Revisiting Pink Spider ~ Spider on a Cloud

Exactly 25 years ago – on 13 May 1998 – the single by ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟 called 'Pink Spider' (usually written in katakana as ピンク スパイダー) was released. It was ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒's ninth single during his solo career and the second one under the name ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟. ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 himself was not anymore among...

Drawings Part 5: Let’s Meet Again in the Spring

It is 25 years today – 2 May 2023 – since ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 left this world on 2 May 1998. This time I knew quite early what kind of picture I would draw of him for this special day. If I had a lot of luck, I would have been now in Yokohama at ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ...

The Songs From the Film TELL ME ～hideと見た景色～

This post is only about a four-track CD that came as a bonus with the limited edition Blu-ray movie release. The movie is called TELL ME ～hideと見た景色～ (directed by Renpei Tsukamoto) and it was released both as a DVD and Blu-ray format on 7 December 2022. I bought it only to get the bonus CD. Yes,...

A Rocket Dive to Japanese Language

Today, on 28 January 2023 I publish this very first post in the new blog category that is called My Japanese Studies/私の日本語習得法 (my method of learning Japanese). I am a real beginner, I study on my own, so I hope that writing about my studies on my blog would increase my motivation. I have never...

Christmas 2022

This is just a photo story of my Christmas 2022. I am not quite sure when my Christmas started, but it always ends on 13 January, on St. Knut's Day (as it traditionally ended in Finland). Nowadays it ends officially on 6 January. Anyway, it's time to show how my Christmassy flat and how one...

X Japan: The Last Live

A Japanese band called X Japan was playing their last gig twenty-five years ago, on 31 December 1997. The time passed and the band re-united a decade later. But it was to be a very last gig for one band member, their guitarist 𝐻𝐼𝐷𝐸, who died tragically four months after this concert. I had seen...

Drawings Part 4: Happy Birthday, hideちゃん!

ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 would have turned 58 today, on 13 December 2022. It was time to make a new picture of him. I had an idea in my head, but I needed a model. I used a video clip from X Japan's gig.  When I started thinking about a new drawing of ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒/𝐻𝐼𝐷𝐸 (in X Japan related...

The Double Cover of Ja, Zoo -album

The posthumous album called Ja, Zoo by ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟 was released on 21 November 1998. I have written about the album a year ago (2021), but this time I decided to have a closer look on its special cover, not the theme, but the physical appearance. Ja, Zoo was the third album by ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒,...

Music Archive, Part XXIV ~ X: Silent Jealousy/Sadistic Desire (Sony Records, 1991)

Music Archive is a series, where I write about albums or singles that have been released years ago, too long time ago to be enclosed in the “Reviews” category. Music Archive is thus forming its own subcategory under “Reviews”, even though these write-ups are not reviews, maybe not always even presentations.  They are just stories...