Mogusa

It looks a little bit like me right now. Is it the size, the smile or the fur?

I have been absent for a very long time: it was finally time to leave Tokyo (kind of violently) (I visited Kyotô, finished my semester, moved out in less than five days) (call me Survivor), to enjoy the simple pleasures of being in the same room than my family who I have not met in one year…

Also time to take some vacation which were actually short and fast, but pleasant and thrilling, in the South of France, meeting family, trying not to faint because of some French villages’ beauty (that’s no exaggeration. I wouldn’t dare.).

Time to get hung over with one of my best friends in Bordeaux, the city of wine and rugbymen. Time to simply enjoy my short summer !

Until then, the biggest surprise has been this fact… I’m not so sad. Me, the biggest Japan-obsessed you could meet, who sacrificed her whole energy and all her savings to finally get there, I’m not so sad. It’s actually worse: I’m glad I’m back. One year ago, I swear to God, it didn’t matter how much I loved the Seine or Degas paintings or French boulangerie, I just wanted to get the f… out of there. Cynical, undisciplined, dark, pessimistic, cold Parisian people just got on my nerves. The political atmosphere sucked. It still sucks (just like an infected wound), but as for Paris, I like it.

After years of… nothing… it seems that the whole city decided to improve! Dirty, old shops were replaced by designed and brand-new furniture. Even the supermarket I used to work for, which was a kind of haunted house for the past fifteen years, became super-fancy super-cute in a short year.

And most of all… … … people became polite. What the hell has happened ?? Oh, believe me, I’m certainly NOT going to complain, but whaouh! Is Sarkozy’s stinking method disgusting to the point that people actually changed?

Anyway: France and all your clichés, Je T’aime ! Macarons, bouquinistes, lovers walking together, old houses, street musicians, café serré, kisses kisses, kisses...

My sister and me if we were not poor.

I am currently fighting with my css code... and as it's very late, and that I have homework to do, and that my friends are waiting for me to watch soccer at the fourth floor of our building, I have to leave it that way for a few hours days...

So, I know that's a mess... je suis désolée !

Wououh !! A new era began !
Who needs to study politics when you can do water bending ? What's the point, hm ?
Anyone for sending resumees when you control water ? ... naaaah.

With water bending, I could... well, with water bending, I could... make huge waves in the swimming pool, which could be cool. And I could... make ice cream very iced. And I could... basically, control people's body but that's not very ethic. I could...

...

Ok, water bending is not very useful in our world, you need to live the Four nations land for that, but it would be so COOL.

We are definitely water's people, sis' ! Thank you so much for this fanart of the two of us !
(Wait. The most important member of our group is missing. Where IS MOMO ??)

Can't wait for The Last Airbender to get released...

Music tells me stories - whether this is extracted from soundtracks or not...

No comment for this one, just enjoy it.

One century ago, love songs mainly talked about impossible love stories: forced weddings, undeniable differences of background, etc.

Now, one of the recurrent thematic is long-distance love, because we are more and more opened to the world, we are offered to study or work abroad, and we have planes, and Internet, and skype, and so here we go.

Naive version – Distance, Utada Hikaru [It's alright to try, cause I just wanna be with you now]

Romantic version – Hey there Delilah, Plain White T’s [We'll have the life we knew we would]

Annoyed version. – Love Long Distance, The Gossip [Love long distance is trying me testing my patience]

Bittersweet version – Skin and Bones, Charle Kaye ft. Darren Criss [I'll keep on wanting you that I can't have]

It’s over version – Miles Away, Madonna [I guess we're at our best when miles away]

Poetic version – A Thousand miles, Vanessa Carlton [You know I'd walk a thousand miles if I could see you]

When simming into fiction, you can think about how cool it would be to have that power and to save the world; in reality, you would just escape screaming and running, hiding from the villains... in reality, love stories would be totally irrational and terribly heart-breaking (even more than in real life. Yep, that sucks.).

I was thinking about some of my favorite male anti-heroes, thinking “what would it really be like to love someone like this?” … (And the worst is, I have a social life and I’m very busy, I swear.)

For instance, take Haku from Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. He does magic, he is brave and clever, he is subtle and he can fly, that’s awesome.

Why is it so complicated then? Basically, because he isn’t really a boy. He can change into a dragon but he’s not even one. He’s the spirit of a river, so… well… sounds like a cheesy manga title. “My boyfriend is a river”. I just let you imagine how to explain your parents, your friends, and the city hall that you’re dating a river. Good luck.
He does have a heart and feelings, and he proves it! No really, the only problem is that he’s not even human, he’s just being. Being a river. That’s kind of complicated, right?

Another example: Eric Northman, very popular vampire from True Blood. He. Is. Hot. And his voice is hot too.

What's the problem then? He’s a vampire who has been living surviving dead vampirizing since 1000 years, so you can imagine the brain damage. He just wanna suck your damned blood, don’t look further. He’s manipulative and he can hypnotize you so hm… well it sounds sexy and all, but in real life, just enjoy the fact that basically, vampires do not exist and that you’ll never meet Eric Northman. Lucky you. I mean, he really kills people, you know?

Last example: Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender.

He is cute and he has a scar, which is charming. He’s funny even if he does not want to be, he masters fire (that's charisma), he’s a prince (what? that’s classy), he’s adorably stubborn but he is kind deep deep deep inside.

Seems perfect, excepted that he grew up with the most psychopath sister of the universe, separated from his mother by his own father and considered as a target to murder by his grand-father, he’s obviously having identity troubles: who I am, why, where, into what, that is the question, etc. He’s really stubborn, it turns to obsession. And if you marry him, you have to live among fire benders (well, I prefer water benders, they are a bit less dangerous, no… ?), in a city which is in the middle of a volcano, like, come on, a volcano !!

So, remember? No dragon, no vampire, no prince. Anyway we haven't got any other choice.

Internet is a marvelous place of freedom, which create the worst in the best. Among the best, I would say that my generation is certainly the most creative that ever existed...

Today is a day for Youtube-style cover songs. Skinnilove, a french girl living in Paris, covers various songs accompanied by her guitarist. This is fresh and cute and check it out !

* Girls just wanna have fun : here.
* Good girl go bad: here.
* Hey soul sister: here !

Thanks god, I've got an elder sister. Really, thanks god, because when I could not read yet (a long time ago, let's be clear.), she read aloud every good story we had in our room, so we could talk about it together. The good point was that as I was very young I would forget the details and would read it again anyway. That's important: how could I have survived from 0 to 4 without stories and fiction ??

Very lucky I am. She is five years older than me, but we did not care. Sisterhood, when it succeeds, is a weird boundary: we are different but our real nature remains similar. She knows me. She is the only one who knows what to tell me when I get crazily panicked for no objective reason (but still good reasons though). She may not know all of me, and yet, she does somehow, or maybe she understands what are my flaws, my imperfections, my deepest fears, what is inside me and that I am afraid to express even to myself.


She insisted that I would read the damned Philosopher's Stone - that I would really enjoy it, she had no idea she was so right. She was the one who noticed that Tenku no Escaflowne was aired again on that summer 2002. She was the one who took me to Mononoke Hime - she was authorized to go in Paris. She was the one who told Mum that we should visit that friend I made on Internet, in winter 2003. Little details that built my whole life...

What is sisterhood? Sisterhood is same voice but different hair colors, same craving for mum's tomato pies but disagreement on cheese and cakes. Hours of Fruit Basket, Disney cartoons, Daria. Hours of discussions in the dark. Hours of laughing, hours of crying. Happiness when we meet after six months ; sadness and misunderstandings when she moved out a few years ago ; mutual support and infinite comprehension now - and, I hope, until the end.

Today, she is flying back to Paris, to our parents, I am by myself in Japan, and I just remember us. Take care and see you in August, big Sis !

According to my french friends' facebook status, United States of Tara was launched very successfully on the private Canal + channel a few weeks ago. Maybe a little too successfully - after watching the two first episodes, everybody checked out the complete season in original version thanks to Internet. So now I wonder if there will be any audience for it in the next weeks. Gotcha Canal + ...

I really love United States of Tara - Desperate Housewives, as much as I still love it, has never been as good as season 1 proved itself to be. Never ever... This is a very different TV show, but United States of Tara talks to me as much as Desperate used to. This is funny, sad, disturbing and addictive at the same time.



For the lucky ones who still don't know about the show and will enjoy discovering it, let's sum up shortly. Tara is a sweet woman, very creative, who seems reasonnable outside but is actually the most fragile creature inside. She doesn't know why, she doesn't know how, but the fact is that she suffers from Identities Troubles. To make it clear: she is not only Tara, she sometimes becomes T., teenager-version of herself ; or Alice, a conservative and Breevandekampish housewife ; or Buck, a man, looking a lot like Gran Torino's Clint Eastwood to me.

Somehow, the three of them are here to protect her from life's heartache. T. doesn't consider anything seriously in life, which is all about fun and new experiences. Alice is supposed to preserve the morality and the apparent integrity of the family. Buck puts all feminity away and denies Tara's complex feelings.

All of this is theory ; in the end, Tara is not protected at all, and her psychological troubles are destroying her as much as it keeps her alive ; as for her family, they are all expecting to explode at one moment or another.

Tara is both comic and trafic ; this is also an investigation, as Tara is trying to figure what the hell caused the birth of her alter-egos. You can add to this the suspense created by the potential apparition of other alter-egos : is Tara "only" four people, or more ?

I also love the other family members' ambiguity: do they hate this situation ? do they love it ? Tara's husband used to love Tara no matter what, also because the other alter-egos are fun - even though he will never admit it.
Tara's rebellious daughter is always glad to see T., because she is fun as well, this teenager cliché of her mum, rude and vulgar. Tara's kind-hearted and gay son is always anxious to see machist Buck coming, but always relieved when the perfect housewife Alice is replacing his mom.

Nothing is black and white, just fragile, sometimes hysterical, and very disturbing...

(P.S. : ok, Toni Collette helps a lot, In her Shoes, The Sixth Sens, Little Miss Sunshine, I love that woman)

As any person of my age, whether I like it or not, my whole psychology is rooted in the Disney cartoons ; I could deny it, but the fact is even if I had grow up to hate the Disney franchise, it's just part of me, I guess... We are here talking about various topics such as narrative structure, appeal to music, a certain opinion on aesthetic, conception of Good and Evil, and of course, OF COURSE, conception of Love and conception of One self. And gender issues.

To make it clear, Disney brainwashed me : their stories were addictive back in the 90s, and you would just watch it and learn it by heart without even notice, and it would create flaws that adults had not created yet... yep, they are that powerful.

It's especially crazy to see the number of fanarts, cosplays, theater plays, literacy evolving aroung the Disney princesses. Always funny to see people's ranking. As for me, my favorite was Belle by far, followed by Ariel. Pocahontas and Mulan are unfortunately put apart : I adored Pocahontas but she was clearly an adult ; as for Mulan, I was already a bit too old for her to have such a strong influence on me but she is definitly one of my favourite characters (at least because she was the first Asian girl in Disney, and I knew it would be important somehow in my life?)...

Anyway, I wanted to talk about arts. No one can forget about Annie Leibovitz's collection of Disney-inspired pictures...
Very classic for some (Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella), very funny for others (Whoopee Goldberg as the Aladdin Genie), or alternative for some others (Beyonce as Alice, one of the best ideas ever : childish, pale, blonde and british Alice turned into tanned, super hot, super sexy Beyonce ?) ...

Today I discovered the most awesome Disney fanarts ever : Twisted Princesses ! Creepy versions of the princesses supposed to represent the best qualities of the Fair Sex. The funniest are certainly Cinderella, Ariel (with the famous fork as a hook and Flounder as a pirhana), Pocahontas (tribal and maybe cannibal).

I love this collection, certainly for the irony of it ? This is the darkest part of Princesses : hystery, failure, narcissism, blindness, madness on its way... ?

So. This is 2010 now. I have humour, I appreciate initiatives. I am like the average of western women - I love Sex and the City and nudity is fine with me. Then, why can't I help it but feel a little shocked when I see this ?!

Cinderella, Belle and Ariel, with boobies as big as rugby balls, in very light lingerie, with the most lascive eyes ever... The first one is very funny, Cinderella's pose and all ; it's funny as well, the mermaid fantasy - but Belle ?! What happened to you, darling ?! Maybe because she is my favorite one - with her books, her patience, her intellectual side.

And now I know what bothers me. Because once again, women's freedom is obviously extreme sexualization and "open-bodiness" ... and not real freedom. Freedom meaning : you can be whatever you are, and whatever you want to be. Included being a villain, included being totally imperfect.

But well... these are only comics and these are good fanarts, whatever it makes me feel like...
So you, too, forget the political aspect and just enjoy the pop art:

- Annie Leibovitz's photoshoot right here (not completed though), in case you missed it when it was released:
- Jeftoon's awesome Twisted Princesses ! serie, here.
- J. Scott Campbell's Comics, just here.