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Now that we have virtual Idols, between Vocaloid and the 3D RL holographic projection process that displays them live on stage, it is time to get creative with our live concerts. Mikunopolis is coming on July 2nd to the stage in LA as part of Anime Expo. Besides being Virtual Idol Hatsune Miku’s first performance in the US, she will be the first ever Virtual Guest of Honor at an American Con. In case you were wondering, her back-up band on stage with her will be non-virtual, but there is always the chance some of the other Virtual Idols will be joining her on stage. SEGA is doing the 3D imaging tech work for the show with Crypton Future Media, the creators of Hatsune Miku, supervising. The videos here were taken at the Miku’s Day Thanksgiving live show in Tokyo on March 9th 2010, and the reports are the 3D tech for the on stage presentation has gotten even better since then.

If you are interested in creating your own Virtual Idol, it was announced today, or yesterday depending on which side of the date line you are on, that Vocaloid is finally being updated (the last new version was released 4 years ago). The program itself has come down in price, and version 3 will be retailing at around $125, but they have not announced what the voice packages are going to run yet. This is supposed to be the most realistic singing voice engine to date, and comes with multi-language support. That means your English language songs can be built from English phonemes now; I am sure anyone who programmed the previous versions to sing in English when it only came with Japanese phonemes is going to be quite excited about that. I think I will save the resources to create your 3D Idol for another post; enjoy the music from the old version of Vocaloid.

This is a fun little destination; the Library of Congress yesterday fired up its National Jukebox, primarily filled with audio recorded between 1901 and 1925. The event yesterday had Harry Connick Jr. putting in an appearance to sing a song from the Jukeox, and it blew him away. They have a huge collection of Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, Bluegrass, and many others, mostly recorded by their own teams of engineers who went all over the country to get it; a lot of this music exists no where else and hasn’t been heard for 50 or a hundred years. But up until now you had to actually go in person to the LOC to hear any of it. Thanks to this project by Sony and the LOC, anybody in the world now has access to it, or at least the parts they have gotten into the jukebox so far.

The Sacramento State Jazz Singers were recorded at Monterrey doing the Battlestar Galactica version of the Bob Dylan song made famous by Jimi Hendrix; All Along the Watchtower. This sounds amazingly like it it was scored by Yoko Kanno as part of her Ghost In The Shell soundtrack. I got goosebumps listening to this, and had to share it.

A new trailer for the remake of Conan the Barbarian has been released, and I am a lot more likely to see the film now that I have watched it. For tonight’s viewing though Danny Choo’s Culture Japan has launched for free at Crunchyroll. You are never going to get a better understanding of the phenomena than by watching Tokyo’s top Otaku take you behind the scenes of the latest Manga, Anime, Music, and Games, explaining it all. They have a dozen episodes now for premium members (that’s the entire first season!), with 5 online right now for everyone and more coming over the next 2 weeks; enjoy!

Episode one of Tiger and Bunny is now streaming online over at Anime News Network, a superhero Anime series including some giant mecha drivers.

One of the things I love watching (and listening to) online is music, from amazing artists from all over the world. Back when I was a DJ for a living I had a fun thing I used to announce with a quote like the third of one in a row, where I would play multiple versions of a single song. This is one of those kind of things, using the classic song “Summer Wine”.

The original, from Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, was an instant classic, along with several other songs that couple recorded. To this day I still believe she never would have gotten into the studio without daddy’s influence, but I find I currently appreciate her limited talents a lot more, because I really do enjoy all her songs.

Noticeably better than the original is this rendition recorded live by the Corrs and Bono;

From France (but still sung in English) comes this version by Emilie Simon and Alain Bashung, recorded live at La Music. Emilie Simon is one of my four favorite French vocalists, a truly amazing talent you would do well to pay attention to.

My vote for best version of this song goes to the Euro-Couple Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon, who had an entire production company promoting their movie behind them. The movie was titled Das Wilde Leben which translated into English is The Wild Love, telling the tale of the “It Girl” from 1968 Germany, Uschi Obermaier. Born Ursula Obermaier in 1946 Munich, she found her way to Commune 1 in Berlin, where she was much more interested in Free Love and partying than supporting The Party. She was one of the forces which eventually brought the Berlin Wall down, through her influence on popular opinion over the next few decades and her refusal to be anyone but who she was. I believe Natalia Avelon was a brilliant choice to play her, and a perfect vocal balance for Ville on this song.