Site Note - affiliate links

You may have noticed a couple of small changes around here over the past couple days - the most obvious being that I've finally changed those links to purchase honeycreeper over on the top right.

Not only has it been replaced by My Story, but that's now a CDJapan affiliate link. Along with the Amazon links below, I get a commission on those sales. (Before, I had just manually set up some purchase links, and I got nothing for them.) So I'd definitely appreciate it if you'd go through my links whenever you order Japanese imports - and it can be anything, not just Puffy. CDJapan knows where you came from. Amazon does too. I do put a decent number of hours into some of these posts and I buy all the stuff I write about, so it's just nice to get a little something back.

The cool thing is that's just a default CDJapan affiliate link there that can be generated for any of their products, and it fits that top corner space perfectly. That's going to make it very easy for me to change out whenever Puffy announce something new. Before, it was a pain to cut and resize images and add links myself, so I never really bothered. But it'll always be current from now on.

I can recommend CDJapan wholeheartedly and I wouldn't be their affiliate if I felt any different. They ship quickly, they pack everything extremely well, and their customer service is amazing. Little story: I ordered Splurge from them way back when, and stupidly I did not choose EMS or registered mail. There was no tracking number with the shipping method I chose. Of course, the package got lost in the mail - not their fault, probably got stolen by somebody at US Customs. Well, I sent them a note and they told me to contact them if it didn't arrive in a few weeks. A few weeks after that, they contacted me and asked me if I'd received it yet. When I told them no, they shipped me another one, free of charge. That's just above and beyond. Buy from them.

Ami and Yumi go to the movies

For some reason, this is big news in Japan today.

PUFFY have gone to see "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny". Yes, the 2-year old Jack Black movie that's just now coming out in Japan. Why is this news? I don't know. But it's all over the entertainment news sites. This one, for example. Here's another. And another (login required for that one).

Ok, obviously, this was a well-orchestrated media event. And I guess PUFFY are as good a choice as any to be the focus of it.

Here's the gist of one of the more amusing/interesting of these articles:

* Ami and Yumi are never interested in the same guy. Their "types" are completely different. (I don't really know what either of their types are, though.) This came up because a reporter asked each one "who is your favorite in the movie, Jack or Kyle"? Ami answered Jack, which meant Yumi had to answer Kyle. But she couldn't, so she asked "just two choices??" She answered Jack too, but she wasn't happy about it.

* Along those same lines of questioning, they were both asked who their favorite Rock Gods are. Ami answered the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yumi answered Saito Kazuyoshi. (She worked with him on "Rakuda no Kuni", aka "Cameland".)

More on this breaking story as it develops. Perhaps Ami and Yumi will stay at the theater and see another movie!

For those of you reading the RSS feed...

I'm just updating the All Because of Live roundup post, not posting new ones, so if you're reading via RSS, you probably won't see it unless you check the actual blog every once in a while. I've finally got some actual reports in there, along with a set list.

The rest of you, carry on...

All Because of Live Tour Roundup

UPDATE 7/15/08: This may be my last real update, although I'll do at least one more search sweep before I close this out over the next couple days. I think that most people who would've written reports from this tour would have done so by now.

There is one more report from Osaka Namba Hatch, which is great - not too many of those down there. Still only one from Nagoya. If I've missed any, as always send them in.

On to the show reports!

7/08/08 Osaka Namba Hatch (大阪府 なんばHatch):

• N.Masumoto☆FC (Japanese)
• ただの日記(３) blog (Japanese) - barely a show report, but beggars can't be choosers
• ストレート　ライフ blog (Japanese)

7/09/08 Nagoya Diamond Hall (愛知県 名古屋クラブダイアモンドホール):

• 記憶の記録 blog (Japanese)

7/11/08 Tokyo JCB Hall (東京都 JCBホール):

• 赤ベ子のまたたび日記 blog (Japanese)
• ※ちまめのつぼやき※ blog (Japanese)
• Royal Milk Tea blog (Japanese, with set list)
• Tre-sen blog (Japanese) - this is actually kind of a "pre-report" report
• God Speed You blog (Japanese)
• ヘイブンの『雨上がりの夕焼け』 blog (Japanese - focusing on the MC bits, interesting!)
• eropy blog (Japanese)
• 竜巻野郎＠管理人 blog (Japanese)
• みんな大好き＠hatena diary (Japanese) - lots of pics
• ライブにいきてぃ blog (Japanese)

Below is the set list that was posted on the Puffy staff blog. (I originally had reprinted a translated version from the Royal Milk Tea entry, but it's just better to have something official. Thanks to the writer of that blog for the original list, though!)

1. Pool Nite
2. Umi e to
3. Nagisa ni matsuwaru etc.
-MC-
4. Frontier no Pioneer
5. Sumire
6. Kuchibiru Motion
-MC-
7. Oriental Diamond
8. boom boom beat
9. Circuit no Musume
10. Kimi to Ohtobai
-MC-
11. Security Blanket (Ami solo)
12. Kimi ga Suki (Yumi solo)
13. LONG BEACH NIGHTMARE
14. Toku suru karada
-MC-
15. All Because Of You
16. Yokai PUFFY
17. Akai Buranko
18. Boogie Woogie No.5
19. Tokyo I'm On My Way
20. Jet Keisatsu

- ENCORE -
1. My Story
2. Hazumu Rizumu
3. Asia no Junshin

All I can say is, awesome. A lot of unexpected stuff in there, and a lot of older stuff in there, including some b-sides! A few of those songs have never been played live by Puffy before. Some old favorites have come back, too - I am so happy they're playing "Toku suru karada" again. I understand a little bit better now why Ami wanted to keep the set list secret - there really were some surprises. I should learn to trust her a little more :)

"My Story" Ringtone Released

So those of you in Japan can now download the "My Story" ringtone. I don't know how this works there - if it's just 30 seconds of the song or what - but to my knowledge, this is the first and currently the only way to hear the new single. If anyone's bothered downloading it, what do you think?

By the way, while this info's been out there for a while now, Puffy have just now officially announced the track listing to the single. Like their last few singles, I'm actually more interested in the b-side than the title track. Here's the listing if you haven't seen it already:

Single
1. My Story
Lyrics：PUFFY　Music：Anders Hellgren & David Myhr （The Merrymakers）
2. Twilight Shooting Star!
Lyrics and Music：Sawao Yamanaka (the pillows)
3. All Because Of You (DISCO TWINS Remix)

Limited Edition DVD
「PUFFY TOUR 2007 honeysweeper 2007.12.19 SHIBUYA-AX Vol.2」
1. Sayonara Summer
2. Oriental Diamond
3. Akai Buranko
4. Nagisa ni matsuwaru etc.

Some of you may know the pillows' own song "Ride On Shooting Star" - the titles are a little close, don't you think? I wonder if that's intentional.

In unrelated news, Puffy will apparently be appearing at Avril Lavigne's upcoming show at the Tokyo Dome, along with Ai Otsuka. Might not be a bad move for them, but it's still not enough to convince me to sit through an Avril show.