Sunday, November 30, 2003
>> New albums from Yukito Ara and Acoustic Parsha
November saw the release of two new albums related to my favorite O-pop group, Parsha cluB. The first is Acoustic Parsha’s “Natsupana” (11/28) which is their second album and contains a total of nine tracks including the ever popular, Asadoya Yunta.
Acoustic Parsha’s “Natsupana”
Also a second album is Yukito Ara’s solo work “Gekkou” (11/19) which features Parsha cluB’s regular taiko/percussionist Sunday (he was also on the first solo album) and Maki Shida (also on taiko), daughter of Okinawan dance master Fusako Shida. “Gekkou” contains 9 tracks of Yaeyama minyou.
Yukito Ara’s “Gekkou”
>> Hotel Hibiscus to be released in January 2004
Missed “Hotel Hibiscus” at this year’s HIFF? Well, don’t fret any longer because the film will be released in Japan on January 23, 2004! The DVD will be coded for Region 2 but it will have English/Japanese subtitles and the price is relatively inexpensive at ¥3,800. The DVD can be pre-ordered through one of my favorite online merchants, CDJapan. In a future post to the pop pages, I’ll have a list of available Okinawa-related DVDs (it’ll just be films and music videos for now) including information like region-coding, subtitle availability, and the most important part, where to buy ‘em. Stay tuned!
>> SPEED’s new album “BRIDGE” now available
On November 27th, the 4-member J-pop group known collectively as SPEED released a new album called “BRIDGE” (Avex). Their last original album was 1999’s “Carry On my way” (Toy’s Factory) which was the group’s 3rd album. “Carry On my way” was followed by a 2-disc collection of theirs called “Dear Friends” in 2000, and thereafter the members went their separate ways. In December 2001, the group reunited to record a (now out-of-print) single and live album which was recorded during a charity event that aided the victims of the Hanshin earthquake. The group reunited again in 2003 for another charity event yet this time, they stayed together. The result is the album “BRIDGE” which pulled out all of the stops by inviting top songwriters such as Tsunku (Hello Project), CHARA, Tommy february6 (a.k.a. Tomoko Kawase from the brilliant green), and of course, Hiromasa Ijichi.
Sunday, November 02, 2003
>> Absence
I must apologize for my long absence from the pop pages. What have I been up to? Well, besides blogging regularly to my personal weblog, I’ve also been busy with the usual things (i.e., work and music), and, I’m also contemplating another change to this site or creating a new one. Of course, this site will always remain for Okinawan pop culture. I’m thinking of creating a site strictly for Okinawan music which will make use of one of my open domains, www.OkinawanMusic.org. If anything, you’ll be the first to know. ;)
>> Yukie Nakama Kabegami
Yukie Nakama has a new kabegami (wallpaper) available through her association with Shiseido’s Beauty Voltage line of cosmetics. Now this is quite unusual for her to have an official kabegami so download it as soon as you can (i.e., if you’re a fan of hers). The CM is worth viewing too. b(^-^)
[link via Kabegami Fan!]
