13 Things About Me and L’Arc~en~Ciel Concert

Today a year ago: The band that I love the most for the past 12 years held an unforgettable concert in my country. A year ago, I have been waiting for them for 11 years.

Today is a very special day for all L’Arc~en~Ciel fans in Indonesia…for us, May 2^nd will forever be Laruku Day…the day where the dream of thousands of their fans in Indonesia came true.

Here is EVERYthing I have written last year:

1. Dreams Do Come True -My Number 1 Favorite Band is Coming
2. I got The VIP Ticket \(^^)/
3. Fast Ticketing, New Album and Another Live Viewing
4. Songs to be expected at the concert on may 2nd
5. Crazy Excitement Toward L’Arc~en~Ciel Concert on May 2
6. 20 Hours to The Most Historical Concert in My Life (L’Arc~en~Ciel Concert)

7. Live Report From L’Arc~en~Ciel Concert in Jakarta (English Version)

8. Konser Laruku (L’Arc~en~Ciel) – 11 Tahun Penantian Yang Tidak Sia-Sia

9. Things Around The Most Amazing Concert in My Life
10. Laruku’s Concert Is Finally Over – We Will wait For Your Return
11. Jakarta at NHK BSプレミアム & The First L’Arc~en~Ciel’s DVD in Indonesia

Because today is Thursday, so I think the best way to celebrate May 2^nd is to share a random list of  me and  the most amazing concert I have ever seen in my entire life.

In case you come here from Thursday Thirteen: L’Arc~en~Ciel is a rock band from Japan that I love more than ALL the bands in the world, past present and future.

#1

I LITERALLY cried when I found out that Laruku (shorter way to say L’Arc~en~Ciel) has announced Jakarta as one of the city they will visit on their World Tour.

>> I cried because for the past 11 years I thought they would never come to my country as the promoter always brought western bands, never an Asian band. It was a tear of happiness.

#2

I was in the middle of a meeting with my former boss when my friend texted me that she had bought the ticket for VIP class. When I read that, I couldn’t hear what my boss was talking about and she let me had a moment of joy before continuing the meeting.

5 Super Addictive Slow Music

Click this button to see my other top-5 list

I didn’t do Top 5 post last month because I didn’t have time to do it…I almost didn’t make it this month as well. But there are still few days before March is over…so here’s this month top 5

Once in a while, there are music that somehow becomes very addictive. Have you ever had that experience?

This month’s Top 5 is about addictive slow music…it can be pop or rock (and because I am not in to pop that much, my list consist of songs from Rock bands…mostly Britpop)

These five songs have some kind of magic that I can’t quite explain, one thing I do know is that these songs enchanted me and made me listen to them over and over and over and over again.

These five songs are in no particular order.

Yuki no ashiato by L’Arc~en~Ciel

It’s hard to describe how I felt the first time I heard this song. It’s the 11th track in KISS (Laruku’s 11th album). When Hyde started singing with his beautiful voice, so slow and so deep…his voice went straight to my heart and then the violin added the beauty of this song. as he started singing in a high and low tone, it captured my heart wholly. I repeated the song so often that I might grew bored at it…but It never made me bored. When I  saw the live video of this song, I literally shed a small tear because the song is really beautiful. It felt so sad but the lyric is not sad at all.

12 Years of Love: How L’Arc~en~Ciel (ラルク アン シエル) remains as the best band in my heart for the past 12 years

Happy 12^th Anniversary to me

12 years!!! WOW!! This is by far the longest time I have ever been obsessed with something…12 years and still going strong.

I don’t remember when was the exact date and month when I started loving Laruku more than any band ever exist on earth…but I do remember the year clearly, it was 2001.

I have been in love with Tokusatsu and Anime since I was in elementary school, and then I found Dorama in Junior High…however, I still haven’t heard Japanese Music apart from Anime and Dorama soundtrack. One day, I went to a kind of Japan entertainment convention and saw a poster of Japanese band. Even though I haven’t learned Japanese at that time but I knew enough that Japanese people can’t pronounce foreign language without changing it into Japanese kind of pronunciation. At that time, I was sort of mocking at the poster, I said “Japanese!! They can’t even say that word and they chose that word for their band’s name”. But somehow the name stuck in my head even though I myself didn’t know how to pronounce L’Arc~en~Ciel.

Few weeks later…I saw a video on MTV and I straight away remember that strange name “hey…this is the band with that difficult name!!” and I remembered thinking “They have good tune, I quite like it.” The video was Stay Away and this video is one of my top 5 favorite video by L’Arc~en~Ciel.

An Interview With Daniel Clay – The author of Broken

Before you wonder what is this post about, please look at this trailer first!

With nine BIFA nominations (more than any other film this year), including Best Director, Best Film and Most Promising Newcomer for Laurence, Broken is one to look out for. It’ll be out in UK cinemas in spring 2013.

That’s my brief introduction of BROKEN, the upcoming movie by Cillian Murphy. Broken was first shown at Cannes 2012 but it will be available for public somewhere in 2013. I have been waiting for this movie since last year.

I am not going to talk much about the movie and what is it about because I am going to let the man who wrote the book (which then becomes the movie) does the talking, Mr Daniel Clay

Maybe I should share how I end up with this fabulous interview. On November 6, 2012, I was a bit surprised and delighted at the same time when I saw a name I knew so well (because I have been looking for his book since I knew Cillian will play its adaptation) popped in my pending for approval comment…Daniel Clay, the author of Broken, left a comment on my blog post!! How cool is that? I shouted it out in my twitter before I had the nerve to answer his comment! To be honest, that comment was the highlight of my blogging life. He left his comment here> Musing On Book and Movie : No Movie is Greater Than The Book.

I was so thrilled when he told me he will send me a copy of Broken (yaaaiiii) and do a Q & A. He is such a nice gentleman

Now…I really will let Daniel do the talking (or in this case, writing). Hopefully, you will enjoy reading this as much as I do.

Miyavi, Live @ Hard Rock Café Jakarta

Miyavi used to be a visual kei rock musician, I said used to because last night he no longer looked like visual kei musician. Miyavi has unusual songs, fun and hard rock at the same time…but his striking point is in his ability to play guitar. Miyavi was born under the name Takamasa Ishihara (石原 貴雅). His stage name used the last kanji in his name, 雅- MIYAVI.

To be honest…I am not a huge fan of Miyavi…I like his music but I don’t follow his career much. I haven’t heard his latest album yet. I like his music because he has different style compared to other J-Rock musicians.

When I first heard he was going to come to Jakarta, I was determined to come (although I still had a bit of money problem)…fortunately the ticket was very cheap because he came here under the invitation by Hard Rock Café. It was Hard Rock Café 20^th anniversary.

I AM GLAD I CAME…HE WAS FREAKIN AMAZING!!

I came to hear his music but music was not the only thing I got, I never expected him to be THAT handsome!! My God, he is soooo handsome. His charisma was oozing everywhere as he played his guitar.

Jakarta at NHK BSプレミアム & The First L’Arc~en~Ciel’s DVD in Indonesia

Note: At first…I only want to share about the DVD but then one amazing moment happens and need to be shared so badly

Laruku had shared their 20th L’Anniversary World Tour in New York, London and Jakarta. It’s  in NHK BSプレミアム.

I let you all see how AMAZING the audience was…this is how a concert supposed to be!! (still feeling a bit disappointed with DC Concert’s Audience) and how awesome L’arc~en~Ciel is. May 2nd will forever be one of the most beautiful nights in my life. I have no regret now.

I am so happy that I was part of this amazing L’Arc~History. I was shot at minute 1:20 … so proud that I was there singing their song with all my heart…just like the tittle of the song: My Heart Draws a Dream that night

5 Bands/Musicians – Concert – I Want To See Before I Die

Click this button to see my other top-5 list

As I have mentioned it early this month, I will be seeing David Cook concert on July 17…and somehow that post reminds me that I haven’t written 5 concerts I want to see before I die. While the atmosphere is perfect to talk about concert, I hereby present my top 5 concert I want to see plus some honorable mentioned.

I always did a countdown for my top-5 post, but now is an exceptional because I bet you know which band I want to see so bad…They are all over my blog

Here are 5 bands I want to see LIVE before I die:

#1 L’Arc~en~Ciel

I love this band above all bands ever created on earth past, present and most likely future. For the past 10 years, I life in a dream and sort of lost hope that I would ever see them live…maybe if I find a super rich husband who could take me to Japan to see them. I love all their DVD concerts which I have seen over and over again. Thank God, on the 11^th year of love, my dream finally came true. Last May, they came and performed incredibly perfect.

David Cook – See You on July 17 :)

I know many people who say that they don’t listen to American Idol or X-Factor because those singers aren’t real singer.

Well…I have different set of mind compared to them. In my opinion, those singers who took their chances in Idol are as great as any singer who found their luck without joining any TV reality shows. Some even better than the ones who are lucky enough to have father in the same industry.

I am not going to name names…but I bet you know some singers who aren’t THAT good but have record just because they have money or their father used to be a musician too. For someone who isn’t so fortunate with money, joining Idol is one of their ways.

David Cook is the best Idol EVER, in my opinion. I have never followed Idol season like I followed his season. When I first saw him singing Livin’ On A Prayer, I was hooked instantly…great voice! He kept on shining the whole season. I love his voice and his way or rearranging the songs to fit his voice. His daring performance by choosing The World I Know by Collective Soul when he supposed to sing songs he had sung before is an inspiration…that song is really beautiful and I love Collective Soul.