Miku obsession

OK. Today I've been wasting time on Youtube again. As some people out there know I've got this strange obsession with Hatsune Miku and all the other Vocaloids. I've liked the idea of a virtual idol since the first time I saw Macross Plus way back in the mid 90's. There was that OAV, then William Gibson's book Idoru, and some girl (can't remember her name right now...ARGH!) who tried to simulate one. She was a real person but only ever appeared in an animated form. [Edit: Kyoko Date was who I was thinking of...]

Last year Yamaha came out with the Vocaloid 2 software which is uses fully synthesized voices to make music. People went nuts over it. It got worse after they released Miku Miku Dance. MMD is a freeware 3D model program that has the Vocaloids pre-rendered. You just download it and start to make her pose and dance. I tried it out and it's super easy to use.

I'm not alone in this obsession either if the huge number of videos online are any indicator. Typing in "Vocaloid" on youtube gets 10,600 videos. 初音ミク on Nico Nico Douga gets 39,448 videos...Every now and then I do a search and check out all the strange things she is doing.

Here are a few of them. There are more popular/better ones out there but these are some that I watched today and found interesting. I'm only going to display a few on the main page so be sure to click through to hear her sing classical music. Sadly, no Toccata and Fugue in D Minor yet.

And, yes, I did get my cell phone in gray and blue because it matched Miku's color scheme. That said, if anyone wants to buy me a Miku figure for Christmas...

Tunak Tunak - Hatsune Miku version 初音ミク



Miku Hatsune sings ABC song with sign language (ASL) - take2





【MikuMikuDance】"I Wanna Love You Tender" MMD
(Not sung by Miku, but using Miku Miku Dance. A little freaky... BTW, the gray haired version is Haku who is normally portrayed as a drunk. It was made by fans to represent people who suck at using the software and can't get Miku to sing right. There are actually a number of alternate versions of Miku.)



"Take Me Home, Country Road", John Denver (Vocaloid2 ver)



She isn't all pop either...People have been having her do more classical stuff lately.

【MikuMikuDance】 ミクとハクが片手ずつ鍵盤を演奏
(surprised they got Haku to concentrate that long. haha)



初音ミク／魔笛：夜の女王のアリア２　［STEREO］



Beethoven Symphony No. 5 1st mov. Miku ver. 【初音ミク】 ベートーヴェン 「運命」第一楽章
(mikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumimikukumiku)



初音ミク　バッハ　小フーガ　BACH FUGUE G-minor BWV 578
(look at her try to hit those high notes. haha)



BWV 244 No.1 初音ミク【バッハ】マタイ受難曲 BACH　Matthew Passion



【初音ミク】　天津祝詞　 【PV】　 AMATSU-NORITO　　JAPANESE ARIA



Now back to work!

Turkey time

Oh, Thanksgiving. How I love you for your overindulgence in food. Such a good day but so fattening.

I went to my Aunt's house down the street again this year. We had turkey (of course), mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, broccoli, asparagus, croissants, and wine...followed by both apple and pumpkin pie with whipped cream and coffee. All this for just three people. Totally stuffed and happy with plenty of left-overs! This is a pic of the aftermath. My cousin had gone off to take a nap and my aunt was prepping the coffee at the time. Yes, I know you're supposed to have white wine with bird, but we're hopelessly addicted to the reds.

Gods my aunt is a good cook. Everything was moist and delicious. After we ate one of her neighbors brought over some home made egg rolls fresh from the deep fryer. We made sure she left with some turkey and stuffing in exchange. Nice day today. Now for a weekend of hell.

I'm not junk!

Holy crap! Yakult? In my Luckys? This makes Gin very happy indeed. I was pretty surprised to see it...Does anyone actually drink it? I got some a while back from Mitsuwas and it was surprisingly good tasting. Not sure that I'd drink it on a regular basis though.

Divine Brew

Totally forgot about this picture on my cell phone. He'Brew, The Chosen Beer! Oh, BevMo...How I love you. We bought some but didn't drink it that night. We had the imperial stouts instead. I'll have to ask J* if it is actually any good or not.


In other news, it is raining today which means all Californians forget how to drive. There was a guy in the left lane doing 20-25mph in a 40 on my way to the station. And another guy on the same road doing 50+. Wait a minute. That's every day around here. Nevermind.

Many people are complaining about it but I love the rain. Probably because we rarely got it in the deserts where I grew up. Not too fond of really cold rain but I do like the nice smell and sound of it.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Whew. Another long day done. Morning class at 9AM, meeting with a professor, design classes, off to the photo studio until about 10PM. This is pretty typical lately. I had a bit of a break between design and shooting in the studio so I decided to grab some food since I hadn't eaten all day. I was going to just eat a Cliff Bar that I had in my bag.....But I realized that all I've eaten in the past two days was bars, coffee, and some Fritos. Bad me!

So I decided to run to the Vietnamese sandwich place and grab some of their suspiciously cheap food. I got the bbq pork sandwich and some rice ball thing.


The sandwich was good but the rice ball had this super gummy jelly, spiced egg (I think), and something else inside it. I didn't like how it kept sticking to my teeth so I didn't eat it all. Tasted good though. Total cost? $3.25. Perfect price for a college student.

Lazing around.

Lazy weekend. I did a lot but it still feels like I was pretty lazy...But I'm working away now! The highlight (for me at least) was on Friday when I made some Beef Bourguinonne.Despite the fancy French name it was really easy to make. I tried a recipe for it that I found on Williams Sonoma's website and it came out really good. It doesn't look too appealing in this picture but stews generally don't photograph well.

One thing I liked about it was that it used turnips instead of potatoes. I honestly can't remember the last time I ate turnips. They had the same consistency of a golden potato but were a little more...tangy? Not sure. The food describing part of my brain doesn't seem to be working right now. It didn't call for carrots but I had two so I tossed them in there as well. I doubt they changed the flavor too much.

Goobye Broccoli Crew

Well, it's official. I found out this week that my friends out at Broccoli Books are being forced to close shop due to the economy and a myriad of other things. This is really a bummer for me because I had so much fun working with them all over the last few years. They gave me my first design internship, let me tag along with their escapades at conventions, and let me work on some really fun titles. Not really sure what else to say about this...I could rant about any number of things but I'm not going to.

Pictured are some of the books I did the lettering and layout for...Including my printout of GA Party 3. Hmm...Maybe I should bind it myself now that it'll never get an official release. Make a one of a kind copy? I also tried to find the U.S. version Koi Cupid for this photo. It took me a while to realize that my mom borrowed a bunch of my manga the last time she was in town and never gave it back. Hey! I wonder if there are still copies in the bookstore so I can go grab one.

That also reminds me. Maybe I should go buy some Viz books too so I can have copies of the ads I did while I was there. They should be out now.

New Journal

I made a new journal the other day. My last notebook is full of stuff so I have flipped it over and am writing on the backs of the pages. I wanted to keep a more personal journal so I made this one. I used some scraps of papers from other objects to make it. When I put the papers on the cover it looked kinda girly so I shrugged my shoulders and went with it. Thus, the lace that wrap around it to close the book. It also has gridded paper which I'm not too sure I like yet. I got used to writing on completely blank paper. The actual construction of the book came out OK. Not quite perfect yet but it is serviceable.

Now I have a place for all my insider gossip, scandalous little stories and dirty secrets! Wait...Do I actually have any of those? All I do is homework!

relax

I had a counseling session this morning and then since it was such a nice day I decided to sit outside and sketch some ideas for the projects I'm working on at school. I sketched for like an hour or so then fell asleep under this tree. It felt really good. I recommend everyone do it once in a while. I didn't want to go to work. Just sit there like Rip Van Winkle or something. Oh well. Back to work!

We went up to S.F. today for the 50 Books 50 Covers show today. I was really fun! I got to see some really neat books and hang out with cool people. Saw one of my old co-workers there and ended up upstairs in the Chronicle Books offices. Nice vibe and it seemed like it would be cool place to work. Crazy people and beer in the vending machines! Gotta love it.

After that one of my friends and I went in search of food. A Thai restaurant was recommended to us but it had a huge line outside. So we ended up at a bar down the street instead. A bar with a fat orange cat and vintage motorcycles on the ceiling. Nice!

The food was fairly good too. I had the pulled pork. The pork was tender with just a little spice and on a toasted bun so it went down pretty well. T* had a super grilled cheese sandwich. This thing had cheese (of course), tomato, pesto, and avocado coupled with some french onion soup. I was a little jealous that I didn't order it.

After that was a little bar hopping then the drive home where I struggled not to fall asleep. Overall a good end to the week.

Stuff everyhere!

Had an interesting day in class yesterday. For one of my design classes we have to make a fragrance package and ad. Our teacher had us bring in 5 items that we simply liked the form of and 5 items that had sentimental value. Using these we were to talk about them and use them as inspiration for our fragrance. It was really fun to see everyone's collections.

When the end of the class came around he surprised us...We have to do one based on someone else. So we drew items out of a hat and spent the rest of the time playing with other people's possessions and talking. It was a little awkward, but should be interesting.

Sketches of concepts are due Tues for this. But tonight I'm going to slack off. The opening for AIGA's 50 Books 50 Covers is tonight so a group of us our going. I might meet up with Viz designer Fr* and Librarian E* tonight so I'm excited.

Youtube spam

Because I'm it is late and I'm procrastinating here is some youtube spam. I started by looking to see if there was a video to Nana Kitade's cover of the Rose of Versailles opening. It is up there but for some stupid reason the person set it to a Lareine video? What? The video was kinda silly so here is a stream of the song:

Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru

That didn't last long until I started watching Tokyo Jihen (AKA Tokyo Incident) videos and couldn't seem to stop. I always thought Shiina Ringo was OK when she was doing her solo act. A little nasally but interesting. It wasn't until she added the whole band that I really got into her music.

If they ever come do a concert nearby I totally have to go! These are from a concert series they did the other year called Dynamite Out. There are a ton more but you get the idea.

Ringo no Uta




Sounan


Dynamite


Koinourikomi


Kurumaya-san


If you can touch it


Marunochi Sadistic


The lady is a tramp

Rose Hip Airplane

I felt like getting out for a while today. I went down to the art supply store to buy a screen printing kit but they didn't have them discounted so I left empty handed. I got one much cheaper (35% off) online.

After that I decided to go visit the little rose garden downtown. It was nice to wander around it. I loaded my Holga with SFX film and snapped a few pictures. The ambiance isn't as elegant as the Huntington (the landing airplanes kill it) but I'm glad there is one nearby. They did have a few bushes that were donated by the Huntington Library so it is like a little bit of home up here. Now I really want tea and scones. I thought about just siting there and doing nothing all day but there is work to be done so I came home after an hour or two. FYI, the rose in the picture is called Futura. I got a kick out of that...

I also think I'm getting sick again. This sucks...I've been getting sick a lot lately.

creepy

Work, school, work, school, sleep. You all know the deal. Still not much going on other than the usual. I spent most of today doing photo projects. We had to go on location at 9am and shoot a staged corporate meet and greet in front of these huge ass windows. It was a total pain to light. Not to mention we had to be in, set up, get the perfect shot, then be out in two hours. Ugh!

After that I went back to the studio and shot for another project that is going on concurrently. My assigned theme was "mp3 player in a romantic dinner setting." What? I think I pulled it off although it looks more wedding than romantic. It'll be OK. As I was leaving around 5 that night I realized that I hadn't even had breakfast yet. Just coffee. I've been doing that a lot lately and really need to stop.


This was pretty cool. In the black gallery on campus there was an installation of these things. They looked like wet, drippy flesh stalactites. I think they were made of some sort of glazed clay or ceramic. Anyways, wandering through this room with the strange music playing was a pleasantly creepy experience.

scribble scribble

I've been going through my own little mid-senior-year crisis lately. Thus, no posting. Feeling better even though I'm still drowning in schoolwork. The book is done, the tide chart is done. Studio photo is marching on at it's weekly shoot/crit pace.

My new insanity is the typeface we're making for one of my classes. We have to base it off someone famous. Anyone. Who do I pick? One of my latest fixations: Marie Antoinette. I think it'll make a really fun and over the top typeface but man...So many swirls to get perfect in so little time. I'm still hunting for the perfect system to make things consistent but also a little insane. We'll see what happens. In the mean time, back to drawing.