Just wanted to stop by and let you all know how much I appreciate, well, everything you do, but specifically the torch report folders. That's absolutely incredible that you would put that much time and love into basically doing my scrap booking for me. This is gonna be something that I keep forever and I hope you all understand how blessed and humbled I feel to know that I have the support of wonderful people like you. Thank you again.
Whats up? I am back from Japan as you all know. Just wanted to drop by and say Hi and share my Japanese experience. I took a bunch of photos and would like to share a few with you. I hope that you pick up the simple aesthetics that I love so much about the Japanese culture. Here are few pictures for you all to enjoy.
Tatami room-
This is an authentic Japanese tea room. In 8th grade I took Japanese and my teacher taught my class how to perform the traditional tea ceremony. Of course we did it in the band room, not an authentic Japanese tea room
Waterfall-
This is just a subtle example of the incredible natural beauty of Japan. (I have no idea what the signs say)
Moonlit rats-
I was walking down a row of stores in Kyoto when this caught my eye in a storefront window. It is a perfect portrayal of simple aesthetics conveying a message successfully. This is a celebration of the year of the rat.
Shyama and Me singing-
As you can see, this is Shyamali and me singing for a small group of very important Japanese people.
Golden Temple-
This is Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion Temple). It was originally built in 1397 as a retirement villa and later converted to a Zen temple. The top two floors of this three story building are covered with pure gold leaf and on the roof is a golden ho-o, or "Chinese Phoenix".
Buddha Temple-
This is one of Japan's most famous temples. Todaiji (Great Eastern Temple) is located in Nara and is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. This is also where the largest wooden statue of Buddha in Japan is housed.
It*s been over a year since Sanjaya first emerged from the field of American Idol hopefuls to the status of pop icon, yet over a year later the question still remains for many: Exactly who are his fans? Amusingly enough, to those of us who know better, the debate continues: Was it mostly screaming, sobbing pubescent girls who kept him in the running for so long? Was it the Worsters? Wherever the debate was raged, the consensus usually fell somewhere between those two extremes, but that still left an entire contingent of Sanjaya*s fanbase completely unaccounted for. Thankfully, I believe the media has finally begun to recognize what we always knew, that Sanjaya*s fanbase is much more widely diverse than anyone at first imagined. To even suggest that Sanjaya*s fans were only tween girls (much less only Worsters) was an insult to those many hundreds of mature, intelligent fans, from soccer moms to graduate-degree professors, who found something special in this kid. And were going out on a limb to let the world know that, indeed, he was not the "Worst," but the "Best."
But even though the media may be finally coming round, there still remains a dedicated and loyal, but somewhat overlooked, contingent of Sanjaya*s fanbase-the male Fanjaya.
Why would I call them an overlooked contingent? Well, again, let*s go back to the beginning. Sanjaya emerged early on as a very pretty "pretty boy" favorite in last year*s competition. With his big smile, gorgeous, David Cassidy-era hair and puppy dog eyes, it was obvious the young girls were going to love him. But let*s face it: We all know our favorite male teen idols have ALWAYS been fodder for the American male macho faction, who give great vent to their Tarzan-like chest-beating by strutting like bantam roosters, indignantly cranking up their Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Merle Haggard, or digging out their Chuck Norris flicks (whatever their tastes in machoism might be) and taking great pleasure in their superiority over such fluff. Okay, that is nothing new.
SINCE SANJAYA DECLARED HIMSELF TO BE "IRISH" ON VALENTINES DAY (WE WERE THERE), JOSH AND I WANTED TO SHARE A FEW MORE PICTURE OF SANJAYA TAKEN ON VALENTINES DAY... THE FIRST THREE SHOW HIM WORKING ON SONGS THROUGHOUT THE DAY(EVEN WHILE PREPARING FOOD) AND YES, THAT IS HIS BEDROOM . THE LAST IS OF JOSH AND SANJAYA... THERE ARE STILL A FEW OF YOU WHO WERE SKEPTICAL OF THE "MODELING" PHOTO WE SUBMITTED TO DAZE AS A VALENTINES PRESENT... THIS PHOTO WITH JOSH WAS TAKEN THE SAME DAY. HOPE THAT PUTS IT ALL TO REST FOR YOU NON-BELIEVERS
Josh and I happen to be in Los Angeles on Valentines Day and made a slight detour. Here is our belated Valentine's Gift
to all the Fanjayas'....you owe us for this one. Enjoy!!!!!!
* Hello Everyone, Id love to be able to come on here today and say something happy and funny and laugh and sing all day long, but every once in a while, life gives you challenges that aren't meant to make you happy. Some of you may know the story of Nicholas Sears. He's my the son of my mothers friend of 25 years who we adopted as our cousin cause he had no family except his mom and brother. Well for the past couple years he's been fighting a very rare form of cancer. He's been on countless medications just to keep himself neutral and he's still been in pain. However, today at around noon in the presence of my mother who saved his families existence by motivating them to move out of an extremely unhealthy house and has been taking care of nicholas to make his days full of love and comfort, and my sister who he's always had a little crush on and who I always hoped, if the day came, he would be able to see and talk to before the inevitable, he passed on. Now comes my request for you. I fear that he may become lost in the transition and I want it to go smoothly for him. So if you all could please pray for his release and comfort on his way to the side. I think he need the support of as many people as possible. Thank you for your love and may you all be happy and healthy for years and years to come.
God Bless, Sanjaya *
**
Please post you prayers and condolences in Sanjayas topic only
If you wish to send a card with prayers or condolences to Nick's mum Jonae and younger brother Jacob - and to Sanjaya, Shyamali, and Jill, you are requested to please send those to the following address:
*
Nicholas Sears Family - Jill Blythe c/o Sanjaya Malakar 6920 Roosevelt Way NE #362 Seattle, Wa. 98115 *
Beautiful Perfect Bound Book of Torch Reports, total of 728 pages, with all full picture pages in color. Get your copy ordered soon. We will start printing once we reach 25 orders. If you do not get your copy ordered in the first lot of 25 orders, you will have to wait for the next 25 orders to fulfill. We need to have 25 orders in by Aug 1st to have your copy on your doorsteps by the end of Aug. So hurry up! Let your friends know about it too! Are you one of the reporters? If so, you should definitely secure a copy for yourself. How often do you get to author a book? This is your pride, cherish it!
When you are going through the steps of shopping cart it will give you a security warning and point your browser to a https://, notice the extra "s" on the http, that is a secure site. Anything you enter there, basically
your shipping address will be securely stored in our database. Then you will be directed to Paypal's secure payment site. Paypal also allows secure credit card payment for those who do not have Paypal account. So, you do not need to worry about security, we have taken measures to make your shopping on Daze is safe and secure. Enjoy your shopping!!! :)
