Live photos

Marius got some shots of us!

And him, Wolf, and me at the end of the night. Thanks guys!

Live Report 6/15/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Atomic Tornado, OZxBONE, Diz-, Denial, Zack's Hidetora Stargazer

First things first: the day before the live, I met up with Shuurei and his pal Mike, both formerly of Okinawa, for some chill out/make new friends time.

From L to R: Shuurei, pizza, Mike

That was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to get psyched for the next day's show.

We went up first, again, although with a setlist that I was really proud of, and a new song at the end ("Solidarity") that most of the crowd seemed to like. I was having a lot of fun, Ryota was moving more than usual (that is to say, moving at all!), etc. Coming off stage, it was the first time that all three of us were at least somewhat satisfied with ourselves.

We came out after our set to meet up with Faith, Shuurei, Mike, and then Marius and Wolfgang, who had some awesome tales of run-ins with Vagu Project and Danger Gang to tell me about. It was awesome to see those guys again. Marius took some live pictures of us so I hope I get to see those sometime!

Next was Diz-, hard and heavy, and their guitarist was a big, big guy. Go big guys in VK.


Then OZxBONE, who are our buddies, and way nice, and they're jokey and silly and SMG-y and there's some cutesy manzai in the middle of their set, so good job, boys.

Atomic Tornado was extremely talented. The guitar solos and twin parts were great, and they all had good presence, and the vocalist had this great 80's metal voice, strong and pure like harsh winter sunlight or something overblown and power-metally like that.


A band called DENIAL was after them, and I really like crisp 7-string guitar playing, and they were solid performers, but there was no bassist, although there was a bass displayed predominantly on stage.

Then uNruSt, who came out to this brutal intro music and then for their first song played something down-tempo, light, and sorta limp, but they got better over their set.


And finally, Zack's Hidetora Stargazer, with Hidetora on vocals, formerly of G.O.ZVII, a band that Yue really respects. Hidetora actually works at Narciss, and he's such a nice guy and gives us fantastic advice and encouragement. They played some GOZVII songs, some Akira songs, and a cover of the Pillows' "Hybrid Rainbow".


The other 5 Americans all had to jet so we made our goodbyes. I was so glad they came out to support me; I'm often quite overwhelmed by how nice people can be.

There's supposed to be a video of me, Ryota, Yue, and our staff girl trying the chocolates that Miss Thrillz sent us, but youtube is not being friendly and that's sad because it's a quaint little thing.


I got a bag full of snacks from one fan, which was really great. We sold quite a few photo sets, and people wrote really nice things on the questionnaires. Also, one fan bought this for Yue:

One thing that's a little bit of a bummer about going first is that we spend all our time in the downstairs backstage area instead of the 3rd floor one with all the other bands of the night, so there's much less interaction. Ah well.

So we got asked to play a special live on 6/24(a band canceled, so other than equipment rental we play for free), which should be interesting. I wonder if anyone will come out on such short notice.

There are a couple of little Laverite-related surprises coming up, so I'll let you all know when I can give away more details.

On 7/26 we're playing with Byakura again (yay!) and in August we'll play with a band called Az:Madius, and at least one if not all of the members are ladies, so it seems. And, on 9/24, we will play our first show at Takadanobaba AREA! :D

FANBOX

Why hello little feather-brained American piggy; what joy do your contents bring?...

Why, they bring a buttload of ecstasy is what they bring! Postcards in the back, super-interesting chocolate that I can't wait to share with the guys, more killer fanart, and an incredibly sweet letter that came as perfect encouragement at a perfect time... also three myyyyyysteryyyy boxes!!!

Because I am a gentleman, I did not peek into the two boxes not meant for me. In my box, there was that cute piggy LED keychain (which is seriously going to be useful on stage if something's wrong with mics or speakers), a sweet card-themed lighter (which is eerily reflecting my current obsession with card manipulation), and a startlingly beautiful necklace. I then realized that the thing could open, and I started thinking about what I could put inside...

...but there was already something in there! And it was the absolute most appropriate picture she could have put in there. I literally laughed with delight when I saw it.


This was all from our very own Miss Thrillz, who really did not have to send me even a letter, let alone a WHOLE BOX full of stuff. I was so, so, so happy to get it, to open it, and be affected by the surprises, and the other boys just cannot WAIT for the live on Sunday to get their shares. So a HUGE thanks to her, because things like that help you keep going forward. :)


The next live is this Sunday, and Shuurei, M., and Wolf will be in attendance because they have nothing better to do. ^_^ (Actually, apparently there's a Versailles live they could go to, but instead they're coming all the way out to Saitama! :'))We're going first though, again, which is kind of frustrating but so it goes.

There's also a small Laverite-related surprise in the works, so I'll update y'all when I'm allowed to.

Man, there be some good people in the world. :)

First fanmail!

Look at this awesome envelope from "Kagami"--

--it's been all over the world and stuff and if you don't like it well you can go soak your fat head


Let's look closer, too; what's that drawing...?

What is UP you guys, that is a drawing of Jimi, and for once I look huggable!

Ryota with his maki-maki hair...

And Yue, who dyes his hair so constantly in real life that this depiction is already indicative of a time now past!...

The included letters are so, so sweet; it's been a rough couple of weeks and this letter totally made my day. I was very, very surprised to find that in my mailbox.

So get your fanmail in early while I still have time to respond to each and every single one! :)

Live Report 5/31/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Vagu Project, Mamono, Rakan, Karate Bakabon Sono Go, Murasaki, Mezmerize

Saturday was a long night that started off quite promising when this arrived at Narciss:

Yue's company had sent that to us, and it was beautiful, smelled wonderful, and caused a bit of buzz.

We were scheduled to go first, so I took the opportunity before we went on to do a little video interview:




Yue and Ryota have been ill with Bubonic something or smallpox maybe, and it really showed in their performances. I tried to make up for things, but that can be tough on your own. The crowd was a little less energetic than we've had in the past, but honestly as long as there are smiling faces I'm more than pleased.

In fact, Alicia and a friend were there, which was just so awesome! She and I have been to many-an Exist Trace live and it's always good to see her. Also in attendance was blog commented Lisa who is now officially the coolest Rock Japan Elec-tric reader (although I welcome other contestants). She is just here on vacation and she managed to fit in a dinky little Laverite show in between stuff like, you know, Dir en grey and D'espairsRay and stuff. I cannot bow low enough to express my thanks to those who have and who will come out to support me, and often more than once! It was great meeting her finally.

After us was Rakan, whose drummer took a liking to me and especially my staff girl, and at the end of the night after I'd washed off my makeup finally noticed that I was not Japanese. I don't look Japanese in the slightest so I'm constantly baffled as to these band guys' reactions. Maybe just because we all look so funny to begin with.
Anyway, from the brief bit of their set I saw, Rakan was a bundle of energy. I was envious.

After them were mah dawgs Vagu Project, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, and they were very, very pleased to see me. It was great hanging out with those guys in a totally different context; backstage Yui hung out with us and he showed me his cool mixing board... he was putting finishing touches on a new song they were debuting that night, and it sounded really, really good. It was a slower-tempo'd rock ballad sorta thing, with some really fantastic lyrics and great vocal harmonies from Ryo... it was a very tightly-constructed song.

Mamono was next, and as you might predict, they were completely normal, gentle guys outside of costume and absolutely insane on stage. They probably had the biggest crowd of the night, I'd wager. They used a lot of smoke and lights in their set, and created a neat little world on stage. They reminded me a lot of Schwarz Lilie, with some of that overly Tim Burton-y layer removed.

Murasaki played "Zan", I think, and then a cover version of "Nagori Yuki" (Mucc's was better) and I went and changed clothes and took care of money stuff.

But then there was a session band called "Karate Bakabon Sono Go", and Dan (formerly of Ensoku, also mah dawg) was on drums. The guitarist had a goatee and he generally had a goat-like appearance and that was neat. They were very strange.

Last was Mezmerize, who formed in January and are breaking up next month. If we last past July we can officially say, "hey, at least we outlived Mezmerize." Also they played a Kagerou song.


The Narciss staff wanted us to take the flowers home, so we wrapped up 4 bunches in brown paper and Yue, Ryota, our staff girl, and I each got one. On the way to the station from the live house, as we ran into various girls who had been at the live, I gave each one a white rose from the bunch.

These are a couple of the things a couple of fans brought for us... the akafuku was delicious! (The Aquarius was already ours, though. :-P)

Nachi, my buddy from all the ET lives (and who told Miko that I'm in a band when I pretty much expressly didn't want to tell her what a jerk even though he's awesome) came out to see us and I was so happy! I seriously love that guy and wish you all could meet him.

And then I got seriously ill coming back home and man yesterday did not feel good at all. But that meant I got to stay home and look for jobs, so that was nice I guess?

Our next live is on 6/15, and we're playing a new song. The guys say that with the bassline I wrote it sounds "L'arc-ish", which I take as a compliment.

Everyone who came out to see us is a winner! And just by reading about it, you're a winner too. :)

Laverite Flier 2

holding roses for some reason and I just found out the French is slightly incorrect but if it was correct then it wouldn't be VK now would it

Naturally 7, "Wall of Sound"

Not only do I like some hip-hop like Digable Planets (because of the jazz) and The Roots (because they're all instrumentalists), but I also have a big love for good a cappella groups/performances and similar things like vocal percussionists, such as Rahzel and Wes Carroll. My mother is a vocal teacher and coach and both she and my dad have done tons of teaching and performing, so as you know I grew up in an insanely musical environment.

And I just discovered a group called Naturally 7 and this video is way, way cool:



Hope you enjoy that; it's really impressive.

Studio, Portfolio

First a couple of shots from today's studio...





And one that's in my portfolio...



That's nifty, I guess!

Live Report 5/1/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, Ren, MICA-TYPE, Rubic

I'm hoping the live in April established a pattern or something, because the free live on the first of May was awesome in every way.

For free lives, we do rock-paper-scissors to determine the order of drawing straws, and then we draw them, and that determines the performance order. One thing that makes this annoying is that I had a lot of people who wanted to come, but their presence would be entirely dependent on what time we went on. Which of course I couldn't provide before that day. And every person who comes counts. At the end of the night. With the money thing.

It was my turn among the Laverite members. I was nervous; I didn't want us to have to go first or last. The other representatives from the other bands and I rock-paper-scissored our way down to a drawing order, and then we were off. I went second, and drew the number 2, which was actually pretty great. I'd much rather go a little earlier in the night rather than later: it gives you more time down in the lobby with fans and with your merchandise and your staff, who bust their butts for you and rarely get any thanks.

We shouldn't have laughed, but the guy who won rock-paper-scissors drew the number 1. That's gotta suck.

Pre-concert stuff went incredibly swimmingly. I wonder if I've just gotten used to the amount of downtime and waiting you have to do amidst scrambling to make photocopies of your questionnaires and handing in remaining tickets and fliers for the day. You also learn to establish proper time management, stop worrying, and just sort of ambling into your costume and makeup instead of freaking out about it. And this time, I was really proud of how I'd fixed myself up. I clean up nicely, or something.

I was uncommonly nervous as LAVERITE prepared to go on stage; this never bodes well for hands, which tend to get clumsy with nerves, and if I'm going to aim to be one of the better bassists in VK I need to learn to quell that. Still, once the curtain opened, and I saw the huge amount of people crammed toward the front for us, I got an injection of confidence.

There were five of my housemates there, as well as Inertia (AGAIN, because she is seriously way cooler than you), and... FAITH! Yeah, one of you dear readers came out to see me! And they were all enjoying themselves. They weren't too cool to be down in front getting crazy, even if for a lot of my housemates it was their first live concert experience.

And there were girls on MY side, too! Lots of 'em! And when I went over to Ryota's side during "Criticism", the girls saku'ed, AND did the little "heart" gesture to me! They fed off my energy, and that just reflected back to me, and it just kept reverberating back and forth and growing stronger. I could not help but smile nearly the whole set. Maybe an image-breaker, but I don't mind playing the clueless one. And the nerves had dissipated, and I was playing just fine.
It is so fun to look into the face of someone thoroughly enjoying what you do.

Ren is back! With all new members except the vocalist. Looking back over my live reports, I'd seen them about 5 times or so. They started off so terrible but now with new members who actually want to be in the band (and the maturity and drive that comes with that), I do not feel any contradiction whatsoever in saying that I think Ren is great. They have a couple of songs from before the big shakeup that I recognized but now sounded fantastic; the vocalist is a total pro, using his unique body type effectively, and the other guys were grinning and flashy. Very fun set. (My landlord loved 'em.)

MICA-TYPE's vocalist Kohaku is a good friend of Ryota's, so we were happy to play with them. She talked to us backstage just before they went on and she was just darling. When she was announcing an event they were playing at, she said, "they made a mistake; there's this great event with all these cool bands and then we're on the bill too." It was too cute, and I think Faith was in love. Musically it was pretty gawfy.

Rubic was last. They look vaguely NoGoD-ish in costume but sound more serious. Faith and I were too busy discussing Japan's gas tax and the upcoming renewal vote to pay close attention, though.

Strangest part of the night: when two high school girls in uniform approached me apprehensively and said, "...James-sensei?" and I freaked out because no one's supposed to know my real name. (In the west we think it's obvious that James = Jimmy {or variants like Jimi}, but for the Japanese it's not so obvious.) It turns out that they were my students when I taught junior high school! Of course now they look completely different; in jr. high they are all told to look the same but in (some) high school(s) they can dye their hair, wear makeup, and their uniforms are more flattering than the boxes of fabric the poor boys and girls are forced to wear in jr. high. I recognized them once they said that, though.

They had come to see Rubic, and briefly entertained the thought that that Jimi guy on the Laverite flier might be their old English teacher, and sure enough it was true.

Then some final chattin' and advice from Faith and Inertia, and that was that! Demachi was fun, but it's so strange having every little movement, every little tick, everything you do scrutinized and told is 'cute' or 'cool', from the way you scratch your nose to the way you adjust your weight when sitting even to the things you do to deliberately try not to be cute or cool.


Here are some kind words from Faith about the show:

"Dude, I had a whole lot of fun at your live, it's really too bad I can't come out to see you guys regularly (so, you know, get touring and all). For one it had all of the stuff I like about small lives: a lot of cool bands I didn't know about, band members that are rad and hang out and a nearby bar.

And I wish more bands sounded like you. I admit I like the whole jumpy-spinny routine, but it was just so refreshing to hear something that different, more involved, more elaborate, like back before these kids got on my damn lawn. :) It seems like so many bands nowadays are either colorful and jumpy or gawth and headbangy and it's great to see some more middle ground. Plus, everyone was really cool, from your housemates to Yue to the cute self-deprecating girl in that other band."

*happy tears*

Some news: "Sephirot" is now SOLD OUT, and by that I mean all copies have now been distributed. :-P

Other news: Here are our next live dates, all at Narciss:
5/31, 6/15, 7/1, 7/26, 8/8, 8/24, and 8/31.


And I should probably start putting up setlists, so here they are, starting with this most recent live:

5/1/08
1.Sephirot
2.宮廷の道化師 (Kyuutei no Doukeshi)
3.仮面舞踏会 (Kamen Butoukai)
-MC-
4.Delusion
5.天空の彼方へ (Tenkuu no Kanata e)
6.criticism

4/19/08
1.Avis de trag`edie(SE)
2.Sephirot
3.Delusion
4.Dirtiest
5.仮面舞踏会 (Kamen Butoukai)
6.criticism

3/29/08
1.Sephirot
2.MY LOVE REMAINS
3.Sexy dance
4.仮面舞踏会 (Kamen Butoukai)
5.criticism

3/5/08
1.Avis de trag`edie(SE)
2.Sephirot
3.天空の彼方へ (Tenkuu no Kanata e)
-MC-
4.Rose mary
5.Sexy dance
6.仮面舞踏会 (Kamen Butoukai)
7.criticism

2/17/08
1.Avis de trag`edie(SE)
2.Sephirot
3.仮面舞踏会 (Kamen Butoukai)
-MC-
4.Rose mary
5.深海～Those who pass away～ (Shinkai)
6.宮廷の道化師 (Kyuutei no Doukeshi)
7.criticism


See y'all at the end of the month with mah boiz Vagu Project!

Live Report 4/19/08, Urawa Narciss: LAVERITE, WHITEBLACK, OZxBONE, Kanabun, Lerise, Selphy, Sigma

LAVERITE's most recent live felt like a complete 180 from the last one. I felt good about our performance, about our interaction with fans and the other bands, and just plain good about myself for the first time in awhile.

We were going up first, which meant we rehearsed last, don't spend any time in the upstairs dressing room the whole night, and didn't have all that much time to do costumes/makeup. The first band always uses the backstage dressing room right off stage. In a way, I like that: I notice that I'm extremely self-conscious doing my makeup/hair/costume in front of other bands. I'm relatively inexperienced and I'm still experimenting with technique and I don't want to look like a total tool in front of everybody. It's a totally irrational fear, but as the "one of these things is not like the other" guy, it's hard to push away.

We get up on stage, and I notice that there are girls standing in front of Ryota's place on stage, girls standing in front of Yue's place on stage, aaaaaand nobody standing in front of me. You know, I thought, at this point, it's kind of amusing being the guy with no fans. Might as well roll with it! And at that moment, Inertia showed up, running to get into position in front of me. Bless her so flippin' much, seriously. I can't believe she came to support us; I was really happy about that.

Ryota was spot-on for the whole set, Yue rocked hisself good, and I was feelin' pretty good. The set list was straight-up metal the whole time, which pleased our crowd and left me pleasantly exhausted. I had vocal parts on the 2nd and 3rd songs: harmony in the chorus and background shouts, respectively. I consider myself a good singer but I cannot do screams or shouts for jack. Still, it sounds pretty interesting. Can't wait to see how it turned out on the tape. (By the by: I'm having trouble ripping/editing the DVDs, so please be patient while I hack up the good performances into Youtube-sized chunks!)

We always open up with "Sephirot" and end with "Criticism". "Sephirot" drags on a little long and I don't really do anything interesting during it. "Criticism", on the other hand, is way fun to play... I do tapping in the beginning and toward the end, some slap and a sexy bassline in the bridge (which isn't in the recording linked above, but whatever). Also a big ol' jump just after the guitar solo. We have quite a few ballads that I think are composed well instrumentally and have great solos but we've been told they break up the flow of a set. We also have some very Malice Mizer-y/Lareine-y tunes that I always worry won't get a good reaction but I tend to be wrong. And then the traditional metal numbers; the ones we did that night were "Delusion" and "Dirtiest", with "Delusion" being the most fun for me to play--probably my favorite song to play, along with "Sexy Dance". (Actually, any song in which I get to show off is fun for me.)

The next band up was Lerise, a 4-piece with the vocalist also playing rhythm guitar. Completely refreshing. They didn't sound Visual, if visual has a distinct sound: there were portions of their tunes that sounded like a throwback to much older VK, but for the most part their sound was alternative rock, and competently written and performed. There was also acoustic guitar in their 3rd song, and the vocalist was genuinely a talented acoustic player. I enjoyed watching their rehearsal. Also, their bassist and I have the exact same bass so that was cool. Or awkward? Maybe cool.

After them was OZxBONE, who are quickly becoming our buddies. We've played with them 3 times already and will be playing with them again in June. Ken-ken heard me speaking English with Inertia and told me that my English was very good. He was surprised to hear me say that I'm not Japanese. I don't know why this is so hard to understand; I don't look Japanese at all! Still, it was a nice indirect compliment of my Japanese. OZxBONE is very Sex Machineguns in their approach; the songs are silly and the performance simply fun. They're very easy to get along with, too; some of our fans overlap so we did demachi together and Ken-ken and I got to talk a lot more.

4th was WHITEBLACK, who are certainly talented, but I missed their set as we were in the office taking care of money issues and having our little pep talk with the manager.

One thing we talked about were my concerns as the one non-Japanese in VK. It's been largely a non-issue for Japanese fans, and if anything it's been somewhat of a plus. Very little of what's been said has gotten its way back around to me, so I've been in the dark and worried about if it's been helping or hurting us. What the Narciss staff told me put me at ease and really gave me more confidence. I mentioned the fact that if anyone's had anything negative to say at all, it's been a tiny handful of foreign fans of VK, as if since VK originated in Japan and has been done solely by Japanese, that it is only to be ever done by Japanese. The entire staff jumped in and said variations of "That's a wall that you need to tear down, then", which felt really good.

I don't know that my ambitions are that great at the moment. We're a dinky little indies band with next to no resources and a tiny fanbase. I just want to have fun, meet cool people, and play music. If I'm supposed to be That Guy, then the opportunities will present themselves and I'll do my best not to pass them up. If anything I hope I can at the very least open the door to the non-Japanese VKer who will make a big splash in Japan, and in Japanese. (I realize there are VK-ish non-Japanese artists based in various places around the world--Brazil, Australia, etc--but the heart, the most important network, is still Japan.)

The next band was called Selphy, and it's a darn shame I can't find any evidence of their existence or a website because they were fantastic! Great twin guitar work, killer drummer, and this really awesome vocalist who totally reminded me of Bruce Dickinson, both vocally and a little bit in the face. He had all these well-practiced moves and never missed a note. Good god they were fun to watch.


And then there was Sigma, who use the Greek letter as their name, and to whom I didn't pay that much attention to. Sorry guys.

And last was Kanabun, a session band with some members from Ghost, some other band, and two pleasant surprises: Masaki, formerly the vocalist of Sulfuric Acid and current guitarist of +ISOLATION, and Dan, formerly the drummer of Ensoku! I talked to Dan backstage earlier in the day and he was very glad to see me. And Masaki!, that guy is just seriously way cool. He's not really that good of a singer at all, but his performance is fun, his smile is cute and infectious, and he just always looks so dang happy. Ryota and I were psyched that we were taiban-ing with him; "I wanna be that guy's friend!" we both said to each other. They did this way cool heavy Japanesque nu-metally opener song, then did Dir en grey's "New Age Culture" poorly, and then did a really muddy version of hide's "ever free". They weren't that great, but Dan is never, ever bad and Masaki was there so you sort of forgive everything and just have fun, because they're having almost too much fun. It's epidemic.

After the last band, in an effort to be less nervous around fans, I started passing out tickets too the free show on 5/1. It seemed to have a really positive effect on everybody; some stopped to talk to me a little longer, even if just to ask how to read my name 慈弥 (which, to most Japanese people, initially looks like "Jiya"). Two girls in particular took an interest in me and we talked for awhile. They asked me where I was from; I said "Atlantis" which is my answer to that question. Now, one girl knew I was just putting on a character; the other thought that it was the name of a city in some other country. Anyway, then they asked me a lot about Atlantis and I wasn't prepared for that so I had to make stuff up on the fly.

They reacted in a way that made me feel like a mannequin--they were clearly interested in me and they talked about me in front of me, as if I couldn't hear them or something. I suppose that's normal? It was all good stuff, though.

The Demachi was lots of fun. Those two talked to me a lot, too, and I revealed that of course I was from America. The one was surprised, so we made fun of her. She was pretty bold and asked if I'd get with her, so maybe one day she could get Atlantean citizenship. I deftly avoided that by saying we could talk more about that if she came to our next live. And that, my friends, is how you keep them coming back. I went from 0 fans to probably 3 or 4 that night! One step at a time, right? :)

Mish, Brandon, Lika, and Ryo finally came, and it totally made my night. So glad they made it out to support me. They actually enjoyed it!

Next live is 5/1, and free. Looking forward to it!

Event teaser

http://www.naigai-p.co.jp/chokichoki/event.html

I'm the guy with the big Roger Daltry/Robert Plant/Brian May hair. :)

Lipps, Choki, and Gatsby

Although the title sounds like some sort of bizarre rival to Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, it is in fact all about my modeling job yesterday.

For the last few weeks, I've been going to a dance studio to rehearse for an event put on by Choki Choki magazine, and sponsored by GATSBY. I was recruited by Harajuku Lipps a month and a half ago, and got to know the staff as well as that of ETC Dance School.

Yesterday was the event, and it was at Shibuya O-Crest. First, though, I had to meet up with everyone in Harajuku at the salon itself.

Takeshita-dori at 7:30 in the morning ranks up there as one of my creepiest experiences in Japan. There was absolutely nobody around, and the silence was overwhelming.

Once at the salon, I got my hair braided and pinned, got my makeup done, and got some tattoos:

Then we hopped into taxis and went over to the venue.

That's Ken, the vocalist/guitarist from that band I mentioned the first time. There were talks of playing together in the future. I don't know what will come of that, but it's exciting nonetheless.

It was really cool playing in a venue that big again. Well, not playing; dancing, I guess. The staff other salons that were presenting were good buddies with most of the other salons including Lipps so it was a whirlwind of getting introduced to ridiculously cool-looking dudes and distressingly pretty girls.

It's interesting how many contacts you make at events like these. You meet other models who want to meet someone with similar experiences, or you meet people with other interests that you share, or you meet people who can cooperate with you and help you out, and you meet people who can learn from you. You fulfill a wide variety of roles at the same time. Yeah, sometimes you meet people who are just there to act all cool, but they tend not to get many more jobs after that.

The performances consisted of us 4 dancers, some hairstylists, and a painter: as we danced/got the wigs cut, the painter was toward the back of the stage, painting a big picture. Watching the video later it was quite impressive.

But that was but one of the extra things we had to worry about. As dancers, we hadn't thought about the fact that there would be real paint, and real plastic under out bare feet, and of course since there would be a lot of fallen hair, it would be easy to slip. I didn't realize how easy it really would be to slip on a bunch of hair until I stepped on some as I was moving across the stage. I didn't slip or lose my balance or do anything out of the ordinary at all, but I do remember thinking "wow, I could easily fall and make the 'blooper' reel of the DVD."

There were cameras and video cameras on us at almost all times, it seemed, as the thing was filmed to be a DVD. No idea when that'll come out, though.

The performance went off swimmingly; no mistakes and we were all riding a pretty positive feeling.

That's our choreographer, Yusuke, who I had a total mancrush on. Afterward, when we were leaving the after-party for just the salon, he took me aside and gave me his business card! I couldn't have been happier.

Right after the performance, though, some of the Gatsby people had bought us a bunch of beer and we went to the bar in the hall and got to chill out with all the other salon peeps. Then we went to the one for Lipps only for shabu-shabu and sukiyaki and lots of really amazing conversation. I go in tomorrow to get a free haircut/straightening on the house! Awesome.

I thought about how great that experience was, and compare it to the toughness of doing the band. Sometimes I wonder if I'm making the right decisions, but right now I'm coasting on this good feeling and new agencies. I don't anticipate too much more work coming my way on that front, but what a great memory. :)