supacat

I've been listening to Diabolos a bit recently (and warming up to it a bit), so here's a couple of translations.

( Lyric translation: Future by Gackt )
( Lyric translation: Dispar, by Gackt = the 'Vanilla' of this album ;) )
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Gackt will appear in the Hollywood movie Bunraku with Josh Hartnett and Demi Moore.

His role is described as Hartnett's 'partner' (aibou / 相棒). Not a hoax! Really for real. This rumour has been flying around for a few weeks now but the official announcement has just been made on Gackt's site.

There is also photo. I don't usually post photo, but can't resist this one time. Josh'n'Gackt.



Josh is looking a bit uncomfortable standing next to his pretty Japanese 'partner'. I don't think that little moustache and beard bode well though, on the costuming front.

( Here's a quick translation of Gackt's announcement )

brain = broken
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For poetry month.

And in the Hanging Gardens (an excerpt)
by Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)

And in the hanging gardens there is rain
From midnight until one, striking the leaves
And bells of flowers, and stroking boles of planes,
And drawing slow arpeggios over pools,
And stretching strings of sound from eaves to ferns.
The princess reads. The knave of diamonds sleeps.
The king is drunk, and flings a golden goblet
Down from the turret window (curtained with rain)
Into the lilacs.
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I just finished Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and I thought it was very bad, but it had absolutely THE BESTEST EVER piece of vampire mythology/world-building EVER in it which was:

( Spoilers, well not plot spoilers, just this one unexpectedly genius thing about Meyer's vampires )

This pretty much sums up Japanese notions of masculinity: shibui (渋い) can mean cool, but can apparently also mean having a refined masculine presence, but also can mean grim or quiet.

Sadly, not nearly as great as Gackt's first date with Tsuyoshi. Posted in the spirit of "collect the whole set". Translation and link to video under cut.

( Translation: Gackt's 2nd appearance on Shoujiki Shindoi with Tsuyoshi-kun )

If anyone else has any Gackt-and-Tsuyoshi media to send flying my way, I will very happily translate that as well. (^_^)v

Only a tiny fraction of Gackt's interviews and clips seem to be translated, and the ones that do get translated are the ones where Gackt is being off the wall. Interviews where he is talking seriously mostly get ignored, so I thought it might be worthwhile translating a few of those.

That was the plan, anyway. Except . . . I couldn't resist starting with this one.

( Translation: Gackt on All Night Nippon talking to a naked male caller )

Etymology: The article I'm reading says that -kun (the suffix used with the name of young boys/junior males/male friends, eg Tsuyoshi-kun) actually derives from an honorific that was used to address male nobility. After the second world war, women became teachers for the first time in Japan, which caused a problem of etiquette because although they were teachers (high status) they were also female (low status). The problem was that despite being teachers, their 8-year-old male students ranked above them, by virtue of being male, and so these boys had to be addressed with an ultra-deferential honorific by their female teachers to ameliorate the insult of having a female in a 'higher' position (teacher). Article says that -kun was used to address boys first by female teachers, then by female senior students (addressing male junior students), and entered common usage from there.

annnimeee asked: What's this about JE that I hear? Tell me what you know/like about JE so far (if you're new to the fandom), if you're a veteran tell me why you don't talk about JE the way you do with visual kei.

( JE )

This is a sort of round up/clean up addressing the last of the issues surrounding the Flirting in Japan post. I should say at this point that I have a tendency towards understatement on livejournal that I will try to combat in order to give a realistic description of what's going on.

First off, thanks to those who have been thoughtful and considerate, and especially to the people who've alerted me to sites that have reposted some or all of the original post without my permission. You guys didn't have to do that, since by and large we don't know each other, and it was incredibly nice of you, to say the least.

( Info )

I think that's about it. No fear, I'm not going to post about this (I'm sure now rather tedious) topic again.

I've just friends-locked the post I made on sex and flirting in Japan. Arriving back from six days in Byron Bay, I was a bit taken aback to find it was on Reddit frontpage and in the process of becoming famous all over the internet. Considering that I didn't friends-lock it to begin with, it's probably disingenuous to say that I'm feeling like someone put my diary on a billboard in Times Square, but I honestly didn't intend it to be a public post, and I would have flocked a lot earlier if I hadn't been out of town.

ETA: Thanks to the people who have tipped me off to extracts with names and etc reposted to various other websites such as OtakuB. I'm in the process of contacting those people and asking them to take the links down.

ETA2: Edited a bit. Still in the process of recuscitating from dying of embarrassment, now with an undercurrent of grim internet disillusionment.

Offline until the 30th March. (Life stuff + flying to Queensland.) There are some comments I'm still dying to answer, just haven't had a spare second. Can't wait to rejoin the convo when I get back.

From petronia:

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, writing techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

S.K.I.N, eventually Gackt/Miyavi. 2300 words. WIP. First part here. (Eventually, the title will make sense. I hope.)

( FIC: Mirror - 2/? (S.K.I.N. - Gackt/Miyavi) )

This may be the cutest song ever written. Yes, I know a lot of cute songs are written. But this may be the cutest.

Boku wa shitteru ("I know") by Miyavi

The sad tale of the unrequited love of the guy who works in the coffee shop.

( English )
( Romaji )
( Japanese )
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In a million years, you will never guess who this character is:



Because it is BRUCE WAYNE from the Batman anime.
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Some things no one tells you about the Louvre:

- It smells weird.

- On the first floor, there's a collection of Viking helmets. And a giant bronze statue of a chicken!

- The ticket foyer alone is the size of Grand Central Station.

- Almost none the stuff in the collection is of French origin. It's endless rooms of Italian paintings, and Roman, Egyptian and Middle Eastern antiquities. A bit disturbing, actually. After a while, you start to feel like whoever set up the museum just went to Italy with a sack and filled it up.

- It's bigger on the inside.

- It has elevators! There is no need to die of exhaustion on the stairs. (Except I think the elevators are a bit like the stairs at Hogwarts. They move around randomly within the museum while you are on them. The doors never open on the bit you expect.)

- If you crowd surf the mosh pit in front of the Mona Lisa, you can get a brief look at the painting.

S.K.I.N, Miyavi/other, eventually Gackt/Miyavi, R. 2200 words. First of several. (Eventually, the title will make sense. I hope.) Thanks to Meg for the beta.

( FIC: Mirror (S.K.I.N. - Gackt/Miyavi) )

Oneshot, 1200 words, Gackt/Hyde.

( FIC: Want for Nothing (Gackt/Hyde) )