Music review: L'arc~en~Ciel - Kasou

ray.jpg Artist: L'arc~en~Ciel Members: Hyde (vocals, guitar), Tetsu (background vocals, bass), Ken (guitar), Yukihiro (drums) Album: Ray Release date: 7/1/99 Video link: Via YouTube

English translation: Separately scattered about flower petals, drops of pink around the waning moon reflecting an eternal love.

Eyes...left open a body that's going to rot splendidly lost, only this consciousness left without waiting for the spring.

my beloved one, you just gently turn cold, in these arms as you are broken listen. The abyss of dreams is calling like always.

on the night that blooms out of season the melody of a restless soul the flower floating in the darkness my only parting gift.

(English: Gravity is on the increase as time goes by my body returns to earth there is sky up in the air my body is in your sky and my life is in your cosmos we never come close to each other be here we exist as it is.....) it comes to an end at last the pain of being reborn in the earthen ground I swallow the promise I'm bound to a dead world

separately scattered about flower petals drops of pink around the waning moon reflecting an eternal love

This evening...oh the ecstasy of a dream... At last my eyes closed

On the night that blooms out of season the melody of a restless soul the flower floating in the darkness my only parting gift About the song: This is, by far, my favorite L'arc song. While the lyrics are fairly morbid, the song as a whole is still absolutely beautiful. In my opinion, the best way to listen to it is to watch the music video. The etherealness of the song mixes with the symbolism of the graphics in such an amazing way. I have a difficult time listening to the song without seeing Hyde in his "vampire" costume in my mind.

Game review: Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters: TV Guide Edition

I almost feel dirty writing this review. Pat Sajak's Lucky Letters game is basically a crossword puzzle. This particular version is all about television shows. The levels are broken into decades so, if you happen to know more about television shows from the 90s, you can choose that decade. Then you won't be bombarded with questions from shows in the 70s. If you know a bit about television, the game is extremely easy. Most of the questions are from extremely popular shows and even if you come upon a show you don't know, you can skip that one and you'll eventually solve it after answering the rest of the puzzle. The game was fun but it was all fluff. I haven't even finished the 60 minute demo and I'm already bored with it after finishing three decades. Skip this game and try for something a bit more difficult.

Branson, MO

I've always wondered about land for sale Branson, Missouri. It's always been like a mini-Vegas or something. Yakov Smirnoff has a show there. There's a bunch of dinner theaters there. There's a Chinese circus show. It seems like anything you can think of....there's a show in Branson. So that makes me wonder - is it a cheesy type of knock-off town or is it really nice? And why would people live in such a tourist town? I guess I'll just have to visit to find out.

Knight Rider

I probably should have talked about this earlier. Last week, my husband and I watched the Knight Rider movie on NBC. I thought it was a pretty good show. Yeah, people are going to complain about something but, you know what, the thing is based on a television series that was filled with cheese and impossible stunts. You can't really expect gold to come from anything Knight Rider related. One of our friends complained about KITT's car spoilers appearing when he went into "Action" mode. (I still prefer Super Pursuit Mode!) He said that the dual spoilers weren't necessary. However, KITT was doing around 200 mph. The car would need some sort of downdraft on the rear to keep it from spinning out all the time.

Anyway, I really hope they can spin this off into a television series. I liked that the KITT's new driver is Michael Knight's son. I like Val Kilmer's voice for KITT. I like that they changed KITT from just being bulletproof to having nanotechnology that allows him to fix himself when he's damaged. More please!

Game review: Big City Adventure: Sydney, Australia

My daughter really enjoyed playing the Big City Adventure: San Francisco hidden object game with me. So I decided to give the Sydney, Australia version a try. I did play this with my daughter as well. The game takes you around the main tourist attractions of Sydney to find a variety of objects. Just before each level, there is a tidbit of information about the location so there's a bit of educational value tossed in with the entertainment. When you complete a location, you are rewarded with a token in the shape of something related to that location. For example, you might get a koala-shaped token from the zoo.

My daughter and I enjoyed this version of the game as much as the San Francisco version. Most of the words are easy enough for a young child to read them without much help and most of the objects are fairly easy to find as well. This is definitely a game that an adult could play with a child while still enjoying the game. Both will be able to participate so it won't turn into an instance where the adult does all the work and the child just watches. The game is still fun if you play it by yourself, especially if you are interested in Australian attractions.

Babies Galore

A couple of my friends are currently pregnant. Of course, they are going to need cribs when the little ones are born. I keep looking at the Emily crib. Man, there is some gorgeous furniture there! It almost makes me want to have another baby just so I can buy one. Though I don't particularly want another child. Just the one is good enough for me, thank you very much.

Music review: Green Day - One For The Razorbacks

kerplunk.jpgArtist: Green Day Members: Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals), Mike Dirnt (bass), Tre Cool (drums) Album: Kerplunk Release date: 1/17/92 Video link: Via YouTube

Lyrics: Juliet's trying to find out what she wants, but she don't know Experience has got her down Look this direction, I know it's not perfection, it's just me... I want to bring you up again now

I'm losing what's left of my dignity A small price I'll pay to see That you're happy Forget all the disappointments you have faced Open up your worried world and let me in

Juliet's crying cause now she's realizing love can be Filled with pain and distrust I know I am crazy, and a bit lazy But I will try to bring you up again now About the song: I've always loved Green Day's older music more than their current albums. Maybe it was the "emo teenager" in me that felt a connection to songs like this. Songs about how love can suck and life isn't always roses. Now that I'm older, these songs don't cut nearly as close as they used to but they still bring me feelings of nostalgia.