(From BXtE.info staff blog)

That picture.

We, Ina and me, were pretty much caught up in all the technicals and preparations for posting our full coverage of VRF when news checks got us the news about the Versailles Jasmine You memorial event; then before we could even react much to the news she took and sent me that picture.

I agree that it feels like Jasmine smiled at us just then. That is, not just her and me - but maybe, her and me, too - but naturally the members and all of their fans, too.

That picture, it reminds me not only off Kamijo's blog, where he said rain fell as they all walked up the stairs to Nippon Budokan, after having "sent him off" at the hospital, the place that was/is their next big goal to play in, after their major debut, that made him feel like Jasmine was there, approving what they were doing.

It reminds me more of something he said over a year ago, after the hide memorial summit: that he had not been able to go to hide's funeral, and regretted that he then couldn't, but that a break in the clouds - that had shadowed Ajinomoto Stadium at that time of the summit - while they were playing made him feel as if hide was watching. That he - Kamijo - felt that as hide's smile, as a chance to say good bye that he previously had not had.

I feel like Kamijo, at that. I wasn't in Japan when Jasmine died; I couldn't have gone to his funeral no matter how much I wanted to. There was no "good bye" then, even while my rational mind registered the news that "Versailles bass Jasmine You" had died. Like Kamijo with hide, I had not had a chance to say a proper good bye.

This picture, then, makes me feel like Kamijo at HMS. Even while I was not at the location it was taken, it makes me feel like that.

I've had the priveldge to know Jasmine, a little, as a person. I won't go into how or why or whatever it was that we talked about, that is too personal to share.

But that picture fits him perfectly.

He was - no, is - a light in the lives of everybody who knew or saw him.

For those who understand him - unfortunately, there are also those who didn't; who, I think are scared by his courage to embrace the unusual, go beyond limits, shread borders, live for what he wanted to live for, his music, and in that, yes, courting death (not, as is often associated with rock, through substance abuse, but simply because he was rather fragile physically, something that did not usually get mentioned) and ultimately sacrifice his life at a time far too early - but for those who understood and understand him, he is - pardon the cliche, but he is - a bright light that attracts and guides and gives comfort. Liberates.

Jasmine, on stage and off, was someone exceptional.

One of those rare persons that once met you won't ever forget.

Seeing Versailles live on stage a V-Rock Festa, hearing Kamijo say - make that shout - his name again, more than once, over and over again, that was beyond words. Sadness and joy deeply mixed and all of it appropriate, perfect.

If things work out according to schedule, I'll be interwieving - talking to - Kamijo and Hizaki and Teru and Yuki before the end of the week.

I'm sure that someway, somehow, Jasmine will be there, too.

Sunshine through the clouds... (From BXtE.info staff blog)

This blog has been a long time coming. We kept postponing it for months, as technical matters required our attention. Now, we decided to start it, finally, because of a picture. A picture of a perfectly timed view. You can see the picture at the end of this post and it was perfectly timed because it was taken just as were posting the news about the Jasmine You memorial live. And because I have grown to associate such scenes with Jasmine. Partly because of the message the remaining members of Versailles have posted after his passing, about their climbing the steps to the Nippon Budokan and it suddenly starting to rain. It is, however, the sun through the clouds that makes me think of Jasmine more than the rain, because he shone brightly like that.

I was never his or Versailles' biggest fan, but somehow it was obvious that Jasmine was someone who brightened people's lives. I regret the fact that I never realized how much he meant to me until he was gone, but I like to believe he'd still be happy to know how many people's lives he's touched in one way or another. Despite his leaving us so soon, I think of Jasmine as someone who won in life, something not many people can say, even if they live to be a hundred. And so, sunshine through the rain, or clouds, will always remind me of him. Someone who, despite his dark circumstances shone brightly and touched people, even people who have never met him. In a way, sunshine through the clouds is like Jasmine smiling down at people, supportive, encouraging, gentle and kind, like so many people who knew him and loved him say he was.

Maybe it's strange that we started this blog with a post that refers to something sad, but on the other hand it seems fitting that it should start with what could be called a tribute to someone who seems to have affected everybody who met or just saw and heard him on TV or PC screens. This is for Elegant Jasmine You!