topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (嵐: SHOOOOOOO)
Okay, at this point lj REALLY feels like a diary to me because I can’t imagine there are people still here to read it but [livejournal.com profile] phrenk and I are doing another post-exchange for motivation! She makes sure to reel me into one at least once a year, bless her. ♥♥♥ This is mostly going to be about my current Big Fandom Upheaval because that just happened and was a drastic shift for me:

☀ I’m into a new fandom and it SAVED me. I’m currently tumbling a lot about Skam, a Norwegian show that I’m going to assume you got hit with gifs of at some point. It’s a really wonderful show, it’s basically a ~dream show for me? It’s soft and gay and emotionally hard-hitting and artistically rich and basically was the most nuanced breakdown of internalized homophobia I’ve ever seen, as well as a great portrayal of [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]. The best first love story for a gay teen? A better show that I had even thought to hope for? Given me characters I care about more deeply than I have in years? I know love and its name is Skam Season Three. (There's also a really awesome girl squad that's a big focus of s1 & s2, it's just that s3 and the soft cuddling boys is what hooked me.)


Pictured: Why I started watching this show

☀ I say it SAVED me because it came along at just the right time to help break me free from One Direction. Which I really needed. Basically, being in that fandom had reached the point of daily suffering but it was hard to leave when my dash there was so fast moving and as much I do love JE, there’s just not enough fandom content to possibly replace the community I’d lose. Then comes along Skam, beautiful beautiful Skam that so many people are excited about, sweeping in to provide this rush of flailing as the fandom exploded from mid-November to mid-December. Which lined up p e r f e c t l y to my suffering reaching intolerable levels in early December. I basically had one day where I noped out and even though I still check back a couple times a week, I’m mentally free from the cycle now?? It feels soooooo good. I don’t think I can even tell you how good unless you know what it’s like to live as a larrie. It would almost be easier if my opinion had changed but it really hasn't, it's just the situation got too sad for me to watch anymore. :(

☀ Which also has the bonus of freeing up more mental energy to follow Arashi and Eito again?? I've been upping my dosage of Arashi and it's been doing me good. :) Like, I know I feel better about the world when I have them in my day yet somehow I still forget how much they cheer me up? They cheer me up a lot, I've been mainlining Arashi concerts in particular?? That's, like, the most pure concentrated happiness I can use to wash through me~ I really want to get back into watching the parts of old shows I haven't seen still again?? I think it's been enough years. I think it's time to stop saving them. :D And I'd totally fallen off the Eito wagon for a long time but now I'm getting back to them and I love them so~ I came back to an excellent Yasu hair era and what more could I want.

☀ Speaking of, today the Skam fandom had another nice surprise for me: I'm mutuals with someone who I don't talk to directly a lot but we exchange a lot of mutually complimentary tags about how much we like each other's thoughts and meta. She's really far more excited about my meta than I think it deserves!! Anyway, I struck up a chat with her today and it was going well, she was apologizing if she messed up prepositions in English since she's not a native speaker and tired and happened to bring up Japanese. And I was like "oh, I saw you tag in Japanese once and meant to say I was super excited??". Which led to:

her: i pretend i only care about cool skam meta but actually i like terrible japanese boybands
me: ...wait... do we know each other from Japanese boyband fandom and I just didn't realize it???
her: ajaksdjsd do you like them too :DD
me: hahaha YES!!!
her: wtfffff
i cannot believe you're into johnnys bc you seem so sensible???? is this conversation even real???
me: hahahahahahaha
I'm laughing SO much that I seem too sensible for Johnny's
I should take a picture of my DVD shelf right now :D
this IS so surreal though!!

She's a fellow Arashian who recently got into Kanjani8??? Also a longtime fan??? We had to stop each other at several points to say how surreal this felt. I mean, everyone on tumblr is into kpop! I would have never expected to randomly bump into a fellow Johnny's fan in a completely different fandom! Though actually I was telling her that one the people who translated Skam s3 as it aired (that she probably would know of) is an Arashian ("stormboxx" but you wouldn't necessarily assume it was that storm) so we're up to a count of three now. :D

☀ Also a pleasant surprise, my Skam sideblog might become my most followed blog after only a couple of months? It's not a big number for tumblr but it's a big number for me, especially since it's only been two months since I was shocked to get an anon because I thought only a few friends who followed me over there ever read what I was saying. It's nice because the thing I miss most from being a larrie is being a ~pillar of the community~ there. So even though follower counts aren't something I'm hung up on (I literally block it so I can't see it, I don't like being stressed by watching people unfollow), it's nice to feel like my blog is serving a purpose for people. My one true pride is that I tag everything by individual clip so it's very organized at least. :)

☀ It's funny there too because I follow a lot of larries-within-the-Skam-fandom and I have never seen a group of people so averse to drama, after what we've been through. Even worthwhile ~discourse within this fandom we're like "nope, see ya, I am literally just here for me, I'm sorry but no."

☀ My poor Arashi/personal blog @topazera is really suffering right now though. It's almost pure depressing politics at the moment. Probably like a lot of people, I can't figure out the best way to engage? It does motivate me to try and make a difference, seeing the community engagement on tumblr, but I haven't yet figured out how to strike a good balance. I need to remember to post other content, it's just sad to look at that blog now because all my fun stuff is over on my Skam sideblog.

☀ I'm on SUCH a TV drought though, since all I want to do is rewatch Skam. Let's see, I'm really only currently watching: The Flash (catching up after falling behind), Emerald City (featuring the Most Beautiful Face Ever Maybe, in Dorothy Gale) and my ongoing The OC rewatch with Val?? I reallyyyyy need to figure out what to start~

☀ Um, I feel like I should be unloading about my personal life but... that's not nearly as fun... maybe I'll save that for the next time Val needs further motivation to post and wants to do an exchange. Okay, a little preview is: my brother is currently really not doing well and living with him is hard because he's running on such a low calorie diet that it messes him up to even smell food? Which is obviously a problem when I like to use the kitchen to cook. But I just am so used to accommodating his needs that even though this isn't reasonable, I'm still letting it mess me up. I'll go way too long without eating and then be too tired to cook, trying not to step on his toes. I have a really low appetite anyway so the last thing I need is to be pushing off eating when I do happen to get hungry.

See, not nearly so fun~ Okaaaay, lj, see you for more content about fandoms you don't care about and depressing real life fun facts soon! :D
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: Music is HOT)
Recently I've been moderately active over on tumblr so I thought I'd share something that tumblr inspired over here to spur on more lj posts! A couple days ago, neitaro started a Yasu Appreciation Day! I was a little slow on the draw on that actual day but it still made me think I wanted to make something special to show my Yasu appreciation. :) I settled on wallpapers of one of my favorite Yasu shoots, Wink Up 2008.02! Thanks for the inspiration, [livejournal.com profile] neitaro! :DD


+ 1 alternate )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: Crumpled with LOVE)
Woo! I finished one! This is for [livejournal.com profile] aegistheia, who suggested I flail over LIFE ~me no mae no muko e~ in my last post (which people are still free to add to)! Thank you for the excellent topic, this was a fun one to spam! LIFE is one of my three favorite singles that have come out since I entered the fandom. As it didn't seem too tough to do a couple of these, I decided to cap it and everything. :) And also this is a little bit for Tee, who got me revved up with her piqued interest in Eito. :D

Kanjani8's LIFE ~me no mae no muko e~ from MS 2010.08.27


Even if it's not for the others and you live only for yourself / I'm sure that you can create somebody else's smile )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: A man with a plan. Or at least a joke)
I almost forgot! I have something perfect for today's occasion! So, at the beginning of March, [livejournal.com profile] tika_veilan was very nice to me and I said I would make her something in return. She suggested a Yoko wallpaper and I had an idea for one that I put together quickly but due to the events of that month, I kind of forgot about it and it was sadly never posted. No longer!

Happy 30th Birthday, Yoko! ♥
Thank you for being the most hilarious, immature, determined, shy, relatable and loving super idol around. As soon as I "met" Yoko, I knew there was room in my heart for all of Eito and my life has been all the better for it. I hope there's lots of bbqs and Monhan hours and brother time in your week. Feel free to live your thirties however you'd like but please keep letting us see that heart of glass sometimes. ♥


+ 1 alternate )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: Shibuyan)

OKAY for the people who didn't hear me flail since it was announced: I WAS REALLY REALLY EXCITED FOR SUBARU BAND ON SCP. Now you are caught up for me saying IT LIVED UP TO ALL THE HYPE I WAS CREATING FOR MYSELF AND WAS IN FACT THE BEST THING EVEEERRRRR. And so, a breakdown:

The SCP performance of my ~dreams~... )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (嵐: Steal my Sunshine)
Okay, I know it's been a while since Christmas but since I'm rather slow on the draw: I wanted to do a post on my favorite Christmas "gifts"! Here "gifts" reads as the little things that made my holiday season and includes a lot of televised things. As that's how I roll. :D


Gift #1: The sunrise on Christmas Day, as seen from my bedroom window.
Behind the cut you will find irl pics, Kouhaku ladies, a pimp of a delightful Lifetime TV movie, V6, Arashi and Eito love! )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: Music is HOT)
WOOOOOOOO ∞UPPERS! The long awaited day finally came last week and, man, was it ever worth the wait! I'm so glad I did my previous wallpaper project when I did, 1) I could announce what a devotee I am to this project up front and 2) if I had this much pretty to choose from I would have never finished. XD

It's taken my a lot of time to just watch everything and start digesting it. Some random notes because I am too incoherent with glee right now:

more detailed spoilers for the album and solo cd, less detailed spoilers for the movie and making of/director's gift )


Four ∞UPPERS group wallpapers! )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: Shibuyan)
I feel like my journal is currently doing a grave injustice to my interests and it's all because I've been waiting to post this post. What have you been missing? Why just how obsessed I am with Eito's latest project, Prologue of Patch and the upcoming ∞UPPERS. I already posted about the last single but the release of LIFE has only ramped up the excitement. UM, GUYS, THEY ARE SOME SORT OF VIGILANTE GROUP, MATCHING CRIME WITH CRIME. I maaaay have watched the 'trailer' for the movie about a million times already. I was honestly surprised and thrilled by how dark and gritty this project is... and by just now much money they spent on them. THIS LEGIT LOOKS AWESOME. The camera work! The typography! Allllll of the music associated so far. Just, I am making starryeyes all the time now when I think of this project. I'm totally getting the fanciest boxset, though I'm not quite crazy enough to get all three. Even though I want to. :D

As a small expression of my feelings, I decided to make character wallpapers. All caps come from somewhere in the footage we've been given and did my best to make an associated symbol central to the design for everyone, though I didn't always wind up going with the most common one. Some of these I like better than others and I wish they'd give us a few more pixels on the DVDs but overall I'm happy! This project was so much fun. :D


Rule #1 of 8: No betraying friends! )

Happy 6th National Debut Anniversary, guys! And a happy birthday to the ossan too! :D
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (Default)
I've just crossed an important JE threshold: I've started buying singles. D: I was in Kinokuniya today and could not resist buying a copy of To Be Free (with the special pretty booklet, kill me now!) and two copies of Wonderful World since I couldn't decide between Prologue of Patch and the RE with the remixes and pretty cover (okay, I was always going to get Prologue of Patch. XD) SORRY, WALLET, YOU WILL NEVER BE FULL AGAIN. At least I drank again my spending choices with five dollar margaritas afterwards (and a mint julep, I like those). XD

In other news: whatever we are calling it, I am beyond excited for NatsuKoi-NatsuNiji-KoiNiji-NEW JUN AND TAKEUCHI YUKO DRAMA. Just when I was getting over my shellshock from the announcement of the casting (TAKEUCHI YUKO, y'all. TAKEUCHI YUKO + JUN), the CM came out. Then we got the news that Arashi is doing the theme for a getsu9 drama and the title is "LOVE RAINBOW". If there was ever a PV that implied we'd be going back to rainbow imagery and/or (I'm hoping "and") coating everyone in rainbow colors, it's this one. After that near brush with death, we get a TAKEUCHI YUKO ON VSA preview.



Life is good. ♥♥ (Be warned: I may be make five million versions of TAKEUCHI YUKO AND JUN, IN RAINBOWS by the time this drama ends. :DD)
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: Yoko: 1) HOT 2) Looks good in hats)
Ahaha, so, this project is actually kind of pointless but I really dislike when my mp3s don't have cover art! There's just something so satisfying about filling in the little blank spaces with matching art. So, as I adore Prologue of Patch, I made covers for the three songs not actually on the single. It's like a giant icon! 500x500 pixels, what luxury!

ALSO ALSO (maybe this should have been first), Prologue of Patch is the best thing ever. I have been listening to/watching it constantly since it came out and I am still just as enthralled. This is the first time I've liked everyone's solo songs pretty much equally! Although Subaru's video is far and away my favorite (because, uh, Subaru is full of sex and rock), I get cravings to hear each of the three. I cannot wait for the rest of this project. Eito, you are the greatest. ♥



I know you're dancing into a floating world, so why I can't hate even your lies? )
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (HK: OMG LOVE!!)
So this was meant t be the answer to [livejournal.com profile] skycouldfall 's very simple question on Tumblr: "Who do you like and don’t like in JE?" However, since I'm me, it turned into a longer ramble than I thought it would be so I'm posting this here. Also, since I'm me, all I wrote was: a) what I think of them as a ~person~ and uh, not their looks or acting or music and b) wavering somewhere between empathetic and embarrassingly sincere. I CAN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE FOR THIS, THIS IS HOW INVESTED I AM. (Other things I would apologize for. XD )

Disclaimer! This is a post about what I think and feel (as you will probably get from how many times I use the words "think" and "feel", I'm really stretching the vocab with this one). It isn't necessarily accurate representation of anyone, in fact there are cases where I'm probably wrong and there would be easy evidence to refute it. But I am only thinking and feeling with what I know. Such is life! Also, my default position towards everyone is warmth which means both that everything is said with some degree of that and you shouldn't come here if objectivity or criticism is important to you. :)

Cut for blathering! )

Oh also, I am having a particularly rough patch in comment replying! I am sorry if you are one of the people I have flaked on recently! I'll try to do better. ♥
topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (∞: GOOD FACE)
So. Last night I did not have any plans and [livejournal.com profile] phrenk is spending some holiday time in the real world. Naturally, this lead to me cracking open a bottle of wine by myself and sitting down with Kanjani8's Spirits!! concert.* And by "cracking open", I mean sucking down half a bottle pretty quickly. And by "sitting", I mean jumping up and down for two hours.

Now my drunken self almost posted a liveblog right then but my urge to picspam is so strong that I actually waited until I sobered up and capped and picspam. YEAH, IT'S A SICKNESS.

Kanjani∞
Spirits!!
(Part 1 of 2. Hopefully.)

*Oh yeah, heads up, I totally love Eito. Like enough to read their radio show translations and jwebs and watch Honjani unsubbed. Someday I was going to post a huge graphics post and announce that, as per usual for me. But then this happened? XD

Warning: Never drink and capslock. )

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topazera: Aiba Masaki with his hands pressed to his lips in extreme excitement (Default)
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