where dreams and life become one

It's almost impossible to say it in 4 minutes...

2009-07-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

In a mean while...

2009-06-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

X Japan is one of the greatest power/speed metal rock bands in Japan. They disbanded in 1997 after 15 years of success. In May 1998, X Japan's lead guitar, Hideto Matsumoto, was found dead in his apartment; crushing the dreams of a possible reunion on 2000.
Each remaining member pursued a musical career, being Toshi's and Yoshiki's the most successful ones.

Speculations about a reunion started in February 2007 when Toshi announced on his website that he had agreed to join the band again. In March, Toshi announced that he and Yoshiki had recently resumed working together for the first time in 10 years, stating that a "new project" would start soon.

After a long period of rumours, X Japan web site confirmed on October 18, that X Japan was officially reuniting with a new song.The band had its first live performance to 10 thousand fans on October 22, 2007, on the rooftop of the shopping center called Aqua City in Odaiba, Tokyo, 10 years and one month exactly after the disbanding announcement. During the performance, a music video for the song "I.V." was filmed. The new song, published through Extasy Music and 901 Highland Music, is the main theme for the movie Saw IV. It is written and composed by Yoshiki and recorded with all living X Japan members of the pre-breakup lineup. It also uses previously unreleased guitar tracks by Hide.

* Though this isn't a news blog about X Japan nor much followers yet. I present this for the time being... I promise, more to come. Soon.

If there's ever a flawless mistake made by man...

2009-05-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

... we would, without any frictions of doubt, definitely pick this one out of many that we have made throughout our life. People say, the best things in life happen when you're least expected. Well, being there ourselves, made us somehow agree to the statement.

Chinese New Year was just around the corner that year. I personally doesn't celebrate occasion... and it was just very random evening where we have spare money to look for the next available VCD in the regular shop where we get our stuff. We were both student that time, coming from a very average and simple family background, any extra purchases such as a new VCD or CD is luxury. We treasure them as if it's our life!

As we were browsing on the shelf, we saw this...

Being a novice back then, we thought it's just a common misspelling of Hyde's name. I swear we are so sure it was some sort of documentary video of Hyde, Vocalist of L'arc~en~Ciel, plus the cover was a man with big sun glasses on, it almost mean that it can be anyone,really. It was very common and normal to see members of bands having their solo project. Nattelee was quite drawn to Hyde that time, so, ka-ching! We bought the VCD home!

On the way back, we stop by a local night market. It's a crowded night that day. As Chinese New Year approaching, many local chinese is doing their last minute shopping. We came across a stall with this interesting old man sautee-ing a cube like food. It was fried Lo Bak Gou. Radish cake that are cut into smaller cubes and was sauteed with eggs, bean sprout and chives. We ordered take out each for ourselves. Nattelee got the spicy one, as i can't stand much heat in any sort, i go for the original flavour. It's a Cantonese dish, it taste a little bit chewy than tofu, and the stir frying and seasoning savour it. Not an extravaganza meal, but it fed us for the night. Lo Bak Gou can be seen commercially sold as one of the Dim Sum items.

So, we got something to watch, something to eat. We were anticipated to drove home. Nattelee and I shared a room, we had a big bed and a TV and a DVD player in our room. That was the only luxury we had! We can't afford Cable TV, that's why all we watch is our Japanese VCDs, over and over again. Never got sick of them.

I vividly remember everything that night... we were excited, starving but still make sure we are settled before hitting the play button on the remote. We ate on our bed, with no lights on. The only lights was from the TV, we both transfer our Lo Bak Gou on a yellow plastic bowl and ate with a metal fork. Sitting comfortably on our bed, one of us hit the play button.

The video start playing...

Very odd footage appeared... Did i also mention that except "Arigatou" & "Aishiteru", we know NOTHING else that time. There were no subtitle, nothing. If you have the video yourself, go watch it and see if you could relate that to Hyde. It just doesn't make sense. But we kept on watching, with the hope that Hyde will eventually appear later in the video. As we watch, hunger was gone! I only ate like a few pieces and then i stop feeling hungry. Strange strange feeling start to build, and we kept asking each other what is this? who is this? what does it says?

We literally stop eating and kept on watching. Until we realize it was a funeral and there comes a part where X Japan starts performing a very sad and mellow, piano version of Forever Love. That was all that written in English. Fell in love with the song immediately.

Still confused but we watch till the end. And that's how the whole curiosity brought us to where we are today. Mind you that we don't have the privilege of high speed internet access then. There were no Wikipedia whatsoever.

...but never once we regretted buying the "wrong" video.

I think it must a fairy that hide sent down to give us clue... We eventually gotten things into perspective, it's a documentary video of hide, with content of some hide's final performances recordings such as "ROCKET DIVE", "PINK SPIDER", "ever free" & "DOUBT". His recording footage in L.A and the part that bring tears to those who love him for every special reason at all, the funeral footage of him... It is still heart wrenching to watch.

Our very next Lo Bak Gou since that, is many years after that, just days before we went for our first every live of X Japan (and it still breaks my heart knowing that when you finally get to see them, hide was still not around...). Because every time we had Lo Bak Gou, we taste it with our heart... it's bitter sweet. Just like how we felt and still feel about hide.

To error is human, as much as we want to avoid making mistakes in this life time,

...what a beautiful mistake, have we made that day.

hIS Invincible dELUGE eVIDENCE

It still made us smile and proud how this beautifully imperfect encounter that we've come to know one of the most colorful soul that ever grace the earth...

How did it all begin...

2009-05-09T05:20:00.000-07:00

It has dated back in 2001...

We were both in our teens. Trying to fit in among our peers, when everyone we know is competing to bring something new to the table. Nothing really caught our attention until one fine day when Nattelee's friend brought a Taiwanese edition of a J-Pop magazine, Wink Up.

Our eyes rolls like a slot machine strike jackpot! Beautiful boys... Everything is candy to the eyes, visually pleasing. The magazine features a lot of articles and pin up of Johnny's Jr. If there was ever at some point of your life, that you're into J-Pop. These line up shall came across your mind. Takizawa Hideaki was on the top of the scene that time, making us follow his works through out his Jr. day. Concerts, dramas, variety shows, you name it.

So, around that year, Takki pair up with Kyoko Fukada (i love her!) and starred in S.O.S . Just like any teenybopper, we follow articles about the dramas and leads to Kyoko Fukada's individual articles. I remember she mention Gackt (and oh-how-i-love-him too!) and our attention diverted to him and then the band L'arc~en~Ciel. Vocalist of L'arc, Hyde, happen to be in good term with Gackt and they are around that time also, paring up for a movie. They mention each other a lot in their interviews.

Our perspective has broaden. A little bit of J-Pop and a little bit of J-Rock. The addiction begins... Involving ourselves for more Wink Up, VCDs, CD or any possible mean we could get our way to Japanese Entertainment scene, specializing in the fore mentioned talents. Without realizing it, our lives start to revolve around anything Japanese.

That is how, in a nutshell, that can't even be justify by this post, how pleasant it was, getting our first contact to the whole other world that brought us joy, tears, happiness, sadness and everything else...

Little did we know,back then, where it will brought us to...