SobaNoodleFan's Blog

Manga Haul – July 13, 2011

sobanoodlefan — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:07:55 +0000

The first big portion of my July manga order landed on my desk today, so I’m still in that slightly euphoric “what should I read first” haze I always fall into.

Included in this batch:

Black Bird, Vol. 9

Cross Game, Vol. 4

Kimi ni Todoke, Vol. 9

Ooku, Vol. 6

La Quinta Camera

Tune In: Most Listened to Albums for the Week of July 4 – July 10

sobanoodlefan — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:56:45 +0000

It’s been quite a long time since I posted anything here. Looks like it’s time to clear some of the cobwebs away.

The vast majority of the below list was only played a couple times, as I pretty much exclusively listened to the top five albums on loop. I think most of the others just show up from my daily commute playlist. That being said, I obviously highly recommend any of the CDs in the top five positions, particularly The Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow.

1. Arashi (嵐) – Beautiful World
2. Smithsonian Folkways – Folk Music of Japan
3. Yo-Yo Ma – Japanese Melodies
4. The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
5. 2PM – HANDS UP
6. SHINee (샤이니) – 1집 – The SHINee World
7. Rain (비) – Back To The Basic
8. SNSD (소녀시대) – 1집 – 소녀시대
9. miss A – Bad But Good
10. DBSK (東方神起) – Why? (Keep Your Head Down)
11. DBSK (東方神起) – 왜 (Keep Your Head Down) REPACKAGE
12. Mighty Mouth – 2집 Mighty Fresh
13. Kalafina – Red Moon
14. Perfume – GAME
15. YUI – HELLO ～Paradise Kiss～
16. GACKT – EVER
17. SHINee (샤이니) – 2집 Lucifer
18. miss A – Love Alone (Single)
19. 2NE1 – 내가 제일 잘 나가
20. Tokio – NaNaNa(太陽なんていらねえ)

Tune In: Most Listened to Albums for the Week of May 10 – May 16

sobanoodlefan — Sat, 22 May 2010 04:23:37 +0000

I was apparently in a very electro mood this last week, though I suppose that’s not all that unusual. Imogen Heap’s a longtime favorite, and I first heard La Roux’s album last summer, but Ellie Goulding – a wispy voiced Brit who sings highly addictive tunes – is a pretty new addition to my playlist. Her album Lights was my first UK import of the year, and I’m sure that I’m going to end up ordering some of her older singles if I can track them down.

And mixed in with the electro was a lot of erhu music and the newest Super Junior album, which I like but not as much as the previous CD.

Most Listened to Albums for the Week of May 10 – May 16:

The Gossip – Music For Men
La Roux – La Roux
Imogen Heap – Ellipse
Imogen Heap – Speak for Yourself
Huang Jiangqin (黄江琴) – The First Element II
Jia Peng Fang – Faraway
Imogen Heap – I Megaphone
Ellie Goulding – Lights
Radwimps – Radwimps
CoCo Lee (李玟) – Sunny Day 好心情
KOKIA – KOKIA∞AKIKO ～balance～
Jia Peng Fang – Jia Peng Fang Best
Super Junior – 미 인아 (BONAMANA)
KOKIA – AKIKO∞KOKIA～balance～
Yu Hong-Mei (于红梅) – Erhu Chant
Jia Peng Fang – River
KOKIA – REAL WORLD
She & Him – Volume Two
Radwimps – RADWIMPS 2 ～発展途上～
Angela Aki (アンジェラ・アキ) – 輝く人

Ellie Goulding – “Under the Sheets”

Tune In: Most Listened to Albums for the Week of May 3 – May 9

sobanoodlefan — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:15:03 +0000

I wasn’t at all familiar with Laura Marling until recently when a good friend recommended I give her a try. A couple weeks and several dozen CD spins later, and I am utterly in love. Her songwriting and tone remind me of early Joni Mitchell (think along the lines of the more sparse arrangements on Song to a Seagull), but without being one of those artists who is actively trying to be Joni Mitchell.

Most Listened to Albums for the Week of May 3 – May 9:

Laura Marling – Alas I Cannot Swim
Sally Seltmann – Heart That’s Pounding
KinKi Kids – J album [初回盤]
Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
Iron & Wine – Around the Well
Eisley – Combinations
ONE OK ROCK – 感情エフェクト
Naotaro Moriyama (森山直太朗) – Kessakusen 2001-2005
Ellie Goulding – Lights
Martin Sexton – Seeds
마리서 사 – 1 집 – Mary Story
마리서 사 – Red room
MONKEY MAJIK – Sora wa Maru de
Emmy the Great – First Love
blanc. – canvas
Cheryl Cole – 3 Words
Eisley – Room Noises
ONE OK ROCK – ゼイタクビョウ
Florence + The Machine – Lungs

Recommended: Kino’s Journey

sobanoodlefan — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:23:10 +0000

Kino’s Journey takes place in an oftentimes mystical alternate world and tells the story of a traveler who moves from town to town on a talking motorcycle named Hermes. Kino stays at each stop for three days and two nights – no more, no less – and at the end of each sojourn, simply packs up and moves along to the next destination having experienced as much as possible during the brief visit.

This kind of plot could have been handled in any number of predictable ways – a quirky comedy where the protagonist meets amusing villagers and develops a growing cadre of sidekicks with each passing day or a shounen-style action quest where each town means new villains to conquer.

Instead, Kino’s Journey takes a quieter road that, though superficially might seem quite simple, is thoroughly complex and engrossing.

The main theme that weaves its way through each and every episode is “the world is not beautiful, therefore it is.” It sounds a bit like the contents of a really irritating fortune cookie, but the anime’s execution is so deft and affecting that I give the wording a pass. That brief phrase really does encompass everything behind Kino’s Journey far better than any verbose essay I could come up with.

Bad things happen. Good things happen. It’s only when we see both pressed up against one another that we really understand the depth of either. When brutal dictators rule without reason, the “goodness” of the rebels risking their lives to oppose him becomes far more profound. That’s, of course, a simplification, but you get the idea.

Kino’s rules, which are designed to lead to a certain level of emotional detachment, add even more layers to the show. The distance that staying so briefly in each location builds makes Kino a documentarian of sorts, designed only to witness events for the most part. So when Kino chooses to get involved in situations, it feels almost as if we’re being dragged along, too.

This is an episodic show that explores what it means to simply exist within the world the characters inhabit. It never shies away from the tragic moments revealed in some of the destinations, but it’s never mired down by an excess of “emo.” Instead it leaves you feeling a bizarrely pleasant pang within your chest, as though you’ve gone through some sort of fulfilling experience.

Who might like Kino’s Journey?

While my first instinct is to insist that everyone will like it, I can draw more concrete parallels between the kind of storytelling and pacing you’ll find within it and anime like Mushi-shi and Haibane Renmei, though the latter is significantly less episodic in nature. You also might like Kino if you enjoyed the directing style of Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost Hound, as all three are Ryutaro Nakamura’s projects.

Tune In: Most Listened to Albums for the Week of April 26 – May 2

sobanoodlefan — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:56:01 +0000

Though I didn’t realize it, I was apparently really in a MONKEY MAJIK mood this week. If, by the way, you like MONKEY MAJIK and have not yet listened to Maynard Plant’s side project blanc., I strongly recommend it. I love his voice, and the canvas CD lets him play with a lot of different styles that aren’t always highlighted when he’s with his main band. People fond of his smooth transitions from full voice to falsetto seriously need to give it a shot.

Most listened to albums for the week of April 26 – May 2:

andymori – ファンファーレと熱狂
blanc. – canvas
MONKEY MAJIK – Sora wa Maru de
Sakanaction (サカナクション) – KIKUUiki
Pomplamoose – VideoSongs
MONKEY MAJIK – TIME
TOKIO – Harvest
Hilary Hahn; Jeffrey Kahane: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Bach: Violin Concertos
Radwimps – アルトコロニーの定理
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
KinKi Kids – J album [初回盤]
MONKEY MAJIK – Fly
GACKT – Crescent
Miike Snow – Miike Snow
Exile – 愛すべき未来へ
TOKIO – Act II
Arashi (嵐) – Here We Go!
Meg – BEAM
TOKIO – TOK10
Imogen Heap – Ellipse

Adventures in Edibles: Potato and Spinach Miso Soup

sobanoodlefan — Mon, 03 May 2010 03:26:50 +0000

The other day, when I was rereading a chapter about potatoes in Oishinbo, I got a sudden craving for the potato and spinach miso soup my mom used to make for me when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any kombu on hand, and I’d used the last of my frozen dashi cubes a couple weeks ago when I went on a one-person nabe spree. Being the incredibly lazy resourceful person I am, I ended up modifying her recipe to just use what I had on hand, plus I decided to include some potato prep ideas I’d gleaned from the izakaya volume of Oishinbo. Actually, I ended up deviating a ton from my mom’s original dish, so the only resemblance it had to my childhood soup was that I included potatoes, miso and spinach.

In the end, though, it ended up being pretty tasty, so I thought I’d share in case anyone else might want to give it a try.

SobaNoodleFan’s Potato and Spinach Miso Soup

(makes enough for 4 servings and keeps pretty well in the fridge)

Ingredients:

4 small – medium potatoes (I used Yukon Golds)

32 ounces chicken stock

1/2 pound spinach

2 tablespoons butter

1 heaping tablespoon white miso

1/2 teaspoon Thai garlic chili paste (optional)

Wash and peel the potatoes before cutting them into small, uniform pieces. Fill a heavy pot (I use a 3.5 quart cast iron dutch oven for soups and curry) with the chicken stock, potatoes and butter. Cover and simmer for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, the potatoes should already be very soft. Incorporate the tablespoon of miso using either a ladle or a sieve. If you want it to be a little bit spicy, add the garlic chili paste as well. Cover the pot again, and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

After the last 30 minutes, carefully pour the soup into a blender or food processor. You might need to do this in two batches as potato and miso splattered walls would surely not be a fun mess to clean. Blend until everything has been pureed and mixed together. Return the soup to the pot.

If you’re going to serve the entire pot immediately, add the spinach at the very last minute. Once it’s just barely wilted, ladle the soup into bowls and serve. I hate overly wilted spinach so I just put a portion of the spinach in a bowl and poured a serving of the piping hot soup over it, sufficiently wilting the leaves just enough to be delicious.

You can keep the leftover soup in the refrigerator, but you may need to add a little bit of stock upon reheating to get the consistency back to a “soupy” state. It still tasted great the next day, though.

Tune In: Most Listened to Albums for the Week of April 19 – April 25

sobanoodlefan — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:39:56 +0000

So much drama going on with Lee Hyori’s new album! I’m not absolutely in love with the album, so my fangirly heart isn’t crushed or anything, but I do really enjoy “How Did We Get” – and not even just because of the Daesung factor. It’s a genuinely pleasant pop duet, though the “No More ‘I Love Yous’” sampling kind of weirds me out.

Most listened to albums for the week of April 19 – April 25:

m-flo – COSMICOLOR
Arashi (嵐) – All the BEST! 1999-2009
DBSK (東方神起) – BEST SELECTION 2010
Lee Hyori (이효리) – 4 집 H-Logic
FLOPPY – PROTOSCIENCE
Florence + The Machine – Lungs
Capsule – PLAYER
Eisley – Combinations
V6 – READY?
Rimi Natsukawa (夏川りみ) – SINGLE COLLECTION Vol. 1
MONKEY MAJIK – TIME
Eisley – Room Noises
MONKEY MAJIK – Aishiteru
advantage Lucy – Have A Good Journey (1996-2000)
alan – my life
BREAKERZ – Fighterz
Dulce Pontes/Ennio Morricone – Focus
NEWS – color
alan – 明日への讃歌
DBSK (東方神起) – The Secret Code

If…/Then: Soul Eater

sobanoodlefan — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:48:00 +0000

I can’t get over how much fun I had watching the first two installments of Soul Eater. It’s just part of my nature to be a bit skeptical when almost all my friends fangirl and boy over a show, so I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I popped the first disc in my DVD player. As it turns out, Soul Eater is exactly the kind of heavily addictive anime I can’t get enough of.

Check out my full “If…/Then” on episode 112 of Anime Today!

Tune In: Most Listened to Albums for the Week of April 12 – April 18

sobanoodlefan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:01:35 +0000

I go through phases where certain Johnny’s groups will take over my iPod. It usually fluctuates between TOKIO, KinKi Kids and Arashi, but for some reason, shuffle was really into KAT-TUN CDs.

Most listened to albums for the week of April 12 – April 18:

KAT-TUN – Break the Records -by you & for you-
KAT-TUN – ＫＡＴ－ＴＵＮ　３　－ＱＵＥＥＮ　ＯＦ　ＰＩＲＡＴＥＳ－
LANDS – Olympos
DBSK (東方神起) – BEST SELECTION 2010
ONE OK ROCK – ゼイタクビョウ
Nell – 4집 – Separation Anxiety
KAT-TUN – RESCUE
Arashi (嵐) – All the BEST! 1999-2009
V6 – READY?
Arashi (嵐) – Troublemaker [初回盤]
Yamashita Tomohisa (山下智久) – Loveless
KAT-TUN – Loveyourself~Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki~
TOKIO – Harvest
KinKi Kids – 39
Sakanaction (サカナクション) – KIKUUiki
Kumi Koda (倖田來未) – BEST ～third universe～
Toraji Haiji (トラジ・ハイジ) – FANTASTIPO
Tackey & Tsubasa (タッキー＆翼) – Tackey & Tsubasa Best
ONE OK ROCK – 感情エフェクト
Nell – Healing Process