Koda Kumi Kingdom Promo Spot.

こちらが倖田來未の新しいなCDはキングドムのテレビスパットです. Heehee! Just trying to practice. This is the television spot for Koda Kumi’s new CD, Kingdom. It will be released this Wednesday in Japan. It’s going to be a hell of a week for me as far as exams go, but at some point I’ll do a review, even though half of it has been released as singles already over the last 5 months or so.

Amy Winehouse: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I’ve been having a difficult time putting my head around Amy Winehouse’s troubles. I used to think that it was all an act. You know, that she was crafting some kind of image, the way most of today’s rap stars do. Guys from upper-middle class suburban families - Dad’s an investment banker, mom is an English literature professor - talking about guns, drug deals and their hoes to score a few million record sales. They walk around singing “Good Times” but in reality they’re a Huxtable. You’ve seen them before. You know you have.

I first heard Amy Winehouse four years ago after she released her debut CD, Frank. Frank was kinda jazzy and bluesy in spots. Not overly raunchy with the exception of the single F**k Me Pumps. Still, that track was a ways removed from Me & Mr. Jones (Fuckery), Wake Up Alone and the collection of songs on her compelling sophomore effort, Back To Black. However, we have seen many artists change their style up musically. So that’s nothing new. The big change from Frank to Back To Black was with the artist herself.

I’d like to mention that all the images above and below are linked. This allows someone the opportunity to see the videos as well as larger images for the sake of comparison. So as I was saying, in all the videos, publicity shots, television appearances and record Jackets that I saw of Amy Winehouse circa that Frank CD, she was beautiful, voluptuous, sexy, well groomed and without a tattoo anywhere.

Compare the woman in the video for F**k Me Pumps or the video for Stronger Than Me and the woman on The Frank CD cover to the woman in the video below. Three years later not only do we have a completely different person, but the Amy Winehouse we have today is literally dying right before our eyes. She says all her songs are autobiographical. If that’s truly the case, then maybe the life is sadly imitating the art or, perhaps, this is who she really is and her musical talent is allowing her to liberate the true Amy Winehouse.

Maybe she was always sick and like a snake shedding it’s skin she peeled away the old Amy Winehouse to reveal who she truly is. Perhaps in the past she just had a better hold on her demons than she does today. Maybe she no longer wants to subdue a darker side. After all, there are a few drug references in F**k Me Pumps and she’s always expressed an affinity towards “bad girls” and the seedy, tough side of life. Take note of the lyrics as you what the video for Stronger Than Me. Lyrically, I guess nothing has changed that much, perhaps I’m the only one having difficulty reconciling this.

However, I trust my own eyes, comparing images of the woman before with what we see today, it’s is hard to connect the two women. It’s a drastic transformation. Which is what makes me wonder, what the hell happened? A little voice in me wonders are am I just being naive, like the college professor mom you see screaming on TV when her little baby gets caught with a smoking gun? You know what I mean.

Amy Winehouse isn’t the first artist to lose them self in a character, in the artistic expression of their own creative genius but, hopefully, she will be the last. As of this moment, she is back in a London rehab facility, hopefully she will get the help there that she so obviously needs.

Burberry Black: Exclusive For Japan.

Speaking of Burberry. Whenever my baby Ikue comes here to see me, I always send her some money and a big, fat shopping list. Usually I get some Bape, or BBC label stuff. However, this time before she makes her trip over here in February, I am going to request some Burberry Black Label. Burberry Black is another Burberry spinoff label exclusive for Japan. Only Burberry Black is for us fellas only. Ha, ha, ha! They’ve got several shops all over Japan and three in Tokyo, Shibuya, Ginza and Marunouchi.

The Ginza boutique is close by Armani Tower, too. The one in Shibuya is off Meiji Dori, around the corner from the Burberry Blue Label women’s boutique. So both of you can score some new joints at the same time. The only thing that western guys have to be concerned with when it comes to buying clothing from Japanese lines is your size. Japanese men are nowhere near as, how do I say this… there’s not nearly as much of them to love. Know what I mean? So if any westerners are looking to get into some Black Label, it’s no more combo meals. At least for me, anyway.

Burberry Black Label.

N.E.R.D. "Everybody Nose".

I just got this off of The BBC/Ice Cream blog. A brand new track rumored to be the first single off the upcoming N.E.R.D. CD out (finally) in April. HOWEVER, The site said this is not the final mix of the track. That’s okay. Just a having a little somethin-somethin to wet our appetites is cool by me.

BBC/Ice Cream Blog.

NAMIE AMURO "Rock Steady" (PV).

What a hot video. I think it’s apparent that Namie (or her record label) are trying to cement her as the premier Japanese musical artist once again. Notice all the foreigners in the video? Someone is trying to push her internationally. Not at all a bad thing. She has, after all, thoroughly conquered her homeland, so what else is there? Don’t be surprised if you see her in a U.S. movie release. Pat Field, who I almost worked for once, did the wardrobe and providing a look the west will find recognizably chic, combined with Namie's cool Japanese aesthetic, good looks & talent, I am sure Hollywood is not too far down the road.

Sixteen Year Old Boy Gets His Freak On In A Saitama Hostess bar.

Man, I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. I was just going through today’s latest news in my NetNewsWire reader when I came across this funny tale of a Japanese lad running up an outrageous bar tab at, what sounds like, one of those cheezy Japanese hostess bars where all the salaryman type go after work to get buck wild before going home to their wives & families.

This youngster, all of sixteen years old - what? a high school sophomore - went to said hostess-type bar in Niiza, Saitama, just outside Tokyo, and ran up a P. Diddy-sized tab of ¥370,000 ($3,460.21/€2,369.94) on bottles of top shelf champagne, 60 cocktails and “four or five hostesses”. He walked in the joint at 10:30 PM and at 4:30 in the morning, when presented with his bill, told them he didn’t have any money to pay. I’m amazed he didn’t get his ass kicked.

They called the police and after they arrived, it was revealed that the suspect (name withheld because of age) was a mere child, that now only applies in the chronological sense. The young man certainly has gone were no Japanese teen has gone before, but it certainly cost him. I find it particularly interesting that this kid knew how to order drinks & hold a conversation with several grown women.

Talk about swag. Two things I am willing to bet, one - he is now the king of his daigaku and two - he probably did get that ass-whuppin’ when he got home because somebody had to pay for that. However, I am pretty sure dad’s pride held him in check a bit.

Source: Japan Today.

Rachelle Leah in Complex.

I’ve got to get at the folks at USPS because since I’ve moved, I gotten everything I usually get in the mail - bills, bills, junk mail, bills, bank statement, more bills - but what I have not gotten is my still currently subscribed to issues of Complex.

Because if I had got my copy of Complex, I would have been seen this layout and said something about it. Well, as the saying goes, better late than never. You all can hit the link to see more of the Spike T.V./UFC knockout.

Complex.

SLY & THE FAMILY STONE "If You Want me To Stay".

MacBook Air TV Ad.

Leah Dizon & Hikaru Utada On Japanese T.V.

Yet another great dailymotion find of J-Pop idols Leah Dizon and Hikaru Utada on T.V., I thought this was pretty funny in that nutty, goofy way these Japanese shows often are. Even if you don’t understand Japanese this stuff is just retarded.