Seeing red over lipstick, heels issue

Taken from The Star:

KOTA BARU: The municipal council's latest advisory on lipstick and high heels is not going down well with female sales promoters here.

A survey by The Star revealed that many of them felt that the council had gone overboard.

The circular “advising” women not to apply lipstick and wear leather high heels was distributed at premises licensed by the MPKB.

It was aimed at Muslim females working there.

While they said they accepted the wearing of tudung as part of the MPKB's directive to women in retail outlets, they could not understand what the fuss was about lipstick and high heels.

“I disagree. I do not think there is anything negative about women wearing high heels,” said sales promoter Wan Noriana Wan Yaacob, 23.

She said MPKB should then have to have a buy-back counter for high heel shoes if it was going to stop her from wearing it.

Norshuhaida Che Nasir, 19, a salesgirl at an outlet that sells lipstick, was outraged.

She said that at least natural colour lipstick should be allowed.

“I actually agree with the negative side to putting on excessive make-up. It is like looking at a living corpse.”

Shamira Salleh, 25, from Kampung Laut in Tumpat, said that women did not have to look sexy to get raped.

“Even a schoolgirl who does not apply lipstick or wear high heels can get raped.

“They (MPKB) should reconsider the advice,” she added.

Believe me, I do get a bit tired posting news like these. When will the men leaders and lawmakers understand that girls trying to be pretty isn't a lure to sexual crime unto themselves?

Who is Cyndi Seui?

Actually I don't know much about Cyndi Seui as well. It's only last week I was introduced to this music, and I'm already hooked at the first songplay!
According to Cyndi Seui's Myspace, Cyndi is actually a stage name for Cesar B. De Guzman, an electronic music male solo artist and producer from Thailand. Currently he's under the music label "Smallroom" where you can get his 2 albums with online purchase. Beware that the site is Thailand language orientated, you might have to stumble around unless you know how to read the language.

1st album:
MICRO BITZ LIFE

1. Cyndi Seui - This Holiday In Jupiter
2. Cyndi Seui - Crazy Day Killer
3. Cyndi Seui - continental Affair
4. Cyndi Seui - Pop Circuit
5. Cyndi Seui - Sogo
6. Cyndi Seui - Micro Bitz Touch Of Lipz
7. Cyndi Seui - Love In Atari Motion
8. Cyndi Seui - 80 Stop
9. Cyndi Seui - Flip
10. Cyndi Seui - Tweak Today
11. Cyndi Seui - Under Fairy Lipe
12. Cyndi Seui - Clay
13. Cyndi Seui - Dblokblook
14. Cyndi Seui - Daisy Auto Moo
15. Cyndi Seui - Tombourine Dream
16. Cyndi Seui - Postcard From Holiday
17. Cyndi Seui - Together With Crub Gentleman
18. Cyndi Seui - Good Bear Walking
19. Cyndi Seui - Ablirious Yuri's Kitsch
20. Cyndi Seui - Weix Mode

My Faves : continental Affair, Pop Circuit, Daisy Auto Moo and Weix Mode.

You can sample some of the tracks from this first album here and also view the "continental Affair" MV uploaded in Youtube here.

2nd album:
MY NAME IS DOS

1. Cyndi Seui - CowCow BoyBoy (Feat. Michael Sawatsewi)
2. Cyndi Seui - Up To The Beatz (มันอยู่ที่จังหวะ) (Feat. Poe Yokee Playboy)
3. Cyndi Seui - My Name is DOS *sample*
4. Cyndi Seui - Vanilla Walk (Feat. Karen Klongtruadroke) *sample*
5. Cyndi Seui - OK Happi
6. Cyndi Seui - All It Takes
7. Cyndi Seui - Love Candy (รักลูกกวาด) (Feat. Rungroche Uptampotiwat)
8. Cyndi Seui - Love Editor
9. Cyndi Seui - Electrix Voyager
10. Cyndi Seui - Trip Blip Blip Blip *sample*
11. Cyndi Seui - This is Easy So Listen *sample*
12. Cyndi Seui - Could It Be U?

My Faves : Almost all of them! XD But "This is Easy So Listen" is the first track I listened to and also the same song that made me a Cyndi fan.

Smallroom doesn't appeared to have this tracklist in the album page, so I've uploaded a few of my favorite tracks here for samples. This 2nd album has more vocal than the first one, and mainly a 80's dance music themed album.
If you're a electronic/eletropop music lover, go and be a fan! If you're not, it's a good try for something different from your usual music style range.

Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen Drama CDs

If you're a xxxHolic or Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE fan (I'm still wondering what's with the CaPs), then you should have heard about this title "Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen", or in English title "Horitsuba Private Academy". "Horitsuba" is actually a merged name for both xxxHolic (pronounced as horikku in Japanese) & Tsubasa.

For those who do not know or have not even heard of xxxHolic or Tsubasa, below are some lazy copy paste introductions for these two famous titles in both anime and manga fandom.

Taken from Tsubasa Anime News Network:

Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE Volume 01
English version from Amazon

Syaoran, a boy who wants to become an archeologist, and Sakura, a princess from the Clow Kingdom, are childhood friends with a close relationship. On a fateful night, Sakura lost all her memories as a result of a conspiracy to obtain her powers. In order to regain her memory, Syaoran seeks help from the witch, Yuuko. Yuuko tells Syaoran that he has to travel from one alternate reality to another to collect fragments of Sakura's memory. However, even if Sakura regains her memory, she will have no recollection of Syaoran. Traveling together with them is Kurogane, a warrior who was exiled from his country, and Fye, a magician who wants to escape from his King. With the help of a magical creature, Mokona, they set off on an exciting journey through time and space

Taken from xxxHolic Wiki:

xxxHolic Volume 01 Japanese version from Amazon

Kimihiro Watanuki is a high school student plagued by yōkai, spirits with a strong attraction to him. The spirits are invisible to others and encounters with them are extremely troublesome. When he stumbles into a shop that grants wishes, however, events in his life promise to become more unusual.

The shop is owned by Yūko Ichihara, a mysterious and beautiful witch of many names and esoteric renown. For a price, she offers to grant Watanuki's wish to be rid of the spirits. The price, according to Yūko, must be of equal value and so, as payment, he temporarily becomes Yūko's part-time employee.

Watanuki's job consists of small errands dealing with the supernatural and household chores. His love interest, Himawari Kunogi, and "rival," Shizuka Dōmeki, occasionally join him in his work as per Yūko's request. The three become increasingly close despite Watanuki's annoyances with Dōmeki.

Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen

Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen Drama CD booklet cover
which I grabbed from rusalkaz

Both manga are actually linked to each another from the start, with a shared storyline and characters and more direct plots pointing at each another in the later chapters. And that adds more fun to this "Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen", where the main characters and supporting characters in both manga are thrown into an alternative universe (AU) altogether just for fun by CLAMP.
In Horitsuba, there's no drama and angst of Tsubasa, and of course no mysteries and eerie essence of xxxHolic. What you'll get in this AU academy are pure fluffs and comedy that are getting scarce in their original books.
You can expect cute moments like Fai's (Fye) endless teasings at Kurogane, now enforced with Yuuko's help.
Or you can have fluffs for Sakura and Syaoran's sweet and shy conversations where you'll be relieved from Tsubasa's heavy angst recent plots.
Or more bickers between Watanuki and Doumeki (as usual with Himawari smiling at them).

I think this is some sort of extra goodies for their fans, in drama CD format and also individual 6-pages chapters of this crossover. The drama CD only comes with Japanese Weekly Shonen Magazine (I'm not sure), currently there are 3 drama CDs and 2 different chapters with 6pages out. Or at least that's what I've known and have so far.

Special: Horitsuba Drama CD 01 "Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen Valentine Day ni Doki Doki!". (only in .wma version thou')


*wow this post actually took me 1 week to complete. -.- I'm so so so busy with work and by the time I finished work, I'm already dead tired to actually think of anything else than sleeping.

Antique Bakery anime & Korean live-action movie

Recently I've been quite busy with a newfound job, and am still adjusting to a more consistent lifestyle from my previous days of idling around. Weird enough though, I still have a tiny bit of determination to blog as regularly as possible.

** yaoi warning **

From Anime News Network:

DMP : Antique Bakery Volume 01 cover

Tachibana, grandson of a rich businessman and newbie in the world of managing; Ono Yuusuke, famous pastry chef and even more infamous "devilish homosexual"; Kanda Eiji, a retired young boxer with a thing for pastries; Kobayakawa Chikage, servant friend of Tachibana and current romantic interest of Ono, who is clumsy yet serious and stoic to a fault (most of the time). Together, these four men maintain a small yet elegant cafe known as "Antique", where they and all their customers can come together to cherish one of the few but truly important things in life: cake.

I came across a thread in aarinfantasy forum mentioning the upcoming yaoi manga themed movies and anime.. It's definitely a big surprise knowing Antique movie will be showing this year, and the anime starting July 2008! Both the movie and anime will retain Ono's demonic gay charm instead of omitting it out like the first adaptation; Jdrama with Ono being straight and had some sort of bad experience in heterosexual relationship.
Another details worth mentioning is that the Korean version will have Joo Ji Hoon, the crown prince Shin in Goong Kdrama, casting as owner Tachibana (named Jin Hyuk in the movie), while Kim Jae Wook as talented patissier Ono Yuusuke (named Son Woo), he's known more popularly as Waffle Sun Ki in Coffee Prince Kdrama. Another 2 main characters which I'm not so familiar with, looked quite alike with the manga characters, just like how Jdrama version actors.
Actually I felt that Jae Wook's overall appearance doesn't exactly match the feeling of Ono in the manga. He looked more like outspoken type and doesn't have that sort of shy look when Ono's not in his demonic charm period. Meanwhile Ji Hoon gave a better impression in acting Tachibana, eventhough it's kinda strange to see him with stubble for the first time.

Antique Bakery Korean live-action movie


Antique Bakery anime starts on 3rd July 2008

The first Jdrama version is actually one of my favorite dramas, with great acting from all 4 main actors (especially Shiina Kippei and Abe Hiroshi). It even made both my sister and I into loyal Mr. Children fans because of those insert songs and both ending themes fitted in the drama episodes perfectly. Somehow I'm more anticipating for the movie release than the anime, I surely want to see how well the Koreans could perform or maybe how far they could surpass the Jdrama version in terms of good acting and unique narration.

Antique Jdrama aired on 2001

World Environment Day 2008: Kick The Habit!

Both news taken from The Star:

China acts to curb addiction to plastic bags

BEIJING: China joined a small group of nations on Sunday in restricting the use of plastic bags, but there are doubts the rule will be effective in a country that consumes one trillion of them a year.

Supermarkets and other shops began charging for plastic bags as a government crackdown on the environmentally damaging items creaked into action.

The production, sale and use of ultra-thin plastic shopping bags, moreover, has been banned completely as part of efforts to rid the country of the “white pollution” that clogs its waterways, farms and fields.

Retailers set plastic bag prices
By LIANG QIWEN and QIAN YANFENG

BEIJING: Shoppers will be charged between 0.2 yuan (9 sen) and 2 yuan (94 sen) for the plastic bags they use, retailers have said, as the national ban on free plastic shopping bags comes into effect on Sunday.

I wonder how it will be like if such rules is implemented in Malaysia? Most probably people would still pay for the bags, if it's just a matter of 10 or 20 cents. Most of the supermarkets have alternative shopping bags sold for RM1.90 to RM4.90 (Such expensive ones only from Jusco), some other places giving away free alternative bags once you've bought something exceeding a specific amount of purchase. But still I don't see many people using it.. at least at this area. That's make someone like me bringing along an IKANO shopping bag to JUSCO supermarket gets weird glances from some people (most of them just ignore it). That's okay normally, but my worst experience was from the cashier who refused to use it as it is "bothersome" (they have to put the 'SOLD' stickers at every items, but I've seen some just sticked once at the bag), but glared at me when I insisted. I guess that's what you get when you don't follow the norms and common habits here, just like you would get the same glances when they see you in the process of bringing your recyclables to the recycling bins.


Learn more about World Environment Day and what you can do to contribute your part (even a small one) in protecting the environment. First easiest thing you can do is to educate yourself on saving resources like water and electricity in your house. Or you can help spread the words, whichever you think it's easier.

Stand Up to Climate Change!
World Environment Day 2008

Posting this 2 days earlier as I won't be around for a few days. Scheduled to publish on 5th June, 2008.

SUGIZO LIFE WORKS / COSMOSCAPE

Taken from SUGIZO's official website, Sephirot:

SUGIZO初のベストアルバム発売決定！ 詳しい内容については順次WEBにてお知らせします。

「SUGIZO LIFE WORKS / COSMOSCAPE」
(SUGIZO ライフワークス/コスモスケープ)

10年間の軌跡を集積した初のベストアルバム。
宇宙の音を紡ぎ続け、神々しく唯一無二のオーラを放つSUGIZO MUSICの集大成!!

2008.7/23(水) 発売
POCS-21008 ￥3,150(TAX IN)

Translated roughly by Google:

SUGIZO announced its first best album! For more details about the plans will announce WEB.

"SUGIZO LIFE WORKS / COSMOSCAPE"
(SUGIZO Life Works / Cape Cosmos)

10-year history has the best integration of the first album.
The sound of the universe continues to spin, divinely emit a unique aura of the sum SUGIZO MUSIC!

2008.7/23 (Wednesday) Release
POCS-21008 ¥ 3,150 (TAX IN)

Mmmmhhmmm omg-oppss VAMPS!! Finally, sugizo is back on his solo stuffs! XD I wonder which songs he'll put in... Somehow, I think I would be more happy if it were a new album with new songs instead of a best album with old songs. But if he's putting in those live songs he'd been collaborating with other bands all these while, then maybe it'll be a different story... Mmmm ♥

No more OMG, say VAMPS !!

VAMPS duo K.A.Z (left) and Hyde (right)

VAMPS is a new solo project from Hyde, this time collaborating with K.A.Z from Oblivion Dust. I've only heard one or two songs by Oblivion Dust before, and not really a fan, but it's stated that K.A.Z worked for TETSU69 before. He also wrote a couple of songs for Hyde's solo album "FAITH" and performed with him as guitarist on "FAITH" tours. They'll be releasing a debut single titled "Love Addict" on 2nd July 2008, which you can see the unofficial preview by googling it.

They have their own Myspace now, and both K.A.Z and Hyde actually posted some messages there.. Seems like Myspace is really popular among jrockers, I wonder.. was this trend first started by Yoshiki with VIOLET UK project? I guess this is the fastest way for direct responds from their English-speaking fans. Ughh.. That makes another reason for me to get my own, now that even L'Arc~en~Ciel has their own Myspace sometime ago.

By the way, if you're wondering what the post title is all about:

Quoted from their Myspace:

Also, I would like to remind everyone that it is my job to find and strengthen the international fan base for VAMPS (HYDE and K.A.Z.). It would be great if you all could help. For one thing, would you mind writing your city and country after you leave a comment? It would be great if HYDE and K.A.Z, as well as the other fans out there, can see where everyone is from. Hopefully you can start communities in your area with other VAMPS fans (my dream)!? Also, please make sure your friends know about us, everyone subscribes to this blog (only if wanted), and you all start using the word "VAMPS" instead of the acronym "omg" in casual blogging. For example, "VAMPS", another long email.

Keep spreading the VAMPS wildfire!

Other small news on L'Arc~en~Ciel:

L'Arc~en~Ciel will have another new song available soon, titled "Nexus 4" and it will be the 2nd image song in a row for Subaru Legacy commercial! (First image song is "My Heart Draws A Dream")

It was reported that tetsu and Sakai Ayana held their wedding and reception at the Honey's Garden restaurant in Roppongi early May privately. Sakai has her own wedding dress fashion brand, called 'Aya-no-ture' and she even designed her own two wedding dresses and tetsu's tuxedos for their wedding day! She posed in one of the dresses at the her site's main page, I couldn't find any photo of tetsu in wedding tuxedo though. T_T