in cyberland, we only drink... diet coke

Today I went to a press conference for the Japan touring production of Rent. It was extra-special cool cause Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp--who originated the roles of Roger and Mark, and played them in the movie--were there too!
Originally I was supposed to get to interview one of them, like one-on-one, but there wasn't enough time or something, so I just ended up going to the press conference at the Shibuya HMV. Which actually turned out to be pretty darn fantastic. So first, AP and Anthony came out and performed "What You Own," literally like 5 feet in front of me! The fanboys behind me were screaming their heads off, lol.

They did a little Q&A bit of course, with the two guys plus Yuka Takara who plays Alexi--cause even tho she's not a huge role in the show, she's the only Japanese cast member, so of course they trotted her out, lol. Tho she was absolutely the most adorable thing I've ever seen. A totally cool person.
Then of course they had to bring out the obligatory tarento, which in this case was Yamada Yu who apparently is a "big fan" of the musical. Whether that's true or not, she acted pretty excited--and was actually pretty cute. Tho... my GOD the woman is tall. I mean, granted she was also wearing like 5 inch heels, but still.

Then, even better--the rest of the cast all came out and joined them and they all sang "Seasons of Love"! well, not the whole cast, but basically all the principals--Collins, Mimi, Angel, Benny, plus Gwen Stewart who does the fantastic female solo in the middle of "Seasons" (she's also an original cast member).

It was absolutely incredible, I was sort of tearing up there for a minute even. I would love to go see the show, but I dunno if I can. I mean, it runs through end of August so I could prob swing it, but I don't know of anyone who would go with me. If I could get a press ticket on the other hand... lol.

Oh, and did I mention I'm now on the radio? In addition to the podcast, I'm on the actual radio now! InterFM (76.1) has a morning show, Good Morning Garage, and every Thursday morning at 9:15am, there's sort of a Metropolis corner, where we come in and talk about what's in the mag, events for the weekend, etc. Rather like the Metpod, actually. Will used to do it, but since he's left they needed a replacement. And both James and I volunteered, so we went together last week for the first time, and now we'll be switching off. James took this morning, so I'll be on next week. It's a lot of fun, but I do have to get up about an hour early in the morning to make it on time. Ah, the sacrifices, lol.

Also, check out my bar review in this week's mag. We're not talking Thrash Zone level or anything, but pretty good all the same. (^_^)

(ｰ｡ｰ)ﾌｩ

Boy am I tired!  It's been a long week.  Good, but just really long, mainly cause of 2 things--Metropolis's annual Halloween Glitterball that was on Thursday, and the fact that we're moving to a new office over the weekend.
Which mostly means that our office has been filled with boxes and other crap for days now--empty boxes to pack our stuff in, and boxes of beer, flyers, balloons--you name it--for the Glitterball. Craziness ensues.
So on Thurs, I spent the morning at a press conference for Hellboy 2, which would normally have been kinda meh, whatever (I mean it's not like I've seen the movie)--except that the director, Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) was *super cool*. He was talking about how Hellboy is "autobiographical." lol.

Anyway, he was a total rockstar.
So I got back from the press conference just in time to finish up a few things and then Hiroko and I headed over to Womb in Shibuya to help set up for the party. I swear, when I got there only an hour and a half before the doors were scheduled to open, and took a look around, it was like "there is no way we're gonna get this ready in time!" Cases of beer stacked 10 boxes high along one wall, folding tables in one corner, a thousand or so gift bags in huge piles.. it was ridiculous! But somehow, miraculously, we got everything set up and even had time to duck into the bathroom and change into our costumes. I was going for a sort of cowgirl theme--found a cheap hat at Tokyu Hands--perhaps embarrassing, but that was the only part of my costume I had to buy.  lol.  That's Hiroko on the left, she dressed up as Yoko Ono ^^

So I was scheduled to work the door handing out glowsticks from 7:30-8:30, but I got drafted into sticking on wristbands right at 7 when the door opened. It was ridiculous.  People had been lining up for a while already, and as soon as they opened the door it was just like the floodgates and all these people came pouring in. I heard later that 20 minutes after the doors opened, the place was at capacity.  And they just kept letting people in. The 3rd and 4th floors were supposed to be reserved for VIPs and special guests, but they ended up having to open those up to everyone cause it was just too crowded.

I mean, it was a lot of fun, and I got to hang out with my friends so I'm definitely glad I went. But--Seriously. Crowded.
So it's not like I stayed out past the last train or anything, but I got home really late. Steve had said it was ok for us to come in late on Friday, like at noon, which was cool, but I still only got to sleep in like an extra hour because I had to go all the way out to frigging Odaiba in the morning. See, we needed a photo from Fuji TV for the terebi article, and sometimes the tv studios get all annoying and for some reason can't/won't send a photo as an email attachment (cause that would be too easy) and instead they make you physically go down to the office and pick it up. Makes no sense but しょうがないや。
Got to the office around noon, only to find it everyone either gone or hungover, and the whole place looking pretty much like this:

Yup, it was a packing day. I'm all sad to leave our office :-(  not that the office itself is particularly nice, but I really love the area. And the new area, aside from being a pain in the butt to get to (gotta either walk 15 minutes or take a bus from the station) is, from what I hear, not so much with the tons of fantastic restaurants that our current place has.  It's gonna be really weird. We put everything in boxes, the movers are hauling it all over the weekend, and when I go in to work on Tuesday it will be to a different office.
I am gonna get so lost.

By the time everything was finished up, I was completely exhausted. But Fri night was the big party for the 1st anniversary of the Omotesando Gyre building, and we got invited to the MoMA Design Store party there. All the shops in the building were doing promotions and events and things--MoMA, Chanel, this organic restaurant called Cinegro was giving out awesome food...it was really cool.  And there were these very odd box-headed recycling people wandering around...? I didn't really get it.

And there was some sort of champagne lounge that had--well, champagne--and also a live performance by some duo called MCU. I tihnk they're newbies, like they're gonna debut in a few weeks or something? They were pretty good tho. They got everybody really into the show, dancing and everything. I took a video.  hehe.

New PV: another Fuma! well, technically his character was a Yasha but...

For those of you who don't know, I'm referencing the crack-tastic high school-sports-feuding-ninja-clans show Fuma no Kojiro that we subbed, and the fact that the twins (see last PV) as well as the lead singer of this band, Rei, were all in the show. 

Anyway, the PV is not the most interesting (fairly typical for a debut PV) and it came out several months ago--but I like the song and I don't have anything better to post this week.  lol.

enjoy!

(wow this was a long post)

picspam time! (a.k.a. I'M DONE!!!!!!)

So, here's some photos and items of interest that I've been storing up lately, lol.

First off, last week I went over to the Aka Renga to do my Christmas shopping. For those of you who remember, Aka Renga where they set up the tents for Oktoberfest before. It's basically this big collection of old brick warehouses that have been turned into shops and restaurants. It's down by the harbor, in between Pacifico and 山下公園 Yamashita Park. And, in honor of Christmas, they'd set up this cute little skating rink outside, sort of like a mini-Rockefeller Center. Lol. (It really is pretty small.)

Also, Thank you, Light Fellowship!!
Haha, now that I've gotten that out of my system, Adam from the Light office came with his wife and daughter to Japan last week, doing site visits and stuff. The Yalies (me, Jason, Jeff, and Byol) met up with them in Shibuya last Saturday night, and got treated to a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called Gonpachi, which I guess is the same one the summer fellows took Dean Farley to when he came to visit back in August.
We didn't have much time to take photos (I tried to take some of the inside of the restaurant, but it was too dark), so this is my attempt at a night view of Shibuya from the 15th floor.