Utada Hikaru is already a huge star in Japan. She grew up bilingual in New York City, and started writing songs at age 11. By the age of 16, she released a Japanese album launched her into fame overseas. She broke (and still holds) the record of most copies of an album sold in Japan, and has had so much success in her music, is one of Japan’s wealthiest people. Not to bad for a 22 years-old, eh?

I cam across the video for Passion above, while browsing blogs. I thought the song was incredible, which lead to me to finding out more about Utada. She released an English CD this past fall titled Exodus. I’ve actually heard a couple of the songs off of it. You may have heard the dance track “Devil Inside” on rotation in your gym or out at a bar.

Obviously, she hasn’t achieved the massive success here that she has overseas. That being said, I do really like her album after having it on rotation this week. It’s obviously got the j-pop vibe, as well as some 80s sounding elements, which has the taste of where Gwen Stefani went with her last CD. And while I have some fav pop songs on Utada’s English CD, I’ll admit my favorite place for her voice is on an epic ballad like Passion (above), of which an English version will be released next month.

I loved these videos, since they have such a painted sci-fi / fantasy feel to them.

Whether you’re interested in electric guitars, or you’d prefer to learn to play the something like acoustic guitars for a sound that is more mellow, you can find reviews of
various guitar brands and models online; get informed before investing in Fender guitars just because they’re famous.

If you’ve taken a peek at my moblog recently, you may have discovered that I’ve started to play World of Warcraft. This is mostly thanks to my friend Zane, who badgered me at every opportunity to stop playing City of Heroes and come join “the funnest game ever.”

WoW has made news in quite a few gay publications over the past year due to the popularity of a couple gay guilds in the game - a guild being a “club” of players you can contact in-game to find help on missions, trade goods, and explore the game together. It’s a cushion against the shocking big-ness of the game’s world, giving you a sense of fraternity and a place to find help.

However, news is popping up that Blizzard is starting to forbid the recruitment for “gay friendly” guilds in the game… “gay friendly” being either gay or having no problems with gays.

Is Blizzard turning an anti-discrimination policy around on us here? Check out the following story:

“Sara Andrews thought it was a big misunderstanding when she received an e-mail from a game master in Blizzard Entertainment’s popular online role playing game “World of Warcraft” citing her for “Harassment - Sexual Orientation.”

Andrews had posted that she was recruiting for a “GLBT friendly” guild in a general chat channel within the game.

Believing that her notice had been accidentally flagged, she e-mailed Blizzard to correct the problem. Blizzard, to Andrews’ surprise, upheld the decision…” […]

Play: Ryanne - narcissism: this is a document
Someone emailed me once, asking me if I thought I was going to far with my moblog… if I was overexposing myself. Up until that point, I had never really thought of it that way; I found mobile photos to be just a creative way of expressing life around me - a journal for myself, and for my friends & family.

A couple years ago, when I started moblogging (photo blogging from a phone or any mobile device), having a site like that was more unique than it is today. People love sharing, entertaining, and building communities online nowadays more than ever.

To me, vlogging (video blogging) takes ones “real life” and puts it even closer to the “online life” many people have already started making for themselves (friendster, orkut, blogs, forums, dating sites, etc). For bloggers or forum contributors that post more demonstrative information, this kind of medium is incredible. For bloggers that are artists in the creative industry, it’s alluring and challenging. For bloggers that are reporters, it’s about the best coverage you can give, and can still be update live from the road.

Ryanne is the vlogger that first held my attention, and got me started thinking about vlogs. I got a kick out of just how comfortable she felt recording and sharing things online.. some personal, some instructive, and all entertaining. And since, she’s really gotten into it. She’s part of freevlog.org, a site that tells how you can set up your own video blog easily, quickly, and best of all - for free. Ryanne has also helped create Node 101, a in-person meetingplace that helps interested people learn how to go about setting up video blogs for their own purposes. Browsing from her blogroll onto others and beyond, I’ve come across some pretty interesting characters posting you-name-it on video online. I think it’s pretty cool.

Kudos to Ryanne and her posse for blazing a trail in how we share our thoughts online, and helping them do so.

Maybe I’ll start dabbling in video.