.Amani
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Japan Day NYC 2014 -- JERO
Finally doing an actual update (with pictures! Ahhhh!)
This year has been really trying for me, mentally, emotionally.. and May is proving itself to be one of the WORST months so far.
But~ that didn't mean I didn't have at least ONE good day where I managed to go out and enjoy myself for once!
Japan Day NYC is an annual event that happens every May/June, right at the end of cherry blossom season. It's a pretty huge event, drawing thousands of people from all across that wants a bit of Japanese culture. From kimono/yukata dressing, to kabuki facepaint, to Hello Kitty, and then of course all of the Japanese street food stands.
I usually never go to Japan Day because of the crowds and because how early everything ends compared to other festivals. BUT the one thing that did draw me was the fact that the special performance for this year was going to be Jero. If you don't know him, he is from Pittsburgh PA, and is the first black Enka (Japanese blues) singer in Japanese music history. He is very handsome, and is known for bringing a more 'contemporary, worldly' look to enka music, which is usually old-fashionded down to the stage outfits. For some reason or another it's a bit difficult to really pull up his activity online, so that is the main reason why I wanted to go this year.
So as always, I pulled out my yukata, put my face on, got my hair together, and went out. I met up with one of the local gals Hannah who was donning her new yukata oiran-style like I was.
I didn't get too many pictures asides from a few of us that I have reserved for later, and then the performance photos, but enjoy them anyways!
Jero prepping to go on stage.
Brief introduction
Jero prepping to go on stage.
Brief introduction
I also uploaded some clips from Jero's performance onto my Youtube channel~
I'm not too keen on Japanese music (it's the way a lot of people sing, especially with their pop genres), enka is definitely for people with an acquired taste! But the slightly contemporary feel of Jero's music helps me warm up to it a bit more.
(I also like Jero's outfit of choice--- is it weird to mention that? xD The pinkish color with the blue? It's kind of like a cobalt blue, it was a pretty combination. Keeping that color scheme in mind for later~)
Once he was done with his own songs, he quickly got changed for the NY bon odori (which the song made for Japan Day was pretty corny, but heh). The group that was singing with him were the Japanese club/class from LaGuardia High School.. when they mentioned that, I had painful flashbacks from my time there, aha x ___x
The beginning of the dance. I have -some- video but not a lot. We were in the middle of the sun and the heat started to become a little unbearable!
Unfortunately we couldn't get a picture with him, which would've been so cool! But of course he was tired (and all that sun beaming down while he was performing), plus a crowd was kind of forming so if he took a picture with us, then he would have to do take a picture with everyone. But he was super sweet in person! And he had such good skin = w= the best of both worlds I bet~ so handsome
After the festival was pretty much over, I brought Hannah and her boyfriend to Village Yokocho in St. Mark's for some grilled and fried goodness. As usual, I got my pumpkin and onion kushiage, along with a spicy tuna bowl. Then I also split some okonomiyaki with Hannah and her boyfriend. Needless to say we could barely eat it all..
All that goodness..
At the end of all that walking, standing, and eating pretty much killed us but Hannah got this nice photo of us at the end, which came out pretty nice!
Hoping for a super cool summer!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
This song's been in my head for the past couple hours and I just wanted to share. ♥
Slakah the Beatchild is one of my favorite artists to date. I'm constantly moving to his tracks, whether it be his own solo stuff, or one of his group acts (e.x. Slakadeliqs, Art of Fresh). Everything this man comes out with is full of life energy.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Concert
Forgot to show another birthday present to myself!
Guess who I'll be seeing April 14th ~
♥
Saturday, December 8, 2012
LUXURY
Wanted to share this track because I've been addicted to it for WEEKS now.
I love Azealia Banks, the flow of her lyrics, the old school feel she pushes for, mixed with the electro-house type genre is so soothing to my senses. Some of her songs seriously make me want to start listening to rap again.
I support her a lot, her having came from LaGuardia H.S.. I can't wait for the day Nicki Minaj (one of the sad cases from our school) finally takes 3 seats with her idiotic verses, weird voices/'personalities' and her big-headed attitude and make way for artists who deserve to be in the spotlight.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Afropunk Festival 2012
A week ago I attended the Afropunk Festival for the first time with my friend Black Witch.
I... did not expect it to be as huge as it was. This weekend event was huge, like, supposedly 20k-people-each-day kind of huge. When I hear 20k, I think of anime conventions and stuff. The walking-traffic was ridiculous, half the time the entrance was nothing but a serious case of bottlenecking-- and when it was organized, it was a line going around the corner and DOWN the side of the park by the BQE. Crazy.
Overall, I don't know what much to say about AP Fest.. music-wise I felt it was good, but the whole vendor area was so disconnected from everything else.. when I mean vendors I mean the small independent businesses selling t-shirts and clothing and jewelry and stuff. Tumblr-famous people like Coco && Breezy and Black Fashion by Javii were stationed near the stages. I honestly didn't really get the use of having vendors when they seemed so separated from the rest of the festival. I feel like it could've been done better.
Crowd-wise, there was barely anyone who caught my eye. Very little good examples of good western punks. It just seemed like a mass of black and white hipsters from Tumblr, afrocentric hipsters, and the like. People were staring me down like no tomorrow... which honestly I'm not surprised from wearing lolita, since obviously a lot of these cats would never really recognize it for the Japanese punk/counter-culture style it is, but even with my wig, I just felt so inadequate. It was pretty disappointing because it wasn't like I felt uncomfortable because of too many people looking awesome around me, it was because most of these people looked lame or generic but felt that they somehow had the nerve to think they were somehow superior.
This basically shows how everyone looked. Just multiply by 2 or 3 times when it came near time for Erykah or Janelle to get on stage in the evening. Yeah.It's whatever. I just wish the crowd was more colorful in terms of style. Made me kind of happy I dressed kind of sloppy in lolita than to the nines.
I felt the music made it worthwhile though, and hanging out with Olivia and seeing old people from High School and whatnot! Totally crazy. Especially with random people like Pharrell and Solange Knowles and people popping up at the festival.
Anyways, onto the picture spam~ Friday outfit:
Met Ryan Hall who host Stereotypes on I Am Other. One of the only regrets of dressing sloppier/wearing my glasses. blarghhh brb blindingmyeyeswithcirclelensforever
Got snapped by Rolling Stone. You can click to find the page here. I really need to stop giving people my government name... and start using my online alias. = A=
My outfit for Saturday--
It was pretty much the first time I've ever really, seriously tried to do a gothic style and was satisfied with it. I borrowed Nancy's dress since it was light and perfect for the summer weather. I loveddd this outfit. It makes me want to get more darker stuff xD
Pharrell backstage, after popping up out of nowhere to introduce Janelle Monae xD
Janelle Monae during her performance. She was like, within arm's length of me in this picture
x 3x I was the happiest chick ever. You don't even know
Near the end when she was all wired. Hair loose, clothes disheveled... she was just going in.
At the end of the weekend I was very glad I went, though I'm honestly not sure if I'd do it again next year. Depends on their lineup and stuff, and I'm most definitely never going by myself.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Trey Songz~ Anticipation 2our
At the beginning of this month I was finally able to check off one of my resolutions for this year-- and that was to see Trey Songz in concert ♥
As soon as my birthday approached at the end of January, news came out about Anticipation 2our, or the Anticipation 2 Tour, and I was going crazy trying to win tickets off of radio stations and whatnot--
but then my sister (the best big sis in the world, btw) ended up buying tickets for me. A pair of tickets for my birthday ; w;;;
When I got them in the mail I was jumping up and down like a madman, I managed to scare Omi a bit in my sudden excitement lmao
So me and my best friend Muffy ended up going to Madison Square Garden to see him ♥
My phone camera was complete shit, I wish I brought my own camera because the MSG staff barely checked our bags xD I could've gotten away with it.
Big Sean opened the show, got us all hyped up, and then Trey Songz came on and it was just @___@ orgasms. Orgasms everywhere.
When I tell you I was set from then on?
Both me and Muffy had so much STRESS, emotional crap, etc, but the moment Trey got on stage, all of that melted away. I might have been killing myself the week after with schoolwork but I felt so relieved. So much serenity. Insecurities? Gone. Boy trouble? Gone. Boohooing about not having a job or money? Completely stopped.
I feel that it's amazing when an artist's music can do that to you, seriously. ♥
I had gotten a poster from the goods booth but I never put it on my wall yet.. but man. Once I do, I will just remember that night and savor it for the rest of my youth LOL
Speaking of Trey Songz~ My boo, my wife, my fellow galfriend Jesika Lee had a part in his newest music video, "Sex Ain't Better Than Love". I'm soooo proud of my boobie ; w; even though they cut most of her parts out
She's the chick in the leopard print. #TEAMSEX
She had more time in the Behind-the-Scenes though... - w- they should've put her more in there, instead of using all the time on the Kim Kardashian lookalike.
You can see the behind the scenes if you click here.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The end of 2011..
I spent the last days of the year with my good friends in between work.
Beginning of the month we went to The Irish Exit for Yanise's birthday. Pretty much all the girls on top of the bar. LOL I was up there in the beginning, but as I got more and more drunk I refused. I knew I'd be the one to fall off that thing.
Laura and Nikki~~~~~~
Taking pics/video in the purikura booth. Sadly the puri shop is closing down :c a new one is supposed to open closer to my home, in Brooklyn... no clue when and where exactly though 
Some of the finished results:
Then after, Rose House :3
Chicken sammiches, with a small salad side.
Rose custard?
Rose cake
My 3-tier tea meal that I split with Susan. bologna + green pepper wraps, ham sammiches, more rose custard, scone with rose jam, cream puff, black&white cookie, cheesecake, coffee ice cream and some sort of flourless cake/mousse cake? I forget how it tasted. It was some sort of citrus maybe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yuka. I have the best shots of her in the costuming in the beginning.
I only remember Trippple Nippple on Tokyo Rising, a documentary with Pharrell Williams and his trip to Japan after the earthquake happened. I never really listened to their music until that night. It was pretty chaotic-crazy sounding, but cool in it's own unique way. Especially the way they dress up and perform.
After the concert, Qrea and Laura
And then Yanise and Laura with Yuka.~~~~~~~
Then one day after picking up my paycheck the week before Christmas... I decided to walk the Brooklyn Bridge by myself.
Rarely am I able to just wander and wonder anymore... I try to take slower steps, and have more thoughts, but with work and everything else, I can't do it as much as I want to anymore. It's pretty depressing.It was a good night that night though, to see the city lights and see the groups of people cuddling, or viewing the sites and enjoying themselves.
My beautiful city.
Best dessert I've had this year: Nutella eclair from Financier. It seemed to melt in my mouth omg.
~~~~~~~~
Then after Christmas, I met up with my boo Jesika from Florida <3 ended up buying lashes, going for Korean BBQ at Koreana, and then going for purikura.
You can see most of our shots on her blog lol. Disliked most of them, wish I wore my regular bra than my push-up make-my-Ds-look-like-Es bra LOL oh wellI loooooov u Jesika ; w; come back soon bby
Actually, getting the Holy Ghost was the best ending to 2011 for me :3 I literally got it the morning of New Year's Eve. The joy I felt as I entered into the new year, with a clean slate and no more negative thoughts... as time goes on this month I'll discuss it more.
I hope everyone has had a good 2012 so far. I hope you remembered to leave the past behind, and all the drama and the stress and the tears, so that you can use this year to completely turn around into the most progressive time of your life so far.
Here's to hoping for an extraordinary year!
Monday, August 22, 2011
MP3 player~ get!
So I got #4 off my list today~ got myself a mp3 player o:
In the past I've been a PSP lover~ I used to use it ALL the time, for wireless internet, music, and occasionally games. I went through two PSP lifespans just abusing the mess out of them, using them daily until they finally burned out. They typically lasted 2 years each with the way I used them.
I still want a PSP, but in the meantime, it's been over 6 months since my old one died. Traveling is a bit antsy and aggravating when you don't have your music flooding out unwanted advances from men, panhandlers, and random crazies on the train...
When I made my list in my previous post I realized I still had a gift card from Radio Shack, so I decided to finally put that to good use.
And got this.
Extremely small in size, extremely simple, but perfect for me, for the time being.
It's the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player, with 4 gigs of memory.
It was on sale for 34.99, and it was pretty much one of the only affordable ones at the local Radio Shack, so I snatched it up with a 1 year mobile electronics service plan thing just in case it breaks within the year. After my store credit I only had to pay just a tiny bit less than $30, I was so satisfied.
Of course, I've only had this sucker for maybe 3 hours now, but I charged it, pretty much put my whole music collection onto it, and now I'm listening to it. It blasts the music pretty well for being such a small cheap little thing, Some reviews are bad but it's more good than bad, people saying that it handles some abuse pretty well (dropping it, etc) and that it lasts 5-8 hours with the music constantly playing. Good enough for any general traveling I'd need to do xD
I just hope it lasts as long as I hope it does :U if not? that's just more store credit for later. We'll just see how it works out in the future
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