I talked about my alter ego Kaki before. So, we made a new song together, this time a cover of Perfume's hit Chocolate Disco. For those who don't know, Perfume is a cute idol trio from Japan produced by Nakata Yasutaka. Since the original song is a really cheerful naive tune about Valentine's Day, I wanted to make our version of it dark. Cute and creepy are just different sides of the same coin:)
Anyway, this is my interpretation of the song, Schokoladige Disko:
Kaki's next concert is on Friday, July 1st 2011, in Koenji One. I'm lined up with Onozaki Kiyokazu from Andersens, one of my favorite Japanese bands, so this is a big honor for me.
And info about the gig:
Date: July 1st (Friday)
Time: 8:00pm - LAST TRAIN
Place: Koenji One (http://one-koenji.com/)
Cost: FREE
I met Ai Kariya one night in Shibuya, two months ago. She is a photographer and she was interested in working with me. After hanging out together a few times, we finally set a date for a photo shooting. She arranged two stylists for me, one girl in the morning and one guy (plus his assistant) in the afternoon, to get bigger diversity of the photos. It was fun even though I got the impression that the first stylist was chasing ghosts away from me (Ai told me that the girl does this sometimes to her models if she feels they have demons on them and since she suddenly started to hit me in the back really hard, well, I just can't make myself believe that that was a massage to relax my facial muscles, haha). We worked for 15 hours and then we went out to party. Tokyo Dandy anniversary party near by in Daikanyama seemed like the right choice for the moment, since it's one of the most popular fashionista parties in town. The experience was complete with me getting lost in the morning on the way home, but it felt good anyway, after a fun day and a fun night, to wonder around the streets of still sleeping Tokyo, absorbing first rays of the sun...
You can check Ai Kariya's website here: http://aikariya.com/pg30.html http://aikariya.com/pg1.html http://aikariya.com/pg39.html
And here are just a few examples of what we did.
And a photo from Tokyo Dandy party, taken down from the blog: Site about Tokyo. Me and Ai.
On Thursday, June 9th, I start with my yoga classes at Baby-Q Dance Lab in Koenji. I will held classes on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings. Everybody is welcome to come!
十代の頃からインドの文化と伝統に憧れていたザナ・ファビアン・ブラジックは、古代から伝わるヨガの哲学に触れて以来その可能性に惹き付けられてきた。旅をこよなく愛する彼女は、大学においても民俗学と文化人類学を専攻、インドへも何度も足を運んできた。インド現地ではSVYASAやYOGA
VIDYA GURUKULといった著名な大学においてヨガとインド哲学を学び、E-RYT
500（経験あるヨガの指導者）の資格を持つに至った。出身地であるスロヴェニアのYOGA STUDIO
SADHANAにおいて長い指導の経歴があり、インドと日本においても指導をするブラジックは、初心者にも経験者にも適したスタイルのハタ・ヨガを教えている。
Zana Fabjan Blazic first met yoga already as a teenager. Trough her admiration of Indian culture, music and tradition she discovered the ancient knowledge of yoga and was instantly drown to it. She combined her love for traveling with her studies, taking Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology as her major subject at university. She traveled to India many times and studied yoga and philosophy at famous Indian yoga universities and institutes such as SVYASA and Yoga Vidya Gurukul. She is a E-RYT 500 (experienced yoga teacher) and teaches at yoga Yoga studio Sadhana in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She has also held lessons in India and Japan. The style of yoga she teaches is hatha yoga, suitable for beginners and advanced practitioners as well.
Classes will take place until the end of August 2011.
Last week I was modeling for Vantan design institute, a professional school for fashion, hair&make-up and design in Ebisu/Tokyo. I was modeling for students at their conversational class, they learn English to be able to communicate with foreign models in their future work. At the end we also took photos for their workbooks. It was fun and I found myself quietly singing Capsule's Prime Time, since this is a song Vantan used in their commercial video. How can I possibly not enjoy something connected to Capsule?
The first concept was a "Barbie girl". It was interesting since I never looked so "photo-shoped" in real life. I decided to keep the triple false eyelashes for the rest of the day, but felt sorry at the end. It felt like being drunk because my eyes were so heavy and my sight blurry.
The next week's concept was a "Kimono". I wore a kimono for the first time, it's just an amazing piece of clothing, but it's kind of impossible to walk in it. So, I had this doll-like make-up and a kimono and I could enjoy myself in a concept of beauty completely new to me. When the photographer wanted me to look sexy, I couldn't. I'm still trying to understand the sexiness of a kimono:) I know it's there, but...
These are the students who were my make-up artists and hair-stylists.
And for the end the CM with Capsule's song Prime Time.
Morning. I'm drinking coffee, watching Bollywood videos and getting too emotional for such an early hour.
Haule Haule (below) is a song from a beautiful movie Rab Ne bana Di Jodi, starring my all time favorite Shah Rukh Khan and pretty Anushka Sharma. It's just one of the most touching love stories I've ever seen. Kind but very shy Suri falls in love with a daughter of his former professor, Taani, but she is getting married to another man. And I had to note- it was not supposed to be an arranged marriage, but love marriage. On the day of the weeding she gets the news that her fiance and his family died in a road accident. Being shocked and worried for Taani, her father suffers a heart attack (in the same scene) and since he doesn't want to leave his daughter all alone in this world, he asks his beloved student Suri to marry her and take care for her. They agree to fulfill the old man's last wish.
They have difficult time after the weeding. She is still crushed by her lover's death and doesn't respond to Suri's great kindness and care. He is really patient and understanding, he lets her have her own room, and of course he is too shy to confess his love. Eventually she starts to make some effort as well, and she tells him that she will try to be a good wife but she will never love him, because there is no love left in her heart. Her heart is dead and he should not expect from her more than she can give.
Suri is sad but the only thing that really matters to him is her happiness and not his own. And then suddenly he gets this crazy idea, how to make her heart beat again.
While watching movies in the theatre, he notices that she likes cool masculine guys (what he was not), the heroes from the movies. So, with the help of his hair-stylist friend, he transformes into a cool guy (well, cool by bollywood standards at least, haha), names himself Raj (as the hero from the movie she liked) and starts to attend her dance lessons. By a coincidence they become a dance couple for the next competition.
She doesn't recognize him, so he starts to lead a double life. At home he is the timid and shy Suri, at dance classes he is the funny macho type Raj. Taani at first hates Raj, he is to loud and obnoxious and full of himself, but eventually she starts to enjoy his company and they spend more and more time together.
Suri is sad to see he his wife is falling for "another man", but that was his plan anyway- to make her laugh and love again, even if it's not because of him (as Suri).
It becomes difficult for both of them. She wants to escape her loveless marriage and desperate- filled life in order to find a love in a new man, but at the same time she want to stay with Suri just to fulfill her father's wish. Suri sees how different she is when she is at home with him, a miserable girl without a glow, and when she is with his alter ego Raj, when she just shines.
So, she decides to run away with Raj, at the same time as he tries to win her love as Suri. But he sees it doesn't work so he makes a plan of going to Delhi, leaving her all his belonging behind, so she will be free of him and will be able to start a new life. But then, just before meeting Raj, she goes to the temple and the God is revealed in front of her in the form of her husband. She realizes their marriage was a part of a divine plan, a match made in heaven. And she realizes how good her husband is to her, how loving and caring and patient, although she never noticed it because she was to busy with her own suffering and self-pity. So, she changes her plans and tells Raj she's not gonna leave Suri. He acts like he is crushed, but of course, he's just the happiest person in the world, because his beloved choose his real personality over his alter ego.
So, a story could simply finish here, but there is one final scene left. The dance competition, just after Taani dumps Raj. But they are a dance couple. When they are about to go on stage, he doesn't show up, so she thinks he is so sad or mad or whatever that he won't come. Everybody is waiting, waiting, and then Suri comes up. She doesn't know what's going on and then he takes her for a dance and she realizes it was him all along. Her face is so shocked that of course you think she'll freak out for him playing such a game with her feelings, but she is just so moved by the selfless sacrifice that he made for making her happy- he was ready to let her go with another man in order to make her love and shine again. So, he won her love with his big heart and small ego. And then you (I) just cry cry cry....:)
Anyway, Shah Rukh Khan is soooooooo amazing in this movie. And the music and all... I've seen it for the first time in Bombay, in one of the theaters in Colaba. Without subtitles, but it was still great, haha.
Haule Haule: Slowly Slowly. A story about a patient love. Haste In Love Is A Big Crime:)
(just As) A Breeze Wafts Slowly
(just As) Medicines Work Slowly
(just As) Prayers Are Answered Slowly
(just As) The Moon Rises Slowly
(just As) A Veil Lifts Slowly
(just As) Intoxication Hits You Slowly
Have A Little Patience My Friend
Take A Deep Breath My Dear
Don't Worry So Much
Life Is Too Short For That
Slowly Slowly You Will Fall In Love My Dear
Slowly Slowly You Will Fall In Love
The Path Of Love Is Arduous
It's Bound By Shyness
Its A Strange War Within
This Heart Worries All The Time
It Feels Shy All The Time
It Says Something And Does Something Else
Its A Difficult Puzzle, But This Silly Heart
(does Not Understand That) Haste In Love Is A Big Crime
Have A Little Patience My Friend
Take A Deep Breath My Dear
Don't Worry So Much
Life Is Too Short For That
Slowly Slowly You Will Fall In Love My Dear
Slowly Slowly You Will Fall In Love
Everything Happens By God’s Grace
So I Hope He Casts A Spell
So That My Sweetheart Accepts Me
God Will Guide Your Steps
So What If You Don’t See The Shore, Keep On Going
So What If There’s No Palanquin, Keep On Going
Which Poet Was It Who Said…
It's An Ocean Of Fire, You Have To Drown To Swim Across
Have Patience My Friend
Take A Deep Breath My Dear
Don’t Worry So Much
Life Is Too Short For That
Slowly You’ll Fall In Love
Slowly You’ll Fall In Love
(the translation is taken from the internet)
And another great track from the movie, Dance Pe Chance, it was a top dance hit in India in late 2008/early 2009. In Haule Haule you can see Suri and in this video you can see Raj.
