CD Dilemma

Jan. 13th, 2011 10:25 am
epik_noodles: (Default)
Yesterday I took my cousin Nutt on a small tour of my old high school, yeah alumni class of '07! She wants to study abroad here in Chicago. I will sponsor her as her host family as she attends Taft High School. So she needs to get her paperwork over here in August because enrollment is around that time and she needs to take a English proficiency test. Then she will join the other members of my weird family that have become international students. But the main issue that needs to be taken care of is the student visa that they need to request from Thailand. High schools don't give out student visas for their abroad program.

Anyways, my cd problems... I forgot to write about this when it happened, but when I received my Paradise / Endless Fighters single, I got Naoya cards again?! I propose that there may be a possible surplus of Naoya cards in the batch of cds that yesasia sells. Yes, my bad luck in Naoya cards.

Another thing, I was actually going to ask everyone what the deal was with the new AAA single plus album that was going to released next month. I had known about it for a while as "title to be determined," but then I had some clarity after finally looking at the fan comm (which I haven't looked at in months). I now know the names of both cds, however, I was dying of curiosity over the first press / limited edition of "Buzz Communication." What makes it different from the regular version? It's like $86, why is it so pricey?! Then I found out from another source that it's because the first press comes with an extra dvd that has 90 minutes of bonus footage. If it's just one extra item, that still doesn't justify the price, give me more Avex! I need more details on that.

Now my main conflict was contemplating whether to buy it or not. I'm a total sucker for super limited editions (I think a lot of people are). I want to buy it because I'm an avid music collector and I really want it. But it costs so much! I compiled all the cds I wanted for this week in my cart and it comes out to $150!!!! I'm about to spend $150 in AAA cds in one go!!! My buying record for cds in one purchase is $180 for Dir en Grey cds, this is pretty close. I usually buy both A and B versions of their singles (I get them for the dvds), that's why I always blow a lot of money on them. I'm about to spend my salary, no, five weeks of my savings on cds!

I was originally saving my money to buy a guitar... Being inspired by Beck and K-ON, I've always wanted an electric guitar. I found a good deal on an ESP (electric sound products), which is a famous guitar brand in Japan. It's Japan's equivalent to what Gibson is to the US. The model I wanted is in the thousands range, but I found a really good deal for $250. It's a modded version so it's not see-through and the fingerboard is a little different. It's based off the guitar that Daisuke Ando uses. Saying the word "similar" would be an overstatement, it's like comparing a super-model with a body-builder. The guitar I want just looks nice and is okay for playing as to Daisuke's guitar is designed for quality sound and power.
The decision is between $150 AAA cds or $250 guitar.


epik_noodles: (Default)
I'm currently working on the next comic for Attack All Attackers.

OHHHH!
This morning, I finally got my new AAA cds in the mail. As for the collectible cards. I GOT NAOYA AGAIN?! I swear, I keep getting Chiaki and Naoya cards, it's driving me insane. I have all of the cards(from different singles), but the ONLY card I don't have is Shinjiro's card. I have all of them except his!!! What luck! I just keep getting piles of Chiaki and Naoya cards with every new cd I buy. It's like there's a surplus of Naoya cards or something.

I didn't have class today. I still had to go, but all I had to do was print out my test results in the computer lab. I then ran into one of my friends in the cafeteria, since I had nowhere to chill after finishing. She had to leave, so I hung out with her friends who were staying late. One them draws mini comics like me. I was working on something for the web-comic and he saw me drawing. He asked me about it. Actually, I didn't disclose any information about it. His work is pretty interesting. But his stuff is all about ninjas, assassins, and demonic powers! So violent. He draws things on a smaller scale with such fine detail. He's one of those "one-shot" artists. Meaning, he goes straight into inking without really planning ahead in pencil first. It's an amazing talent, but it's poor technique. His stuff is really good too. If only I had my sight back, I would be able to draw like that again.

That reminds me, I've been working on a lot of tributes.
There's Nishijima's tribute coming up next week....
Then... there's Shinjiro's special homage in early October!

epik_noodles: (Default)
Does everyone remember those scenes from "Hide-Away?"
I'm talking about the scenes where the AAA members are singing separately with a flower blooming next to them.

Yes, the pretty flowers!

You know, the flowers that they accelerate the speed to make it look like it's blooming instantly and unrealistically.

I recorded one myself!!!
Do you understand how tedious it is to film the motion of blooming?! Flowers don't just spring up and bloom like they do in the cartoons. It's a whole process in itself.

I TOTALLY RESPECT THE DIRECTORS AND FILMERS THAT WORKED ON HIDE-AWAY!!! I WORSHIP YOU!!!

It's really difficult!
My mom has this special plant, it blooms randomly, BUT it ONLY blooms at night. It does not bloom in broad daylight. Another interesting fact is that the flower does not grow from a stem, it grows out of the plant's leaves. This plant is very difficult to capture on film, because it rarely blooms at all. According to Asian folklore, this flower is very special, if one were to witness it bloom, they would be granted eternal good fortune.

So there I am sitting in the backyard with a giant search lamp pointed at the nearly blooming flower. I set up my video camera and recorded for 4 HOURS! Can you believe that this flower takes 4 hours to be in full bloom? I recorded the whole 4 hours, start to finish. After filming I did tons of speed editing. No one wants to sit and watch my video for 4 hours. I've reduced the 4 hours into 21 little seconds.

This is what it looks like at 500x accelerated speed!
 
Here's my video, fully edited of course. Please have a look, it's 21 seconds. Sorry, it's not cool like "Hide-Away," so it doesn't have any special effects. It's straight out of my backyard.

It's so cool.
That's the magic of nature!

epik_noodles: (Default)
I wanted to write last night, but ended up not writing.
Basically, I purposely lock my posting entries at around 11:30pm, leave it blank, and I go off to do something else. So in reality, I don't start writing until 3:00 - 4:00am.

Last night I lock the entry around the usual time, then I watched many episodes of "Big Bang Theory." I watched up until 3:30am, I was way too tired to write, which is why I left that very random message in the previous entry.

So anyways, my summer is ending soon, I need to get back to life. But for now, I'm trying to enjoy my time off for as much as I can. There hasn't been much for me to do lately. All I do is sleep in, eat, build the Zoids I got from Japan, eat, watch anime, and sit around the house. I'm loving the Zoids I got from Japan. I obtained some super rare ones. I really am a hardcore Zoid collector. Just yesterday I finished building Liger Zero's custom "Schneider" CAS unit. It's a rare armor upgrade exclusive to Japan. Liger Zero has 4 upgrades (now I own all four), Schneider, Jager, Panzer, and Phoenix. Phoenix was the odd one out, because it was the only upgrade for LZ that was in the form of "Blox." Which are cubic pieces that must be assembled using plastic pegs... so tedious. Normally, most Zoid kits are click and fit, Blox fall apart easily due from instability.

Besides immersing myself in the wonderful toys from Japan, I've been watching animes to pass the time. I just finished "Kuroshitsuji," oh wow was that anime dark, well... it's not as morbid and messed up as "Hell Girl." I haven't seen it, but I heard it's gruesome. Of course I watched some Zoid animes too. The first Zoid anime I ever saw was "ZOIDS: New Century Zero" back in 1999. It takes place after "Chaotic Century," Zoids are used for sport and competition in "New Century." In "Chaotic Century" Zoids were used as weapons of war. Right now I'm watching "ZOIDS: Genesis," which takes place 1000 years after "New Century" and Zoids are used as war machines once again. I'm hooked on the opening song now, I think it's catchy.
It's "Yotaka no Yume," by Do As Infinity.
I like the OP for ZOIDS: Genesis. It's a good song. After watching the first few episodes, I really like the main character's Murasame Liger, it's super cool. I have the model, but haven't built it yet because I don't have paint for it. I need to go buy some model paint. This is the first Zoid I've come across that requires paint. Murasame Liger is an expensive Zoid too, very rare.


This morning, I was going to watch more anime, but I've been pulled back into work already. Apparently, there was a party reservation for 50 people? Yeah right the biggest table I saw today only had 10 people. They lied to me!

Tomorrow's a Friday, busy day... always a busy day at work on Friday. Can we fire the other waitress since I've returned from Japan and we will no longer be needing her services? I want to watch more anime, I hope the lunch rush is dead tomorrow.
epik_noodles: (Default)
Seriously, did anyone else but me notice this random thing?
This is from one of my super random observations... I just felt like watching Blood on Fire for old time sake. It reminded me how much AAA has changed since then. These are my own screencaps.


Anyways, while I was watching, I happened to pause it at an interesting frame. Like I asked, did anyone notice this?

Shuta... has a flashlight in the video. If I was the only dumb person who missed this and everyone else already knows about this, please feel free to inform me that everybody already knows... if not, I'll continue my findings. Really, I never noticed the flashlight before.

My next issue was... why would they need a flashlight in the first place?! If you didn't notice, Blood on Fire is loaded with CG effects and sound FX. Why the simplicity of the flashlight?!

Shuta is trying to blind us so we don't notice...(I'm kidding)


Shuta has the flashlight for most of the clear shots of him in the video. The only times you won't see the flashlight is during the full group shots and his break dancing solo.

Well... he has redefined the form of prop dancing... which is actually a difficult style to master without impaling people around you. If I recall... in Asian music culture, Min-woo made the "water bottle" dance popular (dancing with a water bottle in your hand). Mmm... bottled water never looked sexier... Same thing applies here, respect the flashlight! Shuta with a metal heavy duty flashlight looks really cool for some odd reason. Although... besides the limited blinding light... THE FLASHLIGHT SERVES NO PURPOSE!!!

I'm done with my random discovery, carry on.
epik_noodles: (Default)
I checked my e-mail earlier and Arata finally responded to my favor. Okay, so I've learned that there are several ice rinks nearby. The prices are insane though. Over here admission + rental is about $7, but in Japan, it's about $20 for both. Wow, I could buy a meal with that. If I brought my own skates with me, it'd be about $14 just for admission. That is crazy, but understandable since their public skating hours are almost every day as to the rink near my house which is open twice a week during skate season and once a week any other time.

What interests me most is the synthetic iceless ice developed by Mitsubishi. It's a type of plastic that was designed with 90% the slick surface of ice and it doesn't need to be maintained often, it lasts. But it's only for hockey games/players, because figure skaters would tear that thing up so fast when they would launch. It's so cool, but probably won't be available anywhere else.

Oh yeah, the WonderGirls and 2PM concert is tomorrow. I can't wait!!! I'm so excited. I got special meet and greet tickets with Miki. It's a pre-show thing, so we need to get there early. I get to take pictures with WonderGirls and 2PM!!! I get to speak Thai with Nichkhun since he's the non-Korean guy in 2PM and he's Thai. Ohh... maybe I'll ask for his autograph, but we'll have to see what the record label's rules are on that kind of stuff. I know that some companies are super strict about autograph policies. I need to go to sleep quickly so I can go to the concert early. I'm super excited... I'm just wondering where Miki went. Miki still isn't home yet, it's late.

Tell me, tell me...t-t-t-t-t-tell me!
Again and again and again and again...*beeping sounds*

Sadly, "Again and Again" is the only popular 2PM song I know.
I'll probably get pictures from the meet and greet and concert up by the day after tomorrow because I'll be too wiped from the concert to actually post anything. It's a maybe.

See you after the concert!
epik_noodles: (Default)
Today... quite early in the morning...
We headed off to Lincoln Park for the seasonal farmer's market. You know, the outdoor market where local growers, farmers and harvesters sell their products. All of the produce there is freshly picked and most of it is organic and homegrown. Nothing beats the freshness of a farmer's market.

I took a look around and I saw the most beautiful Stevia plants. They were very healthy and had big leaves. I bought it later because I didn't want to carry it around with me everywhere. I found a stall that only sold apples, ohhhh they had the sweetest.. crunchiest Honey Crisps EVER!!!! I bought half a dozen of them, they were so yummy! I walked around a little more and there was a place that sold rhubarb smoothies. I bought one thinking that it tasted like a rhubarb soda... To my surprise... it didn't taste like rhubarb soda. It was really tart, like... worse than a lemon, it was super sour. I kind of tasted like rose apples! For those unfamiliar with exotic fruit, rose apples are small pear shaped fruit with a peel as slick as a tomato and flesh like styrofoam. The info about the rose apple is here. After my super sour drink, There's another stall that sold crepes. They made them at the farmer's market. I ordered a herb and cheese crepe and it was delicious. It was so cheesy and gooey, so yummy! Miki and I sat under a nice shady tree and ate our crepe. Miki said it was good, but it'd be even better if we added snails! Soon after eating we started to head out, on the way out of the market I bought two Stevia plants... for my little sugar project.

We did pick up some groceries on the way back home at a local grocery store near our house. I just got myself some Coke and Iced Tea. Not long after we arrived home, we continued watching "Castle." That mystery series is just getting better and better! We took a little break after two episodes and "watched an episode of "CHUCK" too. Miki had to leave to the gym not too long after we watched CHUCK.

While Miki was gone, I watched my newly arrived "AAA 4th Anniversary Concert DVD" with my roommate. I've never seen the concert yet because I've patiently waiting for my disc to arrive. So, I saw this concert for the first time today!!! Yay for our "region-free" DVD player, we can watch DVDs from any country. I was able to watch the concert on our awesome flat screen!

While we were watching the concert, my roommate was wondering why I liked AAA so much. My roommate is fascinated by my love for foreign music. I replied, "There is no language barrier in music, music is universal and so is the expressive love for music... you should at least know that." My roommate shut up and watched with me. My roommate recognized "Nishijima" off the bat! My roommate shouted, "AH! That's the guy that crossdressed for that one show right?!" I showed my roommate "Otameshika" before. My roommate started to get hooked to the songs and kept saying how catchy the songs were. I was surprised that my roommate was enjoying the concert for someone who doesn't care much for AAA. I started hearing comments like, "They're so cool, I like how they dance, they sing well, they're good at singing live, a true band!" My roommate is starting to like Naoya? Something about Naoya appearing to be the most masculine...

Around halfway through the concert, AAA started to use hand-held microphones. My roommate told me something rather ridiculously stereotypical. A little disclaimer: This is not true(at least not to my knowledge). This is not a fact, but it's more of a silly theory. Don't take my word on it, because I don't believe this theory to be accurate. But rather a coincidental occurrence, which most cases were proven to be true. So here is what my roommate told me...
My roommate said that, a singer's sexuality can be determined by "how" they hold or position their "microphone." Being in and out of the music industry often makes people keen in the sense of psychological cold-reading. Specifically, my roommate said, "if the singer holds his microphone with his pinky straightened out or sticking outwards, it's an indication that the singer is gay." If you imagine yourself holding a microphone, normally all of your fingers will be curled in and completely wrapped around the microphone handle, right? But that could also be based off preference.

My roommate made an example of Naoya by saying, this is how normal people hold microphones.

Then what I noticed was Shuta!
Shuta is the only one who holds his microphone with his pinky out for the majority of all the songs! Shuta held his mic like that for 92% of the songs that required hand-held mics.My roommate kept pointing it out. I was getting a little annoyed, but Shuta wasn't the only one.


Nishijima actually holds his microphone like Shuta too!

Nishijima held the mic like that almost as much as Shuta did. Compared to Shuta's percentage, Nishijima had his pinky up for about 40% if the songs. However, Nishijima's pinky was up for about 95% of Deai no Chiikara. But strangely he was less frequent in the other songs.

Random observation led me to noticing someone I least expected...

Surprisingly, I totally didn't notice until my roommate pointed this out. Shinjiro has his fingers poised outwards for most of the concert too. Even more so frequent to that of Nishijima. Around maybe 55% for all of the songs. At this point, I figured my roommate's theory to be the as useless as an empty roll of tape. Shinjiro, as far as I know, does not swing that way. Shuta and Nishijima, sure, possible candidates, but Shinjiro is the last person I'd expect. What a dumb theory, but my roommate said it was proven true in many cases regarding the music industry. I'm still in disbelief. I personally think it's based off of comfort and preference of how a person held their mic. My roommate believes otherwise.

Because I enjoy arguing with the roommate I so despise, I made another point by saying how the extended pinky is a well mannered gesture in the United Kingdom for drinking tea. When holding a teacup, it is proper to hold the teacup handle with your pinky extended out. I don't know why, but that's how they do things. It was a bit irrelevant, but I wanted to make another point as well to bring up more possibilities other than that silly theory. The microphone deal might be for comfort reasons. That would be my opinion.

In conclusion, according to my roommate... "Shuta is undeniably gay!!!!"
The theory is nice for thought but it isn't a solid claim and it lacks justification. I won't let it get to me, I told my roommate to not believe any stereotypes they hear.

We also watched an episode of Tumbling after the concert. Now my roommate is hooked on Tumbling. My roommate asked in such a sad voice, "Why is Nishijima so mean in this drama?! He seemed so nice on stage." My roommate is badgering me to watch the next episode of Tumbling, which I haven't gotten yet. You'll just have to wait silly roommate!!!

Until next time, bye again.
epik_noodles: (Default)
So today I went to the dentist to get some cavities filled and ouch do my teeth  still hurt!

I was told that since I've been good, we could go to Mitsuwa!!!
Okay!!! Going to the dentist wasn't a complete waste of a day. We went to Mitsuwa and I was super hungry! I didn't eat all day because I'm not supposed to before going to the dentist. I ran quickly to the food court and went to the ramen shop. I was reading through the list of different ramen, all of them were written in Japanese and they were numbered with pictures next to them. I saw it as an opportunity to brush up on the rare Japanese knowledge I almost never use. Instead of being a total American and ordering by number, I actually said the name of the ramen I wanted to order, which I read off the menu list. There's no English on the ramen list, with the exception of the words, "contains: pork, shrimp, egg." I was so happy I read it on my own without Arata's help, I feel so accomplished. I told the cashier lady that I wanted "Shio Ramen" and she understood me. But then she got super excited because I could read the menu. She had this amazed look of "ooh wow, you can read Japanese? Very nice! So good!" she was so excited and kept praising me. Yeah, a non-Japanese being able to read Japanese is shocking to people in Mitsuwa.

Here's my Shio Ramen!!!!
It was REALLY YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!! The cashier lady was really nice.

Remember? There's a Chinese place in Mitsuwa. My parents like to eat the dumpling soup from there and I like the Shu-Mai. I was ordering for my parents at that place too. I was yelling questions back and forth in Thai with my parents about what they wanted, then the cashier guy asked, "Filipino or Thai?" I said Thai and the cashier responded with "kap kun maak kraup," which is the male form of "thank you very much" in Thai. I responded with "kap kun ka," the female form of "thank you." And I got my Shu-Mai.

So delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Jockey" makes the best yim-sum!!!

After finishing my ramen and Shu-Mai, I went to go buy some yummy "purin." My all time favorite dessert!!!! Like the line from one of my favorite songs, "~DAISUKI SA PURIN." It's so jiggly and smooth, softly sweet and creamy to the finish. Japanese pudding has no flaws... Sorry I don't have a picture of it because I forgot to take a picture.

I then walked to the bookstore inside of Mitsuwa and I remembered that I wanted to get a membership reserve on magazines. My cousin Isara does it all the time, so I wanted to give it a try. I can't go to Mitsuwa often(even though I live close), because I'm too busy. I signed up so the book store will reserve magazines of my choice for me and I can come pick them up when they arrive in the store. I reserved.... mostly Johnny magazines... specific issues... because I want the May issue which won't be in stock until July! I filled out my member request sheet... but then I horribly remembered that I was going to be in Japan in July! Which means I can't pick up my magazines. I then told the cashier lady who had me fill out the form that I wouldn't be able to pick it up and asked if I could change the contact number to someone else who "could" pick it up. This lady was really nice too and she kindly gave me the form to change the information. While I was writing, my parents were yelling at me in Thai to hurry up and I was yelling back. And then, this cashier too asked me if that was Tagalog... I said, no... it's Thai. What is with me today? I keep having all these fun conversations with the cashiers at Mitsuwa! She was very amused when I said I was Thai and she was very interested in the fact that I was going to Japan. We kept talking about Japan and Thailand and my magazines.

I then made a purchase. Guess what I found?! I found the "Kanjani 8" album "Puzzle" LIMITED EDITION being sold in Mitsuwa!!!!! This limited edition deluxe album is really rare to find on the internet. It has the coolest packaging!!!!!!! I can't believe there was only one and it was being sold at Mitsuwa!!! I was so excited!!!! You really can't find it anywhere! Kanjani 8 fans would kill for this awesome limited edition album! I am so lucky to have found this!
Check out the awesome album:

Yes... that is a AAA 4th Anniversary DVD under that album, just arrived!
It's designed to look like the box in the music video and it looks like a shipped package!!!! The fact that it authentically looks like a package is what makes this album super cool!!! I was about to pay for this and the cashier lady looks at the box(album) and you can see her face light up with excitement because the box amazingly looks like a package, but it's really an album! She turns to her co-worker and they giggled like fangirls. The co-worker asked,"dare?" And the cashier said, "Kanjani!!!" then she said, "sugoi ne..." Both of them turned to me and asked, "you know Kanjani?!" I said, "Yes! I love their music, it's so fun and sometimes touching, I love their modernization of enka/pop fusion. I love AAA just as much, but I cleaned out your entire stock of AAA CDs and you haven't restocked since then..." Both cashiers were amazed by my taste in music and the packaging of the album I just purchased! They even gave me a new stamp card because I lost mine. Wow, everyone who works at Mitsuwa is really nice and talkative.

The cool features of this limited edition album are the box itself, the CD + DVD, behind the scenes, a well made mock Kanjani 8 news letter about the album and it's sales, and the jigsaw puzzle. How appropriate, the album is called puzzle and you get a jigsaw puzzle of Kanjani 8 to play with!!!

As you can tell, I pieced the puzzle together.
The box is so cool! When you open it up, the inside looks like a little house, you place the finished puzzle into the box and it looks like Kanjani 8 is sitting in a little house! Before I put that puzzle on top, there's an area underneath that had the CDs, which I pulled out before placing the puzzle on top. It was so fun to assemble and it's so cute. I love my limited edition deluxe album!

I was listening to the album and it had all of their best hits on it. My favorites on this CD were Musekinin Hero(irresponsible hero) and Wahaha! I heard "That's My Soul" too... that... was the most traumatizing music video I have ever seen... That video had them in super short postman shorts... it was a very traumatizing visual... People hate me for showing them that video of That's My Soul... Hearing Wahaha! after such a long time reminded me of how much I missed Kanjani 8's silliness. Wahaha! was one of their most craziest... randomest videos they have ever made!!! Here is a video of Wahaha! Don't worry, I won't burn your eyes with That's My Soul, you don't deserve the torture.


Don't ask why they're all naked in a bathtub together at the end of the video...
I really liked the slo-mo filter used in this video. The faces they make during their slo-mo moments when they pretend to fall... they're just creepy faces. The purposes of the Kanjani 8 videos are for humor. Their songs are comical, but some of them are sappy too, it's a balance. Wahaha! on the other hand, is just plain funny and random! This song reminds us of how much a smile can brighten everything up. Smiles are contagious and they cheer everyone up!

I am so happy to have gone to Mitsuwa!!!!
I had so much fun today! I wish I could go to Mitsuwa more often!
Until next time, bye for now!
epik_noodles: (Default)
Yes, I'm unraveling the mystery that is my username!
If people think it's a self-reflecting username, why yes it is!
If people think I chose to use "epik" because I'm quite epic myself... no, that was unintentional. The "noodles" part is self explanatory. I will go through the reasons of how and why I chose this as my username.

Okay, wondering about why the "epik" in "epik_noodles" is spelled incorrectly and where exactly it came from? Well, if you assume that I replaced the "c" in "epic" with a "k" because misspelling words is awesome, no... that wasn't the case here.
I got the word "epik" from the name of my favorite Korean hip-hop artist "Epik High."

I love Tablo's(pictured on right) rapping skills and he actually graduated from Standford University. He's very fluent in English. The next thought on everyone's mind is probably, "wait a minute! since when does Tessie listen to hip-hop?!" The answer to that is, "hey, I need to unwind to something that isn't j-pop every once and a while!" Epik High makes relaxing hip-hop songs. Most people will argue that "Fly" was their greatest song, I actually liked "Fan," other fans don't understand that, the cinematography for that video is beautiful! The song is about one-sided love and a psycho stalker, my favorite scene is the gasoline and lighter scene.

Next is the noodles... very vague...
But there was one noodle dish in particular that I wanted to honor with my username.
That dish would be... Jajang Myun or others would simply call it Peking Noodles. It is a noodle dish made with noodles(obviously) and topped with a delicious black bean sauce that contains pork, potatoes, and other various veggies. I got to eat it today so I took a picture.

Well, I made it... the lazy way, it was just potatoes...
But I shortened the name to just "epik_noodles" because, "epik_pekingnoodles" just looked ridiculous!

Is everyone now wondering why did combine such random things to create such a random username? Okay... well, I did this to make sure my "real" friends couldn't find me on the internet. Because this name is the MOST least expected thing I would come up with. Therefore my friends would believe that it wasn't me. My friends have no idea that I'm an Epik High fan, so that's a plus. As much as I love food, my friends know that I wouldn't be cheesy enough to include any kind of food item into my username.

Thus... the creation of "EPIK_NOODLES!"

On a random note...
Guess who got really mad from being forced to take a bath?!

I gave my cat(Pikus) a bath. Look at those fangs!
And he was being really mean and hissy afterwards.
Hahaha!!!! He was all soggy and funny looking!!!

Until next time, bye for now.

epik_noodles: (Default)
Seriously...
Is it just me or does AAA's new video, "Dream After Dream" ...
kind of looks like "Signal," by KAT-TUN?!

There's nothing wrong with my eyes, but the two videos have a few things in common.
Dream After Dream just reminded me a little of Signal.
I'm not implying that someone copied the other, but their CG was similar. I'm not blaming anyone, don't worry, nobody's copying anyone, if you want to see some true idea stealing... Otsuka Ai -Planetarium vs Rikki -Suteki da Ne, can you say "plagiarism?"
It's fine, both PV's are unique and very different, just a few scenes look similar.
AAA
's CG effects are completely original, there's nothing wrong there, but I only saw two similarities.
 
 
Credit: Dream After Dream from [community profile] attackallaround @ DW, I made the screencaps.                                                               

 Dream After Dream                            Signal
This is from the conveyor belt scene, both PV's have the groups standing on a moving CG conveyor belt. The only difference (if you've seen both videos) is that the one in "Dream After Dream" is moving backwards, while the one in "Signal" moves forward. Both videos use a lot of CG backdrop. I found it really interesting that AAA used the conveyor belt idea, it brought back some memories of when I used to listen to KAT-TUN. Although both groups have amazing outfits... sorry Misako, KAT-TUN's outfits sadly looks better than yours(yes, I am aware that Johnnys dress horrible), it's a strange situation.
                                                         
Dream After Dream                             Signal
Yes... the falling cubes, very cliche, in my opinion. Cubism is used in a lot of videos, so I'm not surprised, it's like universal. The cube symbolizes "confinement" or "limitations," hence the term "think outside the box" becomes a common theme with cubism. There was also another scene where some AAA individuals were dancing in a confined cube. That scene is in Signal too, but it was difficult to compare because AAA made it look too awesome.

As you can see, the CG animation was very similar to one another.
It might look like I'm ragging on AAA, but I'm not. I love them, their new video reminded me of good old KAT-TUN. I've never seen AAA go this insane on the CG animations(excluding Hallelujah), let alone the cubism.

I must concur with everyone else, this song/video is pretty different for AAA. It has a disco-ish Eurobeat feel to it, they're striding down the funky Eurobeat path again. Nothing wrong with that, it was originally part of their genre to begin with. I love Dream After Dream, it's addicting and VERY catchy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I noticed from the choreography this time around, AAA used a lot of "old school" moves. The dance was very simple, there was a sense of simplicity to it. I saw a move that looked like the "bokko dance,"(Korean dance craze power move) but done horizontally in profile. Even though they used some old school moves, that dance was mind blowing.

But you know... AAA totally powns KAT-TUN hands down!!!!!!!!!!!

And now for this randomness...
Yeah... I randomly screencapped and that was what I got...
Hidaka biting his tongue...
Does anyone think it's strange that...
I find Hidaka biting his tongue to be hot and freakishly attractive???

Okay........ pretend I didn't mention Hidaka in this post.
Until next time, bye for now.

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