Let me introduce you to the crazy world of Kiiiiiii , two girls from tokyo who create crazy art-pop tunes using toys, samples and basic vocals and percussion. In their own words: 

"When we met each other for the first time, we were 12 years old. Since then,we have been special friends like DJ & KIMMY in "FULL HOUSE"!

++We play songs by......The Wiggles, Chip munks, Roco's modern life by NIKELODEON, Hooley dooleys,Michael Jackson"


You'll either hate it or you'll love it just like marmite which, btw, I hate. But you can't deny their cover of the Wiggles' “Four Little Joeys” is like nothing you've ever heard before! 

I'm really loving Jonathan Ross's 'Asian Invasion' series, in which he travels to Japan, Hong Kong and Korea to explore the world's most innovative cinema. Asian Cinema is really thriving at the moment, their approach to cinema is so fresh and imaginative compared to the countless sequels and tv series adaptions that are coming out of Hollywood currently. Not that I'm saying Hollywood cinema is bad, no! What I'm trying to say is why see some crap like 'Big Mama's House 2' when you can see 'Spirited Away' instead? :)  Anyway... it's probably the first time I have deliberately set out to watch a BBC Four programme. Here's a rough guide to the series if you're interested...

2006 looks likely to be a good year for films *knocks on wood*. Here are a few of the films I'm really looking forward to...

Woooo! allmappedout  a.k.a. my sister Rachael and I went to see Stellastarr* supported by The Sounds last night. And the gig was pretty kick-ass! Although the bouncers made us wait for ages outside in the cold just because they wanted to check ID to see who could legally drink or not. Once we got in I headed to the bar because I was really thirsty for some strange reason and then proceeded down to the front of the stage to stand in the second row. In hindsight I should of not bothered buying a drink since now I had a hyperactive man in front of me wearing a bin hat that made it hard for me to take a photos since he continuously bobbed his head to the music although way through the set. Despite this we had a pretty good view of the stage!

The Sounds

The Sounds, a Swedish synth pop/rock quintet fronted by the eccentric Maja Ivarsson, were awesome. Maja reminded me of a cross between Karen O and Debbie Harry, she was really working up the crowd and seemed to do this strange little applaud for herself after each song. At one point she jumped into the crowd with the mic. and suddenly pointed it at this girl and asked her if she was having a good time. The girl looked quite taken aback. Their guitarist, Felix, was so hot with his slick back James Dean hair although Rachael prefered Jesper the keyboards (part of the reason maybe to do with the fact he was wearing The Smiths, Meat is Murder vest top).  'Living in America' ,a song about Sweden’s obsession with the U.S, was so catchy! I don't know really know why so many swedes want to be Americanized because the Swedish are so fucking cool as it is!

Stellastarr*

The band we all came to see! For those who don't know who Stellastarr* are they're a indie pop quartet from New York described as being 'a band with wit, imagination and a knack for hooks shot through with enough twisted volatile genius to take them to a completely different level'. The last time I had seen Stellastarr* was two years ago so I was pretty excited to hear the new material off the second album. It was a Stella performance (hahahaha, aren't I awful) combining both the old hits e.g. 'Somewhere across Forever' and the neo gothic pop of 'In the Walls' with newer songs such as 'Sweet Troubled Soul' oh how we would all like to see the reflection of our lover in our bedroom stereo! Shawn's wailing half scandavian, half american voice was on top form especially during 'On my Own' when he started to do this little shaking movement which was quite effective really brought the emotion across better than on the album version. 'Moon Girl' a mainly instrumental track was really atmospheric with Michael's cool sonic guitar style and Mandy's low melodic bass lines. But the highlights have to be 'My Coco' and 'Jenny' which everyone sang along to. It was kinda funny to hear everyone shout: 'OH MY GOD SHE'LL BE COMING AFTER YOU IN THE SUMMERTIME, HEY HEY HEY!' during Jenny. The set list went something like this...

 Lost in Time
No Weather
A Million Reasons
Damn This Foolish Heart
The Diver
Somewhere Across Forever
In the Walls
Sweet Troubled Soul
Moongirl
Love and Longing
My Coco
-
On My Own
Stay Entertained
Jenny

At the end Arthur the drummer told us that we were the most good looking audience in the UK which made me laugh. It was a fun night except for the strange dude who shouted 'If I was Jesus I would be brown!'. Shawn replied 'You are Jesus my friend!'. At the end as we left the venue Shawn was at the door talking with a member of staff. I didn't notice and my sister never told me!

NB: WILL EDIT POST LATER WITH PICTURES OF BOTH BANDS AND POSS. SHORT VIDEO CLIPS OF STELLASTARR* (if it works).

So just a quick update...

Friday morning:- Mobile truely dies and decides it no longer wants to produce any sound at all. Therefore I am no longer able to hear my phone ring or hear anyone on the other end when I answer it. It also switches itself off and on. As if things can't any worse, it deletes all my text messages. The text function still works...for now.

Friday night:-  V was down for the weekend so we met up. I kind of gatecrashed her evening meal with her family at La Tasca. Well to be honest I didnt really 'gatecrash' I was invited to join but I felt a bit guilty about being there. Her father was kind and bought me a drink. Anyway V and I went to 'Frankenstein's' and bought a bottle of white wine and chatted for a bit while half watching Frankenstein on the TV screen behind us. Then we headed to 'El barrio's' which for those of you who don't know is a small salsa club. I tried some basic steps but for most of the time I fell about laughing.

Saturday night:- Teri and I went out to the promo party! And drank some 'Sloths' that consist mainly of cream (by the time you get to the bottom of the glass). Our DJ was cool and had a dinky military cap on, he totally played some rockin' tunes. I have a sticker, poster, two free cool lighters and some other stuff. Rachael stole one of my lighters. There was this amazing dude there with his hair in small little blond ponytails all the way round his head. I wanted him to be my best friend,lol.

Monday:- Received an email from ''Elton John'' telling me to check out the funny video of this strange chubby man dancing to 'Ozone' into his webcam. He mimes and pouts at the screen too. Brings a tear to my eye. Apart from that I buckled down and did some important university work and kept an eye on my dad who's got a nasty chest infection. I feel partly to blame since I had a cold and a throat infection last week.

xxx.

Fruit tree, fruit tree
No-one knows you but the rain and the air.
Don't you worry
They'll stand and stare when you're gone.

I went to the Nick Drake night at the Cameo cinema.

The documentary 'A Skin too Few' was really contrived, they filmed his bedroom window for 3 minutes with icicles forming slowly on the glass. But the end was honestly sad when Gabrielle Drake said:

"I personally prefer to think Nick committed suicide, in the sense that I'd rather he died because he wanted to end it than it to be the result of of a tragic mistake. That would seem to me to be terrible: for it to be a plea for help that nobody hears."

I think people began to cry there was a lot of tissues out at the end. Then Keith James entered the cinema with his 3 guitars. Keith James is an odd folk musician with a large goatie. I really enjoyed his version of 'Fruit Tree', it was intense but without losing any of the song's bitter melancholy charm. But he messed up 'Black eyed Dog'! He played it at twice the speed just so he could play straight into 'Three Hours'! He did 'Northern Sky' which brought a huge cheesy grin to my face but changed the tuning a bit at the chorus. Keith James did play one of his own numbers too, it was called 'Circles' and was a bit...crap. Well he sung about how a forgotten photograph was like lost gloves on a train which I thought was naff lyrically. But back to Nick, Keith played 'Day is Done' as the encore which was a really nice way to finish if not quite solemn. It was so great to hear Nick's songs played live. :)

Afterwards I went off to the cafe to get a cappucino while I waited for a lift. I couldn't get 'Hanging on a star' out of my head.

PS. I found out today that the large lump on my tongue is an 'inflamed tastebud'. Infact everything down there is still looking a bit swollen according to my dad who shoved a teaspoon down my throat.

Top 5 meme:

Ask me for "top five" lists of pretty much anything, and I will list for you my top five of that thing or things. Copy and give your own top fives.