Kenshi Yonezu "Metronome"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This song is so beautiful and strikes such a chord within me, I knew I had to sing it the first time I heard it. I hope you enjoy it too. I've also translated the lyrics into English below. Feel free to use this translation! Just please make sure to credit properly and include a link back to me ^_^

Metronome (メトロノーム)
Music, Lyrics: Kenshi Yonezu (米津玄師)  - http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm27321079
Guitar, Arrange: ビッ栗 - (http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm28104299)
*Key changed to fit my vocal range*

Vocals, Mix, Illust/Video: Kyttyee (キティ)
@kyttyee / http://www.youtube.com/KyttyeeChii

***************************************************

Were we fated to meet from the beginning, I wonder?
And that this day would come, was that fate as well?

Hopes that could never come to pass always filled our thoughts,
And we hurt each other, and tortured each other.
Simply saying “Just thinking of you,” we couldn’t even do that.
Clutching at your sleeve as you were leaving, I couldn’t do that either.
I was weak…

Whatever day it is, whatever I’m doing,
It seems I always end up searching for you.
Things I want to tell you keep filling my thoughts,
No less than they did before.
I want to hear you laugh at me again.

Everything feels so colorless without you, no matter where I go.
When I go back to where we first met, somehow, something feels different.

We must have been like two metronomes side by side,
Ticking to the same natural tempo.
But little by little, not realizing it, we fell out of sync.
With each passing moment, we drifted further apart.
And we couldn’t stop it…

From here on, where will we be going?
Will we be able to forget it all and continue living?
Whatever happiness you have found now,
I don’t want you to forget…
Because in me there will always be...

Passing each other by, with our backs toward each other,
We gradually move out of sight.
If we keep on living at the same natural tempo,
Then someday on the other side of the earth...
Might we meet again?

Whatever day it is, whatever I’m doing,
It seems I will always end up loving you.
Things I want to tell you keep filling my thoughts,
No less than they did before.
I want to hear you laugh at me again.

I wish you were here...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Collab: Love Live / lily white "Omoide Ijou ni Naritakute"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We barely got our entry done in time for the second round of the μ'sical Trio Festival chorus battle, but we did finish it in the end! We did not pass to the last round, but it was definitely a lot of fun and a lot of new things learned!

♫ Original Song Credits ♫

Song Title: 思い出以上になりたくて (Omoide Ijou ni Naritakute)
Composed by: rino
Arranged by: Sakai Yoichi
Lyrics: Hata Aki
Artist: μ’s (lily white)
Label: Lantis

Romaji lyrics used are from Love Live! Wikia (http://goo.gl/YJMi51).

♫ Cover Song Credits ♫

Singers:
Kyttyee (https://goo.gl/hinrGa)
Rosie (https://goo.gl/NS895K)
Sorachu (https://goo.gl/xi4ghN)

Tuning, Timing:
Sorachu

Timing, Mastering:
Rosie

♫ Art Credits ♫

Posing: Kyttyee (ilysm ;_;...)
Sketches, Lineart: Rosie
Color: Sorachu
Backgrounds, Memory Scenes: Kyttyee

♫ Animation Credits ♫

Kyttyee!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Outfit: Pink and Blue ~ Variations on a Theme

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Please excuse the mess as I experiment with finding a new outfit photo setup in my new apartment ^^;;

Cardigan: Cherokee

OP: Cherokee

Leggings: Bonton

Boots: Skechers

Necklace: Kumacrafts

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

          

Cardigan: Cherokee

OP: Bodyline

Shoes: Target

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

ChouCho "Yasashisa no Riyuu"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's May! This video will have to double as my March and April one because I unfortunately have not been speedy enough to keep up with the schedule I'd set for myself. That said, this song is one of my favorite J-pop songs of all time, (and the anime series it was used in is also one that I like quite a lot), so this is very special to me. I hope you all enjoy it as well!

" 優しさの理由 ~ Yasashisa no Riyuu" (The Reason for Kindness)

Lyrics: こだまさおり (Kodama Saori)

Music/Arrange: 宮崎 誠 (Miyazaki Makoto)

Original Vocals: ちょうちょ (ChouCho)

From the anime series 氷菓 (Hyouka).

~ COVER ~

Vocals/Mix: Kyttyee (http://www.youtube.com/KyttyeeChii)

Artwork/Animation: Kyttyee/Papillon de Nuit (http://www.papillondenuit.net/)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Collab : Love Live / μ's "Mi wa μ'sic no Mi"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The past month or so, I've been working together with some old friends from my groupdubbing days as a team for the μ'sical Trio Festival chorus battle. It's been really great to sing together again, and even get to put together a video for our entry!

♫ Original Song Credits ♫

Song Title: ミはμ’sicのミ (Mi wa Mu’sic no Mi)
Music: Takada Kyou
Lyrics: Hata Aki
Artist: μ’s
Label: Lantis

This song was originally created as a collaboration with Dengeki G's Magazine.

Romaji lyrics used are from Love Live! Wikia (http://goo.gl/1ayBHA).

♫ Cover Song Credits ♫

Singers:
Kyttyee (https://goo.gl/hinrGa)
Rosie (https://goo.gl/NS895K)
Sorachu (https://goo.gl/xi4ghN)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was my first time really properly animating for a chorus battle, so it's been quite a learning experience, but hopefully we can make it onto the next round and I'll be able to do a better job for that one!

If you enjoyed our video and have a School Idol Tomodachi account, please consider voting for us for fan favorite!

And if you'd like to watch the other entries in the chorus battle, you can find them on the official playlist!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Art: Winter Date with Nagisa

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The weather's already turned spring here, so I'd better post my winter art before it's actually spring! This was done for an anonymous recipient whose husbando is Hazuki Nagisa (葉月 渚) from Free! (フリー！), an anime series.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Local Geology Museum

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A few weeks ago, I went to the local geology museum. A+ had been before with his sister, but I and my visiting friend had not, so we thought it would be interesting to go see it. A+ likes looking at rocks and minerals anyways, so visiting again would still be nice ^_^

It's quite a small museum, but they manage to cover a good range of geology artifacts within the small collection. They even had a nice UV/blacklight viewing room, where you could go in and see a a wall display of rocks and minerals under normal lighting, and then press a button that would darken the entire room and cycle the display lighting through different wavelengths so you could watch different materials glow with each lighting change. I wish I had a camera that was able to really capture the display, because it's quite cool, but alas, the photos I took didn't really turn out.

The front part of the museum was full of rock and crystal displays, and was probably my favorite part. They had all sorts of shapes and colors, although the room was a bit dark so the colors were hard to capture accurately with the camera I had. My favorite were definitely the rose-form gypsum crystals.

They had a short section on geological processes and Earth's composition at various points in the geological timeline. They even had a lift-and-smell section, which was fun but a bit gross ~_~ Their fossil section featured a rather sizable cephalopod collection. They also had a small viewing window where you could watch people actually working on artifacts in their lab/office area (if you went on a day when people were in). Nobody was there because it was the weekend, but it's a cool idea to have for visiting school children!

The final exhibit in the museum was the mandatory bones and skeletons section. The collection is modest, but it's very nicely arranged and certainly nice to wander through. They had a T-Rex skull on display, although my favorite was the Glyptodon skeleton. It's so round and cute!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Outfit: Grey Day

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Cardigan: Blanc Nouveau

Skirt: Bodyline

Socks: Sockdreams

Shoes: Skechers

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Every Little Thing "Koe"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

! Happy Late Pokemon Day !

Dedicated to my grandfather

"声 ~ Koe" (Echoes)
Original by: Every Little Thing (Pokemon The Movie: White)

~ COVER ~
Vocals: Kyttyee (http://www.youtube.com/KyttyeeChii)
Artwork/Animation: Papillon de Nuit (http://www.papillondenuit.net/)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Turkey Parade

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Back at the end of autumn or beginning of  winter, I was headed on my way to run some errands when I saw a small flock of turkeys walking across the road. I know they lived around my area, and I had frequently heard them making gobbling noises during the day, but this was the first time I actually saw them in person.

I was surprised how close the birds let me get to them. I guess they are pretty accustomed to people and cars passing by them. They were actually rather quiet while I was taking photos of them, just making slight half-gobbles and peeps. I do know they can make quite a racket when they want to though!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nutcracker Reflections

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The performance DVDs and photobooks from the Nutcracker performance I was part of in December recently arrived, and reminded to me to take a moment to pause and reflect on the show. The recording and photography are really nicely done and will be an excellent souvenir of the performances, which were a lot of fun!

I performed as the Marzipan/Mirliton soloist in the second act of the show, as well as part of the Snow corps. It was a lot of work to learn and perfect the choreography, but it was definitely worth it in the end. We originally only had one performance planned, but demand for tickets was so high that we actually added a second performance!

My only regret is not having had time to get the right assortment of pointe shoes and thus had to worry about whether they would last through both performances. Fortunately, with some shellac and jet glue, it worked out ^_^

As always, ballerinas are perfectionists, and looking my dancing in the video, I'm happy that my footwork and extensions through the legs has improved greatly, but going forward, I do want to focus more on extending that energy through my upper body and arms as well, because I think that was my weak point in both pieces.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Goals for 2016

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I know it's already a month into 2016, but I have been thinking a lot about all of the things, big and small, that I want to work on or accomplish this year. I think a lot of New Year's resolutions end up fizzling out because they are often too vague or too unrealistic. Thus, in setting my goals, I chose mostly small things that I think are feasible, and limit myself to just one broad conceptual goal for this year:

Allow myself to be imperfect.

That is my theme for 2016 (and beyond, really). I am too often a perfectionist, and I feel like that holds me back from progress in improving my skills and just getting things done even if they are not 100% to my satisfaction. This year, I want to remember to allow myself to be imperfect, and to be able to finish and appreciate things that I do while still being critical of what I need to improve and learning from them. A lot of my smaller, more concrete goals are things I've wanted or hoped to do, but never actually achieved because I wouldn't allow myself to call a project finished until I thought it was perfect. Unfortunately, many of those projects have just never been finished. I would like to work on changing that this year.


And now for smaller, more specific things I would like to do in 2016:

- Explore more - Madison is such a lovely city with lots of venues both natural and urban to explore. I tend to be a bit of a shut-in if left to my own devices, and I want to push myself to venture out to places by myself more. Perhaps an expedition each month would be a good place to start!

- Send more snail mail - There's a certain charm to old-fashioned snail mail that I was reminded of over Christmas when I participated in a card exchange. I've also made a few new penpals, and I want to set a goal of writing each of them at least once a month.

- Dress up more - And take more outfit photos! Over the past year, I've stopped dressing up so much, only really putting on workout clothes to head to dance classes and rehearsals. I'd like to this year just dress up for no reason, and take pretty photos, even if I'm not planning to go anywhere special. I love wearing Lolita and the way the fashion makes me feel, and I think it would really help pick up my mood just to wear something pretty and froofy even if I'm just faffing about the house.

- Make more Youtube videos - I want to post a new video every month in 2016. Every year, I start out hoping to make more videos, but only ever sporadically finish anything I consider "good enough" to post, whether because of recording or artwork not meeting my own standards. I'd like to force myself to create and upload something every month this year, even if it's not perfect.

- Be more active in Youtube singing - In keeping with wanting to make and post more videos, I also would like to meet more people and make new friends who also enjoy singing covers of Japanese pop songs on Youtube. I used to be active in the groupdubbing community, but due to personal reasons as well as an overall decline of the community, I have become a mostly lone singer the last few years. I would like to reconnect with other online singers. To do so, I will push myself to search out and participate in chorus battles (starting with the Museical Trio Chorus Battle with some old friends from my groupdubbing days).

- Play more music - I have a lot of instruments, and am pretty good at playing at least half of them. I want to set a goal to play at least one of them for some amount of time every day this year, whether that's five minutes or a couple of hours. I love playing the piano especially, and I do miss it and want to make myself start playing more again.

- Record five acoustic covers - I'm actually trained primarily as an instrumental musician, I have no real voice training other than from choir, so it's actually a bit funny that pretty much all of my covers are just vocals (with a pre-made backing track). So, to change that, I want to make five acoustic covers this year (that's a nice round number...).

- Write a song - I have composed several pieces of instrumental music in the past, and I really enjoy it. It's something I want to push myself to do more, so I'm setting a goal of writing at least one song in 2016.


And some art-related goals for 2016:

- Share and be brave - I tend to be shy about showing people my artwork, because I consider most, if not all of it, to be mediocre at best. But in keeping with my goal of allowing myself to learn and grow while acknowledging my progress to reach where I am at the moment, I will reblog each of my own artwork posts at least once, preferably twice (this is my assignment from my good friend Jazzmoth).

- Start commissions - And in keeping with being brave, I want to set up a good commission information page, and allow myself to promote / advertise it once every 3 months this year.

- Do an Artist Alley - I have been thinking about doing an Artist Alley for quite awhile now, and I in fact have done several, but as an artisan / craftsperson rather than as an illustrator. I want to do an Artist Alley this year in which I feature some of my illustration work, even if I do still offer my small accessories for sale as well. To start modestly, I am currently thinking of trying for a table at Geek Kon because that is local to me and would be less stressful in terms of travel logistics.

- Make more art - Because I am still at a stage with my art that requires some amount of inspiration to really get good results, I am hesitant to put any hard numbers on this goal, and will let it rest as a broader overarching resolution. I would like not only to draw more overall, but to also explore different repertoire, even if I am not good at them. I want especially to learn how to retain the dynamism and spontaneity of my sketches in the polishing process for my more refined pieces.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Flavors of Sri Lanka

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We've been getting coupon packets in the mail, and decided to use one of them to explore a new restaurant in Madison. We thought it would be interesting to try out a Sri Lankan restaurant, KJ's Curry Bowl.

Most of their menu items seem to be Asian fusion cuisine type items, but I decided to try out a couple of things that they advertised as being iconic Sri Lankan dishes, because after all that's why we went there!

For a beverage, I ordered a Faluda, which is a sweet (and very pink) drink with rose syrup, jelly, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This one came with some soursop as well.

It was delicious, but very intense. I'd probably consider it a standalone dessert rather than an accompanying beverage for a meal. It was soooo good though, and was almost too pretty to drink.

As my main course, I tried the "string hopper" dish which was a mound of white rice noodles with two different curries (a dhal and a chicken curry) as well as some chutney. The noodles themselves did not taste strongly of anything other than plain rice, but they are definitely an interesting way to add bulk to a meal. The whole thing was quite delicious, and the noodles did a great job of soaking up the curries and adding a smooth starchy texture to each bite. Yummy!

The decor in the restaurant was fairly sparse, but they did have some nice wall hangings like this one.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Fairy Lights

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

While walking in the woods after sunset, I found a circle of fairy lights on a path by the lake.

Flickering, flitting in the distance

The beguiling fairy lights

Draw near and you may see

Dancing fairies

Gossamer wings

Golden pearls of dew

But draw too close

And those glimmers may hold you

Forever

Artfully arranged candles are perfect for setting a pretty atmosphere, even out in the woods. Just make sure to watch them carefully!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Duck Duck... Duck

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The lake is often full of ducks, anytime other than winter, and the area near the Terrace is no exception. Ducks often share the water with people wading in the shallow areas or just dipping their toes into the lake.

This little flock was particularly bold, as there were several children splashing around in the water nearby. I guess they've gotten used to people and maybe even approach them hoping for free food!

For brief little outings like this, I tend to keep my outfits simple, especially if I'm going to be riding my bicycle to get there.

Shirt ~ Target

Skirt ~ Bodyline

Shoes ~ Converse

And yes, I do bike in skirts and dresses! I'm always wearing shorts or bloomers underneath, so gusts of wind don't particularly worry me. Besides, who goes around watching people bike in skirts anyways... that's just weird :-P

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Reminders of Summer

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As much as I adore winter, it is still cheering to see the bright colors of summer in pictures. I took these photos while wandering the farmer's market in August, and they certainly capture the feel of summer in Madison for me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Happy New Year 2016!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To my wonderful subscribers and supporters:

Thank you so much for a great year! I hope I can continue to bring you all happiness through my music and dancing in the coming year. May 2016 be wonderful and full of joy. Happy New Year!

With Love

From: Kyttyee (and Flopper)

"Start in My Life" 

Original by: Kuraki Mai (Detective Conan)

~ COVER ~

Vocals: Kyttyee (http://www.youtube.com/KyttyeeChii)

Artwork/Animation: Kyttyee

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~