo

This is is fairly old but still a goodie

Well blow me down! Aguguguguguh. It’s badass Popeye!

Calvin and Hobbes

I fuckin love this one

He needs his honey

Pooh

It took me a few minutes to figure this one out

Pacman!