dfordeejay

[dfordeejay]

My Thoughts on 'In The Heights'

When my sibling introduced me to 'Hamilton' last year, they couldn't shut up about songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda's previous work, "In The Heights". Lucky for them, it was announced that Crazy Rich Asians' director Jon Chu was going to direct a film adaptation of the musical. I had watched Crazy Rich Asians with my partner recently, so I had high hopes that this film would be good.

*sighs* Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed 15 minutes into this movie.

Ladies and gents, In The Heights was mediocre.

The acting was great. Anthony, Melissa, Corey and Leslie really shone in their roles, giving their own into the previously established characters.

the vibrancy and direction was splendid - Jon Chu didn't disappoint. The musical numbers were well-executed, with the stand outs to me being the opening number, 'Paciencia Y Fe' and 'When the Sun Goes Down'.

But to me, the problems were a proper lack of character depth, an abysmally slow pacing, and a lack of anything new to offer.

From this point, spoilers ahead. Click at your own risk.

The narrative was poorly paced and borderline draggy, to almost make me fall asleep. The additions they made to fit the movie in the 2020s was appreciated, but they failed to really explain and give it more of depth. Serious issues like racism and DACA were written like they were a hurdle the characters needed to go through, when they are so much bigger things than a third-act obstacle. The movie fails to give them a bigger emotional impact, and it feels like it's only there for lip-service, not integral. The first half - Usnavi courting Vanessa and Benny sealing the deal with Nina - felt so disconnected to the second half - Washington Heights recovering from the blackout (Blackout! Blackout!) and Claudia's death - which completely turned me off from being invested at all.

There was little about the characters other than the bare minimum. I get it, Usnavi wants to leave the neighbourhood, but is there anything else to make me care about the character more? Anything at all? As a person who values character depth, this movie lacks any at all. It instead makes up for the quality with the quantity of characters.

Side note: I hated the salon girls. They were annoying and reminded me of bimbos in the worst ways possible.

The songwriting felt like the first draft of 'Hamilton' (because Miranda wrote Heights first), so it felt lackluster and too similar. The wordplay, lyricism and vocal melodies all felt like we've seen them better in the Disney+ pro-shot last year. I get it; songwriters tend to have a style with their lyric writing. But can you find a lyrical/ melodic similarity with the songs from Disney's Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, Hercules, and Enchanted? Because they were all written by the same guy. The similarities with Heights and Hamilton were so glaring, and I was not impressed by the songs at all. Another issue is the performances. The actors are all excellent singers, so why not actually use them? Why give Anthony, who has an incredible range with his solo music, the range of Usnavi, originally portrayed by a guy who doesn't sing that well? Why not give him something more fitting of his calibre? That's one example, but you get it.

I didn't really feel anything when the credits rolled. I had some chuckles here and there, but it left me feeling overall hollow. I'm sure Heights fans would have a grand time with it, and I'm sure people from the PR and DR would enjoy it far better than me, but the flashy choreography and musical numbers didn't distract me from the lack of anything else this movie has to offer.

My final rating for this movie is a generous and fair 5/10.

[dfordeejay]

My Plans for 2021

I was contemplating to make this a YouTube video or a Twitlonger post, but I wanted to keep this blog active and useful so here I am.

2020 was... a harsh year for most of us, with so many things going wrong. But what did it mean for me as a creator?

Music

Well, because school was stay-at-home for a whole semester, I was spending a lot of time at home and I wasn’t really that tired all the time. This meant I could get a lot of music done. I bought a new audio software to work with and did a lot more cover songs of better quality, thus resulting in my second album, Got This Covered Vol. 2, being bigger and better than the last. Where the first one has a production cycle of 2-3 months, this had a period of 6-7 months.

I started on the first track in early February and finished the last track in mid-October, and I am proud of... most of the tracks on there, but after doing that I realised I wanna spice something up moving forward. While doing a cover song as often as possible and putting it on an end-of-year compilation album is fun, I want to make standalone cover song albums. Albums which have a certain theme and limitation with the genre and style, as compared to the GTC lineup which just has all the cover songs I did that year.

Does it mean I’m retiring the Got This Covered lineup? No. I’m still gonna do cover songs because I like the song on its own, without it being part of any actual thing, but concept albums are going to be released in this way:

The full album is going to be released on audio platforms first at a set release date, with one track off the album coming on YouTube on the album release day itself. All other tracks will be slowly released on a set schedule on Youtube, so if you want to listen to the full album before YT, the audio platforms are the way to go. Bandcamp has free streaming, so does Audiomack! 😃

Podcast

We did an entire year of the HD Podcast. I scripted an entire trailer, we got 4 guests this year, we launched a highlight channel, and we’re only getting started. We’re not going to be taking mid-year season breaks, because we’re much slower with our frequency. Rather, we’re going to be taking the last 2 weeks of December and first 2 weeks of January off as a “season break”, when it’s just easier to categorise the years we do this in seasonal format.

YouTube

Of course, the YouTube channels I run: the main one and the newly launched gaming one. Nothing much is going to change about that, other than a new coat of paint for both channels’ graphics. With the gaming channel, I’m gonna be posting gaming content whenever, and same with the main YouTube channel: whatever, whenever. That being said, I’m working on a huge project which just wrapped shooting as of 10th Jan.

Writing

What I started the online content with; writing movie reviews and ‘My Thoughts On...’ articles way back in 2015. I’m gonna be doing more written stuff but those’ll take more time, because as much as I love singing and whatnot, writing has always been my roots. I have a few ideas but that’s it. I’ll talk more when I can.

That’s all I wanna update on! Peace out ^~^

[dfordeejay]

Got This Covered, Vol. 2!

My second album is out!

This took more than 7 months to make, with the first instalment, April Falls, started work in February. I had a plan to upload one track each month for the rest of 2020, but with the rate I was making songs, I could do 2 songs per month from August to December, with the exception of 1 song each for June and July.

This album is 16 tracks long, which is TWICE the amount of Vol. 1. I just got more familiar and worked harder with the music. Also, all the songs after April Falls sound better for a reason. I’ve been training myself as a singer and vocal mixer, and I got myself a robust DAW, Reaper, to work with. So far I’m set with using it for a while and I’m satisfied with the quality increase.

Now, here’s some interesting tidbits while making the album:

With tracks 100 Years, Stereo Love & Blinding Lights, I finished them in one go, but with the time I had, I could re-record and remaster the mixing with the new DAW from scratch. The album on Bandcamp has the old mixes of those tracks as bonus tracks, so the difference is quite apparent.

With Joke’s On You & Roxanne, I got them professionally mixed by another external producer, and I wanted to keep working with them, till I realised I can save money and time, while also making the songs my own by mixing them myself.

The easiest track to do was Blinding Lights, which was done from singing to mixing in 4h; The hardest one was Two Worlds Apart, which took multiple retakes to get right and the most intense to mix.

Each track took about a week on average to do from start to finish, that includes re-takes if needed.

My personal favourite tracks in the album were Stereo Love, What They’ll Say About Us & Two Worlds Apart.

Vanished was meant as a track to be released on Halloween (which it was), but it was also the first track I fully mixed with the new DAW (in July). Only after doing that did I go back to remaster the other ones.

So yeah, that’s all the facts there is! At the time I’m writing this, the album is scheduled to come out in just over 2 weeks, but you’re getting this with the launch of the album. I hope you really enjoy it, it was a blast to put together.

Stream / download it here: https://dfordeejay.fanlink.to/gtc2

Till the next big project, peace out!

-DJ

[dfordeejay]

Love Ribbon - Review

CW: Yuri, Incest, NSFW

Eroges, short for Japanese erotic games, are everywhere. You have companies like Nutaku who use this genre to make boat loads of money with games that rely heavily on microtransactions. Also they lean hard into the sex appeal of the games. But what if I told you that there is a game in this genre which is actually good? That, my readers, is Love Ribbon.

I got this game a couple days ago, even though it’s been out a couple years already. But this made me think about the subject matter a little differently. Last warning here, I’m going to go into the details and story here, so if you’re looking for a funny, emotional and steamy VN, this is it. Go get the game and click off this post. 

The main conflict in this story here is a forbidden love between two sisters. in my opinion, it’s handled really well. The fact that they are sisters is an actual plot point throughout the whole novel, causing conflicts and character developments. The social impact of it is explored in a subtle yet effective way as well, as their classmates and father react to their relationship. The characterisation here is also really good. The pink-haired girl is a studious goody-two-shoes caring elder sister, with the brunette a younger, more rebellious and reckless girl. How they explore their feelings for each other, how they deal with the reality of their love and what they do is the rest of the game.

This game also boasts some of the most intimate and tasteful sex scenes ever put to VNs. I downloaded the 18+ patch, which uncensors the scenes and adds more animated CGs and it still is really good. Although, the writing for these scenes rely on using the word “p**sy” a lot, which is really cringy.

The music and art is of course stellar. It’s all well-done, soothing and pretty. Warm colours, attention to details, the whole deal. Although I would love to see the characters in a variety of outfits.

All in all, a good play, and it made me think about the concept of incest taboo differently. Well done, game.

[dfordeejay]

Never Have I Ever - Review

When I saw the trailer for this show a month ago, I had high hopes that this would be a light-hearted and fun show with a lot of touchstones for Indian culture. After watching the show twice, it’s safe to say that it delivers that, and an added layer of unexpected depth and emotion.

What’s the show about?

It’s about Devi, this Indian-American girl who wants to find a boyfriend and be one of the cool kids. Pretty standard, right? Yes, but this plays on the typical and overdone story style with one element: her family and upbringing is extremely Indian and conservative; which means no boys and no love of any kind, making this a fun and impressive plot and with some... fine characters.

Let’s talk about Devi for a moment. She sucks. She’s a shitty friend, a brat to her mother and is played like an overall cocky arrogant asshole. But watch the show more and you start to figure out why: her dad died a year ago and she’s been trying to suppress her feelings of grief by being boy-crazy and rebellious. When you look at it that way, you understand her arc and growth as she tries harder and harder to put up walls and distractions, only to have them broken down progressively. Her friends are.... not awful and unlikable, but not great either. They are as generic as you can expect in a clique, and it feels like there was nothing interesting about them.

Let’s shift focus back to Devi and her family. Her mother doesn’t know how to handle her (duh), so the entire season has them constantly at odds, again until the end, where there is a resolution. The arguments and issues they have are relatable and grounded, and I love the handling of a typical Indian family and their ups and downs.

Now, the culture. It’s handled really well in my opinion. One whole episode as a love letter to Hindu culture, sprinkles of lingo and talking styles, and the conflicts all tie in to who they are as people, but this show doesn’t coast along on pure culture either. It’s merely a part of it, and the fact that the usage and handling was not made a big deal of shows the best instances of representation we can ask for.

This show does not just coast along on just shoving culture into our mouths. It has a good story, great cast and an overall well-made show.

[dfordeejay]

The Half Of It - Review

Who remembers In A Heartbeat? How a gay relationship was showcased in a wonderful and heartfelt way? What if I told you that a renowned director made a full film with similar feels and an even better story? That’s The Half of It for me.

We follow the journey of Ellie Chiu (the screenplay had this spelling) as she helps Paul, this dopey jock, write a love letter to his crush, Aster, who is her crush as well. What starts as a transactional relationship turns into a sweet friendship as they all figure out what love is to themselves.

This was a well-written, wonderfully-acted, impeccably directed and beautifully shot film. I can’t single out any one actor who did the best, because everyone was amazing. Writer/director Alice Wu has made films about gay Asian girls before, and it shows with the script and direction. It was never told to us outright that Ellie likes Aster but the direction, acting and score showcase it. There was a scene where Ellie helps Paul in another way, and we (Paul and the audience) see it through the visual storytelling. This movie shows you, more than telling, implying that Alice trusts her audience to figure it out instead of having the information and revelations spoon-fed to us.

The cinematography is gorgeous. Every shot is wonderfully meaningfully done with great visual nuances in a lot of important sequences.

I’ve read that a lot of people think this movie promotes infidelity, to which I say - not in the way they think. Their evidence comes from Paul and Aster themselves. Aster has a boyfriend, but is so neglected, what with parents who care more about her image and religious upbringing that it would make sense for her to find another partner in Paul. And later in the movie, Paul thinks Ellie loves him as she’s helped him a lot with courting Aster that he makes moves on her. This is my big problem with the movie but thinking about it, it makes sense, given how Paul was written and how he thinks. His upbringing and mentality as a jock plays well into a good conflict here and there are good resolutions to everyone’s arcs.

This is one of the best films Netflix has ever put out and I highly recommend you check it out.

[dfordeejay]

Let’s Talk About April Falls

This is my first 2020 cover song release. Got This Covered doesn't count because of its delayed production, but this time I actually took a good amount of time and got most of the songs done fairly quickly. I started working on the EP mid-February and got the last song done mid-March.

I'm also moving away from having artistic, loud and vibrant colours in my album art because that's not what I claim to be. I'm not a very loud, pompous and extravagant kinda guy, rather a more mellow person. I prefer minimalistic looks as well.

The title was after 20 minutes of looking up puns with April in it, because I had the idea of releasing 2 EPs in cascading fashion (similar to Chainsmokers' release circa 2018-2019) and the final album to have the April EP, August EP and more songs. I now realise that kinda sucks, so the current idea is to have this as its own release, and work on Got This Covered 2 when I get material and bit by bit. It's too late for me to switch the title after this revelation, so I'll commit to my mistake xD

My initial plan was to cap the EP off at 5 tracks, but I slated for a song with another singer. They were busy so I thought of doing another song on my own for now as a backup in case they couldn’t meet the deadline. That song is ‘Blue on Black.’ However, listening back to the songs, ‘Blue on Black’ was the worst song on the EP and I genuinely knew I could do better. So I yeeted it out, explaining only 4 tracks.

My favourite song to perform on the EP had to be ‘Lose You to Love Me’, because that took more time to get right. I recorded and rerecorded so many times for that.

I’m already working on the next music project, but for now here’s link where you can get the EP:

https://djproductions.fanlink.to/april-falls

Thank you so much and hope you enjoy!

[dfordeejay]

Cover Songs Release Format

Hey! So I make cover songs, with a plan to release an album of cover songs every year. I already did one in January (was supposed to be released early-December 2019 but got delayed) and intend to do 2 more this year.

After thinking of how to release them - one song at a time like the Chainsmokers; 2 or 3 singles before the whole album; etc. But I think I’ve decided on a neat way to release my cover songs as of now.

Every 3-4 months, I’ll release an EP of all the songs I have done in that period. The amount can range, depending on whether I blasted through a lot of songs in that period or didn’t feel like recording for a month or two (those dry spells happen). They will be similar to the Chainsmokers’ way of releasing songs: the subsequent EP will be the previous EP with the new songs, and the final album will have the album art, whereas the installment EP will have some placeholder album art. I do like the minimalist look for the placeholder album art, tho. Hmm, maybe I’ll do something about that...

With that, I can say that the first EP from Got This Covered, April Falls is releasing, (you guessed it) April 10th 2020. See y’all there! I can’t say a track list because it’s still a work-in-progress on my end. I’ll probably reveal it a week before 😛

See you on 10th April!

[dfordeejay]

Fazbear Frights #1: Into The Pit - Review

Where do I begin with this one?

It’s basically an anthology of 3 medium-sized stories; each one from a unique perspective of the FNaF universe. They put human characters and robots whom we know into a new scenario, new plotlines, and new ways to look at them. I loved it. I loved reading them, even though the first one seemed slow at times. I liked the twists and as a fan of science-fiction, they were awesome. Surreal, weird and disturbing. And when I mean disturbing, I mean bone-chillingly disturbing that I wonder how the book was OK for the 12 and up range. This is meant to be a YA novel at least. The last 2 end in a way to play with your heartstrings, and sweet lord they stung for me.

Now, just like the title says, I will dive into the pit of spoilers. Reader beware, if you have any plan to read the books, stop now. Go read them, I promise they are worth the cost (Kindle or otherwise) and a fun read for anyone who likes the Freddy’s games. Come back and continue reading when you’re done. I’ll wait. For the rest of you, let’s dive in.

1. Into The Pit

This is the most ludicrous of the bunch. The whole concept was weird to me. I’m not saying it wasn’t scary, if anything it has its fair share of creepiness, I’m just saying this story was all over the place. We start with Oswald, the kid and we set him up. He likes manga, Japanese flicks and likes drawing animatronics. Fun stuff. Then he discovers a ball pit which enables him to time-travel to Freddy’s circa 1985? Look, Scott is a pro at grabbing you by the balls and whisking you into realms of huge disbelief, but this feels like it’s moving into fantasy and the realm of Stranger Things. It doesn’t feel in the realm of possibility, even with the rules this series has set up.

It did set up a nice tale which we have heard before - the murder of 6 children by a guy in a golden Bonnie suit (see cover), but where it goes weird is when Oswald’s father gets replaced by golden Bonnie and everything goes as per normal. This is so out of left field and confusing. Does the book explain why? No, as it leads into a climatic showdown to defeat the bunny and save his dad. And when the dead wakes, end story and happily ever after.

It’s anti-climatic, leaves a lot of questions and is ironically the most fun to read. Mainly because you are in disbelief and confused 60% of the time.

2. To Be Beautiful

This is my favourite story of the 3, because it touches on a real issue with a lot of kids the age of the character: body insecurity, in a darker story.

Sarah struggles with wanting to look pretty, looking at the popular girls of her school and her handsome crush. She has a best friend who doesn’t care about her body and is cool with the way she is, providing a yin-yang for Sarah and her struggles. I’m not dismissing the feelings of people who struggle with this - I used to struggle too - but she goes borderline into an eating disorder. Focussing on caloric intakes, avoiding things she can do as a kid, breaking down when her crush turns up his nose at her, you feel for the kid. Enter the tie-in to the Freddy’s franchise with this junkyard robot girl, whom we know based on the descriptions as Circus Baby. Sarah rescues and reactivates the robot, who grants her the wish of wanting to be beautiful on the condition that she wear a necklace. One can assume they are sound illusion discs for the twist later stated here.

With the help of the robot, she becomes beautiful; attracting the attention of some shallow SOBs and the equally shallow boy she likes, to the disapproval of her friend. Cliche, I know, but unlike other depictions of this storyline, she does not get a redemption arc. She does not get a happy ending, as the story ends with the revelation that her body has been replaced into a robotic husk and the doll can now pose as Sarah as the real girl is left to rust and fall apart.

Why do I like this one? It tells a similar story as a lot of these kinds of concepts, but in a more bleak way by stripping away her happy ending and redemption moment. She doesn’t get to reconcile, she doesn’t get to be with the boy, she just falls apart as a scrap heap because it was her doing.

This was her downfall. This was her mistake. She deserved this, and frankly we feel bad but we also know this was coming and that she shouldn’t have wished like this.

It delves into actual psychological horror as the reveal that the Baby doll has been sawing off her body parts piece by piece and storing them somewhere to wear like a skinsuit. It’s also the most grounded and down-to-earth story with a sympathetic and likable cast of human characters.

3. Count the Ways

This is a good story as well. A goth girl who hates people finds some guy she likes, but gets heartbroken because surprise, he’s got a girlfriend and she got in the fabled friendzone. Add that with other issues and now she’s emo, she’s sad, so she finds a Funtime Freddy in her grandpa’s garage and wants to hide in it. But oh no, the bear wakes up and asks her to choose the way in which she dies. She chooses beheading, thinking there might be an escape if she dodges the blade, and it’s unclear if she actually does survive. The ending however is hinting at her death, as her grandpa is shown to still love her, despite the back-talking bitchiness.

Let me be real - this is the worst of the bunch. I don’t hate this story, it’s just cliche. The character is a brat, the story is fine but not as good as the first 2 and it offers little tidbits of new and interesting information and twists.

Conclusion

In order of which stories are good (worse to best) it’s Count the Ways << Into The Pit << To Be Beautiful. It’s a good entrance into the format and style of the Frights series. Scott and Elley, you two did a wonderful job writing into an established world and keeping it fresh and intriguing.

I would rate Into The Pit a solid 3.5 stars, and I can’t wait for Fetch, coming this March.

[dfordeejay]

DJ Productions

Moving forward with content from DforDeejay, you are going to see this name pop up a lot more: DJ Productions. It’s the release label of my podcast, the publishing name of my books, and so on and so forth. This is just a more professional way to label my variety of content, and it looks good on paper too. DforDeejay has never meant to be a brand name, it was my handle with socials and usernames. That is going to stay there, but for a more professional look into other content, I’m going to release things either under my real name (Dhiraaj Naidu) or under DJ Productions.

Here’s all the things DJ Productions has owned thus far:

A podcast called ‘Thoughtcast’, dormant as of now

My upcoming cover album (it’s still a WIP guys!)

Official redesigned versions of my poetry collections, coming on Amazon and Kindle.

So there’s that. Feel free to ask anything about this, and I’ll leave you with the logo. Peace out.

[dfordeejay]

I’m sorry peeps but today’s winner is Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris on SNL 😂 😂 😂 😂 Maya always gives me the giggles

[dfordeejay]

How tyler melts into Clay’s embrace and just breaks down after telling him the story of his rape is just one of the rawest scenes in the whole damn show. This is what makes the show so polarising. Controversial, but great storytelling and acting like that.

[dfordeejay]

Defective Diaries: The Last One

17th August 2019

So, the book is releasing in 3 days.

I can’t say I’m not excited, but I’m happy I can finally get the book out there. It was my baby for more than 5 months, and it’s finally done.

However, I do need to confess to you:

I tried to write 20 poems, but after the core 16, it all felt repetitive. My poems were hitting all very similar points and with my frustration from the last poem on there ‘Had Enough’, I was getting tired of it. In a way, I know my anxiety will always be a part of me, but I think I’ve moved on from it. Therefore, there are only 16 poems in it.

But hey it’s still a bigger project than Rainclouds, which was what I wanted to top. I think I did it, but I want to know what you feel about the collection. Is it a step up in any way?

Ok, now here’s my personal favourites from the collection:

Mindless Haikus

I liked the challenge of writing a narrative with haikus, an easy poem format to pump out. But I wanted an overlying theme across all of them, and I think I pulled it off. I was particularly proud of the ending and how it blends in.

Play Your Part

This was another narrative-type poem that I debuted to my writing club. It was met with a lot of positive reception, because they could all understand the metaphoric theme across them. I was also an actor in my childhood and something that I used to get a lot is “Why are you so anti-social? As an actor, you’re supposed to be extroverted!” Wellllll, sorry I’m not xD

Had Enough

This poem. My god, I love this poem. This was so different in tone from all my other poems, and I’m so glad that this was the chronologically the last poem I wrote. It was my perfect end to a lot of suffering: a massive ‘eff-you’ to your anxiety and embracing your mess-ups.

I think that’s it from me. I think I’ll put it public the day of release, because it has a lot of spoilers. But god damn it, I just wanted to gush about this. IT’S DONE!! Now I can focus on other things. As of now, I am going back to writing fiction stories. Gah, I’ve missed writing stories.

Till next time, I’m DJ, and thank you so much for reading all my entries. Hope to do this with another book / series sometime soon!

Peace out. ✌

[dfordeejay]

when mj quickly pecked peter on the lips and it was a little awkward, and then peter went in to give mj a peck and they were both flustered…and then they both sort of leaned in and melted into each other in a longer kiss

[dfordeejay]

My new podcast ‘My Thoughts On...’ is out on everywhere you get your podcasts!

Check https://anchor.fm/mtopodcast for updates on where exactly you can hear it :)

[dfordeejay]

As promised, here’s a new cover and first look at the WIP chapter list! Only 7 more poems for Part Two, and an outro left to go!

With every new Defective Diary post from here forth, we’re getting updates to the chapter list until we hit all 20.

[dfordeejay]

Defective Diaries #5

5th May 2019

It’s been a while since I last came back to write something. But that’s because like all writers, I’m also suffering a case of writers’ block.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like writing poems. But it’s just that I need to make sure that they don’t sound repetitive. Each poem needs to be a different topic, of a different tone. So until I feel like I can write something new, there is a chance of a possible delay. I am trying to get it done by August, but I also want to take my time with this.

I do need to write some happy poems here and there, though. The collection needs some spice.

Alright, where am I in progress? We have 15 chapters written (7 poems and outro left) and I feel confident enough to launch the first look at the chapter list and NEW cover! That’s in the next post I’m posting simultaneously with this entry.

Ok, here’s a teaser/poster of the titular poem of the collection. Till next entry, peace out!

-DJ