Sweet Vacation

Recommended listening. Jim shares something which hits his own sweet spot, so to speak, and I was pleased at how strong the singer’s English is. I wish I had a Chinese Democracy joke here, but let’s face it - it’s already a punchline anyways.

What’s Idol? pt. 1: …what?
What’s Idol? pt. 2: ghost pun

Jim apparently has been contemplating the idol world and it looks like he is starting a new series to go over what he thinks of it. By presenting statements that he has made in the past, you get an idea of where he wants to go with this series. Personally, I just wish he linked back, if applicable, to where he made these statements. As they currently are, they are pretty broad things to say.

The second post is a great read and I highly recommend it to all. He goes over when he believes Morning Musume started to shift from “singing group” to “idol group.” I really like distinction between “going to work” and “life is work” that Jim makes. I really don’t have too much more of a response though. Jim’s style of writing is different from mine, but I find myself nodding in agreement with most of what he says, and that’s about it. However, I’m interested to see where Jim takes this from here, if he does.

Intersex’d or…the Q is talking to me

Recommended reading. As Jim puts it, this post is “a late night metarant regarding the topics of sex, the internet, J-pop blogging and how not to combine the three.” He touches upon a number of ideas, starting with the “it’s my blog and I can post whatever I want” topic, then expanding into the ages of bloggers, honesty of males online, and ending with a Sharan Q song. It sounds strange until you read it: Jim has a way of making entries like this seem as if they’re a friendly, one-on-one conversation over lunch, nothing too serious or restrained to a single topic, but entirely worth getting involved with.

The Act

Jim Haku considers what it’d be like to be a session musician in Japan, which eventually winds its way around to the much-vaunted punk hardliners opposed to ever selling out to corporate music. Another thoughtful read, requiring a bit of patience and a great deal of satisfying thought.