niji to the bug

(copy/pasting this here to clear up my twitter feed):

kaepora gaebora's theme was always one of my favorites. one of the first pieces I transcribed for the small brother person when I started giving him piano lessons at age 3. I started him early because I noticed he had perfect pitch at age 2. He would sing back entire songs he heard on tv. He might not even have known what the words meant, but how many 2-year-olds have perfect pitch AND a perfect sense of rhythm. the parents couldn't afford to pay for real lessons so I used the handy dandy underline feature in ms word and made my own notation paper, transcribed leitmotifs from our favorite video games (mostly pokemon and zelda at the time), and started teaching him on my own.

dad's old phone had a custom ringtone feature. the small brother person and I recreated the hyrule castle town theme on it one summer.

( Read more... )

I'm actually backreading my twitter feed right now so I can do a synopsis of my new york trip!

So on new year's day, I took the greyhound with artemis_elric to new york, got there on the 2nd and met up with sonicorca and eggtrolls. We went to see the hobbit (a second time for me) and then got the hobbit breakfast at denny's afterwards. We all got hobbit trading cards and I traded all of mine for artemis's thorin card hehehehehe....

The next day we went to the met and then sonicorca's mom took us out for korean bbq for dinner:

( photos from crappy camera phone )

Walked over to the kinokuniya bookstore after dinner. They had these big wall displays for Vagabond:

( photo )

Everything was super expensive. I made artemis buy me a notebook with rilakkuma and kiirotori on it hehehehehe....

On the train back to sonicorca's; everyone was super exhausted:

( My bear says hi )

When the train stopped at its last stop for the night we were the only ppl in the last car. the lady on the PA gave her usual spiel but ended by saying, "And to the four little princesses in the last car, have a safe trip home." /)u(\

The next morning we set out bright and early to visit doctor who filming locations in central park. First stop was bow bridge to play pooh sticks:

( photos photos photos photos )

And then we walked to book off where I made artemis buy for me got Maaya Sakamoto's Yuunagi Loop, Ayaka Iida's Minna Sora no Shita, Amano Tsukiko's A Moonchild In The Sky, and Zabadak's IKON ~Tooi tabi no kioku~. (I wanted Maaya's Shonen Alice album but it wasn't on sale ;;)

We went to see Sleep No More that night and it was amazing! (To give a short description, the play's an immersive film noir adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth set on several floors of a renovated hotel where the audience can follow actors around and be in the scenes. The sound design was p h e n o m e n a l.)

The next day we went to some more bookstores and I got terry pratchett's snuff and tan twan eng's garden of evening mists (which I'm reading right now). I also spent a lot of time crying in front of rilakkuma plushies I could not afford.

On our last day in ny we visited the museum of natural history and I bought (or made artemis buy) all the plushies I wanted. A good last day all in all:

( photos photos photos photos photos photos )

Aaand now we're all back in Ann Arbor dreading school tomorrow morning BUT SUCH IS LIFE. How were y'all's holiday breaks. even if you didn't go anywhere hope you were all well rested and if you had to work I hope you made a lot of money d(' v ')b

and gosh is it time for another bimonthly doodle dump already /holds head
I'll make that post next once I've uploaded all my doodles to photobucket and organized them ._.

( pic under cut )

idk how would you recommend a band other than to link their music haha

If I had to describe laufen's sound, it's like Hajime Chitose meets FLiP — Hajime Chitose's vocal texture and Taisei's energy. That's what really drew me to their songs (usually when there's autoplay on a tumblr blog, I x out ASAP, but just this once, I couldn't tear myself away).

laufen on SoundCloud: a compilation of clips from two albums

laufen on myspace: you can listen to their entire 2nd album here

laufen on Youtube: some full songs

HD live performance clip: their vocalist, Cuka, sounds phenomenal live

Translated last month to go along with this picture

Listen here: album ver. / folk remix

【唯虫】 像虫在动鱼在逃 快离开我那些抚摩的美好 像羽在飘猫儿的春天在叫 快拒绝我那些迫不及待想要 只差一步我还没长触角 你的温暖暖得我想笑 幸好清早我还没有睡着 可惜没有耳朵你的问候听不到 果实 死了 种子 笑了 惟独 不见 我的 树梢 上面

Only Insects Move like a bug leap like a fish Leave the beautiful things I touch Drift like a feather call like a cat in the spring Refuse those impatient wishes of mine Only one step away I still haven’t grown antennae yet You’re so warm and fuzzy I want to smile Luckily it’s so early in the morning that I haven’t fallen asleep Too bad I don’t have ears so I can’t hear your greeting Fruits   have died Seeds   are smiling Alone   unseen Up in my branches

Translated a couple Carrchy (c-indie) songs for antimonial impromptu on aim last night. And since it's been a while since I've posted lyrics translations, I figured I should if only to break up the monotony of doodle dumps orz

DIDADI

didadi 夏天最冷的时候让我想起 didadi 冬天最热的时候我想起你 didadi 飘荡和飞翔同样的不和适宜 didadi 无常的往往是来自我的内心 是什么力量在捉弄 来无影 去无踪 是谁打扰了我的白日梦 醒来吧 快醒来吧 你的好时候不多 燃烧吧 快燃烧吧

didadi, the coldest part of summer makes me remember didadi, the warmest part of winter reminds me of you didadi, floating and flying are equally unfitting didadi, this volatile feeling often comes from my inner heart What is this strength making things so hard for me? It comes without a shadow and goes without a trace Who startled me out of my daydream? Wake up now, quick, wake up You haven't got much good times left Burn it up now, burn it fast

I think the "didadi" is supposed to be the onomatopoeia for water hitting a surface

Let Me Sleep

让我睡着吧 没有疼痛的 气喘吁吁的 梦里还在跑 你一定觉得 安慰我不需要 我可以自己 为自己治疗 你一定觉得 安慰我不需要 我可以自己 为自己治疗 A....... 小药片 让我不再对你微笑 小药片 足以致命的剂量 睡着了阻止我交谈的欲望 就是我 最甜的糖 小药片 天黑才达到的疗效 小药片 我们的约定守护好 让我醒来就可以与人为伴 即使是 我的敌人 不再对你微笑......

Let me sleep, let me sleep painlessly In my breathless dreams I'm still running You must think there's no need to console me And that I have it in me to heal myself You must think there's no need to console me And that I have it in me to heal myself (Ah~) Little pill, help me never to smile at you again Little pill, just enough to be lethal Put me to sleep so I won't want to talk anymore You are my sweetest candy Little pill, only taking effect at nightfall Little pill, hold me to my promise Let me wake in the company of others Even if they are my enemies I'll never smile at you again (x8)

Both songs can be found on Carrchy's album, Sunshine All Over The City (日光倾城).

I’m home for the summer! which means I have my uke again, and I’ve installed portable adobe audition 1.5 on my mom’s computer. So here’s a trial run just for fun — an impromptu medley of Gintama OPs and EDs “Mr. Raindrop”, “Tooi Nioi”, “Kiseki”, and “Anata Magic”. Just a warning: I’m very rusty. :’D

Listen here!

( Lyrics/Translation )

This medley is dedicated to ghostdrive for infecting me sharing with me her OTP love. (I-I hope the lyrics I chose weren't too painfully obvious orz)

A big thank you to torachan for translation help! :D

I've been juggling life and watching as many episodes of Gintama as I can conceivably fit into each day. I haven't been doing much of anything else.

I haven't drawn in so long I'm honestly scared I don't remember how to. I really need to face down this fear at some point, better sooner than later. And I'm not only motivated by my guilt from owing so many friends (long overdue) art, I genuinely miss drawing. To put it simply, it made me happy.

Oddly, I haven't actually been slacking that much on the music front. I'm still doing work for the Redwall animation project — just recorded and sent off a demo this weekend (the composer I'm working with this time around is not only very young and talented but also a real joy to work with). I've rattled out a couple of English fandubs/covers/call-them-what-you-will on my own time. I'm learning my favorite Gintama opening ("Tooi Nioi") on the guitar I got in December.

Speaking of things I got in December, I really like using my pilot CR-48 (Chrome notebook). It's that much more portable than my laptop, I like the display, and I'm in love with the keyboard. It has some issues undoubtedly — for instance, it can't configure wireless connections that require security certificates yet, which is kind of a pain, and it has a slew of flash-related bugs that makes watching videos/playing music a hit-or-miss experience — but as a work-in-progress, I appreciate the pilot CR-48 a lot.

I haven't got much else to say, and I'm stopping myself before I start complaining about this week's weather. So. I hope donesschen is making a speedy recovery from her cold. (Everybody in the northern latitudes, stay warm and healthy!)

And if anyone on my flist wants to discuss Gintama with me, I'd be really, really happy! Especially the way this series defines family and gender.

But now I really ought to be doing homework. I have to catch a bus north to the engineering campus for a class bright and early tomorrow (I must learn to check where classes are before scheduling them first thing in the morning in the future)......

I don't understand fiction and its romanticizing of coughing at all. =n=

Though I suppose if I looked like Ukitake, anything I did would be romantic...

But that's where I've been all week, hacking my lungs out until my back protests. Also, an old friend dropped off Path of Radiance, and as a result artemis_elric and I have been literally glued to the couch. Holy crap, that game is cruel. You can't, like, ever just save and the battles go on foreverrr. @___@

( Some collective thoughts of two FE noobs )

Oblique references that do not warrant tags: bleach, pokemon, yugioh, neopets, tales of symphonia, school

Also, Princess Elincia is a carrot.

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Oh, artemis_elric and I have been working on a duet! :3

A long overdue tribute to Ritsuko Okazaki, who passed away when I was 13. Ritz was one of my earliest musical influences, and the lyrics of "For Fruits Basket" remain a very powerful inspiration to me. The Chinese lyrics are my transliteration; some of the English is mine and the rest are the same as in the Laura Bailey dub. The "ba ba ba ba"s in the end are Ritz's original vocals. I still miss her every time I hear her voice...
For Fruits Basket (English, Chinese, Japanese cover) by nijibug

I've been meaning to do that since... 8th grade. xD Bonus point for anyone with dog ears who can pick up the keening in the background (which would be me vocalizing an octave above my harmony).

Moving on to more important things....

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I've conducted my first two interviews for my Chinese Media term project. The first one was this past Thursday. I interviewed a junior theatre major with a focus on screenwriting. He went on for two hours, but he was very interesting (having studied a huge spectrum of Chinese movies), and the weather was gorgeous (we did the interview outside). This is the only face-to-face interview I'll be recording. Last night, I interviewed mengxia over the phone. It was wonderful talking to her again after so long. She had a lot of awesome insight to offer regarding the budding genre of horror in China and the importance of female roles and native culture in the direction of future films. Audio was tougher to pick up off speaker phone, but I think editing will be manageable.

Well, so far so good! I look forward to talking with more of you who have volunteered next week. And if I don't end up contacting you for a recorded interview, I hope you won't mind me asking about your experience with Chinese film in writing. :]