Arirang Live On Stage

SeeU performs two songs here: Ddararira and Arirang, the latter of which regular visitors here will probably already recognise. I found it powerful and moving for some reason, when we got to that second song. This was performed at a live concert in Seoul, South Korea, just a few weeks ago, on 19 January 2013, and the video has just been uploaded in the past couple of days..

SeeU really is quite stunning on stage, probably the best of the Vocaloids in that regard and quite possibly including everyone else as well(!) While Luka has the most commanding stage presence, SeeU is the most feminine. I can easily understand why Saul Preston (now 'Paul Lloyd') in my short story Vika was so taken with her. Perhaps he saw this concert and that was what set him on his lifetime's quest...

The video starts off with the camera zoomed out too far away, and occasionally strays outward again later on, where the strong lighting defeats the camera's exposure capabilities and it bleaches out the image somewhat. Do stick with it, though: it is genuinely well worth it when we do get to zoom in, the first such time being at twelve seconds in (part-zoom) and just over a minute in (full zoom-in). It's a seven minute video, so there's plenty of good material here, and it's quite captivating...

Saturday VocaJazz 2 March 2013 – Starry Sky

As if to show that even Miku's normal voice can do jazz, here's Starry Sky which has a relaxing style that is reminiscent of the US scene back in the 'fifties.

It is easily good enough to be included in my 'VocaJazz Saturday' series, and shows that it can be done with Miku, unlike with several other efforts that I have had to pass by...

Formless Song

I was going to hold this one back for a while, but as it's such a dull day today I've decided to make it a bonus item now.

This is possibly the most beautiful song ever written specifically for Miku (as I believe this was), with the unusual title Even Though My Song Has No Form, composed by doriko. It was in the Sapporo concert I posted about three months ago, but a long way in, so I don't suppose many visitors here got that far. It has English subtitles, but you'll want to watch the video, so I suggest going through it twice, to be able to give both aspects the attention they merit

This story-telling video features what to me looks more like an Append-style (rather than 'extend', but I'm no expert on this: I'm just going by hair texture and skin tone) Miku model of very high quality, with a somewhat greenish hair tint in a shorter style for a bit of a change from the norm, and in a nice – if a little plain – everyday outfit that suits the mood perfectly.

Oh, and you'll probably want to have a hanky or some tissues ready...

Neutrino

One of the better Vocaloid songs that appeared from Vocalekt Visions last year is Neutrino. I like this song, especially the way it has been done here, which also includes English subtitles. It also tells us something about the song's composer...

Be aware that from around half way through to near the three quarters mark there is a constant 'strobe lighting' effect, which I even found a little oppressive after a while. Otherwise this is very well done, and somehow this particular Miku model seems to be almost in the room with the viewer, especially when doing a quick spin.

Interesting mini-fact: the song itself lasts many times longer than a neutrino does...

Eastleigh By-Election Result – 1 March 2013

By midnight, we had the turnout figure: 52·8%, which is reasonably high for a mid term by-election. Just under a quarter of all votes cast were postal votes, one source has said, while another has put it as high as two-thirds of the whole – the bulk of the Lib Dem ones apparently having been sent in before the Lord Rennard story broke in the media.

If the 66% figure turns out to be anywhere near the more accurate, this ought to explain the Yellows' victory if that is confirmed later, especially because of that timing.

Perhaps, in a way, that would be poetic justice, as the now-proven coincidental timing of the revelations should not have had an undue influence on the result anyway.

The Liberal Democrats are confident they have won, despite some seemingly odd suggestions that UKIP were running neck-and-neck with them, both overall and (on a separate occasion) in respect of postal votes alone. The size of the Lib Dem victory is all they await, plus formal confirmation of what they have apparently known since just before midnight, perhaps even earlier (though the first message saying this that I have found was timed then).

The word is that it's a big win (which fits in with my own prediction of either a narrow lead or a big one, but not a medium-size one) of "thousands rather than hundreds" as one source has put it. An update around 0130 hrs has put a nominal figure of circa 3,000 on this, though this was reduced to two thousand just twenty minutes later, presumably as a consequence of the larger UKIP score over the Conservatives (see below)..

There are indeed rumours of the Conservative candidate coming third, as a few commentators have been hinting might happen. If so, this will almost certainly turn out to be (also as others have said) an anti-'government' (as Conservative-led, and the Lib Dems also rejected) protest vote. It is the only credible explanation for UKIP coming from next to nowhere so suddenly.

That's okay: these things happen, and have done so for decades. The word at 0145 hrs is that UKIP might be around 500 votes ahead of the Conservative candidate. Later this was upped to around twice that number.

That would be a little sad if true, especially after the broadly good campaign that the Blue Team ran – though I do have reservations about the colouring of their last leaflet to look something like a UKIP one: it's not what I'd have liked if I had been standing, for example. I am sure that party people think it's all very clever and innovative, lateral thinking – but the voters are going to see it as trickery and  rather obvious attempted deception, perhaps even as a form of desperation. Wouldn't you, in their position?

It seems to have been only when that leaflet went out that the actual result shifted dramatically from what the polls have been indicating, and the Conservatives dropped from likely second place to actual third. There's a lesson in there, I strongly suspect...

Labour look like coming "a distant fourth" according to sources in Eastleigh. For decades their vote there was around 20% or so, dropping to just under half that at the 2010 General Election. Tonight's result is just as poor for them as it was in 2010, and it is even being rumoured that they have lost their deposit along with the numerous fringe parties/candidates. Perhaps Labour are becoming a fringe party themselves outside their heartlands. We should know over the next two General Elections, I think...

Meanwhile, by 0210 hrs the result is imminent, and initial percentage figures have the Lib Dems on 32%, UKIP on 28%, Conservatives at 25% and Labour on just 10%.

Anyway, at 0240 hrs, here are the full results for all fourteen (yes, 14 in the end!) candidates, with changes from last time...

1. Mike Thornton (LibDem) 13,342 (32.06%, -14.48%)
2. Diane James (UKIP) 11,571 (27.80%, +24.20%)
3. Maria Hutchings (Con) 10,559 (25.37%, -13.96%)
4. John O'Farrell (Lab) 4,088 (9.82%, +0.22%)
5. Danny Stupple (Ind) 768 (1.85%, +1.56%)
6. Dr Iain Maclennan (NHA) 392 (0.94%)
7. Ray Hall (Beer, Baccy & Crumpet) 235 (0.56%)
8. Kevin Milburn (Christian) 163 (0.39%)
9. Howling Laud Hope (Official Monster Raving Loony) 136 (0.33%)
10. Jim Duggan (Peace) 128 (0.31%)
11. David Bishop (Elvis) 72 (0.17%)
12. Michael Walters (Eng Dem) 70 (0.17%, -0.30%)
13. Daz Procter (TUSC) 62 (0.15%)
14. Colin Bex (Wessex Reg) 30 (0.07%)

(Lib Dem majority: 1,771)

Here's the BBC's video of the declaration...