No one is a lost cause.

First things first: Kago Ai tried to kill herself.

Old news, I guess.

That grossed me out to even type.

I went around and around with this post in the two or three days it took to write. Should I remain civil and neutral? Should I cover up what really has me reacting so strongly to this and pretend to be a concerned Kago Ai fan instead? (I like her well enough, but no.) Should I keep my thoughts brief out of respect for both her and myself?

It took a long time to decide and I came close to giving up on this draft at several points as I was writing it, but after talking it over with someone close to me, I realized I had a lot I needed to get off my chest on this topic. Maybe some will consider it appropriative of Kago’s circumstances, and I apologize if so. Some might even see it as combative due to how I’ve referenced other posts, but trust me, the last thing I’m interested in doing at a time like this is calling people out.

In any case, this is far from my usual. If all goes well, I will never speak of it on this blog again. For those who are interested in something a little weightier than Perfume fashion posts, however… keep reading.

Another day, another Perfume rumor.

It’s that time again!

As you’ll probably know if you’ve been following the desperate trail of potential Perfume album news, August 26th was a day the Nakata Yasutaka and contemode community is all too familiar with: the day someone posts an unfounded, highly questionable Perfume rumor, whereupon half the members fall for it and begin Shaking & Crying while the other half actually stops and says, “Wait a minute, this album has sixteen tracks. And it’s titled Chemical Love. And this news is being leaked by someone called tokumaspy.”

Can I just reiterate that title?

Chemical Love.

When Shibuya and Akihabara meet…

…what do you think you’ll get?

Evidently, an anime theme song cover album featuring a range of artists from Akihabara idols to DJs straight out of the heart of Shibuya’s club scene. Announced at the beginning of this month, I ❤ TOKYO ~FOR ANIME MUSIC LOVERS~ is a novel little compilation disc that seeks to unite these two very different districts of Japan’s capital prefecture. Music news site BARKS wrote it up thusly (excuse the rough translation, please):

When it comes to the new culture of Japan, anime and idols have established themselves on a global scale. Alongside that “holy land” known as Akihabara, there’s Japan’s representative home of fashion and trends, Shibuya. These two places, known throughout the world today as sources of culture, will come together in a concept compilation album set to be released.

Sounds interesting, right? The list of confirmed artists had me at a glance: BiS, RAM RIDER, Nomoto Karia… someone clearly put this together with me in mind! (Or maybe not. If they did, I think there’d be a whole lot more A-bee involved.) Of course, so many mismatched artists in one place creates an admittedly messy impression at first. So, then, how does it work?

This isn’t really the “departure” I was hoping for.

The first and last time Hello! Project idol unit Buono! truly left an impression on me was probably three years ago. It was early 2008, shortly before Perfume, capsule and the J-electro scene as a whole would sweep me away and take me on a trip, take me on a ride. I was 16, and despite the fact that I was slowly being pulled towards other artists and genres, idols were still kind of the best thing ever to me.

I know, I know.

Perfect Stars, Pretty Style: August Edition!

It’s funny, but I actually wanted this to be a part-time fashion blog of sorts. Seeing as my overall “theme,” so to speak, concerns approaching music through lifestyle, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be unleashing my plethora of Japanese fashion magazine scans upon everyone, is there? (To be honest, I’d been hoping to post a little of my own style as well, but that is a challenge I don’t think I can face at this point in time, and certainly not while so comfortably situated in sleepwear as I tend to be most days.)

Basically, I caught wind last month that women’s fashion magazine Pretty Style (better known by its nickname “PS”) is officially set to cease publication as of their December 2011 issue which goes on sale November 1st. Though it’s only recently that I’ve started following these magazines, I’ve always appreciated the casual, everyday looks PS provides, and knowing its history — it originated as Petit Seven in 1977 — makes it a definite shame for me to see it go. PS has frequently been supportive of MEG and her myriad fashion endeavors, and amongst contemode folk, it’s probably best known for being the only style-centric magazine to showcase Perfume in their own serialized feature.

I’ve actually never looked very far into Perfume’s regular features with PS before, but with the magazine soon to come to a close, I figured now would be a good time to start! Thus, let us enjoy the time we have left with Perfume as they wear nice, predictably expensive clothes and talk amongst themselves about incredibly trivial topics. Such as:

What’s wrong with being naked?

Really.

What’s the problem with it?

That, for those who don’t remember this particular media circus, was the infamous phrase uttered by SMAP’s Kusanagi Tsuyoshi upon being discovered drunk, disorderly and undressed in a local park by Tokyo police. It was about three in the morning when officers found the actor nude and causing a racket, demanding, “What’s wrong with being naked?” Contracts were lost, ads were pulled, and in the end, even Kusanagi himself had no recollection of how he’d ended up stripping in public at some point during that fateful night — or, for that matter, why the myriad illegalities of this had offended him so deeply.

However, that was over two years ago and bears little relevance now outside of the occasional trollish Arama They Didn’t comment. So why am I bringing it up today? Well, if you’ve been paying attention to Japanese pop news for the past week or so, you most likely have some idea already.

Let’s wipe out the past.

Hi, I’m Cait. I have thoughts. This is where they go.

Continuing from my first, ever-so-shaky attempts at Japanese indie blogging with Stars in the blue sky, BGM for modernica is potentially more of the same. What’s changed: despite my best efforts, SITBS became less of a place for me to write out my feelings on the music I listened to and more of an educational tool for people who had no clue what I was even talking about in the first place. And as much as I love to educate, so to speak, it became pretty tiring and not exactly what I’d originally set out to achieve.

So, to put it simply, I suppose my aim in writing now is to reach a balance between those two different approaches. More indie and more of the music I adore, but less stiff, purely informational blogging. More bizarre theories on the sounds I hear and the words I read. Still as properly researched as ever, but with more of myself in the conclusions I ultimately come to.

With that said, I really hope I’m interesting enough to pull this off.