Sven uploaded a ton of videos from the party on July 4th. I'm probably posting about 20 minutes worth of videos but they're all AMAZING (well, minus my poi set) so I highly recommend you watch them. There's DEFIANTLY some world class spinning on these videos. The sound quality is really good too so you can hear what people are listening to over here :) Links included for the facebook import. And remember, if you like what you see, comment and rate the video!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zxXiP1uzSQ

Coco and I doing double fire fans. It didn't look as good as I thought it did and my fans went out half way through. I pretty much backed her up through the whole thing but she's hotter than I am so whatevs. I look pretty dumb in the still. Actually, I look pretty dumb through the whole thing. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. No wonder I never get to spin any real shows. Heh ^^



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pew4IZPsMEA

Shion doing contact staff. I'm convinced he's one of the best staff spinners in the world.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-xhQb3LZOA

Me doing poi. GARBAGE.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PydM-TbncJY

This is part of the AMAZING contact ball act I was talking about. Holy shit, that was amazing to watch live. Is the 2nd guy to do contact juggling and he's pretty good too but I liked the first guy's set a lot. It's a pitty Sven didn't post his complete set!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks4hH2u1MUA

Genki and Shion doing their synchronized double staff.

I really hope Sven puts up the video of the 5 person fans act the girls and I did a couple weeks ago! This batch of videos is probably going to be the last batch you see for a while because Sven is leaving to go to teach in Vietnam :( I'll miss that kid <3

This is remarkably accurate...

Haha, I look trashy because all I'm doing is sitting around the house XD

Well, Conor and I got drunk and went to the park by our house. We sat in a grove of pine trees on a picnic table and talked for a long time. It was really chilly though! That's OK. I want it to stay cold because our air con is broken!!! We decided to go back to the house after an hour or two and when I was cheerfully bouncing down the sidewalk...my ankle gave in and I fell and hit the pavement!! I felt the ground rip into my skin and my face turned bright red because I'd fallen down in front of a group of guys passing us. I immediately jumped up as I grimaced because my knee hurt and bolted to the house because I was so embarrassed.
I flooped down on the couch and examined my throbbing My knee and discovered it was GUSHING blood. I'm sure the Japanese guys laughed their asses off.
"I'M PISSED OFF! I'M GOING TO BED!" I shouted.
Conor was like, "OK..."
But my knee hurt too much to sleep. I opened my bedroom door and said, "Just jokin'! I'm not going to bed!" I got up, put some medicine on it and then I drank a bitch drink with Conor after and hoped that alcohol could kill some of the pain. This is what it looks like today.

Groddy!( Read more... )

I wanted to go out with Brenna today but she has some private lessons and it's raining. I had a really pretty outfit picked out too and I was excited to wear it! Oh well, maybe we'll still go out. The day is still realitively young. For now, I'm gonna dick around, try to clean (Conor and I are both slobs so when the house gets mildly out of hand I have to nip it in the bud quickly or else it will spiral out of control). I'm listening to Zwan and the music is so happy that it will make cleaning relatively painless :)


Zwan - Honestly




http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2245690

I believe
I believe
I believe
I believe the love you talk about with me
Is it true, do I care
Honestly, you can try to wipe the memories aside
But it's you that you erase 'cause there's no place that I could be without you
It's too far to discard the life I once knew
Honestly, all the weather and storms I bring
Are just a picture of my needs
'cause when I think of you as mine
And allow myself with time
To lead into the life we want
I feel loved, honestly
I feel loved, this honestly

<3

Time to work.

I think it's kinda weird that everyone is upset about Michael Jackson because people made fun of him and laughed at him relentlessly. Now everyone is like, "Oh, whoops, I didn't mean it. He really was the king of pop! Just joking! I'm sad!" I guess the media, who treated him the worst, feels bad about it and decided to make everyone else feel bad too. Oh media, your supreme power and influence never ceases to shock me.

Like read this stupid quote. "Michael, you may be gone but NEVER will you be forgotten. I will play your song 'You Are Not Alone' in remembered. Rest In Peace MJ."
Everyone feels like they have to say something!
or this one
"If you ever like any of MJ's music to honor him tomorrow wear black and one white glove!!! spead the word. Twitter, email etc!!"

Jeez, the hipsters are gonna have a field day with this. Glad I'm in the States see that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I sort of wonder how many people really mean it when they say, "R.I.P." after the way they treated him when he was alive.

Anyway, R.I.P., Michale Jackson. I cracked jokes on you when I was younger and I'm sorry about that. Whenever I heard Billy Jean on the radio when I worked that shitty retail job I felt a little better and I had a good time dancing to your remixes at parties back in the day. I'll always remember when Gio dressed up like you for Halloween. If I were in Chicago, I'd ask Gio if he wanted to drive to Gary and pass the abandoned theater with the Marquee that still says, "Jackson Five Tonight" to have a look at a little piece of that history that remains from when you were young.

Anyway, I'm starving. I need to eat and then go to work!

So Masa and I went to eat Shakey's Pizza Buffet with Dan, Nic, Conor and some random Japanese guy last night. We ate so much food and drank a lot of beer.

When Masa finished eating, he turned to me and said, "I am so full. I drank so much beer and ate so much pizza. I am pregnant."
Me: Well, the baby's not mine!
Masa: NO! It is your's! Do you want me to have abomination?
Me: You mean an abortion?
Masa: Yes, do you want me to have abortion?
Me: No, we can keep our baby!
Masa: Good!
Me: Is it a boy or a girl?
Masa: I only have son.
Me: Whatever.
Masa: It have face like a pizza.
Me: Oh, so it's a pizza face baby?
Masa: Yes, we can eat it!
Me: It'll be such a cute half pizza face baby.
Masa: Yes, the baby will be half Japanese and half American. It will be so cute.
Me: And we can take it to parties and feed everyone. We'll never go hungry because we have a pizza face baby.

Seriously, Masa cracks me the fuck up. lol. I had to share that because I remembered it on the bus today and busted out laughing XD I'm sure all the Japanese people were like, "Wtf is wrong with that gaijin girl?" They're just jealous because I have a hilarious boyfriend who always keeps me entertained. lol.

Blah! I went to Izakaya with Brenna and Micah and I missed my train home! So now I`m sleeping in the internet cafe! Excuse all the misspellings and grammar mistakes because this Japanese keyboard is a bitch to use.

I feel like my spoken Japanese just gets worse and worse. I sounded like a total idiot at the desk when I was paying for my room. Seriously, I get so nervous I can`t think. I can speak fluently with my tutors and with my students but strangers and Masa scare the shit out of me.

Speaking of Masa, he doesn`t hate me. Heh. I`m going to his house tomorrow night after fire spinning and we`re going to hear Sven DJ at a small outdoor party Sunday. I wonder if he`ll be open to talking about Adrienne with me. It`ll be tough because of the language barrier...I don`t even know if he`ll be able to understand everything I say but I know he`ll understandt he feeling. I hope he holds me and comforts me becasue in the home, Japanese people are very different than they are in public. But if he doesn`t, I know it`s just a cultural difference. But in less than 12 hours I`ll be with my delicious, Japanese lover. He`s so yummy.

And speaking of the fire spinners, they don`t hate me either. Shion actually e-mailed me out of the blue today and invited me to come spin and eat sushi tomorrow night. So yea! I`m jumping for joy on the inside because I really love spinning fire and it`ll be even more specail because I haven`t lit up in a while and it`s the summer solstice.

Now all I need is a reply in my inbox about my article. I seriously want this so bad. I`m working my will so hard. I really want to be published in a big magazine and I really want to go to this party. I don`t even want any extra money. If I could just be paid enough to go that would be more than enough for me. Plese god, please. The fashion thing totally fell through and I was so disappointed, let this work out beacause that one didn`t!!!

Adrienne`s funeral was yesterday. I`ve been thinking about all the wonderful times she shared with me. I`m starting to remember random things we used to say and joke about like, 14 years ago. It`s crazy how all of this stuff is just flooding back to me. I`d like to think that she`s out there somewhere reminding me of all those times. I missed her for a long time and I miss her even more now. I`ve noticed a way change in how I`ve been spending my time. My productivity is way up because I don`t want to waste a minute...

Oh yeah, I had a trail lesson with a 15 month old today. At first she was afraid of me but by the end she was flashing her 8 tooth grin at me constantly. She`s cute. I like her

So I need to sleep for 3 hours, then catch the train back to bum fuck, shower, change, jet off to school, teach 2 classes, come home, crash, pack my shit, head out to fire spinning, do my thing with my friends, get on a train, go to Masa`s, get drunk, have fantastico sex, go to sleep, wake up, go to the party, spin fire, go back home, go to sleep, and then wake up Monday morning for another trial lesson.

Jesus, I`m fucking busy. I wish I had time to write more.

Alright. 1, 2, 3...crash zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

http://alannalp.dreamwidth.org/

I felt like I was on LJ...without all the bullshit. How do you import entries from dreamwidth to LJ???

So I sent my project proposal to Rolling Stones, Paste Magazine and CNN Traveler. I was so nervous when I attached the links to the e-mails. I was thinking, "Oh Christ, I hope this catches someone's eye before it's too late! And I hope I didn't miss any typos!"
Seriously, I spent so many hours reading my cover letters and pieces of writing over and over and over and over again. I'm also afraid that my amateur photography will be a turn off but I explained that I need a better camera to get really good shots and I will invest in one if chosen to cover the event.
I probably won't hear anything from the magazines but it's worth a shot because I really want to go to this party and I don't want to be up to my ankles in debt if I charge the expenses. I write about parties all the time, as you guys know, and take lots of pictures so it's not like it would be anything out of the ordinary for me to cover an event, it would just mean that my writing gets published in print and not just online.

Tonight I'm sending my package to Viacom (for MTV or VH1)and Spin magazine.

Wish me luck. I need to shine brightly to stand out in the crowd of all the other people who want to write for magazines. I know my topic is really out there and that could be a blessing or a curse.

If you go fishing, the worst thing that happens is you return home with an empty basket and you have to go out and cast your net again tomorrow. ::shrugs::

We'll see what happens. I gotta to go work now.

Thanks for all the love you guys sent me. I love you guys <3

So much has happened that I can't even begin to write about it. I spent Thursday night with Masa, tip-toed out of his room Friday morning to catch the first train and then went back to his place today to be with him again. We're falling so in love with each other. I feel like I'd never really experienced love in full bloom until now.

Today I went to Japanese and there was a calligraphy writing class. All the old ladies ooh and aaaahed at my writing and I thought they were just bull shitting until the instructor checked my writing and wrote notes on it. I was the only person in class who got notes from the instructor. I was sort shocked that she wrote such nice things so I didn't show it to anyone and pretended like I didn't understand what she wrote ^^ I was being Japanese and being humble but on the internet, I can be American and show all my friends! XD I'm in a rush so I didn't put the writing in order and I didn't flip one picture. I've gotta get to work but I wanted to get this up because I know I wouldn't get around to it later when laziness sets in ^^ My romaji SUCKS so even though I can read it and say it I may have written in Janglish incorrectly. lol.


This is the character for fire written twice. I forgot how to pronounce it but when I said I wanted to write "Fire" (hi) they gave me this instead. I'm not sure what the significance is either but the more fire, the better! The instructor wrote, "You write the characters very well."


This is the character for the word "star" (hoshi). It must have sucked because I didn't get a comment. It was the last character I painted.


This is the character for "water" (suyu). This one got the best compliment. I really was surprised she wrote what she did because it's difficult to gain praise from instructors of this level. She wrote, "Your writing (looks like/is better than/is as good as-- the word 'yori' always trips me up. I have a difficult time translating it) as a Japanese person's."


And here they all are. I'm going to nab some black construction paper from work and mount them ghetto style tonight. Then I'm going to hang them in my living room.

I wish I had the money to take Japanese culture classes. I love traditional writing and kimono and I wish I could take classes in both. Oh well, if I get stuck here I probably will have time at some point...heh. I'm already half way stuck here. I left and came back. There's only one more step involved in being stuck here for good. I dunno, I love Japan and yet recently I've found myself hating it too just because of the stigma that comes with being a foreigner and being completely on the outside of everything always. I think I just need to take some classes and study the language more but even then I'll still be on the outside, just not as much.

Oh well, Japanese culture is fun. I wish I had more time and money and language skills to enjoy it. If I get a 2nd job I won't have time but at least I'll have money and that's a start...

OK, I'm going to work and then I'm going to e-mail my pictures to Masa because he'll think this is cute :)