Le Pringtemps Érable

The Student Protest of Quebec in 2012 started in February 13^th in objection to the raise of university tuition proposed by the Executive Council of Quebec. The fees for university were to be raised from 2’168$ to 3’793$ over five years, from 2012 to 2017. This means an increase in tuition fees of 75%. Considering that I will be starting university this autumn, until 2016, this raise would have deeply affected me.

On September 4^th 2012, Pauline Marois was elected, being the first female prime minister of Quebec. On September 8^th, the protest comes to an end and on the 20^th, the raise is cancelled. Although, it came back later, reduced to a few % each year.

Although I wasn’t sure at the time whether I’ll go to university or not, I was against the raise. Every time a general meeting took place, that was almost every Tuesday, I would go and vote red, for the student protest to keep going and opposing the increase in tuition fees. Yet, everyday there was more and more student voting against the protest. Those were the green guys; they wanted to stop protesting in order to go back to their studies. Of course most of them were graduates.

This began some hostilities between students who were against the raise and those against the protest. Honestly I didn’t like their arguments during the meetings. The reds kept repeating the same ideas (in different words) each week and the greens had no argument other than bashing the reds’ way or saying that “It’s been long enough”. Still, one of them made a point saying that missing a whole year mean much more when you were a graduate and that they would miss their chance to get to university next autumn.

After a while, I didn’t really care about how it would end anymore and when I went to the meetings I started to refrain from voting. Mid-April, the protest stopped in Rimouski and we returned to class. After a month of not going to school, it was a pretty hard wake-up call, but I managed to get back on track. At least the protest was not for naught, with Pauline Marois being elected and at least easing the raise. Though I still think that those who are still asking for free education and asking for way too much.

One of the world's best bassists

Just realised that one of my two favorite bassists appears on a top 10 list of the best bassists in the world.
Though I slightly doubt the legitimacy of this poll (no Victor Wooten to be found, what the hell!? More like: 'top 10 most popular bassist'), but the website still seems legit, which makes me feel proud for him. Of course, he got many votes from fangirls who only like his appearance, but he scored many points for his headbanging and screaming awesomeness, as well as his beautiful bass solos.

In addition, he's my motivation for playing bass. It's because of Reita if I bursted into the Metronomie music shop at my town and bought my first bass, without any musical knowledge or skill whatsoever. I remember my first few months of learning to play the bass, when I tried lowering my strap so I could play it just like him. I could play pretty accurately with a pick, if slowly, but the angle was too pronounced and I couldn't even pluck a single string since my wrist couldn't bend enough, so I had to adapt to a new pick-handling technique similar to Reita's which I still use now. Also, lowering the strap meant sharper angle for my fretting hand too, so it wasn't comfortable at first. It took me about a week to get used to this new playing method.
So anyway, I'm happy he is known by many around the world as a great bassist. I'm also impressed that even though the GazettE never toured outside of Japan, they are pretty well known.
 I mentioned I had antother bassist I admire, I'll cover him in anoter blog post.

Dear Santa...

Yes I know it's too early but I just found out about this. It's a website where you can order Visual Kei stuff, and I found things from the GazettE!! :3

First, the picks and signature/imitation guitars are on sale on http://japan-discoveries.com !!!
I've always wanted Reita's bass, and his RF's imitation is only for 60'000yens (while his signature is 400'000Y) which means it's about 800$. But I guess I'll have to buy a good amp, a F-154DX, and much more stuff before that!

Anyway, what I'm certainly gonna buy are the picks and scorebooks
http://japan-discoveries.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&categories_id=23&keyword=gazette&x=0&y=0

I especialy want Aoi's for the arts, though I don't think they're .73mm and Reita's look a tad too triangular to me.
But I want the scorebooks SO BAD. I've always wanted to learn the proper basslines since I suck at learning by ear (and it's especially hard for basslines). Also, I've talked about some people about forming a GazettE coverband!

There are the scorebooks for Dai Nihon Itan Geisha teki..., NIL, Stacked Rubbish and DIM. 
I'm getting way too exited just for scorebooks, but it's something I've wanted to have for so long now! And on top of that, it'll allow me to practice reading music notations, since I don't read a lot of music. All I need to find now is NEGA's scorebooks :3

So yeah no social life this winter.

Justice for the hippies

So, let’s talk about the Occupy movement, that protest movement speaking against the social and economic inequalities. Here, the people speak against the rich, saying that the system is based on finances and power, which favors the greed of the few, to the dismay of the many in need. It’s the 99% rising up against the mighty 1%, and you’re part of that 99%.

This is a global day of actions for our rights as citizen. Our freedom is at stake, and we all need to unite and rise up against the corrupted government that finances the greedy and wars. Now’s the time to claim our rights promised in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are the 99%, we won’t let this happen.

Or so that’s what they pretend to be defending, the protestors aren’t all fighting the good fight in there. Most occupiers don’t even know exactly what they’re protesting about, and there have been cases of drug consumption leading to overdoses and death, and even sexual harassments.  For example, 23-year-old Ashlie Gough of Victoria, who died of an overdose in Vancouver. What kind of a protest is that? Hippies following a random protest to justify their personal beliefs and needs?

While most of them are surely fighting the good fight in there, some others are mainly opportunists, or just randoms who go with the flow and don't stand up for themselves.

Anyway, of course there are a majority who fights for the real justice in there, but still, everyone has their own point of view in the matter. (Mine is, damn hippies  arguing 'bout "Hurr-durr we're 99% we's so opressed, tax the rich!")

How to play guitar like a boss

If you're learning how to play guitar, the most important thing to acquire first is accuracy, and with accuracy, the speed will come very easily.

And when I say slowly, I mean real slow, starting at 60bpm, and then making your way up to double the speed of the original line you're playing (but not if you can't play it without timing issues). You need to be able to play it flawlessly first, maybe whitout even looking at the fretboard.
Then, when you think you mastered it at 60bpm, (to the point were you don't make any effort playing it and it's almost natural) start rising the bpm for every 1 to 5 minutes you play the line. Whenever you feel tension while playing at a certain bpm, that means it's the fastest you can play accurately. When that happens, you should stick to a lower bpm for some time, and try it again later. It's that simple, you just need a lot of patience, since it might take 2 days to learn a single line perfectly.

I found another blog post about this, here's the link: http://lorinator.feminoise.com/the-real-secret-to-playing-fast/

What is Visual Kei?

Basically, Visual Kei is a japanese underground musical genre that focuses on the visual aspect as well as the musical one which has originated with the band X Japan. Visual Kei artists are recognized by their extravagant hair, clothings and their dark lyrics which are full of figure of speech of any kind. The goal is to look like a japanese manga character, and to provide deep songs with meanings (which in my opinion isn't what we have here in North America). Also, most musicians in VK are androgynous, which means you will ask yourself many times "Is that a girl or a guy?" And it caused emo and scene fashion to other countries. There are also sub-genre of Visual Kei like Oshare Kei, which is a happier themed genre, but let's just stay on topic. It's kind of like the Idol culture in Japan; Most people, especially teens, need a model, which should represent what (physical) perfection is, and make them strive to achieve their goal and become perfect too, Except that this is Jrock and not Jpop. Also, since it is japanese metal/rock, headbanging and screaming is common in Visual Kei.

A band I could show as an example is the GazettE. Even though nowadays they've become more americanized and mainstream, they are one of the greatest VK bands in Japan. They formed in 2002, at this time, they were Ruki on voccals, Yune on drums, Uruha on lead guitar, Aoi on rhythm guitar and Reita on bass. In early 2003, Kai replaces Yune as the band's drummer and shortly after, they sign with the Peace and Smile Company. I would say that from 2004 to 2009 was they best, once they made their album called DIM, they started being more mainstream, tough remaining visual. I personally don't really like their new album, TOXIC, they changed SO MUCH. Not just their style, but the rhythm is not Jrock anymore, it's much like American metal plus dubstep.

Visual Kei is mostly depicted as a dark and stylish japanese metal with gothic clothing and colorful hairs. but there are bands which are more colorful and don't yet belong to Oshare Kei. Kiryu, for example, is a band where the members wear traditional japanese clothing, and they all have a color assigned to them (they hairs as well as their clothes).

Visual Kei bands are known by many fans oversea, but there are VERY few companies that allow their bands to tour outside of Japan. Also, they may be known around the world, but they are too very little in number and scattered to be heard. Though I was surprised that there are a few people in Rimouski that are listening to japanese music.

Why the bass?

I've been asked many times why I've chosen to play the bass, being in the back and mostly unheard, while many prefer to play guitar, where you are in the spotlight.
There are many reasons for that,
I play the bass simply because I like the sound it produces. It's a very sexy instrument and you can't shred with it, you have to make people feel the rhythm, everything needs to be balanced, you kind of make a bridge between the beat of the drum and the melody of the guitar. But it can also sound much more aggressive, even more than a distorted guitar, if you just increase the tone and mid/treble. The bass becomes very harsh yet it's perfect for metal. Also, since you don't play chords, headbanging is easier!
People also say that playing the bass is easier than guitar. I can't argue with that, since playing chords on a bass doesn't sound good, and therefore you only play arpeggios. But aside from that, playing bass is the same thing as guitar, and few guitarists who try to compose basslines only play root notes, because they don't know what else to play, or just play it like a guitar and that's just wrong.

So that's basically why I've chosen to play the bass, it's a sexy instrument that is completely different from guitar.