The Kind of Friends We Used to Be is one of those quiet, unassuming books that is constantly circulating in my classroom library. It is the sequel to The Secret Language of Girls, but it’s one of those sequels you can pick up and fall right into the story even without readind the first book.

Kate and Marylin were best friends, until they grew apart and had a falling out in 6th grade. Now in 7th grade, Marylin’s a middle school cheerleader on the bring of popularity and Kate is the artist, writing songs, playing guitar, and wearing combat boots around school. The two former best friends aren’t quite sure what they are now; they aren’t all-the-time best friends but they also don’t want to completely abandon each other.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a quiet book, the best kind of realistic fiction in the eyes of many of my girls.  There is no huge fight, no major drama, no over-the-topness in this book.  Instead, Marylin and Kate are slowly figuring out their place in middle school while also determining who they want to be as they grow up.  I identified with both characters because they just seemed so real.  Marylin isn’t some caricature of middle school popularity- she is a girl who wants to be popular but also realizes the pitfalls of that popularity.  Kate isn’t some crazy rebel- she is a quiet girl unsure of her writing talent and aware that popularity isn’t for her.

Both girls also have family issues and they are beginning to grapple with boys.  They find themselves at times drawn to the familiarity of their friendship with each other while at other times sure they are not longer meant to be friends.  I really enjoyed this book and as I read at (during reading workshop), many of my girls commented about their love for it, too.  It definitely resonates with my 6th graders!

*My own purchased copy.  This is a Cybils nominee but all opinions are my own and do not reflect those of the panel.

Like most moms-to-be, ever since I got pregnant I have been trying to make better decisions about what I put in my body. But, thanks to two books my cousin Genelle recently sent me, I am learning that it is equally important to be diligent about what I put on my body.

Good guide for during pregnancy and after baby is born

More comprehensive guide for pregnancy, childbirth and baby care

Apparently, many of the ingredients in everyday cosmetics and other products contain toxic and sometimes carcinogenic (thank you spell-check) chemicals that are not only bad for you – even if you are not pregnant – but also bad for your baby, with links to cancer, ADHD, autism and other development disorders. Given that I’m a total product junkie who bought most of my stuff from Tarjey, CVS or other discount outlets without any attention to the ingredients, I immediately freaked out! Was it possible that my lipstick could cause my baby to one day grow up with a learning disability? And how do I change?!?

Well, without further scaring everyone, and myself, there are several easy changes and products that I’ve switched to that I’d like to share with you. First of all, it’s impossible, well, okay it’s not easy to completely swap out every product in your bathroom for the natural and often more pricey products that these books recommend. But to begin with, there are a few ingredients that are probably the worst offenders that you can look out for and start avoiding. The worst and probably the most common are parabens. Parabens are a synthetic estrogen (the type of thing that infiltrates our water table and causes our fish in rivers to change sex spontaneously!) and are linked with tumors, cancer and other horrible things. Basically, if you can find any product that is paraben-free, you are doing yourself a huge favor. That being said, when I read this, I realized that EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT in my bathroom had some form of paraben listed in its ingredients. So, yes, they are just as hard to avoid as they are damaging.

The books list several other ingredients to avoid, like pthalates, DEA, petroleum deriviatives, etc – all which you can read up on your own time to learn more. With all these harmful things lurking in our makeup, shampoo and soap, what’s a girl to do? Well, luckily there are tons of really great, non-crunchy products out there that aren’t a million dollars and are pretty easy to find. My favorite makeup switch so far has been to Burt’s Bees (for lipstick and lotion) and Bare Minerals (for foundation, other makeup). But my current obsession is with Lush products. If you are lucky enough to have one of these stores by you – don’t go in unless you have an hour and about $100 to spare because you will want to try and buy everything! So far I’ve fallen in love with their Squeaky Green solid shampoo (which is GREAT for traveling – it looks totally weird but smells great and makes your hair so clean it literally squeaks) and their Veganese conditioner, which smells like a more sophisticated Aveda and is light but effective on my dry, fine hair. Other faves from here include the Buffy, and my new favorite face wash for my oily/dry/wacko-preggo skin, Fresh Farmacy. The products are all-natural, organic, handmade and most are paraben-free (but be sure to double check ingredients because I caught them sneaking into a few of their products). They are a bit more pricey than buying, say, CVS brand, but the products actually last a really long time, so I’ve convinced myself that it’s worth the extra cost.

Anyway, this post could go on for years, so I’ll cut it short here. Try the books if you are interested in learning more or email me and I can send you some links.

Seven word review of Brothers: Jim Sheridan should stick with the Irish.

Okay, I’ll go on, but though Brothers is by no means a disaster, it’s also a leaden exercise, as authentic as a frozen dinner. And that it comes from a director who has made such visceral and interesting films like My Left Foot, The Field, The Boxer, In the Name of the Father, and In America calls sharp attention to the fact that there is no mention of Belfast in this film.

The story hinges on a plot point that seems lifted out of a soap opera. A Marine (Tobey Maguire) is shot down in Afghanistan. He is presumed dead, although he has really been captured by the Taliban. But his family–wife Natalie Portman, father Sam Shepard, and brother Jake Gyllenhaal, go ahead and have a funeral for him. I know nothing about the procedure in this sort of situation, but it seems unlikely to me that the military would declare a man dead so quickly in the absence of a body. But that would inconvenience the story.

Maguire is the good son, a star quarterback in school, husband to the cheerleader, father to two adorable girls. Gyllenhaal, who is released from prison at the movie’s outset, is the dissolute son, with a tattoo on his neck, scorned by his father, who was also a Marine. When Maguire is thought dead, he gains some maturity and becomes a surrogate father to the girls, and even shares an inappropriate kiss with Portman as they bond over U2 by candlelight. When Maguire comes back, after several months of torture, he’s as crazy as a shit-house rat, and family dinners look like an O’Neill play.

The film was adapted from a Danish film by Susanne Bier by David Benioff. I haven’t seen that film, but I would imagine it had more underlying pathos than the American version. In particular, the first half or so of Brothers was hard to take, as it seemed so lifeless and inert. It is presented so carefully, like an elaborate set-up, like the fake town in The Truman Show. We’re in a town, Minnesota I think, where’s it always winter, but I didn’t get a sense of place. The characters, though inhabited by good actors, seemed just as phony. Portman, a good technical actress, is frequently caught in parts that she seems lost trying to bring to life. She’s supposed to be beautiful, that’s not the problem, it’s just that I didn’t buy her as a young mother who would have married the small town jock and then become a military wife. She seems like the type who would have wanted to split the one-horse town and have adventures.

Maguire and Gyllenhaal are a different problem. The geek universe must be getting a kick out of the fact that the actor who plays Spider-Man is cast as the brother of the actor who was rumored to replace him; unfortunately there’s no inside joke of a kid playing with a Spidey action figure. The brothers are meant to transpose personalities–Maguire under brutal torture becomes the unhinged one, while the ex-con Gyllenhaal learns responsibility (and can renovate a kitchen), but the actors didn’t sell it. From the beginning of the film, I found Gyllenhaal to behave perfectly reasonably (when he snaps at his father in an early scene, it’s because the old man goaded him), while Maguire, with his gee-whiz stare, always seems a fraction from turning into Charles Whitman. We’re told that Maguire was cool under pressure in football games, and while captive he counsels his co-prisoner to keep cool, but when he finally does go nuts, drawing his weapon to investigate a barking dog, we only lean back and acknowledge we expected this all along.

Two performers are perfectly at home in their characters. Shepard is a classic hard-ass, fighting his own demons from ‘Nam, taking frequent nips from a hip flask, and making any family gathering uncomfortable. You can feel the other actors tensing when he walks into a room, and I could empathize. The best performance is a remarkable one by Bailee Madison as Maguire’s older daughter. Her character is a child who is too sensitive for her own good, and can feel the undercurrents of rage from her father and the attraction between her mother and uncle. In a scene at her sister’s birthday party, she acts out and says some things that are shockingly inappropriate, but the young actress makes us understand exactly where it’s coming from.

If we lump this film in with others that have modern warfare as their subjects, it seems even more shallow. Stop-Loss and The Hurt Locker are much better at expressing the inexpressible–what it’s like to actually fight a war in the 21st century. Brothers has no politics–it could have been any other country, but Afghanistan would do, although it has nothing good to say about the Afghans who are Maguire’s captors–because it is more interested in the effects of war on those who have returned, a topic which goes back to at least The Best Years of Our Lives. In that regard, Brothers has nothing new to say.

Today I’m reviewing the first Budokan concert!  I’m going to take these one at a time and pick them apart a little bit.  Since there are a few repeat songs near the end, I may shorten my thoughts on them in the next couple reviews.

Please note that this review does not include any pictures.  That’s right, none whatsoever.  That means you can read it wherever you see fit and no one is going to make fun of you!  You could even print it out and act as though you’re reading some scholarly text, even when you’re just reading about Nacchi.

And I’m totally too lazy to tag this.

Budokan Tour Concert Series

Part I – Team K Concert in Osaka (with SKE48)

Part II – Team B Concert in Nagoya (with SKE48)

Part III – Team A Concert in Fukuoka

Part IV – AKB48 Shuffle Concert at Budokan (with SKE48 and SDN48) - THIS POST

Part V – AKB48 Graduation Concert at Budokan (with SKE48)

Part VI 0 AKB48 Televised Concert at Budokan (with SKE48)

(Note, I’m aware that the first three parts have yet to be posted.  I’m reviewing them in non-chronological order, but naming them in chronological order, if that makes sense.)

Overture

As usual, the concert begins with their overture.  Since (luckily) there wasn’t that casual walking of the girls onto the stage, I’ll just talk about the set-up.  This is their first arena concert that I know of, and so the big new addition is the catwalk and center stage jutting into the floor section.  I try to watch or at least skim through as many J-pop and idol concerts that I can, and I’ve found that I very rarely like stages that use these components: they almost always kill any sort of dramatics that are used throughout the concert.  Let me explain the negative aspects of AKB’s rendition of these pieces:

The audience is too far away.  For whatever reason in this concert, they decided to keep the audience about ten feet from the stage.  Now, this makes sense, as there are so many cameras, but this ten feet is kept throughout the entire perimeter of the stage.  Making matters worse, the catwalk, which is thinner than the rest of the stage, is even farther from the audience than the stage.  The catwalk and the center stage concepts were made to allow fans to feel closer to the performer and make the performer more life-like.  Here, this doesn’t work out since the girls are so far away.  It just doesn’t give off the same effect.  Besides, the fans can feel and actually be closer to the girls at the theater, so why use these if they’re not up to (my) standards?

The stage is of a lazy design.  From what I can tell, it’s just about the same size as the stage at the theater (if anyone can tell me those measurements, I’d be delighted), but it lacks the moving platforms, so it doesn’t really even live up to their daily shows.  At least it has pretty lights around it.  That counts for something, but now I just wish that the AKB48 Theater had those lights.  Also, I dislike the fact that the stage is a rectangle.  Instead of changing up choreography and the placement of the girls for the new stage, this means that they can do exactly the same thing as they would if they were performing it on any given day, albeit shortened.  Stages are rectangular so the audience can see more performers closer than they would if the stage were deeper than the width.  If you put this rectangular stage in the middle of the audience, no one is going to complain about not seeing the girl in the back.  Why not change it up a bit with an always-cool circular stage, a square, or even tilt a square to make a diamond.

The catwalk is too thick.  The connecting branch of the stages should be thin, again, so the audience can be closer to the performers.  Also, this allows more seats closer to the center.  Here it basically works out to be another (rectangular) stage rotated ninety degrees that the girls just use to run back and forth.  In concerts by different groups, I’ve seen the catwalk work as an effective way to energize a crowd, but here it sees to be mostly for transportation.  A thinner catwalk would make sense even if they weren’t going to change anything and just use it for the girls to run back and forth on.

Lastly, let me rant about the actual stage for a bit.  While I do like how they made it extra wide, so it has those out-croppings like those in the theater (Japanese word, please?) the majority of the stage is way too flat.  The semi-circle of risers looks kind of tacked-on, and plain.  With most of AKB’s concerts, we see rather elaborate and complete staircases (Aitakatta, NHK07, NHK08/JCB08), or multiple stages (NHK09).  Here, it’s mostly a plain stage with a few steps in the back, which approaches the ‘novelty concert’ standards (Natsumatsuri, AX08, AX09).  While there are a few hidden features of the stage, which I’ll mention later, it’s pretty bland.

Nagisa no CHERRY

‘Nagisa no CHERRY’ with Mariko?  Is this some sort of hand-off from the original most popular member to the current one?  (I use Mixi ratings when I think of popularity.  Also, Kojiharu has definitely topped the rankings before.)  For a moment I was thinking, ‘Wow.  It’s kind of funny that Mariko has short hair.  It makes it kind of like Acchan in the Aitakatta concert.  Then I realized that short hair for the yellow girl really isn’t a big thing: the lead position has been performed half-and-half by short- (Atsuko, Mayu, CinDy, Mariko) and long-haired (Erena, Reina, Jurina, Manatsu (?)) girls.  As far as the blue girls go, they seem to be getting into it.  Ohori seems to be making fun of the choreography and being overly cute, Nonti is doing the same, but in a more obvious fashion, and Sayaka is having the time of her life.  She just really loves being sweet.

The dance break begins as usual with the standard choreography.  The backing girls seem to go all out and give off their Team K-rocking roots.  Just before the build-up before the final chorus, these three pose… weirdly?  I’m not quite sure what they’re going for.  Sayaka flexes, Noro is silly, and Meetan acts as though she forgot to use the restroom backstage… or something.

When I first heard that this was the opening performance I was kind of angry.  They already did a comedic performance of this at the beginning of the second day of NHK09.  Why re-use it?  As the song continued, I decided that it was kind of a ‘bleh’ performance, with the only interesting part being Mariko’s voice.  All the while I was hoping that a certain something was done differently to achieve a hilarious effect.  And you know what?  My hopes were answered.

The magic happens near the end of that last chorus.  All of a sudden, mid-way through, the lights lower, the remaining lights turn red and violent, and the blue girls sing the nostalgic line of ‘CHERRY CHERRY BOY, CHERRY CHERRY GIRL’ in their raw lower registers.  Next, Mariko sings her next solo line in her husky voice so often used when telling a joke.  Perfect.  My eyes widened the first time I saw/heard all of this, as I was so glad they did something so revolutionary for AKB.  Very, very rarely do songs in AKB48’s large catalog get changed from their original form.  The only exceptions to this rule I can think of are ‘Medley,’ ‘Team K 2nd Stage Medley,’ the medley in NHK07, ‘Aozora no Soba ni Ite’ in NHK08, and, soon, ‘Aitakatta’ later on in the Budokan concerts.

To top it all off, the final pose was of the four flexing their non-existent arm muscles.  (Except for Sayaka.  She was flexing her existent arm muscles.)

Blue Rose

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say about this performance.  I’ve never really been a huge fan of the song, and now it just seems like they want to cycle all of the possible front girls into it.  This, I believe, is its third time in a shuffle concert, and now 4/6 of the ‘Acchans’ have performed it.  For completion, I’ll mention each girl in comparison to the original.  Jurina might dance pretty well for a tween, but I’d still say that even K2 Sayaka could win in a dance-off.  I won’t mention vocals.  Takamina is often a great dancer, and may trump Yuka, but I think Yuka’s voice is much better suited for ‘Blue Rose.’  Mayu constantly impresses me with her focused energy, while Erena… doesn’t, so I guess Team K’s Meshibe and Genking win this round.  Wow, I really do make sure to consider performances a game, don’t I?

Ame no Doubutsuen

I love how the audience erupts in excitement when they see Acchan is on stage.  Considering the cast here (Maeda, Kojima, Minegishi, Itano, Kasai, Sato Y, Kashiwagi, Miyazaki) this is just a big old senbatsu performance.  I think they were lazy and just thought, ”Ame no Doubutsuen’ is a classic.  And we can put eight girls in.  Doesn’t matter if it’s interesting, let’s just lump all of the rest of the popular girls in to get them on stage for an MC.  Oh, and let’s put Yukari in because we’re kicking her out.’  Yup, I’m sure that’s what was going on in the boardroom.

Miichan and Itano have even already performed this one.  Minegishi kept the penguin, while Itano dropped from co-leading the unit to the lion costume.  Miho got stuck with Imai’s mute-till-the-chorus camel, too.  Sucks for all of them.  On the bright side, Harunyan’s legs look mighty nice in her costume, and after this performance, Kashiwagi and Kasai can say that they’ve performed all of K2’s units (‘Blue Rose,’ ‘Kinjirareta Futari,’ ‘Ame no Doubutsuen,’ and ‘Fushidara na Natsu.’)

Anyway, it was fairly uninteresting.  And then they did an MC.

Mushi no Ballad

Something we’ve all been waiting for, a Takamina-version of a solo song.  Sure, now that Infinity happened, we’ll get more, but this happened first.  We’ve all heard ‘Mushi no Ballad,’ some of us have heard ‘Yuka no Ballad,’ and I’m still waiting for ‘N no Ballad.’  Anytime now…

Complete with a brand new costume for her very non-Sayaka body, Takahashi gets to christen the use of the center stage.  We’re treated to an amazing performance that really shows off this girls’ vocals.  Some girls only have voices that sound good in songs made for them, but Takamina’s is very versatile and usable in most situations without getting too awkward.  And that’s why she should be the main vocalist of AKB48 again.  I mean, she was the lead in all of the singles (barring ‘Sakura no Hanabiratachi’ and ‘Aitakatta’) up till ‘BINGO!’  Then, she got pushed back in favor of Haruna till King Records took charge.  In ‘Oogoe Diamond,’ she kind of tied with Haruna, but her lines were mostly solo, while Haruna’s were paired with Acchan’s to make Atsuko sound less like… whatever you want to think she sounds like.  Takahashi was a main component in ‘10 nen Zakura’ and Kojiharu the same in ‘Namida Surprise!,’ but they both got pushed down in favor of Acchan solo lines only in ‘Iiwake Maybe’ and ‘RIVER.’  So, basically: more Takamina, please.

On the topic of her actual performance, the theatrics really picked up at the last chorus.  She kicks down the microphone stand and falls to her knees.  This is especially breathtaking when the camera angle is from the back, so you can see her nearly-weeping body, smoke-y floor, and thousands of fans waving their glowsticks to the beat of the music in that well-wishing manner.  She leaves the stage from a staircase off the center stage into the catwalk’s foundation with only a glance and a sorrowful smirk at the fans.  Great ‘TakaMushi no Ballad.’

Heart Gata Virus

Out from the main stage pops three Team K members with their own microphone stands.  Super-cool for them, most likely because it’s Yuko’s unit, is that they get to use the brand new elevators.  From what I can tell, there are possibly five of them in all, and I absolutely adore them.  In tonight’s performance of ‘N Gata Virus,’ Oshima Y takes up Oshima M’s role, Sae grabs Haruna’s, and Natsuki gets Nozofisu’s.  Costume-wise, Yuko and Nacchi switch and Sae keeps the one meant for her position.  I have always felt that Yuko could fill Mai’s spots and vice versa, so this was one unit that I thought was just waiting to happen.  Now it’ll be interesting if Yuko ever gets cast in ‘Temodemo no Namida,’ as Mai took Kashiyuki’s spot in NHK08.

Considering the other two girls shuffled into this unit, I wouldn’t be surprised if Natsuki is actually subbing in for another girl, namely Asuka.  Mocchi was out with the (swine?) flu, along with a bunch of other AKB48 members and RS, and she’s definitely popular enough to get in a unit like this.  I have no evidence to state anything either way, but I’m pretty positive that this was originally, Asuka’s shuffle unit.  I’m glad that Natsuki got in here, though.  Did you hear her voice in her first solo line?  That sounds way amazing.  And almost like sophisticated or something.  I don’t know, but it sounded great.

Each girl sounds as though she’s really enjoying herself performing this song.  As mentioned, Natsuki sounds incredible.  I love her even more.  Yuko sounds pretty good with her ‘new’ voice since the surgery in April.  I think these are her first solo lines recorded since then.  Lastly, Sae sounds much better than usual.  Just listen to the end of her second line.  Similar to Nacchi’s, it sounds really complex.  I’m impressed.  This is one of my favorite newer units, and I think that many AKB members might enjoy it because it is so idol-like, yet retains a very mature young woman’s image.  It’s like a Maimai party, I’d say.

Kimi wa Pegasus

Speaking of ‘very mature young women,’ this next song does not feature them.  It features ‘Rena and the Lolis.’  (Oh my god.  New sub-unit name.  Now.)  Now, with custom-made costumes, they perform ‘Kimi wa Pegasus’… eight octaves higher.

Rena does not sound at all like Sayaka, but that’s okay since she’s not really supposed to.  I feel like she should have had Nonti’s spot, as when you’re listening to those lines, you don’t expect a voice that was meant to be the powerhouse.  Sayuki’s lines were rather innocent sounding, and while again, that’s all fine and good, I prefer it to sound a bit more direct.  (One thing I’m glad about is that her costume doesn’t feature that brooch on the neck that Nacchi’s does.)  Kumi was actually a great pick for Sae’s position.  They have similar voices and kind-of-sort-of matching personalities.  She also has short-ish hair like Sae, which, of course, means a lot when I think about shuffles.  I actually don’t think they could have found someone without resorting to SKE48 to get such as close match for Sae’s voice.  Tsukina does not go in this unit.  I think they just wanted the whole ‘Wimbledon’ unit to be placed here (along with Rena), since their song is being used next.

Oh, cool pattern I noticed about the unit order.  Much of the time in this concert, the girls featured in a shuffle unit have their original (or shuffle) unit right after the one they perform.  This works for ‘Blue Rose’ – (Erena, Mayu, Matsui (NHK08)) – ‘Ame no Doubutsuen;’ ‘Heart Gata Virus’ – (Miyazaki, Natsuki) – ‘Kimi wa Pegasus’ (Kumi, Takai, Mori) – ‘Wimbledon he Tsureteitte (Ono, Miyazaki, Fujie (G-Rosso)) – ‘Tonari no Banana’ (Sasshi) – ‘Itoshiki Natassha;’ ‘End Roll’ (Itano) – ‘Tsundere!’ (Watanabe, Nakatsuka) – ‘Zannen Shoujo’ (Maeda, Takajo) – ‘Kuroi Tenshi’ (Kashiwagi) – ‘Kuchi Utsushi no Chocolate.’  It also works in reverse for ‘Ame no Doubutsuen’ (Kojima (Aitakatta), Minegishi (Aitakatta), Maeda (Aitakatta), Kashiwagi (Natsumatsuri), Kasai (JCB08)) – ‘Blue Rose’ (Ono (Aitakatta), Watanabe, Matsui (NHK08)).  If anyone understood that, you get massive points.  For a hint, the format is: ‘Tonight’s shuffle unit song name’ (tonight’s shuffle unit participants’) – ‘those participants’ (/ that participant’s) original unit song that was performed next.’

Pretty cool, huh?

Wimbledon he Tsureteitte

Aww… Fujie went down the stairs too early!  It took me forever to figure out exactly what happened.  I doubted that she was supposed to be on the lower riser when the other two were up top, but I wasn’t sure if maybe Erena just forgot to go down.  Since Erena walks down the stairs a few counts later with music backing her up, I think it must be Fujie that is wrong here.  I don’t care though, still cute.

As far as voices go, this shuffle sounds better than the original.  Ono seems to be using the vocal skills she learned when doing ‘FIRST LOVE,’ as she sounds more consistent than she used to.  Reinyan sounds lovely.  I love her slightly lower voice that still is able to pull off being cute.  I’m so used to seeing her in ‘Kuroi Tenshi’ that I forgot how she gained popularity as a Kenkyuusei using her power of being so adorable.  Miho sounds fine, too.  Well, the little of her that we get to hear in this weirdly-distributed song of solo lines, anyway.

I still love how all three of these costumes are different, yet so similar.  It’s a shame that Miho doesn’t really fit hers.  Why doesn’t she get a brand new costume like the ‘Pegasus’ girls got?

Tonari no Banana

This next unit starts out with a mystery: Who are the two banana girls?  They use the out-croppings on either side to read their little newspapers and the camera angle really shows how odd of a stage their on.  They have railings and everything to get under the stage.  I know that this is an arena concert, but that seems a little too out of place.  Just put the backdrop over those areas, please.

The duo performing turns out to be Nito and Sasshi… who are like always paired up together.  The funny part is that they really aren’t; it’s just me who thinks they are.  I still group them with Kithara Rie since they were promoted at about the same time and at the time, they looked just about the same as each other.  Now they don’t, but I haven’t stopped thinking of that trio as the same girl.

‘Tonari no Banana’ prides itself in being one of the cutest AKB48 songs.  I however am not a big fan of it and reserve that place for ‘Tenshi no Shippo,’ which has yet to be truly shuffled.  That one also has three slightly different costumes, which as I said about ‘Wimbledon’ is great.  Here, the only difference in the girls’ costumes is that one has her purse over her top and the other has it under.  I’ve yet to figure out the reasoning behind that, but I think it’s present in every show.

During the bridge, the two make fun of each other’s supposed stupidity, concluding with a rising Mix.  I feel like Sasshi does that a bit too often now… she’s turning into a one-trick pony.  Come on, Sasshi!  You’re great at MCs: just stick with talking.  Chanting is for perverted old men.  (And RSL.)

Itoshiki Natasha

Another Team K unit.  Yay!  And another Team K unit with Natsuki!  Super yay!  (Also, it’s kind of fun to watch Sasshi do the dance that leads into her own unit.)

Similar to ‘Heart Gata Virus,’ I think that maybe Natsuki is taking another girl’s position.  This time, I’m pretty sure it would be Yuka.  Sure, that’d make Chikano really out of place, but hey, Fujie’s in two units (gasp, I just thought about it, and now I think that maybe Aika was supposed to be in ‘Wimbledon’) and so she needed to be in at least one, too.  Regardless, Natsuki’s in this one, and that’s what matters, doesn’t it?  Oh, and Sayaka’s leading.

From the pictures I’d seen and everything, I was prepared for Natsuki to take Tanamin’s position with one solo line, as she was wearing that costume.  While I was excited to hear this, I kind of totally forgot about it and put finding out what spot Nacchi got in ‘Virus’ as first priority.  This means that I didn’t even preview the song before watching the concert, so it was a complete surprise when I heard her totally take over Haachan’s spot.  Again, this was one of my gasping moments.  I used to think gasping was one of those fake things people do, but thanks to N, I’ve found I do it, too.

Sayaka sounds like Sayaka, which I know sounds mean, but that’s what she sounds like.  I’ve never really been a fan of her voice, as it’s a little too powerful for my taste.  Sometimes she seems to put a little too much effort into singing, and I like a bit of relaxation.  Chikano sounds good, though.  This is great promotion for her as she’s usually stuck at the bottom of rankings, so maybe she earned some more fans?  She deserves them.

Back to my favorite:  She totally took Haachan’s lines, and totally embellished them.  I mean, she drew them out and added her own spin on them.  And that look with her eyes was just fantastic.  The world needs more units like this with Natsuki in them.  And can you see how good those fur shorts look on her?  She needs to wear short shorts throughout the entirety of B5.  Seriously.  (And hey, she gets to in K5 for half of her costumes, so why stop there?)

Sayaka totally lost her hat mid-way through the song.  I don’t think she noticed, though, as she definitely would have picked it up due to her character… and the fact that the next song was done on the center stage, so the main stage was blacked out.  They should have done the usual after-unit song MC where the ‘Itoshiki’ girls run around picking up all of the dropped accessories.  And that way there’d be even more Nacchi to go around!

Endroll

Here we have the two girls who are switching to Team K and two of the best dancers in SKE48’s Team S performing the K5 dance unit on the center stage.  Itano and Miichan have always been renowned for their dancing and I for one have always wanted them to share a unit that shows off their skills, so I guess this kind of counts.

I’m glad that they put Jurina in here rather than a unit would make her sing solo lines.  So far, her vocals really don’t impress me and I’d rather listen to just about anyone else instead of her.  While her dancing is very, very good, especially for her age, her singing could take some work.  Also, by using ‘End Roll,’ she isn’t the only girl in center, as Itano gets some screen time in Umechan’s place.  But still, lots of Jurina.  At least it’s focused on something she’s good at.  Also, I’m happy Kuwabara is being used.  As much as I don’t like SKE48 getting placed into AKB48’s everything, it’s good that they’re using talented girls.

Tsundere

And the super random assortment of Team B girls appears on the main stage.  I really don’t like the line-up here.  Mayuyu should have been shuffled into a different unit, and CinDy is too old and too out of place to be paired with Chris.  I think Mayu might fit ‘Renai Kinshi Jourei’ more than ‘Tsundere!’  I know what you’re thinking: she can’t sing well!  Don’t worry, she’d fit right in given the correct back-up girls.  For instance, CinDy and Rumi.  Besides, Watanabe was often placed in Takamina’s positions during Team B’s run of A2, so it would match prior choices.  True, she might not have the same vocal abilities as Takahashi, but similar to Amina, she can often have a powerful voice.  Oh, and Mayu is totally wearing heels.  I didn’t think they would let her.  Usually the heels are for Itano only and anyone who subs for her wears boots.

On Sato Amina’s solo lines, CinDy did a good job trying to hit the same notes as the original did, but her voice just isn’t nearly as bouncy.  I use the word bouncy because I can’t say that Amina has a larger range of notes, she tends to just kind of tries to get as many as possible at a time, and so she hits one at least close to the one she was aiming for.  But I still like her voice when it’s in the right songs.  And yes, CinDy sounded good, too.  I kind of miss how when they build up their voices one by one there isn’t that high pitched squeak at the end that I’m so used to.

Nakatsuka is fine for her part, even though I’m not a big fan of her at all.  Since Rie is singing in Heart Gata Virus so often, I’m used to Uchida (who I adore) performing her place, so really, any deeper voice is fine here.

This is one of those random units that I want shuffled specifically.  Kasai subs in for Amina, Miichan subs in for Itano, and Natsuki subs in for Rie.  I think it would sound splendid.

Zannen Shoujo

Before I watched B4 for the very first time, I did something that has become one of my favorite things to do: an AKB48 Black-Out.  (I know, my favorite thing is to stop doing anything involving AKB… how ironic.)  B4 was my first trial of it and K5 was my second.  I really recommend trying it sometime.  What usually happens is you just stop checking anything AKB-related the moment the new Stage starts (generally 18:00 Japan time), and don’t check anything again until you finish watching the entire Stage in one sitting.  For B4, I relied on people e-mailing me links straight to whatever download service was used, and for K5, I set up a Facebook event for the festivities.  Anyway, the whole fun of this concept is that you get to see the Stage without any kind of spoilers whatsoever.  This means that the whole show is new and exciting.  For B4, that meant confusion when a marching band was on stage after the lights rose, a gasp at the strip change, and so on.  For K5, that included confused looks during the opening skit, excitement when you realized that there were two units left and only four girls (one of which is your favorite), and joy when you saw the ballad’s costume.  Anyway, I enjoy the fun an AKB Black-Out brings.  Try it.

On the topic of unfortunate girls, when I first saw B4, I immediately thought that this unit was completely made so Acchan could be shuffled into it.  I still feel that way, and now I feel like I was right.  Tonight, Acchan brings to the song something I feel like Mayu will never do: a care-free attitude.  No, I don’t mean that she’s just going to skip around and whistle whilst playing with butterflies; she’s going to perform her own way in whatever lacadazical fashion she wants.  The thing about Acchan is that yes, she’s not a great singer, yes, she’s not a great dancer, and yes, she’s not all that interesting, but she uses her problem areas to create a ‘girl next door’ vibe.  That’s why she’s the center of AKB48.  She’s gorgeous and light-hearted, but doesn’t have that determination or will power that other idols have.  That’s why she could probably never get into Hello! Project.  She just isn’t ’shiny’ enough, but she’s perfect for an idol group that’s supposed to be a nearly realistic classroom of teenage (and pre-teens… and 20-somethings… and children) girls.  She’s not there to competitions on talent, she’s there to get famous, most young peoples’ dream.

And that’s it for my Acchan monologue.  Lastly for her, she had a pretty darn awesome solo line at the very end of the song.  She nailed it (in the studio) perfectly.

As for the girls on the sides, it seems like they stuck with the idea of keeping one girl on the side who in the center girl’s original unit, as Takajo is performing along with Acchan.  Rie is on the other side and so the trio rounds out to be a group of increasingly popular members with one in each tier of popularity: upper senbatsu, lower senbatsu, and near-senbatsu.  I never really figured out when they started pushing Rie, but I guess that since she subs for Mai, she got lots of time to promote herself.  Takajo has been pushed since about the time of Natsumatsuri Hibiyayaon.  Good performance by those girls.

Oh, and notice the lack of microphone stands?  I’m not sure, but I think I may like it better this way, although that thought might just be because it’s different.

Kuroi Tenshi

Okay, I don’t really understand this: ‘Kuroi Tenshi’ has never ever been performed in a shortened format.  Does Akimoto just not have the rights for it, or is he just super proud of it?

In this performance we have a group of older Team B girls, Kashiwagi, Haachan, and Nakayan.  All three have great voices, but I think that if popularity weren’t an issue, they should be shuffled around.  Haachan could sing the Acchan part with a low voice similar to Fujie, Nakayan could take Fujie’s usual place and sing like Chiichan does when she subs in, and Kashiwagi can take Takajo’s place and sing however she feels fit.

My one irk is that Nakayan’s line doesn’t sound too hot.  I’m guessing that she was going for the Ishida route and tried to hit all of those notes, but similar to CinDy in ‘Tsundere!’ just couldn’t.  She could have went the Takajo route and basically just whispered, but I’d prefer she stick with one where you could tell that she was actually trying.

I feel like this collection of leading girl shuffles really shows how AKB’s current set of Stages is lacking in the diversity department.  Maybe the next three will be a bit more random?  At the moment it seems like they’re determined to just not make another cute song ever again.

Kuchi Utsushi no Chocolate

Taking the center of K5’s sexy unit and putting her into B4’s sexy unit makes a lot of (predictable) sense, but I’m unhappy with this shuffle.  Kasai does much better than I expected with the oodles and oodles of solo lines included for her here.  This is the opposite of her current unit where she gets just one more duet line than the others in her unit.  So, she does fine, and in all reality, this is a great shuffle for her considering they perform the shortened version.

My problem lies in the other two, Nonti and Ohori.  It seems as though they were just picked because they are in SDN48 (and then gave them new costumes).  They totally could have put them in better units to show off their skills for one last shuffle.  I almost want to think that this is another comedic shuffle routine like they started the concert out with.  If they have as talented girls as Kayo and as specialized girls as Ohori, they should use them.

What makes matters worse is that while Ohori was totally into her performance (which is generally pretty consistent), Nonti seemed almost bored: something I’ve seen very, very rarely from any performance I’ve seen featuring her (and I’ve seen quite a few LODs).

I really want to see/hear Natsuki sub for Kashiwagi for this unit.  I say ’sub’ because if it’s during a shuffle concert, we won’t hear her sing the second verse’s lines, which would sound incredible coming from her.

Wagamama na Nagareboshi

I love this.  It seems like Mariko always gets into the super-duper awesome shuffle units that get new costumes.  ‘Temodemo no Namida’ and ‘Wagamama na Nagareboshi’ are two of my favorite units, and Mariko has gotten in both shuffles.

Paired with Haruna, a member who she often is grouped with for lines in verses, the song sounds phenomenal.  I like it with younger girls/voices since the lyrics are about hoping, wishing, and dreaming for the future, but it gives off a slightly different aura with older girls that I might like more.

The MC typically at the end of the song usually features Erena and Kana remarking on what they wish for.  In this version, the two seem to be talking in a manner almost like they would be if they had just gotten off stage.  Mariko says something about the dresses making them look young,  Haruna says something about SDN48, and Mariko jokes that she’s not graduating for quite a while.  Unlike Acchan, these two are ’shiny,’ that quality that Hello! Project members have.  They’re ambitious and not as humble as others.  They’re special and they know it, and that works well for this unit.

Oh, and yeah, the stage: incredible.  I have to admit that I previewed this on YouTube (along with ‘Heart Gata Virus’) and then stopped watching any Budokan vidoes after getting a few seconds in because I wanted to quit spoiling the surprises.  I don’t like the fact that the parts of the stage that elevate are rectangular (for my reasoning, see my thoughts on the center stage), but still it’s pretty gosh darn cool.  And it was so surprising since I was thinking that the elevators were the only moving addition to the stage.

Oshibe to Meshibe to Yoru no Chouchou

One of the big surprises of the night: Maimai came back!  I really woudn’t think this was alright, but the reasoning makes it okay for me.  If an AKB48 member graduates from AKB48, does it make sense to have her come back to perform songs that weren’t ever performed by her?  I don’t know, but I think this is kind of cheating: Mai only performs in a single song for the whole show and it’s pretty much all about how awesome she is.  I feel like every one of the girls would prefer that lifestyle.  I guess I’m just old school and prefer when they just come back for Shibuya AX.

The cute part of this performance is that it’s using one of AKB’s many real life relationships.  Mai was an older sister figure for Fujie, who plays Kasai’s part tonight, and after leaving the group, she comes back to visit Fujie.  Cue swooning here.

The MC during the bridge is terrible.  Fujie says ‘Aitakatta,’ which is funny because it represents her past wish, and is also the title to one of AKB’s more famous singles.  Then they talk a bit and Fujie reveals that the reason she likes Mai so much is because Mai doesn’t just act like an idiot, she really is one.  I think Fujie was just really nervous for this concert because she screwed up earlier and then was really awkward in this song.  Or at least in the talking part.  The rest was great.

Cute performance overall, I think I’m just reading into it a bit much.

Tobenai Agehachou

‘Iiwake Maybe’’s coupling song is debuted in concert for the first time on the center stage.  These girls all ‘earned’ (read: bought) their positions from the thirteenth single selected member cabinet election.  The only girl missing is Masuda Yuka who was out with swine flu, and so Kashiyuki took her place… and her screen time.

As common with many B-Sides, the entirety of the song was sung instead of a shortened version.  I liked this especially because we could get a better look at the Rumi-centered choreography.  Also, it looks like they changed-up some of the placement of the girls so they could entertain the whole audience while on the center stage.

At some point, I want to take note of all of the girls’ costumes so I can tell how many different versions or parts there are.  I love when AKB’s costumes seem random… but then I’m disappointed when they aren’t.  (Good examples of randomness are the ‘Romance, Irane!’ costume sets and the H2 encore costumes.)

After the song ended, I was freaking out trying to figure out who would perform next since each Team had at least one girl on stage.  For a moment, I was thinking KII would sing ‘Aitakatta’ or something, since they were all missing, but then I remembered that they were stuck in Nagoya at the time doing their version of A2.  Moments later, Nachu took the stage and I realized who was next.

Black Boy

(Splendid MC before this, by the way.  I love how Mai is completely lost and has this ‘What has AKB come to since I’ve been gone?’ look on her face the entire time.)

(Oh, and I’m still trying to figure out if Nachu’s outfit is hers or if it was supplied to her.  And is that purse from ‘Tonari no Banana?’  Did she steal it?)

Now it’s time to be racist!  I just love the song title.  I really want to read the lyrics just to see if they say something that might not be politically correct in the US.  SDN48’s ‘Black Boy’ seems to be their ’single’ of sorts, kind of like how SKE48 had a few songs they pimped out before coming out with their first single.  On the topic of SDN48 and singles, I really hope they get one.  I think I’d even be okay with SDN members being in an AKB48 single even though I hate SKE48 members in AKB48 singles, just because they perform in the same theater and it seems like they will stay with only one Team.

The song starts with the women sauntering on to the center stage with some industrial background sounds.  I don’t remember hearing this intro from the fan recordings I’ve heard, but I might have just forgotten that section.  Once the actual song starts up, we’re treated with some smoke while the seventeenth and eighteenth members do a bit of intense dancing while wearing (gasp) pants.

I don’t want to summarize the whole performance, so I’ll just say that I loved it.  The group brings fresh energy that is substantially different from what AKB provides.  I don’t know many of their names, so it was kind of enjoyable to see the camera give lots of them close-ups and not just focus on a few of them.  In general, the only ones I can tell apart are the AKB48 members and Kondo Sayaka, but I also know which ones are Chinese.  As usual I refuse to memorize names without lots of media… and that might end up taking a while.  (LOD please!  I will show you my driver’s license for proof that I’m over eighteen!)

Another thing I love about SDN48 is that they’re too old for school uniforms, which is an aspect of AKB that I don’t really like.  I mean, once you’re out of school, you can’t really relate with the songs unless you’re looking back at them as memories.  Sadly, the on-going school theme is one of AKB’s main draws, so I doubt it’ll go away… but maybe someday.  (Also, I don’t like it when songs make lots of references to the season, since those have similar not-everyday lyrics.  That means you ‘Manatsu no Christmas Rose’ and the majority of H1!)

Lastly, I have to note that it’s weird for the most popular member of the group to have so little screen time.  The other AKB48-to-SDN48 members had more.  And on that topic, Yukari seemed to be really enjoying this song.  I wonder if she feels like SDN’s a better fit for her now because there’s much less of a shadow over her like there always has been in Team A.  Nonti on the other hand seemed to be back to her usual amazing performing after her so-so units earlier.  And CinDy was CinDy.

So yeah, more SDN48, please.  And bring your sparkly costumes.  Or the mini-kimonos.

Tsuyokimonoyo

Now it’s time for Team S to perform their single.  For whatever reason they chose to wear the SKE48 first concert costumes, which I’m kind of disappointed in.  I love those costumes, but I wish they would wear the costumes made for the song.

I’m so glad that I know all of their names now.  When they were at the AKB theater in June they kept on wearing similar hair styles, but here I was able to recognize each of them.

The lighting and the camera people made the performance look ridiculously epic, which really shouldn’t be all that hard, but they did a great job regardless.  (Again, for completion, I’ll note that they performed the full song… but that’s okay because it’s a single.)

Chime wa Love Song

I’ve recently read the lyrics to this song and they weren’t exactly what I was hoping for them to be, so naturally I don’t like this song as much as I did.  I had always been hoping that it was more singing about how the chimes in love songs meant something and the lyrics were literally about chimes in love songs, which I think would fit with how Akimoto often writes his lyrics.  Sadly, it’s more about love songs.  Boo.

At the break down in the middle of the song, the girls go from the main stage to the catwalk and split up half-and-half to sing to the audience on either side.  If the seats were closer and/or the catwalk was slimmer, this would be nice, but with this set-up, it feels like half the girls disappeared.  And the catwalk was too short so some of the girls got stuck on the center stage.  Lame.  They finish by clapping around, and then the focus goes to the main stage.

Shounichi

Team B shuffles onto the Stage for their prayer, and guess what?  They sing ‘Shounichi’ like they do at every concert.  Oh well…

This time is a little bit different, though, since their wearing the new Team B costumes.  I’m not a fan of them at all, but truth be told: they look like a collection of every AKB48 costume made.  Maybe they would look better if there were more variations?  Right now there are only two.  Also, it’s kind of weird to see that these were used as the end of the old Team’s last costumes and are the new Team’s first costumes.  Not cool.

I think they should have performed this song on the raised section in the back of the stage, because while on the main section, the choreography looks rather stunted as it was originally made to be done on the risers at the theater.

Two Years Later

I don’t get why they keep using this song.  They used it at the JCB Hall concert, too.  I mean, it’s an okay song, but it never fits with songs other than the ones it was placed with in B3.  I understand that they like to have two songs from each Team that are very different from each other, but why don’t they just use ‘Inochi no Tsukaimichi’ for once?  It’s way better than this one.  They could even use Mikachi since there isn’t all that much moving around.

‘Two Years Later’ just doesn’t seem to really fit in if Team B is only going to perform two songs.  Maybe Akimoto really likes this one or something?  And the costume is way too bright.

Regardless of how much I didn’t like the song represented here, it otherwise was nice.  The red and light lighting used mid-way through the song was a pleasant edition and the width of the stage proved to look nice.

Ki ni Naru Tenkousei

Next is a super awesome performance of a true Team K song!  I love Team K when they’re cool, but I love them even more when they actually have a fun song.  Luckily, we’re given more of these songs in K5, so I don’t have to worry about running out anytime soon.

Another great thing about this song is that N is featured within the first verse!  That’s always important because that way she not only gets to sing more, but also get a heck of a lot more close-ups.  In this song she’s paired up with her good friend Sae and they’re opposite Kana and Erena, who seem to be eternally stuck together in Akimoto’s mind.  At one point before the chorus, the
‘Ame no Doubutsuen’/'Tonari no Banana’/'Wagamama na Nagareboshi’ duo are on stage left looking kind of bored, while Sae and Nacchi are having a blast on stage left.  Oh, the differences.

Team K also is wearing new costumes, but theirs are actually attractive.  There are four different versions which vary by color (blue or yellow) and whether or not the vest is opened or closed.  Personally, I think that none of them can be considered the best option, but instead I think they should shuffle around the skirts so instead of it being the vest and skirt match and the tie is different, it would be the tie and skirt match and the vest is different.  I think they’d look much better that way.

Saishuu Bell ga Naru

Whenever people think of Team K, they think of it as the Team that can really rock out.  In reality, they are the Team that’s capable of such versatile performances.  Before ‘Korogaru Ishi ni Nare,’ there was always ‘Seishun Girls,’ and like tonight, before ‘Saishuu Bell ga Naru,’ there was always ‘Ki ni Naru Tenkousei.’

(I know, I’m just so clever.)

This is a great (first verse only) performance of the title K4 song.  It has such a good tune and choreography, and the lyrics match it’s mood.  It’s kind of like ‘Shounichi’ but just a little rougher around the edges.  I wonder if the words are specific to any of the members’ journeys to Team K.  Not much else to say about this one other than I liked it and there was some nice subbing done by RS.

JK Nemurihime

See what I mean about lyrics about schools?  They’re singing about how they want to wear their school uniform forever, but their wearing marching band costumes!  What’s with that? (At least it’s not the ‘Romance, Irane!’ costumes they wore for the song in the Team A concert in Fukuoka, though.)

This is a good song to show off voices in as there are so many duet lines, but it seems as though Team A is kind of lacking in the vocal department right now, so it can’t show off too much.

One nice looking thing done here is how they split the Team into two to walk down the catwalk in two single file lines with the most popular two in front.  Then, they got to use the catwalks in a similar manner to Team S, but this time it feels a little more normal since it matches the original choreography of making parallel straight lines.  Afterwards, instead of having half the Team to face the back wall with the mirror side out, they just walk onto the center stage to finish the song and pose.  Kind of anti-climatic, but at least they’re using all of the components of the stage now.

Seishun no Inazuma

Team A continues their domination of any and all Himawari-gumi songs with ‘Seishun no Inazuma.’  It’s interesting to see Nacchinon’s places taken by Shihori and Nonaka since they now get to be in the front during the chorus, even though they’re not even Team A members.  Another notable RS performance was Sakiko who got to share her line with Haruna.  I heard a lot of Haruna in that line, but it sounded fine, so it’s not like her voice stuck out badly or anything.

On the topic of costumes, Team A’s marching band attire seems to have two main differences, one’s more masculine and the other more feminine, and the girlier one seems to have three possibilities of of sleeves on its bolero: puffy short sleeves, fringe, or bare.  Who designed these costumes?  They need to go away.  Also, please note the shoes.  Those are totally used in the next costumes, too.  There didn’t used to be so much boot re-using, but recently there has been a ton.  The silver ‘Stand Up’ and black ‘Tenohira’ boots have been used so often it’s scary.  Maybe since they’re always so expensive they’ve started to try and save money?

I’m so used to hearing the next song from H2 pop on next that I was excited because it would finally be a song that would match their costumes… but no.

Next is an MC, and then a non-senbatsu performance of my favorite single!

Romance, Irane!

Walking out on stage in brand new costumes are a bunch of less popular members… and Mariko.  When I first saw this, I was confused why they did this, but then I realized that it was so they didn’t have to set anything differently for the last performance in their Budokan series.  It’ll make more sense later.

I love these costumes.  In reality, they’re actually pretty cheap looking, but at the same time, they’re well thought out.  Everyone shares the same materials: the white fabric with ‘AKB’ printed in rainbow colors and multi-color tulle accents.  These combined with a hair accessory, brooch, and single-color ruffled shorts makes each costume look kind of unique.  They’re all summery, enough for now, but they could look kind of winter-y if you thought about them hard enough, and they are uniform yet individual.  Great thinking, costume designer.

‘Romance’ uses the H2R substitute system for its performance, so we get a pretty random set of girls performing on the main stage.  Also, now they get to spread out a little bit more, so visually it looks a lot cleaner.  If you watch during the break between the first chorus and the second verse, Nacchi is totally in the center and looks amazing rolling her neck.  During the bridge, the double set of lines looked nice with the back one on the risers behind the group of girls who sang the verses.

BINGO!

The senbatsu come back to perform the second full song in a row.  This is getting to seem like a kind of long concert, isn’t it?  We’re not even at the encore yet.  And to think, the Natsumatsuri only had like thirty songs total.

Judging by some of the accessories these girls have on, it looks like the senbatsu election even allowed them to get an extra frill on their head piece or, in Acchan’s place, a completely different, feathery bouquet of prettiness as well as a second brooch.  Her costume seems to be the most complete.

Here they sing their summer hit, ‘BINGO!’ as the first song with all (or at least most of) AKB48 on stage.  I find it kind of funny how rare it is to have the full group doing the same thing at the same time.  In AKB48’s first concerts, Team A and Team K would perform tons of songs together, regardless of who’s song it was originally, but now it seems like AKB is only allowed to sing singles, ballads, and old songs as a full group.

Of course, when they are performing in their entirety, nowadays not everyone gets to sing during the verses.  Again, luckily for me, Natsuki was in Team 1 during the Himawari Stages, so she always gets to sing her lines in the verse along with Sae and Sayaka.  Granted, now there are other girls singing along with them… and now Sae is super tan and wearing the same thing as Nacchi, so she looks kind bland.  But that doesn’t mean I want her to tan.  Skin cancer is bad.

Oogoe Diamond

And now we start the medley of King Records singles.  At some point during the last song, Jurina jumped up to the front and center and it really irritates me that I can’t find when that happened.  I enjoy knowing when things like that happen.

Now that ‘everybody’ is on stage, I feel like it’s an encore.  That is not a feeling that should be happening.  See, this is what not getting all of AKB together at the same time does to me!  In terms of the performance, it seems to be much like any other version we’ve seen of the single, shortened and in pretty new costumes.  The lighting seems to have been especially amped up, but that’s pretty much the only difference.

One big gripe of mine about ‘Oogoe’ is that it signaled the true dropping of Nacchi from near-popularity.  ‘Romance, Irane!’ was a time period when she was so, so close to being senbatsu for her second single, as she even was in the PV for it… sort of.  Next, in ‘Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008,’ she wasn’t senbatsu, but she was part of the group of girls who were featured a bunch running around and the like.  She did however get to be selected for the B-Side, ‘Saigo no Seifuku.’  Then came ‘Baby! Baby! Baby!’ and moved Kashiyuki into senbatsu, brought back Rina, re-introduced Meetan just for fun, and Umechan came back so they through her in, too.  Since then, RS-to-Team members have suddenly gained control of all of the new spots and the un-popular old girls have been stuck waiting outside.  Boo.

10nen Zakura

I feel sorry for this single.  This is the second concert it’s been in, yet neither time was it performed in an appropriate outfit.  In NHK09, the girls wore their NHK08 party dresses, and here they’re wearing what looks to be swim wear cover-ups.  ‘10nen’ needs school uniforms or something to make sense.  I’m not a big fan of the single, but my dream performance of it includes having all of AKB48 wear different school uniforms.  They almost have enough that each girl could wear a different one… which is kind of scary if you think about it.  (New blog post idea: favorite costumes)  Maybe after these New Team Stages and the new TV show come out they’ll have enough.

The lighting in the stairwell looks really nice here.  They made a moving rainbow of colors throughout the performance and I think I finally figured out what’s going on with the open-ness of those steps:  The idea was that they could make that entire piece turn a specific color.  I don’t think it ended up working out too well, but it’s fine as it is.  Now, I much prefer the NHK09 set…

Namida Surprise!

Again, this is the second time this single has been performed, and again, this is the second time the girls aren’t wearing school uniforms.  This is a school-themed song and deserves real costumes that fit with it.  (Actually, it’s not a very good song, so I wouldn’t say that it ‘deserves’ anything.)

At least the costumes look like something birthday-related: cake!  Vanilla with sprinkles, maybe.  When I showed the ‘Romance, Irane!’ PV to a friend of mine, she mentioned how they all looked like cupcakes.  Ever since then, I’ve found that if a costume looks like a baked dessert, I like it.  Especially if food coloring was used.

I like how they integrated the non-senbatsu members in this performance.  There’s much less of a divide compared to just minutes ago when the girls who weren’t selected for the single were stuck dancing about the whole time.

The bridge would have been ten times better if Acchan’s feathered headpiece suddenly turned into a giant candle like a birthday cake.

Actually, they should have put Acchan in the very back on the highest riser and just had her twirl around while the rest of the girls were on the lower ones.  It would be reminiscent of that newspaper commercial or even the PV.

And you know how I mentioned that I liked how the non-senbatsu got to kind of merge with the senbatsu, by the end of the song, the senbatsu got to go to the center stage.

To the encore!

Iiwake Maybe

This is the first concert performance of ‘Iiwake Maybe’  I hate how the stage seems so bland for its premier.  Remember in the Aitakatta concert for ‘Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru’’s performance how it looked so nice?  Or all of the fog for ‘Keitbetsu Shiteita Aijou’ in the NHK07 performance?  Much trendier.  (Now that I think about it, I have to wonder if the Aitakatta concert was filmed at NHK Hall.  It would be handy if I could just call it ‘NHK06.’

I love how the camera keeps trying to spot Jurina but continuously fails.  She got a really low spot in the election, so she got a pretty bad position for the dance formation, yet the camera people know that she’s important.  I wonder if the camera people know all of the members of AKB.  That could prove to be an interesting job.

Anyway, cute performance.

Aitakatta

All of a sudden, the rest of AKB48 and SKE48 stream on to the stage to sing the trademark AKB48 single.  I feel sorry for SDN48, they must feel un-invited.  I see no reason for them not to get in on the encore.

I’m always at a loss on what my opinion an encore costume should be.  There’s either the traditional t-shirt, like the one used here, or there’s always the possibility of some ridiculously elaborate costume.  I think that of the AKB48 Stages, K2 and A3 have the best idea: start basic, and then get specific.  I wish the current Stages would have more costume changes like those did.  Of the AKB concerts, the Aitakatta one wins as they start with the ‘Mirror’ (backwards) t-shirts, and then wear the ‘Aitakatta’ and ‘Seishun Girls’ costumes.

I really like how for this performance, they really split everybody up instead of put each Team in a different spot.  It’s nice seeing everyone all shuffled together.

They do the full song in this concert and Nacchi gets to be on the center stage for the second verse.  I feel sorry for all of the girls stuck on the risers in the back.  You can really tell how much they want off them.  Once the bridge starts, they finally are relieved of their stair-standing duties and spread out along with the now-arriving senbatsu.  Finally, the entire stage is used, including the out-croppings on the sides.  Also, the big balloons of balloons similar to the ones in the Aitakatta concert are unleashed.  Yay.

And you know what’s really cool?  They extended the bridge.  Instead of going straight into the chorus, they added a section that just had the voice track and a minimal amount of percussion!  I was so happy they did this, as it’s one of those little things that really add to the song and performance.  The camera switching to the beat of the drums was a nice touch by those crafty video editors, too.

Looking back on it, that new section is only twenty seconds long, but it’s definitely one of the highlights of the concert for me.

Hikoukigumo

And to finish of the concert we have one of the pushed songs from A5 and one of the the B-Sides of ‘RIVER,’ ‘Hikouki Gumo.’

As with the usual line distribution, each Team gets a set of lines, but this time Team S is included, too.  They seem to be really getting lots of attention now.

Another thing I find interesting is that they’re using those concert towels as rags again.  They’re really complementing other idol groups with the use of their commercially-available concert pieces.  I kind of wish AKB would just release new rags for fun… that look nicer than towels.

And the first night of Budokan is complete!

Si vous envisagez de Sleep Number Bed, alors vous êtes au bon endroit parce que je n'ai important, unique information à partager avec vous.

Mon équipe de recherche a recueilli des données de plus de 800 propriétaires lit numéro Sleep. Cet article traite de nos conclusions au sujet de deux questions principales: le confort et durabilité.

Confort

Près de 80% des propriétaires de sommeil lit Nombre de nos recherches indiquent que le lit est confortable. Ce pourcentage est à peu près égale à Tempurpedic et la plupart des autresmémoire lits de mousse. Et il est dans la gamme de matelas en latex et des matelas à eau. Le Sleep Number Bed bat clairement matelas à ressorts en ce que l'ordre de 55% de ressorts pour les propriétaires lit indiquent que leurs lits sont confortables.

Sleep Number propriétaires Lits trouver le lit pour être à l'aise parce qu'il soulage les points de pression et, peut-être plus important encore, elle est réglable à l'égard de la fermeté. En d'autres termes, en ajoutant ou en supprimant l'air du lit augmente ou diminue la fermeté. Cela permet à une personnetrouver un niveau de fermeté qui s'adapte parfaitement à son ou ses préférences personnelles.

Durabilité

Le Sleep Number Bed effectue aussi bien dans l'ensemble à l'égard de la durabilité. Il n'est pas rare du tout, d'après nos études, pour les propriétaires à faire leur lit pour 10 ou même 15 ans avec peu ou pas de perte de confort. Il ya peu de mousse sur le lit qui peut compresser des SAG et des heures supplémentaires, mais cela ne semble pas avoir beaucoup de conséquences négatives.

Une bonne durabilité Le Sleep Number Bed estassez unique parmi les matelas. C'est parce que la plupart des lits, des matelas à ressorts en particulier, ont tendance à s'user assez rapidement. Il est souvent difficile de trouver un matelas à ressorts plus de 10 ans qui offre encore une nuit de sommeil réparatrices.

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It’s goodbye to SMART BRO.

After two years filled with irritation, incompetent customer service reps, and thousands of payment, we have ended our contract with SMART BRO and decided not to renew it anymore.

I’ve posted an entry about our dilemma with SMART BRO (see story) and it hasn’t changed since then. A few months ago, my husband got a SUN Broadband and we find that SUN offers more value for our money with its plan.

At P800 monthly, the plan provides us unlimited access to the Internet. Sure, there are days that its connection is down but at  least, I don’t fear that when I receive the billing statement, I would be charged with thousands in connection I have never used.

And because of SUN, we have stopped using our SMART BRO in the last three months. We just waited for the contract to expire so we can finally have it disconnected.

Here’s a side note to this. I posted my SMART Bro dilemma in one of the Yahoogroups I belong to. One of the members, a SMART employee, was kind enough to ask permission if she can forward my concerns to their Interactive Social Media Services Group.

A few days after, I received an email from Ashley John Villaroman. In a nutshell, he wanted to find a resolution to our dilemma and, in the process, convince us not to end the contract.

But I was hell-bent on ending the contract. My husband and I feel that we didn’t get our money’s worth with the plan. I thanked Ashley John for his email and told him that we’re not changing our minds. But because I want SMART BRO’s service to improve, I emailed him all my concerns.

We have four major issues with SMART BRO: incompetent CSRs, SMART Connect being not updated, absurd charging and intermittent connection, and its brand manager Ava Espanola, who simply doesn’t care.

The funny thing is that after I sent my email, I never heard from him again. Hahaha! He probably didn’t expect a mouthful from me. But I guess I’ve made my case why SMART BRO is not worth renewing.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate SMART. I have been a loyal SMART Gold postpaid user for the last eight years. And because of SMART, I have never bought a cell phone in the last eight years. I just keep renewing my SMART Gold contract every two years and I receive a new cell phone every time.

But SMART Bro is a different matter altogether. So, goodbye to SMART BRO and good riddance!

The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book of Fate is a great conspiracy novel about the figures on either side of an attempt to control and manipulate information for monetary gain. I bought this book after enjoying The First Counsel, and wasn’t disappointed. Brad Meltzer weaves an amazing story, a rollercoaster ride that is heavily influenced by his research into the politics and procedures of the Oval Office.

Each Brad Meltzer experience is awe-inspiring, ranging from the tele-drama of Jack and Bobby, or the various thrillers he’s had published over the years. The main character is somewhat different for each story though, and is often destined for greatness or an act of brilliance that will inevitably lead to the uncovering of a crime. Though the general structure is standard, the writing is always top-notch, and well worth reading, whether you are a layman or a seasoned veteran.

View all my reviews >>

Is the Iphone 3gs, or any other model of Iphone, the phone that really marks an after and before for the cellphone technology?

In my own opinion, I think it is. I just recently got my hands on one, and I love it. I like its style, space, and just how good it is when browsing the web, and the tons of apps that can do almost everything for you.

Now, verizon has launched the new Droid phone, which I believed it’s just following the Iphone’s steps. Some may disagree with me….

The only “problem” I have found so far has been that some webpages are impossible to see on the Iphone, but that is only because these pages are using flash videos or formats, which aren’t viewable by the Iphone. And also that the battery drains fast. This is a normal problem if you like using the phone to play games or surf the web for long time.

Anyways, What do you think?

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) spends most of his life traveling; 322 days last year, according to his count. He fires people for a living, traveling across the country from office to office to handle mass layoffs that inept bosses fail to stomach. He also works part-time as a motivational speaker with his “What’s in your backpack” philosophy of minimizing your life. He’s great at his job, meets women on the road (Vera Farmiga plays love interest Alex Goran) and the lifestyle suits him perfectly. But his way of life is threatened when Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a young, hot-shot Cornell grad, comes in with plans to cut corporate costs by implementing a video chat system to fire employees. For his final trip “up in the air”, Bingham’s boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) charges Bingham with showing Keener the ropes and reality of firing for on the job training before the company fully transitions to the new system.

We’ve all seen George Clooney be charming, and in that respect this role is perfect for him, and even written by  Juno director Jason Reitman with Clooney in mind. But what makes this performance special is the complexity that comes with his charming, smooth nature. There’s a unique innocence to his charisma, a pleasure in enjoying his world and satisfaction in being great at what he does.

Clooney isn’t alone, with strong performances by Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick (shockingly of Twilight fame) who fill the other starring roles. Kendrick is really impressive, and not that I’ve seen either of the Twilight films, but jumping from that to this is nothing I would have ever expected and I’m quite glad to be proven otherwise. Kendrick is fiesty, confident, and her short moment of weakness where she cries and wails like a teenage girl after having been dumped can only put a smile on your face. Kendrick’s Keener is the antithesis of everything Clooney’s Bingham stands for. She’s laid out all the plans for her life, her future, and everything in-between. She’s appalled at Bingham’s lack of care on the subjects of marriage and children, and their relationship creates a funny, interesting dynamic to mirror the generations of today’s young and old.

Fermiga fills the love interest as a fellow air warrior who gets turned on by Bingham’s elite status with American Airlines and his healthy spread of member cards. They’re the perfect storm of a noncommittal relationship based in hotel rooms and airports traveling on the company dime. And for once in Bingham’s life, he’s happy spending time with someone else rather than his usual self. The on-screen chemistry between Clooney and Farmiga is untouchable from the moment they meet, and their philosophies on life are so close knit and provide for a very funny scene where Keener sits before them in a hotel lobby like a parent-teacher conference questioning their reason for settling in life, which to Keener, “by definition”, is a sign of failure.

From Thank You For Smoking to Juno and now Up In The Air, writer-director Jason Reitman has proven his skill with topical, relevant stories that fit their own bill of the existential nature. Up In The Air started for him in 2002 when he began working on the adaptation (thanks IMDb trivia) from the book by Walter Kirn with the intent of his first feature. But as we know, other things came up, and the project was put to the side. Originally meant as a tale during a booming economy, Reitman’s own life, fatherhood, and today’s economic climate reshaped the story we see today. He even sent out a casting call (posing his crew as documentary filmmakers) to hold interviews with real-life people who had been fired in Detroit and St. Louis, asking them only to share their feelings and what they wished they would have said on the day they were let go (IMDb again). Interspersed throughout the film, these short, quick confessions hit to the heart the experience of being fired in current economic times. But it’s Bingham’s job to manage those feelings, and provide them with hope for future opportunities. This is best shown in a powerful moment with scene-stealing character actor J.K. Simmons.

A self-professed air warrior who once flew from LA to Chicago, got a pizza and flew back, just to get the miles he needed before years end, Reitman’s control of vision is so well communicated that it’s  shocking to think this is only his third feature. The first line of Kirn’s book reads, “To know me is to fly with me,” and Reitman depicts the experience promised with adept skill. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a great film and Up In The Air (so far) is the best film of the year.

Acting – 10/10. Writing/Directing 9/10. Overall 9/10.

(2 Walkens awarded to J.K. Simmons for a supremely memorable 2 minutes of screen-time.)

Directed by Jason Reitman. Written by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner. Cinematography by Eric Steelberg. Edited by Dana E. Glauberman.

Also starring: Zach Galifianakis, Sam Elliot, Danny McBride, Amy Morton & Melanie Lynskey.

http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/

I don’t really know what I think of this book. 

On the one hand, I found Mandanipour’s description of the agonies of being a censored writer fascinating.  An American writer can simply sit before their computers and let the words flow, but an Iranian writer must constantly think about whether or not a sentence or word may be seen as provocative or corrupting in the eyes of the Islamic Republic.  I kept getting this mental picture of a small writer perched on one shoulder and Mr. Petrovich perched on the other, like the devil and angel in cartoons.

And isn’t it interesting that use technologies purchased from the hated West in order to monitor and purify their literature?  Talk about hypocrisy.

However . . .

On the other hand, the love story was quite dull, not to mention ridiculous.  Dara was an insane stalker, in my opinion.  Rather like an Iranian Florentino Ariza (from Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera).  My impression of Sara is that she’s a spoiled child.  She liked male attention in a society where it was banned.  Liked watching their jealousies and the rivalries for her love.  First Sinbad and Dara, then Dara and Farhad.  She kept insisting that Dara prove his love for her in idiotic and childish ways, as if she actually wanted him to get arrested.  Until, that is, it happens.  But does she learn her lesson?  No.  She just has to flirt with the good doctor.  See?  Ridiculous! 

There is one good thing about the love story:  I also kind of liked the idea of a Hashashin in modern-day Tehran.  It was an interesting twist to the story.  I was also amused by the references to other novels an stories integrated into the text.

Censoring an Iranian Love Story is certainly an enlightening read, but not very entertaining.

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars

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I got one of the coolest-looking tins of tea a couple of weeks ago from the folks at Naivetea, which seems to be a very fancy online tea shop. Their products are a little expensive, but neatly packaged in cute little tins. The tea that they sent me was a mint oolong, which is a blend I’ve never seen before. I infused 6 ounces of water with around 1 teaspoon of tea, which is how I usually take my oolong. I took a sip, and, while the mint flavor was definitely there, I tasted virtually none of the oolong tea itself, a feature of the tea with which I was rather disappointed. Again, the mint flavor was a very soothing mint flavor, but I think that, if they plan to market it as an oolong tea, there really ought to be a little less of the mint overpowering the tea. I will also acknowledge that the oolong still has its health benefits intact, but when I choose to drink oolong, I expect the actual taste of the tea itself to be there.

Summary:
Cost: $10/oz
5/10
Taste: 6/10
Brew Time: 2-3 minutes
Brew Temperature: 195˚ Fahrenheit
Overall Rating: 6/10

SANMINA-SCI, the supplier of electronics services, is loaded with debt and in each of the last eightyears has lost money. Its shares have risen more than 600 percent since the stock market rally began on March 9.

Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News

Shares in Wal-Mart Stores have been bested by those of shakier companies.

Add to Portfolio Wal-Mart Stores Inc

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Wal-Mart Stores, the discount retailer, has lots of cash on its balance sheet, has very little debt and has consistently turned a profit. Since March 9, its shares have gained just 14 percent.

The disparate treatment meted out to these two companies by the stock market highlights an unusual and, in some ways, worrisome phenomenon: to an extent not seen in decades, shares of companies with weak balance sheets have been soaring, generally outperforming firms with stronger fundamentals.

In part, this is a consequence of the terrible pummeling given to riskier assets of all kinds during the worst months of the financial crisis. Shares of companies that were deemed to be weakest were hit the hardest. It’s only natural that they would bounce back the most at the first hint that financial disaster had been averted.

But the performance gap between the weak and the strong has rarely been as pronounced as it has been since March’s market lows. The extreme outperformance of the more speculative stocks could make them vulnerable to another market shock.

Ford Equity Research, an independent research firm based in San Diego, rates stocks’ financial quality based on a number of factors, including a company’s size, debt level, earnings history and industry stability. All told, Ford Equity follows more than 4,000 stocks. Those in the bottom fifth of its ratings — including Sanmina-SCI — produced an average stock market return of 152 percent from the beginning of March to the end of November, according to an analysis conducted for The New York Times.

The stocks in the highest quintile for quality — including Wal-Mart — produced an average gain of 66 percent over the same period, or roughly 85 percentage points less. That is the biggest disparity over the first nine months of any bull market since 1970, which is the first year for which Ford Equity has quality ratings.

Historical comparisons to bull markets prior to 1970 must rely on a proxy for financial quality, and perhaps the best available is market capitalization. Not all large-cap companies are financially healthy, of course, and not all small caps are weak. But, historically, as a group, the difference between the large- and small-cap sectors has proved to be roughly correlated with the disparity between high- and low-quality stocks.

Since the March lows, for example, according to Ford Equity, the 20 percent of stocks with smallest market capitalizations have on average outperformed the largest 20 percent by 72 percentage points — only slightly less than the 85-point disparity between the lowest- and highest-quality issues.

By contrast, in the first nine months of all bull markets since 1926, the average outperformance of the small-cap sector was just 21 percentage points, or less than one-third as much as the disparity over the last nine months, according to calculations by The Hulbert Financial Digest.

Only once since 1926 have the first nine months of a bull market produced a gap greater than this year’s. That was in the bull market that began in February 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression, when small caps outperformed large caps by an incredible 196 percentage points.

How can we explain the current extreme performance disparity? The federal government’s stimulus program is the main cause, in the view of Jeremy Grantham, the chief investment strategist at GMO, a money-management firm based in Boston. Mr. Grantham said in an interview that by temporarily reducing the danger of incurring risk, the government had effectively encouraged huge amounts of risk-taking in financial markets. “The sizable disparity of junk over quality should not have come as a big surprise,” he said, “given how massive the government’s stimulus has been.”

As an unintended consequence, Mr. Grantham said, high-quality stocks today are about as cheap as they have ever been relative to shares of firms with weaker finances.

“It’s almost a certain bet that high-quality blue chips will outperform lower-quality stocks over the longer term,” he said.

Mark Hulbert is editor of The Hulbert Financial Digest, a service of MarketWatch. E-mail: strategy@nytimes.com.

Strategies: When the Performance Looks a Little Too Good

Title:    The Lighting Thief

Author:  Rick Riordan

Grade Level: 6-8

Genre: Action,Adventure,Friendship

Number of Stars:  Five Stars

Opinion:    Hi, today I will be reviewing a book called ” The Lighting Thief which is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.  This book is about a 12 year old boy named Percy Jackson and he has been kicked out of all of the boarding schools because of his rude behavior and his problem with AD/HD.  Then he finds out that he is a half-blood and he is the son of the Greek Water God Poseidon and that he has to go to camp-half blood.  Then when he gets there he gets offered a quest and thats to retrieve Zeus’s master lighting bolt which is stolen.  So now Percy and his 2 friends Annebeth and Grover have to retrieve the lighting bolt before the date of the summer solstice or then it might cause a big war between the 3 big gods.  One thing that got me going for this book was the action scenes and the author explains them so well in detail that whenever Percy wins a battle you feel so excited.  My final response for the book is that its really good
 and that if your a person who loves to read adventure novels then this is for you and so my final response to the novel is that its really good, so people read this book!!!!!!!!

Name:  HoboFlawnBookReviewer

Who else thought this was a good idea, right? I mean, Jim Sheridan directing Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal as brothers. I’m sure like I used to do, there are thousands of people that may get the two confused anyway. Now we are in the opening weekend of Brothers starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and the always sexy, Natalie Portman. Let me watch myself. This is supposed to be an innocent review.

Brothers is a remake of Susanne Bier’s Swedish original of the same title. The plot follows an U.S. Marine, Capt. Sam Cahill played by Maguire, as he returns home from being tortured in Afghanistan only to enter a house of paranoia where he believes his wife, Grace Cahill played by Portman, is guilty of infidelity with his brother, Tommy played by Gyllenhaal. After having had viewed the trailer and read write-ups on the story, I felt the scenario was perfect for an amazing story. All of the elements are present. A lonely supposed widow with two kids and memories of a beautiful marriage she once had is tempted by the closest thing she has to her late husband, which is her husband’s younger brother who almost seems to be a spitting image. On the other end of that rope, Tommy is fresh from prison and loses his brother in an undisclosed amount of time. The only person that refrains from treating him like a criminal is Grace, his brother’s widow whom he once held a high school crush on. This has the propensity of being one humongous mess of events. There’s an issue though. NOTHING HAPPENS!

This is why Brothers upset me. Everyone is scared and everyone is over-dramatic when nothing happened. I don’t want to give the movie away but…that’s what a full review is for, right. If you still want to see the movie and want to be surprised then stop reading right here. Actually, I’ll give you a double space so your eyes doesn’t accidentally read the next sentence.

Let me start with some good things. There is some good acting in the film of course. We are talking about Sam Shepard, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portman…Maguire sometimes but not here. My favorite performances actually came from the two little girls. I had a conversation with my boys TJet and Big Mo City and the concensus is that the two girls from In America were better but Bailee Madison and Taylor Geare from Brothers were amazing also. Furthermore, I was a half-way fan of the Afghanistan torture scenes, although I felt it carried on a little too long since the movie decided that it wouldn’t be long enough.

Now let’s talk about the meat before this review becomes a book. I doubt this is how the U.S. government works but fine. Cap. Cahill’s helicopter, which included him and a few other marines, is sniped from the air. The services were quick to stop by Grace’s door and announce the death of her husband. Not even a notice that the helicopter was shot down and there is no response but death is not certain. No sir. Straight to the worse possible situation that yes, your husband is dead and we have no corpse to prove it. First of all, that’s grounds for a damn lawsuit.

Now to the drama that is supposed to be the conflict of the film. No sex occurred between Tommy and Grace. The only infidelity that occurred was a five second kiss. Not even a real make-out session. No clothes came off. No bosom grabbing. Just two awkward adults put in an awkward situation and make a less than stellar decision. So where is the drama? Why is there a movie? I’m sure the kiss was awkward and Tommy may feel that he totally screwed up and may have messed up chances of finally being accepted by a part of his family. It turns out that Sam is still alive and is rescued and returns home a different man. Guess what. No one is upset at the United States government for such an outrageous announcement and funeral, again, with no corpse. Sam is greeted and welcomed by family in a moment that sort of ostracizes his brother Tommy, who seemed to have become a better citizen by taking care of his brother’s family. No one really realizes or at least talks about how crazy Sam has gotten since he returned. No one has any emotions that even rang true for seeing a family member after having thought you buried the fool. The issues begin when out of nowhere, Sam accuses his brother of sleeping with his wife. Tommy denies it several times but he isn’t even convincing to me and I saw him NOT do it. When Grace is confronted, she’s all wide eyed like a 1920’s coon. Everyone is tip-toeing around, feeling guilty, little kids throwing out accusations, and all the while, the audience doesn’t even get a pay off of actual sex. Everything just becomes so overdone and over dramatic that it’s almost sickening. The movie is pointless. I don’t care about any of the characters, with the exception of Tommy. He made a few mistakes in life and is being persecuted by his father and is only trying to find a place to finally fit in, which is very human. Let me take that back. I love the little girls. I don’t care about Sam’s character. He’s going off the deep end and there’s no real drama to back it up. Portman’s character is pretty much just there for dramatic value. She has no family outside of her two little girls and she isn’t even the catalyst for their dealing with the father’s death. They get their excitement from Uncle Tommy. Portman is just there for the kiss and to make the movie seem senseless and over dramatic.

One last thing. Tobey Maguire as a killing machine and father of two daughters? I didn’t buy one second of it, even from the moment the first frame rolled. It’s too soon. He’s too corny. Bad casting choice. Wait for this film to hit television.

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More poses for your holiday pictures, because we know you are getting your cameras out for your Christmas cards!

From Charming Poses we have two submissions, Girlfriends and First Flight. Girlfriends is a great back to back pose for you and your best friend or the lady in your life your hands clasped gently together in a beautiful and simple pose.

First flight is a wonderfully whimsical pose which would work wonderfully for a male angel and his beloved but can work with any season not just Christmas. It is really very unique and well made.

And finally from Adorkable poses is “What’s in the Box?”.  This is a great pose for you and your friends with a beautifully textured box and poseballs that are all unisex and are just fabulous.

More information on the POE hunt can be found at: http://peaceonearthhunt.wordpress.com/

The main reason I started this blog was to catalogue everything I wanted to remember. Primarily, I needed a way to remember my opinions on certain things such as why I did or didn’t like certain movies. I’ve been bad about it the last year or so, but I’m going to start doing quick micro-reviews of movies and books I’ve read each month. If you care, here are my opinions for the month of November.

As a prelude, these reviews are written in reverse order of being consumed. This is because I only started to write them up at the end of the month when I was already forgetting what I did and didn’t like about them!

Books
The Thin Man
I’ve been reading a lot of pulp noir recently, and have been working my way through the complete Dashiell Hammett. The Thin Man is Hammett’s fifth and final book, which is a pity. He was on a great run, almost all of his five novels being classics in hardboiled fiction – and then he just stops.

Anyway, The Thin Man is the story of a wisecracking (what else?) former detective on vacation in his old stomping grounds, New York City. Due to old acquantinces, he quickly gets caught up in the middle of a murder case. It doesn’t really fall to him to crack the case, but in between evening shows on Broadway, large dinners, and even larger numbers of drinks, the case is solved.

This is tied for my favorite of Hammett’s books (the other being Red Harvest). It displays all his greatest strengths – wit, pacing, and a complex but interesting story – without his weaknesses – the appearances of supercriminals, for instance. It’s worth a quick read through, though I’m not sure how “deep” it would be on rereading. But we don’t always need that, do we?

Oryx and Crake
When I started reading this book, I was a little wary. The only other book by Margaret Atwood that I have read is The Handmaid’s Tale which I considered badly written scifi trying it’s hardest to be deep – just amateurish, really, easily corrected had she read more scifi before writing it.

Oryx and Crake, however, is nothing of the sort. It’s a book that will grip you and leave you unable to put it down, with a complex and interesting (though not incredibly original) world. The novel follows one character – Snowman – as he lives in the shattered remains of a postapocalyptic world. Snowman was unfortunate to have been close to the events that caused the end of the world, and is the shepherd of a flock of humans genetically engineered to be, well, naive (although they quickly show signs of overcoming this). The world from before is one of rampant genetic manipulations, constant cyber attachments, and literal walls between the well-to-do scientists and the “pleeblands” (yes, they’re actually called that).

As I said, the book is gripping and interesting – definitely something I recommend reading. This leaves the flaws all the more unfortunate. I think Atwood aims for something loftier than plotboiler fiction, so the incredibly unsubtle ways she goes about that is irritating (see: pleeblands.) She also seems to forget about the possibility of evolution; the ‘genius scientist’ at the center of everything genetically designs creatures to survive after the apocalypse – which would work great, in a vacuum. Surely a genius scientist should know better than that? The book also sometimes felt like it was written straight through, leaving the continuity feeling a bit off (heightened by the next book). So overall: great to read, just don’t think too deeply about it.

The Flood
Captivated by Oryx and Crake, I quickly picked up the sequel only to be cruelly dissapointed. There’s nothing worse you can do in a sequel than change characters and past events. See, in this book you go through the same time period as in Oryx and Crake but seen through the eyes of other characters. And they manage to be intertwined with the characters in the previous book – but somehow never really mentioned there…

Anyway, the book suffers from a brief and infuriatingly boring character section written in a way to ensure the reader skips the passages. Atwood also changes major events and characters from the previous book, making a world previously devoid of people now suspiciously filled with them. And gone is the gripping read: even the characters that are non-boring are kind of uninteresting, and exploring the least interesting part of the world. I definitely would have liked it had Atwood stopped at the end of the last book, leaving the cliffhanger never to be resolved.

The Road
Last on the postapocalyptic novel extravaganza is Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I’ve never read McCarthy before, but I started this book just after reading The Reader’s Manifesto. One of the main targets in the Manifesto is McCarthy, so I was all set to dislike The Road (note: I love Paul Auster, so the Manifesto doesn’t carry that much weight with me.)

But hey, I’m a convert. McCarthy has a poetic prose that manages to evoke a feeling of the scene with a brutal directness. I don’t know how else you’d write this book without his prose – as the movie disastrously tried to do and failed (see below). The Road is about a father and a son heading south for warmth in a dying world, encountering barbarism and canibalism and worse. But primarily, the story is about survival in a harsh world and the strained relationship between a dying father and a distant yet captivated son. Seriously every paragraph is dedicated to either searching for food, hiding, running, and attempting to bond, practically in that order of frequency.

What’s best about the book is what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say what happened to the world. It doesn’t say where they are most of the time. It doesn’t say what happened to them in the past. It’s just a story in the here-and-now, managing to communicate the feelings and emotions and sense of the situation these people are in. In case you can’t tell, this is really a great, great book. Which leads to…

Movies
The Road
I saw this movie the most recently but don’t have much to say about it. I’d read The Road the novel in the 24 hours before seeing the movie which created too much dissonance when I watched it; I just couldn’t get in to it. I will say, though, that everything I liked about the book wasn’t here. As I said, the book told a lot through what wasn’t said – the movie was pretty blunt. Also, I don’t know if this is a consequence of the difference in forms but there was a noticeable departure from the themes of the book. McCarthy emphasized the relationship of the father and son, as well as the struggle for survival. The movie emphasized the post-apocalyptic setting, which was not nearly as interesting.

A Serious Man
After watching this movie, my friends and I were taking the parking garage elevator when we overheard someone say, “You know, it was all about the story of Job.” Cue glances between me and my friends and a silent ooooh. Remember that when you go to see it and everything will make more sense. That’s not to say the movie doesn’t make sense when you watch it – you’ll just understand it on a deeper level if you do.

The movie is basically about being middle-class and Jewish in 1970s suburbia. You follow the main character as his life goes from normal to crap, dragging everyone else down with him. The Coen brothers bring their normal sense of dark humor to the absurdity of everyday life, while keeping everything somehow serious. The whole movie is a stylistic continuation of No Country For Old Men, which comes off in a very positive way. You can easily compare this to their earlier dark comedies (Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, etc.) and see a definite progression; I’m unable to say how it’s progressing expect everything felt tighter and better placed together. Maybe they just got a better editor?

Fear(s) of the Dark
A French collection of short films by graphic artists from around the world, the theme here is, obviously, fear. Every short film is in black and white (with some splashes of red in one segment – cheater) and some are chopped up and woven between the others. Overall, it’s pretty good but it’s really uneven in quality.

Quickly, the highlights and lowlights: Charles Burns does his usual style, both in terms of illustrations and theme. I love the art, the rest was meh. Blutch has an amazing series of vignettes; his art really conveys the mood better than anyone else. Richard McGuire was the standout, both in terms of story and in terms of using pure blackness and whiteness to convey a story. Finally, Pierre Di Sciullo has a series of uninspired 2D animations combined with dumb, banal monologues.

Solaris
Solaris is one of my favorite books, and on my list of Greatest Science Fiction Ever. I’d heard that the Russian movie was supposed to be a masterpiece, and that the author of the book (Stanislaw Lem) derogatively labeled it ‘erotica in space’. Which it kind of is.

Solaris the book was one of the most creative and original descriptions of alien intelligence and environment that I’ve ever read, and is a meditation on man’s place in nature and the cosmos. Solaris the movie is a meditation on scientists as people, and does well at making the science fiction seem unartificial. Be prepared for a slow and fairly dry movie, but one well worth it. This is one of those intellectual pieces that can only be experienced, not really explained.

The Fly
Luckily, this movie has nothing to do with the original 1958 version of The Fly beyond the idea of a man’s transmutation into a human-fly hybrid. Cronenberg did a great job updating the concept using his signature 1980’s biohorror, with Jeff Goldblum giving a terrifyingly amazing portrayal of the descent from man to (brundle-)fly. Unfortunately, Jeff Goldblum’s meaningless incantations to his computer are typical of early movies that assumed their audience was ignorant of computers – something no longer true today. Overall, a great movie with minor flaws.

American Psycho
I don’t remember much of what I liked or disliked about this movie, honestly. I do remember that Christian Bale managed to bring a lot of character to the movie, even though the whole thing slightly bored me. Also, William Defoe was a detective who repeatedly interviewed Bale; each scene was filmed three times, where Defoe was supposed to either be sure that Bale was a killer, sure he wasn’t, or unsure. It added a lot of real-life uncertainty and unease to each interview, which worked wonderfully.

The Virgin Spring
A simple, solid tale of medieval Norway. I haven’t been sold on some Bergman in the past, but this was worth watching. I suppose what drew me in was the realistic feeling – people wore crappy clothes, lived far apart, and life generally sucked for everyone involved. The nihilistic and psychological undertones throughout the movie were what completed the sense of it being a really good movie.

The Company
The Company is essentially a faux-documentary of a theater company through a few performances. I get bored watching dance for more than a few minutes at a time, so the small dance scenes interspersed with dialogue kept my attention.

New York, I Love You
This is a collection of short films about New York; really, though, it should have been named, “Manhattan, I love you (and Coney Island is alright for old people)”. Some gems, a lot of meh films. It didn’t flow great and didn’t really convey a sense of the character of the city.

• 4025 Portage Street
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When we lived in Lansing, we had a helluva time trying to find a good pizza place.  We tried almost everything from the few local places to the regional chains.  We weren’t having much luck. 

One of the first weekends there, we tried Cottage Inn.  It was ok, but it wasn’t great.  It was typical chain fare. 

A few months later, I was out-of-town and J wanted pizza.  She called Cottage Inn and they offered her a choice in crust size.  That was an option we didn’t know was available.  J got a thin crust and from that moment on, we had our pizza place in Lansing.  I don’t think we even ordered from anywhere else after finding Cottage Inn’s thin crust.

I was coming home pretty late from East Lansing last night and when I called J to let her know I was leaving, she asked about dinner.  I said I was fine, but I could eat if she wanted to order a pizza.  I suggested she just call Bilbo’s again, but she got the idea to see if there were any Cottage Inn’s near us.  She found one not too far away.

There are actually three Cottage Inn locations in Kalamazoo.  The closest one to us is the Portage Avenue location in the Milwood neighborhood.  J called in the order and they told her it would be about 45 minutes.  That worked out pretty good because I was just passing Firekeeper’s Casino, so the pizza wouldn’t beat me by much.

Twenty minutes after ordering, there was a knock on the door.  They got the pizza there much faster than expected. 

Cottage Inn has a meat lover’s specialty pizza that I really like, but J doesn’t, so we usually order two pizzas.  That sounded like a waste to me, so I just told her to get cheese.  She ended up getting a half cheese and half pepperoni pizza plus an order of Cinnamon Stix. 

Maybe it’s just been a while since we’ve had Cottage Inn or maybe CI Kalamazoo does something different, but J said the pizza was better than she remembered.  The thin crust is almost a cracker thin crust that’s cooked crispy.  Then, instead of cutting it into triangles New York Style, they cut it into small squares…..Chicago style. 

There’s a pizza place back in the Chicago suburbs that we go to almost every time we go home.  It’s not typical Chicago-style pizza.  It’s what we like to call South Side Chicago-style.  This pizza is so good that we’ve never taken anyone there for the first time and they’ve not said it was the best pizza they’ve ever had.  Heck, J and I even had our wedding rehearsal dinner there.  This Cottage Inn pizza is the closest thing we’ve found to the pizza we love so much outside of Chicago.

The cinnamon stix are, I think, the real reason J likes Cottage Inn so much.  You get a pretty good size package of frosting to put on them.  She had to close the box and hand it to me in order to stop eating them.  Instead, I was the weak one who couldn’t fight the urge and I finished them off. 

Before tip, the pizza and stix cost just under $20 which is pretty typical for delivery.  The best thing is, we know we like it and we’re happy to have found a Cottage Inn so close to home.

Thin Crust Half Cheese, Half Pepperoni Pizza

Gregg Mozgala, the title character of Diagnosis of a Faun

The characters in Tamar Rogoff’s Diagnosis of a Faun, which premiered on Thursday evening at La MaMa Annex, were transported to unfamiliar worlds where they struggled to heal and understand their bodies in two very different ways: through science and art.  Rogoff’s cast – two professionally trained dancers, a doctor, and an actor who has cerebral palsy – was equally challenged, as she required them to physically move beyond their comfort zones.  The piece is memorable not only because of the opportunity to watch an actor with cerebral palsy, Gregg Mozgala, move so beautifully and fluidly as the Faun, but also because of the creative way in which the piece conveyed the medical and emotional healing process.

Moving between a mythical forest and a hospital, Diagnosis of a Faun told the story of an injured professional ballet dancer (Lucie Baker) whose career depends on the surgery she must undergo at the hospital, and the story of a 5000-year-old Faun that also lands in the hospital, where he draws the attention and fascination of doctors.  Frequent narration from “Dr. A” (Dr. Don Kollisch) and “Dr. B” (Emily Pope-Blackman, a dancer) provided the audience with in-depth scientific explanations of the dancer’s injury and the faun’s unique way of moving, while solos and duets that were alternately poignant and funny revealed the emotional struggles of the dancer and faun.  When the scientific and artistic portrayals overlapped, they resulted in a painful or humorous outcome.  As Dr. A attempted to examine the dancer’s Achilles tendon and articulate the surgical procedure, she developed her leg to the side and did combinations as if she were at a ballet barre taking class.  And when Dr. B explained the faun’s condition, the faun simply let out a noise that sounded like a moaning lamb.  In both instances, the characters were unaware of the other’s way of addressing an injury.

Emily Pope-Blackman and Gregg Mozgala in rehearsal, photo by Andrea Mohin

The mingling of scientific and artistic mindsets, frequently conveyed through partnering, was most powerful.  A stunning duet for Pope-Blackman and Mozgala set within the forest allowed for a role reversal where the faun examined Dr. B.  Her initial discomfort with the situation and her surroundings turned to overwhelming pleasure.  Back in the hospital, in a dramatic scene that magnified the dancer’s face and utilized the sound of a heartbeat for added suspense, Dr. A successfully operated on the dancer.  The two performed a celebratory pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty.  Hesitant in his new role on stage, the doctor took verbal direction from the happily healed dancer.

Inevitably, the dancer and faun – the two artists – encountered one another in the forest, where she learned how to move like him (by now, she had shed her pointe shoes and white tutu).  Mozgala and Baker’s lush movement included weight shifts, hunched torsos, and animalistic entanglements that were an abrupt change from Baker’s balletic quality seen earlier in the piece.  Sadly, she returned to her world, leaving the faun in solitude once again, only able to remember the dancer by her lingering scent.  As the piece echoed Nijinsky’s 1912 Afternoon of a Faun, it also suggested the limitations of a science-meets-art encounter.  That is, with the healing process complete, scientific and artistic minds returned to what they knew best.  The doctor preferred the operating table to the stage, while the dancer preferred the stage to the operating table.

Diagnosis of a Faun continues at La MaMa on Thursdays through Sundays until December 20^th.  66 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and The Bowery.