Category: cool things!

These things are cool!

Nerdtour 2012: riding the Enoden

So, I’m updating (only a year later!) with some more photos from my Nerdtour of Japan! This will broken up into a couple of sets of photos that are going to be on my portfolio site, but I’ll update here when I update there!

So, on this day I rode the Enoden train, a historic train line that runs from Kamakura to Fujisawa, with the main stop in the middle, at Enoshima Island. Enoshima has been a tourist spot since the days of the Shogun, and the Enoden gets its name from “Enoshima Dentetsu“, Enoshima Electric Railway. Kamakura is famous for its large statue of Buddha, which I will post in another set of photos. The train runs along the beach on the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo, with stops at several beach towns along the way. I stopped at one of these, Shichirigahama, which turned out to have a nice view of Enoshima Island, as well as Mount Fuji (but only in silhouette, as usual…). It very much reminded me of the beach towns of southern California, especially with the surfers, and apparently the Enoshima area is known internationally for its surf. After spending way too much time in Shichirigahama, I continued on to Fujisawa in the evening, but due to failing batteries I didn’t get many photos of the city.

This set of photos is from the first leg of the day trip, from Etchujima station near Monzennakacho, through Tokyo Station and Kamakura Station, and sights along the Enoden to Hase.

At any rate, Enjoy!

Rainy day in Chiba – photos

The Chiba MonorailSo, I uploaded some more Japan pictures to my portfolio site, these are pictures I took on my last day there. It was appropriately cold and rainy, to match my gloomy mood. These are photos mostly of Chiba, including riding on and watching the Chiba Monorail. Also got pictures of some of the runners in the Chiba Ekiden marathon, which passed right by the monorail and JR stations in Chibaminato.

So, hop on over and enjoy (don’t be too depressed at the gloom!) the gallery!

Maryland Renaissance Festival “Day of Wrong”

I went to the last day of this year’s Maryland Renaissance Festival, which is traditionally the “Day of Wrong”, where people come dressed in anything but medieval costumes, although some choose to dress in a mashup of historical and modern, like the “Scottish Stormtroopers” or the “Iron Man knight”, most are just regular cosplayers (as if “cosplaying” is a “regular” thing! =^_^=). I captured a few of the folks, including some cosplay friends, as well as the general ambience of the place. It was a beautiful day, sunny but kind of cool, perfect for an Autumn day.

And so, hasten thou to ye Faire, and enjoy!

Let the Merriment commence!

“Welcome to Tokyo” Olympics promotional video by “World Order”

There’s a musical group in Japan called “World Order“, started by a former kick-boxer and now choreographer and composer (why have just one career?) named Genki Sudou. The group has made several music videos, and their signature style is to dress in expensive business suits and march in robotic unison through crowded streets in Tokyo, followed by pop and lock dancing to music composed by Sudou. They’ve been featured in ads for some companies in Japan, as well as performing in different places around the world.

Since Tokyo won the rights to the 2020 Summer Olympics, “World Order” made a “Welcome to Tokyo” video, where they perform their song and dance in various famous (and not so famous) places in Tokyo, such as Akihabara, Asakusa, Ginza, Roppongi, and Tokyo Tower. It was neat seeing this, because I’ve been to most of the places they perform in this video, which makes me wish I had been there when they were recording this! Seeing familiar places also makes me want to go back again, although with my current employment situation that’s not going to be possible for a few more years.

At any rate, here is “World Order” performing their song “World Order” in Tokyo.

Enjoy!

Power tools dubstep…

One of my favorite Youtube artists is Joe Penna, the “Mystery Guitar Man“. I’ve posted about him before, he’s a master at taking small video segments and literally “playing” them as notes in pieces of music. He’s also experimented with stop-motion animation, odd mechanical contrivances for making music, recreating old technology, and other unusual things. He’s worked solo and collaborated with other musicians and Youtubers to create short musical video pieces. His enthusiasm about the technology of video and music is undeniable, and he always looks like he’s having tremendous fun creating his works.

This video he made has been out for a little while, but I recently re-discovered it while roaming Youtube. I kind of like some music called “dubstep”, but not in any great way (some performers make pieces that go on for a good part of an hour, and that’s way too long for me). This short clip is kind of an interesting take on the genre. Using only video clips containing the sight and sound from various tools he used while building a sign for the sponsor of this video, he manages to make a very presentable “dubstep” piece.

Enjoy!

Ikimonogakari, a nice J-Rock band

Doing my usual late-night Youtube surfing, I came across several videos featuring a Japanese light-rock band named “Ikimonogakari.” The first song I heard was a live version of one of their songs, “Kaze ga fuite iru” (風が吹いている, “Wind is Blowing”), which opened with the lead singer spotlighted, and the members of the band joining in, before going into a full stage performance. The style of music was very light rock, kind of late-60’s or early 70’s pop, but the lead singer, Kiyoe Yoshioka, really brought a lot of energy and heart into the song. Her voice and range was so impressive I had to look for more performances by them.

This one that I found is a perfect example song for the band, which is really only the three, Yoshiki Mizuno on bass and Hotaka Yamashita on guitar and harmonica. THe song is “Sakura”, their first single, and even though this version goes into full orchestral mode, the beginning with only the three in the spotlight really shows their ability, especially Yoshioka-san’s impressive vocal range. I’ll be keeping an eye out for their CDs whenever I can!

楽しんで、ください！
(Enjoy!)


Update:

Thank you Sony Entertainment, for blocking this video from being shown in the US. (tch)

What? No Otakon 2013? What gives?

Well, I haven’t updated this site in a couple of weeks, last weekend I was at the 20th Otakon in Baltimore, and took a whole mess of pictures. Since then I’ve been busy working on a new website. I’ve decided to move most of my photography from this site, and make a more semi-pro portfolio site, using one of my old domains. Instead of trying to force this site into the form, either with a separate theme or try to figure out multi-site, I decided to just bite the bullet, buy a real photography theme, and build a new site. I’ll still have links from here to the new site, but the actual photos will be over on lexonia.net. Check it out!

Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughan – “Pipeline”

This is guitar work of the highest order! One of my favorite “surf” songs, performed by Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughan for the 1987 movie “Back to the Beach”. Two guitar greats, one fantastic song, and a high-energy performance that won them a Grammy nomination. This video show them performing the song, with lots of scenes from the movie interspersed.

They just don’t make them like this anymore, although Dick Dale is apparently still touring in his 70’s!

Enjoy!