The snow today has forced me to take a day off, which ends up being a replacement for the day I planned to take (but did not) on Friday. Still, I’d like to have a day off that did not involve shoveling snow. *sigh*

I have one review out today, at Manga Recon’s Manga Minis for volume 26 of Bleach. I still enjoy Bleach more than some of my MR cohorts do, so this was fun for me to review.

I’ve been working on a full series review of Tokyo Babylon, but I’m having a lot of trouble finding a way to address its most compelling themes without giving away major plot points. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Also, I’ve been watching the discussion on the demise of Scans Daily at LiveJournal, and a lot of the arguments I’ve seen flying around have been perplexing (if not surprising). I can go along with objections to scanlations and the sharing of full scans of comics, but objections to the posting of partial scans with analysis/discussion baffles me. For some very sane words on the topic, check out Brigid Alverson at Digital Strips and Johanna Draper Carlson at Comics Worth Reading.

You know, one of the points I’ve seen argued in favor of Scans Daily is that, unlike many comics forums, it was a place where non-typical fans, particularly women, could feel comfortable talking about comics without feeling like they were intruding in someone’s clubhouse, and honestly, I can really understand that. I think some guys in the comics world don’t realize that they exist in an atmosphere that actually discourages new readers to a great extent. I’ve had a hard time getting into western comics, despite the best efforts of some of my friends. I was not a reader of Scans Daily, but I’m considering checking out their new home to see if it might help steer me towards some western comics I could love.

On a completely different topic, those who follow me on Twitter, either through Twitter itself, its RSS feed, the sidebar of this blog, or Facebook (where it feeds my status updates), will know that Paul and I were unexpectedly gifted with free tickets to the Fountains of Wayne acoustic show last night at the Iron Horse in Northampton. I may try to write up a review of some kind later on (the show was fantastic), but for now, here’s a review Paul tracked down at the Hartford Courant. FoW draws a nice crowd in this area (which is Chris Collingwood’s home), and it was great to be there with so many people, most of whom were our age or older.

That’s all for now. Wish me luck on the shoveling. Later!

Oh Monday. How I wish you were Friday. I have one review in today’s Manga Minis at Manga Recon, for volumes 2 & 3 of Go!Comi’s Ultimate Venus. It is a silly, silly series that I enjoyed quite a bit more than expected. This initially led to a rambling post musing on the futility of assigning grades in reviews, but it sort of pushed itself into a corner so I’ve given it up for now. Instead, here are a few random links to things I’ve enjoyed recently:

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Before I forget to say anything about it, I have a new full-length review up at Manga Recon, for volume 1 of Idumi Kirihara’s Hitohira. I had mixed feelings about this manga, though I admit I’m considering buying the second volume, just to see if it gets any stronger. I’m hoping it does. Also, I think my reviews are getting more solid as I go, which makes me happy.

Life is a little crazy leading into the holidays, especially at work, so I’m trying to take time to enjoy the nice things as they come. This morning on my way to work, our local NPR station played Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves, which my college orchestra played at our holiday concert my senior year. It really brought me back to that time, and I spent much of the day feeling nostalgic about that concert.

It also made me feel like sharing, so here’s a piece from the beginning of that concert, an arrangement (I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember whose) of the Christmas Hymn, performed by the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and Choirs, conducted by Dr. Robert Page, December 1990. It’s a bit chaotic, I suppose. The holiday concert is traditionally performed in the foyer of the College of Fine Arts, which is a big, echo-y, marble place, and for this, the choirs were split up and placed on all sides (including up on the mezzanines), with the conductor in the middle. In a place like that, we really couldn’t trust our ears, so we had to go just by sight. I chose this song, because I figure it’s the one people are most likely to know out of all the pieces we sang on that program. Hope you’ll enjoy. :)

Now I must tackle the work I brought home with me. Goodnight!

It’s a little early for Thanksgiving, but having finished my workweek after only two days, I can’t help but feel a bit thankful for some of the people and things around me. I’ll leave major items for later in the week, but for the moment, I’d like to link to a few things that have made me feel happy (and thankful) today:
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Arrived home late last night, and it’s very nice to be here. I’m still on Mountain time, so my body feels a bit off, but I had a nice, lazy day at home, which was the perfect thing.

Pop music geek moment: My husband started watching Azumanga Daioh while I was gone, so we watched the first six episodes together last night (I said I was still on Mountain time) and today. At one point while the opening theme was playing, I said, “This sounds like something Andy Partridge would write.” Later I looked it up, and found out the opening and closing themes are both written and performed by a Japanese duo who call themselves “Oranges & Lemons.” Geekiness for the win! :D For the non-pop music geeks, Oranges and Lemons is the name of an album by XTC, Andy Partridge’s band.

Speaking of Azumanga Daioh, I am completely hooked. Now I need to track down the comics. I think I mentioned that I’d picked up the first volume of Yotsuba&! in Utah, so it looks like I’m going to be on a little Kiyohiko Azuma kick for a while. Random Azumanga Daioh question: Does anyone else think that Sakaki looks a lot like Hanajima from Fruits Basket, or is it just me?

Speaking of random questions, is anyone else cursed with getting the opening theme of Lucky Star stuck in their head? *sigh* Anyone else doubly-cursed with the closing theme of Mahoromatic as well? Oh, Japan, you will do me in.

I did read some manga on the plane, including some new releases like NANA volume 13 and Fruits Basket volume 21. On the flight back, I also read the first volume of an older series that I picked up used at a bookstore in Salt Lake City.

Spoilers for ES (Eternal Sabbath) after the jump.
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Um. Apparently this has temporarily become a music blog. Back to the usual manga-talk and self-important essays soon, but first:

Last night, one of my very favorite bands, Northampton’s own Winterpills had a cd release party for their third album, Central Chambers at the Iron Horse Music Hall. It’s always great to see Winterpills at the Iron Horse, because they are able to bring up all their musical pals and create a really rich and exciting show. Last night was no exception.

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Yesterday began on a pretty depressing note. Groggy and cranky after a night of poor sleep, I noticed, just as I was about to leave for work, a kitchen full of inky footprints (which led to inky footprints in the living room, where a very inky dog sat chewing on an ink pen). Long story short, I arrived at work very late with ink-covered hands, and the day went downhill from there. Everything changed, however, at the end of the day, and I spent the evening being reminded of two very important truths:

1. People are awesome. Waiting for me when I returned home from work was an unexpected package from the very wonderful Deanna Gauthier, who sent me her entire collection of Fruits Basket manga, and the anime series as well! Now, this is a person I’ve only interacted with online, and the only reason we know each other at all is because she went to graduate school with a mutual friend. She lives way out west, we’ve never met, and yet here she’s sent me this big box of manga that I otherwise would not have the opportunity to read anytime soon. Deanna, you are incredibly generous, and seriously awesome. Thank you so much.

2. Music is awesome. The planned awesomeness for the evening, and the reason why I have not yet dipped into that marvelous box of manga, was a trip to Boston to see British singer-songwriter Tom McRae at Berklee College of Music’s Cafe 939. I’ve been a fan for a while, but this was my first time hearing Tom play live (Paul had seen him once before). The evening was even better than I’d imagined.

Tom McRae is somewhat known back at home, I believe, but horribly under-appreciated over here, and though the cafe has a nice sound system, and is very well-run, I was depressed to see that he’s playing such small venues in this area, and that even this place was not full. When my husband found out I’d be blogging about this concert today, he said, “Beg. Please beg.” And so I will. Tom McCrae does not have nearly enough fans in this part of the world, so please, follow the jump and allow me to beg your attention.

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I mentioned last week or so that Plastic Tree’s new album was due out while I was at NYAF, and now that I’m home I’ve finally got a chance to listen to it. This does not resemble a coherent review or anything, but I do have some quick reactions on the new tracks that I can share. These are pretty much stream-of-consciousness, which may give you a clear idea of why I do not usually allow myself to write that way. Also, keep in mind that these impressions are based on music only, as I haven’t read any translations yet. And so…

Notes on Utsusemi:
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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. :)

I’m actually going to talk about something other than manga today. Hopefully this does not mean the end is near.

So, I got an e-mail this morning, letting me know that Derek Sivers is selling CD Baby. I knew it had to happen someday. Derek never really intended it to become what it did, and the site was never going to be his life-long passion. He’s selling to Discmakers, and while I’m not exactly sure what to think of that, they are at least a company that depends on independent artists for their business, so they should understand who they’re working with. After all the drama with Livejournal selling to SixApart a few years back, I suppose I should be much more jaded over all this “they’ll do a better job” type of talk, but I can hardly think of any person I’ve known in any business with more integrity and real sincerity than Derek Sivers, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here. Yes, I’m sure that there will be changes at CD Baby, and probably some of them I’ll like, and some I won’t, but that might have happened even with Derek. Now I admit, I don’t have as much at stake as many other artists on the site. My cd is out of print, I’m not marketing it (as if I ever did, heh), and I’m only collecting digital sales from CD Baby at this point anyway. But I really believe in and care about what CD Baby stands for, so I do have some stake in preserving that. I hope Tony Van Veen at Discmakers feels the same way. Also of interest, the birth of CD Baby comes in at #1 on CMJ’s “Ten Moments in Ten Years : a celebration of independent music.”

On a more personal note (because that’s what I do, I personalize everything, and hey, I’m managing to bring in manga after all), Derek also posted today Abraham Maslow’s 8 Ways to Self-Actualize, which really struck a chord with me this morning.
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