cantsleepwontsleep

CantSleepWontSleep on Tumblr !!

velvetkitsune — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 23:50:54 +0000

Hey all! and my new viewers~~
Sorry I haven’t written for a while. I have been so caught up with school (Art Institute in Vancouver) for Fashion Marketing. Busy with assignments, projects, readings, and new friends…

I may have been neglecting this blog, but I have been posting pretty consistently on my Tumblr page. So check it out! And if you haven’t explore Tumblr yet, take a browse.

It’s a site where you are able to post photos, music, videos, silly chats, quotes, and notes in a very easy way. There’s also lay-outs available for you to customize your personal page.

So on that note…. check out http://cantsleepwontsleep.tumblr.com/ if you miss my ramblings and links.

~~ many XO’s and happy days my friends~~

Latenight Jukebox ~ Must-Get-Albums!! FlorenceandtheMachine, BloodyBeetroots, GraceandtheNoc, CloudBusey, DeptofEagles

velvetkitsune — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:51:25 +0000

Hello hello~

I’m sorry for not posting the other night, saying that I would… but not going to lie, I passed out on my bed watching Natural Born Killers. Not that it’s boring, because (if you know me) it is my favourite movie! Anyways, I won’t talk too much in this post because I’ve been doing a lot of that today. Went to Art Institute for my first day, and realized, I NEED MO MUSICCCC!!!!!

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I’d like to start with some albums I’ve been listening to recently, testing out whether they are worthy of posting for your enjoyment. These are the fantastic new albums I came to love. It may take you a few listens per, but trust me. You’ll love them too.
And I suggest you look for the songs on youtube if you don’t trust me

The Octopus Project – Hexadecagon
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – self-titled
The Drums – The Drums
Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher
School of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire
Brandon Flowers – Flamingo
Bob Sinclair – Remixed
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Dandelions
Kaskade – Dynasty
Deadmau5 – It Sounds Like
Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
Emancipator – Safe in the Steep Cliffs
Portugal the Man – The Satanic Satanist

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First off, a whole-lotta remixes for one of my favourites
Ten Great Florence and the Machine Remixes + Mash Ups
(via salacioussounds)

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I love Bloody Beetroots, and them combined witth Groove Armada’s track makes me salivate…mmm~
Groove Armada – I Won’t Kneel (Bloody Beetroots Remix)
(via dailybeatz)

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This is one of my new favourite bands – cutesy bluesy
Grace and the Nocturnals – Medicine
(via largeheartedboy)

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Dreamlikestate, epic instrumentals, chilling high-pitch vocals. Very maternal
School of Seven Bells – Heart is Strange (Active Child Remix)
(via bowlegsmusic)

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Chill, crystal glass-like xylophones, relaxing vocals
Cloud Busey – Pound Your Town to Hell
(via guierolitomusic)

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Last but not least, a recognizable voice and dreamy state you recall
If you entrust me with these track recommendations, I suggest you download this album~
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
(via quietcolor)

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Alright, that’s enough for me. Was it for you? I’d love some feedback, what types songs you enjoy, what types of songs you loathe, what types of songs you’d like to see… This would be most most appreciated! Thank you all so much for all your support as always. And I will try my hardest to keep the jukeboxes coming while I go to school.

Love and Peace
Always

Summer’s Not Over Yet

velvetkitsune — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:14:31 +0000

After coming back from the backpacking trip and then to Japan, I realized that I am so used to meditating in silence…without electronics…without distractions… I Had No More Music! I got my new iPod Nano, loaded up the usual albums… and realized that I had nothing special, nothing that made me want to strut along Shinjuku, or a theme song to me standing in the rush hour train at night. I need music. And I found some, to share with you. So enjoy the long anticipated Late Night Jukebox. And thank you to those who requested this since a few months ago. My apologies. But I’m back! I’ll try to keep it going while I’m in school.

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This song was voted best by DJ Jazzy Jeff in a competition
Scanners -Baby Blue (The Chaotic Good Remix)
album out at the end of this month!
(via dailybeats)

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Foals – This Orient (Silver Columns Remix)
I really enjoyed the intro to this song. You really have to listen to it with a higher volume to hear the little sounds of synths. Good song to wander downtown.

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Esben and the Witch – About This Peninsula
This band opened for the Foals. I’d say they have a haunting feel like The XX but with more electronics and synth. I loved the lyrics.
(via dailybeats)

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Telefon Tel Aviv – Map of What is Effortless (stream only)
It is off the Fahrenheit Fair Enough album, in case you are wondering.
This is my favourite song out of the entire Jukebox so far today. It’s so relaxing, thoughtful, tragic feeling yet hopeful…
absolutely beautiful track.
(via indieshuffle)

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12th Planet & Skrillex – Father Said
Warning: this is a louder, powerful dubstep track!! lol
I really love the background of the song, but the vocals are quite intense in comparison…so I am iffy about this one, wondering what people think of it. I love it nonetheless, and it is growing on me.
(via VACAYvitamis)

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I’m sorry I couldn’t post very verbally, or post thoughtfully… a little burnt out at the moment :p I have a bunch saved for tonight’s Latenight Jukebox. Stay tuned~~~

Peace & Love.

Fever, Rediscovering nostalic bands, Birthday Shoutout to Johnny~~

velvetkitsune — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:53:24 +0000

I’m sitting at home today, hibernating, having forgotten how cold Vancouver gets after the beautiful, warm summer. I also have a fever of 103 degrees fahrenheit… So I sit back in bed, surrounded by pillows, cushions, and blankets.
It’s nice to rediscover nostalgic bands, and also to see that some of them have come out with new albums. So I present you with a list of my latest downloads (not in any particular order)!

- Cat Power ~ discography
- Brandon Flowers ~ Flamingo
- Zero 7 ~ When It Fall; Simple Things
- Massive Attack ~ Heligoland
- Emancipator ~ Safe In The Steep Cliffs
- Dub Pistols ~ Rum and Coke
- Nujabes ~ discography
- Gnarls Barkley ~ St. Elsewhere
- Florence and the Machine ~ Lungs
- Led Zeppelin ~ Best Of
- Dead Mans Bones ~ Dead Mans Bones
- Department of Eagles ~ In Ear Park
- Au Revoir Simone ~ discography
- How To Dress Well ~ Love Remains
- John Frusciante ~ Shadows Collide with People; The Empyrean
- Wakey Wakey ~ Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said the Last Time I Saw You
- MGMT ~ Oracular Spectacular
- Radiohead ~ discography
- Chromeo ~ Business Casual
- The Concretes ~ Hey Trouble

If I feel up to it later, I will do an edition of my Latenight Jukebox, which I have not done in months (waaayyy before the backpacking trip to Santa Cruz!)!! Alright, so until next time!

Oh, and a happy birthday shout-out to Johnny!!! Happy 23rd!! Welcome to the big 2-3 club!! I wish I could go to your party tomorrow, but I’d be like a fat old virus walking into the Old Spaghetti Factory. Lots of love my friend!

Early Acceptance, Art Institute, ICS College of Art and Design & leaving Japan

velvetkitsune — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:19:56 +0000

It was a very hectic month in Japan – traveling from city to city, scoping out colleges and design institutes, seeing old friends, and apartment/house hunting… I have not caught a little baby cold minus the unattractive sneezing and coughing (thank goodness). Japan is still in summer mode, the nasty humid temperature averaging at 33 degrees celsius (88 degrees fahrenheit). The shopping stores/department stores have now been filled with autumn campaigns and clothes, but it is still too too hot to wear those jackets and leg warmers – I feel stuffy just thinking about them.

Last night my parents and I + brother went out to dinner for shabu shabu (japanese hot pot) then met up with his best friends to go karaoke-ing. They were just as I imagined, sweet, well-mannered Japanese guys from the countryside. They sang their drunken j-pop anthems, and my mom and I sang our usual set list, and of course, my dad sitting on the sidelines laughing after every hilarious outburst my brother and his friends sang. We had so much fun, watching them gulp down their shots of sake, drinking beer, acting goofy. My mom and I sat pretty singing girly, nostalgic songs. My dad drinking his glasses of beer being oh-so-Japanese. That was our last night with my brother until we see him again in February.

I’ll be back in February to look for an apartment close to ICS College of Art and Design. I am absolutely thrilled to have come across this school, which has been my dream school for a couple years. I told my dad I wanted to apply there but he said that I needed to finish my bachelors degree first, then I can go wherever I please. I could not stand Seattle University, not being able to find the right professors, the right friends, the right…well, anything. I became best friends with the art museum and the library, but that was about it. So, my dad told me that I need to get a degree in something, so I told him fashion business or interior design. We found out that ICS offers the bachelors degree after 3 years in Interior Architecture and Design, then take the level 2 architecture liscence (meaning, I get to build a 3 story building + interior design blueprinting). In my fourth year, I am able to go to Nottingham Trent University in London for my Masters degree. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. I am thrilled, pumped, and ready.

The program (or any school for that matter) doesn’t start until April. So until then, I planned to take a bunch of art classes at Art Institute in Vancouver for Fashion Marketing and Design. I am considering taking that quarter in Interior Design, but I still need to talk to my admissions advisor. I hope that these classes for fall will help me build confidence in drawing, as interior design consists of a lot of drawing, and hands-on projects.

You all may be thinking, “Whatever happened to fashion marketing?!” Well, it’s still in the back of my mind for future projects. I still plan on opening my own fashion boutique later on. Interior design/architecture has always been one of my true loves because since a young age, I was forced to follow along on real estate journies with my parents. I have “the eye” as my parents say, for fashion, for style, for lay-outs. But I have never been confident with math. That was a major reason why I gave up on interior/architectural studies. Nonetheless, I was always thinking of concepts and lay-outs of apartments, stores, and buildings. All the teachers at ICS told me that that is a smaller part in the design program, it is more hands-on, more creative-thinking. And that made my mind do a 360 – my dream has come true!

So although I have gotten my early acceptance to Mode Fashion Institute, Esmode Fashion Institute, Bunka Fashion Institute, Art Institute in Vancouver… I await that little white envelope that slips into our mailbox in Vancouver. I have been told that I have already been accepted into ICS, but I want to see that paper that says “Welcome Future Student!”

I feel elated… absolutely electrified. I am so excited for drawing classes. I am looking forward to being with all my friends and brother in Tokyo. I am swept off my feet, overwhelmed, and exhausted. I can’t wait. Can’t wait!!

Tomorrow evening we leave Tokyo. We arrive in Vancouver around noon on Wednesday. (Don’t forget, I’m 13 hours ahead of you!) I’m looking forward to seeing Jojo (our pup), then going to Art Institute to finalize my acceptance… then taking a long snoooooooze to shake off the jetlag I will have. So, I shall see you all soon on the flip side.

Peace & Love

ૐ Namaste ૐ

velvetkitsune — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:20:06 +0000

” The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. ” ~ Buddha

My parents and I just returned for another week in Tokyo. We spent time in Shin-Yokohama, Atami, and Kamakura. I had the opportunity to wander around some Buddhist temples that I had been dreaming of seeing. The photo above is at Kenchyakuji a little outside of Kamakura in Hase. I went inside the 11.35 metre Buddha for 20 yen, where in history, people found the skull of Buddha. It was absolutely majestic. I dream of that extremely hot day till this day, where I sat in front of the busy steps, meditating. Although it was very difficult to quiet my mind in the midst of the yelling children, talkative parents, and clicking of cameras, I felt the power, the ki of the Buddha. And I could hear my mantra, repeating over and over, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.” – Buddha. I hope to awaken to another beautiful day.

Love, Love, and Love

velvetkitsune — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:33:59 +0000

What is Love?
Is it an intuition? Infatuation? A life-changing feeling?
A lie? A getaway? An escape from reality?

I have been thinking about the false feeling of Love that I have felt in the past. The envy I feel when I see young couples in Love, especially the older couples who have had lasting Love. I have been surrounded by traditional morals and values of Love and Life, but never a real romantic sense of Love.

There have been guys in my life who have shared Love, but I had fallen out of what I thought was Love. I had been fooled, been betrayed, and I had been the one to fool and betray. I learned after being taken advantage of, that you get what you deserve – Karma. It both comes and goes, and you take it as you wish.

I have grown close again with one of my old flames, who I had fallen very deeply in Love with in the past. He is a very great friend of mine, one who I would consider as my one and only best friend. And I had hurt him very much. There was a romantic Love that I had felt previously, years ago, and since falling out, I began to understand what friendship Love is.

the maternal Love to my lil brother

It is possible to share different types of Love with many people. Which is why you have heard the term, “Share the Love”; “One Love”; “Love Always”, etc. Love is a feeling that should be shared with as many people as possible. This is something that is very new to me…

I just realized that as I write this, my heart beats fast. I’m not sure why. Maybe Love makes me nervous. Maybe thinking of old flames makes me anxious. Maybe my thoughts overwhelm me. Either way, I think deep, hard… not knowing where to go next. But I do know that I am not ready to feel any romantic Love for anyone, because I am not sure if I even believe in it anymore. But it is fact that Love should be shared with all whom I feel close to – Because friends are forever. And family is forever. And as my heart races faster, I close my laptop to this confusing manifesto.

i found this rock on the beach, and i brought it home

Signing off,

Mayu

Japan Trip 2010 ~ Day 11

velvetkitsune — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:57:05 +0000

My parents and I took the 12:50p flight out from Vancouver, BC to Tokyo, Japan. My dad wrote out the itinerary for the trip, and from that day, I knew how exhausted we would be by the end of the first week. We have a jam-packed agenda to scope out design schools, houses, apartments, eat delicious food, and to meet up with old friends.

After my 4 month backpacking trip from Vancouver, BC down South to Santa Cruz, California, I decided that I need to finish up school. My dad finally agreed that there is nothing else to study but fashion; and fashion business and design is what I have always dreamed of. So, we started researching, and my dad booked us a flight to Japan. We decided on checking out one local school at home (Art Institute of Vancouver for Fashion Design), my brother’s culinary school (Tsuji Culinary Institute for Pattassier), and of course the schools of my choice (Bunka Design School, Vantan Design Institute, Kyoto Zokei Design School, ICS for Interior Design, and Mode Design Institute).

I have dreamed of this moment since I was a little girl. My father wanted me to get my undergraduate degree, then receive a specialized degree/certificate. I jumped around from school to school, not knowing what to do with myself, losing track of myself, and ended up dropping out of Seattle University to go backpacking. On my trip, I meditated, got a sense of myself, became a stronger person – then at the end of summer, heading back home with the motivation to become something bigger than just a housewife/mother one day. I want to be a big time fashion designer/entrepreneur. I want my own boutique with imported clothes, jewellery, and everything else that will sell. I want to become a business woman – and my parents knew that I would become something big since I was a child. So here we are, in Kamakura, Japan – retreating for two days, talking things over, dipping into the hot springs, looking at beautiful homes, and relaxing.

This trip so far has been absolutely amazing, relaxing but exhausting, and feeling like myself more than ever. I feel great. I feel happy. And I feel motivated, inspired, gracious. I feel thankful. There is no where else I’d rather be, but to be back with my family. Our family together in Japan for the first time in six or seven years. Since my grandmother passed… Memories flood, and I feel overwhelmed with happiness and contentment. I hope that I get accepted into my school of choice, Vantan (exam on September 19, 2010).
And I hope to celebrate that night with my friends IF I get accepted. Wish me luck.

Japan Trip 2010 (New Banner up too! by Naomi)

velvetkitsune — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:49:42 +0000

Hey all,

I’m in Tokyo right now, typing at 4:45am, of course. This blog wouldn’t be legit if I wasn’t really an insomniac.

It’s pretty hot here, ranging around 35 degrees celcius. The humidity is just slap-in-the-face-hot. I can’t help but drink the delicious cold beverages that they sell here – so tasty and satisfying. I’d gain so much weight if I were to live here.

We are going to be touring fashion business colleges here too – which is why I say the comment about gaining weight. Anyways, that’s besides the point. I am excited because the fashion here is so ahead of times – the European designers love Japan because of the funky, colourful, unbashful styles people are able to pull off here. Mode Gakkou is the one I want to be accepted to – wish me luck!!

Okay, so I just wanted to let ya’ll know, and now, I think I will try to sleep… round two…. annnd GO!

Peace and Love, always.

I’m Baaaaaccckkkk

velvetkitsune — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:41:15 +0000

Hey all,

Thank you for those who have been checking up, those who have been catching up, and those who are new. Herro~~

I got a new Macbook (with the 16GB nano, of course its purple) so I’m ready to start blogging again. I just got back from a 4 month backpacking trip from Vancouver, BC to Santa Cruz, Cali. It was hot, hott, and spent many unforgettable days.

This insomniac has only become a MEGA-insomniac, averaging at 4 hours of sleep a night – brutality, yes.

So, tonight, there will be a fantastic and jam-packed edition of…. (we’ll leave it at that for now)

Love and Peace,

May