Picture Product.

I finally got my Buck-Tick DVDs back from Tony (with the VHS tapes he copied them onto). And I've been watching them. The first two DVDs (of the 5-DVD set) are a collection of their music videos from 1987 to 2000. God, they make such bad music videos! LOL! At first, I think poor Atsushi was shy of the camera or something, because he would barely move his lips while singing along to the music; it was like he was murmuring the song instead of singing it aloud. But after a while, he got better with that, so that wasn't the thing that was so bad.

It was the music videos themselves that were so horrible. I don't know, maybe they had a soft spot (actually let me make that have) for bad and out-of-work directors? I dunno. But they're pretty bad. Mostly, the videos are of the band, set up as a band, singing to the camera (in whatever position the director seemed to have wanted it held -- or wedged -- in during that session). Sometimes (inexplicable) things are going on in the background, sometimes not. But there never seems to be a story, a point, or theme, to the video that would go along with the song. Now, I know the 80s and early 90s were infamous for "concert clip" videos (which, most of the time, weren't real concert clips), and weird clay-animation sorta thing videos, but it gets a bit boring watching the band just set up, singing to the camera... video after video after video. You'd think the directors could come up with something a little more interesting, maybe? I mean, the other extreme is maybe a video with a story that has nothing to do with the band or the song lyrics, but there is a middle ground there!

And to my immense (understatement!) surprise, the video for Aku no Hana, which was more of the same, although they looked much better in the video actually won an award from MTV Japan for... Best New Video. The mind boggles, I tell you!

Which brings me to the third DVD in the set which is a sort of history/documentary of the band's recordings, etc. Normally, this wouldn't be something to get all worked up over (although I admit to loving music documentaries), mostly because it would be in Japanese and I'd fall over myself watching them in the recording studio, but I wouldn't understand a word of what they're saying. But -- beyond all imagination -- the narrator for this entire documentary is speaking in English, with Japanese subtitles popping up across the bottom of the screen! I don't know if Buck-Tick (or their managers) knew they had an English-speaking audience or not, but I am impossibly grateful to whoever made the decision, whether they thought it'd just be cool or not! So I actually got to understand what they were saying about the band's history, which is how I knew that MTV Japan awarded them for Best New Video. Even though some of the clips that explained things in more detail (like interviews with the band members) were in Japanese without English subtitles, at least I was able to understand most of it!

I swear, I'm going to be riding the high on that for a week, at least.

The fourth DVD is a continuation of the documentary (because the third DVD only got up to their release of Kurutta Taiyo, which was their first big success, relatively speaking -- their first number one on the charts, not to mention the first whole B-T album that I bought & listened to). And the fifth DVD is a collection of the music videos from the Six/Nine album. ::sigh::

In other news, I'm finally going to get my hands on those PC games, Myst, Riven, and Exile for my birthday. I hope I enjoy them as much as I enjoyed Myst when it came out.

More to read.

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (F):

Hmmm. Instead of being the one-sexual-escapade-after-another story that I expected, it was actually a complexly woven political intrigue that somehow left me feeling as if I'd just finished reading a Greek classic. Weird, huh? But it was actually very good. It quite satisfied my recent sporadic craving for medieval language and grammar. And it charmed me when I discovered that, although the history of Terre D'Ange was by no means the same as our own, it was quite similar. Indeed, one could identify several countries/cultures surrounding Terre D'Ange (which, as the main country/culture, was obviously French), like Italians, Greeks, Jews, Irish & the Scots, and several Germanic nomadic tribes. It was a pleasant surprise when one of the characters recited the beginning of a Jewish prayer that I know.

Of course, the story itself was very well done, the characters were well-developed, and most importantly, the story didn't fall into any plot-holes along the way; cliches and the like.

Since I finished that 910-page behemoth, I started reading Hokkaido Popsicle by Isaac Adamson (F):

It's the sequel to Adamson's debut novel, Tokyo Sukerpunch, which I recommend to any and all Japanophiles out there. They're mystery novels in the tradition of Sam Spade, but -- as one critic described it -- with a punk-noir feel to it (which, incidentally, I think describes the books perfectly). If you're interested, check out the author's official website, named after the main character, Billy Chaka (a reporter for Youth In Asia magazine, if you can believe it).

www.billychaka.com

I can't wait for the third installment of Chaka's adventures, and I'm only half way through Hokkaido Popsicle!