Heads up, in this chapter, you’re going to read a lot of personal details. Because it’s during this time in which I really started to grow.
In April of 2007, I began my six-month leave from film school in order to really find out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. During this time, all I did, almost every day was work at Pizza Hut. That’s right. All I did every day was drive my 1999 red Oldsmobile Alero and deliver pizzas.
I couldn’t have done it without video games, WWE…and anime. Haha! By then I had my own one-bedroom apartment, friggin, finally. No more sharing spaces or coming home to half my bottles of water missing. But this also means that I’d have no one watching me really pig out on all the pizza and wings I could eat every night.
I don’t want to get into how much of a glutton I was. I have other essays for that. But the point is, when you have no direction in life…entertainment gives you something to look forward to.
With the WWE, it’s a continual story line by which you have something to look forward to every week, twice a week. I had just bought a PS3 and was getting down to some Marvel Alliance. I was also jamming out to a Korean hip hop group I just discovered called “Epik High,” with hits like “Fly” and “Paris”.
But the main thing that really put a smile on my face was an anime called “Bleach”.
That’s right, if we have any Bleach fans in the house. Their first season had a catchy theme song for their opening. It was called “Asterisk” by Orange Range. In May of 2007, I remember a lot of blazing hot days listening to Orange Range. My car broke down so many times, Tire Plus became kind of a hangout for me.
The thing about Orange Range that appealed to me…oddly enough was the rapping. They didn’t do metal music like Dir En Grey, nor did they have a heavy-handed edgy sound like Miyavi. It was just rock. They had three vocalists that could sing, rap, and blend their voices. Honestly, I thought that was just so cool.
Mind you, I’m not a rapper. I don’t pretend to be an expert in hip hop or the art of the flow. By then, I’ve come to notice that almost every group has rappers in which one is bass-heavy, and the other is lighter, or more sharper in tone. For instance in Big Bang, you have TOP with his bass-heavy voice, while G-Dragon is sharper. The Korean hip hop group Epik High was the same. You had DJ Tukutz providing the music, Tablo was the sharper, lighter tone, while Mithra Jin had a deeper voice.
Orange Range was the same, except they didn’t just have two. They had three, one bass-heavy, one-middle range, and one high-ranging. A good, clear example of what I’m talking about is with this gem, “Kirikirimai”.
At :10, you have the middle range
At :17, you have the high range
At :26, you have the low, bass heavy rapper.
“Viva Rock,” “Chesto,” and “Twister” were other favorites. It’s peculiar and I’m ashamed to say, I never cared to look up their background or memorize the member’s names.
Perhaps it was because as soon as I discovered Orange Range, it was just a matter of days before I learned about Uverworld. I know that sounds like a diss to Orange Range, but believe me it’s not my intention. Orange Range was awesome…but Uverworld blew me away.
In watching “Bleach,” once you get past episode 25, they have a new theme opening. It’s a song called “D-TecnoLife” by Uverworld.
No lie…I played that song so many times that I can literally sing the lyrics and sing it well.
Stage In The Sky 