Influences, Inspirations, Respectability, Opinions and Blogging

I don’t read much, except if I’m forced to read it…like a textbook for example. I’m not the type who would spend the time to go the local library or bookshop to grab a good novel and read it, maybe this is why my foundation of knowledge isn’t as broad as my mates who do read…a lot. But honestly, I have better things to do in my time than sitting down and reading a novel. I have countless albums I still need to listen to, I need my naps, I got work etc...But these are just blatant excuses for not reading, even though I know I can read while listening to the albums which I haven’t listened to.

Blogs however, I do read, and I read them every day. Even as exciting as novels may be, nothing beats the perspectives and opinions of a blogger. While authors may paint a scene as realistically as possible using countless language devices, bloggers usually have hands on experience before writing whatever they are writing about. Authors sculpt the opinions of a fictional character; blogs will have opinions of the writer. Authors will never have a true relationship with their fictional characters unless they portray their feelings within the characters itself; bloggers however, will have a real hands-on relationship, direct or indirect, with what they are writing. As much as I respect authors, they just don’t do it for me. I crave reading about personal interactions, especially on how the topic directly relates to themselves as a human being. Authors get paid to write their novel while bloggers are just normal people who don’t get paid to write, like you and me. We write because we enjoy writing because we wish to share our opinions to the world, so it’s more true to the heart with our opinions. Forums kinda do it for me, but it usually only comprises of a few sentences so I prefer blogs because of the length of their explanation and because the structure is set out in the form of an essay.

Blogs which cover music, especially Japanese music, are the blogs that I love. While blogs which cover culture, anime, art and other shit which is related to culture I like to read, actually personal experience like a diary blogs are also very interesting to read, but music is what does it for me. And thus, I am thankful for Ray letting me join the International Wota crew as a contributor. Because of this I am able to write about fellow bloggers’ articles and I am also grateful for receiving the full list of blogs which International Wota do cover because before I would rely on the other contributors to do write-up’s so I could read them, but now I can read them all in my free time.




But within music review blogs, I have noticed two different groups of bloggers. One group are the semi-indirect bunch of music bloggers who will write about their selected PV/album/single in the same structure as everyone in their group. It is at most times, a one-way relationship but at times I will see glimpses of a two-way relationship between song and writer. Although it may be a bit monotonous and repetitive at times but occasionally the reviews will contain interesting points about the song which I may not have thought of before. It also a good starting point for new listeners.

On the other side of the spectrum, this other group is very direct with the selected PV/album/single they are writing about. The writer can frequently go further explaining why they love this release by relating it to a life experience and put a slice of themselves inside their post. Occasionally the writer will write about the previous releases from this artist and relate it to the current release. Nevertheless, what differentiates this group from the group above is that the writer always has two-way relationship with the music and at times, a three-way relationship, the writer, the music and the reader. It is always personal, whatever angle you look at it.



It is the “personal touch” that keeps me yearning for more of these entries. The writers’ personality will seep in the review and it showcases me what they are like and who they are as a person. A lot of my blogging has been influenced by how these bloggers have written their pieces and hence why they have my utmost respect. They have braved the elements and climbed the highest peak to reach to a point where I look up to them because, well, they are that good. They have continually written sublime posts which has captured my attention, asked myself questions, tried out what they have reviewed, come to terms and understood their feelings towards what they have wrote. They do not try hard to be professional (although they do try hard in structuring and writing the post itself) in what they write because as Pengie said,

“There’s no reason that I can’t have fun while I blog on unchained. There’s no rulebook here. It’s my blog, and I can do whatever the hell I want with it.”

Because writing a blog should be fun unless you get paid for doing it and getting paid for writing a blog would be, as Pengie also states, “As entertaining as the back of my hand”. You will be subject to quotas and opinions, the joy of blogging will be lost. A blog should be about yourself and your own opinions, not opinions of the majority.

There are specific people within International Wota which I have the utmost respect for. It is not because I have a good relationship with them, it is not because I want more love from them, and I am not doing this to get into their good books. It is because they are more than capable of fulfilling everything above in a lot all of their entries. It may be different for other people, but this is the difference for what sparks and what explodes for me.

I’m going to limit this to three people, and none are in order, except for the last one, that position is saved for my most respected writer…in the world? (Since I don’t read shit all and I don’t call textbooks enjoyable reading either)

We all have different people who we respect and yours may be different from mine, but these are the people I honestly respect.



First up!

Wu from My/Our Pleasant Vista, Wu-San’s Blog, Kakko-ii and Dusty Journals and Rainbow Fish.

His sexy voice can charm girls around the world, but it is his entries which are heavily influenced by personal experiences, desires and quirky opinions is why I respect him. (He also has something else that charms me, but that’s off limits right now…AND I’M NOT GOING TO PUBLISH ANY COMMENTS THAT REFER TO IT.)

His Morning Musume Rankings was my first entry that I read from his and, funnily enough, my first Hello! Project related entry that I have ever read. He was the man, and I’m sure he has no idea either, who got me into Hello! Project. His quirky and desire-infested look at each member of Morning Musume got interested in them. From the mild personal quotes such as,

“Risa’s the type of girl I’d love to have as a good friend.”

To the extreme,

“I want to have sex with her (Tanaka Reina). I can be more romantic than that, of course, but I’m just saying, one of my driving motivations is wanting to book a hotel room and have my way with her all night long. You’d be gay if you didn’t think otherwise.”



His kinky sense of humour is always loved within the IW community.

But don’t let your guard down, he’s not always posting about Kamei cross-dressing, he has some very well written posts, especially his post where he can still be drunk and write such an interesting post.

But it is his humour and his unique personal touch he subtly soaks into each of his posts which makes his writing, so enjoyable to read. This openness in all his posts is admirable, no other blogger that I read is so open about themselves, and I fully respect him for that.

And this bloody punk made me spend $150 USD in 2 months on Hello! Project merchandise and I thank him for doing so.



NEXT!

MaiZe from fields of maiZe and berryZ

The crowning queen of Hello! Project of International Wota, or at least, in my opinion. If I needed any information about Hello! Project, she would be the first to answer me. Crowned Queen not only because of her undisputed knowledge of Hello! Project but she is the veteran out of the bloggers that I know who have known Hello! Project the longest.

Her writing is equally as impressive. Her entries are always true to the heart. What she sees or listens, is what she writes, there are no “checkpoints” whatsoever. There is no second guessing on how she feels about what she has written. But what impresses me about Maize is how much critical analysis goes into each of her entries. I mean honestly, to write about that much about each song in that battle concert and explaining her personal feelings towards each song is just…wow. The time that she takes to write, put screen-caps, videos and the little extras to make the reader more pampered and to make the overall experience more enjoyable is something I respect, a lot.

Her “Memorable Snippets” series is a series that deserves a lot of praise. The time to actually find a “Memorable Snippet” is hard enough since there are so many memorable snippets of a certain member so she must be at crossroads a lot. (Once she comes to a Miyabi snippet, she’ll be having an extremely tough time to find her favourite Miya snippet, :P)



My favourite post from her this year, at this moment, would definitely be her post on HIGH-KING. The amount of love that she has for that B-side is proportional, or even more than that, to how much she has written for that single B-side! If you have an image that long entries = boring, well this post isn’t boring. Actually, boring is a blasphemous word in this High-King entry. It is beautifully written, with consistent references to different elements of the PV from Reina’s hair to Maimi’s aggressive dance style, all complimented with Maize’s personal touch of concise and critical remarks.

If you have seen Maize’s blog or her Miya worship blog, you know she has spent a lot of time on the post because of how many yummy extras there are. The amount of effort and time she spends on her entries is extremely commendable.

She’s a brilliant young woman, but if you talk shit about Miya in front of her, prepare to get nails spitted on you.

And it finally comes to my most respected and most valued writer.



Pengie of Unchained.

Surprised? Maybe, Maybe not.

Even with the consistent barrage of ridiculous insults, she is, by far, my most respected writer.

Let’s say, I compared Pengie with…er…Shakespeare. Both are great writers. One is widely regarded as the “greatest” (I’m using quote marks, I’m being extremely careful here since I might get flamed for this) writer in the English language and the other is the writer and proud owner of unchained. Shakespeare has done a lot for the English Language, and I admit that wholly. But Pengie has done more for me than what Shakespeare has done. Shakespeare has given me (indirectly) boring as plays to read and study during High School which I was forced to read (which probably didn't make the experience any better), Pengie however has given me enjoyable, exciting and personal articles for me to read nearly every week. Shakespeare has put me off his plays after I had to study “Julius Caesar” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in high school. Meanwhile Pengie has consistently able to make me crave more of her entries. Shakespeare didn’t introduce me to his other works, while Pengie has introduced me to a ridiculous amount of bands and genres within the Japanese genre.

So in short, I respect Pengie more than I respect Shakespeare. Even though Shakespeare has done more for the English Language than anyone in the world, Pengie has done more for me as a human being than Shakespeare can/will ever do.

Her actions speak louder than my written words. Numbers cannot count for how much she has done for me, musically-wise, writing-wise and personality-wise. From the helpfulness when I was new to IW to the distinctive Pengie-to-SB jokes on wotachat, she has watched over me as a fellow blogger and as a friend through these months. (“good watching over me” when I was new, “Bad watching over me” now. [You have to be in wotachat to understand]).

How did I get into Pengie’s stuff in the first place?

My first experience with Pengie was her ”muramasa – Summer of Love” post back in August 2007, when I “discovered” the beauty and art of blogs. Before reading unchained, I was consumed by the blogs which uploaded. I didn’t really care back then about reading “how good it was”, (Yes, I was an ignorant bastard back then) I just wanted to download. But after reading such a detailed analysis of “Summer of Love” I was hooked. Entry after entry, I started to see a shift in her writing. As she clearly points out,

“I moved away from formula reviews in favour of more critical, overall approaches that were easier to read, and my artist highlights became less of a book and more of a thing that someone could actually sink their teeth into.”

Which I must confess, was a brilliant change because I could relate back to how she felt about the artist after trying out for myself.



After joining IW, I knew my uploading + short summary blog would have to end. By then, I already knew about Pengie’s blog "unchained" and I loved her style of writing. As result I changed everything by starting anew by writing actual reviews, following Pengie's style of writing gradually throughout these months. And thus, I owe it to Pengie for changing my writing style which in hindsight was a brilliant way to improve on my essay writing skills.

Since our humble beginnings, Pengie has introduced me to artists whom I would never try myself from unique indie bands which have the most bizarre names to Japanese Ska, a genre which I have never heard before in my life. Pengie has given me the chance to listen and enjoy bands and artists such as OCEANLANE, school food punishment, muramasa, pistol valve, Tanimura Nana, Zwei (she doesn’t know this), CHERRY BLOSSOM, midnightPumpkin, Rurutia, Skull Candy, witchery skank, Base Ball Bear, Wakeshima Kanon, HY and probably a lot more since I’m only just scanning though my ipod right now.

No wonder our last.fm compatibility is “Super” with only a small gap...I’M GOING TO FILL THAT GAP DAMMIT.



Her writing is exactly what I love about reading blogs. Her informative and entertaining entries are always threaded with personal opinions and experiences. Whether it may be writing about a song which has time and again woke her up during high school to a profanity-filled review of Haikara’s new album, her entries are very true to herself, as a fan and as human being. All of her entries are well structured and well written, whether it may be recent news or a full scale review of muramasa, she has spent time and effort on making her entry as "more of a thing that someone could actually sink their teeth into". You may not like what she sometimes says, but you have to respect her opinions because she has explained it in the most comprehensive and engaging way possible.

In short, as Ray is to Pengie, Pengie is to me. She has shown me that life shouldn’t be just all take, but it should also give. Even if the “give” is in the shape of personal opinions and just that is enough to change the attitudes of a person, in this case, me. She has also given me the opportunity to try out different bands and artists. I am, forever grateful that I met this fantastic young woman, and I wish all the best in her writing degree because she’s got it in her. If she does write a book in the future, I’d be more than happy to buy it. I wish unchained a happy second birthday and wish it well for years to come! Just don’t call Pengie Pengers.

These three people have changed on how I write and have made my blogging life extremely enjoyable since I first joined International Wota and I wish to read more of their beautifully arranged posts in the future. For any bloggers out there losing their drive or wishing to start anew, I highly recommend reading the blogs of the people I have just mentioned. They proved to be my inspirations and are my driving influence on how I write my entries.

...This is fucked up, This post comprises of more than 2000 words, 2200 or something around that, and it took me a few hours to write, think, process, analyse, research and format. But I have like 2 other posts which I have spent at least 2 weeks on and I've only done 2 paragraphs.

What's even worse is that, I can barely write concise a lab report comprising of a few hundred words...but I can write this much on Japanese music or blogs. Fuck me.