Nobody digs your music but yourself!

It almost seems as of late, so many bad things have been happening. You may have (or more likely not) heard about a friend who has had a tragic accident. From everything I hear, she’s doing ok health-wise. Who knows how she’s doing otherwise. It just pains me to think of all the families who have been left behind from all the car crashes caused by carelessness. It sickens me.

But I don’t want to dwell on those things. The world is not only full of tragedy. There are good things too. You have to overcome those tragedies, and look over the top and see that there are other things much happier and much better than where we are now. We have to remember there are still family and friends who still remember us.

Anyways, I forget why I was posting this in the first place.

Back in 1984, a movie came out that Really changed my life. I mean, this Really changed my life. Purple Rain was neither a great movie or a bad movie. It was a movie that just was. I don’t want to compare it to be zen-like, but it came close. Make fun of it all you want, but to me, the music was the obviously the best part of it. It Really impacted me. Sometimes, when I’m feeling down, or when I’m feeling like things are just too much, I listen to this album. Music is so therapeutic. What would we do without it? Even the deaf can feel the music. I leave you with the title song of this album.

Just listen. Don’t think. Just listen.

Purple Rain

100 Facts in 100 Days – Fact 35

35. Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m an ABBA fan. This may cause a lot of people to unfriend me on various social networks, but I gotta admit I love a lot of their songs.

In particular, I think I love the song Chiquitita. I <3 this song! I have no idea why. I think it stems from Japanese Dorama believe it or not. Let me explain.

If you watch or heard about Japanese Dorama at all, you might have heard of the drama Strawberry on the Shortcake. It was shortened to S.O.S., and I am pretty sure that’s why it had all the ABBA songs. This dorama stars Takizawa Hideaki and Fukada Kyoko. Basically the dorama is a story of unrequited love. It’s perhaps one of the most favorite dorama I’ve ever watched.

In the dorama, they use songs such as Chiquitita, S.O.S. and others, though those two are the predominant songs. And this may have led to my super obsession over ABBA songs. I’m pretty sure, however, that I liked ABBA long before that.

How many ABBA fans are out there? I’d love to know how many of you there are, and what’s your favorite song?

Ikemen Boogie

I always listen to music to cheer me up or to make me in a better mood. So I thought I’d share a song that always lifts me up and puts me in a good mood. It’s from a Japanese dorama called Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Ikemen Paradise). It’s a dorama where Horikita Maki poses as a boy to go to an all boys school. Similar to She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes. The song is called Ikemen Boogie.

http://x.haroyoshi.com/ikemenboogie.mp3

It's not that you are dreaming. You are a dream.

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Final Fantays X-2 music. Maybe the music just sets my body to ease, perhaps it reminds me of the game and how much I loved playing it. It’s almost a shame that I finished it, although I didn’t get 100% of the things to do in it. But honestly, can you Really finish a game 100%? Don’t answer that. Anyways I wanted to take the time to announce a new website, Freaky Japan at http://freakyjapan.wordpress.com. It’s all about the freaky stuff in Japan. As you can imagine, we just don’t ever have an ending to content. Right now, we’ve got a few writers for it, including these two jokers, and me of course. You should check it out!

You won't like it when I'm hungry…

So anyways, once in a while I like to throw this one unknown song thing out there because someone might know what it is. It’s been on one of my mix tapes since the 90′s (more like the 80′s) and I just can’t remember where I got it. It Really frustrates me and makes me angry, because I cannot for the life of me remember what it is. So please if you recognize this song and know what it is, please please please let me know what it is.

As for the title of this post, if you saw the most recent Hulk movie with Ed Norton, you’ll understand.

[edit] thanks to ocb, I did try out Tunatic but it said song not found.

[edit2] if you wish, could you please spread the news? The more exposure I get for this, the better off we are. :D

If my life had a soundtrack…

Ok, so I mentioned this in a comment to colin, and so I thought I’m going to do it. In the past, I made a post about what if my life had it’s own soundtrack. The first volume (because there has to be many right?) was posted on 10/29/02. Oh you want to see it? You can find it on hello! Blogger, since that’s picked up a lot of my old archives. It doesn’t matter because I will be recapping here and then adding commentary to my original commentary. Behold! (note: in the future, I’ll be more prepared for this and allow you download or listen to the song just in case you never heard of it.)

01: Running to Stand Still – U2
(2002) I’ve always liked this song. It’s a song I love to play on the guitar. Reminds me of the days I lived in Chicago.

(2008) Yeah, I still love this song. But I don’t play it on the guitar since I haven’t picked it up in ages. Meesh bought me one for christmas. I Really need to play it.

02: Frozen – Madonna
(2002) When I first heard this song, I thought, Wow, she Really gets it. This song alone summarizes a lot.

(2008) I still love this song. I’m sure back when in 2002, I Really got it. But now, I just like it cuz it sounds good. I think though I might have moved on from this song.

03: Don’t Speak – No Doubt
(2002) Don’t ever fall in love with your best friend. Of course, in the end it turned out ok for me. We’re not as close as we used to be, but when I have exciting news, I always call her first. :)

(2008) I don’t always call her first, but she’s still one of my best friends.

04: Bed of Roses – Bon Jovi
(2002) Sometimes when you have a long distance love affair, you think it will last forever. But it almost never does. This song reminds me of that.

(2008) Wow, I had to think of what ex-girlfriend this song reminded me most of lol. Yeah, bed of roses indeed. Long distance love affairs do work out. Meesh and I are proof of that.

05: Silent Lucidity – Queensryche
(2002) This song reminds me of Chicago. It’s where I first learned to play this song. I remember playing this song on the guitar while my friend Jared sang. OMG it was great. Those were the days. “…The dream is over…Or has it just begun?”

(2008) I still long for those days and I still love this song. I wonder whatever happend to Jared…

06: Tiny Dancer – Elton John
(2002) To tell the truth, I was not so much into this song until I saw the movie Almost Famous. Any regular visitor will know that Cameron Crowe is one of my favourite directors, and Almost Famous is definitely one of the top films I love by him. I’m just reminded of the scene where the band is travelling in the bus listening to this song and getting their spirits lifted. This song always puts a smile on my face.

(2008) Cameron Crowe is still one of my most favourite director/writers. This song also reminds me of Friends, whene Phoebe sings it as “Hold me closer, Tony Danza!”

07: Linger – The Cranberries
(2002) I don’t even remember the first time I heard this song. I just know that I love this song!

(2008) I still don’t remember the first time I heard this song, but wow, it does bring back some memories. For some reason, concerts, philly, and just hanging out at diners comes to my thoughts, but not sure why. That’s definitely what I think of first when I hear this song.

08: The Child In Us – Enigma
(2002) I remember hearing this song, and looking for it for a long time. I thought that it was Enigma, but I couldn’t figure out the title of the song. Finally after listening to many Enigma CD’s, I found it! I simply love this song because it makes me feel…well it’s hard to explain. Maybe if you heard the song, then you can feel it too.

(2008) Of course, I remember cybr telling me that if he had heard the song, he could have told me exactly what it was. But hey, I already found the song, so that’s cool. I love this song because it makes me feel mystical. That’s probably the best way I can say it.

09: Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution
(2002) I still love this song. Even after all these years, this song will bring back memories of my childhoood, long lost loves, and friends of old. This song makes me reflect.

(2008) Holy crap, who cannot love this song? This song still rocks! It came out in 1984! How crazy!

10: What’s this life for – Creed
(2002) Creed always makes me think of the days I spent in Japan, for some odd reason or another. I remember wasting the days and nights hanging out with my buddies there. Many nights of “So, what are we going to do now?” Gotta love those days spending a lot of time doing nothing and complaining about it. Then realizing that those were the best days we had.

(2008) This is Totally a navy buddy song. It reminds me of sitting in barracks and doing exactly that. “So, what are we gonna do now?” We’d sit around and bullshit, talk about stupid things, and most of all, just bond and have fun. This song Totally makes me think of that.

11: Rain – Madonna
(2002) Rain always makes me reminisce. I love to do that. It’s not that I’m disappointed now, or I think I used to have more or less fun back then. I just like to remember all the good times and the bad times. I don’t ever want to forget all the friends I’ve made or all the experiences I had, good or bad, with them.

(2008) This song, I think I’ve moved on from this song too, just like Frozen. But I still love this song. It does make me reminisce still, and it does make me feel nostalgic. Sometimes you want to just relive some of the old memories and have it like the way it used to be, but those times are gone now, you’ve gotta make new memories and new experiences. But you can combine them with the old, there’s nothing wrong with that.

12: Chances Are – Johnny Mathis

(2002) When I was in Japan, one of my friends, Charlie, called me “Johnny” because I just loved to sing this song. Many a night, when we had duty, which meant we would work all day and night, and I’d put this song on the PA system in the clinic and sing. Of course, this made many people cringe and laugh. But you know, I enjoyed it. I always smile when I think of those precious moments.

(2008) Haha, I loved this song because of a movie and sang it all the time. I don’t remember the movie now, but yeah, this song Totally brings me back and makes me think great things of MCAS Iwakuni. It’s another Navy Buddy song.

13: Suteki Da Ne – Rikki
(2002) Ok, you probably won’t recognize this song unless you played Final Fantasy X on Playstation 2. This was the “love song” of the game. The story was incredible (or so I thought), and I thought this song was pretty damn good. Yes it’s in Japanese, but I think they may have translated it in the game. Suteki Da Ne basically means “Isn’t it great?”

(2008) I still love this song. I loved all the Final Fantasy games. If there was anything big in my life, it was Final Fantasy. I love it!

14: Poison (Piano Version) – Sorimachi Takashi
(2002) Yes, it’s another japanese song. This one is only an instrumental though. This song is from the Japanese Drama Great Teacher Onizuka. I loved this drama! It was about this teacher who did his best to be greatest teacher and helped out his students where he could. If you’ve never seen or heard of this drama, I’d recommend checking it out if you can. It’s well worth it. It taught me a few things I thought I already knew, but didn’t; and it reminded me of things I’d already forgotten about.

(2008) GTO is still a great dorama. I still love it after all these years. I think it’s one of those things that all new teacher dorama is compared to. That and Kinpachi sensei. Although Kinpachi sensei is so popular it still has shows.

15: Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve
(2002) Ever since I saw Cruel Intentions, I’ve loved this song. It makes me reflect a bit on myself, and makes me want to improve the things I am not satisifed with. I’ve always thought of this song as a song about me. “…but I’m a million different people from one day to the next…I can change…”

(2008) Because I always associate the ending of a movie as an ending theme, I always thought of this song as a closing song for an album. I think it because it just ends this album well. Wow. I still love this song. It still impacts me.

So tell me, if you had a soundtrack for your life, how would it go?

Rent by Danalyn

Because I have such talented friends, I’m thankful. After I called her a show-off and being challenged by me, Danalyn decided to go ahead and show us what she could Really do. I don’t think I need to mention that this video is pretty damn awesome. Let’s not forget, not only did she sing and perform this video, she made it all by herself without sleep. I think that deserves something. Please, sit back, press play and enjoy. Lyrics are after the bump.

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Tuesday Tunes #3

It was a pretty busy weekend of doing nothing. Actually Saturday involved an all day BBQ for a friend’s birthday celebration at a local park. That was quite a bit of fun. it also involved a lot of frisbee throwing and discussing some Disc Golf. But who knew there could be so much fun to be had playing with frisbee’s. The rest of the weekend was spend just resting from everything. Since Meesh had just come home from a 2 week fire duty, she Really needed the rest and sleep. Who knew that working 14 days in a row could stress you out so much.

This week, because I heard this song somewhere this week, I chose Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fariy. If you know you’ve heard this before and not sure where, it’s from The Nutcracker. Yes, I realize this is normally associated with music, but I heard it recently, and it just stuck in my head. Besides, I Really like it.

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Tuesday Tunes #2

It just seems like lately I’ve been on a super kick about Northern Exposure. I think it started with me seeing Season One of the show on DVD for 9.99. Then I got Season 2 and 3. I’ve been watching them, and man, I miss that show. I’ll have to get the rest of the seasons one of these days.

Of course it doesn’t help that I also went to Roslyn, WA this past weekend, and took some pictures of the town, and the cemetery. Before it was known as the place where Northern Exposure was shot, it was also famous as a coal mining town, and it’s cemetery. The cemetery is broken up into many ethnic and fraternal groups and is quite fascinating. I know it may sound weird and crazy, but I do have a fascination with cemeteries. I’m not fanatic or anything, but honestly, I just love reading some of the old tombstones, especially when they can date back to pre-1900’s. I just have a sense of calmness when I visit cemeteries, don’t ask me why. It’s certainly not because I can see dead people, since I can’t!

Anyways, with all this Northern Exposure fanaticism (yes I’m a fanatic when it comes to Northern Exposure), I thought this weeks Tuesday Tune would be a song from the soundtrack, it’s When I Grow Too Old To Dream by the Nat King Cole Trio. Enjoy!

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