Anime Next 2013 Part I ~ Rainy Roadtrip and meeting Moon Stream again

Hello Everyone!

So it’s been a week exactly since Anime Next and now it’s time for me to blog about it! Post con crud hit me extremely early this time (literally less than an hour after leaving on Sunday!) but I am feeling 100% better now. The weekend was pretty fun however the con itself was not so much due to the constant miscommunications between us and the con staff. It was ridiculous and rather frustrating.

Also personal problems during the con also dampened my fun a bit; but not by much. All in all I had a pretty awesome time. I now know that my self esteem is improving. The two best things about the weekend were seeing Satsuki and Moon Stream again (of course!) and also being around 3 of my most awesome friends Amanda, Thomas and Camille. One of my anxieties is always the possibility of being alone at cons because recent drama has greatly reduced the number of friends/people I trust not to scorn me. But with these three I was never alone and, God, SOOOOOOOOO many inside jokes were made this time around! Even more than at PMX! XD

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When I started my new job that Monday, I was very great full to my new boss for allowing me to have off for Anime Next, which was a slight worry of mine when I got the job the weekend before. I rushed through work on Thursday and went straight to the bus station where Amanda was waiting for me. We went to my house and from there Thomas got us and then Camille.

Thursday night was nothing less than a party for us all. We ate pizza and shrimp and watched “Wreck it Ralph”, later I helped Amanda learn the words to “Inside”. Even back when we were planning on going to Izumicon, Amanda had told me that she really wanted to sing a song for Satsuki when she met him. She has such a lovely voice! Afterward we went to bed and got ready for a long ride to New Jersey in the morning.

My alpaca Shirayuki-chan holding my Satsuki album “Luminous” ready to hit the road!

Going over the bridge between Delaware and New Jersey. Scary!! O.o

It took about 3 hours to get there; the con was finally in full swing by the time we arrived to our hotel. We had a very nice suite with a separate room all of our own and our roomies were also pretty cool. Sadly it was pouring rain all day so we had to drive from the hotel to the con to avoid being drenched.

No lolita that day, this really isn’t any type of jfashion actually. Just generally cute. XD

After getting are badges we went straight to the dealers hall. Kincs designer Mint Neko was one of the fashion guests at Anext this year so we went first to the h.Naoto booth which was right by the door. Amanda tried on some Mint Neko tops with help from the staffers and Mint and me and Camille made Thomas our human mannequin by trying on different clothes on him, Sixh clothes and even dresses from FRILL just for kicks! XD  As for me, I chose to buy an Honey dress; I’m sad that that brand is being discontinued but I’m glad I was able to find a piece before they all went away. And best of all, it fit me very well! I’m not sure if I lost weight or not but the fit was very good, I love my new dress! <3

Camille went off on her own and the rest of us went on to the Moon Stream booth. All the members were there and I and Amanda were immediately slapped hard with nervousness! Ugh!! After a few minutes she remembered the lyrics she had practiced and we both worked up the balls to go to the booth. I had intended to record the whole scene on the down low but I became too anxious and forgot! FAIL on my part! XD

She went to get Satsuki’s attention and I got to briefly speak to Tomo. I gave him the constellation necklace I had bought for him as a gift. He was very happy with it. Then Amanda sang “Inside” for Satsuki, he smiled and said “Ah, sugoi! Very good! Thank you!” Amanda then got a picture with him. My heart was overflowing with happiness for her; I knew how much this meant to her. And just when I thought things could not be better, Satsuki said he remembered me from PMX! I did not think he actually would but he did! I gave him a necklace with an image of a beautiful nebula galaxy for his gift, he said it was “sugoi” and put it on right away, that made me very happy. I then got to take a picture with him too.

Much less akward and nerve wraking than at PMX. He’s wearing my gift in this picture! ^o^

We said goodbye to Moon Stream and promised to go to the concert that night. Then we went to brose the dealers hall more, our last stop was the BABY booth where Masumi and fellow designer Saki Tachibana were. (I think this was her first time in the US, certainly not Masumi’s first) I modeled some AATP items on Thomas to see what would look best on him for when he starts prince style. I still want to somehow find those outfits Tomo and Satsuki were wearing at PMX.

Evening fell upon the con soon enough and the dealers hall closed. Me and Thomas spent the rest of the day taking pics of cosplayers and Amanda and Camille went to the game room. We would all meet up again soon enough for the Moon Stream concert, which I will talk about more in my next post! In the meantime, enjoy this vlog Amanda made for the first day of the con. Please subscribe to her youtube too for more awesome vids about cons, jfashion and jrock, and more! Also check out her etsy “Panda Fuzz” too for adorable pretties. I come on around 1:55.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDAwIOaFnqE

Yours Jasmine

“The Most Happy” ~ 477 years later

She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in Heaven. — Archbishop Thomas Cranmer

Hello Everyone

Today I’m taking a different path today writing wise to share something really dear to my heart as a lover of history.

On this day, May 19^th in 1536, Anne Boleyn best known as Kind Henry VIII’s second wife and queen, was beheaded on order of her husband for charges of adultery, treason and incest. When I was 12, I found a book about her in our school library called “Doomed Queen Anne” by Carolyn Meyer. For nearly 10 years ever since then I have been completely fascinated by this woman and devoted a great deal of my free time to learning as much about her as possible. When “The Tudors” premiered on Showtime I was thrilled because that meant that now even more people would become aware of her life and her story.

Portrait of Anne from 1533 or 1534, artist unknown.

Anne was an incredible person; in an age when men seemed to dominate all, she stayed true to herself and would not take any shit from anyone and managed to sway the most powerful man in her kingdom, and with that ultimately changing the entire direction of English history forever.

The charges against her which sent her to her grave were false, venomous slander made up by her political enemies at the behest of her misogynistic pig of a husband (yeah you can tell I feel pretty strongly about this). Her only “crimes” against King Henry were her unwillingness to conform to the submissive and obedient role expected of her as wife of the king and her misfortune of not producing a son for her husband in her short 1000 day marriage/tenure. Those things were more on the fault of Henry than Anne and ironically their only child, Elizabeth, ultimately grew up to become Elizabeth I, one of England’s most successful and important monarchs ever.

Anne's "ghost" defends herself and her now teenage daughter Elizabeth against an aging and sick Henry in the final episode of The Tudors. Source unknown.

Sadly, there are many misconceptions about Anne; ranging from her being a home wrecking whore to the whole bullshit myth about her having six fingers on one hand and a third breast. Those last two were again false, propaganda written nearly half a century after she died by one of Elizabeth I’s haters who didn't want to possibly die of treason by slandering her so he took a jab to her mom. And she certainly was not a whore; if anything it was Henry who was the “whore” because it was he who went after her and divorced his first wife for no real reason except for the fact he was horny and she hadn't given him a son neither. If Anne Boleyn is a “home wrecking whore” for breaking him and his old wife up than so is Jane Seymour for “breaking up” Anne and Henry and Catherine Howard (his 5^th wife) for breaking up Henry and Anne of Cleaves (his 4^th wife).

What has made Anne stick out among Henry’s other wives is not only was she the most historically significant but also because she was amazing in her own right and not because of any man in her life, she was intelligent, talented, astute and truly stood and shone on her own. She was the wife who would call Henry out on his crap and stand up for what she thought was right without fear of the consequences, which there were. And most noble of all is that when she finally faced her fate, she did not blame Henry nor criticize him in her final speech (well she couldn't because it may have caused problems for Elizabeth) but at the same time did not admit to any false guilt. Despite the subtle nature of this, her message rung loud and clear and she died with great boldness and courage that is extremely inspiring to me. My respect for her is second only to my own mother.

 Genevieve as Anne in my favorite outfit from the film. 

Many women have taken a go at portraying Anne in film and TV. My personal favorite is Genevieve Bujold’s portrayal of her in the film “Anne of the Thousand Days”. I feel like of all the actresses who have played Anne, she played her best and (in my personal opinion) the closest to how I feel Anne truly was in real life. Also for this final line she boldly delivered to Henry right before her execution:

“…Look for the rest of your life at every man that ever knew me and wonder if I didn't find him a better man than you… But Elizabeth is yours. Watch her as she grows; she’s yours. She’s a Tudor! Get yourself a son off of that sweet, pale girl if you can - and hope that he will live! But Elizabeth shall reign after you! Yes, Elizabeth - child of Anne the Whore and Henry the Blood-Stained Lecher - shall be Queen! And remember this: Elizabeth shall be a greater queen than any king of yours! She shall rule a greater England than you could ever have built! Yes - MY Elizabeth SHALL BE QUEEN! And my blood will have been well spent!”

None of this was said in real life but it’s all true and so well delivered that it hits so sharply like arrows to a dart board.

I also like Natalie Dormer’s portrayal of Anne in “The Tudors” but for different reasons; mainly for the incredible fashions and gowns she wore in the show which where no less than style porn for a girl like me who loves historical costuming. even if it was not all really accurate I can’t help but go crazy with desire for every single thing she wore; there isn't a single thing in her character wardrobe that I don’t want. Especially the headdresses!! *O*

Vivacious, confident and bold, Anne Boleyn truly was an amazing woman who has left her mark on history, and in my heart. I wish that I can be as strong and stylish as her, without loosing my head of course! XD

Yours Jasmine

Picture Post ~ Scan from Kera March 2013, score one for plus size loli’s!

While browsing the internet a few days ago, I came across some scans from Kera magazine’s most recent issue for March. I was mainly looking for new makeup tutorials or info on any new releases, anything new to buy or put on my wishlist. What I did find however was this adorable outfit snap I felt I just had to share!

The pic is a little blurred but it’s clear she’s wearing Marshmallow Bunny by Angelic Pretty. A plus sized lolita is always a rare site in any jfashion magazine, seeing this made me very happy. Especially since this has reaffirmed my belief that any girl can be beautiful as a lolita. Any girl! This girl is adorable and the dress suits her body beautifully.

I’m glad Kera featured a plus sized girl this time. It makes me think that plus sized girls are becoming more accepted in the fashion world, well I hope so anyway. ^.^

Yours Jasmine

Reflection on 2012 ~ Welcome 2013

Hello and Happy New Year Everyone!

I know it’s been awhile since my last entry. My computer has been having problems with Blogger and I’ve been too preoccupied to get these problems fixed. I do think though that I’m going to switch from Blogger to Wordpress sometime this June, perhaps around June or so.

In any case, I’ve been thinking about what to write for my first post of the year. In the last few days of 2012 I was doing some serious thinking about weather or not 2012 was really a good year for me and what do I really want in 2013. My conclusion: 2012 was a good year. But not in the way that I had originally wished. Looking at my post from the beginning of 2012 here I see that I honestly didn’t really accomplish much on my resolution list and the year itself was hardly as eventful as 2011 was, but at the same time I accomplished some things that I feel are more important, all of them were internal.

In 2012 I finally came to terms with who I am and gave up my goal to one day be a size 2-6. At this point I just want to be healthy both in my body and in my mind; I don’t think setting these ridiculous goals and expectations for myself will help that cause. I began to drift away from certain people but I’ve also become closer to others too, much closer. For a long time I honestly believed that I was all alone in this world and for the most part everyone hated me, I know better now and I’m glad I have such a great support system.

I didn’t get to see Versailles after all but I have no regrets at all about skipping going to Japan to go to PMX. I think in a lot of ways I had more fun at PMX then I would have going to Japan at that time and I was beyond happy to see Moon Stream finally and meet Satsuki. I feel somehow that if I could do that than certainly maybe one day, when they come back, I can finally see Versailles too. I will keep that hope for as long as I can.

As far as 2013 goes, I’m not making any real resolutions. My one goal for this year is simply to be happy, be at peace, and strive to do my best in all that I do. I know there are people who love me; I know that I’m not a terrible repulsive freak. I want to hold onto these beliefs and let them give me the strength I need to truly be the girl I want to be. The ONE thing that could be considered a resolution for myself is that I want to get an artist table at an artist alley for any of the cons I go to this year selling my nails and other accessories. I got a lot of good feedback on my creations this year from my friends, other lolita and gyaru and even my teacher at fashion school.

In the meantime I’m preparing to return to actual college this year, I’ll still go to fashion school but for the time being I want to focus on school where I can actually get some kind of degree, I’ll return to fashion school most likely this fall. As for conventions, I’m going to go to the main 3 in my area: Katsucon (for staffing, not for fun this time. XD), Otakon and Anime USA. But as far as traveling far for a con goes, probably none of that this year besides Anime Matsuri. I am planning to move by the end of this year into a new place so probably no PMX this year neither. Me and Bibi MAY go to Anime Boston but that depends strongly on the guest list. And of course if Satsuki shows up any anything this year I’ll just rob a bank and make that work into my schedule too! LMAO!

So far however 2013 has gotten off to a very good start. Recently I finally managed to buy not one but TWO of my dream dresses! I can’t wait until they arrive. I will talk about them in my next entry. Again happy new year everyone. I hope 2013 is prosperous and kind to all of you! ^o^

My last lolita picture of 2012, taken on New Years Eve.

Yours Jasmine