hiroki

they always have such perfect looks *_*

boybands ftw. kinda amazing how they went from playing in vuenos (equivalent of ruido or edge for their scene) to budokan in less than 3 years.

whyyyyyyyy T_T hopefully v star will stock this *puppy eyes*

I don't want to wade too deep into this exchange for many reasons so I'll keep this as short as possible. First, to "defend" WhirlingBlack's statement even though I hardly know him at all: every word has a unique political and ethical valence so it's important for us to be always sensitive to how we use words. I don't think he intended to downplay in any way the severity of the situation by suggesting that the word 'murder' is inappropriate for this context. It's precisely because there already is a great deal at stake, that we can do without further amplifying tensions through the careless use of laden words. Describing the situation in precise terms does not mean to trivialize the anxieties that black people in America experience, nor does it mean to nullify the tragic reality of recent events--if anything it enables us to see the injustice for what it is and equip us to better address it. Using words like 'murder' risks reducing the issue to one of individual hatred/racism (it's not at all uncommon to hear people make startling claims like "all we need to do is to go out there and get rid of all black-haters"), while failing to address the much more entrenched and challenging problem of institutionalized racism of which these events are merely symptomatic. I don't question in the slightest how much this matters to someone like @CAT5 for whom racism is a daily struggle. It wouldn't make sense for any of us to try and pretend to grasp what living through all of that feels like. Yet, the capacity of the marginalized to articulate a legitimate and authentic account of their experience is often not ipso facto sufficient to precipitate fruitful transformative action, especially in a country like the US that is historically burdened by centuries worth of social structures in place to systematically work against certain groups of people. This is why I think it's crucial to not foreclose dialogue between the marginalized and people outside of that community simply because they cannot share the specificity of a minority's experience. To believe that these people have nothing to contribute to the existing discourse inhibits any potential coalition-building that can change things for the better. Likewise to claim that there's nothing of value that can be learned from someone living in a different place (or, for that matter, a different historical period) is a little too presumptuous. In my view: the perennial problem with organized movements in the service of virtually any form of identity politics (and not just race) is that the situation quickly devolves into a case of where you stand being all that matters, instead of the actual merits of what you think and say in support of your position. I think this is troubling. Not surprisingly this only became worse with the all the pseudo-journalism creeping into the Internet and in some ways we're already paying the price for it. We don't even have to look very far beyond contemporary US politics to find the opportunist par excellence of this flavor. Many condemn Trump's rhetoric as divisive, but they fail to see that he is doing nothing more than leveraging on the polarizing potential that has always been latent in discourse on identity politics, as well as the general inability of the public to appreciate the actual depth and complexity of human affairs beyond the 'us vs them' dichotomy, as if things are as simple as separating two immiscible liquids by letting the denser one sink to the bottom before draining it off. In sum: it is in our interest to engage every point of view on the table with a provisional openness, while always remaining vigilant to pernicious perspectives regardless of which side of the barricade they happen to fall on. Both sides deserve and demand equal measures of rational scrutiny. This is the only way to foster any kind of fruitful political dialogue that will, with a lot of effort and a bit of luck, translate into the beginnings of systematic change. (Yes I might be typing all of these as someone who's 'living halfway across the planet,' but I'm far from being 'unconcerned.')

omg they look so different. loveee it.

Lig's last single 世界で一番ちっぽけな僕 can be preordered here: http://www.aoostore.com/shopdetail/000000000293/ct53/page1/recommend/

^All of this. If people don't support a band because of their fear that the band might disband in the near future, they are doing nothing but expediting the disbandment. Obviously that's not saying you should make it your mission in life to help bands stick around longer, but if you genuinely enjoy what the band is doing, then I think you do have an interest in helping to prolong the band's longevity so that they can produce more music without constantly fearing where the money for their next meal is coming from. Actually, I'm not even sure if this entire 'vk bands today disband a lot faster' assumption even holds any water. The briefest look at the history of the scene will show you that no matter how far back you go, it's literally the case that bands form and disband every single day. Pick a random year, and in all likelihood there were as many bands with 5 fans that had released 2 songs before disbanding than there are today. (This is especially the case if we acknowledge that vk does not only exist in the major centers i.e. Tokyo, Osaka.) Our perspective is just heavily skewed today from perpetually looking at vk news under the microscope (thanks to Trombe, and well, social media in general). We think the 'disbandment culture' is a novel phenomenon, when in fact it probably has been there since vk (or any other scene you might care to name) existed. That's just how things work.

Pre-order bonuses have been announced! ■Live merchandise table & WEBSHOP・・・ "FoLLoW TV" extra DVD footage #4 + offshot photocard of random member ■ZEAL LINK "FoLLoW Karaoke Battle" DVD (Jekyll & Hyde ver.) + autographed photoset (individual photos + group shot) ■Jishuban Comment DVD + photoset (individual + group shot) ■little HEARTS Comment DVD + group shot

wow this thread's quiet :/ so i've been reading an assortment of random stuff... fiction: Rainer Maria Rilke - The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Kazuo Ishiguro - Nocturnes . My second (and last) attempt at this. Doris Lessing - The Grass is Singing. I loveee Lessing, despite what many critics might say. I enjoy her deadpan humor and how witty yet subtly incisive her style is. She reminds me 1000% of what Hannah Arendt novels would look like if those were a thing. non-fiction: Walter Benjamin - The Writer of Modern Life. Basically a compilation of Benjamin's essays on Baudelaire... but I've read half of them before from elsewhere. Christopher Hitchens - Arguably. No idea why I'm even reading this.. but nice to have something light in the mix lol. Also promised myself to go through this beauty at some point:

YESSS. Amazing pic too.. wish i could have been there!

nice to see shii keeping his vampy fangs on love the song too!

i remember you and your 100% lossless rips from JPS! i was there as well under a username similar to the one i'm using here and shared a good number of vk rips back in the day. you have an amazing collection & good luck selling them

oh no.. i hope he's ok considering what had happened to him previously :/

yes you should! they are sooo good & underrated. 優しい街 from their most recent single is my latest addiction.. i've played that song more than 400 times o.o satoru's vocals are smooth as silk and i love it.

btw glamhaze will be holding a one-man live "「都会の空の下で」 第10話 6&9 Ensemble epilogue 『6つの光が交わる場所で』" at TSUTAYA O-West on 2016/10/08, at which the CD of an unreleased song will be distributed to all fans. as its name suggests, this will be the last "chapter" of their ongoing series of one-man lives "under the skies of the city" (the concept they've been running with), and the title for this particular live is "the place where the 6 beams of light meet" (the number 6 referring of course to the 5 members + the fans)

hoping for this to be available in stores or at least their webshop.

Purple Stone will be the cover artist for Cure V-Splash vol. 34, slated for publication on 07/25. This is the first time they are featured on a magazine cover! They shot the photos for the issue today. If I can get a copy i'll post the offshots and the interview

need more haruka in my life. i'm a fan already lol

wow what a mess... but at least it made me laugh

need some new songs from them! also lovinggg hayato's xfrm parka

terriblyyyy upset about this, as much as i'm not big on their new concept. their four releases in 2013 from World of order to 曖昧傘 were some of the best electro-heavy vk of their generation ;_;

Set list today at Ikebukuro Ruido K3 1. Red&Black 2. 迷い姫 3. ラヴァ 4. パロ二リア 5. 指切り 6. モノポリー 7. trigger 8. unfil

wow this sounds sooo good.

i knew it was diz's vocalist!