Share your lesser known COOL things...

I just thought of this idea today and wondered if others would be interested. For many years I've always been more interested in things that weren't in the mainstream. I don't avoid popular things but I've found great stuff in the less popular things.

 

I was thinking it may be cool to share those less popular things we like and by doing so we might find some new stuff ourselves. It could be anything at all. Books, music, movies, TV shows, food.... whatever you like that isn't "popular". It's easy to find the popular stuff.

 

I should also point out that being "less cool" doesn't have to mean unheard of. I guess I'll start this out and go with an easy one. Music.

 

I listen to a very wide variety of music and studied it in college. I've played the guitar for over 25 years now.... (damn, I'm old!!!!) I love jazz, rock, metal, opera, bluegrass, zydeco, folk, celtic, electronica, ska, trance, punk, blues, show tunes, Jpop...... shall I go on?

 

I figured I'd not go to crazy and start with JPOP. Well, I guess you could call it JRock really. A band that I just love is called Sambomaster. While they aren't really very popular in America I think they are pretty big in Japan.

 

 

Basically they are a rock trio but their music has some bits of R&B, Punk and Soul in it as well. They may best be known for their lead singers incredible ability to SCREAM. Yea, scream. It makes sense when you hear the songs.

 

They have about 6 albums out and a number of their songs have been used in anime - including Naruto and Bleach. As well as last seasons incredible Kuragehime (Princess Jellyfish).

 

I thought it would be good to include a link to learn more or get a sample of what we are posting about so I found some Sambomasters on YouTube, this was used in the Densha Otoko (Train Man TV show).

 

http://youtu.be/XWXo_rKKqi0

 

If you like that be sure to check out:

http://youtu.be/xaZwDbQ216E

 

I hope we all get to see some new stuff to check out. Remember, the best stuff isn't always on the surface. You have to dig to find diamonds!!!!

Thanks for sharing. I like to check new music bands whenever I can.

 

I love jazz, rock, metal, opera, bluegrass, zydeco, folk, celtic, electronica, ska, trance, punk, blues, show tunes, Jpop...... shall I go on?

 

Wow. That's a nice list. Is there a chance yo have Last.fm account by the way?

 

Well... to continue with the music trend. These guys are not Japanese, but certainly are not mainstream. I've found them by some reference. And enjoy greatly ever cince. God Is an Astronaut are an instrumental/post-rock band from Ireland. I had a chance to attend their performance in Moscow and this was awesome )) Their page on Last.fm. Unfortunately I can't link You Tube from work. But you can find them there as well.

Thanks for the tip about "God Is an Astronaut". I haven't heard of them before. I checked YouTube and found a few of their songs and I'm really liking it. I'm going to check out some more of their stuff.

 

I don't have a Last.fm account but I may check into it, especially if it helps me find bands like this!

 

I'll add another one. For those who are really into photography but also want to be entertained, this is a YouTube channel. It's for DigitalRev:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom#g/u

 

The main host of the show is Kai, he's a Chinese guy who obviously grew up in England and has this fantastic British accent. The show is a promotional tool for the DigitalRev camera store/website but the content are the shows are 50% education and 50% silliness.

 

Their shows are all in HD as well so they look nice. One of my favorite episodes is where he shows you how to be a Paparazzi by hunting down and photographing the infamous Ladyboy Gaga:

 

 

It's a great laugh!

What a great idea for a thread! I have new music to listen to now!

 

For me, since I am a book-aholic, I'm going to have to go with the novel House of Leaves.

 

http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305609554&sr=8-1

 

It's pretty obscure, though it's been gaining a lot of indie popularity recently. It's... well, not an easy read, so a lot of people find it offputting. Some of the pages need to be flipped sideways or upside down!

 

Basically it's a story in a story. A guy's next door neighbor dies and he finds a series of novels in his fridge (!!) that are about a dobleepentary that does not exist. Confusing, no? There are many layers: the original book that dobleepents what happens in the film, the notes from Truant (the guy who finds the book), and notes from the editor... along with copious indexes in the back.

 

It's dense, confusing, and utterly terrifying. In the beginning of the book, there's a note that it will make you insane... and I swear to god, I was totally convinced this was true about 1/3 of the way through. If you feel like an amazing, original, inventive, and mind-blowing read... well, I really recommend it! Probably my second-favorite book to Mieville's The Scar, but he is pretty well-known so I didn't want to post about that. ^^;

Thanks for the tip about "God Is an Astronaut". I haven't heard of them before. I checked YouTube and found a few of their songs and I'm really liking it. I'm going to check out some more of their stuff.

 

I don't have a Last.fm account but I may check into it, especially if it helps me find bands like this!

 

I'll add another one. For those who are really into photography but also want to be entertained, this is a YouTube channel. It's for DigitalRev:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom#g/u

 

 

I love DigitalRev, Kai and Lok are awesome. I only wish they were a real TV show, for more budget and more content.

 

 

What a great idea for a thread! I have new music to listen to now!

 

For me, since I am a book-aholic, I'm going to have to go with the novel House of Leaves.

 

http://www.amazon.com/House-Leaves-Mark-Z-Danielewski/dp/0375703764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305609554&sr=8-1

 

I bought House of Leaves a few years back, didn't get that far into it, though. I need to pick it up and start again at some point. Wasn't so much the book itself as that I was busy with other stuff for a while and never got back to it. I wonder if the Kindle version is a decent "port", it'd make it easier to deal with.

 

Speaking of books, I'm a fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It's a dense, long epic that's hugely influential in China and Japan, but not all that well known outside of Asia, except through adaptations like Dynasty Warriors and Ikkitousen (All the character names, relationships, and the general plot are based on RoT3K, or so I'm told).

Wow, sounds like a very intense book Alphakitty. I have strange reading habbits. I'll go months without reading anything and then I'll get in the mood and go through 5 or 6 books. With the odd way of pages being sideways or upside down, I wonder if that book would work well on the Kindle? I may give it a try.

 

I thought I'd add something else and this is a much more serious subject matter, even though it's an anime. It's a 13 episode anime from 2004 called Koi Kaze. It deals with the story of a older brother (27) and younger sister (15) who were separated when she was a very young child and they grew up never seeing each other.

 

(No major spoilers but I do give 1 or 2 small things away..)

 

They later meet again and she goes to live with her brother and father as their house is closer to the new school she's going to. Little by little they start to develop feelings for each other. Yes, it's an incest story but not like most you see in anime. It shows the pain of dealing with these feelings that start to develop.

 

I later found out that this type of thing is not uncommon amongst siblings that don't grow up together but meet later in life for the first time I believe it's called Genetic Sexual Attraction. Not having grown up with together keeps them from developing that "Ick!!!" feeling most people have when they think of this with their sibling.

 

 

The story is really fantastic and heart wrenching at the same time. The voice acting is also superb and really conveys the emotions they have. Unfortunately the animation quality is not that great. I'm guessing they weren't able to get a big budget based on the subject matter.

 

I was able to find one of my favorite scenes from the show. The brother moved out of the house because of how difficult it was to be there with her as he tried to deal with (and fight off) his emotions. When coming home from work with a co-worker he sees his sister at his apartment waiting for him:

 

 

There are some small funny parts in the show but be prepared for a good cry.

 

It looks like the entire series is on YouTube but I also see that it's available in Netflix, unfortunately not streaming.

 

**James.

OtakuDepot, I saw this series a long time ago. It was really good. I have also heard of how siblings need to be separated from each other while growing up for them to develop feelings for each other.