The other day I was listening to Dozing Green and I was like o.O; does this song have a pv? hahaa Then I went to good ol' youtube and there it was. This single seemed like a non-event compared to how fans used to dissect their singles a few years ago. I actually really like it and am addicted to it these days, it has that beauty/chaos thing going on. That live version of ASoM is awesome too, I ripped The Final single and put it on my ipod the other day, I hadn't listened to it in ages but the live versions of IIID Empire, Red...em and Increase Blue are so fantastic and energetic ;A;

Anyway I'm counter-acting my horrid cramps with Kyo screaming through my speakers haahaha *dies slowly*

Oh I forgot to mention how Dir en grey are included in the line up to the hide memorial event that's going to be taking place. Also included in the line up so far are Luna Sea and TMR, aahaha talk about different ends of the spectrum. At first Dir en grey's inclusion puzzled me but regardless of whatever biases we might have developed about them their success on an international level and their own influence on many a jrock band that emerged in the last 5 years in pretty much undeniable.
Go posted about it and one poster said that maybe playing in the vicinity of Luna Sea will make them go back to their roots, and another poster countered with something along the lines of what roots? going back to ripping LS? and then I lawled all over the place XD But playing with LS at any event is a pretty big deal, does it mean Dir have entered the pantheon of ~legendary~? Although I guess you can argue they got there when all those other bands stopped trying to rip the 90s jrock bands and started to mold themselves after Dir XD

I'm reading a bunch of books at the moment, I bought Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, last week because the crack-tastic Disney movie was on and I was like omg this is insane! And I'd never read the story, so far its pretty entertaining and an easy read.
I also bought the Atonement book which is an interesting read, each chapter is relatively short and switches perspectives so it keeps things really interesting.

And lastly I got a book called Kinky Gazpacho which I ended up finishing in 2 or 3 sittings, its a really easy read, and quite funny and heart breaking at times. Its written by an African American woman and its her memoir about growing up in a mostly White upper-middle class suburban and dealing with being the only Black kid in her class and having to deal with crushes on little White boys and so forth. As a kid she developed this inexplainable attraction to Spain and always dreamed of going there, because she felt it was a place she had some weird connection to and what not. Her trip there took place in the early 90s and I know when I think of Spain I think of racial diversity and acceptance of people of color /sarcasm D: I mean honestly in the book she condemns Spaniards for their racial ignorance, but rarely takes time to reflect on her own ignorance about their culture and history regarding people of color. She mentions how she didn't investigate Spain's stand on races and what not before she went there, so its like one those ohh I wanna visit a country I know nothing about and won't bother to investigate anything about it and then go there and act outraged b/c they're not used to people of color and therefore act accordingly D:
Towards the end of the book she starts to investigate Spain's role in the slave trade and finds comfort in the fact that Black people lived in Spain and played a part in their history at one point and so therefore now feels comfortable going there every summer with her Spanish husband and children. @.@;

She had this rose-colored view of the country as a child and even has an adult didn't bother to learn anything deep about it before she went to live there for a year for study abroad.
The first part of her memoir I enjoyed b/c it dealt her childhood and her trying to fit it amongst all the White-ness and it was something I could relate to. But as the book goes on and she practically forces herself to date black men to feel some kind of African American pride and not betray her race by accepting that the love of her live is a Caucasian Spaniard.

I mean the book is pretty interesting but I thought the first half was better than the latter half which I think could be its own book and topic, that being the role of Blacks in Spain's history.

Living in North America makes you so acutely aware of the color of your skin, its really annoying I find. When I lived in Latin America I wasn't even bothered by it because people come in all shades down there and its not like you need to be a certain way to fit into anyone racial group like here. OR feel the need to date within your racial group otherwise you're ~betraying~ your people or whatever the fuck.

Anyway I'd recommend picking up the book and checking it out because I think it could lead to some really interesting discussions regarding race in different cultures and how people visit countries without getting to know anything about said country.

She should have kept it a straight memoir instead of becoming detective in the last half and trying to justify to herself her love for Spain despite the ingrained attitudes and ignorance some people she encountered there had towards people of color.
I mean idk she mentions the examples of people tarring their skin during Carnival, men calling her Chocolate and Morena when she walked down the street and its not they're calling her the N-word by any means, but its like they were committing some kind of hate crime to personally offend her, which is probably why I have such a problem with her reactions to the ignorant crap thrown her way, she takes it so personally when its not even that, its just fucking cultural ignorance and I think a bit of a case of cultural misunderstanding.

Although that whole thing about the Northern Spaniards throwing bananas on the soccer field because Africans were recruited to play on the Spanish team was beyond wtf-worthy and to that event she wasn't so ~outraged~, she just kind of brushed it off because it wasn't an event personally happening to her or something, ughhhhhhh.

Anyway I started off really enjoying this book but the more I think about it the more I find at fault with it and see the ignorance displayed from both parties involved. I mean no one should be treated differently because of their skin color but also if a cultural is racially isolated they won't feel the need to be as PC as Americans. One person she interviewed in the book said Spaniards tell it to your face, unlike Americans who'll play nice in front of you but talk shit behind your back hahaaa.