Fourth Blogging Anniversary, that is…

I almost forgot to post something today, but I have a good excuse: Today was also my fiancee’s bridal shower, and guess who had to schlep gifts back and forth in his car? Yep…

I should note that for the past few weeks I’ve been – on top of planning towards the wedding and subsequent move into mine and my wife-to-be’s new apartment – finishing up the novel (yeah, still… but then again if I didn’t have to hold a day job it would have been finished already), working on a screenplay for Script Frenzy, working on a couple of reviews for this blog (they’ll be up this week), and working on my guitar.

And last night, boy, did I work on my guitar… I got this thing (Epiphone Les Paul) a few months ago, but I never changed the strings until last night. Such was my Saturday night:

And to keep things J-pop related, here’s another part of what helped keep me sane, especially today:

Besides, I couldn’t figure how to equal or better the live MoMusu and Stooges clips from last year! But what I can do is (even though I didn’t get this finished until after midnight when the 11th became the 12th) update a list I posted two years ago on my second blogging anniversary at MotokoAoyama.com, which would make this “A List That Took Four Years To Make”:
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GUNS N’ ROSES
Chinese Democracy
(Black Frog/Geffen)
Available on CD, 180-gram LP with download code, and iTunes

It’s probably safe to say that for the past several years, W. Axl Rose has been operating on a principle not dissimilar to that of the Fall’s Mark E. Smith, who said in one famous instance regarding the high turnover in band members over the past thirty years, “If it’s me and your granny on bongos, then it’s a Fall gig.” While financially the album’s long-awaited release surely had to be a disaster for Geffen Records, artistically Chinese Democracy proves two thngs: 1) Axl was and is definitely the main creative force behind GnR, and 2) the album was worth the wait (and is worth seeking out in the vinyl format). Axl is still in fine voice, the songs are solidly written, and the various musicians employed throughout the lengthy recording process fill out the shoes of the classic lineup quite nicely. If that’s not all the assurance you need to check out this album, I don’t know what else to say to change your mind.