Just like the Seine in Paris, the Charles is such a psychological boundary for Boston-area residents. Crossing the river, simple as it is on foot/bike/car/train, seems to require much more effort than it really does. It’s so much easier to just stay on your side of the river and not cross over. Cantabridgians stick to their own, Bostonians likewise. And now that the Red Line is crawling snail’s pace over the Longfellow due to repairs, the gap between the two sides seems bigger than ever. If there’s a social event across the river, I know many people who’d rather just stay home than go over the Charles, even if it’s not very far. Such a bizarre phenomenon.

Meantime, I thought I’d provide the latest lame excuse for my delay in updating–one that’s just a tiny bit ironic considering my last posts were liveblogs from the Bastion of Geekery a.k.a. ROFLcon. I b0rked my server, meaning I kind of had a mishap with mySQL database. I wish the reason was something cool, like I was running some fabulous back-end scripts for some nefarious purpose. Sadly, no, nothing even remotely that excusable. All it came down to was that I lost my password. Kind of pathetic, really. Sorry about that.

[edit] Does anyone have a low- to mid-level DSLR recommendation? My very trusty Canon Powershot is on its very last legs, bless its sturdy PCB heart.

Two friends of mine (Boston-area!) just left after spending an evening chez moi just watching hours of J-rock and the Nana movie. I hang my head in utter shame to admit this was the first time I’d ever seen Nana! I knew the premise, I knew most of the characters, I knew a lot of the music, but I’ve never sat down to watch it.

It’s as good as people say. I hesitated to see it all this time because of all the hype around it, which I admit is a really lame reason to not see something. But Nana‘s definitely the movie for J-rock fans everywhere, as I think a lot of people will recognize either themselves or a lifestyle they want to emulate in this film. (And yea, the all-important kohl-eyed and skinny-pantsed J-rock dudes are in there too.)

Nana and Hachi’s friendship was so beautiful in how it transcended stereotype, these two girls were so genuinely kind to each other that they could understand and support each other as friends despite their wildly different personalities and lifestyles. Ah, writing it sounds so cheesy! (I don’t want to spoil the movie for people just coming through, so sorry for the purposeful-vagueness here.)

And is there anything better in the world than walking around Davis Square on a warm Friday night when the Red Sox are winning a game 8 to 1? Don’t think so!

[edit 9/22] This is kind of old news by today, but it’s so awesome that I have to post about it:

B’z is going to be “inducted” to the Hollywood Rock Walk of Fame! The very first Asian artists to be on there, and what better band than B’z? Top grossing Japanese artists of all time, record number of #1 hits in a row — 39 so far. News of their induction (there must be a better word for it…) comes on the heels of their 20th anniversary! Hard to believe these guys have been around for roughly 2 decades now, all the while they keep topping the charts. This is pretty epic and definitely well-deserved. (Here’s the news in Japanese from the B’z official website.)

Oh, and for those of you who have been waiting since the late 1990s for VIOLET UK to release something on disc, that momentous day has finally arrived. Sort of.

JRock Revolution is selling the soundtrack to thriller-movie Catacombs, which has one VIOLET UK song on it. (The man himself Yoshiki put the soundtrack together.) So there’s finally going to be some VIOLET UK in your hands if you buy this soundtrack and — barring some major natural catastrophe — nothing can take that away! Dunno about you guys, but I remember being really psyched about VIOLET UK way back when, so I jumped at the chance to pre-order this, even if for just that one song.