Blog - July 2012 Archives
July 2012 Archives
Index
.28 Weekly revue: 2012 week #30 (July 21 to 27)
.21 Weekly revue: 2012 week #29 (July 14 to 20)
.14 Weekly revue: 2012 week #28 (July 7 to 13)
.07 Weekly revue: 2012 week #27 (June 30 to July 6)
.01 Weekly revue: 2012 week #26 (June 23 to June 29)
July 28, 2012
Weekly revue: 2012 week #30 (July 21 to 27)
Food: - Went to eat at Tapir in Shin-Ōkubo. I chose salmon mango curry! Delicious! The dessert happened to be a cake, and I got a candle on mine. Still a little bit early though. :)
Music event: - Went to a lunch live at café Tibet Tibet in Shimokitazawa to see Pyokn, a band I've seen a few times before at Usagi-chang Records events and also at their 10th anniversary event with Elektel at Sasazuka Bowl two years ago. Had a very good time watching from the front row! The set included songs from their album and also a brand new one. For "Be Yourself" (re-released on a digital EP last year) they were accompanied by violinist Sakai Yasufumi as heard on the album.
- First act Yumi & Waterweed was very nice too, all covers of famous songs sung in English.
New music: - At Pyokn's lunch show I got their album "Colorful Vibration", which came with a nice set of 24 small color pencils packaged in a CD case. :) Checking the liner notes made me realize that it was co-produced by Okada Tohru (CTO LAB., ex-Moonriders)! I hope Okada-san will feature them in an upcoming live event sometime (hint hint!), as it would be nice to see them in a proper venue too! Anyway, this is a very nice album that I should have picked up long ago! Better late than never.
- On my way back I went to Jet Set to get Teams' remix EP from White Lily Records. I had been wanting it since it was released and I was going nuts because I didn't have a chance to go near a record shop where it's sold. (In Tokyo it's only at Jet Set and Coconut Disk, and there's no digital release either.) I don't really know about Teams, but sampling all the tracks online they were all great!
- While at Jet Set I walked around and there were a few copies of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's 7" picture disc! I had seen news about it a little while ago and then completely forgot about it. This is what record shops are for! Included are extended mixes of "PONPONPON" and "Cherry Bonbon". Not 100% sure but it sounds to me like it was mastered with the pitch slightly too high... Still works for me though! Pon pon way way! (Jet Set still has some stock.)
Music release news: Blu-Swing album, Perfume single
Playlist: bice, Petset, Vanilla Beans, Cubismo Grafico, hitomitoi, p&art sasanoooha, Sunahara Yoshinori, Yucca, ...
- Also on Wednesday I listened to Konishi-san's monthly NHK-FM show. This month was a tribute to singer bice who passed away 2 years ago. That was a good program!
Tech: - I have a Facebook "app" I made just for myself, used to post my daily playlist to my Facebook wall. This week it broke because Facebook is removing its offline_access privilege, so I rewrote my code using the latest PHP SDK. Feels better to be doing things the right way now!
- I fiddled around with user scripts to make features that I want. I love user scripts!
Posted on July 28, 2012 at 14:01
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July 21, 2012
Weekly revue: 2012 week #29 (July 14 to 20)
Small trip: Added a day to a 3-day long weekend, and went to the countryside in Ibaraki. Had some great soba at Dabō, cakes from & Sugar, and did a quick visit of a safflower field.
Music event: - Went to the Tamaful & Mōshiwake Night all-night event at Daikanyama Unit on Friday July 20! I finally got to see "beach on the DIE!!" (ex-"beach on the
Vanilla Beans set list: (Intro: Kids) / Love & Hate / Baby Portable Rock / Non-Section / Choco Mint Flavor Time / Nicola
I also saw other idol shows by LinQ and Tomato'n'Pine, which weren't quite something I'd become a fan of, but they were fun. Of these two I preferred Tomato n' Pine.
- And just before this event, there was a BGM DJ event at café Sign nearby where I went to see Yoshida Tetsuto and Hase Yasuhiro (Yume to cosme)!
New music: - I got Sally Soul Stew's "Blue Angel Deluxe" (aka "anata ni maketa no Deluxe"), the CD edition of a 7" single released 2 years ago. This includes 2 new covers (Wada Akiko's "Boy And Girl"!) and also new remixes (I like the one by Shirane Kenichi).
Music release news: "Puffy Covers", Minmi, Fishmans+, "Tokyo Luxury Lounge 5", mishmash* Julie Watai, Hanazawa Kana, YMO (DVD)
Playlist: hitomitoi, Scooters, Mansfield, EeL, Sally Soul Stew, Pyokn, Dorian, Old Monk, ...
Tech: - Started adding Microdata (schema.org) to my sites, starting with Tokyo's Coolest Sound. It helps search engines understand and index the data in web pages.
- Remembered Microsoft (Comic) Chat (Wikipedia) and even played a bit with it. Still works even on Windows 7. :)
Other: - I made a silly group on Flickr called "Genius Face", because I felt like collecting iPod screenshots when the "Genius" icon appears right over a face in an album's artwork... :)
This week's videos:
Frenesi "gendai"! Album coming September 5!
Hanazawa Kana "hatsukoi no oto" (written & produced by Nakatsuka Takeshi (Qypthone))
Posted on July 21, 2012 at 13:59
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July 14, 2012
Weekly revue: 2012 week #28 (July 7 to 13)
Food: - Finally went to a Swedish restaurant in Kichijoji named Allt Gott that we had been curious about for a long time. I had some meatballs and that was great!
- Chieng Mai curry noodle soup at Tun Ten in Takadanobaba.
- Indian curry at Nooma in Shimokitazawa, a restaurant where the chef was trained at Muthu (Ōkubo).
Parties: Went to a birthday party at an after-hours Sunday Bake Shop, and a home party at an old colleague's place! Lots of great food and fun! :)
Exhibition: ONLY13 is the latest collective project of QP/PUTS/SOWN! Their first exhibition was held from June 23 to July 8 at neuro cafe in Kichijoji. Pieces from all three were all really great! We got a nice piece of QP's freshest style.
New music: Finally got my hands on the new Scooters album!! Having a first listen just now, and so far it's perfectly up to my expectations! Now I wish for a live show!
Playlist: hitomitoi, Kaseki Cider, Chocolat, Missing Linc, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Bubble-B feat. Enjo-G, ...
Music release news: Takkyu Ishino, Perfume, "Shibuya-kei feat. Hatsune Miku", "Tokyo Luxury Lounge 5", ...
Tech: Finally got a 120GB SSD (flash-based Solid State Drive) to replace my C: drive. They're cheap below ¥10000! This makes Windows run somewhat faster and therefore making my 3-year-old computer feel a bit younger!
This week's video: Justice's latest, "New Lands"!
Posted on July 14, 2012 at 10:37
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July 7, 2012
Weekly revue: 2012 week #27 (June 30 to July 6)
Food: - I had some tasty Singapore chicken rice at newly opened Mr. Chicken in Harajuku! They also have paper chicken and bak kut teh that I'd like to try!
- Dropped by Sunday Bake Shop at the Tokyo Gas Showroom in Shinjuku Park Tower. I also took a photo with mascot Pa-cho. :)
Music event: On Thursday I went to a Ustream recording at MP3 online store OTOTOY's studio in Yoyogi! The show was hosted by Honda Michiyo (Overrocket) and featured Yasuda Toshiyuki (ex-FPM) and Omodaka! That was really great, and I also got to shake hands with all of them!
Instead of describing the show here, you can watch it yourself. Maybe you'll even see me in the audience. :)
Stuff: - I got a new pair of Amadana earphones... my 4th pair..!!! This means two things: 1) They don't last much more than the 1-year warranty..., but 2) I love them!
- I bought Vanilla Beans' photo book!
New music: Old Monk "Birds of Belize" LP in my hands! I've been totally out of the U.S. indie rock scene ever since I came to Japan, but this rocks and sounds great! Also the yellow marble disc is beautiful! I hope to see them live someday! :)
Playlist: capsule, Love And Hates, Sunahara Yoshinori, Towa Tei, Perfume, overrocket, hitomitoi, Yucca, Aira Mitsuki X Saori@destiny, Les Jeunes Étoiles, Julie Doiron, ...
Music release news: hoshikuzu Scat, "Spa on the Moon" (Yasuda Toshiyuki), Vanilla Beans, Nag Ar Juna, Igaban BB, Rocketman feat. Verbal (m-flo), Scooters
Tech: Changed the power supply in my 3-year-old computer, and this fixed the freezing and blue screens that had been happening way too often lately! Yay!
This week's video: The Scooters' brand new song, written by Konishi Yasuharu! Album out July 11!
Posted on July 7, 2012 at 00:55
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July 1, 2012
Weekly revue: 2012 week #26 (June 23 to June 29)
I've been away most of the week for the Velocity conference in San Jose! It was my first time in California, and while it was a bit cooler than I had expected, we had really great weather. All thanks go to the company I work at for getting us there, and to our caring boss who drove us around to many interesting and delicious places throughout the stay.
Tech: Velocity 2012 was my first time at a large conference abroad (e.g. not in the country where I work), and I enjoyed it a lot. I got to see many sessions with speakers from companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yahoo, the list goes on..!
Food: - Animal style cheeseburger and cheese fries at In-N-Out
- Chicago-style pizza at Pizz'a Chicago
- Pancake breakfast at IHOP
- Sashimi and gyoza with sambar at Studio Kukul-kan, with my friends MoliquL!
- Couscous at Los Barbados, in Shibuya
Playlist: Sunaga t Experience, hitomitoi, Dahlia, Lullatone, Enami Taisuke, Crue-L Grand Orchestra, "Crue-L Cafe", MoliquL, ...
Music release news: DadaD, Open Reel Ensemble
This week's video: Vanilla Beans' photo book offshoot
Posted on July 1, 2012 at 10:10
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