There it is, Plain as Daylight

I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here, but I’m a big fan of the band Plastic Tree (PuraTuri, if you prefer). They are one of my very favorite bands, and and unlike a lot of their fans, I love both their raw, older sounds and the newer, more pop-influenced sounds. I mean, okay, if you put individual songs head-to-head, I’m not going to say I like “Alone Again, Wonderful World” as much as, say, “Rocket” or “Nukegara” or “Irogoto” or “Petshop,” but I’d say that about “Andro Metamorphose” or “Mujineki” or even “Replay” on the right day. There’s a place in my life and heart for every phase of this band’s long history, and a moment that is the perfect moment for each song, somewhere along the way.

I’m not sure I could tell you exactly why I love this particular band so much, though I can say that I could listen to Ryuutarou Arimura sing all day, and often do, but somehow in their mish-mash of sounds and influences, they have captured me completely. I’ve spent long, exhaustive posts on this topic in other spaces, and in the end perhaps it is just simplest to say that this band speaks to me, so I listen.

What this is all getting around to, is that Pura has a new album, Utsusemi, coming out next week (available for pre-order at Yes Asia), which I’ve been anxiously waiting for, and I just found out, though this is probably old news to all other fans, that you can stream clips of all the songs over here at Universal Japan. A couple of the songs have been available already as singles (“Alone Again, Wonderful World” and “Replay“) but the rest are all brand new, and there are a few I already know will be favorites for me (the title track, for instance).

Just passing it on. :)

Another scattered, incoherent post coming up here. I suppose it reflects my state of mind this week.

Random: Good news for CLAMP fans, I read here earlier that William Flanagan, who translates xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle for Del Rey is in negotiations to translate Mangettes for Dark Horse. You know what a big fan of his xxxHolic translations I am (he also translates Mushishi, which I love as well), so I was pleased to hear he may be working on more CLAMP!

In unrelated news, I just want to point gleefully at another Banana Fish convert! :D

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I don’t ever seem to have time enough for anything lately, so just a few brief items today.

I’m having a lot of frustration while trying to write these days, and I expect it’s a bit of anxiety over the self-imposed deadline I have coming up which I don’t think I’m going to make. For the most part, I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m not always going to make the deadlines I set for myself, and that it is still good to set them, because I’ll still get further along than if I did not, but I think in this case I may have paralyzed myself a little bit with the urgency of it, and how much important I’ve placed on it. I guess we’ll see.

In any case, time to move on to my topics of the day, Bleach, Bakuman, and Princess Tutu!

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If you were thinking of going to NYAF, there is a contest:

Want to get into the 2008 New York Anime Festival for free without having to sneak in or bribe someone? Fancy yourself an artist like Yoshitaka Amano? Then this contest is for you! To enter the contest, submit one (1) anime-style portrait or rendering of yourself and one (1) unaltered photograph for comparison to said portrait to info@suvudu.com between 12:01 AM EDT September 10, 2008 and midnight on September 18, 2008.

There will be four (4) First Prize Winners. Each First Prize Winner will receive two (2) weekend passes to the New York Anime Festival and three Random House manga books. Judging the submissions will be Ali Kokeman and Tricia Narwani from Del Rey Manga!

Just passing it on! Thanks to Brigid Alverson for the info! I will be at NYAF (most likely fighting Ed Sizemore for xxxHolic merch :D) so perhaps we’ll run into each other!