Katori Shingo is a member of the ultra-famous Johnny's group, SMAP. Sometime around 2000, he starred in a new show where he would cross-dress as Shingo Mama and let tired housewives have the morning off. He would show up at someone's house bright and early in the morning to perform all of the duties of a housewife - waking the family members up, making them breakfast, seeing them off to work/school - doesn't your mother do that? It was extremely popular, especially with children. So, Shingo Mama recorded a song and released it as a single. Now I present it to you.
Favorite Friday
Nakashima Mika is an amazing Japanese singer. She's probably most popular for playing Osaki Nana in the live action "NANA" movie. This is one of my favorite songs, Love Addict.
Favorite Friday
I really wish I had stuck with ballet long enough to be able to dance en pointe.
Favorite Friday
Christmas is coming up so I decided to make this a Christmas-themed Favorite Friday. One of my favorite Christmas movies is White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. While there are some very awesome scenes in the movie, this one has to be my very favorite.
Favorite Friday
Arashi is a Japanese boy band from Johnny's Jimusho, a very large company that churns out extremely popular boy bands. This particular band debuted in 1999. Somewhere around that time, they had a PV (promotional video, otherwise known as a music video) for their self-titled single directed by Takizawa Hideaki, a member of the Johnny's band Tackey & Tsubasa. While the official PV for the song (not directed by Tackey) was clean and bright, the Tackey version was dark and had the boys dancing around in plastic see-through pants. Somehow somebody somewhere thought it would be a good idea for the boys to perform in the plastic see-through pants. I'm not sure that was a good decision.
Favorite Friday
No, I didn't forget today's Favorite Friday video. This one comes from the video game, Portal. It came bundled in the Orange Box with Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress. While Half-Life was the "main" game in the bundle, Portal was much more interesting. Here is the song that plays during the ending credits of Portal. Yes, there are spoilers for the game in here but if you don't know them already then you aren't a real geek!
Favorite Friday
From 1993 through 2005, there were a series of Sailor Moon musicals performed in Japan. The first actress to play Sailor Moon was Anza. She held the role from 1993 to 1998. An amazing singer, Anza is now the singer for Head Phones President. Here is my favorite performance from Anza as Sailor Moon. Knockin' Down Hesitation.
Favorite.....Friday?
Since my birthday fell on Friday and I decided I wasn't going to do any work at all, I completely missed Favorite Friday. Instead, I will give you this week's Favorite Friday video on Saturday. Barenaked Ladies is one of my very favorite bands. It's extremely difficult for me to pick just one video to post for you. This is from Ed's "Bathroom Sessions," a series of performances from his newly remastered bathroom. I chose this particular song because Ed (the one with the guitar) and Steve (the one without the guitar) have such a wonderful time singing this song. I hope you take a moment to go through the rest of the Bathroom Sessions performances.
Favorite Friday
I always seem to run out of things to say on Friday. So I have decided to start a new weekly feature. Favorite Friday. Every Friday I will post a video that I really like. It may be a music video; it may be a performance by an awesome band/artist; it may be something silly. Whatever I happen to come across that I like a lot. The first video I would like to post is a performance of Perfect Blue by L'arc~en~Ciel at their Grand Cross Conclusion concert in 1999. I absolutely love this song and I think is an awesome performance: