Touhou - A Summer Day's Dream OVA 2

It's been 3 years already since the last one? That'd mean it was in existence even before I actually gotten into the series. Wow.

And anyway, I once again underestimated the tenacious fans. Not only about the effort put behind this short series, but also the speed in which it is available online...

Without going too much on review, the animation is better than what I remembered from the last one. I personally am not too crazy about the loli voices... but to each his own.

I'm actually curious to see how this would affect how the Touhou series is viewed by newer fans. 'tis always a tricky business eh? Them derivatives... But lets just put that for future pondering and just watch the thing.

Also, the sunflower motif had me anticipating Yuuka to be hanging around somewhere... but, o well...

(The first one, if you've missed it the first time around) 

Mandatory Ramadhan post (2012 ver)

This time, a haiku:

From dawn until dusk
Restraint your inner demon

'tis be Ramadhan!

So yea, happy fasting... and less the fussing.

I'm out of idea for any content

Northern Music Festival 2012

Last weekend, after making a short trip down south to Kuala Lumpur, I decided to stop at Penang to check out the Northern Music Festival 2012 after being invited over by my bro and a couple of his friends. 

The name might be slightly misleading to the uninitiated. The festival has been described as 'Northern Music Festival 2012 is the next platform for local independent bands to showcase their music and talents. Featuring over 40 bands in two days, audiences will get to enjoy a mix of music from local indie bands from all over Malaysia'.  

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回路-kairo- - Way of wonderful suicide

Mediafire link

I didn't know the existence of this album until I found it being mentioned in the passing. Bloody hard to find it, too.

Way of wonderful suicide (gosh, what a title) is 回路-kairo-'s second original album, after 夜明けのセカイと思考回路 (their other 5 albums are Touhou arrangements). This album was released during M3-29, which would somehow explain its obscurity - never mind the fact that this circle don't get much mentioning most of the time...

If you are expecting some screams ala Foreground Eclipse here, then look elsewhere. The music is more post-rock and ambient than the stuff you'd hear from their Touhou arrangement. 556t sure have went slower with her voice in this album - to be honest I kind of prefer her vocal in previous works, as her voice here come across to me as somewhat flat in some of the tracks.

I have no complaint with the music though. There's more piano this time around compared to their previous works, and they even included violin in one of the track. This album reminds me of their last original work, and alone, but never alone. If you enjoy their slower and ambiance sound, then you'll love this one.


Favourite tracks: Love song, Answer, 風の香り, Way of wonderful suicide

Electric Red - Celestial Wizardry ~ Magical Astronomy

This is some awesome shit man. 24 minutes of prog metal from Electric Red, fk yeah!

To be honest I would usually equate these guys with distorted, heavy and somewhat progressive metal sound, but this is a  surprisingly good exception.

Progressive metal, do you dig it?!

Drifting apart (like a plate tectonic) is 2 years old! And Faults is an old forgetful bum!

Title says it all. And I was late for it by... over 2 weeks. Whoops.

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Money spending

"Money’s paper. I wipe my ass with paper, you know. It’s not… it’s not that essential for my soul, you know. Can’t take it with you if I die tomorrow, big deal. I’ll have a lot of money that I didn’t spend." - Matt Pike, Such Hawks Such Hounds

I'm not interested on the ranting on how we can never seem to have enough money, and how some are lucky kids for being born with a silver spoon shoved up in a golden tray or whatever. Rather, as the deliberately chosen quote points out, it's more on the issue of spending them.

I was struck with the question on WHAT exactly do those rich people do with their money. For those with families, you could immediately see them spending like nothing, putting a temporary dropped jaws everywhere at just how much they spend on something in sum unimaginable.

So perhaps the way you spend your money is proportional to how much you are making. Well, fair enough. But the question then resolves on the stereotypical Scrooges everywhere - the ones who hoards on their wealth, shown in the form of vaults of gold bars (or in modern day, properties and amount of zeroes in their bank account).

Yes, saving is bloody important and everything, but where are ya going to be heading if you just stash up your wealth without spending them?

In the end, I think it's better to spend and save just enough money for the thing that matters. Spend them on something worthwhile. Invest them in something, I don't know. It's how you spend that matters, it seems. 'cause just letting the money sitting there ain't gonna turn them into something else.

Of course, us poor dudes are still poor dudes.

$

Coincidentally, the bass on this song is fantastic too