|
Written by Angel Wings
|
|
Tuesday, 15 July 2008 |
|
Former Hello! Project and Coconuts Musume
member Ayaka has married pro golfer Hideto Tanihara.
The two have known each other for half a
year and registered to be married on July 8th of this year.
Hideto was scheduled for his third
appearance at the British Open and is expected to take Ayaka with him.
Known to fans from former H!P fandom as
simply “Ayaka”, she was a part Coconuts Musume; a group mainly created of
English speaking girls. To emphasize the cultural difference, she was made to
spell her name in Katakana (Japanese alphabet used to spell foreign words). When
she graduated from Hello! Project, she changed her stage name to Kanji and
started to use her last name.
Small snippet of a translated article from
Hello! Online:
Their first impressions
Tanihara: It was a normal, "Oh she's cute" but it wasn't love
at first sight.
Nagate: I didn't really think much about him when I first met him.
(laughs)
The shocking marriage
Tanihara: July 9 was my father's 60th birthday, so I wanted to bring her
as my wife to celebrate.
Nagate: When I found out it was an important day for him, we did it on
the 8th.
Just before the British Open
Tanihara: I'm definitely thinking about it, and I'll do my best.
Nagate: I saw him there in 2006. I was really impressed, thinking,
"It's great that a Japanese player made 5th". It's weird that I ended
up marrying him.
Any children in the future?
Tanihara: I'm happy with however many we have.
Nagate: I want at least two. One boy and one girl.
You can read the rest of the article here .
Congratulations Hideto and Ayaka!
|
|
Written by Angel Wings
|
|
Saturday, 12 July 2008 |
|
Reunited group X JAPAN has announced that it has
rescheduled its Paris
concert date to November 22. The concert will be held at Palais Omnisoprts de
Paris Bercy. This will be the kick-off of the well anticipated world tour by
the group.
Originally the group was to perform on July
5, but due to member Yoshiki’s slipped disk and experience with tendonitis, the
group was forced to cancel concert dates until Yoshiki’s health was in check. Doctors
had originally advised him to wear a special corset during his performances to
prevent injury, but he continued his performances without the advice. These
actions lead to the new injury.
The group will be heading to hit New York and Taiwan,
and there have been talks to add Korea to the list.
Source: X Japan Website
|
|
Written by Angel Wings
|
|
Saturday, 12 July 2008 |
|
Hitomi, a former model turned idol, has married
actor Masayoshi Haneda. At the same time, it was also discovered that Hitomi is
also four months pregnant.
They originally met last summer when the
two were in a play called “Waiting for the Sun”. The relationship blossomed
fully in January and then they registered for a marriage license on June 30 of
this year.
This is Hitomi’s second marriage. In 2002,
the 32-year-old idol was married to former member of the hip-hop group GAS BOYS,
however they divorced in 2007.
Source: Sponichi
|
|
|
Written by Angel Wings
|
|
Thursday, 19 June 2008 |
|
A great announcement has been made for Maki
Goto fans! The former Morning Musume member is back in the idol realm as of
June 19th, 2008.
Known to fans as Gocchin, she has been signed
with Avex Entertainment within the sub-label Rhythm Zone; other Japanese
artists included in this part of Avex are Koda Kumi, m-flo, Crystal Kay and EXILE. Rhythm Zone
major focus is rhythm and R&B style music.
Avex also leads the careers of other
amazing Japanese artists such as BoA, Ayumi Hamasaki, AAA and Namie Amuro.
After her announcement in 2007 of her
graduation from Hello! Project, she took a sabbatical in LA, USA. Durring
this stay she attended dance lessons and updated her blog periodically. She
then left LA and headed to Hawaii,
in which her blog suddenly stopped updating. Rumor had it that she would be
joining another label but it wasn’t assumed that it would be this fast, as during
this time her brother Yuki Goto (former EE-Jump member) was arrested and sentenced
to 8 years in prison for theft.
Gocchin coments (thank you to Hello! Online
for the translation)
“For a singer, it's most important to love
to sing, and because of that, I've decided on a new direction for my future.
Nearly 10 years after my debut, I've met with Avex. I feel like I have new
motivation and great potential now. I love singing even more now, and most of
all, I want to share the songs I love with everybody. I'm going to work my
hardest, so please give me your support.
Goto Maki"
Her official website:
http://rhythmzone.net/maki/index.html
Congratulations Maki and good luck! We’ll
be watching and listening!
|
|
|
Written by Angel Wings
|
|
Thursday, 12 June 2008 |
|
After a two year study break in New Zealand, 5th Generation Morning
Musume member Ogawa Makoto will be returning to Hello! Project. Makoto
originally graduated from Morning Musume in 2006.
She will appear as a guest on Haromoni@ on June 15th, 2008. There have been
no announcements as to whether she will be a solo artist or added to a group.
"I'll try hard. I was a clown-like character during my Momusu
years". Makoto said.
During her stay in New Zealand,
she was able to study English and scored at 730 on TOEIC (Test of English for
International Communication) exam. Her teacher scolded her; explaining that she
needed to work on her Japanese before working on her English.
During a small interview on the set of HM@, she mixed both English and
Japanese when speaking. She commented that she now relates to Lou Oshiba who is
known for doing the same thing.
We're glad to have you back Makoto!
|
|
|
Written by Sarah S.
|
|
Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
|
The other day, I bought tickets for a Taiko
performance. I had no idea what Taiko was, except that it was Japanese,
involved drumming and that my friend thought it was really cool. So when I
walked into the venue of the event I did so with some trepidation. I was the
kid in school who wondered why anyone would choose drums as their musical
instrument to play in band. However, I figured it would be a good opportunity
to see the more traditional side of Japanese art instead of only emerging
myself in bright Japanese cartoons.
So I sat down. The lights were dimmed and
the audience chatter died. Five people appeared on stage with massive drums and
sticks the length of batons.The largest drum was occupied by a woman, and she
swung around her sticks intricately and then began to pound strongly, but
always disciplined and restrained. The other members of the Taiko group joined
in and I soon realized that I was not only listening to Japanese drumming, but
a theatrical performance. The woman who had been pounding on the largest drum
in some songs exchanged it for delicate string instruments in others. There was
traditional Japanese singing. In some numbers an old man in his fifties would
explode in jumping around the stage, much to the delight of the audience and to
my jealousy. I certainly did not have his agility. In some numbers the drumming
was punctuated by loud shouts in Japanese that I did not understand, but the
members encouraged the audience to join and the courageous majority complied
and shouted with what I can only imagine were really bad accents.
From listening to the host of the evening,
I learned that Taiko used to be preformed solitarily, and Taiko groups did not occur
until the 1950’s, at about the same time Elvis was carving his fame in the United States.
The father of Taiko, Daihachi Oguchi, was the one who created Taiko ensembles
as a direct result from his studies in jazz. Influences from other forms of
music were apparent in the Taiko performance I watched, including Jazz and
Funk, and because the group I was watching came from Winnipeg, Canada,
they also included prairie influences. Taiko lends itself well to
integrating new musical approaches and techniques, no matter the nationality.
At the end of the show, the Taiko group was
selling albums of their work. But I knew that listening to this music would not
do it justice. Taiko is more than music. It is theatre. A very different
experience occurs when you watch a play rather than listen to it. I felt the
same way towards this art form. An album will not show you how high an old man
can jump when he beats a drum, and it will not show you the elegant twirls of
large baton-like drum sticks. Listening to Taiko will do it no justice. It is a
performance meant to be watched. I urge everyone, if you have the opportunity,
go watch a Taiko performance. You will not regret it.
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
| Results 1 - 46 of 69 |