Dum Spiro Spero Budokan 12 Hour Special

Last night I stayed up to watch a timeshifted program on Nico; the Dum Spiro Spero Budokan 12 Hour Special http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv171251359?fb_action_ids=812457488768556&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582.  Because Dir en grey were performing at Budokan on March 8-9, Nico decided to use this time to broadcast recent interviews and old concerts. I was disappointed because I was hoping to see some new stuff, but I guess all the new stuff will be on their new DVD which I have absolutely no money to buy. They slipped in some PVs towards the last 2 hours of the broadcast which I can easily find on Youtube. Since there was 12 hours of material to watch, I skipped through a lot of stuff and there seriously was a lot of stuff to skip.

1. Any promotions of any sort. You can find them on the direngreyweb channel on Youtube.
2. Boo x Dir en grey interviews. Sorry, but I do not speak the language and it would be pointless for me to sit through an interview that I do not understand. Translations however are available on various sites. I recommend the Dir en grey translation site, Orchestrated Chaos.
3. PVs of any sort.
4. The 20 minute intermissions.

These things add up and in the end I had less than 12 hours to deal with. What I did watch was back stage recordings of a 2006 concert overseas, I'm not too sure where, some parts of the German concert, the Paris concert, House of Blues concert, some footage from the November 2013 US tour, and most of the 2010 Nippon Budokan Uroboros concert. People uploaded material from these appearances, but Nico streamed it quite nicely with no pauses so I found it worth watching. The band as a whole put on quite a performance. Uroboros is my favorite album by them. Kyo's vocals are very impressive. For the fans that attended their performances, I'm sure they were very clear how impressive it sounded.

Nico didn't disappoint me too much I guess. I felt a little cheated, but what do you really expect. The broadcast is free and I'm on a website whose language I barely know. It's a miracle how I even managed to make an account. At least now I know Dir en grey will be releasing a new album November 2014. Because I went to visit their official website and see that they changed their layout.  I thought to myself good, I didn't like the design from the previous one.  But once I reached their profile page, I was pissed. Any good designer of any sort, digital or analog, would know that to squish images just to fit into a particular dimension is a crime. Like seriously in the professional design world, you oughta be ashamed. You NEVER stretch images.

The top image has been stretched vertically slightly and the bottom images have been squished vertically.

I just couldn't believe that they couldn't get a better web designer.  Like even I could make this and I'm a terrible art student yet I am able to pick out these things. I don't know if they had several people working on different pages of the site or if no one oversaw the entire site.  Like that gallery page was not too effective. Instead of clicking images, they should have started using slideshows which saves times and is more efficient in space. The overall feel I can argue is very clean and corporate, but it's not Dir en grey.

Kamijo recently posted a lot of pictures on his facebook and twitter from an in store promotion event ever since he released Symphony of the Vampire. I have to admit, he is a very pretty guy with makeup and without makeup.  https://twitter.com/KamijoOfficial/status/442194122149883904/photo/1

Galneryus is currently recording music in the studio! Syu gave updates on the band's progress including a snippet of audio earlier during the week and a one minute video clip of Jun-ichi and Syu saying hi basically. I can't wait for their new work and I would really like some new material.