23 minutes ago I turned 21. At 12:00AM I bought myself everything my heart desires: a plane ticket to Osaka, departing March 13th.

 I guess this means exist trace and I will pass like ships in the night. I need to sell my exist trace ticket. My ticket is for the Boston live on March 15th, at Middle East Club. VIP only, meet & greet. Ticket: $46 (39.50+7.03, I’ll let you keep the change ;]). Includes S/H. If you know anyone who might be interested, it would be doing me a great favor if you could pass it on. 

明けましておめでとうございます！

Happy New Year! It is now 2012, the Year of the Dragon! Remember, for everyone born in the year of the dragon, this will be a particularly auspicious year for you….Heck, I hope it’s a particularly auspicious year for all of us!

Actually before we get into all the overly sentimental thanks for everything last year and this year no regrets promise kk, I would like to acknowledge the fact that last night in Tokyo, an earthquake shook buildings and temporarily shut down train lines (due to safety checks), but no greater damage has yet been reported and no tsunami warnings were released. The earthquake affected Tokyo as well as parts of Fukushima which were devastated by the Tohoku Quake last March.

The reason I find this particularly noteworthy is due to the fact that Dragon years are characterized by intense natural disasters, particularly earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Throughout history, apparently, some of the craziest natural disasters have occurred during Dragon years. It seems strangely fitting, and slightly unnerving, then, that Honshu would greet 2012′s Water Dragon Year with nothing other than an earthquake.

As the days of 2012 unfold, as we have such things as resolutions and goals and hopes for the year on our minds, I know that I, at least, will be sending as many positive hopes toward Japan for this year. Hopes for the continued reconstruction of the Tohoku/Fukushima areas and the lives of everyone who was affected by the disaster. May they find strength, courage, and peace in 2012.

Also, let’s send positive hopes out to the world at large that 2012′s Dragon is kind to us all, merciful (should the predictions hold true), and full of great, forward-moving energy.

Life is too short and your tastes are too rad to waste time being ashamed of your playlist.

In any case, all noodling and whining aside, I am actually ok with how All My Love turned out. Aside from the fact that the PV was totally not entertaining or thought-provoking in any way, shape, or form, I basically have no complaints. GACKT loves him some gently falling snow and some military-inspired outfits, wish they had shown more Chacha since I miss that flaming goddess, and I highly recommend Jon invest some time into learning his own stage moves instead of just copying GACKT’s moves like some creepy puppet, but well, you can’t exactly use pet-peeves as the basis for criticism can you? I just did. 

I’ll even go so far as to (wait for it) state that I was actually impressed by (yeah you can’t believe I’m saying it either) Jon’s performance. While I still consider him completely and entirely superfluous, I actually really enjoyed the harmonies, give him two thumbs up for his Japanese, and thought his voice was nice.

The song itself is really decent. The English straddled a thin line between overly repetitive and catchy, but since it’s already stuck in my head we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. GACKT sounded great, and I thought the orchestral heaves (for lack of a better word) gave the thing a sort of sad-movie-anthem-feel. Nicely done, YFCz, and I am somewhat more hopeful about the whole studio-album thing.

On a final note….Maybe it’s just the season, but was I the only one who mentally auto-filled “holy night” into that first line?

this is just wrong on every level

Itsuka no Merry Christmas – B’z (intro clip)
Merry Xmas 2 U – Vidoll
twinkle, twinkle – L’arc~En~Ciel
Konayuki – remioromen
Winter, again – GLAY
I Wish – L’arc~En~Ciel vers.

Silent Night – Hamasaki Ayumi ft. GACKT
12 Gatsu no Love Song – GACKT
Christmas – Kawamura Ryuuichi
Hanashitaku wa Nai – T-BOLAN

Arigatou – Amuro Namie
Mirrorball (VANDALIZE vers.) – alice nine
Yami ni Furu Kiseki (Classical White vers.) – D’espairsRay
SNOW – B’z

My personal winter playlist also includes these songs, which were not featured on the podcast:

Snow White – D
Setsugekka ~ The End of Silence~ -GACKT
Saikai ~STORY~ – GACKT
I LOVE YOU – Ozaki Yutaka
Kanashimi ga Itai Yo – T-BOLAN
Meguriai – GACKT
OH MY LITTLE GIRL – Ozaki Yutaka
Sayounara ~ RRII Vers. instrumental~ -GACKT
SWEET DREAMS ~ acoustic vers.~ – VAMPS
Lunartail – Luzmelt

What do you guys have on your seasonal mix? (And don’t even say Hurry Xmas by L’arc, because I don’t even want to hear it. /shudders)

So I started thinking about what I wanted to do for you all for Christmas, and, given everything that’s been going on recently, it only made sense to use this opportunity to “come out” in a sense on here. Here is a message/playlist that I recorded for you guys. Hope you enjoy it!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from SG. 

Special thanks to Roukun for helping put this together.