I'VE MOVED!!!

Just to say, I've moved to a platform that isn't blocked by China: livejournal.

so EVERYONE!!!! GO TO THIS WEBSITE NOW!!!

aiharatenshi.livejournal.com

hopes its better and more accessable. I've moved all my older posts (Except the college ones) to the new site as well so you don't have to come back here to read them.

Enjoy!

Bullet Hole Stickers

Okay, so heres to another wasted day, I've been surfing on youtube (with what limited speed these proxies give) on a Disneyland binge... again... probably because i'm heading for HONG KONG NEXT WEEK!!!

So, the Jungle Cruise is one of my favorite attractions and D*land. Especially with the talented skippers, 10 minutes of extremely sarcastic, dry humor is a great thing to put in one of the "HAPPIEST PLACES ON EARTH". And apparently, the skippers hold a "skipper stand up night" where these jungle venturing comedians get to crack their corny jokes off duty as well. And then I uncovered this little gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP7kzzOf6qs&feature=related

Thank you proxies for not letting me format this post whatsoever. Anyway, the little spastic man in this video is named Jason Michael Hammond. All i can say is, this is hilarious. So many quotable lines, (my title is an example). Seriously, when you say that you counterattack gangsta car music with Phantom of the Opera, you have to be loved.

After finding a related video of this Mr. Hammond singing "Music of the Night" (and doing it EXTREMELY well), his youtube page filled with POTO songs and a link to his "professional" website, i did what any Theater fanatic would do: RESUME-STALK HIM!!!

Some pretty fun stuff, especially in musical theater like Music Man (Shipoopi anyone?), Guys and Dolls (Nathan), Cabaret, and of course, Into the Woods (Jack, and with his voice i have no trouble imagining it :D). Noises Off also caught my eye :)

Oh right, for those who are actually reading and have no idea why it "caught my eye", i was in Noises Off too (as Poppy). And when I say, "and of course", I was also referencing being in Into the Woods (as the Baker's Wife), if you haven't be following this blog (see post back in October). SHAMELESS SELF-ADVERTISING *aaheemm* anyway...

He went to Seoul, Korea for a while to work for an edutainment company that specialize in English teaching shows. Expatriat performers ftw! Following the resume drill, I went over to the headshots section and I can say I definitely approve of them, especially the ones with glasses >:) *rape face*. What can I say? I like a man with nicely framed lenses.

My verdict: This man is worth following, CHECK HIM OUT! He has a very pure and clear voice, you don't really get that as much anymore with men these days, especially SINGING men. And he's a great comedian to boot. So Jason Michael Hammond, I salute you. If you keep singing like that, you will definitely one day play the Phantom (in the Webber version AND the equally-awesome-if-not-more-superior Maury Yeston version). I would request a CD if i could (he offers them if you make a donation to his "Make Jason Famous fund" lol) but sadly when you live on the other side of the world you can't do that kinda thing.

So Jason, I send my post full of spaz, virtual love and support to you.

If anyone finds a suitable proxy for blogspot that actually lets me format a post NORMALLY (like actual bolds, italics and images), PLEASE TELL ME!!!

3 more days till 2011. PEACE OUT.

EDIT (11:52PM aka 3 hours and 40 minutes later): Okay, just saw him sing Bring Him Home and Empty Chairs and Empty Tables (from Les Mis). Jason, please play Marius in the near future, PLEASE!!!!

"Yes, My Lord"

Well before, i start obsessing... COLLEGE FRIGGIN' APPS ARE DONE!!! NO MORE SUPPLEMENTS TO FILL OUT EVER AGAIN HELLZ YEAHH!!!!

Now its just time for auditions T_T

Now, where were we... Oh yes! That ever so familiar catchphrase I've lovingly quoted from our favorite demonic butler: Sebastian Michaelis. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and you're into anime, get your self our from under the rocks and LOOK UP THIS AWESOME SHOW. I've been obsessing over Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler for a while and like any delusional fangirl have been compulsively spoiling it for myself and search up the voice actors. However, for the very first time, I'm obsessing over the ENGLISH voice actor.

*LE GASP*

I'm sure all the Japanese Seiyuu purists out there are bound to find me and troll on about "How the english version sucks and doesn't do it justice and blah blah blah". Don't get me wrong, original Japanese voice acting pwns ANY english dub whatsover, but the work some of these people put in and their AMAZING talent can't be ignored. After searching up the cast of the English version of Black Butler (apparently 1 season DVD is just coming out this Jan. 11, 2011), I youtubed up a NY Comic-Con panel with the director of the show, Ian Sinclair (who also happens to voice Bard, and does it VERY well) and the English voice of Sebastian. American otakus, thank you for introducing me to the wonderful J. Michael Tatum.

Okay, so this guy has done some serious work in the US business of anime. He has had some pretty substantial roles and writes for Funimation and ADV. The fact that he voiced Kyouya from Ouran Host Club also gives him major brownie points in my department :D. i can't get enough of that panel session. Several times he busted out "Sebastian" mode, answering requests from fans to say that token "Yes my lord" (even in french), and he was just... My GOD, it was like a brassy, british eargasm. The best "question" of that night? A cosplayer, in character as Ciel, said she had a "problem" and asked Tatum, "Can you put on my shoes?". When Tatum was too busy cracking up, Ciel barked "Thats an order", and lo and behold, our J. Michael put her shoes on, as "Sebastian".

Oh yes, J. Michael Tatum if you are reading this, you can put on my shoes ANYDAY :)

After i recovered from my fangirl seizure in front of my laptop, I began revisiting some old favorites I hadn't visited since my first otaku spaz phase: Monica Riel (Renge, and more recently, Meirin :D), Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke and yes, Ben 10), Vic Mignogna (Edward Elric, JUNPEI IORI <3), Liam O'Brian (Gaara, AKIHIKO SANADA <3<3<3), Tara Strong (She plays so many parts i have to name whole shows, Teen Titans, Powerpuff Girls, Drawn Together, seriously this woman is everyone and everywhere). Note how all the men have worked on Persona 3 at some point... *smiles innocently*.

But seriously, English dubbers really do need some love people.

Hopefully that makes up for disappearing in a holiday coma, although its probably more to myself due to how no one is reading this... if anyone is reading this?

A Merry Late Christmas!!! 2011 is dawning upon us people WOOOOT!

I'M OBSESSED!

Quoting the fabulous Seth Rudetsky. I love you for your deconstructions and have been on a run of watching them instead of doing them. There is one I HAVE TO SHARE. Sorry for blatantly posting the URL. On a proxy.

Okay, so In the Heights one of my favorite musicals. So one of the swings, Josh Henry (who i believe who was Benny on the national tour) decided to demonstrate what he does backstage during the song "When You're Home". He singing other random MT songs that actually fit perfectly musically. Pure genius, but the best thing is he screws up at the second time and Seth chimes in with Meadowlark. Just see for yourself and let Seth do all the explaining http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLR35ftc6s&feature=fvsr

Kudos to Andrea Burns for looking and sounding phenomenal (especially the note she holds at 6:06 - 6:11). And Julia Murney for just being there XD


I'm running our DVD for Into the Woods. Since we were on stage, we obviously couldn't see the set. Now that i get see from the audience point view, i can't stop gawking at the set :DDDDDD. Thank god it was the saturday show they taped, because i TOTALLY screwed "Maybe They're Really Magic" on Friday and its my favorite song to do. Why? because i get to belt, overact, go off-pitch, and get away with it :)

I seemed to have channeled Anthony Rapp's spastic hand movements during the play... Ha ha.

Asian Into the Woods lol XDDDD Shout out to the cast (and our "Tao Bao" Milky White).

Into the Woods

The title says it all. Yes, we are doing Into the Woods. To end it as a senior year musical is kinda awesome. What more? I'm the Baker's Wife! For once i'm not the whine little kid or crossdresser! Either way this is kinda late. We're in the tech week stretch... dress rehearsals till 6. Extremely tired. Never the less we are plowing through.

Note to anyone. Don't ever pile and stress yourself out for a week then sudden relax over the weekend. You'll strangely enough get sick. i'm a walking example of that. I'm just praying these are just allergies.

Nothing new. Just an update. College apps for ED/EA due soon. I'm doomed. Cross my fingers in hope :)

Peace out,

Tenshi

The First Baron

Okay, so first i'd like to share my latest discovery. :D Well, he's not really a discovery to the actually world, he's been around for a while, but I have to honor him some how because of his astonishing voice and I wish he was appreciated a bit more.

So I was watching that awesome video of Brent Barrett and Michael Jeter (RIP, but he's not the center of todays piece, although i might do one on him later) dancing like a madman in the Tony performance of Grand Hotel, I wiki'd up the musical and realized that the sexy Brent was in fact NOT the original Baron (although he did a damn good job playing it).

The original Baron was this man named David Carroll, whose last production was in fact, Grand Hotel. He left the show pretty early due to sickness. 2 years later when the song-writers finally settled their bitching over song rights, They finally decided to make the cast recording of "Hotel". By then, Carroll was already very ill with the late stages of HIV. This poor man literally DIED the day recording for the OBC of Grand Hotel started... in the bathroom of the recording studio... Very sad.

So i tried to search him up, finding this video of him sing "Anthem" from Chess (again, as the original cast member). Most of you know Chess from the 2008 concert version with Adam Pascal and Idina Menzel, and "Anthem" being sung by THE Josh Groban. I thought it couldn't get better than Josh. I was SO wrong. Originals kick ass, and this was GORGEOUS. Whoever caught it live was one lucky cow. One of the very few of the dying species that is "the musical theater baritone".

And who better to obsess with me about David Carroll than our very own Seth Rudetsky! For those who don't know Seth... well you should... or you have been deprived of all MT awesomeness. Anyway I'll let you see for yourself. Seth explains Carroll's death then goes on to do a deconstruction of his song "Love Can't Happen" from - guess what - Grand Hotel. Listen to the last note. and look at Seth's face when David hits that note xD.

This song was so good i actually bought it off iTunes. RIP David Carroll. Your beautiful voice will ring forever in my heart.

That aside, below was a small side discovery of a video i found from the user who posted the Chess song. An awkwardly cute song that makes me smile. And yes, that's Anthony Rapp (the 3rd RENT-y i mentioned today).

Senior Retreat tmr... yay... i have to wake up EARLIER than i do on school days... My head is exploding from self-produced stress. I'm a sad person. Ah well, Sheehan will pull me out of my my misery tmr. He was seriously on a ROLL today with the jokes during the workshop. Love him to bits.

Peace out,

Tenshi

Jets and Sharks and Scrubs

Once again, i have returned from a blogging hiatus, mostly because i've been so engrossed in my summer I've barely had time to really sit down and thing about anything to write. But to recap, after Vassar, I visited Brown and Yale, then headed straight to CMU for pre-college drama. In short, it was epic. You can find our pretty awesome counselors dancing to "Single Ladies" here.

Since my mother was out today I took advantage of the empty house to finally let go and belt in prep for this years musical Into the Woods. So while I was screaming "I Know Things Now" at the top of my lungs, my mind wandered and I decided to go on a YOUTUBE ADVENTURE WOOT!!!

I landed on some old clips of West Side Story. One of them was a rehearsal video for a segment at the 2007 Gypsy awards for the 50th anniversary of WWS with about 22 of the ORIGNAL cast members. Watching 70 year old Jets singing and snapping their fingers made me cry tears of joy. Oh and Chita Rivera was... Chita Rivera... only she was 74 years old and doing the Gym Dance. I honestly couldn't stop watching the video. MAMBO! :)

Continuing on that adventure led to a clip from an episode of Scrubs that pays homage to WWS by paralleling Jets and Sharks to "medical" and "surgical" (dances included) and a very familiar fire escape scene between Turk and J.D. This pretty much revived my love of Scrubs after my recent revival of my love for Chuck. What can i say? I have a thing for leading men whose first names are Zach.

Then COMPLETELY unrelated, after a stop on Broadway.com I spotted a rather interesting new play running on off-broadway now called Trust starring - what do you know - Zach Braff. Also starring Sutton Foster... as an S&M dominatrix... WHAT???!!! See for it yourself ---> Click. What makes me laugh even more is that Braff references West Side Story in the preview video for the show. If you're in New York, run to your local TKTS and please see this play for me, cuz it sure looks interesting.

Thats just about it for today. Tmr, I will official be a Senior and start my last year of high school.

Peace out,

Tenshi