Recently in Art/ Music / TV Category

As I have probably mentioned this before, the academic year in Japan usually starts in April and ends in March. Many Japanese companies start their fiscal year in April. New graduates from college start working today with hope, smile and fear at the same time :) April is the new beginning. In the late of March and the early of April, the most common kind of flowers in Tokyo must be cherry blossoms. Cherry Blossoms are very important to a lot of us. Cherry Blossoms also represent a new beginning and farewell at the same time as they are seasonal. I am not gonna mention this in detail but I personally had my own adieu last month, and it was quite hard to absorb it. However, thanks to my Japanese DNAs as they automatically made me think this is a very fresh start. April is the new beginning. I am hopeful and looking forward to warm seasons ahead of us. In addition to that as a bonus, my favorite song for this week made Number 1 this week on the Japanese pop chart. This song is all about the "new beginning" like starting a new life. The title of today's post is the tile of the song as well. One room means "Studio" apartment in Japanese. I sing it every morning when I get ready for work. I quite like the song even though it's for younger Japanese people. My two other friends and I are practicing the choreography for this song just like them even though I didn't wanna but we will dance and sing in Karaoke BTW, my laptop computer got damaged last month, but I decided not to go for Windows as a replacement since I really hate Vista. So, I decided to do something geeky :) Why does this Mini Dell notebook have macintosh loaded? well, that must be a mystery :) hehe. IAnyway, have you started something new?
Happy new beginning to you, too! Disco!!

You have seen the data center? I am sure not many of you actually get to go there so I thought I'd share here. My little virtual geeky tour. I am sorry if it's too geeky for you though :-( I am now operating UNIX as well. Yay. Geeks rock!! :) This is my last workday as I am taking a day off today and next Monday is a national holiday so I am having a 4-day weekend! Yay. I wish you a wonderful day! Stay hydrated! You have a very fantabulous day!!

This chocolate cake was from my sister last night. (She said she would be busy today with her boyfriend. alright. alright). She was actually waiting for me to come home. It's a very common for gilrs to give chocolate to boys on St. Valentine's day as I said yesterday. Based on that weird rule here, my sister bought me and my dad this fantabulous chocolate cake. This is my favorite chocolate cake from the nice chocolatier near my parents'. It's St. Valentine's day. Speaking of which, what song do you come up with when you think of this day? I assume many would say "My Funny Valentine". When you ask the same question to Japanese, the answer would be different. Many would say "Valentine Kiss". (Warning. Her singing sucks) This idol back in the 80s sang this song on St. Valentine's day and ever since then, this song is frequently played on radio..etc. on this special day. I was 11 when she was actually singing this. When I was wasted several years ago, I did sing this with the perfect choreography at a homo bar... But that's another story...　Anyway, this 26 year old girl at work went "huh? I don't know this song." when I talked about this. I was shocked!! I thought most of Japanese were supposed to know this song....She must have been too young....But she was mean and told me "A Gerneation gap. That's all". I could have shot her.... But I told myself I had to admit I was old. This finding was more shoking than the horrible singing by this idol. So when I got this cake, I asked my sister, who is by the way, 4 years younger than this stupid girl, the same question. My sister said "Doesn't everybody know this song?" Whew! The girl was just ignorant!!! Ergo, this song is the signature song on St. Valentine's day here in Japan. :-) Happy Humping Valentine's day!

6 months ago, I was asked by a close friend of mine to be an organist for his wedding which was yesterday. The last time I was an organist at church for someone's wedding, I didn't enjoy it. My fantabulous shoes were killing my feet. I shouldn't have told anyone my minor in that jesuit college was music... The worst part of this wedding is that I don't like playing organ because
a) someone stupid invented the pedal keyboard.
b) It's a funny instrument. There is always a delay until the sound comes out because it takes time for the air to travel after pressing keyboard.
c) I don't get to see the wedding while playing because I face the organ only.
d) I am much more interested in the other kind of pipe(s) to play if you know what I mean.
As a pipe organ is not easily accessible on a daily basis and I wanted to make sure I'd play okay, I went there 4 hours prior to the ceremony. Now, there was one piece I was dying to try on the organ. I wanted to play "Jalousie" by Jacob Gade. So I played it right after the morning mass. Unfortunately, the groom (my friend) came in while I was playing. That piece of music would have made a misleading statement for him... But he didn't know what it was. :-) Nope, I wasn't jealous at all. But, the father of the church was not happy with me playing that piece. It's not like I played "requiem"... I had to listen to a wordy lecture from the father... But it was totally worth it. You have a fantabulous non-inappropriate day! :-)

On Saturday, I arrived at the aiport and went home straight. California Trip was not pleasant. I was going to sleep but a homo friend called and wanted to meet me in the homo district. (called ni-chome). We went to this bar where he frequently goes. You see, the gay bars in Tokyo are different from what you see outside of Japan. Of course, there is this rice queen bar which is similar to the one outside of Japan.... Anyway, in this bar, there is the master (called "ma-ma" ... meaning Mother) and some staff. We basically talk a lot with them and other patrons and drink lots. Karaoke is there, too. But today's post is not about how different gay bars in Tokyo are. My point is...According to "Ma-ma", and other patrons, I look very innocent and pure even though I am dirty inside... Well, I can assure I am not as dirty as they are:-) I was asked to sing a song there. So I sang my favorite J-Pop piece. "Catch the Wave" by Def Tech. The unit of a Hawaiian Guy, and a Japanese guy. The Hawaiian Guy, Shen, is very pretty and fluent in Japanese by the way. For those who don't speak Japanese, their songs are easy to relate to as many lyrics are English. Anyway, when I was singing, I started to cry for no reason. It could have been crazy jet lag and alcohol. It was actually how moving the lyrics were. Of course, bar staff told me I cried on purpose to look innocent. hahaha. But this song, Catch the Wave, haunted me until I got to my place. You see how pure I am inside after all? It was 8 o'clock in the morning when I got back home on Sunday. (I shouldn't have drunk all night and I went to another bar last night.... darn...) Anyway, this song made me realize. Yes!, I've gotta catch the wave just like they sing. You have a fantastic week!

Last night, I had to attend "kick-off" meeting for this year. There were so many things to list for this year. But I really didn't pay much attention to them as many of them will be dealt after I leave this company. But I pretended to be a good worker and showed how hard I will work. Acting. oh yeah. Even though I don't hang out with work people, I like company paid dinner and cocktails. We went to this grilled beef's place in Nishi-Azabu. This place is one of the most luxurious grilled beef places in Tokyo. Although I don't enjoy beef much, I enjoyed wine very much. If I don't like one bottle which tasted weird for Chardonnay, I didn't have to get devastated for 7000 Yen = US $60.19 = €50.00 a bottle. We can move onto the next bottle and open up. :) As I was sitting far far away from my director, we ordered 5 different bottles just for our table. At 11p.m., we got out and I was going back home. But our director suggested us to have cocktails. So we went to this music bar where the live music performance was held. The Beatles. Those songs are VERY old but I loved this unexpected live performance. Actually, these songs don't make me think they are very old... One of the singers was very cute, too. I even sang along a little bit. The fake Beatles rock! My favorite piece last night was "Obladi Oblada". After 4 martinis, I guess I told my director how good looking one of those singers was.... I said "good looking" not "fabulous" or anything gayer... Free martinis and music cover charges paid by our company are great! Of course, I passed out a second after I got inside of my apartment. I got up in the hallway today... but it was a good company dinner and cocktail time. :) You have a fabulous weekend. I am off to listening to more Beatles'. :)

No, it's not because it is the 13th today.... So I was invited to the wedding for this close friend of mine. In the morning, I made sure I wore the best suit and a new pair of shiny black sexy leather shoes that I picked up yesterday. I felt luxurious and fabulous. I am usually happy to go to the wedding even though I am not legally able to hold the wedding for myself. Free alcohol, and conversations with friends. But this time, things are little different. I was shaking as hell because I was nervous. The nervous part of this wedding was I had to be an organist for them. They nicely asked me if I could play the wedding march, and I agreeed even though I hate pipe organs. By the by, I miniored in Music at this Jesuit college, and I played the organ for some time. Because I haven't worked out for a while, my suit was a little tight... Another problem was I was not able to rehearse with them so they hadn't heard my music. I practiced it back at my parents' but it was a piano.... I went there 2 hours earlier so I was able to practice it at the last minute. Then, another problem.... my feet hurt like mother fudger while I was playing the bass part with them. My feet were bleeding because of the stupid killing shoes. I wanted to cry there.. Before the bride came in, I was playing Air by J.S. Bach. The usual mellow music. It was slow graceful music but I wanted to scream as this mother fudger was killing my feet.

I went to work this morning to do stuff that I am supposed to complete by the end of this year. I got a text message from this queer friend if I was interested in going to "Gay night". When I was 20 years old which is obviously a million years ago, I almost went clubbing every night. But I didn't feel like it today. I said "No" to the text message and left work. God, I am less interested in going clubbing.... It's not necessarily a bad thing but I am not young and pretty any more. That's for sure. I went home and looked myself in a mirror. I didn't look fabulous so I changed into a paisley printed D&G shirt and a black Jakcet to feel fabulous for no specific reason. I had nothing planned. I walked around and grabbed late lunch pasta alone at this restaurant and went to 100% Design Tokyo . This year is the very first year that 100% Design is held in Tokyo. I accidentaly had an invitation that a friend of mine ditched. I felt a little more fabulous than I was at work. Surrounded by innovative designs and many queers (It's a design exhibition!!). I really liked one piece of funirture I saw there. While I was looking at the chair for awhile, I felt the intense gaze from the right. So I turned around a bit and located the origin of the gaze. The cute mixed race guy was DEFINITELY smiling at me. 10 meter away. Usually, I don't do anything about it but since I was wearing this "Let's go fabulous" outfit, I took courage and approached this guy and said "hello" in Japanese. He said hello back to me in English. I asked him why he was smiling at me. He pointed a finger at his corner of the mouth and said
"You have some tomato sauce" ......... I was at this most fabulous art exhibition with pasta sauce on my face ................ I thought I looked fabulous...... with the pasta sauce on me......

Time goes by so slowly... Time goes by so slowly......Not if I am working on Sunday... As I decided not to work yesterday to have fun, I am here at work still. That's quite alright as I could use some extra money. Working on Sundays can be never fun at all. However, Will (a humorous guy from Malaysia who is going to be a rich pilot anytime soon and I am glad that I got to know him FOR THAT. ) got me an opportunity to listen to Madonna's new single, Hung Up. I am loving it. It's intoxicating. I so don't wanna be a cliche but I like some of her songs very much. Why are many fags like myself fond of her music? Is there something to do with genetics? anyway, her song totally made my miserable rainy day easier. Thanks Will! I got a call from a friend of mine to have lunch near my work. Since I don't want to be a robot again, I decided to take one hour break and went to this Mexican Restaurant. I mean I love how Mexican tastes. (oh, that sounds so naughty). Especially when I can have Corona Beer! (I know I shouldn't have but I did. :-) But when I feel below par and eat Mexican food, my tummy feels funny afterwards. It has happened today... I had to go to the restroom and "make" 5 times in the afternoon.. I am better now but why does this do that? I am not compatible with passionate Latin thingies? I hope not... So whenever friends select "Mexican", I get nervous... This doesn't happen to me with any other food but Mexican.... huh... It's too pity as they are delish... sob. Anyway, I am feeling much better mentally, physically even though we had an earthquake which was moderate as usual. You have a fantabulous new week even if the weather isn't great!

Michael from Vancouver, Canada, who is by the way a graphic artist, suggested me something I haven't really thought about. To study "art". According to him, I have some creative qualiity in me. I don't see it that much but he does. All I did art in my life was when I studied a BFA program for about 2 terms. I changed my major to Biochemistry after that. Thoughts come and go, and I admit I have interest in doing something artistic. I have never thought I'd want to do this more seriously. I hear being creative is difficult sometimes. I can easily imagine how hard it can be. I haven't really come to the conclusion yet. The scariest thing of all is change a career path at the age of 30. Well, make it 31. My IT field is very promising and I have never thought of being creative as my job requires me to be mathematic instead. I like being mathematic actually. I can be a big failure if I decide to do something artistic. But on the other hand, I want to explorer how articstic I can be. It's such a juxtaposition. I am not going to decide to conclude it right away. I have never been thinking about my life plan adjustment this much. But I currrently am. I will try to see if I can create any portfolio but if it doesn't turn out good, I'd probably give up on the idea of being artistic. I will know... I will sleep on it. It's giving me headache but I am excited oddly at the same time. I drew this hand quickly to calm myself down while thinking about odd things...... Going to church. Happy Sunday everybody!