First things first.

You can click here to view Mano Erina introduction on dohhhup.com

Some information.

The uniqness of this single is that Erina herself plays the piano, which we can hear in the song. The single contains two tracks: Mano Piano and Mano Piano Instrumental.

Unfortunately, the album was availiable only at the handshake event and it is now being sold in some H!P shops, which means that there will be no overseas orders.

The cover of this single is simple, it features Mano Erina with large white with pink title and a bit smaller white letters with artists name and pink kanjis, with her name again. I liked it, because Erina looks very cute here. And also I liked it, because it's made like this, nothing more, nothing less.

The song features the same simplicity as the cover does. It's steady and yet beautiful song. Erina has a very kawaii-type voice. At JPH!P forum some people said that Erina sings too nasaly and with no expression or emotion. Well... I didn't actually hear neither nasal voice(it was really kawaii-like), nor the lack of emotions, but this is only my opinion. I think she tries her best at this. And also I know how hard it is to play on the piano and sing at the same time, so I don't think that we should blame everything on Erina.

I really liked that song and I hope to see more from Erina in future.

For your convinience I'll embed two video-streams from youtube.com - one from the live handshake event and another - the single itself.

Live Event(sorry - no video, only pictures slideshow)

Mano Piano(once again - only slideshow)

I hope you will like it as much as I do.

2 Days In Paris is an indie movie, a French-German co-production, written and directed by Julie Delpy. Starred by Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg.

The movie is great, really. The story is simple and short. It's the story of a couple  staying in Paris for only 2 days before they get back to their residence in New York. One of them (Marion) is a French photographer living in New York, and the other (Jack) is an American interior designer.

I won't get into details, you can find more details in the Wikipedia article.

But the movie is a success, it's funny, it's convincing. The dialog is a masterpiece, even though there are very long stretches of conversations, but you won't get bored, simply because the acting and the script makes them look very convincing, and not like outside of this world scripts seen in most blockbuster Hollywood movies.

I don't know what else to say, I'm not a movie critic, but I was laughing so hard for the whole duration of this film, and I loved it. Even though the story is about those 2 persons, but the movie overall shows you a glimpse of the Parisian life in general, and that's what makes it so unique, and interesting to watch. The movie is about the lives of real French people living in a real-world, where everything is possible, they're not heroes, none of them have perfect personalities, they're real people with real-life goofs.

You can sense the Parisian atmosphere in the background, the movie makes a beautiful, realistic aura that captivates you from start to end. If it was to me, I'd say the main star in this film is the city of Paris, and the French way of life. And that's why I recommend this film to everyone in love with indie movies and looking for a change..

Here's the latest example...

"It's getting harder and harder for bands to make a splash with album releases these days.

So… musicians are thinking outside the box!

British pop-punk band McFly is going the Prince route and teaming up with the UK's Daily Mail to give away its new music in the paper's Sunday, July 20th edition.

McFly's super dreamy singer/guitarist Tom Fletcher says, 'We want to get our music out to the widest audience possible and working with a massive paper like The Mail On Sunday will definitely help us achieve that. We’re very excited about this great opportunity.'

This partnership will give the band access to the Sunday Mail's reported 5.8 million readers."

Interesting, but where does that leave record artists? Back in the day, in fact - not too long ago - record business was one thing and the performing industry was quite another... Yet the latter has taken over the former as of lately. Less and less people are willing to pay under 20 USD for a new album by their favorite artist; however, you'll find the same crowd queuing up to purchase tickets to a live show of this very artist, which can easily cost over 100 USD - 5 times the price of a full record. Bizarre or what?

Increasingly worrying signals of internal collapse and unrecognizable changes within record companies are plastered all over the media lately. The EMI/Guy Hands saga that made the headlines in NY Times earlier this month is one of the numerous examples, and in many ways, the very tip of the iceberg. Or so they claim within the showbiz circles. There's no denying that the humongous monopoly of major record labels is fading bit by bit... But what's the alternative? Lots and lots of indies, right? Exciting and adventurous times for artists and musicians in general, but the "suits" aren't in a great shape by the look of it. Shame, really.

What happened to the traditional A&R professionals with traditionally musical ears, the instinctive gut feeling and vision of the bigger picture? Obviously not all of them have vanished, although most of them have been replaced by accountants, attorneys and other bureaucratic figures. Every company needs a lawyer and an accountant, no doubt, but it would be nice to nurture and take care of the few musical ears that are still around and wondering up and down the record label headquarters.

It's a mess, really, there's no denying of that! Someone was saying the other day that he should have gotten into A/C repair business not the music business! There might be more demand, at least :-)

Undoubtedly, it's interesting to see how it all unfolds... It'll be a couple of years at least before things start falling into place again like back in the day. Although, no doubt, it will never be the same again - it can't be. But like most other musicians and artists, I'm curious to see what happens in the nearer future. It was a strange time to start getting involved with the major labels right at this moment - my timing was really something! - but it is exciting deep down, albeit unpredictable.

Time will tell... And patience may come in handy, too! :-)

Track Listing

1. Hatachi Kinenbi
2. Coin Lockers Baby
3. Kusare Gedou e.
4. Night in girl
5. Girls, be ambitious
6. Oresama Shikou
7. Gariben Rock
8. Onpu no Tegami
9. Shokubutsu Ningen M no Theme
10. Dear from...XXX (bonus track)

1. Hatachi Kinenbi

Angry guys singing Happy Birthday.....yeah right, talk about strange.  Then hard Miyavi guitars play and OMG....his voice is so unique, like his screaming really is piercing and his low droning voice makes him sound like he's so tired.  It's a clash of sound in my ears I'm very shocked at this.  Then it ends with the angry guys finishing Happy Birthday....what a strange opening of a song.

2. Coin Lockers Baby

Kinda settling a march tone to the song, Miyavi strikes hard chords to start off this pretty cool track.  Even more hard pounding fills this track.  He's using his low speaking voice and then you hear him screech it's so eerie yet fitting for who Miyavi is.  Then we finally 1st hear his airy higher pitch and OMG creepy!, this track is definitly a good one right here.

3. Kusare Gedou e.

Y'know this song is pushing the metal/visual kei genre very far with this song.  You know there's a melody within the loudness of the music, I was very impressed at the percussionist.  Though the chorus was annoying Miyavi, still sounds alright with his surprising weirdness.  Then it ends abruptly right into the next song

4. Night in girl

Then we get actually a nice change in sound as Night in girl is a lot more quiet and here Miyavi actually sing and use his acoustic.  Perfect setup into it from "Kusare Gedou e."   As time goes on in the song her vocals get stronger and louder but it just ends quickly as it started, so I guess it was a perfect interlude.

5. Girl, be ambitious

This was the only single off the album, and the promotional of the album to since none of the others made it which surprised me since the single were really good.  Girls, be ambitious starts with twinkling sound before Miyavi comes in with his deep voice.  Actually, this would be the first to have some catchy stuff going on.  I'm not sure where the chorus is but, I think it's where Miyavi starts hitting pretty high notes and ad-libs them.  So shocking to hear, I would suggest to try this song first before getting into his harder stuff.

6. Oresama Shikou

We're led straight back into the hard sounds of Miyavi, if I'm correct "Oresama" was a film that had Miyavi in it, I personally haven't seen it yet, but I bet it's a wild ride.  The song goes into the interlude where the drums and guitar are played syncopadedly which was something new, and I heard a whistle in there too.  Miyavi sounds annoying with his ad-libbing in his lower register but nonetheless it once again ends immediatly straight into the next tune.

7. Gariben Rock

I pretty much enjoyed this song actually, the verses calm down a bit before the crazy chorus!  He actually sings a bit in this song too which is a nice surprise.  It's one of the craziest songs in his collection for all the different time fields he enters.  At one point there's a beat and it's so catchy to listen to him quietly sing then belt out ~Yourself~ it's a great tune.

8. Onpu no Tegami

Wait, what??? A soft piano playing in a song?  This is definitly a shocker to the album.  As it is a ballad, Miyavi does sing in his medium range, which is a great thing, this is what I like about him.  He can go into soft mode so quickly, after that some percussion is added to give more of a beat.  It's such a beautiful song to hear, this is probably my favorite track, and it ends with the piano

9. Shokubotsu Ningen M no Theme

Dark synths sounds and wind noises slowly brings this track to life.  The odd chords in the song actually creates a very tense mood in the song, then it gets strong percusion.  You can hear Miyavi in megaphone mode, singing along with the odd guitar.  It's so freaky, and then you hear some ad-libbed Miyabi in his airy pitch.  Such an odd song i like the drum interlude that was pretty nice.  Shadow the Hedgehog anyone?

10. Dear from...XXX

Another surprise to be handed the bonus track is an acoustic song.  I like how he plays the guitar, I'm surprised he hasn't gotten worldwide attention....well he might with his crazy lifestyle!  He sounds like he's moaning the words, it's quite funny to listen to, but very pleasing.  I like the acoustic Miyavi a lot, he's got so much talent.

Miyavi's debut album was rockin' hard, It was almost a guilty pleasure to the Due le Quartz fans out there. I kinda wished he added the other single on here, but this will set me in, I really love this album.  The 2 non-rock tracks were so well made too.

Source:Jishuban Club

The book was part of WHS' offer where you buy a newspaper (The Times) and get the book for £2.99.  I don't usually buy The Times and I never buy books from WHS (or Waterstones, Borders, supermarkets - love your indie!), but this swayed me and I'm feeling alternately guilty and chuffed.  On one hand, people will buy books - always good.  On the other, it's the publisher who loses money (whilst gaining sales, chart position, author confidence, profile).  The retailer gets paid lots of money, the author gets their usual royalties (DEFINITELY a good thing), and I guess The Times gets a few more sales, too.  My wallet loves it, of course, but what about indies, who can't afford to run such an offer?  Oh, it's intensely pesky!

I'm forgiving of bands for technical and logistical issues, much more so than I am of venues. Mostly because many of the technical and logistical issues a band has to deal with are things that can't be predicted in advance and often crop up once the band is live, when not much can be done about them.

On the other hand, most venue issues are things that can be seen in advance with just the slightest bit of foresight, and that was the case last night at Safari Sam's.

Safari Sam's is definitely a club with atmosphere. Unfortunately, last night, the atmosphere inside was over 30 degrees celsius since someone didn't realize that inadequate air conditioning, around a couple hundred concertgoers (too bad they weren't fans in the other sense of the word!), and a record heat wave in Los Angeles contributes to a miserable experience all around.

I would have likely enjoyed more of the Ayabie concert had I been able to see more of it. As much as I normally like being close to the stage and in the pit, the conditions even out of it were enough to make me decide I'd rather just have a beer and dinner and watch from the balcony, so I actually had a somewhat good seat in the balcony. . . until it got too hot for me to stand being inside anymore.

The band itself is in my opinion, as a first-time listener, okay. They're not horrible, to the point of where listening to them makes me want to scream and rip my ears out of my head (e.g. they aren't Aborted Fetus or Harpokrate, two American bands that have that effect, or any random sugarpop band in Japan) Sadly, though, they don't really have a "hook" or anything that truly makes them stand out of the overpopulated field of oshare kei. They're good, but not better than any other show one could see, and many of their songs tended to blend together for me.

Some exceptions to that general disappointment, though, are the drummer Kenzo and the guitarist Yumehito. Kenzo is one of the better rock drummers I've heard as of late, and I found myself cheering for him a few times, along with for the vocalist Aoi. Yumehito's guitar solo was absolutely kickass and one of the highlights of the concert, in my opinion.

The heat made enjoying the concert almost impossible for me, personally. I've been in hot venues before, but something about Safari Sam's just made the heat absolutely oppressive. I've never stayed outside smoking for more than half of a visual kei concert before, but this made it the first time since, as hot of a night as it was, being inside was worse. At least one person in the pit passed out from heat, also, and they finally moved the autograph signing outside at the end, which was probably the best decision on behalf of the venue that night.

In summary:

Ayabie: 3 out of 5, solid performance, enjoyable even for someone who's never heard of the band before, nothing really unique but nothing really horrible either. Probably not going to download their songs or go to any more concerts, but that's simply out of personal taste.

Safari Sam's: 1 out of 5. Good food, good beer (finally, somewhere with something other than Buds and Millers and Stella Artois and Heineken on tap), good sound, but NONE of this makes up for pisspoor conditions where it feels like you're going to die if you're inside any longer. Air circulation definitely needs improvement.

Watch your wallet: The ticket was $30, lowest merch price was around $10 (I didn't buy any merch), and autograph session was $30, and I think it was more money to shake the band members' hands (Didn't do either, but I did talk to Takehito for a second before the venue guard was like "no, get out of here").

As usual, I have no time to go into this in more depth, but here's the articles anyway:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/youtube-chases-the-indies/2008/06/20/1213770885370.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/tv-print-urged-to-embrace-digital/2008/06/20/1213770882115.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/labelled-with-love/2008/06/19/1213770781342.html

One of these days I'm going to have time to get my news from somewhere other than The Age, too.

Chanderpaul 79 not out) Australia second innings (overnight 330-3) P. Jaques c Ramdin b Edwards 108 S. Katich c sub b Benn 157 R. Ponting c sub b Powell 39 M. Hussey c Bravo b Benn 18 M. Clarke not out 48 A. Symonds c Chanderpaul b Benn 2 B. Haddin not out 45 Extras (b-5 lb-2 w-5 nb-5 pen-5) 22 Total (for five wickets declared, 145 overs) 439 Fall of wickets: 1-223 2-299 3-330 4-358 5-360 Bowling: Powell 16-6-40-1 (1w), Edwards 14-3-52-1 (2nb,1w), Taylor 22-3-64-0 (1nb), Gayle 16-3-45-0, Benn 47-7-154-3, Bravo 23-4-63-0 (2nb,1w), Marshall 2-2-0-0, Sarwan 5-0-9-0 (2w). West Indies second innings: C.Gayle c Lee b Clark 26 X.Marshall c Jaques b Casson 85 R.Sarwan lbw b Clarke 43 S. Chanderpaul not out 27 D. Bravo not out 30 Extras (b-10 lb-4 w-2 nb-8) 24 Total (for three wickets, 59 overs) 235 Fall of wickets: 1-64 2-159 3-181 To bat: D.Ramdin, S.Benn, D.Powell, F.Edwards, J.Taylor, S.Chattergoon.

Bowling: Lee 12-1-50-0 (4nb 1w), Clark 10-3-29-1,Johnson 9-0-53-0 (4nb 1w), Casson 17-2-58-1, Clarke 9-0-25-1, Symonds 2-0-6-0 (Compiled by Simon Evans; Editing by Dave Thompson) This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire.

Video:

Originally posted link: click there

Guilherme Balza

Esta caricatura do nosso saudoso democrata Gilberto Kassab estava colada num muro de madeirite preta, de uma obra na Rua Augusta, no trecho Paulista-Centro.

Estava caminhando com um amigo, mais ou menos duas da manhã de um sábado gelado, quando avistei o Kassabão na parede. Não resisti e arranquei o lambe-lambe (havia outros tantos iguais ali grudados). Queria scaneá-lo... mas encontrei o fotolog do interventor e ficou tudo mais fácil (http://www.fotolog.com/soblinhastortas/45729617).

Alguns minutos antes, um desses malacos que ficam na porta dos puteros anunciando as atrações das respectivas casas, havia gritado para nós:

– E aí rapaziada? Vai uma putaria hoje? Tão afim de uma bucetinha?

Comprometidos e rapazes de família que somos, rimos, mas ignoramos o chamado do cidadão e continuamos descendo a Augusta atrás de alguma balada decente e barata. Tarefa difícil... Studio SP: R$ 30,00 só a entrada; Inferno: R$ 40,00, seco... E todas as outras, inclusive as pretensiosamente auto-declaradas underground, cobravam mais ou menos esse valor.

A Outz e o Sarajevo tinham preços mais em conta. Decidimos pelo Saravejo. Enquanto subíamos, cruzando com putas, punks, skatistas, gays, maconheiros, cachaceiros, indies, emos e afins, refletíamos sobre as transformações que a Augusta passou nos últimos... sei lá... cinco anos.

– Antes aqui era praticamente só putero e puta na rua – disse meu amigo – Hoje várias baladas vieram pra cá. A Augusta tá com uma outra cara, completou.

Realmente a Augusta mudou. Ainda preserva uma face alternativa. Mas sem dúvida ela se desprostitui-se e, de certo modo, elitizou-se. O preço das baladas, equivalente aos da Vila Olímpia, Moema, etc., talvez seja o maior símbolo disso tudo.

A Augusta "chiquê" e glamourosa da década de 60

A saída das casas de prostituição da Augusta claramente intensificou-se durante a gestão Serra/Kassab, na qual além de bingos, lanchonetes e postos de gasolinas, vários puteros foram “lacrados”.

Continuamos subindo a rua rumo ao Sarajevo.

– Tão procurando alguma coisa truta? – perguntou um jovem numa outra esquina – Tenho aqui “branquinha” da boa...

Apesar de tudo, a Augusta continua Augusta...

Wait, doesn’t this come out tomorrow? Well, Mark Millar and Michael Horwitz, over at Marvel, were kind enough to provide PDF previews of Kick-Ass #3 to any review blogs that asked. Obviously, your man Billy Z. was all over that shit. Also, this book is apparently two months late? I don’t normally pay attention to releases schedules, since I pre-order from DCBS everything is late to me. Late or no, I’ll let the book stand on its own merits and judge it in that loose way you’ve come to expect.

This review is going to be filled with spoilers, so… click the links at your own risk!

10,000-ish views is a bit low, yeah?

Bad-ass version of the Star Wars kid? That pretty much describes anyone who isn’t the Star Wars kid. Poor bastard.

YES! Where are they?!?

Honestly, I did not see this coming. The bit right before this, where the girl of his dreams is nice to him all of a sudden was ten tons of conventional dreck. I’m glad Millar did something interesting with it.

A little peek into Millar’s early life?

This seems a little too “real”, but I’m willing to let it slide. I’m sure this is all part of the set-up for when, you know, Kick-Ass gets arrested and sent to County where some big bruiser of a man-queen pops his cherry.

See, I keep asking myself this same question. The answer is: “Get my ass kicked times infinity, unless…”

Kick-Ass gets his ass-kicked… times infinity.

WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS! Well, I was expecting that level of violence, the permanent kind, but not in that way! This is the only answer to the question that was raised earlier. This is the only way the plot will escalate.

WHAT THE FU--!!!

WHO THE FU--!!!

Well, that was definitely worth the wait. This series continues to impress and surprise me. The specter of cliché looms large, but every time it appears as though Millar is about to lose that battle, he zigs instead of zagging and all is saved. If you can’t tell, yes, I love this book!

Thanks again to Millar and Horwitz for making this possible.

Ravi Bopara and Saj Mahmood have both spoken of being approached by Indian franchises as well, though the latter is unlikely to be affected by the ECB's announcement today. With the World Twenty20 being staged in England next summer, the ECB could rightly point out that the IPL would provide a useful opportunity for centrally contracted players to find form through match practice. The schedule for the tour also includes a Twenty20 international against West Indies, at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad on March 15. England will begin their preparations for the tour in Barbados, where they will play two three-day practice matches, before Tests in Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad.

Following the Twenty20 international, England will play a five-match one-day international series finishing with a day-night international in St Lucia. About this article This article was first published on on Tuesday May 27 2008. It was last updated at 09:45 on May 28 2008.

Valued friend site: click there

After their successful event at FanimeCon, AnCafe will be holding Antic Cafe's 5th Annivarsary event!

Event is set to take place on August 30th at Yokohama Akarenga Soukou Event Plaza, and is called ANCAFESTA’08「SUMMER DIVE」. AnCafe's annivarsary event costs 5000yen and will also be selling goods.

Source: OHP