Rahzel

Need someone to talk?

anybody else bummed out because this was supposed to be "their year"?? some year alright hahahaaaa 😂🤣☹️😢 man, fuck this.
 
i was actually gettin shit DONE before literally fucking everything went haywire here in the states. 

Dunno man at this point its less "wanting affection" as much as it is "needing affection"
Honestly I've never been one to feel despair over being unloved but growing up made me realize it's not easy either to be 100% alone in this big bad world as I had hoped to sigh 
Bills are easier if split and I guess the lack of any punctual human touch to make them "snap out of it" is why some celebs commit suicid*
 
But honestly @shiroihana IA thats very enlightening. But personally from observation one thing I realized is most people who "lean left" ALSO don't Actually lean left, they're just privileged enough to live the society of the spectacle dream without any actual care for social issues, but it pins them as horrible human beings if they actually admit they don't care on a deeper level for humanitarian issues and whatnot so they throw empty discourse around. In the end, it's ~empty discourse for a lifetime and then we all die ~ from both sides, so your point is totally understandable from my point of view. (That is as someone working in fucking public social work where some Positively Privileged people with an uni degree HAVE to pretend to be amazingly enlightened humans to have some credibility, and boy I've seen SOME SHIT in here lol.)
 
Also why am I the woman with the candyfloss-haired kpop idol on the avatar saying such deeeeep stuff? Clearly this world's upside down COVID wants us all in hell
 

I'm amazed this topic made it to 458 pages without the forum crapping out!

No need to be so dark 
If you really want affection try to get closer to people without giving yourself away that's how I lived for 18 years
 
What you call paradoxical is chaos 
For instance on one entrance exam I did every question on math correct which got me to the core of top 2000 out of 2.8 million and on the military exam I did every one wrong which got me under the minumum requirement of entrance that is a paradox its simply chaos
But your problem is you didint want to make enough of an impact on their life you simply want it to happen naturally you should know humans are greedy you just have to make it all about them  or simply put you just want them to be perfect which in fact is impossible even on respect standerts I don't know how "close" you are with them but know this if you truly care for them it's not late to avert their views on you but as the old adage goes bad beginnings call for bad endings  in fact if you don't like them they don't deserve you there's always someone to share
you just have to find them 
 

I can't write and nobody cares - a post on being unloved I guess

Not just ICEMAN but a whole segment of 90s jpop - through names and acts such as AXS and, well, all of DA Family actually - was very... very Y2K vibes; but I used to think of vk as sort of the antithesis to it, as a whole. Like, where jpop was aggressively Y2K ~trendy bandomen~ were often just vampiresque lol.  So, sadly, nothing to contribute here but thanks for this topic, it's pretty nice!
 

I just remembered ICEMAN, who were basically Y2K Aesthetic: The Band ...they're categorized as J-pop tho I think (well, they look and sound like very soft electro-infused vk pop if you squint hard enough). Anyway, I knew some vk fans who were into them long ago, maybe someone here will dig them.
 
 

Personally, I just feel waaaaaay better putting money in ppl's hand's directly for their services rather than going through some disembodied corporation or buying shit from some major chain. Feels a lot more natural.

There's precisely two thoughts going on in my head right now
The first one is something more or less along the lines of (5th post last to first)
The second one is why the hell aren't they releasing any new Castlevania games? Am I supposed to watch the Netflix show and download the mobage to get my fix? Wonder if the team have become janitors already 

I feel you 100% on this. As an African Descendant of Slavery, I've experienced similar situations. Who would be more qualified to speak on a culture than someone who's already fully immersed in it? I hate when I see these non-"black" SJW types parading around as "allies", when over half of these muhfukkas don't even truly fuck with "black" ppl like that. Most of these ppl don't even want to live around "black" folk, which tells you how they REALLY feel about us. And a lot of these SJW-types champion ideologies that are harmful and destructive to "black" ppl in general.
 
But yeah, I wouldn't even sweat those people. They're more interested in policing the thoughts and actions of others than their own. They wanna change the world by changing other ppl instead of just being the change they want to see. It's ass-backwards...

Eijun from THE BACK HORN apparently made a separate Twitter account to practice speaking English. 
 
But he keeps accidentally mixing them up, which is pretty cute. 😅
 
 

I was listening to some of you guys' works and it's soo good. Keep it coming.
 
Meanwhile I played one (1) anison on a recorder for school when I was 13

I was just wondering who do y’all think are older or younger! Also I just want to be educated!!

How many of you are pursuing a music career or are/were in a band? 
 
 

So, Topaz Labs has had an artificial-intelligence (AI) image software suite for a while now, including Gigapixel AI which is meant for upscaling photos. Well, videos are comprised of still frames, so it was only natural that users would try and apply this AI upscaling to video. In the past, this process had to be done manually using FFMPEG to extract all the frame images. You then had to upscale in batch with a limit of ~2000 images per session which would take forever. After all that, you had to put the whole thing back together.
 
Within the past month Topaz Labs has now automated this process with Topaz Gigapixel AI for Video and it's a free beta at the moment. While the hardware requirements are 32 GB RAM + an Nvidia Graphics Card with at least 6 GB VRAM, for the time being, you can have them render a 60 second comparison test for free or pay for a full video up to 10 GB (the longer the length, the pricier it is.)
 
 
You can see here I shelled out $7 for ユナイト - 約束 [MV] since I wanted to see how the upscale treated the variety of camera shots, effects, and CG (also it's ultra-fucking slow on my PC.) I also used SVP to transcode the upscaled product (by 200%) w/ 60fps frame interpolation for the last video. I assume Dailymotion hasn't fully processed these b/c they're stuck at 1440p, so for that and compression-sake I included the original files in MEGA.
 
I find this particularly interesting for Visual Kei music videos b/c unless they're on YT, we're kind of stuck with DVD rips @ 480p. While you can't magically conjure up quality from thin-air, I find this process really promising for older media.
 
ユナイト - 約束 [Original YouTube Rip at 720p] | https://mega.nz/#!ySwymCbK!2qXUGErT4oeTfsNlU4tSIzJifAE3iuS-9yTLPtx_vKg
 
ユナイト - 約束 [FFmpeg Upscale to 4K using LANCZOS filtering] | https://mega.nz/#!KTpiDaxD!bVww7YeTW94ue8_dg5ISm6BkP7m0qwsQh5eqyny2w2k
 
ユナイト - 約束 [Gigapixel AI Upscale to 4K] | https://mega.nz/#!OahCWCwD!DOxcV4hEC-HESVFdd2Rgn_Ftw7nYCCkfsXs6osVQog8
 
ユナイト - 約束 [Gigapixel AI Upscale to 4K + SVP 60fps Frame Interpolation] | https://mega.nz/#!6LghhDQL!Z6e52yGO5hML1ZryUKqc1uXu6LIFV3HDzP2qY5H4nWc
 
 
Programs:
https://videoai.topazlabs.com/beta
https://www.svp-team.com/wiki/Main_Page
 

Wtf. I was going to post something heartwarming + insightful about the disease and all of a sudden my laptops internet connection is not working anymore. It's wireless so it's really beyond me why, but wireless connections simply vanished ; Refreshing and nothing, restarted it already aaand nothing. Guess I only have my mobile connection now lol. 
 
Anyway. Where was I ... 
 
Myself. Things are hectic. Guess since herd immunity failed us the gv now goin for natural selection. Auths barely think for themselves so we are going back to work bc other countries are too. But our winters happening now 
 
I work in child care too so. More than anything I've always worried for those kids who have nothing in life but their grandparents; they are NOT few and they are going to shelters if anything happens 😕 more than money which has always failed me/us it's worrying me since day one of these bs happenings. 
 
I'm quarantined alone (as an essential worker I was asked to return to working locally.) missing my loved 1s ; mental health, never really had it but its worsening ; everything sucks basically. Anyway. Am I healthy in any way right now? Probably not. Will it get better? Hmm, doubt it...? 
 
So sorry to bring up the elephant but. What dyall think about the entertainment industry, particularly bands etc? Those events got me rethinking certain things which happened in Nov-Feb ... Seeing these in another light. For one. The boy in my pic is a Chinese guy in a k-pop group. He was in a hiatus supposedly bc of mental health issues since Apr/May and it seems he asked to return to SK in Nov/Dec but was refused. At first every fan was mad worried (he's in the company known for ... Expelling Hyunah lol) but now thinking about it, maybe the industry had known beforehand? Not unlikely seeing as lives are ... Absolute nonos in a pandemic (crowds, touching, spitting...) . Kinda makes me see those world tours re/scheduled completely out of nowhere between Nov-Feb in another light too. 

Bandas influencias pelo VK no Sul das Merrecas
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

e tem gente por aqui (ninguém que tenha visto aqui nesse tópico) que acha importante e uma atitude louvável deixar de comer e de gastar dinheiro com coisas essenciais do dia-a-dia pra comprar CDs com preços absurdos lol é fácil falar em apoiar a cena quando você mora na europa e ganha em euro. comprar CDs aqui do Brasil, pelo menos de forma constante, só funciona de você for rico e tiver dinheiro de sobra todo mês. comprei horrores e enchi uma prateleira enquanto podia, quando o dólar tava abaixo ou próximo dos R$2. agora? nope, sem remorso algum

GLAY announced on their official website on Tuesday that on top of their previously announced donation of 10 million yen, they will also donate 5,000 masks to medical institutions for COVID-19 relief.
"The number of cases in Tokyo is rising by the day, and now it's reached a state of emergency. Some are saying that our health care is nearing breakdown. We hope that we can offer at least some support to those who are working tirelessly at the frontlines in order to contain the situation," they wrote. "We pray for everyone's health and hope that the situation can be stabilized soon."
Glay announced last Friday that they would cancel their latest tour in Nagoya and Tokyo originally scheduled for May due to ongoing concerns regarding the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). The band's leader Takuro announced in a video posted on his official website that the group will be donating 10 million yen for relief efforts.
The Glay Dome Tour 2020 Democracy 25th "Hotel Glay Grand Finale" tour is still scheduled for the Sapporo Dome in Hokkaido for December 12.
 
source

https://soranews24.com/2020/04/13/japanese-boss-punches-employee-who-came-to-work-after-being-told-to-stay-home-for-coronavirus-risk/

I'm getting increasingly concerned about all these privacy-invading ''protective'' measures governments worldwide are pushing through : / Have this lingering feeling that most of 'em won't be rolled back when this shit dies down

I figured he's rich enough to live there part time, like how Yoshiki lives part time in Japan.

It's my first time doing this in a very "why not" fashion, expect me to give up in 0.5 days
I'm bad at ratings so sorry if I reevaluate  this in 0.2 days 
 
I decided to do this because I thought Dimlim's album sucked so bad I found myself skipping all of it and I'm glad I'm not alone in those thoughts lol.
 
* = It's not yet released OR I didn't listen to the full thing yet so my comments are concerning the MV/previews
 
J-MUSIC  
[January 07] [single] グラビティ↗︎↗︎楽しさFULLVOLTAAAGE!!! (Gravity) - 決意ゼロヒャクMAX!! (Ketsui Zero Hyakku Max) - 7/10
It's... a very solid rating coming from me I swear. [January 20] [album] ACME - WE ARE VISUALKEI - 7/10
This Best Of album is so goooood. The only thing I don't like about ACME, as I realized, is that they somehow got robbed during that US tour if that means they won't want to come/feel safe in my country lol aside from that, I love. Rock on.  [January 25] [pv] SHIN x Alice Nine - Velvet - 8/10
This is a rating pure out of nostalgia because this cover really sent me back to the Rainbows days. Great song and great vocals singing. [February 19] [album] Queen Bee - BL - 7/10
First time properly listening to Queen Bee mostly because of their videos on The First Take and it's pretty cool. Not really in a "ohh my jam" way but it's good and chill music. What drew me to them was probably how the vocalist looks anything but generic j-pop/rock singer but their voice is as generic as it goes, although very skilled. [February 26] [single] flumpool - 素晴らしき嘘 (Subarashiki Uso) - 6/10 
Still need to watch Ahiru no Sora ... I really need to watch it ....... the song is ok but I bet it looks amazing as a TV size opening and I don't want to spoil myself. Because I swore I'd watch it but lol [March 01] [album] DaizyStripper - INFINITY - 6/10
* It's OK and my brain is like "mugen no kanata heeeee" all day lol [March 4] [single]  SID - delete - 6/10
* Technically, rhythm-wise it'd be a 5/10 tops but I adore his voice lol [March 4] [single] ACME - 嘘顔 (Usogao)  - 6/10
* I mean... it's cool [April 22] [album] Miyavi - Holy Nights  
K-MUSIC
[February 12] [album]  펜타곤 (Pentagon) - UNIVERSE : THE BLACK HALL - 7/10
The first full album is definitely not their best but far from being their worst.
 
OTHERS
   

I came back to see if anyone was discussing the subject further and I realized a I got plenty of reactions, and am finding it kind of funny, so maybe I should explain my point a bit further because it all seemed like a big wall of text without a clear point. I really wasn't saying a lot though, I just ended up addressing different replies without quoting.  
 
All I really wanted to say is, from the point of view of someone who really liked j-rock and despised k-pop for the better part of their lives, you can't really deny that there's always (and by always I mean in the last 20-something years of course because K-pop didn't exist before nor had Korea been too influenced by the US) been some degree of cultural overlap or influencing because that's what pop culture worldwide always does, and it's not really fair to compare or put one against the other as if they're Polar Opposites In A War because it's quite out of context, it's just not how it works. I mean, media and cultural industries do run deeper than that.
 
So Japan started embracing Korea and Korean products because of dramas, AFAIK, and games and manhwa kind of found their way as counterparts (almost counterfeits, really) to whatever Japan had been doing ages before, before K-pop music emerged as one more kind of product. No real artistic appeal, but I did listen to Japanese music way back when BoA started becoming really popular. Japan was all over Namie Amuro or Ayumi Hamasaki and all of a sudden there were (the half-American) Utada Hikaru and BoA in the spotlight as well. And SME was pretty keen on exporting their artists since H.O.T. so after BoA kind of managed to Be It they made TVXQ debut alongside with her. And this is where the MV of Tri-Angle which I mentioned before kicks in. I'm no expert but I believe Japan had been exporting a lot of pop culture to SK for years and that was more a reply. Which was... quite a thing. And by thing I mean quite a cultural appropriation as the kids of nowadays would put. (Final Fantasy? Visual kei? You decide.)
 
 
And it worked, lol, because soon enough (the fandom of TVXQ which was quite hugeee in Japan) Cassiopeia was formed, SNSD and SuJu (and Big Bang, etc) were pretty popular overseas as well and that's when the whole Hallyu 2.0 thing kicked in. So basically SK was just trying to export stuff - really, trying hard, because being so closely dominated by US and Japan-originated products Probably Sucks - and that's how we ended up with the most seemingly random but not really mix of cultural influences in k-pop. Because it worked, it sold, and yeah. Cue seemingly out-of-place Pocky/Pepero game levels of fanservice, colorful hairstyles and clear imitations of whatever j-pop boy/girlgroups were doing. And because there's always been this kind of insurgence of j-rock in j-pop music as well, it's thrown in the mix somehow.
 
So when I did that video, it was more as a joke because I ... kind of started digging deeper for j-rock/visual kei music after years of just listening to ONE OK ROCK or whatever was "pop j-rock" at the time, and I was talking to a friend and we were like, oh, ok, it's definitely being influenced the other way around now. Understandably so, especially because since k-pop made successful breakthroughs into the US market and, with it being the biggest music (actually, general pop culture) market/export in the world, of course it's a huge influence to Japan as well. So we were kidding about how even visual kei PVs nowadays sometimes looked less like 2000s or 90s visual kei PVs and more like k-pop MVs, although they're still distinguishable to the non-casual viewer (but yeah, if you go solely by commonplace stereotypes like "k-pop artists don't create songs/play instruments", "k-pop has no Japanese language music", "k-pop has no foreigners", "K-pop is cuter", "but fanservice" "but makeup" etc... you're just prone to go wrong). As I was saying, pop cultures in general do overlap always, regardless of nationality. That's characteristic of, well, pop culture in a globalized world. But that's really as far as my enlightenment goes, lol.
 
And then you have the western fans of Asian music whose preferences seemed to change, not so much because it did change, much more so because of the shift in East Asian music market and accessibility (I remember it was super hard finding subbed Korean videos back in 2008 so I was much more a NEWS fan than a TVXQ one, although I listened to both - but nowadays it's harder to find Johnnys videos because they're all taken down LOL) and promotion, stuff like that.
 
What you subjectively make out of this is just what you make out of this, bro. I literally don't think I can delve any deeper than this.