from here to here

The first section belongs of course to the Music Fair21 special. Aya was featured in six songs altogether, the most popular one being "Highschool Lullaby", featuring the handslap duel with Yossie :-) Needless to say the whole show and the individual performances can be found in the RS folders...
and here some vidcaps and collages from the show:

The last two came from Matt's favorite one: Ayaya supporting Hillary Clinton's run for Democratic contender I believe. I must say, seeing her in stars-and-stripes singing "YMCA" will be engraved in my mind forever. That has cult status. And Nights4Saturn added: I downloaded the video before really seeing what everyone had said about it, and wow. When it came to that part, wow. I don't think "cult status" even comes part way to describing it! Even my friends got a huge kick out of it, and they aren't even that big of Ayaya or H!P fans! I don't think I could have ever imagined that I would ever see her singing a song by the Village People. Also, I've really thought of the YMCA as all that American of a place, atleast not in the outlandishly patriotic way they portray it...
As a closure atstrbcks brought us two gifs from the Yossie thread:

rnwc reported the subtitles for episode 9 of Ajiou Ippon :-))))

japanese_boy then posted two new offical images These were the last pictures by him before he got banned which needs some explanation as he was a constant and welcome contributor here. In another thread Fumi had asked him to stop using shareapic as that site was using spyware (in which form I don't know though). Which makes sense considering that the user gets paid every time someone clicks on an image uploaded there by him. Now I couldn't care less if he wanted to make a little money as long as his material was on-topic here, but knowingly using an uploader dumping (if even harmless) tracking files on someone else's PCs is a no-no. I do hope though that he will be allowed to return, hopefully having learned his lesson.

Marcello then reported news about an upcoming new album by Aya entitled "Double Rainbow" which thrilled everyone, including N4S and Maiko^o^who posted the cover for "Egao": Everyone was asking themselves what the new album will sound like after the rather dismal sales of the ballad-heavy "Naked Songs"...

Some comments (uncommented :-)
Alienpyon: I hope this song and the new cd as a whole are not "lounge" as "Naked songs" (strangely enough, this album wasn't titled "4 - Naked songs" or something like that containing number "4", as if it was not considered to be part of Ayaya's discography at all), not only because the fans didn't appreciate this new style much but, also, because this is no longer our familiar Ayaya. Please, don't have me burn in hell, I liked "Naked songs" but if I want to listen to more Norah Jones style songs, I'll listen to Norah Jones, not to a Japanese singer who sounds like her! In fact, I'm not going to listen to Norah Jones at all
mangomalte: whoooooaaa! a fifth album?! that's like... totally unexpected. i mean it hasn't been more than... how long has it been since Naked Songs? *checks wiki.theppn.org* what the...! it was released in 2006? and here i was thinking it was released in febuary/march or something. man, that was bad.
so... will the singles not released on Naked songs be released on Double Rainbow? like Hyacinth, Watarasebashi, Zutto Suki de Ii Desu ka and Ki ga Tsukeba Anata? i guess some of them will, but for example Hyacinth was released back in early 2004... it'd look really weird if it'd be included. btw, awesome cover for Egao. now i'm off to listen to Norah Jones.
Mattthecat: Well, I hope she won't be singing "Desperado" coz quite frankly she can't win there. Lol. Despite that: How about a Country&Western album? Didn't she do a C&W number with a steel guitar on her last tour?
mangomalte: please god, no! anything but country... i've heard enough country for at least 20 life spans. my dad loves country. sure, it'd be the best country songs ever but still... Onna no Yuujou Monogatari is pretty funny and all because it's done in such a weird and happy country style, but if she'd be doing serious country... urgh...
Alienpyon: How about a black metal album? She had some fast tracks with (slightly) distorted electric guitars on her last tour!
usagi_mo_kami: I'm guessing it's gotta be mostly new material. I mean, even if you arrange it differently, how many times can you get people to keep buying the same songs?
Alienpyon: Well, it seems that I got out of the stone age and finally listened to the sample of "Egao" (danke to The Uploader). Good song and expected to become "very good song" after a couple of listens. Far from what I expected but still good on its own terms. The last verse of the chorus reminds of the last verse of the chorus of "Your song", eh?

Marcello later also posted the cover for the single V

Matt had uploaded two older videos to the RS folders: A cute 2003 SMAP Bistro appearance:

and a 2004
Nippon no Uta medley taken from Triela's torrent:

Matt's enquiry about the ladies appearing with Aya was answered by Wanderer-V2: The Lady on the left (in blue) and the second from the right (in Pink) are the oldstar-duo Pink Lady original performer of the songs Southpaw and Nagisa no Sinbad covered by W on Duo U&U.

Meanwhile N4S finally found his copy of that Yoyo movie (complete with his thumb :-) As Thunderbolt3000 found out the DVD had made its way to Germany too:

Matt provided some more official images:

while blackwin reported the good news of a new album as well which will bear her upcoming tour's title: Matsuura’s 5th Album: Double Rainbow 30 07 2007 - According to Netdirect, Matsuura Aya’s 5th studio album will be titled “Double Rainbow” and will be released on October 10th. The album will retail for 3,150 yen. And from Ayawaii: Ce cinquième album portera donc le même nom de sa prochaine tournée solo : Matsuura Aya Concert Tour Fall 2007 ~Double Rainbow~ qui se déroulera du 13 octobre au 10 novembre. Alienpyon added: According to CdJapan, here's what we're getting: "Seventh full-length album from Aya Matsuura includes the latest singles "Egao," "Suna wo Kamu Yo ni . . . Namida," "Ki ga Tsukeba Anata," and more for 11 songs total". This sheds some light over the singles that are included, but...Seventh?! mangomalte guessed that they had included the ST for "Sougen no Hito" (which had of course included that single) which met Alien's agreement, despite it being a suckerpunch, though! She only sang two songs in that album!

Matt then found an Aya (almost) never seen before: Dressed in trendy and fitting wardrobe. Too bad that it was from November 2005, another episode of SMAPxSMAP, available in the folders of course:

sville1999 then gave us a nice little reference to the singles and which albums they came from (if any):
01A --- Dokki Doki! LOVE Mail --------------- First Kiss & Best 1 & Naked Songs
02A --- Tropica~l Koishite~ru --------------- First Kiss & Best 1 & Naked Songs
03A --- LOVE Namida Iro --------------------- First Kiss & Best 1 & Naked Songs
04A --- 100kai no KISS ----------------------- First Kiss & Best 1
05A --- Momoiro Kataomoi ------------------- T·W·O & Best 1
06A --- Yeah! Meccha Holiday --------------- T·W·O & X3 (HIGH TUNED mix) & Best 1
07A --- The Bigaku ---------------------------- T·W·O
08A --- Sougen no Hito ----------------------- T·W·O & Best 1 (TSUNKU Mix)
09A --- Ne~e? ---------------------------------- X3 & Best 1
10A --- GOOD BYE Natsuo -------------------- X3 & Best 1
11A --- THE LAST NIGHT ---------------------- X3
12A --- Kiseki no Kaori Dance --------------- Best 1
13A --- Hyacinth ------------------------------- Best 1
14A --- YOUR SONG ~Seishun Sensei~
15A --- Watarasebashi ----------------------- Best 1
16A --- Tensai! LET'S GO Ayayamu
17A --- Zutto Suki De Ii Desu Ka
18A --- Ki ga Tsukeba Anata
19A --- Suna wo Kamu You ni... NAMIDA --- Naked Songs
20A --- Egao
No B-side songs have been included on her albums, except I Know, which is on Best 1 and Naked Songs.

Alien then presented Evil Aya enjoying the fact that her bad taste in wardrobe had spread to the whole of MM

Next good news cam with the cover for a GAM Concert DVD (though this is obviously a FC release) , a picture which prompted Matt to comment: First the one-armed Aya, now the beast with two heads.... I sure hope UFA will be moving out of those offices next to the nuclear power planet as soon as possible.

He also reported the upload to the folders of one of the prettiest Aya PBs, the Spring 2004 Concert Pamphlet "Watashi to Watashi to Anata", sporting a Cinderella theme.
3 samples: and (as N4S pointed out) a 4th with a neat pocket to put your ticket in

Everyone was reminded to vote in the "Best Actress" poll at HO which she is still leading three weeks later. Everyone did (well, except for one Greek Judas..... :-)

Marcello posted a youtube link to a funny episode of Gaki no Tsukai - Batsu Gemu with Ken Maeda doing his (almost famnous) Ayaya impersonation.

The new Meringue found its way to the tracker (and the folders), and Matt couldn't say anything real bad about the wardrobe. Can't say anything good about it either though. Lol. But I like her a-bit-on-the-wild-side hair though. And the show is full of kawaiiiii facial expressions by our beloved. Almost looks like she had one too many cocktails before the show. It is absolutely charming.

Matt's favorite picture inspired Alienpyon to a brilliant montage:

And with a (unnecessary) reminder all that's left for me is to say:

Cya next week :-)))