Lifestyle and Daily Shenanigans with a dash of Nerd Appreciation thrown in.
Willkommen!
Hello, there! I'm Mochizuki, a twenty-something year old Graphic & Web Design student located somewhere in America and welcome to Waiting for June a Lifestyle blog that occasionally gets a tad too personal, talks about cosmetics, and constantly the home for prattles about Bandcamp, nerd culture, and tea/coffee. To find out more about blog and the blogger, click here.
Thank you so much for visiting and reading Waiting for June! If you like what we do here and want to help support the addiction of the blogger, you should look into spoiling the blog and its creator with coffee and gifts by using the links below. Even if you don't, you're still pretty dope for visiting, reading, enjoying, et cetera.
Hello, hello. Holy shit, what's this? I'm baaaack. Well, sorta....mostly. I'm a still a busy outside of this hectic world of blogging, but I'm not so out of control with it that I can jump back into blogging, but that's for a totally different post (meaning the next one) and technically, this isn't as much of a return as much as it a reason for me to go ahead and be a slightly judgmental twat with a bit too much time on their hands.
Basically, I'm reviewing things again. And I'm reviewing things that I haven't done in forever and really and truly want to bring focus on to this blog. Music. Now, if you obviously can't tell, music is a huge part of my life. Whether it be anything from Rihanna, to the beautiful voice of the Korean singer Ailee, to jamming to some Japanese Rock, to listening to something more soothing like the Shoegaze band, Zeit; I'm immersed in it. I've said this multiple times before on this blog, but I really, really want for this blog to have more focus on music.
That being said, today's post is a review of two music videos that feature two of my personal favourite artists (for different reasons), Jessie J and Rihanna. Over the course of the week or so, both artists have released music videos for two singles; Rihanna's being “What Now” from her UNAPOLOGETIC album and Jessie J's being “Thunder” from her ALIVE album. Both songs are not only on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of overall meaning, but both artists are also on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of their artistry.
Well, does that make a difference? Keep reading to find out my take on it.
Let's start off with Jessie J's “Thunder”. Now, let me preface this by saying that while I love Jessie J to a hardcore level, I have been sleeping on this album for a while. This means that I haven't sat and listened to it proper yet because I've heard mixed reviews and I have some weird thing about waiting for a bit until I listen to an album properly unless I can't resist it anymore. Of course I listened to the singles up until, “WILD” is probably one of, if not my favourite, singles Jessie's put out to date (not including the featurings). “It's My Party&rdquo is, and was also mentioned by one of my mates as well, similar to a Katy Perry song, but in this case, I can actually sit through it, jam, and not have the urge to cringe. That being said, I had no idea that the 3rd single would be “Thunder”.
Now, again, I hadn't proper sat through the album yet, so I'd only heard “WILD”, “It's My Party”, and “Excuse My Rude” (which happens to be another fave of mine) out of the entire album up until a couple days ago. So when I first heard “Thunder”, it was through this music video. Again, as I've been sleeping on Jessie (granted, music in general has taken a backseat in my life), I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the video's thumbnail showed me something intriguing...really gorgeous and intense makeup which, obviously is the way to capture my attention. When I clicked the play button, I don't think that I was quite expecting what I got and that? ....that is absolutely perfect (in this case).
From beginning to end I was absolutely enamoured with this video. From the lighting to Jessie's witch fabric, to the dramatic makeup, the angling, even the random ass car. Everything in this gave me life and it was such a breathe of fresh air. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore when Jessie does songs that are upbeat and poppy and are obvious dance tracks but she absolutely shines when she gives you a ballad-type song. “Thunder” both aesthtically and vocally is everything I needed and missed from Jessie J after “Who You Are”'s music video was out. When these type of songs and videos are done, there's a whole new level of vulnerability that Jessie has. Her emotions are prominent and evident; they're strong and so beautifully written everywhere. It's breathtaking.
The only thing I can truly nitpick about is the lyrics. They're rather simple and nothing extravagant, they talk about the power that comes with being able to find someone that not only motivates you, but is someone you can open up to and let your guard down around. True to her nature, it's a Jessie J motivational song to the T. It's almost remniscent of “Who You Are” but in a manner that seems little less one-sided (so to say). However, as simple as it is to a lot of people, I find that I enjoy it. I find that I really enjoy that the song takes a more direct approach. I think that with it being so simple and her voice being so intense, it's the perfect balance.
That being said: Bravo, Jessie J. I've been sleeping on you and this song made me quickly regret it. [ After listening to the album, I think that “I Miss Her” should have been a single cause that song is gorgeous. A bit like “Big White Room” meets ”I Need This”. ]
You guys definitely need to watch the video though, it's an absolutely beautiful video and there is, literally, very little to no bad shots of her whatsoever in it.
MUSIC VIDEO: “Thunder” — Jessie J | If you're outside of North America, you may not be able to watch it, sorry! But you can watch the live.
“I was broken and starting to think that I'm should be ashamed / Trembling and nervous and naked feeling afraid / Then you came and told me and showed to fight through the rain / Fight through the rain, to fight through the rain”
Now, we've come to Rihanna's “What Now”. Again, let me preface this by saying that in terms of music, Rihanna is not my go to for what is aesthetically pleasing to my ears, she is a source of a good bit of my favourite slow tempo pop songs (i.e. “California King Bed” + “Stay”) as well as stereotypical pop, dance tracks (i.e “Jump”, “Talk That Talk”, + “Rude Boy”). Mostly though, Rihanna's an artist I follow because she's so shady and shady people are so hilarious. Also, not gonna lie, I have a tendency to say she sounds like a goat in some of her songs, which really is just me being a bloody arse and poking fun at her. Do I mean it? Sometimes, yeah. Most times? I'm really just being an idiot.
Anyway, unlike with Jessie J's ALIVE album, I am incredibly familiar with Rihanna's UNAPOLOGETIC album and consider it to be one of my favourite Pop albums of 2012. That being said, I was completely wary of what the music video for “What Now” would bring to the table, especially after completely detesting thee music video for “Pour It Up” (which happens to be one of my all-time twerk jams). However, much like the song itself, I abolutely adored the video for “What Now”.
One of my favourite Rihanna videos of all time, next to “Russian Roulette”, is “Disturbia”. When “Disturbia” first hit MTV, back when MTV used to show music videos at like 6am, I was instantly hooked on it. For the times, 2008, “Disturbia&rdquo was a huge breath of fresh air, especially considering that it was a route that a lot of artists seemed to want to approach, but held back on. It was the type of song that was just the right amount of intense to balance out the amount of sensuality that seems to ooze from Rihanna's being when she's in the zone. I simply loved it and watching “What Now” I found a lot of similiarities to “Disturbia”.
One of the things I felt was really similar to “Disturbia” that made it's appearance in this music video was the the usage of the static effect as well as the slight sense of creepiness that the video had you feeling. I will say, however, the creepiness in “What Now” differs from “Disturbia” in the sense that is the creepiness that comes when you're alone and trapped in a mental state of brokenness.
A lot of people complained (in the YouTube comments, of course) that video didn't make sense or wasn't good because it didn't go hand-in-hand with the song. Allow me to tell you how false that is. “What Now” is the perfect representation of what a simple video that hits hard should be. The entire video reeked of absolute loneliness. The rooms with nothing save for her alone, the black backdrop with her in her black attire, the static movements that signified her breakdowns, the look of desperation and desolation in her eyes, her lying on the floor turned away from the camera almost curled into herself, everything. The video to me, spoke volumes of what I would expect to see when someone finds themselves alone and truly at a loss of what to do which is exactly what the song is talking about.
I'll end this by saying that I'm actually a decent Rihanna fan despite how much I may talk my shit and whatever, when it comes to Rihanna's music videos it's always a hit or miss for me. In this instance? Flawless.
MUSIC VIDEO: “What Now” — Rihanna | If you're outside of North America, you may not be able to watch it, sorry! But you can watch the live.
“I've been ignoring this big lump in my throat / I shouldn't be crying, tears were for the weaker days / I'm stronger now, or so I say / But something's missing / Whatever it is, it feels like / It's laughing at me through the glass of a two-sided mirror / Whatever it is, it's just laughing at me / And I just wanna scream”
Whew! That's the end of the post. It's weird having been gone for what feels like ever and then coming back and having to end a post. It's so weird to me, it's like I don't know how to end my posts anymore which is ridiculous because I do but subconsciously, it's not connecting as it should.
Nonetheless, thank you for reading. Thank you for coming back if this is you returning to my blog. Thank you for those bloggers who I talk to on a slightly consistent basis and have remained super supportive and incredibly sweet to me when I truly expected to be isolated and felt that I didn't belong because I wasn't as active anymore. Just thank you.
Now, enough sappy stuff. I think I've chatted my way a bit too much in this post (as if this is something new), but before you leave don't forget to leave a comment below, follow the blog on Bloglovin’ and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin
Hello, there!
Welcome to Waiting for June. Waiting for June is a Lifestyle Blog that focuses predominantly on daily life shenanigans and nerd culture, but occasionally dabbles in health & beauty, food, and prattling about serious topics.
Waiting for June is the sixth iteration of the same blog with a different name and structure. The original iteration of this blog was started back in November of 2012 as a purely Beauty and Lifestyle blog under the name Monochromatics which later got abandoned and restarted under the name sumeoseo. With sumeoseo came more beauty and review based blog which quickly lost its appeal. From that point on, there were three name changes, multiple hiatuses, and two blog changes before coming to where we are now.
Throughout this journey, I've learned that this blog shouldn't be limited to what I feel fits in with what I read from other bloggers nor should I put myself in a position to compromise my integrity and the feeling of transparency that I feel should always be there. I've also learned that blogging is probably never going to be a huge source of income the way I always expected it to be. So when I finally returned back to blogging with a fresh blog and an equally fresh name, I decided to make this blog about anything that I wanted to and break the mold of trying to fit into the mold. I can only imagine where this experience is going to take me.
Prattle about the twenty-something university student behind the blog.
“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” — Albert Einstein
Hello, there!
Welcome to the little about me section of the blog. If it isn't obvious by now, I'm Mochizuki and I'm kind of pretty important here. Admittedly, Mochizuki is a nom de plume, but I digress. I'm currently somewhere in my twenty-somethings and doing that thing where I'm learning how to be a proper adult while balancing being a student and a worker. Speaking of school, I'm a Graphic Design major who's concentration is Web Design and I take my classes online. If I'm being honest here, I do everything online because of my apprehension towards too much social interaction.
I'm typically reading something, playing a video game, watching anime, or something otherwise nerdy because that's how I roll. I don't engage with people unless I'm positive there is something in common there simply because I don't want to make it weird for anyone involved. That said, the reason I originally created this blog, or rather, any of my blogging adventures, was so that I could engage with people wo share the same interests as me while simultaneously sharing my own things with people.
I'm not terribly good at about me's, so expect this to be updated sporadically in a lot of ways.
The little spots on the internet that I read to pass time.
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Some of these advertisments, affiliations, and promotions are, in fact, compensated. That said, no amount of compensation will have any effect on the opinions on the blog. For more information on this topic, please read our disclaimer and review policies.
Currently, the blog has no affiliations, promotions, or general advertisments to display.
“A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” — Dalai Lama
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact kurahge@outlook.com.
This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.
The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.
This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
A clear and concise guide on how reviews are approached and written.
This blog touches on and is dedicated to a variety of topics including: daily life, cosmetics, my journey to being a healthier me, music, books, anime, et cetera; however, a large chunk of the content found here are some form of review be they miniature reviews or full blown, in-depth reviews. Because of this, this blog has decided to implement and share it's review policy.
Please note that this policy is liable to change at any point in time, so do constantly check back before sending inquiries to kurahge@outlook.com.
Depending on the workload and the type of product is received, at any given time, multiple products can be in queue to be reviewed.
Depending on the product, the amount of time for a review to be posted varies. Typically, the length of time is as follows: anything health or beauty releated will take between 5 days and 1 week, books take between 3 days and 5 days, music and movie reviews take between 1 to 2 days, and most other reviews are variant depending on the situation at hand.
Products are predominantly purchased with my own money. On the off chance that the product or prodcuts were provided to me, there is always a note at the top of post and as well as text within the post that acknowledges such. Despite being provided a product or not, the opinions are honest and valid.
As of April 14th, 2016, there has been a change in how reviews are formatted. If working with a product that has a list of ingredients (health, beauty, cosmetics, etcetera), there will be a graphic that lists the ingredients out of respect and transparency for the readers.
Photos for reviews, particularly health and beauty related, are unedited and provided in a clear manner to help show what results occurred (if any.)
If at any point, a review is rushed despite being informed of and knowing the review policy of this blog, I will drop the review and pay for the product accordingly. I am a college student and a full-time worker, blogging is a bit of side project no matter how much I wish it otherwise, so my time is a bit crammed. Basically, rushing will terminate any agreement we may have unless it's valid (meaning absolutely my fault.)
Hello, hello. Holy shit, what's this? I'm baaaack. Well, sorta....mostly. I'm a still a busy outside of this hectic world of blogging, but I'm not so out of control with it that I can jump back into blogging, but that's for a totally different post (meaning the next one) and technically, this isn't as much of a return as much as it a reason for me to go ahead and be a slightly judgmental twat with a bit too much time on their hands.
Basically, I'm reviewing things again. And I'm reviewing things that I haven't done in forever and really and truly want to bring focus on to this blog. Music. Now, if you obviously can't tell, music is a huge part of my life. Whether it be anything from Rihanna, to the beautiful voice of the Korean singer Ailee, to jamming to some Japanese Rock, to listening to something more soothing like the Shoegaze band, Zeit; I'm immersed in it. I've said this multiple times before on this blog, but I really, really want for this blog to have more focus on music.
That being said, today's post is a review of two music videos that feature two of my personal favourite artists (for different reasons), Jessie J and Rihanna. Over the course of the week or so, both artists have released music videos for two singles; Rihanna's being “What Now” from her UNAPOLOGETIC album and Jessie J's being “Thunder” from her ALIVE album. Both songs are not only on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of overall meaning, but both artists are also on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of their artistry.
Well, does that make a difference? Keep reading to find out my take on it.
Let's start off with Jessie J's “Thunder”. Now, let me preface this by saying that while I love Jessie J to a hardcore level, I have been sleeping on this album for a while. This means that I haven't sat and listened to it proper yet because I've heard mixed reviews and I have some weird thing about waiting for a bit until I listen to an album properly unless I can't resist it anymore. Of course I listened to the singles up until, “WILD” is probably one of, if not my favourite, singles Jessie's put out to date (not including the featurings). “It's My Party&rdquo is, and was also mentioned by one of my mates as well, similar to a Katy Perry song, but in this case, I can actually sit through it, jam, and not have the urge to cringe. That being said, I had no idea that the 3rd single would be “Thunder”.
Now, again, I hadn't proper sat through the album yet, so I'd only heard “WILD”, “It's My Party”, and “Excuse My Rude” (which happens to be another fave of mine) out of the entire album up until a couple days ago. So when I first heard “Thunder”, it was through this music video. Again, as I've been sleeping on Jessie (granted, music in general has taken a backseat in my life), I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the video's thumbnail showed me something intriguing...really gorgeous and intense makeup which, obviously is the way to capture my attention. When I clicked the play button, I don't think that I was quite expecting what I got and that? ....that is absolutely perfect (in this case).
From beginning to end I was absolutely enamoured with this video. From the lighting to Jessie's witch fabric, to the dramatic makeup, the angling, even the random ass car. Everything in this gave me life and it was such a breathe of fresh air. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore when Jessie does songs that are upbeat and poppy and are obvious dance tracks but she absolutely shines when she gives you a ballad-type song. “Thunder” both aesthtically and vocally is everything I needed and missed from Jessie J after “Who You Are”'s music video was out. When these type of songs and videos are done, there's a whole new level of vulnerability that Jessie has. Her emotions are prominent and evident; they're strong and so beautifully written everywhere. It's breathtaking.
The only thing I can truly nitpick about is the lyrics. They're rather simple and nothing extravagant, they talk about the power that comes with being able to find someone that not only motivates you, but is someone you can open up to and let your guard down around. True to her nature, it's a Jessie J motivational song to the T. It's almost remniscent of “Who You Are” but in a manner that seems little less one-sided (so to say). However, as simple as it is to a lot of people, I find that I enjoy it. I find that I really enjoy that the song takes a more direct approach. I think that with it being so simple and her voice being so intense, it's the perfect balance.
That being said: Bravo, Jessie J. I've been sleeping on you and this song made me quickly regret it. [ After listening to the album, I think that “I Miss Her” should have been a single cause that song is gorgeous. A bit like “Big White Room” meets ”I Need This”. ]
You guys definitely need to watch the video though, it's an absolutely beautiful video and there is, literally, very little to no bad shots of her whatsoever in it.
MUSIC VIDEO: “Thunder” — Jessie J | If you're outside of North America, you may not be able to watch it, sorry! But you can watch the live.
“I was broken and starting to think that I'm should be ashamed / Trembling and nervous and naked feeling afraid / Then you came and told me and showed to fight through the rain / Fight through the rain, to fight through the rain”
Now, we've come to Rihanna's “What Now”. Again, let me preface this by saying that in terms of music, Rihanna is not my go to for what is aesthetically pleasing to my ears, she is a source of a good bit of my favourite slow tempo pop songs (i.e. “California King Bed” + “Stay”) as well as stereotypical pop, dance tracks (i.e “Jump”, “Talk That Talk”, + “Rude Boy”). Mostly though, Rihanna's an artist I follow because she's so shady and shady people are so hilarious. Also, not gonna lie, I have a tendency to say she sounds like a goat in some of her songs, which really is just me being a bloody arse and poking fun at her. Do I mean it? Sometimes, yeah. Most times? I'm really just being an idiot.
Anyway, unlike with Jessie J's ALIVE album, I am incredibly familiar with Rihanna's UNAPOLOGETIC album and consider it to be one of my favourite Pop albums of 2012. That being said, I was completely wary of what the music video for “What Now” would bring to the table, especially after completely detesting thee music video for “Pour It Up” (which happens to be one of my all-time twerk jams). However, much like the song itself, I abolutely adored the video for “What Now”.
One of my favourite Rihanna videos of all time, next to “Russian Roulette”, is “Disturbia”. When “Disturbia” first hit MTV, back when MTV used to show music videos at like 6am, I was instantly hooked on it. For the times, 2008, “Disturbia&rdquo was a huge breath of fresh air, especially considering that it was a route that a lot of artists seemed to want to approach, but held back on. It was the type of song that was just the right amount of intense to balance out the amount of sensuality that seems to ooze from Rihanna's being when she's in the zone. I simply loved it and watching “What Now” I found a lot of similiarities to “Disturbia”.
One of the things I felt was really similar to “Disturbia” that made it's appearance in this music video was the the usage of the static effect as well as the slight sense of creepiness that the video had you feeling. I will say, however, the creepiness in “What Now” differs from “Disturbia” in the sense that is the creepiness that comes when you're alone and trapped in a mental state of brokenness.
A lot of people complained (in the YouTube comments, of course) that video didn't make sense or wasn't good because it didn't go hand-in-hand with the song. Allow me to tell you how false that is. “What Now” is the perfect representation of what a simple video that hits hard should be. The entire video reeked of absolute loneliness. The rooms with nothing save for her alone, the black backdrop with her in her black attire, the static movements that signified her breakdowns, the look of desperation and desolation in her eyes, her lying on the floor turned away from the camera almost curled into herself, everything. The video to me, spoke volumes of what I would expect to see when someone finds themselves alone and truly at a loss of what to do which is exactly what the song is talking about.
I'll end this by saying that I'm actually a decent Rihanna fan despite how much I may talk my shit and whatever, when it comes to Rihanna's music videos it's always a hit or miss for me. In this instance? Flawless.
MUSIC VIDEO: “What Now” — Rihanna | If you're outside of North America, you may not be able to watch it, sorry! But you can watch the live.
“I've been ignoring this big lump in my throat / I shouldn't be crying, tears were for the weaker days / I'm stronger now, or so I say / But something's missing / Whatever it is, it feels like / It's laughing at me through the glass of a two-sided mirror / Whatever it is, it's just laughing at me / And I just wanna scream”
Whew! That's the end of the post. It's weird having been gone for what feels like ever and then coming back and having to end a post. It's so weird to me, it's like I don't know how to end my posts anymore which is ridiculous because I do but subconsciously, it's not connecting as it should.
Nonetheless, thank you for reading. Thank you for coming back if this is you returning to my blog. Thank you for those bloggers who I talk to on a slightly consistent basis and have remained super supportive and incredibly sweet to me when I truly expected to be isolated and felt that I didn't belong because I wasn't as active anymore. Just thank you.
Now, enough sappy stuff. I think I've chatted my way a bit too much in this post (as if this is something new), but before you leave don't forget to leave a comment below, follow the blog on Bloglovin’ and follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
