Dinner

Jasmine rice and Japanese-style curry with beef, potatoes, onions, and apples

Wing-it instructions:

Heat oil, add onions over medium-high heat until they turn slightly translucent. Reduce heat to medium and add beef. Cook till mostly done or onions are translucent, turning the mixture every few minutes.

Boil potatoes in one part water, one (or more) part some-kind-of-broth until potatoes are at desired softness. Add apples when potatoes are about half-done. Add beef and onion mixture, bring to soft boil. Add curry, cook for a few more minutes until it reaches desired consistency.

Make rice. Eat. Mmm, curry.

Yeah let’s just keep doing this

Healing Leaf – Slow Step

Although KOTOKO has the vocal ability to do just about everything I’ve covers, I still consider Eiko Shimamiya (島みやえい子) and Mami Kawada (川田まみ) the superior vocalists when they are in their element. Therefore, the combination of the two – named Healing Leaf for whatever Engrishy reason – cannot be bad. And it isn’t, resulting in my occasional joke that some of the catchiest Japanese music is from hentai games. (Which is why I had trouble finding an image to include with this song.)

Slow Step itself takes after its name, having a moderate tempo further pronounced by the carefully enunciated lyrics describing the necessary delicacy in approaching a new (presumably romantic) relationship. Heh, I could probably take a note or two from this song. And while their individual talent (especially Eiko’s) seems to fluctuate, the duo as Healing Leaf is perfect. The majority of the song is sung in major keys, but I like how when the song trails off for the final lines, it shifts to a minor key. Nice touch.

If you’ve never heard I’ve (I don’t know who I’m writing this for, da da da), I with my utter lack of musical genre knowledge describes it as something between pop and techno/dance, although the vocalists listed under I’ve have done everything within that spectrum. Healing Leaf being a little more toward the pop end (ironically, Eiko Shimamiya and Mami Kawada, when solo, don’t). In general, I think they all maintain a strong melody with vocals, which is the part that makes them sound J-poppish. The instrumentals are what give their songs the techno/dance flavor, if there is one. Not here!

Maybe I should make this a regular thing

Masayoshi Minoshima – Strawberry Crisis!!

Touhou remixes are iconic of the importance of Touhou to the doujin community and its strange ability to gather the creativity of artists spanning the entire spectrum of doujin work. Its myriad of characters, distinctive art-style and music, and generally lighthearted approach to itself (“Why can we beat the Extra stage in Imperishable Night? Because the player is hopelessly addicted to Touhou games!”) captures the imagination like pretty much nothing else out there.

Just look at the remix CD’s at Comiket – from the sometimes breathtakingly intricate cover art, to the music data written on them, “copying” the world of Gensokyo is an effort undertaken by so many people of so many artistic backgrounds that it’s hard to believe that only one person is the source of everything Touhou.

Moving on to the actual file. My favorite Touhou remix group is Alstroemeria Records (the alstroemeria is a flower, btw) of which Masayoshi Minoshima – written in romanji – is a prominant member. A good percent of their stuff dwells too far down into the realm of non-melodic music for me to enjoy for a long period of time, but the songs they remix that still manage to carry a lot of the original “flavor” on top of their individual style have a pretty permanent place on my playlist. Strawberry Crisis!! (two exclamation points) from their trace|phantasmagoria (sic) album is such an example.

Hana Yori Dango isn’t my thing, but…

Hikaru Utada is.

宇多田ヒカル – Flavor Of Life (original version)

I don’t particularly like how her voice gets weird when she tries to hit the lower notes, but the original version is a lot better than the Ballad version in HYD2, which is trying way too hard imho. (The fact that I hate Tsuderekasa probably has a but of influence to that as well…)

It’s kinda j-poppy in the Hikaru Utada way, but I kinda like that in a weird way. It’s good like that.

Finally, a background that matches AIR’s awesomeness

Great background? Or greatest background?

Jumping in the water only works if you don’t drown

So as a new rider, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will make stupid mistakes, and the best way to remember them is to write them down and laugh about my “wow, that might have been a lot worse if I was on a 600cc” experiences.

So, today’s lesson: Don’t accidentally shift while turning.

WISH-MAS-TER!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wishmaster_%28song%29 Read this after preferably.