Asian pop star BoA seems to be pulling out all the stops on her latest, self-titled album BoA, an English language release planned to hit the U.S. on Tuesday, March 17, 2009. And yes, you read that right. The Korean sweetheart, BoA, 22, beloved by South Koreans, Japanese, some Chinese, and multitudes of Asians abroad, is finally setting her eyes on the distant shores of the United States.

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Being misanthropic, depressed, and constantly alienated, I do try to cheer myself up from time to time. One of the most common ways I do this is by finding some gem of a music video to drool over.

"Bye Bye Beautiful" by Nightwish, Dark Passion Play (2007)

Yes! You guessed it. Gorgeous models backed by even more gorgeous music. And I simply adore Marco Hietala, the guy who accompanies Anette Olzon in the duet, even despite his, uh, double goatee (is that a double goatee?). Such a sexy voice. And speaking of sexy, see that punk rocker-esque keyboard player with the black eyeliner? I realized (just yesterday) that he was the composer/lyricist/mastermind/genius Tuomas Holopainen himself. I seriously had no idea he was that dashing in real life.

"Amaranth" by Nightwish, Dark Passion Play (2007)

THE quintessential rock video. Really pop in disguise, despite the heavy riffing, but I'm not complaining. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.

As an aside, Dark Passion Play is the first of Nightwish's studio albums to feature their new vocalist, Anette Olzon of Sweden. Her predecessor, Tarja Turunen, was fired in an open letter in 2005. The majority of fans are still divided about the move, and I myself think the rest of the band's demeanor towards her was uncalled for. ("Bye Bye Beautiful": "Did you ever hear what I told you? / Did you ever read what I wrote you?" It's really a spiteful farewell song to Tarja.) However, though I greatly miss Tarja's operatic vocals (after all, classical singing can't be beat), I'm gradually warming up to a Tarja-less Nightwish. In the long run, it probably was the right decision, given that they were moving away from classical vocals anyway. And if they keep producing euro-metal gold like "Bye Bye Beautiful" and "Amaranth"… well, then, I'm OK.

"The Islander" by Nightwish, Dark Passion Play (2007)

Beautiful folk ballad. One of the most haunting and visually arresting works of fine video.

And that concludes your musical update from Jenny-fa.

I like to check up on the status of my favorite (and not so favorite) musicians from time to time. This morning I decided to peruse some of Gackt's newest releases on YouTube. After flipping through the "Returner" and "Jesus" music videos (ho-hum, booooooring), I came across the PV for his newest single, slated for release later this month on January 28. It was an electronic piece called "Ghost."

Did you see it? DID YOU SEE IT? GACKT AND TERMINATORS!!! Gackt and scenes spliced from the very first season of the best show of all time, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! GACKT AND TERMINATORS!!! GACKT WITH FLASHING RED EYES!!! JUST TELL ME YOU'RE BLOWN AWAY BY THAT!!!

Anyway, the part of my brain that wasn't going haywire over this unforeseen development was wondering whether "Ghost" was an image or soundtrack song for the show in Japan. Now, I would digress even further except that another annoying, more persistent voice in my head is chiding me for neglecting to study for this test and for not working on that big essay due Friday. Damn school. Is a measly snow day too much to ask?

Update (10:48 pm): Finally! Vindication! Those administrators saw some sense at last! Now to get cracking on that CSS Profile thing…

It's hard to believe, but there's only seven days left until Barack Obama's inauguration. And with only seven days remaining of George W. Bush's stay in the White House, I have to admit… I feel a little sorry for him. He's an idiot, of course. But a well-intentioned one. These articles pretty much sum it up.

In other news, monster snow storms are sweeping across this part of the U.S. (if there isn't a snow day tomorrow, I'll club someone), and I have officially received two college acceptance letters. One of them has already invited me into their honors program. I'm still waiting on the other one.

Your hot dance/homosexuality-themed video pick of the day:

What? I like girl-on-girl action.

Wait… actually, that guy-on-guy thing was hotter.

Midterm exams next week. Test on calculus tomorrow (assuming no snow day, of course). And a whole lotta odious volunteer work to be worked on over the weekend. Gah.

Update (1/15/09): I'm going to club someone.

Gackt-sama! So beautiful… so elegant… I'm simply overcome with admiration…

(Please note: Normally I would sooner stab a fork into my forehead than follow the idiotic masses in the Web 2.0 revolution and embed a YouTube video into any of my Web pages, but I realize people are lazy and would be less likely to follow an external link… so here it is! Gackt's god-like music video for "Vanilla.")

A subtitled version of the video can also be accessed here, but since "Vanilla" is really a pure sex song (but one of my favorites regardless), I should warn you… the lyrics are… you know…

Other than that, my summer vacation is proceeding along quite splendidly.