Sunday, November 28, 2004
>> Beni Arashiro To Be KOSE’s New Character
Following the large footprints of Namie Amuro and Ayumi Hamasaki—two of the top trendsetting J-Pop stars in the last 10 years—comes the announcement from KOSÉ (cosmetics maker) of Beni Arashiro (18) as their third “character” for their VISÉE line.
Beni started as a member of the Oscar Pro (her management company) unit Bishoujo Club 31 and made her solo debut this June on the same record label as Amuro, MAX, SPEED (individual members and group) and DA PUMP: Avex with the song “Harmony” (AVCD-30603). (Beni’s latest and third single, “Here alone” [AVCD-30673], was released on 25 November.)
Facts:
Beni’s father is American and her mother is from Okinawa; her grandfather plays the sanshin.
Birth Date: 1986.3.30
Birth Place: Kanagawa Prefecture (she has also lived in America and is fluent in English)
Height: 160cm
Blood Type: A
Favorite Musicians: Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, Hikaru Utada
Favorite Song: “You Don’t Know My Name” (Alicia Keys)
Favorite Actors: Johnny Depp, Wesley Snipes
Favorite Movies: X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo
Favorite Word: Foreal?
Favorite Book: Harry Potter
Favorite Food: Chinese, yakiniku, pasta, chocolate
Favorite Color: Red
>> Sampler Sunday #7
Today’s sample: hatoma_no_minato.m4a SS #7 (3.83MB). [UPDATE: No longer available.]
Read my previous post on ‘Sampler Sunday’ for more info.
>> Missing: Namie Amuro and DA PUMP
Here’s this year’s list of performers for NHK’s annual song battle. The Red and White teams are tied with 27 wins a piece. I think the edge goes to the White (male performers and Kenichi Mikawa :P) because Ryu will sway all of the female voters. Also, and perhaps not surprisingly, Utada is not on this year’s list and top performers from last year’s fest, SMAP and Namie Amuro, will also not be performing this year.
I’m looking forward to the performances from two K-Pop singers: Lee Jung Hyun and Ryu, as well as Okinawan artists Rimi Natsukawa and ORANGE RANGE. I’m betting that the show stopper will be Ken Matsudaira’s “Matusken Samba”.
For the list, I’ve also included a link to each artists’ website too. Enjoy! (Btw, if time permits, I may create a checklist that you can use on that day to keep track of the performers. Or, if you know someone who does let me know and I’ll link to them.)
[Update: Thank you to Nanami for notifying me about a last minute change in NHK’s list of performers. Nochiura Natsumi has been replaced by Maki Goto · Aya Matsuura (2/3 of the group) and Hitomi Shimatani has also been added to the list.]
Red Team (Aka Gumi) Female Artists:
number of appearances in parenthesis
aiko (3) J-Pop
Sayuri Ishikawa (27) Enka
Lee Jung Hyun (1) K-Pop
Aya Ueto (1) J-Pop
Every Little Thing (8) J-Pop
Ai Otsuka (1) J-Pop
Miyuki Kawanaka (17) Enka
Mai Kuraki (2) J-Pop
Sachiko Kobayashi (26) Enka
Fuyumi Sakamoto (16) Enka
Chiyoko Shimakura (35) Enka
[new] Hitomi Shimatani (3) J-Pop
Yoshimi Tendo (9) Enka
DREAMS COME TRUE (9) J-Pop
Mika Nakashima (3) J-Pop
Mitsuko Nakamura (11) Enka
Yoko Nagayama (11) Enka
Rimi Natsukawa (3) J-Pop/Okinawan Pop
Nochiura Natsumi (Alumni of MoMu. [Morning Musume.]: Natsumi Abe [natsumi], Maki Goto [kanji character for “go” can be read as “nochi”] and Aya Matsuura [ura]) (1) J-Pop
[new] Maki Goto · Aya Matsuura (see above for links) (1) J-Pop
Ayumi Hamasaki (6) J-Pop
Yo Hitoto (2) J-Pop
Ayaka Hirahara (1) J-Pop
Ayako Fuji (13) Enka
BoA (3) J-Pop
Kaori Mizumori (2) Enka
Morning Musume. (7) J-Pop
W (Current members of MoMu.: Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji) (1) J-Pop
Ryoko Moriyama (9) Adult Contemporary
Akiko Wada (28) Adult Contemporary
White Team (Shiro Gumi) Male Artists:
Hiroshi Itsuki (34) Enka
w-inds. (3) J-Pop
EXILE (2) J-Pop
ORANGE RANGE (1) J-Pop
Gackt (4) J-Pop
Kyogo Kawaguchi (1) J-Pop
Kishidan (1) J-Pop
Saburo Kitajima (41) Enka
CHEMISTRY (4) J-Pop
Gospellers, The (4) J-Pop
Masashi Sada (4) Adult Contemporary
John Ken Nuzzo (2) Opera
TOKIO (11) J-Pop
Ichiro Toba (17) Enka
nobodyknows+ (1) J-Pop
Kiyoshi Hikawa (5) Enka
Ken Hirai (4) J-Pop
Akira Fuse (20) Adult Contemporary
Takashi Hosokawa (30) Enka
Takao Horiuchi (16) Adult Contemporary
Pornograffitti (3) J-Pop
Kiyoshi Maekawa (14) Enka
Ken Matsudaira (1) Adult Contemporary
Kenichi Mikawa (21) Adult Contemporary
Shinichi Mori (37) Enka
George Yamamoto (13) Enka
Yuzu (2) J-Pop
Ryu (1) K-Pop
Thursday, November 25, 2004
>> Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ll be heading over to my relative’s house in a few hours for our annual gobble gobble feast today. There are many things that I’m thankful for and at the top of the list is my family and friends. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving too! :)
Sunday, November 14, 2004
>> Sampler Sunday #6
Today’s sample: Harikuyamaku.mp3 SS #6 (6.85MB). [UPDATE: No longer available.]
Read my previous post on ‘Sampler Sunday’ for more info.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
>> Pop.i-O Looks Great on Camino Too
If you’re a regular reader of the site, you probably know that I love web browsers (I currently have three running on my Mac). I’ve had that little (Mozilla) Firefox button on my side bar since the design renewal, but not much mention for other worthy web browsers (other than in the “About” section of the site). If you’re a Windows user who is still using IE, you should seriously consider making a switch to something better.
With all that said, if you’re a Mac user on OS X, you’re probably using Apple’s web browser, Safari. Why not try something different for a change like Mozilla’s Camino web browser? Just think of it this way, your Windows using counterpart has ditched IE for Firefox — which is available for PC and Mac — how about showing her/him a Mozilla-made web browser that’s only designed for the Mac you know and love?
Saturday, November 06, 2004
>> Best of 2004 Part 1: J-Pop
It’s almost the end of the year so what better time to start on my picks for the Best of 2004? Today I’ll feature three J-pop singles that have been getting a lot of play time on my playlist. Two are J-pop artists with star status and the other is a part-time singer with a successful acting career. The three singles are relatively new having been released in the second half of this year.
(Namie Amuro: ALL FOR YOU) It’s been several years since Amuro last released a ballad as a single for a TV drama (“Kimi ga Omoide ni Naru Mae ni”), so you know that her record company (Avex) pulled out all of the stops for this one. “ALL FOR YOU” is quite similar to MISIA’s ballad “Everything” for the successful Nanako Matsushima drama “Yamato Nadeshiko” and in a way, I think it can be thought of as a sequel to that song. The single was released on 22 July and was coupled with the song “butterfly” (AVCD-30587).
(hiro: Hikari no Naka de) We thought she had gone vocal with her new jazz group Coco d’Or’s (self-titled) album release in August of this year but hiro surprised her fans with the September release of a refreshing J-pop ballad. “Hikari no Naka de” proves that hiro has one of the strongest (and most distinctive) voices in the J-pop scene. “Hikari no Naka de” was released on 23 September and is coupled with the song “I wanna be your love” (AVCD-16051).
(Ryoko Kuninaka: Meguri Aeta ne) Yes, she’s known more as her character “Erii” from the hit drama series “Churasan”, but Ryoko Kuninaka has a very fitting voice for J-pop music. “Meguri Aeta ne” was used as the ending theme song for “Churasan 3”. It’s an uplifting song that showcases Ryoko’s talent as a singer (her voice at times reminds me of fellow J-pop singer hitomi although their image couldn’t be more different). Time will only tell if her acting career will take priority over her music one as is the case with her closest rival, Yukie Nakama. “Meguri Aeta ne” was released on 29 September and is coupled with the song “Hoshi no Jikan” (PCCA-70090). It should also be noted that Ryoko will release a DVD called “Oto Keshiki” on November 17th that will contain PVs for three of her songs as well as candid shots of her private life.
