Thank You... for your patience.

I am finally putting brain to keyboard for reviewing Thank You. I will only tease that there is a lot I genuinely like (if not love) about the album and one thing I cannot stand.

Between some personal events (mostly via osmosis, things are fine with me) and current events I have had writer's block and bad. I have been writing for most of my life and I know when this happens it has to be ridden out. The events in Japan have touched me and worried me to no end, but it is now time to get back to work.

Look for the review in the next couple of days and take care.

Today We Are All Japanese

That might be the best thing said about the disaster that struck Japan, thanks to George Takei for that and getting out the word on how people can help. It will be trying times for in the days and weeks ahead and I sent in a donation to the American Red Cross this morning.

Via Reuters

A devastating tsunami triggered by the biggest earthquake on record in Japan looked set to kill at least 1,000 people along the northeastern coast on Friday after a wall of water swept away everything in its path.

Thousands of residents were evacuated from an area around a nuclear plant after radiation levels rose in the reactor, but there was no word on whether there had actually been a leak.

Underscoring grave concerns about the Fukushima plant some 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. air force had delivered coolant to avert a rise in the temperature of the facility's nuclear rods.

The unfolding disaster in the wake of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 10-meter (33-feet) high tsunami prompted offers of help from dozens of countries.

Via Puffy's Twitter feed (babel fished):

It is to take and the [so] [gi], [amiyumi] is safe. Everyone who worries thank you. How, as also only every place is safe. ST

I communicated with the folks at cdjapan, they are okay.

Until then, if you have friends, family and acquaintances in Japan I hope they are safe and well.

Time Zone Warp

Relative to Japan, it is March 10th, but there exists a time zone warp when shipping and traveling to Denver. Hopping on a plane in Singapore, I get home a few hours later... despite grinding out 24 plus hours of transit.

Anyways, I technically have Thank You on day of release... but it is kind of a numbers game.

Big kudos to cdjapan for shipping out the order early enough to get the CD's today. I am really impressed with how they do business and have been for a few years now. Packaging was to a very high standard and they are prompt in getting back to customer questions. If you need a Japan based source for music, I recommend them without hesitation.

Anyways here is a mini gallery of the big day... Because I am totally padding. :)









The packaging for Thank You is really great, the liner notes (or booklet... I am showing my age) are huge, but I have not delved into them just yet. Will see how listening and reviewing goes over the next couple of days.

Next Week, SMAP, Drive and Rhymes

Hopefully my order from cdjapan will be well on its way... my fear is the delivery will roll to Monday and not Friday... I am hoping time zones, getting my shipment out early and no hiccups from Fed Ex all work to my favor.

My goal is to have something up by early the following week. There are a lot of moving parts here... so no promises as many things can gum up the works.

Found this medley that Puffy did with SMAP on February 21. No idea who SMAP is beyond a quick wiki look up which they seem to be a boy band that rotates members in and out... not my cup of tea, but I always find it interesting to see Puffy perform with other artists.

In the meantime I have listened to Gingakei Drive (I know what I said and I could not resist... much of this verbiage will be reused for my Happy Birthday single review). It is a medley, though definitely different in form and structure than what I am accustomed to. A couple of you have speculated if it is a re-mix or mashup done in post production from their 2009 Gekidan Asesu Tour. I am convinced that PUFFYsanjo has the right of it and this is was performed beginning to end as a single song.

I donned headphones and turned Gingakei Drive way up. I came to this conclusion as there are no unnatural breaks to the music and at times the guitars jump mid-beat to the new song sample. Also Ami and Yumi's vocals did not sound like the vocals were being lifted from samples of other songs. There were just enough pauses, speeding up or slowing down to suggest this.

Not saying I am right, but from what I heard after a couple of careful listen throughs (which precluded me from enjoying Gingakei Drive... which ultimately I do and a lot) that is what I hear... which makes it a lot niftier of a song.

It also begs the question... When is Puffy going to release a live album? The sound quality for Gingakei Drive is superb.

My wife and I were listening to Puffy in the car... going to a Singapore party here in Denver and my daughters were happily singing along to Mother. She came upon a really great comment. Japanese music sounds great and is easier to sing and rhyme because vowels always follow consonants... even if you are guessing you have a one in five chance of hitting the right vowel.

She quickly made up a mock Japanese song to prove her point.

I am lucky I did not crash the car from being stunned by her proving of a point.


P.S. Edited to accredit of PUFFYsanjo credit for coming to the same conclusion well before me about Gingakei Drive.

A Video From Way Back

Going with something not related to "Thank You" for the weekend...

I am very shaky on the song and more important the line up in this particular live vid. Maybe you all can fill in the blacks.