I love to find cute little games to mess with when I need to waste some time. I always think, ugh, I shouldn’t really be wasting any time – I should be doing something really important like saving the rainforest, cleaning the house, working  etc. But sometimes I just want to play a little and I have found some pretty darn kawaii games out there to do just that.

My new time-waster is a game I found on Facebook called SuperPoke! Pets. I am not really sure what a super poke is or what it has to do with keeping a little animated pet but they are super kawaii and I was able to adopt a Dragon!

My dragon’s name is Myridion and here is a snapshot of him in his new Spooky Bedroom Habitat.

Isn’t he the cutest?

You can adopt a bunch of different pets from a panda to sheep to little piggie. Then you spend time decorating your “habitat” and caring for your pet in a Tamagotchi-type fashion. You feed your pet, clean it, tickle it and arrange playdates with friends on Facebook who also have pets. I’m pretty sure there isn’t much else to do except spend more and more silver points on cooler stuff for your habitats and do some gardening. At least that’s what I’ve discovered so far. There may be more to it – they have a very active forum but I haven’t checked it out yet.

If you are interested in meeting my little dragon you can do so by clicking here.

This is MIKA’s new album “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” reviewed song by song since I’ve  had a week or so to play it constantly.

It is better than I had thought initially now that I have let the songs really sink in. They are so multilayered that you will still be listening to this in six months finding nuances you had missed. His first record, “Life in Cartoon Motion” was not quite as over-produced (which is fine with me, I like that big sound) and its more innocent in scope. This is a happier and more mature Mika and I really dig it.

To begin with Mika sets the mood of the entire album with “We are Golden” a pop anthem for the teenager in all of us. Who hasn’t danced like crazy in their bedroom dressed only in their underwear? Mika says that this new album is kind of his adolescence as an artist, though I’d say his perspective is far enough away that he can view his teen-dom with a melancholy nostalgia. It’s the moment when you realize that there is no going back and you’ll turn the next corner and run right into thirty.

I love to see an artist of Mika’s brilliance grow-up right in front of me . The thought of what the next decade will musically offer with this man(though he still refers to himself as a boy) is the single most exciting consideration for me as a music fan in about 15 years. I mean it. I’ve not really cared a whit for any music since the end of Queen. Well I liked Oasis for a bit in 1995 and Counting Crows since they were a favorite of my husband’s but until I heard Mika sing “Grace Kelly” two years ago I had pretty well given up on current music.

The video for “We are Golden” is Mika’s personality exploded on the screen. You have to watch it about 100 times before you can even believe half of the visuals that assault you during the video. You’ll also have a difficult time sitting still  since it makes you want to dance mad like Denny Terrio (so many of you won’t even get that reference!). Also, bonus, Mika spends most of the  video in only boxer shorts and several states of half-dress. Although he claims to have his “Grandmother’s Lebanese hips”, he is leggy, slim, sexy, sweaty and cute enough to make a woman fourteen years his senior blush like a naughty schoolteacher – c’mere youngster, I’ve got a few things I can teach you!

The next song is “Blame it on the Girls” which will be his second single – definitely it is marked to be a huge hit here in the US, it’s super pop accessible. Any song with tons of hand-clapping gets the pulses pumping here in the US. You’ll be singing the chorus after one listen. You won’t be able to stop. That’s the definition of a true pop song that it has a hook that cannot be ignored. Mika is a hook genius.

Now I’ve heard that the voice-over at the beginning of the song is actually done by Mika (the fans have debated this) and it is cheeky and clever and for some reason made me think of John Lennon.

There is an interesting story of how the song came to be; that Mika was with his younger sister in London and watched a bloke full of self-importance yelling into his cell-phone then pass a flirty comment or two his sister’s way. This made Mika  (in typical older brother fashion) want to stop and give the guy a smack but his little sister took it completely in stride and said to Mika, “Oh what a tragic pretty boy”. Mika went home that night and wrote the song.

Mika performed the song live on Good Morning America just this past Friday (Sept 25th) and you can watch it here on You Tube. (Is it just me or is he wearing some of Freddie Mercury’s old costumes?)

Next up is “Rain” which is probably my least favorite track on the album (though I’m not too thrilled by “Lady Jane” either). I do like the chorus and the chant that Mika “hates days like this”. I get it and this is the best part of the song then it bursts into the rainy chorus with the full power of Mika’s falsetto. It gets a little dancey in the middle and Mika does a little rap. I don’t dislike it but it really doesn’t have the power of the other songs. You feel somewhat like you are on this fantasy journey and this makes me think of Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manouvers in the Dark, which is certainly not poor company but not what I like to listen to from Mika.

“Dr. John” is a ditty, plain and simple. Freddie Mercury would love this. It reminds me a bit of Freddie’s “Seaside Rendezvous” from “A Night at the Opera”. What I love about Mika is that I usually haven’t the faintest idea what his lyrics mean and that is fine with me. I’m not here listening to Mika for social commentary, I’m escaping and I want to dive into the lush melodies and stay there a while. Who gives a feather or fig what any of it means. I still find it astonishing that he can make his piano playing sound like Freddie’s too. How is that possible? Perhaps the classical training? The hands? I don’t know but it blows my mind.

“I See You” is the prettiest song  of the lot and the most meaningful. The strings are ethereal and the emotions are deep, more along the lines of  “Any Other World” from “Cartoon Life in Motion” but this is a love song and Mika can kick it on a power ballad like a real pop star. I love the sentiment too, there is something completely beautiful in the statement, “I see you.” It is acknowledgement, wistful and tragic all at once. Mika is willing to let us in to a level of heartbreak that would embarrass most people.

All that teary-eyed drama disappears in the next song, “Blue Eyes”. This will stay with you (I defy you to actually get one single Mika song out of your head – never happen!) and you’ll be trilling, “Whatsamatter matter matter blue eyes blue eyes…”. It has a delicious calypso beat that is unlike anything Mika has ever done before.

“Good Gone Girl” reminds me a little of the Barenaked Ladies hit, “One Week”. How can Mika sing in those ranges – sometimes within three octaves in the same phrase – it exhuasts me.

“Touches You” has been compared to George Michael’s “Father Figure” and rightly so. Mika has the chops of George Michael vocally and even swings into sexy singer territory here. I can imagine the fangirls and boys bumping and grinding pressing toward the stage when Mika growls and sings this one live, all wanting to be a part of  “touching me, touching you.”

“By the Time” starts lovely and has this incredible refrain, “By the time I’m dreaming and you’ve crept out on me sleeping, I’m busy in the blissful unaware.” Then the refrain, “Don’t wake up, won’t wake up, can’t wake up.” It’s just, well, dreamy. Very soulful, an R&B sound. How many disparate genres will this man re-invent?

“One Foot Boy” is true kawaii. I love the beat, the piano, the obscure lyrics and Mika’s gorgeous falsetto floating through the chorus. This song has so many layers that you really need to listen closely. Mika sings alot with himself, many dubs, it makes for a bodacious sound. And then boom, it’s over. True pop.

I read in another review that “Toy Boy” sounded like it was produced by Walt Disney. It is amusing and somewhat ridiculous. Mika’s voice is velvety even when he sings, “She stuck her voodoo pins where my eyes used to be.”  Once again I have no clue what it means but it is charming and effective.

Mika pulls into torch song territory on “Pick Up Off the Floor”. This is too similar to Freddie Mercury’s “My Melancholy Blues” to not have been influenced by it. So whose is better? You have to remember that Freddie had no effects on his voice for that recording. Just paino, bass and drum and Freddie singing and sighing. Plus, Freddie did have a four octave range and he was, you know, Freddie freakin’ Mercury, but yo’ Mika, good show.

The next song is another Queen homage, “Lover Boy” which could practically be “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy”. I wonder if Mika just took “A Night at the Opera” and “A Day at the Races” and played them over and over on his ipod? A great line here, “Love is just a cautionary, momentary, reactionary lie.”

Although the music for “Lady Jane” is gorgeous, I don’t get the lyrics. Something about a guy who turns into a fish and Lady Jane who “walks on water” and then jumps into the ocean and becomes a fish too. All right, its got to be allegorical. Pretty but confusing. Mika’s voice is so pure you want to drink it like water.

I love Mika the way I haven’t loved any musician since Freddie Mercury. There are similarities here; the level of talent, the classical piano training, the Arab ancestry (Mika is half American too though raised in England and France, Freddie Mercury was Indian of Arabic descent, raised in England), the swarthy and somewhat pretty good looks, the balletic physique, the love of theatrics, the voice that caresses the ear like a lover’s whisper. Freddie had a secret dark side though and Mika (real name Mika Penniman) wears his dark side on his sleeve.  Hi songs are wistful perhaps and sometimes sad and deal with dark subjects with a cartoonists deft hand. For the most part Mika is kawaii, dancerific and relentlessly positive in that he embraces the ugliness of the world by accepting it.  You know, he’s actually very Buddhist in a lot of ways which makes a Buddhist like me relate pretty well.

His art is definitely kawaii ( oh you know he would absolutely love Gloomy Bear for instance!) and he works on the designs of his CD’s and shows with his talented artist sister Yasmine (his family is very involved in his musical career). He is talented beyond his years (he is 26 years old) and has just released his second album called “The Boy Who Knew Too Much”. I love the title of this album since it reflects experience that Mika has gained since his last record 2 years ago called “Life in Cartoon Motion”. That was a fresh-faced look at pop music and “Boy”  is more mature, more theatrical and discusses love, loss, sex and sexual identity.

Sometimes I feel like I’m hearing Freddie Mercury’s falsetto, especially on the tune, “Pick Up Off the Floor” which is a torch song reminiscent of Freddie’s tour de force on “News of the World” called “My Melancholy Blues”.

There have been comparisons to Scissor Sisters front man Jake Shears but he has nowhere near the vocal range and quality of Mika (or Freddie Mercury) though he  is also talented in his way but  not as accessible as Mika. Jake is always openly gay and Freddie Mercury was only so in later in life and Mika has said he is bisexual(actually he didn’t really SAY he was bizexual, rather that others could refer to him as bisexual if they liked) recently to a Dutch magazine though he prefers not to label himself or others.

Another Queen song tie-in is Mika’s “Lover Boy” which is terribly  like Queen’s “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” from “A Day at the Races”.  It’s like Freddie has been resurrected and he’s young and fresh and well – not Freddie anymore really – he’s Mika, he’s a completely different take on a similar theme and for me it is dream come true.

My favorite song on the new album is “I See You”; that is heartbreak in a song. And yet you don’t feel destroyed at the end, just that you have acknowledged something you could no longer deny. Somehow Mika captures beauty in the fact that there is no hope.

This song is one of the most sad on the record, for the most part Mika makes you want to sing and dance with shameless abandon, even if some of the lyrics have a razor sharp edge and are slightly macabre.

Mika himself is mercurial (take that how you want), tormented to a certain degree and yet filled with what can only be called the unbearable lightness of being. He is one of a kind, even with comparisons to others (you will hear The Beatles, Queen, Scissor Sisters and Billie Holiday influencing his tracks); he is truthfully more like water than reflection. His music flows and transforms that which it flows over turning stones into art and parched earth into life.

We need Mika. We need to lay back in his musical waters and float toward the promise of hope, understanding and the deep chords of love that vibrate through his transformative beat.

I like to find as much cuteness in my life as possible through all forms of media. I am always especially on the lookout for kawaii films. I’ve seen a number of Japanese films that qualify but also many others that you may or may not have heard of. This is my own method of judging the kawaii-ness of a film so you may end up watching the same film and thinking – uh…no.  But this is my closet, my blog and my list. This list is by no means complete – look for updates.

Here are some of my fave kawaii films:

The Wizard of Oz: first thing – cute little dog in a basket. Girl with braids. Sparkly shoes. Music. Dancing scarecrow, crying metal guy and silly lion. Rainbows. Munchkins. The Lollipop Guild. Extreme cuteness or too much opium. I vote cuteness.

Toy Story (all): A flying space-guy toy and an vintage cowboy toy, plus all the other toys come to life what kid (or grown-up kid) wouldn’t love this? Incredible animation and voice-acting. One of the best. Way, way cute.

ET: Adorable alien, adorable kids, extra adorable Drew Barrymore – the wonder of childhood as it gives way to the new understanding of growing up. All at once cute, sweet and bittersweet.

Wall-E: a love story with robots who don’t even speak but adore the musical Hello Dolly. One of my personal faves of all time. So cute I can barely control myself. Just talking about it makes me want to watch it. In fact, I may have to leave this list and come back.

The Fifth Element: Ok I am back. This is far-out but still incredibly cute. How can a film with a character named Leeloo NOT be cute? Even the bad guys are silly and cute in this. It is almost a French space farce. How about Corben Dallas’s cross-eyed kitteh named Sweetie?

Coraline: this falls under goth-cute (like gothic lolita) but the stop animation is to die for. It is a little creepy but so is stop animation if you really think about it (except for those Rudolph Christmas Specials – don’t even say a word about those being creepy or I will open up a can of whup-ass on you!). Coraline is sweet and funny and quirky and dresses kawaii.

Dr. Doolittle: any dude who can talk to animals, has a push me pull you llama, rides around in a giant pink snail, flies on a lunar moth AND is a vegetarian is all right with me. Plus goofy songs and Rex Harrison make this beyond lovely.

Kamikaze Girls: one of my favorite Japanese films ever – this is about friendship, girlhood, kawaii-ness and fighting for what you believe in (even if it is sort of shallow and meaningless). Any film that includes the legendary Japanese store Baby the Stars Shine Bright as a central part of the story is uber-kawaii. There is also a girl gang fight, manga and drinking tea.

Dear Frankie: a serious story but done cute. Cute boy, cute Mom, cute Scottish accents and one of my fave cuties ever Gerard Butler, being cute, sexy and sweet. It is a lovely little film and one that you can watch repeatedly and pick up something new each time. It’s about a mother’s love, friendship, learning to move on.

Ice Age (all): adorable woolly mammoth and a lisping three-toed sloth melt perfectly with a cagey saber-toothed tiger who is afraid of water. I have seen the newest one yet but the other two were so freakin’ cute that I know the third one will put me over the edge. Oh, the squirrel. Need I say more?

Madagascar (all): I love all the characters but for me the greatest love of all belongs to the cutest character ( you actually need to watch the films a couple of times each to catch everything he says) voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen; Julien. Worth the price of admission. David Schwimmer as a hypochondriac giraffe in love with Jada Pinkett-Smith as a huge hippo is beyond cute too.