I’ve never learned so much about chocolate texture and color xD Even though my love for it doesn’t stretch to wanting to try a $550 bar. lol
I did get curious about Guittard chocolates, though.
I must confess that I like cheap cocoa powder, though. xD
Also, sharing that overdone Beginner’s Guide I did because I couldn’t make up my mind, LOL
Happy listening~ xD
I honestly don’t have the time to keep up with variety shows on a regular basis, but this showed up on my YT recommendations and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to watch Leehom on a duet with Han Hong. It gave me goosebumps. I love Shangri-la (心中的日月) on its own original version, but this arrangement for Come Sing with Me (我想和你唱) just gave me the chills.
Han Hong’s voice goes so well with Leehom’s. ToT
Also, DAMN~ I used to not give much for Hebe’s voice, but girl has continued surprising me all decade. I don’t remember her being much of a vocalist, but I’m shooketh with her performance of Angel Devil (魔鬼中的天使). I wonder if she found Julio Iglesias’ not-so-secret microphone stash.
Leehom also got better. Maybe they’re all getting better sound engineers.
I’ve been watching NHK’s asadora, Hanbun Aoi (半分、青い。), intermittently like I always tend to do. At first, Mei Nagano made me think of a grown-up Ashida Mana which made no sense… even though Mana-chan is enormous and the last time I saw her it made me feel like those parents who watch their children turn into teenagers in horror. lol
But now I was watching the most recent episode of Tsurube no Kazoku ni Kanpai (鶴瓶の家族に乾杯) on NHK Premium, and she was featured wearing an up-do samurai bun, white baggy clothes; so relaxed, enjoying her snacks, a dip of her feet in onsen water, greeting fans and playing other young girls. Dorky charisma, yo~ It takes a special ability to have people younger than you to “kawaiiiiiiiiii” you so sincerely. LOL
I was looking for a decent quality image of Alexander Walker’s Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Star book cover, but I couldn’t find any :/ so I decided to scan my own. Take it as a service to the online community. I was going to watermark it, but decided not to. A link back or a shout out would be nice, tho :)
I like mentioned back in April [1], Yu-chan is featured on Hoshikuzu Scat’s (星屑スキャット) most recent music video directed by Birds Without Names director Shiraishi Kazuya~ The song, titled Shinjuku Chanson (新宿シャンソン), is featured on Kesho-shitsu (化粧室), the first album of the drag queen group, and was written by multi-talented illustrator-actor-writer Lily Franky.
‘Tis a thing of beauty~
It’s winter down here. My cold resistance has gone down since my not-even-cold Canada days. I even use an electric bed warmer because my room gets so cold, it’s got a breeze with windows closed. lol Anyway, since I’m on the topic, and calling for donations to combat the winter in the South is a yearly tradition that’s never-ending, I thought I would do a post on the Tibetan heating systems. I actually only saw these on various broadcasts of -probably- CCTV’s Yuanfang de Jia (远方的家).
This is a Kang (炕, from the Chinese “to bake or dry by the heat of a fire“) or a “bed-stove”.
Basically, you grill yourself in winter. Like I do with my electric bed warmer. xD
Like European ceramic stoves, Korean Ondol (온돌) underfloor heating, or… well, modern heated ceramic tile floor; a Kang is designed to keep you warm, especially in cold winter nights; like it is mentioned on Coldland People (寒地百姓吟, aka. Han Di Bai Xing Yin), the Tang Dynasty poem by Meng Jiao (孟郊) that starts with the following lines:
无火炙地眠，半夜皆立号。
冷箭何处来，棘针风骚骚。
霜吹破四壁，苦痛不可逃。Translated on the Wiki page as: No fuel to heat the floor to sleep, standing and crying with cold at midnight instead.
Source: Baidu [includes a detailed explanation of the verses]
Appreciation for coal miners and heat aside; as fancy as floor-heating may look nowadays with ceramic tiles and electric heating. It all started with ovens built with brick and/or clay. A relatively more cost-efficient way to keep families in the South from freezing themselves to death.
So I’m back with a ton of work to catch up with… as you do when you go on vacation for 10-days to two weeks. I enjoyed my visit to the States— first time in Chicago, first time in NYC. Ate a lot, walked a lot, got a sunburn on my scalp as bald people do… in the City of Wind, nonetheless~ I also watched Wicked on Broadway! Saw Ashley Parker Angel xD (I was a pretty big O-Town follower, lol), and was thoroughly impressed with Amanda Jane Cooper and Jackie Burns~ I am most shocked Burns is in her late-30s because her voice sounded so young. I guess green make-up could help~
I ran into this clip of Burns performing The Adele Dazeem Medley for The Broadway Princess Party held last year. It’s mind-blowing. I thought I should share.
I was just staring into space in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, and it hit me that it’s been ten years— It’s my 10th anniversary for a lot of things: it’s my tenth anniversary of Juri Ueno~~~ and Last Friends turned 10 this year! It’s also ten years since the Beijing Olympics, ten years since Beijing, Beijing! Wo Ai Beijing; it’s been ten years since BiBi, ten years of YAM Magazine, and ten-mother-freaking-years since I became a fan of Yu Aoi [1][2][3][4][5]. It didn’t come in this order, but you get the idea.
May 16th is the date. Remember that. This should’ve been posted that day, but I’m way to giddy to wait. It’s taken me a long time to sit down and look back at years of archives to update this entry, but I suppose it still beats trying to figure out how to write a comprehensive Wikipedia entry.
Yu-chan and I, we’ve had our ups and downs, but I’ve always tried to stay as loyal as possible. LOL I may not stalk her tags online 24/7 (all my Japanese sources in English are rubbish now) and my Japanese skills are in the gutter, but I’ve managed to remain the biggest English/Spanish-speaking Yu Aoi fan in this side of the hemisphere (if not the world, xD). It’s been a good ride, Yu-chan. I’m looking forward to all the catching-up of all your latest movies. Here’s to another decade with Yu!
Cheap Yu-puns intended~
