Hiya there!
Or as I might have said in an intro to a video when I was 12:
Hey chaps, it's me again!
rare footage of me a youngster. how strange...
For some reason, that's how I chose to start all my old videos, which is a piece of information I remember off the top of my head because I went through and rewatched a bunch of those old videos!
Man, they suck!
Oddly enough, though, the ones that have aged the best are the ones I made when I was like 12. I made 3 of these fast food review videos where I just tried to be as gross as possible (my love for gross out humor is eternal), and they might unironically be the funniest thing I've created in my whole life?
There's this part in the one where I eat an Egg McMuffin where a piece of egg falls out of my mouth and falls perfectly on the camera lens, and it's just like- these 3 videos are accidentally funnier than any joke I've ever purposefully made, and that does kinda bother me?
it's so fuckin gross dude- the comedic timing is literally perfect though. good job child!
Anyways- the ones that make me really cringe to look back on are the first Christmas video, and Stewie update, mostly because of the editing. There are so many moments where it's like-
"Why did you keep that in. Why haven't you cut yet? Why is the BGM so loud? How did you think any of this was ok???"
The one editing thing in Stewie update that has held up pretty well is the ending credits part (even if it does show my dead name. Oh, well). Watching those old videos was a pretty fun trip down memory lane, though! Even if the trip did hold some sobering realizations about how shitty of a video editor I used to be.
The reason I decided to rewatch my old videos is because I'm always back and forth on whether I wanna continue making videos or not. On one hand, I still like editing and writing jokes and being on camera, so I wanna channel that into something, but on the other hand I don't know how to channel that into something original.
Like- my video essays were super obvious Scott the Woz clones, and looking back it bothers me how derivative they were because I know I have the ability to make something more original if I really try. So now I'm like- maybe I should try making videos with similar subjects but go totally balls to the wall with the crazy and surreal stuff, because those moments where I went totally bonkers are the moments that have aged the best from those old videos of mine.
definitely one of my favorite moments from my short stint making video essays. he consumed a horrific amount of pizza in a singular bite several times to make sure we got the shot perfect. I salute you!
I dunno!
I hate the idea of just quitting making videos forever because there's still so much stuff I wanna make, but it's hard, man. Finding an identity is tricky!
YouTube related crises aside though- I've been working a new cover, and I'm gonna share that WIP right in this here blog post! Wow, look at you, getting your very own piece of EXCLUSIVE content! Arino4u dot com SLASH blog sure does come packed CONTENT piping hot n' ready for CONSUMPTION.
TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PIPING HOT CONTENT.
Anywho- here's the sneak peek!
Did you like it? I hope so...
So yeah! As you might have noticed (if you're cool), it's an English cover of Jikan Ga Nai, probably Kirinji's most famous song in the west? As I recall, an unofficial upload of Its music video got thrown into everyone's YouTube algorithm a few years back, so it got this surge of popularity outta nowhere (don't quote me on that).
From my interactions with the western Kirinji fanbase (a tragically small group of very cool people), the era of Kirinji that Jikan Ga Nai comes from is the least popular? It seems like generally people prefer the early style of Kirinji, which is a lot more folk music sounding, over the 2010s era, which is more comparable to synthpop.
While I do agree that their original run was peak, I still think they put out a lot of good music during the 2010s era. I really love Zatsumu, After The Party, and of course Jikan Ga Nai, and all 3 of those came out during the 2010s era! But I digress...
I should probably start talking about my cover now, huh?
As I said before, this is still heavily WIP. I wanna change some of the lyrics, I need to figure out some of the harmonies, and there's a couple iffy notes I wanna rerecord, but overall I think this is sounding really, really nice!
My singing voice has gotten so much better over the past year, and so has my ability to mix audio. Like- the harmonies are actually mixed into vocals in a way that compliments them, instead of just being thrown underneath and lowered to like a quarter volume.
I think with my vocals themselves, though I've definitely improved a lot, I still need to get better about hitting the really high notes in a way that doesn't make me strain. I think when I'm singing, I have this mindset that I should only go into falsetto if absolutely 100% necessary- like it's some kind of emergency tactic for hitting notes too high for my chest voice, but the thing is, falsetto is fine! I need to understand that falsetto is fine and sounds good, and definitely sounds more pleasant than me straining really hard to hit a note that is out of my range.
I'm just not super confident in my falsetto tbh, it sounds kinda forced. Like you can hear near the beginning of the song when it goes "season's running through the window", that I layered in the harmonies pretty loud because I kinda wanted to distract from my falsetto. There's just a weird quality to it- like it sounds tight and forced, like I'm contracting my larynx too much or something.
Overall though, I'm proud of this cover so far! And all the issues I'm pointing out are things I can work on as I continue work on the rest of the song.
So now I've covered a song from modern day Kirinji (well- I still need to finish it, but you know), I've covered a song from 2010s era Kirinji. All that's left now is to cover a song from their best era! The era where it was still both of the Horigome brothers! (for context: Kirinji was formed by two brothers, and then one of them left in 2013).
...It's gonna be Ame Wo Mikubiruna-
Like- I literally decided I was gonna cover Ame Wo Mikubiruna before I ever even started making song covers.
Anywho- thanks for listening to me ramble about music and stuff! I don't really have an outlet to talk about this stuff (because I respect my family and friends enough not to regale them with the details of Shibuya Kei bands), so it was nice to ramble about this!
Maybe I'll do it more often...
Idk, if I choose to not be lazy, perhaps I'll do a list of my favorite Kirinji songs! Could be fun!
(I'm listening to Ame Wo Mikubiruna rn. Could you imagine how crazy it'd be if that wasn't number one? Mannnn... tune in on undecided future day and see what happens!)
I guess my parting words for you are uhhh- man, just be nicer to yourself!
If you're anything like me than you often bash yourself for not doing more or not being better at the stuff you are doing, but the fact that you're good at anything is really cool. Just for navigating life and still finding the time and motivation to do the stuff we love, I think we're plenty cool!
Thank you, and goodnight!!
Posted 3/29/2024
