On Repeat: Busy Doing Nothing

This whole thing makes me so happy! I've been a fan of Crystal Kay since freshman year of high school, and I've followed her career as she endured numerous ups and downs. From debuting in 1999 at age 13, to being one of Japan's most popular and successful artists from 2002-2007, to experiencing a decline in popularity and releasing albums that flopped commercially, to cancelling a national tour and switching from Sony to Universal, to going quiet for a year,  to releasing one last Japanese album before taking up second residence in New York in 2013 (2012?) to build a career and basically start over in the US market, to appearing in an American artist's music video and going to the Grammys.... To this! As a fan, I am so incredibly proud of her! "Busy Doing Nothing" is fun, the lyrics have some substance, and it still has that  Crystal Kay-esque sound that fans of her Japanese music like myself have come to know and love. Plus, she looks amazing like always! The styling! Those ABS. Those curls!

Obviously this song and music video are only a small start to what I hope will be bigger things and greater recognition. I guess the reason why I'm so happy right now is that Crystal Kay is once again embodying the idea of having no limits and transcending categories. As a half-African American half-Korean woman, born and raised in Japan, and having a long career as a Japanese artist singing in Japanese and English, she just.... can't be boxed in. And now she's following her dreams of debuting in the US, showing folks that she has the potential to make it anywhere. Anywhere. Thinking about everything she's been through, everything she's done, and everything she represents for so many people.... I can't help but be elated! She really is an inspiring human being.

Visit Crystal's US links here and here. Here Japanese ones are here and here.

FoF's first video!

In honor of Valentine's Day, Hilena and I did a cover of Adele's rendition of "Love Song". Enjoy!

 

You can now find First of February on Facebook and YouTube to keep up with us in the future. We would love your support and encouragement.

Ghetto Blood?

Just talked to my dad over the phone for the first time in a while, and the subject of my safety in France this summer came up in conversation.

Dad: Aren't you a black belt or something?

Me: Huh? No... I took taekwondo for like a year back in middle school, but that was it.

Dad: Oh. Well, you got a little ghetto in you, 'cause your dad's ghetto. So you'll be alright. You know how to get somebody off you when you need to.

Me (cracking up): Thanks, Dad.

Sessions with Sue 7

Yesterday was the first time that I made it through an entire session without crying. Not a single tear. It's not like I was trying not t cry;  it's just that I've been maintaining a positive attitude lately and I've been taking things more lightly than I did last week. Plus, a lot of good things have happened for me in the past seven days (I'm in a band now, our audition went well, my interview for the honors college also went well, a student-run play accepted my script for their show this year, etc.) So I spent most of the time talking about all those good things, how I felt about them, and realizations about my habits and thought patterns that I've made.  I only took a few notes this time:

• Singing/creating is feeding your soul!
• It's interesting how one person, on a seemingly random occasion, was able to make you feel comfortable enough to take a chance, open up, and share things that you've been adamant about keeping from most other people.
• How awesome it is that this person as come into your life, and you were willing to be receptive to her and her friendship, at just the right time.
• There's never any need or reason to force a relationship.
• You're an adult now. And unlike when you were a child, you get to decide what kind of relationship you want to have with your dad and what that'll look like.

Meet FoF / Our First Performance!

I said I'd tell y'all about the new band I'm in soon, and now's the time.

Everybody meet Hilena! She's the beautiful person next to me in this photo, and she's the other member of our band. I sing. She sings and plays the guitar. And we make some pretty cool sounds together. Our band duo is called First of February (or First of Feb, or FoF).

First of Feb in the house! Or rather, on the bus. With an onlooker.

I have a lot to share about how we met and became friends, and how we ended up joining musical forces. But for now I'll just explain our band name. "First of February" may seem simple and random, but it actually took us over an hour trying to come up with it and it has a lot of meaning. February 1st is the date that we got together (literally, we just formed this past Saturday). February is the second month of the year, and there are two of us. February is also Black History Month, and we are both brown-skinned young women of African descent. And February is also the month of love, which is fitting since both Hilena and I are sentimental people in our own ways. So whether people get it or not when we introduce ourselves, we love our name and it is important to us.

We originally formed in order to audition for an upcoming student-run talent show, so tonight we did our first audition/performance as First of February. We sang "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes. Considering how much we've rehearsed this song, our performance tonight admittedly wasn't the best that we've done. However, it still went really well and we received great responses from the group that auditioned us. And even if we don't make it into the show, I'm just so incredibly happy because our band finally feels real now that we've performed for people. Hilena and I have both wanted to be in a band for a long time, and this was my first time singing in front of people since around October. So to be able to come together and finally share our gifts with others as a team.... it's indescribable how good I feel right now. I'm on such a high, and it's more than catharsis. Perhaps this is what joy feels like?

That's us for you in a nutshell. Stay tuned for future awesomeness! I'm so excited!

"Do you have good intuition?"

This afternoon, I had an interview with someone from my school's honors college. Lately they've been doing profiles on honors students for their website, and I was asked to be one of them. My interviewer/photographer was a nice young man named Nick. He  looked me in the eye when he posed his questions, and he listened intently as I responded to each one. At one point after I'd answered a certain question, he was about to move on to the next one on his list when out of the blue he inquired:

Nick: I'm sorry. This might sound strange, but, would you say that you have good intuition?
Me: ...Uh, I guess. Sure, I'd like to think so.
Nick: Yeah, you seem like you have good intuition.

And then we moved on to the rest of the interview. On the one hand I appreciated the compliment, but on the other hand, I was sitting there thinking Huh. That's kind of weird. Is this guy psychic? Can he read vibes or something? Do I have "good intuition" written on my forehead? Does he happen to be on a mission to find people with good intuition today?

I'd never met Nick before this afternoon, so since then I've been wondering why he would randomly say something like that. Maybe I should've asked him. Eh well. It's a strange compliment that I will gladly accept.

FoF

Something miraculous happened for me last night. I'm in a band! Of sorts, haha. A friend of mine and I formed it together, on the fly for an upcoming audition for a student-run event. I finally have someone to share my ideas with. It's like a dream of mine is starting to come true!

Who knew that just meeting for dinner would lead to something like this? Even though what we've got going is amateur and small, this is the most excited I've been about something in a really long time. I'll tell y'all what our band name is soon enough. But in the meantime, the title of this post is a clue.