SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH - Allegro Cantabile

When the anime version of Nodame Cantabile premiered last January, I was quite apprehensive as to how JC Staff will be managing the music aspect of the animation. Nodame Cantabile is a classical music-themed piece of artwork, and the live-action drama had adhered to this theme fiercely. The opening and closing themes of the drama were Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue respectively. The use of these two original classical music recordings complemented the classical music focus of the drama, and as a result the significance and beauty of classical music was very well delivered in the drama.

However, almost all anime opening and ending themes either fall in the J-pop or J-rock basket, thus I was afraid the use of such contemporary recordings would not only ruin the classical music theme of Nodame Cantabile, but would simply sound plain weird. I mean, imagine rock music and Beethoven's Piano Sonata Pathetique together... it's just plain weird.

However, when I saw the opening of the first episode of Nodame Cantabile, I was pleasantly surprised by JC Staff's ingenuity. The opening theme is an upbeat song written and performed by Suemitsu & The Suemith called, Allegro Cantabile. I thought the track was very creative in that it was sort of a reference to an important track in the story, Nodame's lively rendition of Beethoven's Pathetique - Adagio Cantabile. The tune is quite infectious and to top it off, the opening sequence is very attractive (although quite reminiscent of Honey & Clover II's Fugainaiya opening sequence). They had also cleverly incorporated snippets of Beethoven's Symphony No.7 in the opening theme.

The Allegro Cantabile single has since been released by Suemitsu & The Suemith on 21st February. I had not listened to Suemitsu & The Suemith before, so I took it from the name that it is either a band or a group of 2. To my surprise, Suemitsu & The Suemith comprise of only 1 guy, Suemitsu Atsushi !!!　O.O

Anyway, I find the song pretty good and the PV is quite cool too. Watching it, you can't help wondering what the hell happened to the grand piano. Try throwing Nippon black paint over an ivory white grand piano?

Here's Suemitsu & The Suemith for you!

By the way, do you think Suemitsu-san actually played the song with such slippery fingers? There's no way I could hit the right keys with black paint all over my digits.

～みはる～

あいぞめ

Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori Ending Theme - Aizome -

あいぞめ
Performed by Noto Mamiko

あさきゆめみじ　永久に　嘆きもせす

月の光　心　照らし出す
燃ゆる花の舞　道しるべ

絡みつく　あやまちの詩　胸をしめる

果てぬ川に手を挿し　流そう
想い　詰めた言の葉
藍に染めて

すれ違いが　心もろくする
居場所もないまま　風は吹く

赤い道　足取り重く　闇に向かう

一度　流せば　二度と帰らぬ
指が　まびく運命
藍に染めて

いくつ　明けない夜を　重ねて
やがて　藍の嘆きも
消え逝くのか

果てぬ川に手を挿し　流そう
色は匂へど　いつか
散りぬるもの

藍に染めて...

check out Memento for PV images

～みはる～

Anime: Kanon Ep 21

Since last autumn, I have been following Kyoto Animation's remake of the acclaimed anime 'Kanon'. The main plot of Kanon revolves around a high school guy named Aizawa Yuuichi and the snowy city of mystery and miracles in which he is currently residing in the present time frame. Yuuichi had lived in the city as a kid 7 years ago, but moved out with his family during his elementary years. Fast forward 7 years later, Yuuichi returned to the city, but mysteriously, he had little recollection about the city, nor any memory of his life in the city 7 years ago. However, since moving back to the city, he met a string of girls, who slowly trigger the return of his memories in the city. And it seems that we will soon find that his memories about the snowy city 7 years ago was a traumatic one.

I had not mentioned anything about watching Kanon, nor review it since its premiere on Japanese airwaves last autumn. Apart from not having the time, I find the story pacing very slow, and sometimes quite mundane. However, I still follow the series every week not only because the first production was a success (storywise, and also production wise), but particularly because I quite like Kyoto Animation's work. One of KyoAni's production which I liked best was the animation AIR. I love their artwork, fluid animation and soundtrack. The way they shoot the scenes create a subtle, yet incredible impact. Furthermore, this remake of Kanon boasts an impressive seiyuu (voice actor) cast: the male lead, Aizawa Yuuichi, is voiced by one of my favorites, Sugita Tomokazu. Other seiyuus include Horie Yui (Tohru of Fruits Basket, Naru of Love Hina), and Seki Tomokazu (Nobu of NANA, Chiaki of Nodame Cantabile).

Now, I admit that I had been watching the first 60% of the series impassionately. I do enjoy listening to Sugita Tomokazu's acting, especially the sarcastic jokes and dramatic demeanor. While each arc of the series is decently interesting, they were not over-the-top exciting. There's sort of like a degree of mildness and calm in the way KyoAni presented the story. However, watching the ending segment of Kanon episode 21 took my breath away. The way KyoAni introduce such a shocking turn of event in the calming pace they had adopted all this while is excellent.

Let me just highlight 2 particular segments I liked best in this episode:

1. Nayuki and yuki-usagi (snow bunny)

While I understood that Nayuki had all this while liked Yuuichi, it made me very sad when they showed the link between Nayuki's unhappy memories of the snow bunny with Yuuichi. I did not expect Yuuichi to have delivered such a harsh blow to her sincerity 7 years ago, and yet she can still like him after such a hurtful gesture. The scene showing Yuuichi's memory of the shattered snow bunny and the relevation that it was to Yuuichi whom Nayuki was giving the snow bunny was very good. I think KyoAni created the desired emotional impact of Yuuchi recalling the memory. I was impressed.




2. Akiko and strawberry cake

This segment blew my mind. I like the way they blended Yuuchi's realization of the snow-bunny thing with Akiko's accident. The scene of the accident really really shocked me. I cannot put it in words how well done I think the scene was done... you really have to watch the scene to feel the impact. And the way they zoom in on the ruined strawberry cake on the snow was an excellent reminiscence of the ruined yuki-usagi. The cliffhanger was the best I have seen in the series so far.



Plus, the preview was exciting. I especially love the part where Nayuki sat in a corner of her room, blaming herself for Akiko's accident and telling Yuuichi to leave her alone. The next episode is going to become emotionally intense and very interesting.



出ていって、ゆういち。わたしって人も会いたくない。一人でいたいから。

Unfortunately, it seems to me the best of the series is just beginning at the near ending of the anime. I find KyoAni very artistic in delivering emotionally wrenching scenes at the last few episodes of the series. The pattern seems to replicate from their previous production, AIR. The first half was quite calm, and slow paced, but the last 3 episodes made me cry, especially when they showed the link of reincarnation and the inevitable death of Misuzu. The part where Misuzu tethered towards her aunt at the 'goal' end was very very sad.

For the first time, I'm actually looking forward to the next episode of Kanon: Symphony.



All images belong to Memento & Random Curiosity.
Please do visit them for excellent reviews on Kanon.

cross posted in Miharu's Reviews.

～みはる～

Balance of 3

What if you can't graduate even after you have finished all your modules?

Does that sound stupid? Apparently, my university's system is showing me such case IS possible.
Only recently, I decided to try to apply for a Ph.D programme, and the application required me to send a copy of my transcript containing all my exam results. Now, I have completed all my modules last semester, and all was to be done is my thesis project this semester. So logically, I had fulfilled all the required academic units for graduation. I was so confident about the matter, I mean I never fail any module so by right I have no outstanding units to clear, I took it for granted and never double checked my accumulated academic units. When I did check it last week, I almost had a cardiac arrest: there's a balance of 3 academic units.

Naturally, I flipped out.
WHERE DID THE 3 UNITS COME FROM??

Clearly, the 3 units account for one module. I started panicking; it is impossible to register any subject now and I'm already in my FINAL semester. If the balance stays, I cannot graduate!!

When I did calm down, I began tabulating all my points. The math was correct, but the balance should not be there! I tried to check with my cohort, but most were not immediately available. When I finally did get hold of a friend, I realized that the system had failed to display one subject which I passed last semester, which was worth 3 academic units.

I flipped out again.
WHY IS IT NOT THERE?

When I called the university to check, they couldn't give me an immediate answer. After troubleshooting, they told me the result for the subject is pending.

Now, how can the result for the subject I passed last semester be pending NOW? Furthermore, I did not submit any appeal to review my grade. I was extremely pissed off by the fact that they withdraw my results from the system and did not bother to inform me, the examinee, about whatever they wanted to do with it!! What right is there of them to take the liberty of removing the grades and report it as 'pending' without even giving notice to the owner of the grade? My blood boil at the curt reply given, and immediately sent an email back at them demanding for an explaination.

Doesn't that tell you that there is a possibility graduation is not possible despite completing all modules? It must have been on fine prints in the admission letter.

～みはる～

All in 2 weeks

It's been a while since I've posted anything unrelated to lab-life, or any post for that matter in the past few weeks. Lots of things had been happening, and it's not just Chinese New Year.

Two weeks ago while having a barbeque reunion dinner with my housemates and friends in campus, I called home to find out that mum require an immediate surgery. Suffice to say, I was shocked at the urgency and that the reason the surgery commanded immediate action was because her haemoglobin level had dropped to a 'dangerously low' level. However, mum was quite reluctant to undergo the surgery given that her physician failed to give her a clear explaination that would have assisted in her decision making. I was certainly unhappy with that as I felt it was unprofessional of the doctor to not ensure the patient was well-informed before making decision regarding a major surgery. Hence, I decided to take a red eye flight out of Sg and return home to take mum to another physician for a second opinion.

Like I said, I was amidst a barbeque gathering, and thought it would be rude to leave early, given that my housemates had been trying to include me for the gathering (thank you AM, WW! ^.^). Besides, it has been such a long time since I've met up with so many friends and I was dying for a large helping of barbeque-ed marshmallows. And it's not everyday your seniors pay for the barbeque! (thank you 'old people'!! >_<). So we ate and had some good laughs, and by the time I was back in my room, it was way past midnight. I had only 4 hours before I had to leave for the airport, so I decided against sleeping for fear of failing to wake up in time. To kill time, I showered, did laundry, and watched drama. By the time I was to leave for the airport, I felt kinda woozy and lightheaded.

Fortunately for me, I managed to hail a cab quickly, clambered inside, and thought I could catnap while being chauffered to the airport. As I was drifting off, I suddenly felt the cab slowly decelerating. Almost as quickly, the driver stomped on the accelerator abruptly. I blearily opened my eyes, and to my horror the driver himself was DRIFTING OFF as well!!

Now let me tell you, taking a cab driven by someone equally as sleepy as you is certainly no fun ride. My veins nearly popped when I watched the cab veering off the lane and in the direction of the side curb. I didn't know if I should thank my lucky stars when the driver 'regain consciousness' just in time to steer the vehicle back in lane. He was obviously VERY sleepy as he kept rubbing his eyes and ate sweets to keep awake. In the end, I had a terribly unnerving 30-minute journey, all the time praying that we would reach the airport a.s.a.p. before he knocked out cold.

By the time I really did reach the airport, I was very very tired as I couldn't sleep a wink during the terror ride (could you?). It didn't help that the airport was obscenely bright, cheery and full of enthusiastic human all giddy for holiday tours, while I was grumpy and sleepy. After checked in, I grabbed a pretzel and a cup of tea before briskly headed off to the boarding gate. Plonking on a cushioned seat in front of the still-closed gate, I shut my eyes, ignored stares from cheery holidaymakers, tuned out the glaring lights and loud banter, and fell asleep. Fortunately I managed to wake up for boarding, and once inside the plane, I fell asleep even before the plane taxi-ed.

When I touched down, it was already morning, and I immediately accompanied mum to the hospital. We had to go through a series of check ups before the doctor sat us down to discuss about the diagnosis and prognosis. I was much more satisfied with the professionalism of this second doctor, and after hearing out her advice, mum decided to go ahead with the surgery. You see!?! Compassion and soft skills are essential in treating your patients! *fumes at first doctor*

I had to return to Sg immediately as I had not taken any leave from my supervisor. It had been a tiring weekend, and fell asleep again during the flight back. When I did reach my room, it was again way past midnight and all I wanted to do was fall onto bed.

So, the next morning I immediately talked to my supervisor regarding my situation and she was extremely kind to allow me leave until mum recovered considerably. I was very grateful for her kindness, because I was counting on the leave to go home to post-surgery care to mum until she can move around independently. After settling some leftover experiments, I immediately rushed out of lab to catch the next flight back to hometown again. When I called dad on the way out, I was shocked to find out the surgery is already underway. I was shocked because I felt the hospital did not execute the procedure properly and had led to distress to the patient & family, but since the operation is already in the process, I just leave the matters as it is and prepared to travel back home again.

It was already night when I reached home and rushed to the hospital. I then took over dad's shift to look after mum over the night. This is my first experience being a caregiver a.k.a. night-nurse, and I must say it is not easy. It was very difficult trying to keep awake, as I hadn't slept properly at all during the whole weekend. Besides mum was very weak and required attention throughout the night, so it was quite a challenge.

Fortunately the surgery went well without complications, and mum has since gotten better, thanks to all well-wishers. I had taken a long leave to assist mum as long as possible, and had learnt many things along the way. A caregiver's role is not to be taken lightly, and I have come to respect their attentiveness and compassion.

This year's Chinese New Year was comparatively much simpler and quieter than previous years, but just as enjoyable. It was nice to have reunion gatherings because with all work and study overseas, we had hardly have time together as a family. I get to view New Year from my parents' perspective: polishing urns, preparing prayer paraphenalia, vegetable marketing, scaling fishes, hovering over hot stoves, oily pots, endless cooking - basically lots of HARDWORK! The goodness of homemade food and clean altars does not come easy!

Mum had since gotten better from her surgery, but I'm still sticking around home for sometime until she has recuperated enough to return to her routine indepedently. At the moment, I hope my pet E.coli sits in the freezer obediently till I get back to lab working with them!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

～みはる～

A Plasmid Fairytale

My experiments lately keep bumping into dead ends, and while searching for information online, I came across this very interesting site. The allegory is very relevant to what I'm currently doing, and I can't help laughing at the personification of the bacterial molecules. I'm sure bioscience students, and those who are not but understand the terms, will find this tale funny XD. Enjoy.


The wise molecular biologist tells us the tale:

Once upon a time, a plasmid met a cell, and they struck up a conversation. Saith the plasmid, "Kind cell, I bring thee a gene for antibiotic resistance, and if you let me in, I shall repay you by showing you how to make an enzyme that might save your life one day." The cell replied with annoyance, "What use hath I for the likes of thee? My food is all gone, I'm freezing my pili off, and you think my biggest problem is antibiotics? Maybe you're just a selfish gene, looking for a cell to make copies of you. Begone!" The plasmid smoothed out his supercoils, dodged a DNase, and tried to think of a suitable reply.

Just then, a massive wave of thermal energy struck them both, and it was all he could do to not lose his footing, standing as he was on the cell membrane. The plasmid trembled, partly to distribute the energy uniformly to his vibrotational degrees of freedom, but mostly at the thought of how painful thermal denaturation might be. Fortunately, it was not coming to that. Not this time. The temperature was high enough to pop a few hydrogen bonds, and his strands were breathing a bit, but he was covalently closed after all. He could handle it!

The cell was not so lucky, however. His membrane, which had been reasonably firm to this point, began to swirl and form vortices, and lost its smooth surface. The cell had gotten used to the cold temperatures by boosting the fraction of short chain and unsaturated fatty acids in his membrane. While it gave the membrane a good consistency in the icy cold, it was completely wrong for this new, higher temperature. The van der Waals interactions weren't strong enough to maintain cohesion, and errant lipids were now leaping through the bilayer like divers at a mosh pit. Huge patches of the membrane were involuting, bringing massive gulps of medium inside. The cell was just seconds away from a complete membrane breach!

Then, as quickly as it had started, the problem was over. The buzz of thermal energy was drawn away by some unseen entropic sink, and dissipated. The membrane returned to its glassy-smooth state. The plasmid was now inside the cell, having been carried through the membrane in its moment of weakness, but the cell was too preoccupied to notice the uninvited guest. The cell was using his last remaining energy to bail out the excess liquid, and set his ion gradients to rights. When he thought he could do no more, that his determined course would be senescence and death, a warm flow of fresh medium restored his spirits.

"Ah! Tryptone, and yeast extract", he said as he gratefully derepressed half a dozen operons. His ribosomes got right to work, making the enzymes that would help to catabolize the new food source and restore the structure of the cell to full health. He almost exclaimed, "I thought Darwin had me for sure that time!" but being a cell with little memory he had already forgotten the privations of a few minutes earlier. Thirty minutes passed, and he found himself cast onto a wide surface that was warm and rich in nutrients.

"Not bad", he said. I could live like this for generations!" But then, the horrible sounds of dying cells reached him. All around him, his brethren were being killed by an unseen attacker. An antibiotic was there, and was destroying the entire population. Oh the humanity! He braced himself for death, but then ... nothing happened. He was alive!

"Remember me?", said the plasmid. "I told you that I might save your life one day, and now it has come to pass." The plasmid, which had gone unnoticed since the thermal catastrophe, had been copied several times and transcribed by the cellular machinery. It had provided a gene that encoded an enzyme that destroyed the antibiotic before it even got into the cell. Although more antibiotic was diffusing into the neighborhood, the enzyme was on the job, and prevented it from doing any damage.

"Yes, you were right", said the cell. "I am grateful that you transformed me, and now that I have a logical explanation for my good health, I don't have to develop survivor guilt either. Stick with me, plasmid, and I'll make sure you are provided with a high copy number."

The generations passed, and the cell divided many times. Each time there was fission, the two daughter cells received an inheritance of plasmid copies. There was widespread prosperity.

I would say "They lived happily ever after", but sadly that is not the end of the story. The daughter cells grew into a prodigious colony, and soon had destroyed so much of the antibiotic in the immediate vicinity that the real danger had passed. Some cells that had not perished in the original attack even managed to survive and grow nearby - little "satellite colonies" seeking refuge from the high levels of antibiotic elsewhere.

Then the cells in the big colony became lazy. The plasmid was not replicated to the same high copy number - it no longer served the interests of the cell to do so. Sometimes, daughter cells did not inherit even a single copy of the plasmid! As the colony aged and grew, the proportion of cells that carried the plasmid became less and less.

The colony actually believed itself to be quite progressive on this point. Some of the more strident cells even argued: "Why should young cells be forced to make enzymes that they don't need?" They said "We want to evolve higher order characteristics, not merely regurgitate the knowledge that served our great-great-great grandcell!" Before long it was unfashionable to carry the plasmid, though a few still did, but the colony grew faster without the added responsibility of the added synthesis.

One day, a toothpick scraped the colony from a plate and carried it high into the sky. "At last," the progressive cells thought, "we are entering a bold new era in which we are going to be able to realize our true genetic potential!" The toothpick was dropped into a tube of fresh medium. The fresh medium had fresh antibiotic.

What happened next is almost too horrible to tell. The cells that still carried the plasmid lived of course. They produced the enzyme that destroyed the antibiotic. The cells that had not inherited the plasmid were unworried at first, because they thought that a protective shield of enzyme could be built by the others, but being in liquid medium there was no hope for them. The antibiotic was not limited by diffusion, as it had been on the plate, and they were soon overcome.

The few wise cells that had not lost their plasmid went on to eternal storage in glycerol stocks, and were written about in books and famous journals. They were grown in huge 10,000 liter fermentation tanks, and provided with the very richest medium that had ever been made!

The end.


～みはる～

Colony, where art thou?

Creating a molecular library is no easy feat. I almost landed myself in a phenomenal agar plating exercise.

Finally after a month of preparatory work, I was ready for my first trial run of molecular library construction. I was pretty optimistic, because I had everything carefully planned, right down to the number of eppendorf tubes that I had to use. I even took the pain to read several different protocols and scrutinize my experiment planning from all (perceived) possible angles. The only thing I did not do was read the directions of how to use the commercial competent cells properly. When I actually did, I came out with this mind-blowing numbers:

To make 1 library, I need:

• 400 eppendorf tubes for cell transformation
• 2000 agar plates for spreading of library culture

Because I have 7 library combinations, I need:

• 2800 eppendorf tubes for cell transformation
• 14000 agar plates for spreading of library culture

Essentially, I have to transform 2800 tubes of cells and spread 14000 agar plates in one go.
Say I take 1 minute to spread one agar plate, it would take me 233 hours, which is approximately 24/7 for 10 days, to finish spreading all the plates.

-_-'''

That is if I sit at the biosafety cabinet (BSC) for 10 days straight without leaving the BSC even for a split second.

My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the ridiculous figures. Forget the BSC-thing, even if I put all the incubators in the lab together, there isn't sufficient place to incubate 14000 plates!!

Now don't even entertain the thought of me spreading 14000 plates. Anybody knows that is quite impossible to be done. However, my supervisor, mentor, colleagues and myself had a good laugh at the scale of the experiment. We then worked out an alternative strategy to do the experiment, MINUS 14000 plates. *phew...*

So, after tweaking the protocol a little, I run the trial experiment at a manageable scale. I followed the recommended protocol strictly with hopes to generate as many colonies as promised by the company protocol. When I put in the plates in for overnight incubation, I was quite optimistic and very hopeful to see a lawn of colonies when I return the next day. I mean, afterall, they did say I'm supposed to obtain millions of colonies!

I waited and waited and waited till the hour came, ran to the incubator excitedly to take out my plates. どきどき。My heartbeat increased as I anticipated the lawn of E.coli on my plates. Chuckling gleefully, I reached for the plates and turned them over for a good look....... NO COLONY! I reached for another stack of plates..... ALSO NO COLONY! My heart sank as I reached for the final 3 stacks.... SPARSE COLONIES!

"Oh nooooo, what had happened to my cells?? I have no library??!! Even with using the most competent cells?? Dieeee......," - was all that was running in my head.

I supposed research isn't without experimental failures. Now I'm tweaking my strategies again and hopefully my next round of trial will bear fruit... or rather, fat juicy colonies.

Don't tell me I really have to spread 14000 plates?....

～みはる～