Lazy Saturday

Just like the title of the post says, this day I haven't done a thing. Been sitting in the sofa with my fiancé and watching Supernatural whit my laptop in my lap and my cat at my feet. But of course I have been doing stuff on the computer and especially a lot of the computer time has been spent on Japan.iFokus.se a site in swedish about all the things concerning Japan. Anime, manga, music, culture and language.

I felt a little guilty that I haven't been spending a lot of time there recently especially when I am one of the admin. Yes, the other in admin haven't either been active recently but I still feel a bit of responsibility for the site. So I spent some time going trough some of the posts, updating the Youtube channel and adding links. Time that feels right to finally spend. 

It isn't just for the site and the members, it was also good for myself. Reading and finding stuff about one my big interest gave me a bit of happiness in another stressful and dark world. It also made me longing even more for our future trip to Tokyo ^__^  so now I am going back to the sofa and Supernatural, lazy and happy, a combination that hasn't really appeared in a long time.

Glee

I thought it was time to write about another of my favourite TV-series. This time I get inspired to write about Glee after watching the latest episode. But the thought was that in this post I was going to introduce you to the show, not talking about the latest episode, so here goes:

Glee started to air in 2009  and is now in its 4th season. The show got a lot of viewers from the beginning but now I think it mostly is teenagers and young adults that is interested because the show itself is about teenage life, high school and being different.

Yes, it is the being different, an outcast or an underdog that from the beginning is the main theme in the show. A group of these not so popular people starts to hang out through the schools glee club and some of the more popular kids, that wouldn't even speak to them before, joins as well (not everyone voluntarily). In the beginning the difference in the group leads to hardships, fights and disagreements but eventually Mr. Schuester, the Glee club director gets the group to work together trough music.

Yes, the show is a musical, but not in the mossy kind of way. The main point in Glee is the story and then the add the music to fit. In the beginning it got me thinking about Disney and how they in there animations add the element of music to get the story to evolve. Glee is a lot like that, singing about being different, expectations, love and hardships as a way to develop and for me this is really really interesting. 

But on of the most interesting parts in the series isn't the singing or dancing, even if the cast does that really well, no it is the intrigue when you put a lot of different people in the same group and how the people you at least expected to see together becoming friends and gets a deeper understanding of each other, something that they never even expected to understand before.  In Glee these individuals starts to form a group despite if they are cheerleaders, gay, nerds, divas or have disabilities and is stuck in a wheelchair, and It makes me happy and hopeful to see scenes like that. 

Somewhere I heard that Glee has made the nerd the new cool, and maybe that is somewhat true. Thinking about it you can see an wave of glasses, suspenders, bow-ties and intelligent getting the spotlight, but I can't possible say that Glee is the reason for this, it could also be the other way around. Either way it is something new for the industry and for me I think it is something good. The show has a good message and if kids and teenagers can see on TV that it is okey to be different then I cant see any harm in that. And in the mean time I will be entertained.

A task from Julia Cameron found its way to me

Today a friend of mine shared this picture on Facebook. The text originates from Julia Cameron's book Låt din kreativitet flöda (~Let your creativity run wild) and is in fact an assignment for the reader to once in a while stay up late and read a book that you really want to read instead of reading something you must or go to sleep like a good person. The main point is that a lot of people finds themself lacking the energy to do what they like after a day or a week of hard work and that they get unhappy beacuse of it. one night of disobedience is not worlds changing but maybe something we have to treat ourself to once in a while. 

I recognized myself in the text and the things I, the last couple of days, have been writing about. So maybe I will try this on myself, just to know if it makes me feel better. Chose a good book that I have been longing for and stay up with some candy or other and read without a care in the world. A lot like I used to do when I was younger. I doesn't sounds half bad!

Swedish Nature in October

Yes, I took my camera out for an hour today and I wanted to share it with you. Here is some my favourites. The best thing about autumn is the colour, it is like the world is on fire, the natures way to give the last bit of energy before the hard, cold winter. You can click on a picture to see them in a larger format.

 

Inspiration to read and write

A blog I follow posted today a text about urban fantasy from a seminar the writers (the blog itself is a bookshops official blog) had held in Göteborg on the annual book fair and I found it rather interesting. Of course almost everything I alreday knew, I read a lot of urban fantasy, but some of it was new to me, especially the information about how the genre came to life already in the 1980's. It is also a good introductions for those who doesn't know as much about fantasy in gerneral as I do. 

Somehow the text got me to want to read again, it has been a while since I had the time to just sit around and read because I like it. Mostly all of my reading time right now goes to thick volumes of literature for my courses and after that I don't have the energy to read the things I want. 

It also got me thinking beacuse almost the same thing happened yesterday. I read the new issue of NEO and suddenley I wanted to watch anime again, I even found a couple of short anime series that looked interesting. Later on yesterday I watched Clash of the Titans with my finacé and his friend and suddenly I found myself googeling greek mythology on my phone and started to picture stories in my head based on the things I found 

Somehow I want to get creative again and do stuff that I like and that makes me happy, at the same time I finds myself lacking the energy to really do so. Maybe it is the season? I always get lonely and sad during the autumn so maybe this is a way to keep myself busy? 

I just looked out through the window and saw the sun shining and now I want to take my camera and take some autumn pictures. Maybe that is something I can do without ruining my more important assignments? At least I can try!

Miwa

Yes, once again I am writing about music (I have to come up with something else soon...). But this time it is a Japanese singer I want to promote. Her stagename is Miwa and she debuted into the japanese music industry a couple of years ago and became a huge success in a short time. I came in contact with her voice first trough a Bleach-video on Youtube (she made the 12th opening for the anime) and later on trough the soundtrack for the j-drama Rich Man, Poor Woman.

I finds it wonderful (and a bit scaring) that Miwa is only 25 days older than me and is so fantastic. I myself struggle with my day to day life without being able to do anything like that. She has a wonderful voice and it is the thing about her that I fell in love with. The best of her songs are the ones that is calm, a little sad, and acoustic, like her debut song Don't Cry Anymore:

If you like that maybe this can be interesting as well? This is a fan made video for the j-drama Rich Man, Poor Woman and Miwa's Hikari E is the OST:

And here is the opening to Bleach I was talking about:

TVXQ! - Catch Me

 It took a couple of days but here it is:

The First time I watched the video I really didn't know what to expect. The first few seconds was not very good for my liking, I am sensitive when it comes to the beginning of a video. I hate intros that isn't really a part of the song, when they have a prologue or pre-story, worst of all is when someone is talking. So my first thought was that I was afraid that they would ruin the video already in the beginning, but no, it wasn't so bad. 

With the opening of the song itself I felt calmer and the single shots of the duo was an good way to start it up and the first words made it even better. Then it is time for the dance and once again I started to worry. WTF is that fist bump-thingie? and then they mirror each other and lean from side to side like a little kid that think he is driving a car. But then they starts to really dance, together with the background dancers, and man do they take the robot and glow stick dance to a new level! Yes, that is what I think when I watch it. 

Everything in the video screams futuristic, the clothes with the metal/robot arms, the dance and the sound. I can hear the special sound of TVXQ in the music but it isn't one of my favourites. The electric noises is a little to much for me and ruin some of it. I would probably like it more if it was a soundtrack to a movie like Transformers than what I do when I listening to it as a regular song. 

TVWQ "The Flying Dragon Arm"

Except for the dance the video is very boring. The settings is very plain even if I can understand the ailien/spaceship reference it gives almost non variation. I have also grown tired of these glowing walls sets that is in like every music video right now and the dancing in water is also starting to get the better of me even if it was cool in the beginning. 

So it is just the dance that for me keep this video at least a little interesting. They move, together with the background dancers, like a unit. I especially love when they finish each others moves and complete each other. The "flying dragon" arms is also quite cool if you ask me. 

I also have to address the question of how this video matches the song? They sing about how they want somebody to catch them, how they love this unknown somebody and how the don't want to leave this person. The only ting I can come up with is that Yunho and Changmin really are aliens and that they now have to go home to there real planet and they don't want to leave even if they are tired. They want the unknown person (maybe the fans) to scream and cry and beg them not to go... Hmm, this can really get you thinking...

Back on topic; as a whole I think the video is okey to watch but it isn't "keep your head down" material if you know what I mean. The dance is quite cool, the lyrics is nice if you give it some time and the flying dragon arms is a personal favourite. So yes, it is okey.