rites of spring

Forget about that flower nonsense--this week, as I was getting my usual Starbucks on the way to work, I ordered my very first iced latte of the year! Now it's official.
seriously, tho, it has been crazy warm and beautiful weather lately. and it's almost golden week... which means vacation days (yay) and also crazy-extra-super-fast-work-so-that-we-can-actually-take-a-vacation days (not so yay). starting next week and for the next three weeks, we're shortening the production schedule by a day every week, with the eventual result that by the time the holidays roll around, we'll be going to print a full three days early. *shudders* i foresee some crazy hectic days ahead. makes me exhausted just thinking about it.
but I've been having some fun, too. on Monday went to interview Nakata Daisuke, professional trampolinist, Olympian and star of Muscle Musical (which is a sort of Cirque de Soleil-esque gymnastics/rhythmic/feats-of-strength type stage show). MM are clients of ours, so Niki-san at work arranged the interview, which'll be a star struck sometime in May. It was a really neat interview, very easy to talk to (Niki was smitten, lol). Even better news, looks like I can score some comp tix to see the show whenever I want! Now, just to find someone to drag along with me...
Then today was the press conference for the new Disney on Ice show that's starting up, so that conf was over in Shibuya (at A-X, right next to the MM theater as well as Boxx where I went to see Dustz show, coincidentally). Of course they brought out Mickey and Minnie, and the obligatory guest tarento was Hirayama Aya, a.k.a. the cute younger editorial girl in Hataraki Man. So that was kind of cool. Will be a Tarento Watch piece in 787, but for the time being see here.
Then I've got another conference tomorrow afternoon, for the opening of the new Uniqlo UT store in Harajuku. *phew* (And I wonder why I'm so busy all the time. actually, I don't wonder, I know)
Oh, and last nite after work I went to the opening of the new Song Bar Street in Akasaka, which is a sort of recreated yokocho style street of bars (i say "street" but it's indoors). sposed to have a sort of nostalgic feel to it. There was a tachinomiya, a new half/owarai bar, an 80s-themed bar, a cool-looking 40s/traditional Japanese bar, plus some others. I wandered around a bit and peeked into several of the places. Couldn't find anyone to go with me, but I didn't mind, and actually ended up exchanging meishi and chatting with several people, so that was cool.

anyway, I should go to bed soon since I have to be like "go! go! go!" all day tomorrow. (thank god it's friday)
PV is Breakerz again, with their new one. It's pretty cool, but I like their old stuff better than what they've put out since leaving indies. oh well, what can ya do.
oh, and speaking of music, Amazon confuses me. I went to order the twins' new album (yes mom, there's more... *evil laugh*) and of course this being japan, there's several versions of the album, some 2-disc with a dvd, some just a cd, varying numbers of songs-- cause (duh) they need to make each person buy as many versions of the album as possible, cause that's the only way you can get all the songs and extras. anywho. i was trying to decide which (one!) i wanted, when lo and behold the CD+DVD version with 13 songs is on sale..... making it actually cheaper than the CD-only version with fewer songs.  @.@  go figure. but hey, i'm not complaining, certainly helped to make the decision-making process easier. lol.