avaritonista

Just thinking I could sUMMmaRiZe my favorite playlist of 1000+ songs to only 5 favorite songs of favorite bands... yeah...

You know, I can understand why people are worried about the vaccine. It usually takes many years for a vaccine to be developed and also to be so tested and refined that it does not cause any harm. On the other side, there are some good points for why it's worth to take the risk.
 
The way it looks, Covid will become endemic like the Spanish flu, meaning it cannot be eradicated and remains circulating in populations. It will ravish global human populations until eventually natural herd immunity will be reached. Once there, it will not vanish, but continue to infect people, albeit in smaller numbers. However, that is only if there really is any long-term immunity against the strain. We know people build immunity against H1N1 influenza fairly quickly and that it usually suffices for some time. There is no conclusive evidence that an infection with Covid always leads to the creation of antibodies, nor do we know that immunity lasts longer than a few days. It's very much possible that without a working drug or vaccine people will just constantly re-infect themselves and others with the virus. If that's the case we have to hope natural selection will cause only the less deadly mutations to survive, so that the virus gets weaker over time… but that's pretty much nature sorting things out, meaning many people will die.
 
We seriously don't know enough about the virus yet, so who knows how bad it will be, but I can understand why scientists try hard to find a vaccine. Covid def isn't "just like the flu" and even influenza is very dangerous and can cause long-term problems (including triggering auto-immune diseases). The Spanish Flu, which was a very comparable disease (no vaccine or working drug) killed millions.
 
However, I agree that no one should be forced to take the vaccine if they don't want to, for now… I usually don't hold this view when it comes to vaccines that are very old and therefore mostly safe - in most of the cases it's better to tale that polio or measles vaccine and not endanger everyone else - but a covid vaccine certainly will be very early and experimental. Also there is no guarantee that it will work (longterm). However, if it does help and if they can improve its safety, then sure, maybe in a few years I will take it. In good vaccines there are still potential side-effects, but the likelihood of getting them or that they are worse than the alternative is low, so it's usuallly always a better choice to vaccine than to catch a preventable disease.  It's a matter of personal risk assessment - do you want to risk getting the side effects or do you want to go through the disease (that might kill you)?
 
If we are lucky the virus mutates quickly into a weaker strain and we may not even need a drug or vaccine. In the worst case scenario it will just be like described above and many people will die the next years. Still too early to tell…

Well, I used to think that you all were exactly as your profile pic, and now I found out this.

Probably GACKT was too big for them after a  minute. During his solo tenure, he was able to be interviewed by the likes of Gaki no Tsukai,  which is huge.
 
 
 
 
Though, IDK how mana is IRL, but he seems very shy, gentle, and delicate when I got to attended one of the MdM hand shake event. His handshake was a very weak grip, like the most feminine woman would.

I made a joke about the new X Japan album (and he just recently made another tease at it too) featuring BTS on every track in another thread but I really wasn't prepared to deal with the fact that this image is real

[air raid siren goes off] they better release some random album somehow!!!!

I'm loving this topic already lol
 

when the teacher gives us a programming project to do and I don't know how to do half of that shit
 

me trying to figure out why in the heavens doesn't my code work
 

when it's lunch break and I see what our student restaurant has to offer
 

me when it's finally friday
 

Another mood. I would have to say this is my mood almost all the time. Idk what it is, but  yea.

me every fucking day
 

 

 

 
and sometimes
 

 

Ok, I am having a tough day, but your oneliner jokes always make my day (e.g. in the Satsuki thread, your mama style)
 
So please lift my mood!
 
My band is so popular, that Maria Cross has asked them to feature in his porn. 
 
 

visual kei got popular again

This discussion brings back some memories of the time the tokyo damage report about the inner workings of the VK industry was posted on the net and so many overseas fans were in total disbelief and denial. Most of us overseas fans never had been to a live in Japan and most of had no idea how the scene truly was in its home country. So it was really hard for many to stomach to hear that their beloved oh-so-perfect and "better than plastic, mass-produced 'murrican pop music" bands were just as fabricated by labels and couldn't write their own music or play their instruments. 

Even then many new VK bands were just talentless hacks who wanted to get their 15 mins of fame and easy access to pussy, and that was maybe 8-10 years ago? Around that same time LUNA SEA's Sugizo and Dir en grey Kyo commented on the then contemporary scene, that the newbies are not passionate about making art and music, but only care about attracting chicks. I remember how much hate and flack they both got then, with some fans accusing Sugizo to be jealous of the young bandomen, because they were hotter and got more girls, lol. How naive we gaijins were back then. Ofc we would also believe that there are no kusomen - our fav bandomen are all perfect, because they are hawt!

It's good that the scene nowadays is more open about discussing what's going on inside and that we are not foaming at our mouths because someone "insulted" our fav bands by pointing out the obvious… like Kisaki's misdeeds. If that would have become public ten years ago I bet you there would have been at least a small army of people defending this guy. At least now most people see him for what he is.

That said, VK always rubbed along with a bit of delinquency and depravity. Since the hosts entered the scene that got even more amplified, but that transition has taken place since a whole decade. I think we reached a point where almost none of the "original" spirit is left behind. Ofc you get the occasional band that's truly concerned about doing art, but for every honest group you get 10 forgettable ,mass-produced trash ones.

That's no confession, it's the plain truth! 😂

I don't think this is a debate thread, but I really do take issue with calling a band like Baiser uninspired when they changed up the formula with each album they released. The first album and demos don't even sound like the same band that made the second one, and by the last one they'd tightened up their game considerably from the third. La'mule also showed healthy progression throughout and the BERLIN single sounds like they would've had another chapter ahead of them had they not disbanded. 

I once made a "who is your vk boyfriend" quiz on some quiz site. Also I didn't include any of my own favorite band members in the quiz because I didn't want anyone else to get them as their "boyfriends" lol.

I've been into VK for over 15 years and haven't listened to a Luna Sea album from start to finish...

I would never leave any fandom just because there are "bad" people or something... First, the  "fandom" should be a lot more about the thing you enjoy/like rather than the other people who also like it. Plus, there's "bad" people everywhere, in any fandom, group, circle of people, as long as there is people, there will be people with whom you can make a connection, and others not, some good people, some not so much etc.
 
About Mejibray, I haven't listened too much from them, from what I've listened to, it sounded too basic and not very interesting, so I just moved over to the next bands xD  but I don't "hate" them, couldn't care less. xD

Deep down you know that, somewhere out there in the world, there is a woman who falls asleep hugging that strippable Gackt body pillow.

I've never cared for Mejibray and a huge chunk of the "big" bands within the scene, with a few exceptions of course. I'm not trying to be hipsterish at all costs, it's just that I have a hard time getting into anything that I find overexposed. If I like something, I'll like it regardless of the popularity (or lack of thereof) of the band, it's just that it happens rarely with well-known bands.
 
(basically, I enjoy screaming in the void about bands no1curr about)
 

i’m really glad to hear that.  also, it’s sort of comforting to know that it wasn’t smth personal and that he might just genuinely be an asshole, so thanks for sharing.  sometimes i take things personally, even if they weren’t.  maybe bc of this, ill be able to enjoy diru more now.  🖤

Many years ago, I started to learn japanese because I wanted to get a visual kei boyfriend 

Tbh I like Dir en grey, but I’m not big on Shinya. He’s always read cold to me, and at first I thought maybe he was just shy or not a huge fan of meet and greets, which is whatever - but then we were both at the same party once,  and when I went to say I was a big fan of his band, he literally pretended I wasn’t even there. I mean straight up, I even did that awkward thing where I repeated myself because I wasn’t sure if he hadn’t heard me or not, lol. 

I saw Dir en grey in Portland in 2008.  I was so stoked to finally see them and they were my favorite band at the time.  The show was really mediocre though. Aside from the crowd being filled with a lot of hardcore weeb girls, the band themselves just didn’t seem that into it.  After the show, Shinya and Toshiya were signing and bc of where I had been standing, I miraculously ended up being first in line.  At the time, I’d never had a CD signed before aside from handouts at local shows in my hometown that came in paper cases and I didn’t realize that I had to unwrap the CD before they’d sign it.  The bouncer told me to go to the back of the line, so I very quickly scrambled to open the wrap.  I managed to do it p fast, and Toshiya was laughing a little bit.  Idk if he thought it was funny or if I was an idiot.  Shin ya didn’t seem at all interested in anything.  I tried to thank him for signing the CD, but he just looked away and snubbed me.  After that, I kinda stopped liking Diru.  It felt like the magic was gone.  Tbh I’ll listen to their new music, but I always feel like I’m just not into it now.