Thursday 9 November 2017

Sunday 5 November 2017

Tucked In

I stripped the sheets off the bed earlier during my proactive cleaning session. But after a night-out, coming home slightly drunk and disheveled, I'm tired and want to sleep.

Of course, I will begrudgingly need to make the bed first. But what's that? Some annoying drunk Brazilian guy won't move off the sheet-less mattress. I don't have time for this nonsense, no sir. Sleep is the name, and making the bed first is the bed. I'm making the bed, oh yes, and if you won't move, then that's your problem mister.

Slightly lumpier than usual

Is that some sort of reverse memory foam pillow? Oh wait...



Halloweeeennnn

This year in Pictures:

Zip, up or down?


At Shinjuku Loft: Halloween Ball

Guess the artwork

Crew meet up at 109

DBZ mania

Shinjuku Loft

Hello Children

Get a hold of yourself man

Was not worth the free "Halloween flavour" Mintia

Nomihoudai in Shibuya


Shibuya Scramble

Shibuya Scramble

Snow white and the seven drag queens

Tenga. Hilarious.

The next day at the Halloween dodgeball tournament:

Our team "Dodge of the Dead"

I only managed to convince one person I had eye tattoos on my shoulders



Birftingz

I had an awesome Birthday!

If you're wondering why I cut the middle out,
it's bcause I watched a video on Youtube
about how to cut a cake the mathematically "correct way"

We celebrated with our new "tradition" that begun last year, baking a carrot cake (my absolute favourite!!), we used Okinawan sugar for an extra kick (our personal twist), and again, it was awesome.

It was so good, that we actually baked a second cake for when some mates came round for a 'lil dinner party.

We also baked a massive cottage pie and a bunch of risotto to go with, including a vegan portion for Freddy πŸ’š

Motoko was nice enough to take this one,
I'm sad she's not in it
(she is my most photogenic friend after all!)

I'm not sure what Matt might have originally been planning to get me, but I forced him to get us tickets to see Beck live at the famous Budokan. He seemed rather relived that I chose the gift on his behalf, as I reckon he was pretty unsure. Tickets to do something fun, is always better than an item you might not use.



Beck was.... INCREDIBLE. Beck is one of my favourite artists of all time. Midnight Vultures was one of the first albums I bought, and I still love it to this day. So when he played Mixed Business (which in no one is an emotional song), I was so overwhelmed with nostalgia and joy that I started uncontrollably crying.

Then, because it is an emotional song, very beautiful, and again, one of my favourites and very nostalgic, I started balling again for Lost Cause (which carried through the next song which was the stunning "Blue Moon"). I couldn't control myself! Matt was pretty shocked by my response, but luckily thought it was sweet and not as insane as it felt.

Did I mention that I love Beck? Like... a lot though?

The Budokan is an incredible Venue

I have seen Beck live before. It was at Fuji rock last year. I was drunk and hyper, I was in the mosh pit and had forced myself as far to the front as possible, I was dancing and singing and it was over in a flash.

This time, I knew I wanted to enjoy it in a different way. We chose sitting tickets instead of mosh pit, and were luckily at the front middle of upper circle, so had a great view. I loved every moment of it.

Here's the setlist:

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Ok, I was a little bummed that Sex Laws wasn't played because I was in the mood... but really, what a great line-up!



And now to add a negative note. The support act... Cornelius.

I had never heard of Cornelius, but I understood that the band, with famous front man Keigo Oyamada has had a long celebrated musical career in Japan. My friend explained this to me before we saw them play live at Fuji Rock this summer.

I was entirely unimpressed then, as I was again this time. So mediocre, so pretentious. So desperate to sound original, ironically derivative of Beck. These were my thoughts the first time. I was willing to give them a second chance.

When I watched them at Fuji rock it was with my sister, who was equally underwhelmed, this time, with Matt, who also shared this sentiment.

Lyrically, Cornelius sounds like the rambles of someone with a severe case of OCD who forgot to take their medicine. (repetitive, categorical lines).

Their music is boring, I know that's quite childish to say... but its the best way I can describe them. I mean, some of the songs would work well as background music to washing dishes, or to doing things where you have to focus on anything else.. but being sat and made to acknowledge it was somewhat painful. Possibly because I was so excited to see Beck, that being made to sit through their set felt like time was slowing down and delaying, as a form of punishment. Some of the songs are so dull, and the musicians so uncharismatic whilst on stage, that live heart monitors were installed on-set to assure the audience that the band members are actually still alive.


It was necessary for each member of the band Cornelius to have a
light-up heart monitors next to them to ensure the audience they were still alive. 
Pretty cool visuals though. I guess they had to find a way to distract us from the poor performance.

One last thing I would like to point out is that at the Budokan, the standing audience was actually divided by section. Seriously, how crap would that be to buy a standing ticket to see Beck at the Budokan (12,000 yen), and find out you are in section "F", standing at the back-right, nowhere near to the stage, with a terrible view.


We were pretty shocked to see the standing area was divided into sections
"Section F" -AKA bad luck of the draw