pinku

Everything is peachy

Life is getting busy. With less than three weeks before we leave for the US, our schedule is packed in such a great way.

Things kick off this Saturday with Clover's annual Knit Out - the event was held at Roppongi Hills last year and it has been planned a little differently this year with lots of mini knit outs in cafes around Harajuku/Omotesando/Aoyama. The main session of the knit out will be happening this Saturday October 28 (12:30pm - 8pm) and Sunday October 29 (11am - 8pm) in the basement of Omotesando Hills. Come and knit!!! As a side note, both Taeko and myself will be participating in a talk show on Saturday, where we'll talk about the Tokyo SNB and Taeko's other crafty group - Shibuya Shugeibu. It's a little bit nervewracking.

Then that night we are heading to see Peaches at Unit in Ebisu.

On Sunday to celebrate the visit of my friend Amanda, who's on her way back to Australia from Copenhagen, we are going to search for an outdoor onsen with views of pretty red leaves.

At the beginning of November there is even more excitement with more visitors - I'm finally getting to meet Mariko and Kelly who will be visiting on official Superbuzzy business.

In Jaywalker sock news, I decided to take Stephanie's advice and finished the second sock in um....a totally different sock yarn. It is certainly now a mutant sock. Photos to come!

OOH and Jen of Moving Hands, one of the original founders of the Tokyo SNB and mother of two has started blogging again, as has Joy of Dynamite Knits who now lives in beautiful Hawaii (so jealous...) - YAHOO! Nice to have you back ladies.

Oh and in piggie news, we've decided that Loretta is our teen pig. She's rambunctious and rebellious and just a little bit crazy. She talks constantly, picks fights with Sugar and headbutts her dish in the morning...sometimes at night too. Darin created this photo just for her. You get the idea.

Dolly and We're MARCH!

Recently I've been lusting after a vintage Dolly Parton tshirt - do you have one that you want to part with? Probably not. Why would you want to. Finally I found the most adorable tshirt transfer on ebay and WON the auction, but to my dismay the seller is not responding to my emails - why!!!! They also have no other auctions listed at the moment. I came so close to this but am still so far.

I haven't ripped my socks yet but I'm going to do it tonight. Here's the kit I bought from the Kim Hargreaves website. It's the Rebecca Cardigan made from Big Wool. I've never used Big Wool before and the name is apt because that stuff is 'big'. I've never knit with needles so big!! I guess it's a great yarn for beginners because it knits up so quick and also because you can see every mistake and the way your decreases and increases look very clearly - it's kind of scary actually. It's like looking at your knitting with a magnifying glass. I finished all of the knitting last night so I just need to seam the sleeves and set them in. It's bulky and that's got me worried, but it is oh so soft and cuddly. We're going camping on the weekend so maybe I'll take my new cardie for a spin in the hills of Tochigi (or not considering how much I paid for the whole darn kit).

UPDATED to include:

The KNITTY Calendar is up for sale in the KNITTY shop! Congrats to all the winners (that includes me, Jo and Jenn too - woohoo!)! Go buy one now! Our free copy of the calendar will be given to our wonderful, beautiful and generous photographer Martine!!

What a great cover - I agree with Amy that looking at it feels like a big warm hug!!! BTW, we're MARCH - a fine month heralding the end of winter - how perfect!

Time goes by.......so slowly

I'm excited people. We are off tonight to see Madonna play the VERY last show of her Confessions tour here in Tokyo. By all accounts last night's show ruled so I'm hoping more of that tonight. I prepared by buying these to wear tonight. Sorry for the blurry keitai photo. Darin said he was going to go as Sean Penn (as seen in Fast Times at Ridgemont High), but I think he's going to pike.

And I meant to blog this a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to it. The Bendall-Moks are definitely Queen fans. It would have been Freddie Mercury's (or Furrokh Bulsara's) 60th birthday on September 5th this year, so to celebrate I suggested to Daz that he wear a Mercury mustache for the whole day. He really did it and here's the proof. Not a bad job on short notice.

Soon to come

So I'm not afraid to embarass myself. I've done it many times before. A couple of days ago I did a short interview about the Tokyo SNB for the Metpod - the podcast for Metropolis (Tokyo's free english magazine). It was short and I'm not really sure what I said, but I can remember being flustered when I couldn't think of witty rebuttals more than once. If you've ever wondered what my Aussie accent sounds like, then check out the Metpod later tonight. I'm not going to listen to it though. I just can't. I can remember once when I came across a tape, which I had recorded as a young teen, and listened to it many years down the road. It was very cringe-worthy - what was I thinking?

Updated: Or you can read the written interview in the current issue of Metropolis or online here. It kind of cracks me up that I'm on the same page as Natalie Portman - ha! I'm so glad I chose the photo I took with the Hirose-san - that truly has been the media highlight of the Tokyo SNB so far!!!

To add some pretty colours to this post, here's what's been on my ipod lately. Since I have a shuffle I don't usually have full albums - I just choose particular songs. Most of what I listen to on my ipod is upbeat to get me through Tokyo rushhour (which is a little misleading as it should be called rush hourS) and strenuous lunges and ab exercises at the gym.

And to satisfy the 'crafty' category of this post. I finished grafting the toes and weaving in all of the ends of my sockapaloooza socks. They look pretty (photo tomorrow - hopefully). Will be sending them out tomorrow (hopefully).

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

Cohol + Forecast

My weekend consisted of heavy metal and knitting. Actually there was quite a lot of beer involved and I even had a group of eight people at our house on Sunday helping me decide on the colour of buttons to use for Forecast. I am still undecided, but have sewn on 10 yellow buttons because that was the only colour of which I had ten matching buttons.

You may be able to tell from the above photos that I was torn between red and yellow buttons. I still really like the red and am finding it hard to come to terms with the yellow. I will take a full shot of Forecast in the next couple of days. I've worn it to work for the past two days - they must think that I don't have many clothes. They would be wrong in thinking that. It's just that this cardie is super warm - merino wool - how I love thee.

Happy Birthday Mr Emperor!

Yesterday we celebrated the Emperor's birthday (public holiday in Japan) by listening to some good ol' rock 'n roll. I love nothing better than to see girls (especially Japanese girls) knocking down some songs with an electric guitar. We saw the 5678s and MAD 3 play at the Shimokitazawa Shelter. The 5678s have been around for quite a while but have gained a little bit more recognition having recently appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. The three girls came out on stage in 50s style sexy dresses and matching hairstyles, and put on a good warm-up show for MAD3. The girls I feel rolled a little more than rocked, but they rocked too. They had some really fun songs and having recently seen the Wedding Singer again (TWICE) I thought that they would be a great band to have at a wedding.....

Clearly the headlining act were MAD3. I had never really listened to any of their stuff before, but they were TIGHT. All of them (except the drummer - he wore a shirt that just said 'fuck') were in tight black leather. I had been expecting rockabilly but these guys just ROCKED. I had heard that a lot of there stuff was instrumental, which is true, but they are just tooooo busy playing to sing. There was a lot of energy on stage. They used a lot of 80s metal riffs (i picked up on the acca dacca...) I liked that they played the crowd - it was a SHOW! The lead guitar player by the end of the show ended up with no shirt on, but I loved it when he did the 'back to the crowd, comb my hair really slow 50s style' move - N.I.C.E!! Their xmas present to the audience was an original song called 'I hate christmas'....

WE WANT MAD!

Kansai Girls Know How to Rock

The YMG show on Sunday night was hot (pictures to follow later)! The concept for the whole night was ummm.....interesting: the merging of techno/drum 'n bass and good ol' hard rock. Personally I did not witness any merging, but I tend to like both - dance music when I feel sexy and wanna dance and hard rock when I wanna punch someone in the stomach or just break something. Depends on my mood.

We didn't end up staying long at the WOMB - the name of the club - but it was super fun hanging out in the roped-off VIP lounge. The following night we had a bonenkai - otherwise known as a Japanese end-of-year party with the girls. Around 9:30 pm I convinced everyone to continue the party at an all-you-can-drink karaoke place - for this I paid the price the following day. Yes, I did. I'm glad that my camera didn't come along to that partay!!!

Next YMG show will be at the Shimokitazawa Shelter on Jan 9, and then we'll have a shinnenkai(new year's party) at our place afterwards (or maybe the following night) if you're interested.

Site I have been playing on today:

BUST - web version of the magazine which touts itself as the "Voice of the New Girl Order"

.....think I'm gonna subscribe

Yellow Machinegun

Wanna see three very cool Kansai girls rock out?!! Then come see our friends Kyoko, Kaori and Tama (aka Yellow Machinegun) play a show in Shibuya at Womb on Sunday night. The energy at their shows is amazing. If you can't make it Sunday, then their 10th anniversary show is on Jan 9 next year (details below).

Date: December 7, 2003 (sunday)
venue: shibuya womb
bands: Yellow Machinegun, O2D1 (secret star), wiggle
djs: starscream (slipknots's dj), shabushabu
time: 5-11pm
cost: adv 3000 yen / door 4000 yen (w1d)/ with flyer 3500 yen (can print the flyer from the following link)

Date : January 9, 2004 (friday)
Venue: shimokitazawa shelter
Bands: FROM HELL, SPANAM, Minor League, Yellow Machinegun
Open/Start: 19:00 / 19:30
Fee: adv 1,800yen / door 2,500yen
Pia: 03-5237-9966 (P-code159-493)
Contact : SHELTER (03-3466-7430)

YMG on stage at Shelter in April this year!!

The girls backstage at the BEASTFEAST 2002!! (from l to r: Kyoko, Kaori, Tama)

Harappa Matsuri

I love recovery days. Today is Culture Day in Japan - I am not exactly sure what kind of culture it celebrates, but I'm celebrating recovering from a big weekend. The perfect three day weekend, and only the first of three for me this month!!

The Harappa Matsuri finished today - it is a three-day music/food/art festival in Tokyo. Most people camp out for the three days (everyone seemed very well prepared) - supposedly there was a bigger turnout than usual this year because of the beautiful autumn weather (yesterday not today). There was an extremely friendly vibe, lots of drums, interesting people, music, lots of delicious food, bonfires, fleamarkets, and some really fun interactive art installations in the woods AND best of all, it's totally free (you do have to pay for the food though). You should definitely go next year if you missed it this year - I guarantee that you'll forget you're in Tokyo.

Here's some photos (click for to view larger):