Almost nonsensical fangirling...

This doesn't really have anything to do with graphic design... I just wanted to blog about it.

Tonight I attended my sixth Dir en grey concert! SIX. Oh god... I think I've been to too many? I don't know. I still love them! My hearing is shot, but it's okay.

I got my CD signed this time at the meet & greet! Funny, it was the same two that I got to meet last time at the Family Values Tour--Shinya and Die. Except that last time, we got to shake their hands, and this time, we got signed CDs. Shinya is so beautiful... and Die is so handsome... hmmm... yes. The concert was fun. The setlist was familiar. I was hoping they would play more of their new songs, but they only played 4. I think that it's just because I've been to soo many of their concerts that the songs seem familiar hahahaha!

Picture flood ahead:


My Dir en grey CDs thus far. Hmm... I'm detecting a theme in their CD covers...


My signed CDs~ (12012, Dir en grey, Olivia, Duel Jewel, & Blood)


Signed poster from Rockstar Taste of Chaos. There are 13 signatures on this baby!


Signed poster from Duel Jewel... gah... what a badly designed poster, eh? To be fair, they were barely beginning their career when I got this one signed.

My mother thinks I should stop bringing home "useless signed merchandise"... but I think she's wrong...


These are the ticket stubs to everything I've been to... I'm missing the ticket stub for the BLOOD concert, though :( They TOOK OUR TICKETS at the door for that one. Boo to them! And the Duel Jewel concerts didn't have tickets~


These are my Jrock related tickets. The entire left side are the shows I've seen Dir en grey at.

Faberge eggs & Rapunzel

I found these and thought they were soooo pretty! Awwww... they're so delicate and beautiful!! They remind me of Rococo <3 Oh, speaking of which, I'm excited that Disney is going to be doing Rapunzel :] The movie's style is inspired by the painting "The Swing" by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. It's going to be CG, but director Glen Keane is working to give it the traditional feel of a hand-drawn Disney classic. Wiki states "To create the impression of a drawing, non-photorealistic rendering is going to be used, making the surface look like it is painted but still containing depth and dimensions. Sounds exciting, I can't wait! I love Rococo! Ooh, and here are some eggies for you :)



And "The Swing"!


Character design for Rapunzel ^_^

A random collection of ads...

Wow, does this totally trip you out, because it trips me out. My eyes can't seem to decide whether it thinks this is cool or if it's in pain from all the bright colors hahahaha



I found some anti-smoking ads as well. People usually get pretty creative with non-smoking ads. Here's a few that I came across today:







This one in particular was really strong to me...



I also found this one, which I thoguht was pretty clever. Too bad I can't read the language! My first impression is that it's for a shampoo... but maybe it's for a comb company?

Cute.

I was at Joann's last night, buying felt for my portfolio project and I saw these... I thought they were really cute. The packaging is simple and childish and... the poop is too funny hahaha



I think these would be great Christmas gifts for both kids and adults. It's sort of gross, but not in an offensive way. Except for the part where the poop is edible since they're jelly beans... haha well, I don't think anyone will really take offense to eating the poo. Those things are just that cute :)

Yay! And.. am I seeing double?

My computer is back from the dead. Love, don't leave me again!

Also, I saw this Moschino ad today and it immediately reminded me of Miyavi's video for his song "Senor, Senora, Senorita." Take a look:

Screencap of Miyavi:


The Moschino ad:


What do you think? It's hard to tell from the picture, but Miyavi makes that very same face that model is making... quite often. I can't remember if he makes that face in this particular video, but he does it a lot in photoshoots.

Veterans' Day

Veterans' Day is coming up, so I wanted write a little in honor of my veteran friends, who spend 9-12 months at a time overseas. My three closest guy friends are all in the armed forces. Two are in the US Marine Corps and one is in the US Army. It always makes me incredibly happy whenever they arrive home!

My best guy friend just came back from Afganistan at the end of October. Prior to that deployment, he was in Iraq. He was only here in California for a week, and now he's back in Camp Lejuene in North Carolina. My other friend in the USMC is reserved duty. He's only been on one deployment to Djibuti. My friend in the Army is currently in Iraq, but was deployed to Kosovo about two years ago. I write to them often, and I'm always ecstatic when I get a letter back. One, because I love getting letters, and two, because it means that they're alive.

Currently, there are only 198,000 active duty and 40,000 reserved duty Marines. That makes them the smallest branch of armed forces that we have. So their motto "The few, the proud, the Marines" really applies. They say that the Marines are also the toughest branch to join, and of course, they're always the first ones sent to fight :( Anyway, I'm very proud of my three boys :)

But what I've been trying to get to for the last three paragraphs is the USMC emblem. The one that we see today has been around since 1868!! It consists of a globe of the Western Hemisphere, an intersecting foul anchor, and a surmounted eagle. Above is a ribbon with their motto "Semper Fidelis," meaning "Always Faithful." The globe signifies service in any part of the world, the eagle also indirectly signifies service worldwide, and the foul represents the amphibious nature of the Marines' duties. Their colors, scarlet and gold, surround the emblem as the official Marine Corps colors and all of it is enclosed in navy blue and gold to signify USMC as an integral part of the naval team.

I personally think that their emblem is very strong. To me, it represents strength and unity. But I wonder if it's because I know people in the military, and that's why it represents those things to me. What does it represent to someone who doesn't know anyone in the military? I think that the emblem will represent different things to different people, depending on their experience with it. For example, if I didn't know anyone in the military, I wouldn't think much of the emblem at all. But since I do, I feel a little pang in my heart every time I see it.


The official emblem.


Emblem as a patch.


And how awesome it looks on the hat of their Dress Blues uniform!

P.S. November 10th is the 233rd birthday of the USMC~

B&BW

Do those Bath & Body Works lotion bottles ever make you hungry? I don't know if they make me hungry hungry, but I know that when I see them, I want to eat fruits--not necessarily the bottle of lotion haha. They just look so darn tasty :[

But fruity stuff aside, I really like how simple they look. The image is the #1 thing, but the name of the scent is big enough so that you'll read it immediately following the picture. Everything is balanced and nothing is struggling for your attention.

Puppy Mills :(

There are places all around the country where female dogs are kept for the sole purpose of breeding. When they get old, they get killed off to make way for younger female dogs to breed. These breeders then sell the puppies to unknowing pet stores owners everywhere.

I thought that this ad was pretty depressing. Very well done, but disturbing. It made me feel really sad, so they got their point through. They remind me of the AIDS ads that Byron Huitz from my ART408 class put up, except that those were so obscene that they were a little bit funny in their shock. But I don't find this ad funny at all :'(

Coraline.

Today I saw the poster for the movie Coraline :) I thought it looked pretty cool, so I wanted to share!



The movie is based on a book about a curious little girl who walks into an alternate universe that is very much like her own, except that things are better. Things happen, and she has to rely on her resourcefulness to get home.

I thought this was a cool poster for an animated movie because most posters for animated movies are super bright and happy, with smiling characters bursting off of the page. I like how simple it looks. I suppose it has a pretty eerie quality for an animated kids film.