#it SOUNDS like just rereleasing the original because those are definitely some of the original voice actors

[greenjokwe-blog]

Monthly Greej Media (February 2024) - Month of Scrambling

Sometimes I forget that February is the shortest month. Even when it's a leap year (which I only just barely noticed happened this year), a single day can be the difference for me on whether or not I write about something here or not. Especially this month, where I decided that I would take up several long media properties... while also not having the dedication to go through them at a constant rate to actually get close to finishing them. It's been a weird month.

Because of this, there isn't going to really be much in terms of video games for me to talk about. There's a few films I want to cover (and some I'm probably gonna save for a later point... again... maybe), but truth be told there isn't actually that much interesting in terms of new games for me, unless I wanna parrot what I wanna say last month (played a lot less of those two games though, even). I was going to have two shorter games beaten by the end of the month, but I was only able to beat one of them in times for this. There's a good chance that if I don't decide to talk about the other game next month though, I'll just make a short post about it at some point.

The one game I JUST managed to finish, is Earthworm Jim: Special Edition for the Sega CD.

I've been pretty public about my enjoyment of the Earthworm Jim series for a while, but I think I'm not as vocal about how my enjoyment basically EXCLUSIVELY comes from Earthworm Jim 2. Specifically the Genesis version, which was the one available on the Wii Shop Channel, but any of the non-GBA ports are good. Learning about the Special Edition was wild to me, which I had previously had no idea existed, as my general EJ1 experience mainly came from attempts to play the original Genesis version and falling off after a couple of levels... and replaying the old demo on the apple store on my old iPod Touch back in the day (which I'm 90% sure that version is lost media now?). Anyway, hearing about the "superior" Sega CD version of the game made me curious, and as someone who has never really beaten a game for the Genesis addon before (the closest example is Sonic CD, and that was the updated Whitehead rerelease), I thought it'd be a fun idea to boot this version up. I'm glad I did, cuz this definitely heightened my opinion of the game.

There's a lot of reasons why the Special Edition is the superior version of the game, from beautiful animations and visuals (which, when testing around with CRT Filters via Reshade like I have for the past month, are EXTREMELY visually impressive and basically look HD), an improved soundtrack, and just generally more content and levels. What I think absolutely sells it though, is that the overall game experience is just BETTER here, compared to the other version. Obviously nicer visuals and sound will do numbers in terms of making the game feel better to play, but I'm mainly talking about the game's flow and pacing itself.

Level order has been changed, new levels add a more interesting difficulty curve than the previous versions, and there are new secrets to find, including all-new secret paths that are not only loaded with rewards for the betterment of play but are just generally better than what was in the original game, it's a vastly better experience. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely some stuff here that's kinda stinks up the experience (that last level especially can blow me), but compared to how I previously viewed this game? It's much better now. I still wouldn't consider the first Earthworm Jim better than the second one even with this version, like a large portion of people (mainly... what I'd describe as "oldheads" but I mean this is Earthworm Jim we're talking about) seem to believe, but I at least get the logic when people believe that. Also like, Earthworm Jim 2 is one of the most creative platformers of all time so it's like, kinda hard to beat that. What went from a difficult recommendation from me went to something absolutely worth checking out.

But uhhh... Yeah that's it for video games. Like I said earlier, there's a little bit more to talk about for films this month, so I guess I'll start with... uhh... So uh... Oscar season is happening, right? I wouldn't really be able to tell for myself but from what I've heard 2023 has been a good year for movies, so I decided to make it fun for myself and make sure this year I've seen at least half of the best picture nominees before the show starts (not really that hard, but I've never done it before). It succeeded, although I'm still debating as to whether or not I should watch some of the others as well to make it fun for myself (namely Killers of the Flower Moon and Anatomy of a Fall). I thought it was a good time, while the film was just barely still in theatres over here, to watch one of them on a brand fancy new screen at a local theatre. That film, of course... was Poor Things.

Oh boy.

Oh boy.

This ones gonna be... difficult to talk about for me, for a large, LARGE variety of reasons. One of which I might cover in a future blog post, but let it be known that I did NOT expect the kind of movie this was when going in. I knew about the sex symbolism, for sure, but to the level that it was...

OK, I just wanna say that I do appreciate what the films going for. It's weird. Weirdest film I've seen in theatres, and by far the most adult. And a lot of the subjects in this film are not being discussed at all! It dares to actually talk about shit like how women get taken advantage of by men and patriarchy, the conditions of sex work, and the failure of society to not protect women who aren't seen as perfect or exhibit traumatic responses in the real world! However, the actual result of these subjects being discussed... eh...

I will say that it does get the some of the points across well by the end, the second half manages to do a good job of making sure it's messages are sent. Although at this point... the film feels like it kinda needs to come to a halt to do so? A little? Also there are some implications here and there... weird one to chew, not sure how well some of these are gonna be seen generally, sometimes feels contradictory sometimes it lands perfectly into its message about women's choices. But overall, I still think I'm glad I saw this film, even if it made me feel like that one scene in Taxi Driver (even though I saw it alone). Weird and interesting, glad to support this kind of cinema, even if I don't know whether or not it'll grow on me as time goes on or I'll just start to resent it more. We'll see I suppose.

The last film I saw before the Oscar's was one I decided to watch at home, and that was The Zone of Interest.

Holyyyyy. What a film. I'm gonna be very short about this one because I feel like this is a film you need to experience for yourself but put simply: A film with pure vision. Pretentious arthouse indie cinema used as malice. Abhorrently aesthetic-focused to its favour. Exists only within frame but ALWAYS vividly presented outside. A film with a very clear, ageless message that defies all conventions to proceed, but still feels especially required and relevant in the current climate. A one-note experience, but that note is an unforgettable drone that lasts long after viewing. Perfect cinema. It's also the weaker of the two Jonathan Glazer films that I've seen. How the fuck does this man do it.

But yeah... Jesus. That shit bummed me out. A great experience, but a drowning one. Anyone want a pick me u- oh god damnit.

Saw this at the beginning of the month, so my review is gonna be a bit hazy, but I do think it says a lot about me that this was the film that I enjoyed the most out of everything I have seen so far this year. This year being y'know. The past two months. Not in terms of releases this came out in 2016. Whatever.

God this film is sad. It's so fucking sad. Manchester by the Sea is a film that should not be watched unless you are either currently depressed or ready to be depressed. However, that being said, it also manages to be such an realistic portrayal of suffering and grief that I absolutely fell in love with it. The film not only looks beautiful but feels it as well. I've heard complaints ranging from that it glorifies trauma or that it represents it's symptoms as "personal failings", but I think it rounds around to me to represent something truly human and honest with itself. There are the occasional times in a couple of scenes where it takes the safe route of modern storytelling for my liking, and there's definitely other issues (mainly the sound design, if you know you know), but there are few films that feel as groundedly sad and wonderful as this one does. Even if it's extremely sad and bittersweet, there's something reflective I got from this film that almost made me feel... Weirdly satisfied? Very strange thing to say, I'm aware, especially if you've seen the film and know what I'm talking about. Maybe I just like movies set in Boston Massachusetts. But god damn... what a film. Highly recommend if you can handle fucked up dark trauma films.

Anyway, last up, music!!! Still not a lot to say here, so I think I'm just gonna post the chart and dip I think. A couple of these were new listens for me (aside from Friko being a brand new release, the Allman Brothers Band and David Kauffman albums were my first time hearing them). A vast majority of them I went back to a few songs often but only just went back to the album now. Some of these I just haven't heard since ages ago. So yeah, that's it. Cya either next month on in an extra post I make in a week or so, we'll see what happens first.

[wantonwinnie]

I just read The Jedi Path by Daniel Wallace (2016 edition as part of the Secrets of the Galaxy box set, which are all in-universe guidebooks in the Legends continuity). It's not often that a Star Wars book leaves me with a terrible taste in my mouth and was generally not enjoyable, but that's how bad this one was (worst one Ive read so far, unfortunately). This is very ranty, so sorry in advance (and contains spoilers). I've read The Rebel Files, which I really enjoyed. I love the Jedi and was excited to read this book, which makes this one so much more disappointing. I'd give it a 5/10, which is honestly generous.

I'll get the few good things out of the way. It's chalked full of lore from legends about the Jedi (the book was originally published in 2010 and rereleased later). It covers many eras. I like learning details about the different lightsaber forms. The illustrations are nice, if not a little same-y.

However, the content is generally awful and sounds like fanon, even to the legends continuity. I'm not a legends buff but there's a part near the end where one of the in-universe writers disputes misconceptions people have about the Jedi, one of which is that they are kidnappers. The writer's response is that the Jedi can't be kidnappers because they have a legal right to take custody of any force-sensitive child, and part of their duty as a Seer is to take those children. If this was actually a part of the legends continuity, that's a terrible practice to attach to the Jedi, but I suspect this was fanon even in 2010.

Another tidbit is when the book straight up says the "Gray Jedi" are a not only a real in-universe term but a direct threat to Jedi progress. The provided definition of Gray Jedi is just someone who disagrees with the council and is not like the other girlies, and Obi-Wan's annotation says some Jedi considered Qui-Gon to be gray. Also completely fanon as far as I know- the gray jedi was a misinterpretation of a cosmetic option in KOTOR ("gray jedi robes", i.e., the color gray).

There are other wonky bits too. A part of the traditional Jedi trials is the Trial of the Flesh, in which padawans suffer immense pain to test their will. Even though it was relaxed in later eras, I think this is an odd lore at best for Jedi. It doesn't comport at all to teaching compassion or peace. Surely Jedi will face physical pain in active duty, and a religion's practices are going to change over time. But it seems a bit too removed from fundamental principles that it breaks the immersion.

There are also the Jedi Shadows, who straight up try to assassinate Sith lords. I think long ago during times of great conflict it is a bit more believable- but the way it's written makes it seem like they're still around. The Jedi writer also basically says the Shadows are willing to bend their morals to do what needs to be done in ways that other Jedi would find distasteful, which, yeah! Duh! What the fuck!

The general tone of the writing is way off. It comes off as a bit too self-righteous and indignant. The content itself is in that direction too. This entire book almost seems written with preconceived fanon notions in mind. This is why some of Legends is so bad- I like creative freedom for authors, but not to write things that break all immersion or make people have mixed feelings about the Jedi. It's one thing to show the Jedi evolving over time as circumstances or theories shift. But it's another to say "yeah, we take kids, so what?" and other things that just totally break down the intent of the wider story.

I haven't even gotten to the annotations, which honestly degraded the experience, not enhanced it. Most of the weird lore was closer to the end of the book, so I was having a meh time with the main content. But the annotations were at best, only somewhat interesting, and more often they were not worthwhile or downright antithetical to the characters writing them.

Here are a couple examples. When the book discusses the Jedi Code, Qui-Gon basically says that attachment = compassion and this part of the code is thus incorrect. This is not Qui-Gon's character at all from the movies. At least from what I remember, Qui-Gon wasn't questioning the fundamental precepts of Jedi thought about being too attached/obsessive. Also, at one point, Obi-Wan suggests in an annotation he doesn't like spending time with animals. Maybe this is earlier in this life, but it's strange to see this coming from Obi-Wan, who clearly loves animals in TCW and did in ROTS. I know they're extrapolating from his line in TPM about Jar Jar being a pathetic life form or whatever, but it seems counter to his broader character. At best, if this is actually reflective of his legends version, that version sucks! I like that he likes animals! Seems like the book would rather reference a line than actually focus on what the characters would say.

This problem is present with the general approach to annotations, which is that they went for using well-known characters instead of those who could actually make comments that add depth to the story. The annotators are Yoda, Thame Cerulian (Dooku's master), Dooku, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, Sidious, and Luke. The best you can say is that they wanted a wide variety of perspectives, but even that is poorly executed. Yoda and Luke's annotations are probably the best just because they cover different points in time, and Luke talks some about how he can apply past teachings to the new academy. But Thame, Qui-Gon, and Ahsoka have very little interesting to say other than to insult non-attachment, make a few references, and Ahsoka chiding Anakin. (Aside: why does Ahsoka even have this book? Half of her comments are "who cares, we are fighting a war!" Which, yeah, you wouldn't be reading this while fighting a war when you would be reading up on tactics, strategies, reports, and training). Dooku constantly complains that the Jedi tolerate inferiority, and Anakin complains about attachment, not using certain powers, etc. Ahsoka, Dooku, and Anakin's comments are all definitely on-brand, but they're more annoying than anything. Of course Sidious' comments are all just "haha Jedi suck, they died". In-character but not interesting or fun to read.

I'm sorry but I came to this book to read Jedi perspectives on Jedi teachings, not Sidious, Dooku, and Anakin. The latter two were Jedi, sure, but they clearly did not subscribe to the Jedi fundamentals even at the time. Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Ahsoka had little interesting to say- no depth of understanding. I loved The Rebel Files from 2017, partially because the annotations were limited to fewer characters and added much more depth to the content. This book, perhaps a product of its time, did not, and actively went against the characters. In all, I'm really sad this book did what it did. It advances false narratives about the Jedi for people to point to. I wouldn't blame fans who only read this book to be like "The Jedi do good things but they also take kids! They kinda suck!" because that's how this book is written. What the fuck.

[superectojazzmage]

Oh hell yeah!

[scope-dogg]

So I always see gifs about Getter Robo here and there and have only heard positive things ( I also dig the fat rounded mech designs!), but never anything in detail unfortunately. Seems like one of those properties where everyone who likes it is very invested though! As a mech enthusiast, could you explain what about the series you find appealing and what a recommended watch order (if there's any need for one) watch location might be? I understand some series of that age just aren't available legally in the West anymore, which is a big bummer

Honestly for a series as long and storied as Getter it can be hard to pin down the underpinning appeal to one single thing, but I'd say the closest you'd get to capturing the fundamental appeal to most people it'd be that it's perhaps that it's practically the archetype for a super robot series with a harder edge than most. It stood out on that basis even when the mecha genre was still in its relative infancy and it's managed to keep that distinction to this very day. It's a franchise that's never shied away from violence - from the genesis of the genre until today, the archetypical mecha pilot has been a spunky and/or sensitive teen, while your average Getter pilot, while still fundamentally heroic, is a borderline psychotic hard bastard, the kind of person that would probably be in jail in real life. Even when they're up against some really nightmarish shit they always seem to revel in the battle and resolve to win through sheer determination. You've probably seen Gurren Lagann, in which case that description might sound somewhat familiar. That's not a coincidence, Getter Robo is one of TTGL's biggest influences and even though the two series differ in many other ways, it occupied a somewhat similar space in the collective consciousness to the one that TTGL now occupies in the minds of most (and still does to a degree, it's one of the genre's most important founding works and as such has remained relevant for basically its whole lifespan.)

Later entries see the series get a lot more existential, and start dealing with the concepts of the future of human evolution and the fear of an unknown and possibly terrifying future that sees mankind blunder into the clutches of forces beyond its control and understanding. While the series initial core appeal of seeing hard men use their robot to battle hellish enemies remains, that cosmic horror aspect was really important to the franchise's maturing identity and is likewise a huge part of what makes it remain so appealing to so many - it's pretty much at the core of all the franchise's best installments.

As for where to begin, it's complicated and at the same time, not. As for anime, it can be tough to pick one. There's the Toei original series and its sequel Getter Robo G, though these, in addition to being old and dated, are arguably a softened-down version of the story meant for kids' TV that, while popular in their own right back in the day, don't really capture what most people now find appealing about the franchise. You're probably better off overall looking at one of the OVAs instead. In release order, those are Getter Robo Armageddon, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, and New Getter Robo. All three of these are basically various attempts to blend together various chapters on the manga, along with aspects from other works done by the original author Ken Ishikawa. The thing is though, Armageddon and Shin vs Neo both assume at least some level of familiarity with the existing characters and lore, even if each one is in its own continuity. New Getter Robo is kind of like a reboot and as such is more self-contained, but at the same time is probably the one that veers off from the established tone and lore the most wildly.

In my opinion, the best thing to do is go to the source, and read Ken Ishikawa's manga from the beginning. The Getter Robo saga consists of five different chapters, those being, in release order, the original, Getter Robo G, Getter Robo Go, Shin Getter Robo and Getter Robo Arc. While the original and G are definitely old they've been touched up for rerelease and are still very readable and easy to get through while having a ton of old-school charm to them. However, once you hit Go, that's where the party truly begins. Its the quality of work that started there that really built the series up from a relatively simple good-guys vs bad-guys story into what it is today. If disciples of Getter seem very invested in the franchise, it's most likely because of ideas that first get explored here. Go's followed up by Shin Getter Robo, which is a prequel to the events of Go that explains some important things but also sets up stuff that's important for the final chapter, Getter Robo Arc. Sadly, Ken Ishikawa died before the manga could be completed, leaving the story without an ending - until now. An anime adaptation of Arc has been airing for the last few months. The final episode, presumably featuring the final true ending to the Getter Robo saga, airs this upcoming Sunday.

[zerochanges]

2020 Favorite Video Games

I don’t know if I am an outlier or if this is the same for everyone else but I really did not play a lot of games this year. 2020 was a very harsh year for all of us, especially for me for some personal reasons. So to get to the chase, I am just gonna say it left me not doing much in what little free time I did have, and I didn’t play much either. Usually I try to keep my lists for ‘favorite of the year’ to only titles released that year but since I played so little this year, screw it. I am gonna include any game I played this year regardless of release date.

Collection of SaGa

By far a flawed rerelease. It’s bare bones: there are no advance features you would usually expect out of these kinds of emulated rereleases like save states, fast forward, or rewind, and there was no real effort made to touch up almost 30 year old localizations that had to meet Nintendo of America’s then harsh standards. This really is just 3 roms slapped into a nice looking interface with an option to increase the game speed (which by the way you better use, the characters walk very slow in these old games). 

I am bit harsh here, but only because I thought the Romancing SaGa remasters and the upcoming SaGa Frontier remaster all looked like they got a great budget and a lot of love while this is just another Collection of Mana situation (moreso specifically talking about Seiken Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana part of that collection). I would have loved to see Square Enix do a bit more for these older games. Or at least include the remakes. Seiken Densetsu 1 had two great remakes, both unused in Collection of Mana, and all three of these original SaGa titles have remakes that have never seen the light of day outside of Japan. How great would it have been to get the Wonderswan remake of SaGa 1, as well as the Nintendo DS remakes of Saga 2 and SaGa 3? 

But my gripes aside, these games are still fun as they ever were. Replaying SaGa 1 specifically during the holiday season really helped calm me down and made me feel at ease. It’s easy to forget but even in their Gameboy roots there are a lot of funky and weird experimental choices being made in these games. They aren’t your run-of-the-mil dragon quest (or considering the gameboy, maybe pokemon would be more apt) clones. 

Raging Loop

Perhaps my favorite game of the year, Raging Loop is one of the best visual novels I have ever played hands down. The level of creativity and splitting story paths that went into it is simply mind blowing. The basic premise is both a wonderful throwback to the old days of Chunsoft sound novels while still modern and somewhat reminiscent of both Higurashi and Danganronpa. Essentially you play as Haruaki, a poor slub that got lost in the mountains with no clue where to go until you stumble upon an old rural village with a strange history and even stranger superstitions. Before you know it there has been a murder and the Feast is now afoot.

The less said about Raging Loop the better, although I do want to say a lot about it one day if I ever can write a proper review of it. This is a gripping game that will take hold of you once you get into it though and never let go. I actually 100%-ed this and I very rarely do that. I got every ending, every bonus hidden ending, played the entire game twice to hear all the hidden details it purposely hides on your first play through, played all the bonus epilogue chapters, unlocked all the hidden voice actor interviews, collected all the art work, etc, etc. I was just obsessed with this game, it’s that damn good! And the main character is maybe the best troll in all of video games, god bless Haruaki. 

Root Double

From Takumi Nakazawa, long time contributor to Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work comes a game any fan of Zero Escape or Uchikoshi in general will probably enjoy. Root Double, like its name suggests is a visual novel with two different routes, hence Root Double. The first route stars Watase Kasasagi, the leader of an elite rescue team in the midst of their greatest crisis yet that could lead to nuclear devastation as they try to evacuate a nuclear research facility that has gone awry. 

The other route stars Natsuhiko Tenkawa, an everyday high schooler whose peaceful life is thrown into turmoil when he stumbles upon a terrorist plot to destroy the nuclear facility in the city and his attempts to stop them. Together the two separate plots weave into one and creates a really crazy ride. Part Chernobyl, part science fiction, any fan of the genre will easily enjoy it. And hey it’s kind of relevant to include on this list too since it just got a Switch port this year (I played it on steam though).  

Snack World

I was shocked upon starting Snack World as it is instantly incredibly charming, witty, and downright hilarious at times yet I heard almost zero people talk about it. EVER. This game is Dragon Quest levels of quirky though, and the localization is incredible. The game has such an oddball sense of humor that works really well with its presentation right down to the anime opening video that sings about the most bizarre things. Instead of the usual pump up song about the cool adventure ahead we get stuff like wanting to go out to a restaurant and eat pork chops. 

The self aware/fourth wall breaking humor is just enough to be really funny, but doesn't overstay its welcome and always makes it work right in the context of the dialogue. And finally, just everything; with the menus, the name of side quests and missions, and the character dialogue -- are all just so witty and full of quirky humor. This is one hell of a charming and funny game and addictive to boot.

Trials of Mana

Trials of Mana has gone from one of those legendary unlocalized games, to one of the first major breakthroughs in fan translation, to finally getting an official English release complete with a fully 3D remake. In a lot of ways from a western perspective this game has had an incredible journey. As for this remake itself, I really found myself having tons of fun with it. I loved the graphics, and the voice acting while a bit on the cheaper side almost kind of adds to the charm since both the graphics and acting really give it an old PS2 vibe. I know that is probably just more me being weird but yeah, I had to say it. 

I really hope Square Enix sticks to this style of remake more often, instead of just doing Final Fantasy VII Remakes that break the bank and involve extensive tweaking to both plot and game play. I’ll take smaller budget projects that play more like the original game any day personally. I wouldn’t mind if they also deliver a brand new Mana game all together in this engine either. 

Utawarerumono Trilogy

This year saw the release of the first entry in the series, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen--and thus finally after three years since the sequels Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth came out in 2017 the trilogy is now complete in English. I ended up binging through Prelude to the Fallen very fast shortly after it came out and immediately jumped on to the sequels. Perhaps the best part of 2020 was that I finally played all three of these fantastic games, and did so back-to-back-to-back. Playing the first Utawarerumono was an experience I will never forget, it was like visiting old friends again that I haven’t seen in ages, by and large thanks to the fact that I saw the anime adaption of the game when I was much younger, nearly a decade ago. Back then I would have never of dreamed that I would get to play the actual game and get the real experience. 

And it only got better from here, as all three games are such wonderful experiences from start to finish. The stories are all so deep, and by the time you get to the third entry, Mask of Truth, it’s crazy to see how they all connected over so many years and weaved together into a plot much bigger than they ever were. What carries it beyond all that though has to be the fun and addicting strategy role playing game aspect, which while a bit on the easy side, is still so much fun and helps make the game feel better paced since you get to play the conquests your characters go on and not just read about all the battles they fight. Beyond that the games are packed full of awesome characters, and I know I’ll never forget the amazing leads in all of them. Hakuowlo, Haku, and Oshtor will all go down as some of the greats to me. 

Ys: Memories of Celceta

Ys: Memories of Celceta is a full 3D remake of Ys IV, a rather infamous game in Falcom’s Ys series. Not to get bogged down too much into the history of Falcom but by this point they were facing a lot of hardship and had to outsource this entry to other developers, and thus passed it on to two particular developers they had a business relationship with, creating two unique versions of Ys IV. Tonkin House who had worked on Super Famicom port of Ys III with Falcom ended up creating their own YS IV entry, Mask of the Sun for the very same system, where Hudson soft who had produced the much beloved Ys Books I & II remakes for the Turbografix (PC Engine) CD add-on created their own Ys IV entry Dawn of Ys for that console. Both games followed guidelines and ideas outlined from Falcom themselves but both radically diverged from each other and turned into completely different games. 

Falcom finally putting an end to this debate on which version of Ys IV you should play have gone and created their own definitive Ys IV in 2012 for the Playstation Vita. I played the 2020 remastered version of this remake on my PS4. I even bought this on the Vita when it first came out but I am horrible and only horde games, never play them. So it was a lot of fun to finally play this. 

Memories of Celceta is probably one of the best starting points for anyone looking to get into Ys, especially if you only want to stay with the 3D titles as out of all the 3D entries this explains the most about the world and series protagonist Adol Christian. Beyond that it’s just another fantastic entry in a wonderful series that has a few good twists hidden behind it, especially for long time fans of the series. 

Random Video Game Console Stuff

Xbox Has Blue Dragon: I actually got an Xbox One this year for free from my brother. Because of that I started to play Blue Dragon again and there’s a lot I would love to say about this game. I don’t know if I am fully committed to replaying it all the way through however but I find myself putting in a couple hours every few days and enjoying myself again. Does anyone else remember Blue Dragon? I feel like it really missed its audience and had it come out nowadays and probably for the Switch it would have really resonated with the Dragon Quest fandom a lot more instead of being thrown out to die on Xbox and constantly compared to Final Fantasy VII and the like which it had nothing at all similar with. 

The Turbografx 16 Mini: This was probably one of the best mini consoles that have come out and I feel like thanks to the whole 2020 pandemic thing it was largely forgotten about. That’s a shame, it has a wonderful variety of great games, especially if you count the Japanese ones (god I wish I could play the Japanese version of Snatcher included), and a wonderful interface with fantastic music. One of these days I would really like to be able to play around with the console more seriously than I have already. 

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon Never Existed: So Nintendo localized the first ever Fire Emblem game on Nintendo Switch which is awesome to see them touching Famicom games again--I haven’t seen Nintendo of America rerelease old Famicom titles since Mysterious Murasame Castle on the 3DS, but their trailer hilariously made it seem like this is the first time ever they released Fire Emblem when in fact they had already localized the remake Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS nearly 10 or 11 years ago. I and many other fans I talked to all found this really hilarious, probably solely because of how much they kept repeating the fact that this is the first time you will ever be able to experience Marth’s story.

All that aside though I have to say the collector edition for this newly localized Famicom game is probably the most gorgeous retro reproduction I have seen in a long time, and I really spent many many hours just staring at the all clear glass mock cartridge. I have found myself really obsessing over retro reproductions during 2020, and obtained quite a few this year. I really hope this trend continues to go on in 2021 as recreating classic console packaging and cartridges is a lot of fun. 

[sinceileftyoublog]

Indigo De Souza Interview: Compassion for Different Modalities

Photo by Charlie Boss

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Calling from her home near Asheville, North Carolina earlier this month, singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza is getting ready to go on tour behind her terrific sophomore album Any Shape You Take (Saddle Creek). Like everyone, she’s anxious about navigating the current COVID-19 landscape, but how she and her band adapt to a live performance and play the multi-dimensional songs that make up the record seems to be of little concern. I guess if I was as talented as De Souza, I wouldn’t be worried, either. Released last month, Any Shape You Take is a stunning series of ruminations on love and relationships, platonic and romantic, that span a number of years in De Souza’s life. Raised in a conservative small town in North Carolina by a mom who was an artist, De Souza doesn’t shy away from the fact that her family did not fit in. At the encouragement of her mother, she leaned into her artistic visions, making music as early as 9 years old, releasing her first EP in 2016.

After self-releasing her (very appropriately titled) first album I Love My Mom in 2018, De Souza signed to indie stalwarts Saddle Creek, who rereleased her debut and supplied her with the means to craft a much larger-sounding follow-up. Working with prolific secret weapon co-producer Brad Cook, her first proper label release occupies an incredible amount of genre territory. “This is the way I’m going to bend,” announces De Souza on auto-tuned synth pop opener “17″ before, well, bending in a number of different directions. “Darker Than Death” and “Die/Cry”, nervous songs that were written years ago, sport fitting build-ups, the former’s slow hi hats and cymbals giving way to jolts of guitar noise, the latter’s jangly rock taking a back seat to yelped harmonies. Songs like “Pretty Pictures” and “Hold U” reenter the dance world, the latter an especially catchy neo soul and funk highlight, a simple earworm of a love song. In the end, whether playing scraped, slow-burning guitar or rubbery keyboard, De Souza’s thoughtful and honest meditations center the emotionally charged album, one of the very best of the year.

De Souza takes her live show to the Beat Kitchen tonight and tomorrow night (both sold out) with Dan Wriggins of Friendship opening. Read our interview with De Souza about the making of Any Shape You Take and her songwriting process.

Since I Left You: On Any Shape You Take, there seems to be a good mix of folks you’ve worked with before and folks you’re working with for the first time. What did each group bring to the table?

Indigo De Souza: Brad Cook was co-producing. It was my first time working with a producer on something. That was crazy. He was very supportive of everything and very encouraging. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of who wanted to encourage my vision. I also worked with Alex [Farrar] and Adam [McDaniel] from drop of sun studios in Asheville. They’re both just so sweet and talented. They were engineering but also helped with production as well. I ended up getting really close with Alex, and me and Alex finished out the album together doing vocal overdubs and random overdubs. It feels like he did a lot of production on the album and was a star for me in the process. They were all great to work with. It was interesting to me to have so many people working on the album.

What I realized after the fact, [though], was that it was kind of distracting for me to have so many brains working on it. It taught me I actually feel very confidently about my vision for songs, and I can trust myself to have ideas for my own songs. I think I was scared going in that I was going to come up blank in that scenario because it was such a high-pressure thing, getting on a label and making a high-production album. But I definitely thrived in the space. It was really fun.

SILY: It shows in the finished product. There are so many different styles and subgenres within the record. Do you listen to all the types of music that show up on this record?

IDS: Yeah, for sure. Mostly, I listen to pop music and dance music. That’s probably my most daily genre. I don’t listen to a lot of music daily, though. I listen to music probably a couple times a week when I’m in the car, but it’s so random, and the genres I listen to are pretty random. It depends on my mood. I think when I’m writing, it’s the same way, whether I’m writing a poppier or rock-based song. They’re different moods for me.

SILY: How do you generally approach juxtaposing lyrics with instrumentation?

IDS: With writing, it’s different every time the way they fall into place together. I do notice that one of the more common ways it happens is I’ll be going about my day and hear a melody in my head and start humming it and realize I’m making it up, that I have no record of it before. I’ll start attaching feeling to the melody, depending on what I’m feeling, and at first I’ll be singing gibberish with the melody, but I’ll usually get some headphones on and plug into the computer so I can sing into a microphone. I’ll mess around with the melody and sing random words until something true to me kind of sticks. That’s usually how it goes. Sometimes, I [do] sit down and it comes out in one breath, like the song is already written in my mind.

Honestly, it’s so normalized how songwriting is. It’s such a strange, magical thing that people can write songs that have never been written before. [laughs]

SILY: Thematically, there are a lot of songs on Any Shape You Take where you’re feeling doubts about a relationship, like on “Darker Than Death”. Someone’s feeling bad, and you’re wondering whether it’s you making them feel bad. And on “Die, Cry”, you sing, “I’d rather die than see you cry.” On the other hand, there are some songs like “Pretty Pictures” where you know your place more within the relationship, and you know what’s eventually gonna happen to it. How do you balance those feelings of doubt with knowing what’s gonna happen?

IDS: It’s funny, because the first two songs you mention were written a very long time ago when I was in the only very long-term relationship I’ve ever been in. I was very confused in that time and was having a hard time in general with my mental health. “Pretty Pictures” is the newest song on the album, a last minute addition because another song we had on there didn’t really fit. We looked through my demos folder and chose “Pretty Pictures”, the most recent song I had written at the time, and recorded it for the album. They’re totally different times in my life, and how you said it is definitely how I was. There’s a time I was more confused, and now, love is more simple in my life, and I can process things and see how they are, have compassion for different modalities.

SILY: I love the line on “Way Out”, “There are no monsters underneath your bed, and I’ll never be the only thing you love.” It’s a very logical statement in the face of unbridled emotion that can make you think illogically. Is that contrast something you think shows up throughout the record?

IDS: Within love, over time, I’ve realized that there’s not one person for anybody. There’s a lot of fluidity in the ways people can feel towards other people. That line is definitely a nod to allowing people to love many other people and not taking it personally.

SILY: From a singing perspective, you have a lot of different vocal stylings on the record. I found it interesting you led it off with a track where you’re super auto-tuned. Can you tell me about that decision?

IDS: “17” originally was this demo I made in 2016 or 2017. It was a very old demo. In 2018 or so, I brought the demo to my band at the time, and we created a live version of that song that was nothing like the recording that you hear. The recording was so weird and had a lot of auto-tune and higher-pitched and lower-pitched vocals. We had a live version we played for a while that’s on Audiotree. Whenever we were recording Any Shape You Take, we started to record it the live way and realized it wasn’t feeling right. We listened to the old demo, and it gave this wake up kick to everyone. We got excited by how the demo sounded because we hadn’t heard it in so long. We realized we wanted to record it based on the demo. So that song sounds very similar to the way the demo originally sounded.

SILY: What’s the story behind the album title?

IDS: There are so many layers to the album title. [laughs] It came to me mostly because the album takes so many musical shapes but also so many emotional shapes. It feels like a lot of the themes in the album are about change and acceptance of change and acceptance of a full spectrum of feelings of pain and grief and allowing people to take many forms. It was mainly inspired by the fact that I’ve taken so many forms in my life and am witness to the way changing forms yourself can either push people away or pull them in closer. I’ve always been so appreciative of the people in my life who allow me to take so many different forms and are still there to witness and care about me, whether we’re close to each other or far away. That’s the main reason I wanted to call the album Any Shape You Take. The most beautiful kind of love you can have is allowing someone to be themselves and shift in and out of things freely.

SILY: Is your live show faithful to the studio versions of the songs, or did you have to learn how to adapt the songs to the stage?

IDS: A lot of them sound very similar to the recording. We’ve been having so much fun practicing them and playing them live.

SILY: Is there one in particular you’re most looking forward to playing?

IDS: I love playing “Bad Dream”. That’s just a crazy song to play live because it’s so loud and rowdy. [laughs]

SILY: You have that falsetto in the middle of it, too.

IDS: Yeah. It’s so fun.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, reading, or watching lately that’s caught your attention?

IDS: I’m excited that one of my favorite authors, Tao Lin, just put out a book I haven’t been able to get fully into. It’s called Leave Society. I just got it in the mail last week. Other than that, I’ve just been so, so busy with interviews and work on the computer and with my manager, staying on top of this crazy shift happening on top of my life. I haven’t taken in a lot of media. I was just watching Love Island recently because I wanted to shut my brain down. Somebody was telling me about Sexy Beasts last night, which sounds insane. I’m excited to watch that.

[radramblog]

Linkin Park Retrospective Part 6: The EPs

I can’t listen to One More Light yet. Don’t have it in me to tackle that. So instead, we’re going to cover the two EPs released by the band, Collision Course and Songs from the Underground.

Collision Course

…who’s idea was this?

Apparently MTVs, as part of an “Ultimate Mashups” series, though their involvement seemed mostly hands off. A 6-track Jay-Z/Linkin Park crossover album isn’t an idea I would have tried to sell, but Mike and Jay seem pretty into it based on the snippets of studio chatter you get in between tracks. The album opens with that, in fact- Chester (?) going “I ordered a Frappucino where’s my fuckin Frappucino?” is certainly one way to start things off.

I’m just going to make it clear now that I’ve never heard most of the Jay-Z tracks being mashed up here, so I can’t really comment on that end. As these tracks are mashups with songs I am quite familiar with, though, I can at least give some degree of assessment. And unfortunately, I’d argue Collision Course compares unfavourably to Reanimation as far as crossover albums go. Largely speaking the remixes done to the Linkin Park instrumentals are uninteresting, though they do match the new vocals done over the top of them, and Jay-Z is basically fine but not overwhelming.

I think my biggest issue with this album is that a bunch of the songs just drop just about everything new about them and are just the Linkin Park track for the last like minute or so- Dirt off your Shoulder/Lying from You, Jigga What/Faint, and Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer are all pretty guilty of this. That isn’t to say that the rest of these tracks aren’t good, but this in particular is a sticking point I couldn’t ignore.

Track-by-track, then. Dirt off your Shoulder/Lying from You is the most straightforward track on the whole project, and probably the biggest sufferer from eventually just being Lying from You (seeing as that’s kinda the worst of those three LP tracks). I have no idea whats going on in the instrumental from Big Pimpin’/Papercut, but the Papercut verse on top of that sounds just sort of weird- Jay-Z’s verse fits better, but also, that’s probably the one written for that instumental isn’t it. Jigga What/Faint is interesting, with the first half’s backing being a heavily remixed version of the verse instrumental from Faint, but a minute in it’s just Faint oops. With that said, Jays bars over that instrumental actually does fit pretty well.

I don’t know rap that well, I can’t really comment on the flow or anything, but while the vocals are new recordings, they are the same verses from the songs being mashed up, so some originality is lost there.

Numb/Encore is the one single from this album, and it’s definitely one of the better ones, yeah. You’ve got Mike and Jay both working together in bits, the remixed Numb instrumental feels like exactly the extrapolation you’d want for a track like this, and that “what the hell are you waiting foooooor” is super satisfying. Unlike some of the other tracks, the final bit (with Chester, yknow, doing Numb) maintains that remixed instrumental, making it stand out a bit better from the original versions, which is nice. However, Jay-Z basically just isn’t on the latter half of the track, making it extremely awkward when he did a live performance of it after Chester’s passing.

For a song called Encore, however, it’s a bit weird that it’s not the last track on the album.

Izzo/In The End opens with this really bright instrumental and Mike, thanking a live audience like it’s a concert, sure. It’s just super odd that this is the same song with the In the End vocals, the emotions not really fitting the fun of the instrumental and previous verse. It is performed significantly more light-heartedly, but it still feels like an odd fit. To be fair, though, I’m not sure what Hybrid Theory/Meteora era track would have worked better there, so fair play. The album ends with Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer, ther first half of which I actually think is better than Numb/Encore. It’s got an actual fresh verse from Mike over Points of Authority, and him doing the cop bit from 99 Problems’ pull over bit actually works super well. Unfortunately, when the instrumental switches over to One Step Closer, the song gets a bit worse- the mix on Jay-Z’s vocals is way too low for a lot of it, being drowned out by the instrumental most of the time, and the last minute is just One Step Closer again but also Jay-Z is occaisionally repeating the 99 Problems line. It’s a weak finish to an otherwise solid song and album.

 Songs from the Underground

Released in 2008, Songs from the Underground is a collection of tracks from Linkin Park Underground collated into an EP along with a couple of unreleased live recordings. Linkin Park Underground, or LPU, is the official fan club, which gets a yearly CD as part of membership that has assorted demos and live versions on it, which is where this EP pulls its tracks from- its also a set of CDs I desperately want to get my hands on but their limited nature makes their price obscene. I have managed to get LPU 9, which is the one I wanted most, but the remainder have eluded my grasp.

My precioussssssssssss

Side note, this album isn’t on spotify, and the only Youtube upload I could find was a shit recording, so you’re best off looking for each individually.

This compilation opens with Announcement Service Public (from LPU6), a pretty decent instrumental with Chester screaming unintelligibly in the background. This is more of a joke than anything- as the name suggests, it’s a PSA reversed, and reversing Chester’s vocals reveals he’s yelling a reminder to brush your teeth and wash your hands. I mean, I’ve been in an LP mosh once, and I can confirm that this was an announcement that needed making.

The second track QWERTY (LPU6), sounds like it wasn’t even written by Linkin Park, rather, one of their contemporaries. Allegedly, they wrote it on a long, long plane flight, which I could see- a non-studio environment leading to a more different track. Honestly, this could fit right on to Meteora, as much like Faint or Nobody’s Listening it’s a different take on the sound they’re known for. This one’s a lot of fun- the riffs are sick, and the chorus, if simple, is solid to sing along to. This deserves main album status.

And One is one of the tracks on this album that’s actually a rerecording off of the EP made by the band when Hybrid Theory was their name and not just their first album (though the EP was self-titled, so it’s pretty confusing). This album would later be rereleased as the first LPU, and then again (with an official video) along with the 20th anniversary edition of Hybrid Theory. And One is interesting, as it’s the first track recorded after Chester joined the band back in the day, and it’s so fucking edgy holy shit. I think it’s pretty decent, but unlike with QWERTY I’m kinda ok with this being a little by the wayside. With that said, I really like the little breakdown at the end, and the verse Mike is doing over it.

Sold My Soul to yo Mama (LP4) is a real track, huh. It’s a short, heavily electronic piece, ganking lyrics from Points of Authority and Papercut, but like, it’s mostly just Joe Hanh fucking around for 2 minutes. Not a huge fan of this one.

Dedicated (LP2) is another of this album’s better songs. It’s very Lose Yourself, that sort of emotional rap track about doing a rap track, and while obviously it’s not at the same level as that one it’s still excellent on its own. This is just such an excellent demo, one of Mike’s best performances- and considering he’s carrying it on his own (I’m not sure Chester’s even on this, unless those background aaaahs are him) that means a lot.

The next track is Hunger Strike, actually a live recording by Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame) with Chester as a feature. They were good friends, which is going to come up tragically when we get to One More Light. To be honest, though, this track kinda sucks dick. It is far from Chris’s best performance, nor Chester’s, and the instrumental is fucking boring. It picks up around the two minute mark, but at that point it just sounds like a bad Audioslave song, and I’m not really down for that, yknow. Just go listen to Like a Stone or Black Hole Sun again.

Another live recording is next, My December (a B-Side from One Step Closer, also on LPU2). My December is far from my favourite track- I think it’s kinda overdone, and this live version is so much worse. Look, it’s just Chester singing over someone (maybe him?) playing the song on piano? It doesn’t work, man. Not a fan.

The album’s final track is called Part of Me (HTEP/LPU1), and feels a lot like a better version of And One, if I’m honest. Mike’s actually going hard here in the verses, especially in the pre-chorus, and said chorus is actually pretty solid, even though the instrumental there is a little weak. It’s a slow, chugging song, heavily affected through Hahn’s DJing, that does do a nice little build to the track’s ending.

Except it doesn’t end, because there’s a hidden track in it. I don’t think this one has an official name anywhere, but it’s an electronic instrumental. It’s basically ok. Tangent, but I remember thinking when I was younger that if I was ever in a band, I’d want to write an electronic instrumental named Oxymoron- because of course, it wouldn’t have any real instruments in it.

That closes out Songs from the Underground, and I’ve never really broken it down in my head before, but it’s a lot more mediocre than I thought. The live songs are not good, and several demos or rarities that should have been on it absolutely weren’t- Across the Line, Drawing, A6, and where the fuck was High Voltage? Honestly, more of a miss than I remember. If I’m low on ideas, I might break down LPU9 individually, but I probably won’t spend any other time on LP demo stuff- I’m sure you’re sick to death of me talking about Linkin Park by now.

[mamthew]

I finished Persona 5 Royal, after 135 hours. My feelings on the new content are mostly very positive, though do I have a few issues with it. Here's a suuuuuper long write-up first about Persona 5 and then about Royal. This is gonna have full spoilers for both versions of the game, so keep that in mind if spoilers for either game bother you. Persona 5 is my favorite game of all time for several reasons. The first is how masterfully it's written. Not necessarily line-to-line (and certainly not in the English localization, which could've used a few more weeks of edits to make the sentences sound more natural), but in its structure, thematic unity, and use of allusions to achieve that unity. The first two-thirds of the game are presented through a complex and well-orchestrated frame device that's honestly just a treat to experience. It presents the player with a glance at each upcoming story beat without the context to understand it, then lets them piece together the context as they go, giving the whole game a sense of mystery even as the player inhabits the characters at the center of the mystery. It also uses concepts from Jungian psychology to tell its story, most notably character archetypes, which means players can use knowledge of the archetypes to better understand aspects of the characters and their stories. It's beautiful, and it means that I often fall down rabbit-holes researching the allusions made and finding the connections they have to the story. The other reason Persona 5 is my favorite game is much more personal, but it actually played a major role in my radicalization (or if you're uncomfortable with such terminology, political reawakening). The game released in early April of 2017, only a few months after Trump took office, and partway through my first semester back at school after my five year...break. The game is about fighting back against societal injustice. It starts out small, with a high school teacher who abuses his students, but moves up to people with increasingly greater power exploiting increasingly larger swaths of the population: a famous artist using his clout to steal his students' livelihoods, a mafia boss stealing money from the people of his neighborhood, a CEO overworking and underpaying his employees while jockeying for a political position, a government prosecutor who fabricates evidence to maintain her perfect record, and finally a member of the Diet running for Prime Minister who uses populist rhetoric but only cares about gaining personal power. As in previous games, each protagonist gains their powers by awakening to their Persona (essentially publicly performing as their true, unfiltered selves), but in this game, the process is physically painful, bordering on body horror. The act of tearing off the masks so tightly glued to the characters' faces is cast in a similar light to putting on the glasses in "They Live:" doing so is painful and frightening, but allows each character to see the world for what it is, without the filter of the justifying ideological framework. In the last dungeon of the game, the characters invade the physical manifestation of the justifying framework, which takes the form of a prison in which the prisoners beg to be left inside, as the idea of freedom from the prison terrifies them. A vein running from each of their cells sucks out their life force, vampirically, and directs that life force into the manifestation of the concept of hierarchical structures itself, portrayed as the holy grail - a reference to Marx's Capital. This holy grail - which to Marx was wealth - is revealed to be a false god created by the masses because they wanted a god. However, it grew so powerful that now the masses serve it, rather than the other way around. It created its own artificial collective unconscious, barring its subjects from participating in a true collective unconscious free of its influence. At the very beginning of the game, a voice directly tells the player they may only play Persona after agreeing that the events of the game are entirely fictional, and any similarities to the real world are entirely coincidental. The game will not start until the player indicates that they agree to those terms. That voice is revealed to be the holy grail itself, implying that to refuse to compare fictional works to the real world or "get political" about these stories is to submit yourself to the justifying ideology. That's some powerful stuff, and grounding it in real-life examples of exploitation while following characters suffering from that exploitation made it hard to ignore, especially in the wake of the 2015-2016 rise of Fascism and at a time when I was back to studying literary analysis. The game seems specifically crafted to induce a radicalization in its players. It has a scene in which the characters attain class consciousness. For a chunk of the story, the characters try to fight against manufactured consent, as they are framed by the media and authority figures as dangerous villains just for taking a nonviolent stand against rapists, billionaires killing their employees, and corrupt officials. The citizenry believes it almost unquestioningly. The protagonists are often visibly enraged at the exploitation they see - much of which is based on specific real-world events - and the internal logic of the story suggests that this rage is the only moral response. Every aspect of the game bolsters these themes of hierarchy, exploitation, and rebellion, giving the game a thematic unity unlike any I've ever seen before. Even the smallest NPCs have full storylines running in the background that highlight the ways even these nameless characters are exploited, and the ways they've been socialized to accept this exploitation. Every book, every song lyric, every reference to a food item, every damn fictional allusion in a game ABOUT FICTIONAL ALLUSIONS ties back in some way to that larger theming. The thematic unity of this game sings, and playing it was unlike anything I'd experienced before. This game, for me, defined Leftism. I didn't put down the controller a full-blown Communist, but it gave me the tools I needed to ask the necessary questions to discard Liberalism. I probably would have gotten there eventually, and the game probably wouldn't have had quite as powerful an effect if I weren't a literary/media analysis kind of guy living in the time I was in, but even now, three years later, the game reads to me like a damn revolutionary text. So I was honestly terrified of Persona 5: The Royal, which came out at the beginning of this month. It's a rerelease of the game with added story content, including a new dungeon, a new party member, the return of a deceased party member, and a new ending. That's a lot to add onto a really fun game with unprecedented thematic unity that also helped me to redefine myself and my positions on...literally everything. If they messed with this unity for the sake of adding unnecessary content, it would heavily alter the game's effect, and my own personal understanding of the game, forever. That's not to say that the game couldn't be improved. The localization was kinda shoddy, it occasionally drifts into male gaze shit (glaringly so in the 2D animated cutscenes, which makes me wonder if the animation studio had different ideas about the project than the devs did), there are two scenes which are virulently homophobic, and the devs had originally planned for another party member who they had to scrap for time. The two homophobic scenes especially have made it difficult to recommend the game, as I've always had to add the caveat of "...but it completely undermines its own central thesis twice for cheap laughs and it's disgusting." I wasn't sure, however, that a rerelease would fix any of these issues, and I was really worried that adding ~25 hours of gameplay after the dungeon about the justifying ideology and the holy grail would undermine too much of what made the game so revolutionary to me. There is no larger threat to humanity than the ideological framework justifying capitalism, so I worried that moving away from that for the length of a whole-ass Kingdom Hearts game would make the game less effective. From a storytelling perspective, the party member they advertised they would bring back to life is an unambiguous villain, and I worried that bringing him back would both undermine the sacrifice from his death scene and rehabilitate the character, neither of which I wanted. The new party member was not the character they had planned for and cut, and her story as it was advertised did not involve her being exploited by people in power in any way. Rather, she's a star athlete and honors student whose success was attributed to her sense of personal responsibility, which runs pretty counter to the game's themes. I also worried that adding a new dungeon worth of gameplay would mean getting rid of the part at the end of the game where the protagonist willingly turns himself in and spends several months imprisoned, so that he can testify against one of the villains of the game. The thought of losing that bittersweet ending definitely didn't sit right with me. As I said at the beginning, my feelings on the new content are mostly positive. Before getting into pure spoiler territory, I'll say there's no going back to the original now that this version exists. They redesigned every dungeon and boss fight, retooled the battle system, added a LOT more voice acting to scenes where there hadn't been any, added a ton of new scenes further fleshing out characters and the setting, retranslated the worse lines from the localization (it's still not perfect but it's much improved), added new gameplay mechanics and personas, added a bunch of great new music, expanded on Tokyo, and FIXED THE FUCK OUT OF THE HOMOPHOBIC SCENES. I now actually really like the two nameless characters who were in the original just straight up predators, as they've been rewritten into overenthusiastic drag queens who get excited at the thought of introducing nervous kids interested in drag to the scene. They improved on dungeon crawling, too: the newly added grapple hook mechanic introduces a fun verticality to the dungeon designs, stealth is more challenging and rewarding, and each dungeon has new optional collectibles. They reimagined the procedurally generated dungeon you explore over the course of the game, too, giving it more room types, more music, a currency unique to the dungeon, a merchant, and ways to level up money, experience, and item rewards from the enemies in the dungeon. As for the new story content, the extra 25 hours of gameplay is not...counter to the themes of the game. Instead, it's set up as a story about Revolution vs. Reform. The question it poses to the people of its now-too-content Tokyo is "would you join the Phantom Thieves?" which translates more to something on the order of "if these exploitative systems still existed, but didn't really hurt you or anyone you know, would you still care enough to fight against them?" The new villain co-opts the place formerly held by the Holy Grail and uses it to rewrite reality to one in which everything is basically the same, but almost everyone in the city has everything they want (with the notable and noticeable exceptions of homeless people and service workers). The central conflict, especially to the characters who have regained lost loved ones, is whether they should still fight for a better world if most people are fairly happy. Tokyo never ends up agreeing that they would join the Phantom Thieves, but the crew still end up determining that they must restore the real world, because a world in which people are still critical of the justifying ideology has a path to a better world, while one in which people are uncritical will never find that path. It's a complex and interesting take from the beginning, and even moreso when the game uses imagery from the mythologies of the garden of Eden and Prometheus. The other dungeons correspond to deadly sins, but this one instead corresponds to "sorrow." The villain is so afraid of his own grief and the grief of others that he refuses to allow anyone to take risks, even if success would improve the world. The three new confidant arcs are well thought-out and engaging, too, especially the arc with the villainous party member, whose actor absolutely chews the scenery in this game. In the new story, he's so angry about being forced into a reality on someone else's terms that he fights tooth and nail to return to the old reality, where he was at least able to die on his own terms. It's...not as emotional as the game wants it to be, but it's a really fun time. Each party member also gets a mini arc in which they come to terms with what they would lose by returning to the old reality, and acknowledges how much personal growth they would lose by staying. These culminate a new ending in which each party member finds a way to work to regain some of what they had lost by restoring reality, going their separate ways in the process. The new content has a bit of a Persona 4 vibe, in that it's much more personal and contemplative, and the characters find strength by maturing and uncovering avenues to personal growth. As Atlus has pretty consistently existed both in the shadow of Persona 4's popularity and with the pressing need to make up for Persona 4's failings, it's not a bad angle. I do have some minor issues with the new story. It still means that there is no downtime after the original final boss, so newcomers won't really have much opportunity to consider the implications of that dungeon and boss before being thrust into another conflict. Its ending is not quite as clear-cut as the original ending, either. The protagonist still turns himself in, but the story basically...switches back to that reality a week before his release, meaning it's not nearly as much of a sacrifice and it's a decision this version of the protagonist technically didn't make for himself. The situation is probably also clearer to people who've played the original game than to newcomers. The old ending is kind of "required reading" for fans; it's still the canon ending for Scramble where the new one is not, and the new one is more impactful to players who've already experienced the original ending. This creates a major predicament when recommending this game to new players. Do I tell them to purposely not fulfil the requirements to get the new ending, then replay a 130+ hour game a second time? Should they keep a save at around the 85 hour mark, so they can reload their save and retread the 20 or so hours of game they've already experienced to get to the new stuff? There's no good answer, which is irritating. At least the original ending is included in this version, so those are options, but it's frustrating that I can't just recommend one or the other without caveats that are also huge time sinks. I dunno how to end this, and it's much longer than it probably should be, so I'll say that this game is extremely important to me, and I'm impressed that Royal is not less important to me. I sure hope we get a release date for the worldwide release of Scramble soon.

[tainbocuailnge]

The fandom you're in looks really awesome, and the reason I followed you is it the cooler that comes with it, but I have no idea what it's about or what the actual game is? Is there a place I can go to kind of find out and maybe play myself? (You're so passionate about it that I'm starting to get really curious but google is my enemy)

I’m GUESSING you mean fate series cause that’s my number one thing I do not shut up about. it’s uhh kind of a spiraling mess of a series but most installments are standalone enough for it to not be a complete hell to get into, but also I’m glad you asked because getting in without help is definitely hell

fate started with the visual novel fate/stay night, written by kinoko nasu and released in 2004. as such that’s the best starting point in my opinion, because it features all the detailed worldbuilding groundwork that later installments kind of gloss over so it can be hard to go back to if you already know all that from other installments. the plot is that seven magi summon legendary heroes to fight for them in a ritual war, with the prize being the holy grail which can grant any wish. leading themes are what it means to be a hero and save someone, the way history repeats itself, and forming your own identity in the wake of trauma. it has three routes, the last of which especially has really heavy themes of physical emotional and sexual abuse so if you need detailed content warnings pm me and I’ll do my best

fsn has several releases, the original vn features infamously bad erotica but there’s a rerelease called fate/stay night [realta nua] which replaced those scenes with pg-15 content and also tightened the visuals up a bit. I’ve got downloads for both versions here. it’s like 80 hours of vn so that’s quite the investment but there’s also the anime fate/stay night [unlimited blade works] featuring the second route, and the third route is getting a series of movies the first of which is out too, called heaven’s feel - presage flower. fate route (the first route) sort of got an anime in 2006 and unlimited blade works a movie in 2010 but those are really really bad so look for the 2014 anime and 2017 movie. imo the ubw anime did a decent job and heaven’s feel is doing pretty good too so far so they’re good for seeing if you like what the series has to offer before you dive into a long ass vn.

the prequel to fate/stay night is fate/zero, a light novel series written by gen urobuchi in collaboration with nasu. as such it’s notably darker than the rest of the series but by nature of being a prequel it makes for an equally decent starting point as stay night, since both will spoil things for the other. fate/zero has an anime too. 

imo stay night and zero are the ‘standard’ fate installments, if someone says they like fate you can safely assume they’ve consumed at least one of those - is what I used to say but apparently it’s been so long that even this isn’t a reasonable assumption anymore. oh how times have changed. anyway please do start with zero or stay night cause like I said those are earlier installments so they’re at high risk of falling flat if you already know the deep lore from later stuff.

the biggest most booming fate installment is fate/grand order, a mobile game featuring characters from all other fates as well as a lot of newcomers. it’s pretty newbie friendly in terms of lore I think but you’ll get more out of it if you do know the background for all these characters since character development tends to carry over between installments. it’s infamously story heavy for a mobile game, especially in the later chapters when nasu got the hang of writing for mobage. the tone is also notably different from fsn and fz in that it’s more…. grandiose and theatrical, and obviously it waifs everyone up a bit so they can get you to spend money. still good tho. still love it. it’s got two anime specials, first order and moonlight lostroom, but first order makes no damn sense if you don’t know anything of stay night and lostroom takes place after the events of the first fgo arc. there’s anime projects of two of the chapters in progress too.

you thought that was all? you’re a fool this isn’t even half of it but I’ll briefly go over the rest under a cut cause those 3 are the big players.

carnival phantasm is a comedy OVA series featuring skits about several works from the same author. about half of it is about fate and the other about tsukihime, an earlier visual novel. watching order is after stay night. today’s menu for the emiya family is the canon domestic fsn au manga and anime where everyone’s just chilling eating dinner together instead of killing each other. 

fate/hollow ataraxia is another visual novel. it’s a direct sequel to fate/stay night and a personal favourite. it takes place half a year after stay night and features much of the same themes, but from a pair of characters who lost the war in fsn before it even started.

fate/apocrypha is another series of light novels. in terms of reading order i’d put it after stay night and zero. it features a cast twice as big as those two and basically approaches the same themes from a different angle. it’s got a finished anime and an ongoing manga but the anime kinda butchered pretty much everything about it. unfortunately one of the light novels is still not translated so the anime is still the most accessible way to get approximately the whole story. the manga IS very good though so once that’s finished I’d probably tell people to read that one if they want to apocrypha

fate/EXTRA is a psp game it’s like 10 bucks in the ps store iirc. for reading order I’d put it after stay night but not necessarily after zero. in this one the ritual for the holy grail is held in a simulation on the moon, which is a supercomputer, and it’s an organised tournament with 128 participants instead of a 7 man free for all. it’s about forging meaningful bonds in a system designed to drive people apart and finding the drive to keep going even if nothing is certain. the gameplay isn’t great but the story is $$$ it’s my other personal favourite. it’s sequel is called fate/EXTRA CCC, it’s on psp too but never got a western release, but there’s a translation of one route out there and some madmen are working on a translation patch that’ll be done in time for my grandchildren I hope. CCC is the wildest ride of my life i love it a lot but it’s very horny so not really for everyone. fate/extra CCC fox tail is a manga which follows an alternate CCC route and i hear it’s cool. the sequel to CCC is fate/EXTELLA which did come to the west and is on several platforms, and somewhere next year fate/EXTELLA link should get localised. extella is very rushed and mostly expands the extraverse world but if you can grab it on sale after you decided you like extra it’s not a bad buy just don’t pay full price. fate/EXTRA last encore is an anime which. sort of comes after extra? it’s very trippy arthouse bullshit and I ate that shit up but it’s definitely not for everyone. the last 3 episodes are missing on netflix so make sure you don’t miss those if you decide to watch.

fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ☆ ILLYA is a magical girl spinoff manga & anime which sounds great in theory until you see it’s mostly pedobait, but extremely unfortunately for us sometimes it does something legitimately cool so we all suffer. don’t get into prillya it’s bad for your health. 

fate/strange fake WAS an aprils fools story but this series has no limits so now it’s a full on light novel spinoff and also manga I think? I don’t keep up with it but it throws some wild ass lore our way sometimes. you’ll probably want to be up to date with apocrypha and everything before it before you try this one.

fate/prototype was just the original concept for fsn extrapolated a bit upon but again this series has no limits. prototype has an animated feature and some material books, and then the light novels fate/prototype fragments of blue and silver are the prequel to prototype, but it’s weird cause we never got a proper prototype so I don’t know what’s up with that. fate/labyrinth is a side story to fragments which I know even less about. I actually never see anyone talk about prototype so there’s probably no translations lol

lord el melloi II case files is even more light novels. I’m pretty sure you need to have gone over stay night, zero, hollow ataraxia, apocrypha, and strange fake before this one starts to make sense. there might be translations? i don’t know a fucking thing my guy

[hazydreamerneko]

2017「Shingeki no Kiseki」8/7 Concert in Chiba (PART III)

Original Report (Chinese) found here

Original Text (Chinese) by：初霜翼 Image report by：-流曰-

Translations by: HazyDreamerNeko/LostNeko (Referencing Lyrics Translations by marchen-v-friedhof)

Finally at the last part with Encores! Lots of MC which are my favorite to both read and translate XD

It’s SUPER LONG so I split it to 3 parts, this is part 3 Part 1 Part 2

Any use of the original text please contact the Chinese site/writer to seek permission. Any mistakes with translations please feel free to contact me!

Encore

Commander returned to the stage after we shouted 「Jäger」again.

Commander: Thank you everyone. I underestimated everyone from the Ichihara branch. I didn’t expect you to start shouting 「Jäger」before the 321 countdown.

Commander: There were almost no MC during the main concert, we kept a very fast pace until the end. So we hope to conduct the encore in a relatively more relaxed manner~ (Audiences cheered) Before that, where are the P-seats until?

(P-seaters raised their hands in the audiences)

Commander: There was a questionnaire for P-seaters this time, it was for you to choose a song. The one chosen for Ichihara concert was 《Nikagetsugo no Kimi e (To You in Two Months) 》. This was your unanimous… no, it was not unanimous, it was chosen by majority rules. Only in this concert will it be fully per your wishes. If 《Nikagetsugo》appears too frequently the in the future, we might adjust it. But what is this for?

Commander: We frequently do interesting things for SH. For LH, this time I want to concentrate on doing music… not that I don’t concentrate on doing music for SH! No! Just that SH still need other things like acting skills and such! So this time I want to try something refreshing for LH.

Commander: There are various types of sounds in the songs. This time, even though I want to make it as simple and easy to understand as possible, there will always be a limit to that, I can’t concede further after lowering to a certain extend. Personally, I, too, hope you can hear the love I pour into making it yourself. Should I say it’s S-ish (TN:…sadistic), I also don’t want to underestimate you all too much. Perhaps that’s why the CD doesn’t sell much. A lot of adjustments are made now, for all the sound to be tweaked just right, hoping all the various sounds can be conveyed. But everyone has their preferences, some prefer it to be more like rock music, some prefer the sound of strings, so you may feel that there are some sounds you really want to listen to closely, but you just can’t hear it well. So this time we prepared this segment, remixing the songs chosen by the votes live. You make take this chance to clearly listen to parts of the songs that sounds unclear originally.

Commander: But one song is very long, so likely only half will be played. We will try it today, if everyone here reacts positively, then we will continue this segment. If all of you find it rather uninteresting, then this segment might be gone by the time we are in Tokyo. To prevent that from happening, I will do my best as well.

Commander: Then I will choose someone….. there in the second row! You with the glasses! In 《To You in Two Months》Which instrument do you most want to hear?

(The chosen one was completely caught off guard, and was stuck for a long time)

Commander: Yes, P-seats are the seats that you pay to be force into uncomfortable situations!

(The audiences shouted \Do your best--!/ together. The chosen one hesitated for a long time, then said 「Drums」)

Commander: Alright, Drums. The staff are making the preparations now. There’s no way to prepare for this beforehand, only after hearing your answers do the staff members hurriedly arrange the preparations.

- DJ Revo -

Very soon, the staff pushed a Mixer onto the stage. The front of the Mixer has the LH logo printed on it.

Audiences \Oh oh---?/

Commander: An instrument of civilization!

Then, the staff set up the mic stand beside the Mixer (He can’t hold the mic because his hands will be on the mixer) Commander went behind the mixer.

None of the audiences could suppress their laughter… Someone said \Looks a lot like a school principle--/

(The mixer looked like a podium, once he stood behind it he almost looked like he was about to give a speech)

Commander: Hm? …… This isn’t new, right?

(The image of Revo-Sensei behind the podium had already appeared on the 2013 Gomen-T)

Commander: I look like a DJ right

(Then he started to sway as if to the rhythm of music)

Commander: The sound of drums is coming in–– It’s coming in –– So let’s give it a check ––

(The prelude to Nikagetsugo begins)

Commander: Yes good the sound is there. Next, let’s raise the sound of the drums a bit ––

Then he started playing around with it. Bringing this sound up~ bring that sound down~ Making the drums louder~ softer~ removing all the accompaniment, leaving only his own voice reverberating~ Making his voice louder, softer, louder softer loudersofterloudersofterloudersofter …… He was too High from the fun he was having and halfway through the equipment suddenly ceased functioning. It paused for a while.  Thereafter he only left the drums and the voice playing, and even then, he still cut the voice right when it was about to get lit.  

Commander: This is how I can normally play around with it. All sorts of different versions could be created in this way. But it’s usually not ideal to overemphasise a particular instrument like this, as I still hope to present the various sounds together. With this segment, lots of different versions will be born from this tour (It will be remixed in a new way as specified in every concert.)

Commander: Next up will be the encore everyone is waiting for. But actually, LH don’t really have that many songs…… How many years has it been? 5 years? I can’t even really remember. Simultaneously doing SH and LH and SH and LH and also going on the radio occasionally… There really isn’t many CDs despite it being five years. Perhaps it will be more substantial by its 10th year anniversary? But this is the only aspect I can’t improve on my own. Please offer me jobs –– (Slight bow)

Commander: Aside from LH, there were lots of songs written for the SH side. Even though this time, the LH tour is to lower the entry barrier, welcoming those who didn’t know us at all, there will still be some who came here from the SH side. For those familiar with SH, if you hear songs from SH, you may feel “Ah! I can’t believe I heard songs from SH today, I’m super lucky”. For those unfamiliar, after you listen to the songs, I hope you will feel that “Eh, the other songs from the Sunglasses-ojisan are also not bad”. So there will also be a few songs from SH this time.

Commander: After all, aside from the songs included in CDs, there are also some songs from SH that are currently not for sale.

(……Wait? Wait a second?? Encore will include songs from SH that are not being sold??? What is it it couldn’t be new songs??? That’s impossible, this is still the opening show there couldn’t be new CD in the next half a year? So what is it, the Live-only songs? If it’s a Live-only song won’t that be the song by a certain golden haired falsely similar person first revealed at this exact venue six years ago……) (TN:… took me a few seconds to realise the dubious falsely similar person they refer to is probably… Idofried… no wonder the author’s reservations…. X”D)

Commander: Anyways, let’s allow the band members to come up first.

The band members came up one after another, and the fangirls below were shouting: JUNJI––! YUKI––! Acchan––!! While waving their hands. Members on stage also waved a little.

Commander (stood aside and watched for a while): There will be member intro segment later~

Only then did the audiences calm down.

Commander: 「It will be interesting to let this person sing this song」 It’s with this thought that I wanted to have this person sing the next song –– As for which song is it, let’s leave it as a pleasure of discovery once the song begins.

(……It’s apparent that it won’t be a Revocal song. So they are letting one of the singers from this concert cover an SH song, who will it be ––)

Encore 1: Kimi ga Umarete kuru Sekai (The World You will be Born Into)

The sound of water could be heard the moment the prelude started, and the bubbles effect that were used during the 10th Anniversary concert (Can be seen in The Assorted Horizon) appeared on screen.

( ––AaaaaaaaAAAAHHHHH?!)

The singer who came on stage was Eiko Matsumoto. The one who sang 《14 Lettered Message》as Eren’s mother.

(It is??! Actually this person singing this song?!?! Wait that’s too unexpected?!? Reasonable?!?!)

Everyone screamed. (Then quickly quietened down)

All the narrations were done by Eiko Matsumoto herself, none of it was cut. Her singing was very steady. The narrations were also not bad. The actions were the same as the ones for the 10th anniversary included in TAH. It was very good.

After she finished the song, Commander came up again.

Commander: 《Kimi ga Umarete kuru Sekai》, the CD that included this song is no longer being sold.   (––Wait weren’t you just advertising to people! You were getting them interested, but then the first song that comes up is one they can no longer purchase!)

Audiences immediately: \Rerelease please!!!!!/

Commander (Completely ignoring audience’s request for rerelease): Live is a singularly unique encounter between us, please remember that when you leave. Perhaps you can only listen to this song this one time, and you will never hear it again in the future.

\Ehh––/

Commander: Ah, but since there’s already been effort put into rehearsing it, it will probably be performed again in the future.

Commander: The song just now was sang by Ms Matsumoto, it’s definitely suitable! Although the world view is different and the original song was not entirely from the perspective of a mother, this song is still very sad, and contains the emotion of a woman to her child. There are a lot of commonalities in terms of atmosphere.

Commander: There are still two more songs after this. We can’t keep singing SH songs since it’s a LH tour right. Although LH doesn’t have a lot songs, aside from Shingeki songs, there’s were also songs written for a game called Bravely Default, although we didn’t organize a tour for it then. It’s the first game in the Bravely series, and actually, the second game doesn’t include Sunglasses-ojisan anymore. But there shouldn’t be anyone who will start playing from the second game in a series right! Start playing from the first game!

Commander: For next song, I also felt that「It will be interesting to let this person sing this song」. It’s like a cover of the song.

Encore 2: Hinadori [Vocalized Version] (Fledgling)

As if psychic, I anticipated the song and singer before the song started! (V)

Sung by Misaki Fukunaga. (《Cold Coffin》，Annie)

She sang Edea’s song from BDFF. Regardless if it’s quality or texture of her voice, or the content of the lyrics, It’s! All! Very! Fitting!

There’s 「Black or White?」in the lyrics. Will it actually be 「Black」or「White」? It’s a song that’s very fitting for Annie’s POV. The actions are also the same as in RLBDC. Even the actions for the singer when bandmembers where showing off their skills were the same. The only difference was the set of actions towards the end, Fukunaga performed Annie’s fighting actions. It was super cool and super impressive.

After it’s over Commander came up. On his way up he was carrying the concert pamphlet against his chest, and he walked backwards onto the stage like that. \?????? wwwwww/ What is this inexplicably adorable creature.

Commander: The song that was just performed was from BDFF. It’s game music. It’s collected in an Elbum (Mispronounced)… No! AL! BUM! called 《Luxendarc Daikikou》.

Commander: It actually started with the original game music, then on the basis of the game sound track, we added Vocalization.

Commander: It was sang very well. This song is very high, not everyone can sing it. You can try to sing it, not everyone can sing such a high note on demand. Oh but actually, you have all sang it before? Like when you all were just born? The kind like “UAHUAHHH––”.

Commander: Let’s do the member intro next. You can now fully appreciate Aniki and all. Initially the member intro were always very with one sentence per person, but let’s ease it up this time. Let’s do it in the form of a Talk.

Commander: What am I holding in my hands~ It’s (Holding the pamphlet in one hand for the audience to see, with his eyes on the cover, and in the tone of Doraemon introducing his gadgets): 「Linked Horizon Live Tour 2017 Shingeki no Kiseki pamphlet——」

Commander: And! It’s actually being sold outside now! Some of you may not know, it is being sold!

Commander: In it, one of the questions in the members interview was who was their favourite Shingekyo character. Let’s invite the members to have a more detailed conversation around this topic now. But there’s quite a few of them who wrote 【Secret】, I would like to dig a bit more today.

- Member Intro -

There’s too much going on, so I will only share a bit of the important (funny) parts that still left an impression on me.

Commander: Let’s start from the singers. The first one, MANAMI

MANAMI came out flapping her wings… no, flapping her arm with tassels on the sleeves. Seeing this, commander started humming 《Swan Lake》: 「dun~ dundundundundun~ dundun~ dundun~ dundundundundundun~」 Upon hearing it MANAMI also switched to ballet steps as she came up. As MANAMI flaps her wings… arms, commander also started flapping his wings… no, arms with tassels on the sleeves.

Commander: We are the same~  So happy that we are so like-minded~ (Two of them flap flap flapping together)

What is this adorable bird creature x2

Commander: MANAMI said her favourite character is Sasha. MANAMI: I really relate to how she can eat a lot. I participated in some sort of eating competition in the past, finishing 30 plates of sushi and 30 stick of skewered food to win 10 000 yen. And after I was done I felt like I still had the stomach for more. Commander: I think you can totally pursue this field. MANAMI: I used to play basketball, I could eat a lot more then than I do now! So when I see Sasha it’s like seeing a reflection of myself.

Commander: The second one is Tsukika. Commander: How many plates of sushi can Tsukika eat? Tsukika: ……30 plates are way too many. Commander: Tsukikia’s favorite character is Nanaba. Oh Nanaba. Her younger brother will be called 「Hachiba」.

\......Pffffttt (snickering)/

(…… The “nana” in Nanaba is homonymous with 7.. so “7ba”’s brother is “8ba”… such a cold joke. So cold!)

Commander (Seemingly well prepared to anticipate that nobody would find it funny, he started making the scissors hands gesture): Okay cut! Commander: Oh this (Snip snip) means that this part should be cut from the DVD.

\There’s DVD––?/

Commander: But actually for today’s show, there might not be anyone recording it at all.

(We all believed him, because it’s the opening day, and there had never been videos generated from opening days in the past, so it’s very likely not recorded. In thE END! LIAR! Can’t believe there is the opening show digest video after that! WHO SAID THERE WEREN’T ANYONE RECORDING!)

Tsukika: From a female’s perspective, Nanaba is very handsome. Even though I can’t tell if they are male or female. They are just very handsome! Commander: That’s true, there’s a lot of character in Shingeki whose genders are ambiguous. Isayama-sensei mentioned before that it’s okay to perceive them as either male or female. Tsukikia: I think that Hanji is a guy. Commander: The important thing is the character’s spirit and their way of living. Gender doesn’t matter. Hanji is just Hanji!

Commander: Next is Mami Yanagi. Mami Yanagi: Hi everyone, it’s been a while. Commander: Mami Yanagi’s favorite is Mikasa. She also repeatedly emphasized her liking during the last tour (Referring to Jiyuu e no Shingeki Talk & Live in 2013). Mami Yanagi: I still love her now! (Completely in a fangirl state) Mami Yanagi: The last episode in the second season was so cruel to Mikasa. I want be wrapped by the scarf–– no, I wanted to wrap the scarf around her!! Commander (Imitating Eren): 「 I’ll wrap that around you as many times as you want」

 Then it’s Eiko Matsumoto.

Commander: Her favourite is Carla. Matsumoto: Yes, I can’t help being drawn into the character. Because I also have a 10-year-old son. Commander: Yes, that’s the standard I used to choose singers. Matsumoto (Shocked): You must be lying?! Commander: I’m lying–– Matsumoto: Revo-san didn’t research me right?! Commander: No no. I chose based on sensing how this person’s voice will really suit this song. Matsumoto (Still recovering from the shock): I thought you found out from my Wiki page. Matsumoto: When Carla said 「Don’t go」, that was her most sincere feelings. Matsumoto: The lyrics for 《14 lettered》will make people wonder 「Perhaps Revo-san has children?」

\?!?! (Commotion)/

Commander: Mentioned before that perhaps I was a mother in my past life~ Gave birth to around a hundred children.

He was so careless about it wwwwwwwww

Thereafter it’s Misaki Fukunaga.

Commander: Favourite is Sasha. Ah it’s the second time someone picked Sasha. She is so popular. Fukunaga: When Sasha first appeared, she always spoke very politely. Initially I thought that was her character, I didn’t expect to see her pounced onto the food once it appears. Commander: In the second season there were interesting aspects focused on Sasha. The scene of the mother being munched by the Titan. The part where she just returned home to discover the mother being munched munched munched. （もっちゃもっちゃされた） Fukunaga: I really like Annie as well. But if I have to pick a favourite, it is still Sasha.

Then it’s all the dancers.

Commander: Next is Ayu Hosoki. For Nein, she was the one displaying the bread in the bread shop (Striking the pose of holding the bread) Commander: Favourite is Mikasa Hosoki: Mm, I like the sound of her name.

Commander: Next is Yosuke Sato. Very handsome. For Nein, he was the 「Single nighhawk~」(A solo dance in《Shokumotsu》) Commander: His answer was 「Will answer after rereading」。Which part are you at now？ Sato: I’m now on the second book now. At this stage, the one I am most attached to should be Mikasa. She is very strong, pretty, but also pitiful. I want to protect her well.

Commander: Next is OBA. The Abnormal among the dancers. (He acted as the Abnormal in《Daishou》) Commander: For Nein, he was 「the one in the food chain that writhed and collapsed in some very powerful posture after being shot, and then even became a worm.」 Commander: The answer written was 「Can’t be sure」. What about now? OBA: I guess Abnormal. As a dancer there are a lot of aspects that is worth learning. Every movement is very worth leaning Commander: For ordinary people like us, the most we can do is imitate human movements. But for OBA-kun’s level, he can already gain experience from animals or even insects.

Commander: The next one is Akane Takasugi. In Nein, he is the one at 「The flower bloomed, and was scattered」(The part around 4:19 in《Kotonoha》). The dance was very sexy at that part. Commander: Answer was 「Secret」。 Takasugi: Can I keep it a secret? Commander: No. Takasugi: Then it’s…… Heichou. Commander: What do you like about Heichou? Takasugi: His cold gaze! Commander (Imitating Heichou’s way of speaking, keeping his voice low, biting his pronunciations):「You bastard（このクソが）…！」「What is this situation（これどういう狀況だ）」

\(Bursting with laughter)/

Commander: Aah it’s so fun to act as Heichou.

-

I forgot which dancer was it at.

Commander: The dancers are so strong. If it’s me, just one song like《Nikagetsugo》will be enough for my legs to start cramping.

-

Then it’s the musicians.

The first was YUKI.

Commander: Favourite is Hanji. YUKI: It was completely coincidental at first, I can’t help paying attention because our hairstyles are similar. Then when I saw her drooling when she sees the Titans, I really relate to that. I really like things like temples and castles and such, and when I see them, I will be holding Chu-hi (A fizzy fruit alcohol under Kirin) in one hand while drooling. Commander (Imitating Hanji’s overexcited tone at seeing a Titan): 「WoOO~~~~~~WOAHH~~~~~THIS SHRINE IS TOO AMAZING~~~~~~~」Like this? YUKI: Yes yes.

Commander: After Hanji it’s Junji! Commander: He said he likes all the Titans. Junji: Yes, I like every one of them. Commander: Every one? There’s always that one special Titan right. Junji: It’s impossible to neglect the Abnormals, I want to follow them. But actually, compared to the gigantic Titans, the 2,3 meter ones feel the scariest. They are closer to humans. Commander: Is it because when you see the ones around 3 meters, you feel like you can defeat them if you just try a little harder. Junji: It’s impossible! Junji: All the Titans have that smile on their faces, it feels really creepy. Commander: But you like it. Junji: I like it.

Next is Atsushi Hasegawa.

Commander: Acchan’s favourite is Reiner. Acchan: Yes, he seems very brave. He feels sort of like an older brother. His personality is also very earnest, he only became like that (mental breakdown) because he is overtly sincere. Commander: That’s because Acchan is also a very earnest person. Acchan: I’m not that earnest?! Acchan: And the Armoured Titan is very cool. Like a robot. Commander: Yes, the Armoured Titan was exceptionally cool when it first appeared. It was like Woosh (Poses like when the Armoured Titan was going to start dashing)

Next is Gen Ittetsu.

Commander: Gen Ittetsu said his favourite is Mitsuru Hanagata (Not a character from Shingekyo, but one from 《Kyojin no Hoshi (Star of the Giants)》)

Then the two began a heated discussion revolving around Star of the Giants. I have never watched so I can’t keep up with their conversation, I had no idea what they were talking about. The two were engrossed in their own world for quite a while before returning.

Gen Ittetsu: I happened to be very busy during the tour pamphlet interview period. So, I just answered randomly. So that’s what I said.

Next its members from Gen Ittetsu Strings.

Commander: Aside from Gen Ittetsu, I still want to ask the members of the Strings. But there are a lot of people in the Strings, so I’ll ask one person for each concert. This time it will be –– Cameroon Maki. Commander: Maki’s answer was not published in the pamphlet. So we can only listen to it live! Maki: I have only watched 3 episodes of Shingeki so far. For now, rather than favourite, the character I am most attached to is Keith. I am attached to his role as a teacher. Commander: Such a shiny bald head. Maki: A very strict instructor, his words are very stern and severe. This makes him very endearing, I do have such a strict person around me.

As he said this he looked at Gen Ittetsu beside him. Gen Ittetsu looked around as though unaffected and he wasn’t talking about him.

\wwwwwww/

Commander: Keep watching! Instructor Keith still has an important role later!

Next is Takeshi Nishiyama

Commander: He likes Ymir. Aniki: The timeline for the original Shingekyo manga is quite confusing. I went and reread it for Shingeki no Kiseki, and I had a lot of new emotions when rereading it with the impression I got from the CD. Recently I feel like I’m getting old and my memories are deteriorating, I only realized Ymir’s story was already at the start of the fifth book when I went to reread it. Aniki: Being able to write such a song from such a short story, Revo-san is really amazing this way. Commander: There were a lot of characters in the original manga, among them some died soon after they debuted. Commander: Only Isayama-sensei knows the exact follow up for a lot of characters. There are a lot to look forward to. Commander: There are also some members who just started reading it. Perhaps by the end of the tour, everyone will become professors of Shingekyo.

The last one is Koji Ikarashi

Commander: Rashi’s favorite is Armin. Commander: This time, I will pick a musician for every concert to dedicate a performance to their favourite character. It will be Rashi today. Rashi: For Armin. Commander: Sometimes it will become Gesumin (Gesu = lowlife/scumbag, this nickname originated from some of Armin’s expressions which Isayama drawn really twisted and ugly)

Then, Ikarashi played Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu.

Yes, the Fantaisie Impromptu everyone is familiar with.

The Fantaisie Impromptu from 《Yoiyami no Uta》!!

After he was done with one part..

Commander: This melody is truly very difficult. But if you can’t play this, you won’t be able to play the song 《Yoiyami no Uta》. Ikarashi: That’s true, and it needs to be played at 1.5 times the speed I played just now.

Then, using the crazier speed from 《Yoiyami no Uta》

He really played the part from 《Yoiyami》

He really played it!!!!

A certain Märchen fan seemed to have heard the sound of blessings!

-

Commander: The next song will really be the last song.

\Eh –– /

Commander: But you all should have anticipated it.

Commander: It can’t be helped. Time will always pass, people will ultimately die. But that is also the value of life. People don’t know when they will die, which is why they need to live on now undauntedly.

Commander: The last encore song is 《Youth Much like Fireworks》。

Commander: It’s also a song I wrote very, very seriously, but because it’s original purpose was paro, I very seriously, with my best efforts, joked around. It’s very cheerful and energetic（ワイワイ盛り上がる）. This song will include some actions (Singers demonstrated the actions), and then you need to jump. It’s okay if you can’t keep up, you can try to follow if you want to do it.

Commander: Bravo together with the Bravo-ojisan in the end! Give it all you’ve got!

Encore 3: Seishun wa Hanabi no Youni (Youth Much like Fireworks)

Su←per↓Cute↑

It might be a substitute for the 3 songs in the「Chou Uchu」series from SH, a song for jumping around.

Follow the jumping on stage. It’s indeed difficult to keep up without instructions (……

The lyrics appeared line by line on the screen, in the same style as in the BK. But it doesn’t match the speed of the music, it just appears line by line at an even pace.

- MC -

Commander: This is the end now. Everyone come and stand in front.

All the performers stood in a row.

Commander: It’s surprising when we stand in a row, there are so many people. There will be concerts with more people in the future, the special guests are not here yet either, wonder if we can still all fit in one row then.

Commander: Hope there will be more people joining us soon, and that we can perform for many others.

Commander: Thank you everyone for today ––

(All performers on stage bowed together to bring the show to an end)

Commander: Let’s offer up our hearts in the end. We took the liberty to create this Linhora Corps setting, and we will take another liberty here, when you salute, shout「Jäger」.

Commander: Offer up your hearts!

\(Everyone salutes) Jäger!/

After expressing their thanks and clapping, all the performers left. In the end, Commander came up alone to do the final MC as usual.

Commander: You have offered up your hearts.

Commander: What should you offer your heart to? There are a lot of things you can dedicate to in life. There are a lot of times you need to fight. Even if the opponents are not titans, you will still need to fight. Fighting with sad things, fighting with painful things. But you can definitely overcome them. And life will go on. Music have this power. Even though there are sad songs as well, I hope I can support all of you with music. When you want to improve your mood, listen to music, and you will feel better, I hope my music can achieve this.

Commander: There were quite a few members who had never performed before today, everyone were actually really nervous. But you were all very encouraging, there were no sense of remoteness at all. Thank you very much, for watching over us with such warmth.

As he said this, Commander did a 90-degrees deep bow.

Audiences clapped.                          

Commander: Everyone here, perhaps I will have the chance see some of you again, if you come for concerts again. The encore will be different every time, so please look forward to the future concerts.

Commander: During the last concert, it ended after 《Guren no Yumiya》was played. It will be the same this time, you can sing a bit of Karaoke before you leave. It is the second season this time, so of course it’s《Shinzou wo Sasageyo》

Commander: Of course, it’s without lyrics!

(For a moment I seemed to look through Commander and saw him being possessed by a certain tyrannical King)

Commander: But it’s okay if you make a mistake while singing it!

Then the commander left. When he was leaving he ran off like an Abnormal with a twist in his steps.

What is this adorable creature!

[weatherfish]

Vinyl Surfin’ In The 70s

ENDLESS SUMMERS & SIDEWALKS

It was all Bruce Brown’s fault. 

On an uneventful Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1976 I happened to catch the better part of Bruce Brown’s seminal surf documentary “The Endless Summer” on our family’s 20” Sony television. And my life was changed. Like many others I was charmed by the film’s simple, idyllic look at the surfing lifestyle; traveling from beach to beach, searching for a ‘perfect wave’. But it was chiefly the film’s soundtrack that solidified my interest, especially the lilting theme song by The Sandals. “The Endless Summer” movie was originally released in 1966, riding at the last crest of the 60’s surfing fad, and soon after the sport of surfing began its’ bottom-turn back into the underground. By the early seventies surfing was a bit of an outlaw sport, but thanks to the swell of popularity in the sixties meant it was ripe for revival. So smack in the middle of the seventies that same elusive California myth of the early-sixties would be reborn just in time for my adolescent mind to get sucked right into it.

While I first saw “The Endless Summer” film in ’76, director Bruce Brown was retried in Santa Barbara, while I was a landlocked 14-year-old, living in a miserable logging town in the Pacific Northwest. In the mid-seventies the ominous specter of gas shortages, inflation/recession, Watergate, the cold war and other bullshit crisis hung heavy over life, even for a witless young lad like myself. The whole California surfing lifestyle was an enticing illusion, and its agent was music. And such is why I fell so utterly in love with that silly surfing myth, which consumed much of my tiny mind throughout my high-school years. Even though I was only several hours away from the Pacific Ocean, it might as well have been a thousand miles, as Washington’s surf was rather frigid and breaks in the main were unaccessible.

After being so perfectly charmed by the Bruce Brown film, I was subsequently engulfed by the California myth due to two major factors:

The first was the Beach Boys revival. Capitol Records had recently packaged all of the Beach Boys early hit singles into a two-LP set called, coincidentally enough ��� “The Endless Summer”. That compilation shored up the sagging fortunes of the band back up considerably in the mid-seventies. So it was not uncommon to hear Beach Boys tracks on popular radio stations back then, even mixed in with the disco throb of the top-40. 

The second factor, and even more influential to me, was an article that appeared in a 1976 issue of Rolling Stone magazine called “The Endless Sidewalk”. Tim Cahill’s account painted a similarly idyllic view of a parallel revival coming from California in the seventies - skateboarding. Before that story appeared, what few skateboarders there were tended to be surfers too, and most of the land-board’s ‘tricks’ were derivative of surfing maneuvers, keeping a strong connection between the two board sports. But the wonderful thing about skateboarding to me (and most of the initiates of the mid-seventies) was that you didn’t need a temperate ocean break to ride. Even in a dismal backwater of rural Washington you could get your stoke on by rolling down any available paved street, sidewalk or parking lot.

Soon after I’d caught Brown’s surf epic on the television I visited our local five-and-dime and the only Beach Boys record they had in stock was a low-rent double-album called “High Water”. The first LP was an acceptable, if too-brief, compilation of Beach Boy hits. The second platter was an edited version of the band’s “Concert” LP from 1964. But combined with my purchase of a skateboard from the local toy shop, I was happily kick-turning around my parent’s driveway to Beach Boys’ music. The blissful combination of Beach Boys and the magic rolling board inspired me to actively seek out as much surf music as I could find. In those days albums of surf music were rare and rough, but this humble remembrance contains the records that I recall most vividly, as I began living the life of a ‘pseudo’ surfer.

NOTE - this is not meant to be any kind of definitive guide to surf music or even surf compilations of the 70s, these were simply the records I was able to acquire back in the late seventies, so a great deal of surf music of the early sixties is not represented here.

Surfin’ Safari - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1962

Surfin’ USA - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1963

Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1963

After starting with that marginal Pickwick compilation “High Water”, I decided to eschew the standard route of buying more Beach Boys compilations (which were plentiful and redundant) and instead got their original surf-era LPs. Thankfully Capitol had not yet gutted these early albums (back in the 70s Capitol reissued many of the early 60s Beach Boys LPs with fewer tracks than their original release, in some attempt to minimize manufacturing costs and maximize profits I suppose? It made the original complete Beach Boys LPs heavily sought-after back then. It wasn’t until advent of the CD that Capitol finally reissued the complete Beach Boys albums again with all of the original songs included.)

The first proper Beach Boys album I purchased was called Concert, again because the pickings were so slim at the local department store. I don’t own that album anymore and never bothered to repurchase it as it’s basically the sound of the Beach Boys being drowned out by a legion of screaming little girls. But soon after I acquired their 1963 album Surfin’ USA. I can honestly say I probably wore that album out from literally hundreds of plays. And it was soon joined by the other surf-era Beach Boys records of Surfer Girl and their debut record Surfin’ Safari. For the most part I just wanted the surfing stuff - but over time i began to appreciate the other songs and slowly but surely acquired the whole Beach Boys catalog up through their LA Light Album that closed out the 70s.

Surprisingly, the songs I liked the most were the instrumentals, which is not what the Beach Boys are typically noted for. It’s easy to look back on them now and see that they were probably just filler, but they still have an evocative quality to me. They covered Dick Dale’s “Let’s Go Trippin’” and his revved up “Misirlou” - and to this day I still prefer the Beach Boys’ version over Dick’s. They also covered the Gambler’s spacey “Moon Dawg” and the old barroom chestnut “Honky Tonk”. Their attempts at original surf instrumentals are mixed, “Surf Jam” is tuneless but energetic, “Stoked” is a little more developed. Their last attempt at a surf instrumental (from the record Surfer Girl) is a throwaway called “The Rockin’ Surfer” which is notable only for its use of a cheesy organ instead of a jangling guitar.

Soon after the Beach Boys dumped the surf-sham and developed into a formidable pop-group, with Brian Wilson’s genius given full reign until his collapse after the legendary Smile album was aborted.

The Big Surfing Sounds Are On Capitol - Various Artists (Capitol) 1963

My Son The Surf Nut - Jack Marshall (Capitol) 1963

I found these two albums in terrible condition while scouring the bins of the many used record shops in Seattle’s university district. They were both heavily scratched and skipped more than they played, but they were a bit like archeological finds for me. Both were released by Capitol to capitalize (sorry) on the surf craze. The compilation featured four artists; the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, John Severson and Jack Marshall. The BB tracks and Dick Dale were pretty well known in the surfing world. John Severson was surfing’s renaissance man, a film-maker, publisher, artist and musician. As far as I know only a small handful of Severson tracks were ever released, and the two on the this record are pleasant enough but not terribly memorable. Jack Marshall’s two tracks come from the album “My Son The Surf Nut”, discussed thus...

Considering who Jack Marshall was, his record “My Son The Surf Nut” is still a conundrum. Marshall was a well-respected jazz guitarist who’s best known for composing the theme song for The Munster’s television program. The first side of “My Son The Surf Nut” is a selection of mildly funny interview skits performed before a live audience. The second, and weaker, side is comprised of a comical surfing songs. I think that his “Monster Surfer” track would certainly be a strong contender for the worst surf song ever waxed. In fact most of the second side sounds like an alcohol-soaked studio session with nobody taking things seriously, but it’s all quite harmless fun. Side one’s interviews are better, and even jokes this old hold up OK after a half a century, and that’s saying something.

Big Surfing Sounds Are On Capitol was re-released in 1995 as “Surfing’s Greatest Hits”

Surfing - The Ventures 1965

I wasn’t overly keen on this LP, mostly because the Ventures seemed to be more of a covers band, just doing instrumentals of other pop hits. Certainly they’d had a big hit with “Walk, Don’t Run” but since this record’s theme of surf music was so pervasive, I decided to get it. They scored a hit by covering the Chantay’s “Pipeline”. I was also hoping the track “The Lonely Sea” was a cover of that lovely Beach Boys tune from Surfin’ USA. It wasn’t, but it was still a nice track. The other highlight was the ballad “Changing Tides”. The rest were more typical surf tunes, some covers, some original, with “The Ninth Wave” and “Diamonds” being better than the rest. This album was rereleased in expanded form in the CD-era, featuring other Ventures songs of the era as well as some newer material.

Endless Summer Soundtrack - The Sandals 1966

This album was nearly impossible to find in the mid-seventies, and so when I secured a dusty copy I was so delighted to finally hear the soundtrack that had turned me into a surf music fan. The vinyl was in pretty wretched shape, but it was still listenable. The album’s highlight was the title track, a lovely ballad that was the glue that held the film together. There are higher-energy tracks like “Route 1” and “Out Front” which are more traditional surf instrumentals in style, but have better melodic development. The soundtracks other high point is the evocative samba-like “Lonely Road”. “Wild As The Sea” and the silly “Good Greeves”, which is like surf music meeting Mancini’s “Elephant Walk”, are also quite good.

The Sandals re-recorded the entire album back in the early 90s, coinciding with the Bruce Brown sequel “Endless Summer II” (which the band contributed new material to as well). The remake of the original was quite faithful to the original, and sounds better overall, but I’m glad that Capitol reissued the original soundtrack recently as well.

Gotta Take That One Last Ride - Jan & Dean (2 LPs on United Artists) 1974

Ride The Wild Surf (United Artists) 1964

I’m unsure if this 1974 compilation came out before the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer set, but they both had a similar focus on surf’n’drag music and obviously were released to cash in on the surf revival. Featuring an eye-catching cover design by Dean (Torrence) this double LP focuses strictly on the duo’s surf/drag music, skipping over the team’s many other hits. This record’s standout track is “Gonna Hustle You”, which is curious as it’s one of the few that don’t fit into the surf/drag theme. Most of the record contains Beach Boys covers, rewrites and collaborations. Brian Wilson worked with the duo on several songs, and Jan Berry was adept at matching Brian’s production style and to a lesser extent, his songwriting ability.

Not surprisingly this set was reissued on CD, but only nominally, and now fetches triple-digits in the collectors market. But given the fearful plethora of J&D surf/drag compilations, paying such a premium probably isn’t necessary.

Another find in the dustbins of used record shops was a moldy copy of the duo’s ‘songtrack’ to the film Ride The Wild Surf. Actually that’s not even true, save for the title tune, nothing on the LP is from the movie, but it’s certainly packaged to appear like a movie soundtrack. Originally Jan and Dean were slated to appear in the film, but were not able to due to reasons you can scrounge up in Wikiland. Alas save for the signature song and “Sidewalk Surfin’” - their hit rewrite of “Catch A Wave”, the rest of the album is pretty underwhelming. About the kindest thing you can say about the album’s other songs is that they’re not as bad as the awful Bruce & Terry surf ripoffs of the same period (which featured future-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston).

Dick Dale & His Deltones (GNP Crescendo) 1975

I had amassed so many surf compilations by the late seventies that the last thing I needed were more Dick Dale songs. I only bought this album because of a single track, “Those Memories Of You”. I loved the spartan demo version that Jim Pewter included as part of the Surfin’ Roots compilation (q.v.). Pewter had written it for Dale, but Dale’s version didn’t surface until the mid-seventies. Alas Dale’s version comes off like a bit of fifties cornball, rather ruining the foggy allure of Pewter’s low-tech original. The rest of the record is the basics, “Let’s Go Trippin’”, “Misirlou”, “Surf Beat”, but is marred by some curious vocal tracks “Peppermint Man”, “Sloop John B” and Dick’s little ego-trip “King of the Surf Guitar”. But Dick was way ahead of his time and he actually was a surfer, all too rare a thing for surf music makers back then.

Golden Summer (2 LPs on United Artists) 1976

Probably the best overview of popular surf music available at that time. Compiled by Joe Saraceno and Jim Pewter it covers the basics from vocal hits from the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and even some of the insipid Frankie & Annette beach movie tunes. But the best part is the surfing instrumentals from the Frogmen, Ventures and Dick Dale. Some tracks were faux-surfin’ cash-in hits, like the Markettes’ instrumentals and the Tradewinds’ “New York’s A Lonely Town”. The Venture’s cover of “Pipeline” is included instead of the Chantay’s original version. 

Surfin’ Roots (2LPs on Festival) 1977

This follow-on compilation to Golden Summer attempts a little more serious look at surf music, chiefly the instrumentals. But it’s marred by the mysterious inclusion of two irrelevant Annette Funicello tunes. It also has several of the same songs as Golden Summer, but has better coverage of instrument tracks from the Pyramids, Frogmen, Rumblers, Denels, Sentinals and Dave Meyer and the Surftones. The Chantays original of “Pipeline” But the real gem is the understated demo tune “Those Memories Of You” by Jim Pewter, which is might be low-fi but has a wonderful ambience.

Five Summer Stories Soundtrack - Honk 1973

I had read some vague allusions to this classic surf film, but finally caught it on afternoon television sometime in 1981. Unlike most surf-o-philes, I didn’t think it was that great a movie (and still don’t). Sure, there were great moments in some of the surf segments, especially of the Banzai Pipeline, and a fascinating segment on skateboarding, but nothing to compete with Bruce Brown’s stuff. The film’s original soundtrack was a mixture of forgettable country-rock crap and some great seventies-era Beach Boys music (“Trader”, “Feel Flows”, etc). But the highlight was the wonderful theme used in the sequence at the Pipeline in Hawaii. The good news is that this soundtrack includes that ‘Pipeline’ instrumental, the bad news is the rest of the soundtrack is that forgettable country-rock crap I referred to. Honk’s music probably relished by the same kind of bong-heads that idolize jam-band-dung like the Grateful Dead. So, aside from their “Pipeline Sequence” tune the rest of Honk record is sonic garbage. And to make matters worse, they removed the Beach Boys songs from the DVD version of the movie, making it even less important. Honk sometimes reforms, alas, and you can bring your hookahs so you’ll actually enjoy their aural rubbish at venues along the Pacific Ocean. Legendary surfer Corky Carroll likes ‘em a lot.

My Beach - Surf Punks (Epic) 1980

Surf Beat 1980 - Jon & The Nightriders 1980

Now the 1970s are perfectly kaput and them 1980s hath arrived matey, therefore it’s not surprising that surf music was prepping for yet another revival. These two albums represent two directions that the second revival (or third-wave, if you prefer) of surf music took. Surf Punks were a combo of surfers that blended fierce localism, Ramones-energy and synthetic-weirdness whipped together with plenty of Zappa-esque silliness. Jon & the Nightriders were carriers of the Dick-Dale flame, retro-to-the-core surf instrumentalists.

I found Surf Punks “My Beach” while visiting a small shopping center in Florida and bought it on the spot as surf music was a pretty rare thing back then, not to mention obviously new surf music and not another repackaged compilation. The Surf Punks, unlike most surf music artists throughout the previous two decades, were actually surfers and were heavily territorial about it. The album’s title track sets the mood for the album with the beautifully crystalized sentiment of;

My Beach,

My Chicks,

My Waves,

Go Home!

Musically the band eschews any olde surf music conventions of reverb-soaked guitars and lush harmonies for a low-tech, low-brow approach. Drew Steele’s Gibson Moderne sounds like it’s amplified through a can of bug spray, Hunt’s bass sounds like suspension-bridge cables and producer Dennis Dragon’s drums sound like they’re buried under dozens of throw pillows. But the group has a surprisingly tactile sound which is well-suited to their torqued takes on the surfing life. The songs are peppered with beer-belches, beach-jargon, dorky asides under a relentless surfeit of goofy synthesizer spikes. Yet buried deep beneath the kooky anthems to the life on the shore, it’s pretty clear these chaps are not the saltwater-addled musicians they pretend to be.

Lyrically Dennis ‘n Drew spin tales of Malibu surf-men with simple wants; waves, tits, beer and waves. They have dreams of Hawaii and nightmares of being drafted into the army, they despise Valleys, weekenders and anyone who doesn’t live within ten minutes of the water.  But even the album’s most sophomoric moment, “Big Top”, is relentlessly catchy and all in good fun. YouTube has kept their flame alive and most of their promotional music videos are still there to be experienced.

On the other side of the revival with have the loyalist sounds of Jon & The Nightriders. Centered around guitarist Jon Blair, who had published the first surf music discography just before this record was first released. Though most of Surf Beat 1980’s tunes were new, they sound as though they were recorded back in 1965.  There are a few surf chestnuts thrown into the bargain, like “Latin’ia” and Dick Dale’s “Surf Beat” In fact, Dale himself provided the album’s liner notes. Blair plays with a Dick-Dale-like fervor, soaking his Fender Jaguar in plenty of spring-reverb. The best tracks are the Pipeline-esque “Banzai Washout” and “Baja”. Probably the most novel track is his surfed-up version of “Over The Rainbow”. Fun stuff! The following year Blair’s combo released a very good live album recorded a the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.

History Of Surf Music Volumes 1-3 (Rhino) 1982

Thanks to the musical stoke from the Surf Punks and John Blair, suddenly surf music became hip again. A few record companies were keen to cash in and the venerable Rhino issued three volumes, two retro volumes (covering the instrumental and then vocal songs) 

The best of the three volumes is the first, featuring a good overview of the instrumental stuff tunes

The second volume is a spotty affair that features the stock vocal hits from the early sixties intermixed with a few oddities like “Surfer Dan” by the Turtles a couple of surprising female surf tunes from Dee D. Hope and The Beach Girls. The collection bottoms out with Bruce Johnston’s awful “Do The Surfer Stomp”, but it’s just one of the many surf’n’drag cash-ins that Johnston made during that era and eventually got him a lifetime gig with Mike Love, which they insist on calling The Beach Boys.

The last volume covers the revival and features a curious mixture of tunes, some excellent, other only tenuously connected with surfing. The Malibooz were a surf band during the original surf craze and then reformed for the revival, but the included track “Hot Summer Nights” has nothing to do with surfing. The same can be said of Steve Goodman’s “Sand In It” and

Summer Means Fun (2LPs on CBS) 1982

Featuring a rather weird, fantasy-esque cover, this equally-weird double-LP was primarily a compilation of Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher’s collaborations in the early-60s. The songs fall into two categories; Beach Boys covers and Beach Boys rewrites (well, ripoffs.) The backing tracks for “Summer Means Fun” and “Surf City” sound the exactly the same as the ones from Jan & Dean’s singles, so it’s hard to know who waxed them first? The only gem in this derivative compost heap is “Like Summer Rain” from Jan & Dean’s undervalued “Save For A Rainy Day” album. Thrown into the bargain were a rendering of “Pipeline” by Flash Cadillac and Johnny River’s “Help Me Rhonda”. The impact would have been much greater if it was whittled down to a single LP.

OUTRO - CATCH A NEO-WAVE

Thanks to Surf Punks and Jon & The Nightriders, a full-blown revival of new surf music was under way. At first many of the bands were more inclined to follow the retro path, like The Surf Raiders. Even the original Surfaris reformed and issued the tongue in cheek “Punkline”, which owed just as much to the Surf Punks as the originators, The Chantays. 

By the time the 80s were in full flood, a new surf-skew had emerged from center of suburban blight in Fullerton, California – Agent Orange. This young power trio took olde surf classics and transformed them into buzzsaw skate-punk rave-ups. But Agent Orange was wise enough not to let their skate-punk vibe be owned by surf nostalgia, and though they occasionally trickled out a surf music chestnut, they left that to the dozens of other surf bands that vied for public attention throughout the 80s.

As far as the new wave of surf were concerned, the Surf Punks' output was sporadic and by the time the 80s fizzed into the 90s, Drew and Dennis went along to their own separate breaks and never worked together since. They ended with a live album (recorded sans audience) in 1988. Some 30 years onward, Dennis Dragon passed away  and it doesn’t seem likely Drew will pick up the torch again.

I spent most of the eighties avoiding the ravages of adulthood, generally wasting the whole decade in and out of colleges. And my fascination with synthesizer-based music flowered - ambient, industrial, synth-pop, etc - so I lost almost any interest in surf music and began to loath and despise the golden state. Some fifteen years later I actually tried surfing for the first time in my life. I spent two summers attempting to getting to grips with bellyboarding in the shore break on a few Washington state beaches. I was also interested in the revival of interest in 60s era longboarding, as shortboard surfing was nothing more than a derivative of skateboarding style. Rhino had released surfing mega-set called “Cowabunga” and surf music was actually being used in film soundtracks and suddenly people were diggin’ Dick Dale again.

In the first decade of the new millennium I relocated to SoCal - yep I’d become a despised ‘Val’, living a few short miles from the surf breaks that inspired so much of the music I adored in the seventies. So in a weird way, at the ripe age of forty-five, I started living that California myth. I don’t surf, don’t even want to, but still love the music.

[jmindigo]

Nintendo Direct Blathering

 (What, me remember to hit post after I write something? ha. Well that was a fantastic Nintendo Direct - worth the wait in my opinion, though please Nintendo don't make us wait that long again!)

Video Link

 *screams in Mario* I'm so so so excited for Mario Maker 2!! So excited I missed the bulk of the announcement and had to watch it over again because omg there's so much to be excited about here - slopes! switches! the themes! Luigi! It's coming out in June!!! I love the original Mario Maker, though I admit I didn't play all that much of it. I'm... not that good at old school Mario. I get through the games, somehow, but I'm definitely below the average skill level. Or at least I feel like that. It doesn't take away that I love the games though, and more then playing Mario Maker I love watching truly skilled players play it and the sound of it is sort of comforting? So I've fallen asleep to Mario Maker more times then I can count, and I'm looking forward to doing the same with Mario Maker 2. Fingers crossed for thwimps!

That Marvel game is mildly interesting, in that they spent so much time highlight Captain Marvel - it seems like a gesture of confidence in that movie, and that's promising. It's something similar with Joker in Smash - they aren't showing much of him, which is interesting because there's a big Persona 5 announcement planned for March. If Joker being in Smash is part of Persona 5 getting a switch release then it sort of makes sense to hold back. Yeah I'm pulling for a switch release of Persona 5, and I'm more hopeful for it after seeing the push for hardcore games. I hate that term, hardcore. The games it describes aren't necessarily harder than other games, and the easy games aren't any less core to a system's library. But what else do you call those games? Anyway, after seeing that sort of games, the Final Fantasy, the Dragon Quests, the Assassin's Creeds, the Hellblades, and even strong rumors of the Kingdom Hearts games? I feel confident in having some hope for Persona 5.

 I love that Captain Toad Treasure Tracker is getting some love, because I'd really like to see a sequel to that one - there's so much more they could do with that concept and I'd like to see it. I have that one on the Wii U, but if I had the cash to burn on buying a game I already own? I would. 

Bloodstained looks amazing. The Castlevania games are one of the gaps in my gaming experience, as I've only loved them from a distance, but I'd love to dig into Bloodstained. It looks like all the best parts of the SoTN style games, but polished and with a female protagonist.

I'm not really a fan of the series, but I've heard such good things about Dragon Quest 11 I can't help but be excited for it. I'm always down for a solid jrpg experience. Because of it's release window I imagine it's going to be my birthday game. I suppose it shows my age as a gamer that I can't quite escape the console wars mentality, and oh does it feel like a coup to have the definitive version of the game be on a Nintendo console. That's one of those good signs about the Switch and big games.

Oninaki looks beautiful. Again, I'm a sucker for pretty jrpgs. 'Deep, single player campaign' is my ultimate catnip, and I am Setsuna has been on my radar for forever. *sobs over empty wallet*

I of course downloaded and played through the Yoshi's Crafted World demo immediately. It's a delightful game, and I don't know why I'm surprised about that because of course it's a delightful game! Epic Yarn and Woolly World were delightful games so how could Crafted World be anything else? I love games that just give me a mode like Mellow Mode, so I can chill out and play a game, and it's not like it strips the challenge out of the game like some people might think. The end of March is awfully close, I need to start saving...

Fire Emblem isn't my game at all, but I have to admit on second viewing of the direct Three Houses is kind of sucking me in.

Like everyone else I downloaded Tetris 99. I'm... not great at tetris, but it's more fun to lose then I thought it would be. A nice little distraction game.

Final Fantasy VII on the switch is just.... *vibrates with excitement* FF7! Portable!! Final Fantasy IX too! I still wonder what the deal is with Final Fantasy VIII being missing in action. I'll have to look into that when I've got a spare moment.

Astral Chain is a game that at first game I wouldn't be in to - actiony, not much there to hook into. But made by Platinum Games? *hearteyes* *hearteyes* Bayonetta 3 still happily in development? *HEARTEYES INTENSIFIES* thank goodness they said something, I imagine if they didn't there'd be an uproar because of the uncertainty after Metroid Prime 4 getting restarted out of the blue. I buy the theory MP4 got handed back to Retro because Retro is finished with whatever they were working on and I'm dying to know what that was. A rerelease of the Metroid Prime Trilogy? Donkey Kong? Something new??

With a lineup like this it's hard to say they saved the best for last, but they certainly saved some strong hype for last. Link's Awakening!! I knew it was that the moment I saw the waves, just.... *screams in Zelda* That artstyle(I typo'd 'heartstyle' there, and honestly? yes!!!), that music! *buries face in hands and happy cries* Every time, it's like coming home. I don't even like that high bloom, out of focus edges graphical style, but it looks good here and I will follow Link any where.

Not part of the direct, but I the news about the Hollow Knight sequel is intriguing. Again, aren't played Hollow Knight - too poor - but the style is beautiful and I don't need to play to know the gameplay is excellent. Silksong looks like more of the same, but better and with a female protagonist. Makes me wish I'd backed the kickstarter to get in on both of these games.  

comments x-posted to anindigomind on dreamwidth | comment there

[topmixtrends]

ADRIAN TOMINE LEADS a curious double life in the public eye. To the average New Yorker reader, he is the artist of some of the magazine’s most iconic cover images and illustrations (collected in New York Drawings, 2012), a wry and yet impartial observer of the city’s dwellers. Yet to comics readers of the last two and a half decades, he is better known as the much-celebrated author of the ongoing Optic Nerve series, a project ranging from his early self-published mini-comics (collected in 32 Stories), to the more ambitious narratives collected in Sleepwalk (1998), Summer Blonde (2002), and his first full-length graphic novel, 2007’s Shortcomings. Most recently, he has published the collection of short stories Killing and Dying, originally released in 2015 and now available in a new paperback edition from Drawn & Quarterly.

While Tomine’s work has maintained a remarkably coherent sense of style through the years — a style that is at once idiosyncratic and instantly recognizable — he is also a master of understated experiment. His work takes narrative, visual, and thematic risks that don’t seem dangerous until you realize that he’s pulled them off with characteristic sure-handed flair. If one were to coin a neologism to express the casual impeccability of his visual style, it might be “deadpanache.” And yet despite this coolness (in both senses of the word), the tales accumulated over the course of Optic Nerve’s long life are most clearly marked by their depth of feeling. The stories in Killing and Dying are among his most moving, reminding readers of the sadness, anxiety, and occasional hilarity of the passage of time in ordinary lives. We talked about all of this, and a number of happier things, on a phone call occasioned by this month’s rerelease of Killing and Dying.

¤

SARAH CHIHAYA: One of the great joys of Killing and Dying, for me, was the reminder of what a beautiful writer you are — looking at something like “Translated from the Japanese” especially, these are texts that seem like they could stand on their own outside of the images. I know you get asked a lot about your influences from the world of comics and graphic narrative, but could we disentangle the graphic and narrative elements for a minute and talk about writers and artists who move you outside of the genre? What else do you read, or what have you been reading?

ADRIAN TOMINE: I just started reading Zadie Smith’s new essay collection, Feel Free. She’s the rare writer whose fiction and nonfiction I enjoy equally, which is to say, quite a bit. She had an earlier collection of essays called Changing My Mind that I really liked — I just started this one, but I’m sure it’s going to be good. One problem is that I have two small kids, which has really cut into my pleasure reading in a big way — I don’t get to read as much and I don’t get to see as many movies, which is one of the trade-offs to having kids. I consider it a triumph if I make it through The New Yorker every week, which I often don’t fully succeed at.

But to try to answer your question, I don’t know if it was a direct influence, but I was reading a lot of Philip Roth when I was working on Shortcomings. And I’m sure Killing and Dying was affected in some way by the short story collections I was reading at the time — people like Cheever and Munro and Nabokov. I really liked some of the Andre Dubus stories I read. I think I discovered Lucia Berlin around that time, thanks to that great reissue. And for some reason, I really enjoy books of interviews. It can be writers, filmmakers, comedians, artists … I just tear through those kinds of books.

Did you read “Cat Person”?

I did, of course! It was required of this day and age, I think. I was just reading about the book deal and everything that followed, which is amazing. I think it’s great that there’s still a shred of excitement in our culture about fiction — a story can still go viral, and people can get excited about a new author, which used to be more common.

To get back to the question … Killing and Dying was very clearly relying on a lot of my earlier influences inside and outside the world of comics, and the stuff that I’m writing now is trying to do something more personal than anything else, so I don’t think it’ll have as much of an echo of other people’s work. It’s early stages, and I’m working in semi-secrecy … which for now is a nice change. In the case of a lot of prose writers, you get in this cycle of living advance to advance with deadlines hanging over your head, which I found really stressful. At least for now, I’m enjoying the fact that no one’s looking over my shoulder yet, and there’s no deadline, and I’m not wasting anyone’s money.

I wonder if you’re outside the economy of prose writers living advance to advance because you’re operating in these different worlds of illustration and book publishing.

I feel very grateful that when finances get tight and I’m concerned about paying bills the only solution isn’t to hurry up and finish my 800-page novel. I can do a lot more short-term projects and do an illustration that, start to finish, will take a couple of days, and the paycheck shows up the next week. The idea of trying to be a full-time professional novelist, or graphic novelist in my case, is a little bit terrifying, not just in terms of finances, but in terms of the impact on your life — the idea of having a daunting, obsessive task hanging over you for, I don’t know, 10 years or something, and then having so much writing in response to it once you finish. It’s a little terrifying to me.

It’s totally terrifying! There’s this romantic dream of being a full-time writer, which is so different from the reality of what it entails …

Yeah, and especially with the kind of comics I’ve done in the past, the process is so slow and laborious that there’s no way to do it fast. If someone was really under the gun with a deadline, they could dash out a horrible chapter of prose, and the quality could be debatable. But in comics, if I rushed a chapter of a book that I’d been publishing in serialized form and it clearly dropped off in quality, it would be pretty embarrassing.

And all the fans would be on your case!

[Laughs.] I think so, yeah — I have a very critical readership!

It does seem that there’s an especially strong affective relationship in the comics community — you see it especially in those early letters in Optic Nerve, where people feel a personal investment in you, not only as a character or an author, but also in your style.

Oh yeah! I mean, for the sake of my own sanity, I have to think of it as a form of flattery that someone cares that much or is that interested. I started my publishing career at such an early age. I think it was premature, in retrospect. I think there are certain people who have aged along with me, and have expectations about how I should be evolving or developing as an artist based on their own experiences. It’s conceivable that someone started reading my work as a teenager and has followed along as they’ve gotten older, which is nice. I’m grateful for that. Especially at this point in our culture, it’s a real compliment to be able to hold on to an audience for more than just one project.

I’ve just had what sounds like an unflattering thought, but to me is actually a great compliment — looking at it this way, you’re kind of like a Gen-X Harry Potter.

[Laughs.] That, at this point in my life, is a great compliment! I’m in the middle of reading those books now with my older daughter — the effect that they have on her is incredible.

I know you said you haven’t had much time to watch movies lately, but still, it seems to me like there’s something increasingly cinematic in your style as you move through the years. Can we talk a bit about other forms, aside from the written and the drawn image, and other kinds of artists or filmmakers or musicians that are important to you? After all, Killing and Dying starts with Isamu Noguchi. I don’t want to rely on something as cheesy as “what influences you” — more like, what else is in the margins while you were working on this book, or past projects, or this mystery project you’re working on now?

The most direct response, which you had no way of knowing, is that for the last year or so I’ve been quite focused on things other than comics, particularly movies. I went through a fairly long process that eventually resulted in me selling off film rights to a bunch of my stories to a filmmaker, and concurrent to that, I’ve spent a fair amount time trying to create some sort of — I don’t know what it is exactly, but the most basic description would be a TV show, or something more like short films, so I’ve been in that zone for the last year or so … It’s very possible that this interview will be the only record of that project, and someone will find this on the internet years from now and be like, “I wonder what happened to that?” But I really have been enjoying the process, and I really like taking a break from working in the form that I’ve been locked into for the last 20 years, and doing something different. Movies have always been as much of an influence on my work as prose or even comics. I’m not a terribly knowledgeable person about comics history, and I’ve stopped the weekly habit of going to the comics store and buying a whole bunch of stuff — that’s sort of faded from my life. It’s been really exciting to see television evolve over the last five or 10 years, and to move more toward subject matter and material that interests me, rather than the standard network sitcom.

Is there anything you’ve been watching lately that’s really spoken to you?

There’s so much stuff now that I like and look forward to, like High Maintenance and Broad City, which is definitely a change from how I felt about TV when I was in college. I usually enjoy any show that seems like it’s expressing one person’s specific experience and point of view, like Insecure and Fleabag and SMILF. I thought the finale of Nathan for You was a genuine work of art. And it’s all fouled up now, but I really liked Louie when it came out … to me it had a kinship with the alternative comics that I read so much when I was younger, and it reminded me more of that, and of cinema, than of normal television. I’m a big fan of Kenneth Lonergan, and I know he has a TV project coming up that I’m looking forward to seeing. In this last chunk of my life, there’ve been a few filmmakers that I wasn’t familiar with before, but have since placed into my personal pantheon — I’d put him there, and also Michael Haneke.

Oh, and I should also mention — this has probably never been mentioned in the same breath as Michael Haneke — I did get a big kick out of seeing Lady Bird this year, because it’s set not just in Sacramento, but in the one-mile radius of Sacramento where I grew up, so every single shot was deeply personal to me, and nostalgic. When you see the character going to mail off her college applications at the post office, I was thinking, “That’s the post office where I sent my first mini-comics off from!” and “There’s the hamburger stand we used to go to!” and “There’s the cafe where I had an interview for my first job as a professional cartoonist!” and it was really shocking to see all those locations on the screen.

That leads to another question I had. To so many people who are familiar with your illustration work outside of the books but aren’t your readers, you’re a New York, or most specifically New Yorker, artist — which surprises me, because I always think of you as a real California writer. This is kind of Bay Area inside baseball, but can we talk a bit about the changes that the Bay, and particularly the East Bay, have undergone and are still undergoing in terms of gentrification? To anyone who’s lived in Northern California, your work has such a specific sense of place. I’m curious about what you do when that place changes, morphs, is no longer what it was. Is the Bay Area that you draw the one of your memory, or the one that’s out there in the world now?

Killing and Dying isn’t explicitly set anywhere, but in my mind it’s the California that I grew up in, and I feel like it’s already a time capsule, at least to me — I think the distinctions would be very subtle to someone who wasn’t living there. I do agree with your description of me as more of a California writer or artist than as a New York writer or artist. I’ve lived here a long time but most of the time, I still feel like I’m a visitor in a place that I’m not 100-percent familiar with. The flip side of that is that whenever I go back to California, I always have this fear that at some point things are going to change, there’ll be some kind of tipping point, I’ll get off the plane in Oakland and be like, “Oh God, how did I ever live here for all those years? Get me back to New York!” But that’s never happened. Literally every time I step out of the airplane in California, something comes over me and I feel at peace. I’m a more pleasant husband and father, and I just feel happier. I think that’s the experience of going back to a place that you consider home.

But in terms of the changes, I do think that there was a little period of time when I first moved to New York and I was going back home a lot and the pace of change hadn’t quite kicked in to its full force yet. And I felt like I still had a foot in both worlds, I still feel like I’m living in New York and in California, like I was comfortable with and aware of everything that was going on. But now I get back there two or three times a year, and a lot of the time is spent going, “Oh no, that place closed! What is that?” I always say that if someone was to stop me on the street and ask how to get somewhere in Berkeley or San Francisco, I wouldn’t be able to do that, but if they said, “Can you get in the car and drive me there?” I could figure it out. I could just intuitively find my way around, the memory would kick in.

That leads me to a slightly more esoteric question. I’m interested in the way time passes in these more recent stories, especially in pieces like “Hortisculpture” or “Killing and Dying,” where the gutter between two frames sometimes communicates the passage of months or years. Your work is so often described as realism, but there is something speculative about that disjointed nature of time in Killing and Dying that reminds me of the simultaneous unpredictability and coherence of time in a book like Richard McGuire’s Here. Do you think you’re consciously thinking about temporality differently in your more recent work?

Yeah, I appreciate that — no one’s picked up on that, at least not consciously. To me, that’s one of the huge differences between this and prior books. The old work was, I think, fairly accurately described as “slice of life” — you’re literally peeking in on these characters for a short duration of time, and you just see what happens in that unbroken span of time. The real change for me was having kids. I think that completely affected me on many levels as an artist, but I think you’re picking up on something that was maybe half conscious, but is suddenly becoming apparent: parenthood really affected not only my sense of time as a human in real life, but also my storytelling. And I think that change is evident in the stories. There’s also an anxiety or sadness about that change that infuses a lot of the stories, too.

One thing that I think is perhaps more continuous with the previous work is that Killing and Dying is full of incomplete communication: the unanswered letter, internal monologue, the one-sided conversation, the conversation with two totally different sides, the stand-up comedy set. How do you think about verbal communication in relation to narrative, and in relation to the tension between the dual forms of reading (word and image) that your work demands of its readers?

I think I set out to play around with that a bit in the book because there’s sort of a tradition or unspoken understanding in the language of comics that dialogue is subjective, and you understand that words are coming from characters’ mouths and their points of view. But there’s this thought that traditionally the narration or the imagery are some form of cold, objective truth or reality. In fact there’s no reason why that should be the case, why any one aspect of the storytelling should be more objective than the other. I was trying to call this into question for the reader. I guess a lot of the stories could be read in a very straightforward manner, without any doubt or second-guessing, but I think there are lots of little hints and suggestions that things are subjective or distorted by a certain point of view.

Hearing you say that now makes so much sense. It raises some questions about the trust we have in a first-person narrator. That blurriness between what is said in an internal narration and what is depicted in a panel becomes such a productive source of tension in your work.

My hunch is that someone reading a comic would naturally be open to the idea of an unreliable narrator or dialogue, but would often assume that what they’re looking at visually is a kind of documentary film of the action. But in a lot of ways, I was enjoying the idea of running that through the filter of a character’s perception, even down to the drawing style, which intentionally changed from story to story.

There’s such a range of both visual and verbal styles in this book.

A lot of these stylistic changes were done for practical reasons because I was so burned out after my prior book, Shortcomings, which is like, a hundred pages drawn in one very precise, meticulous style that I had to maintain. What ended up being the biggest challenge with that book was staying consistent for that many pages. So when I was done with it, I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for my next book, and felt very adamant about not putting myself in that same position again.

I was just reading Viet Thanh Nguyen’s glowing short piece about you, where he makes the claim that Summer Blonde is, for him, “an essential Asian American literary text” precisely because it, and your other work, complicates and blurs conventional visions of what Asian-American literature looks like. He goes on to say that the most exciting Asian-American work today “makes us doubt whether we know what an Asian American is when we see one,” and describes why the comic form is so powerful in the depiction of race. I agree with Nguyen that something about your work speaks powerfully about what it means to not sit easily within the category (literary, racial, or otherwise) that other readers or writers want to put you in — as he’s said of his own writing, he’s an “Asian American writer” but that’s only one of many categories his work fits in.

This is a topic that has come up a lot for me over the years, and I think it was only recently that I was able to explain the feeling I’ve had that, regardless of the work I was putting out or regardless of what the characters looked like in my images, I had always been an Asian-American artist, just by definition. There were a lot of people who led me to believe that you were not that unless your work was a certain thing. Now, I think it’s exciting that there can be artists whom you’d consider to be Asian American, or whatever their background may be, and think of their work in those terms to a degree, but not expect that everything that they create be a direct representation of, you know, “Then my parents came to America.”

I think that question of what of “Asian American content” looks like is so clear in the opening scene in Shortcomings, with the earnest film that concludes in the fortune-cookie factory. That really kills me every time.

[Laughs.] Yes … that scene, that whole book was controversial. I’d be so curious to see what would happen if that book were published now rather than when it came out [in 2007]. I think there are broader parameters for people now. At the time when it came out some people liked it, but a lot of readers of my work found it to be off-putting in a variety of ways. In particular, there was a segment of Asian-American readers who did not think it was cool to be making some of those jokes.

Well, on a personal note — I’m Japanese American also — the book really spoke to me. This is such a cliché, but it was actually the first time I’d ever seen a character that I felt looked like me in any American cultural context, and that meant a lot.

Do you mean seeing characters that were clearly meant to be Asian but were, I don’t know, just living a normal life?

I mean something more literal. There are a couple of frames in the scene where they’re driving away from the theater where I thought, “Oh my god, I think I look like this character,” the way that non-Asians will sometimes think they look like actors or characters or whatever.

Yeah. In some ways that might seem like a trivial thing, especially to someone who has looked like what is typically shown on TV or in comics or whatever. But I do think there is something magical about that, and I love hearing those kinds of stories. Reading the reviews for Black Panther, there are a lot of people who are approaching it like other superhero movies, like “Are the action sequences good?” but there’s this whole other response to it about identification and the idea of a parent wanting to take their kids to a movie where they’ll see people who look like them within the superhero genre. As a parent now, I understand that a lot more.

There is really something moving about the idea that someone sees you.

I mean, it’s sad that we’re at a point where just being seen feels like a monumental thing …

Yes. It’s interesting that we’re at a point of reckoning, especially for Asian-American identity. So often in the discourse on how we’re perceived, the question is “Do people really see us?” So it’s fascinating that we’re finally at this point where we’re beginning to discuss this on a public stage.

Yeah. And again, I do feel like Shortcomings would be received differently now, but when I put it out there, one of the things that I got hammered for, but was important to me, was to try and show characters who were explicitly Asian and would sometimes refer to that in conversation, but would have a whole life that wasn’t inherently tied into that.

Do you ever think of going back to characters? Your characters are so specific — I know you’ve said before that there are various autobiographical aspects to some of them, but still, they feel so idiosyncratic and individual. Do you ever feel like you have unfinished business with any of them? Would you go back one, or when you’re done with a story are you done with its characters, too?

I’m of two minds about that. In a lot of ways, the process of committing those characters to paper is so arduous for me that when it’s done, I am happy to wash my hands of them. I don’t know that I would ever revisit them now and say, “Let me pick some random character from 20 years ago and figure out what the sequel would be” — which I think is how a lot of sequels get made, and why they’re often not good. But there are cases where I really knew a lot more about those fictional lives than what was on paper. The closest thing I ever did to a sequel was a story I did that was a big jump forward into the future of the character from the “Hortisculpture” story. I intended to have it in Killing and Dying, with the two stories as bookends, but I ended up not publishing it for a variety of reasons, some personal and some aesthetic.

It’s so interesting, and makes so much sense, to think of your characters having these other lives. It reminds me of what Chris Ware wrote in his review of Killing and Dying: “Just like life, the best stories don’t provide ‘closure’ but open outwards.”

Chris is very generous in how he describes things, and he does it so eloquently — and I think this taps into something that I was trying to do with a lot of the stories, but in particular “Killing and Dying,” which was written more through omission and through editing than anything else. I had a lot in mind about stuff that would have happened earlier or would happen later or in between that I didn’t show, and a lot of the final hard work involved cutting up little pieces of paper with scissors and moving them around and seeing what I could get away with leaving out.

So, in that process of constructing these episodic narratives that are just portions of peoples’ lives that are at once very constrained and structured, but also open-ended — how do you know when a story is over?

I’ve thought about this — I really think that it’s hard to answer that because it’s not really the thought process for me. I don’t necessarily think of it like this runaway train and at some point I’ve got to pull the brakes on it. That might be the case if I were ever to dive into some long, rambling, historical graphic novel or something like that. With these short stories, I try to really write and conceive of them as complete things — the page limits were defined by how much information I could keep in my brain all at once. That’s really where the writing process happened for me. I do anything I can to avoid the experience of sitting down at a blank piece of paper and saying, “Now I’m going to write my next book!”

We’ve only got a couple minutes left, but if you’re willing, I’ve got a couple of random quickfire questions. First, who are the authors/artists that you’d love to be compared to? A kind of fantasy draft of “Read If You Like…” picks?

Oh, interesting! The truth is, as an artist who’s fairly transparent in terms of his influences, people can spot artists who have been heroes to me, so by definition, I’d be flattered by those comparisons. The earliest and biggest influence on my work that’s still apparent is Jaime Hernandez, who does the comic Love and Rockets. From there, there’s a whole wider range of cartoonists who’ve had an impact on me. Outside of the realm of comics, it’s hard for me. I still have a bit of that built-in sense of inferiority, so when someone says, “Oh this reminds me of such-and-such an author,” I’m like, “Hey, but that’s a real author!”

Do you listen to music when you work?

Only in certain stages. It has to be a mindless stage of the process like coloring or inking an image that I’ve already drawn in pencil. The steps that involve a lot of mental concentration, especially the writing or editing or problem-solving processes, it’s better for me not to have the distraction of music. I think that’s increased since having kids. In my prior incarnation, when I lived alone, it was almost like I was trying to fill up the silence, and wanted to have music or the radio or TV filling up the background. Now, there’s so much noise and chaos and so many voices that when I do get to have the apartment to myself, and I can settle into work, it’s an amazing luxury to work in silence.

On the note of kids, now that you have them, do you ever think you’d write a children’s book?

[Laughs.] That is probably second only to Asian-American identity in terms of questions that come up. I actually got asked about it before I even had kids, people wanted me to make children’s books, and I’d say, no, I don’t really get children’s books, and I don’t know how to do them … In my mind I always thought I’d kick the can down the road and when I had kids I’d know all about children’s books. Eight years later, I’ve spent every night reading children’s books, and I still have no idea what’s going to connect with kids, and what would be a big seller, what art is going to be appealing. It’s really mysterious to me. I feel like the worst children’s books are the ones where an adult is trying to make a simple book to appeal to other adults and ignoring the wishes of the kid completely, and I’m afraid that that’s what I’d end up making.

¤

Sarah Chihaya is an assistant professor of English at Princeton University, where she teaches contemporary fiction and film. She is the editor of Contemporaries at Post45.

The post Seeing and Being Seen: A Conversation with Adrian Tomine appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books https://ift.tt/2pz8hP9

[kameron78-blog]

The Urban Dictionary Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time

Sure, they're fragile and require refilling, but they're also more powerful compared to the Kokiri Sword and the strongest of your early weapons (in the Nintendo 64 version, anyway-the 3DS slot nerfs them into being a genuine Joke Weapon ).

The 3DS version's Expert Quest mode not merely gets the harder dungeon layout from the titular expansion, but also doubles the damage Link takes and flips the whole world horizontally. Not to mention, the mirrored Get better at Quest in the 3DS remake also messes with long-time players' reflexes. Broad Strokes : The general plot is similar to the back story for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past The state timeline confirms that the earlier game occurs in a timeline where the Hero of Time LOST to Ganondorf in the ultimate Battle.

Zelda says goodbye to Link and sends him back again to days gone by; while this fortunately means that one timeline's Hyrule will end up being protected from Ganondorf because of Link thwarting his programs before he even puts them into place, that timeline offers its bittersweetness: Navi leaves Hyperlink once repaid to the Temple of Period; and the Great Deku Tree remains dead. Hyrule Historia also revealed a third timeline, developed if Link LOST to Ganondorf in this game, which leads to A WEB LINK to the Past, the "Oracle" video games, Link's Awakening, and the two NES games. Alternate Timeline : As mentioned above, verified with Hyrule Historia Later on video games confirm a split in the Zelda universe's timelines, consequently of that time period Skip in this game-one where Young Link returns to his personal time and matures normally, the various other where Adult Hyperlink disappears (when he returns to his own period as Young Link).

The game has had numerous rereleases - specifically, Get better at Quest, a preorder bonus for The Wind Waker including the original game along with a second version (originally intended for release on the 64DD add-on) with harder dungeons. I remember performing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Amount of time in graduate college, tucked before a small TV. At the time, its open 3D universe felt surprisingly huge. The 3D remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period is a relatively bittersweet exemplory case of Nintendo's almost stubborn attitude toward the development of new titles.

The 13-year-old classic, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period, has already established a 3D remake for the 3DS. This is really nice since it was the first time we'd seen a Zelda video game operating in HD. Why did Nintendo opt to release these 2 games when The Ocarina of Period was where the curiosity was at. Die-hard Nintendo 64 fans may zelda ocarina of time n64 shortly venture into the world of vinyl record collecting, as indie publishing label iam8bit is currently accepting pre-orders for a two-LP set offering orchestrated music from the landmark N64 action-RPG The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period.

Play the initial Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Period. Nowhere was this even more obvious than in Hyrule Field, the seemingly substantial central area of Ocarina of Period; it was breathtaking simply to look off into the length and find landmarks like Death Mountain or Hyrule Castle, or to run completely from Kokiri Forest to Gerudo Valley. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is a highly enjoyable game with great graphics, smooth control, and a ton of adventuring for gamers on the run.

I made a promise that if Majora's Mask ever hit the 3DS I'd understand this game as well and give Ocarina of Period a go, then came the Nintendo Direct that announced Majora's Mask 3D, We was thus excited, and We was prepared to fulfill my promise. The fourth major discharge in the DS products, the Nintendo 3DS utilizes 3D Slider efficiency and a better top LCD display to provide a glasses-free of charge 3D effect in compatible games, while offering players the choice to moderate the effect as they see fit. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D takes the best-reviewed game of all-time for a brand-new knowledge.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS reviewed by Jim Sterling. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) I have tried to enjoy OoT many times and never in fact made it that significantly in. I played it on a Wii with a Gamecube controller for a time, then I performed the 3DS version many years later for a little while, and then tried to play the 3DS version again after defeating the Wii U edition of Wind Waker last year.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an individual title from the many rpg games , adventure games and zelda games that we offer because of this console. It included a duplicate of the game, a plastic material Ocarina of Time replica, song bed sheets for " Zelda's Lullaby " and " Epona's Tune ," and a web link to download additional song sheets. The main quest of Ocarina of Time 3D also implements a variation of the " Super Guide " feature showing players where to go next if they are stuck at a certain point in the game.

As well as the video game being mirrored, all of the enemies and bosses cause twice as much harm to Hyperlink, which also applies to the Get better at Quest's own Boss Challenge version. The 3DS version may be the first port of Ocarina of Period that recreates the images, instead of simply porting over the N64 ones, to take advantage of the better hardware and fit modern standards. Link's first foray in 3D is certainly fittingly adapted to the 3DS system as an enhanced remake of the traditional Nintendo 64 game.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Selects Range 3DS. Nintendo Selects: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Period 3D on Nintendo. "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period reveals the genesis of the fantasy property of Hyrule, the foundation of the Triforce, and the tale of the first exploits of Princess Zelda and the heroic adventurer Hyperlink.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period first made its debut back in 1998 and offers graced the N64, GameCube, Wii, and Computer (through emulation) since then. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Period 3D (3DS) With the new coat of paint, improved controls, master quest and boss gauntlet this is absolutely the definitive edition of 1 of gaming's most defining video games.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a damn fine game to play any moment at all. I'm a typical gamer that enjoys the big shooters that most people play today (CoD, Halo, Gears of War, etc...) Despite the fact that I've literally days-weeks of playing period on those games, I still do not consider them anywhere near Zelda; Especially Ocarina of Period. Unlike Mario Kart 64 - which is only just now arriving at the Nintendo Wii U - Ocarina Of Period is easily available on both Wii U and 3DS, with the latter providing eShop download and physical copies for sale.

Nearly ten years after Ocarina of Time premiered, a debug version of the game's Master Quest spinoff was leaked. After acquiring the three Spiritual Stones and acquiring the Ocarina of Time from Zelda, if players head straight to the trunk Alley of Hyrule Castle City, they'll look for a fatally wounded Soldier. Essentially, this version of Ocarina of Period has the same general gameplay as the GameCube (Version 1.3) edition of Ocarina of Period, but the main difference is every one of the Temples are altered.

Criticism of Ocarina of Time started to appear about the game's re-releases, with reviews for Expert Quest and the Virtual Console version considering the graphics and sound technologies dated, but nonetheless giving the overall game high scores nonetheless. Ocarina of Time 3D is definitely a remake of the original game, and retains mainly the same gameplay of the initial but consists of new content, and updated graphics and control choices. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Get better at Quest.

Majora's Mask is a direct continuation of the Ocarina of Time story, chronicling his travel to a parallel version of Hyrule referred to as Termina The Wind Waker is set more than 100 years after Ocarina of Time, on a timeline that follows on from the devastated world that Link left out when Zelda sent him back in time, long after Hyrule provides been flooded because of Ganon's inevitable come back. By traveling back and forth through period using the mythical Grasp Sword , Link must amass the Six Medallions needed to defeat Ganondorf and restore peace to Hyrule. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period & Expert Quest is rated 4.7 out of 5 by 58.

Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. While not the original intent, it has served the objective of obtaining us pumped to see what the next Zelda game looks like on the Nintendo NX (Unless Nintendo is thinking about a Wii U release, which doesn't appear all that likely.). It's been some time since we've joined Link and Co. on a journey across Hyrule and, working on modern hardware, we imagine it's going to look at least as effective as what CryZENx has generated here. 'œThe Zeldawave videos, along with my additional anime/video games/assorted nostalgia centered videos, are a way for me for connecting back to those experiences, while at the same time reinvigorating them with some '˜added layers' in the form of trippy visuals and even some newer songs,' stated kurodon85, a YouTube curator who mixes old gameplay footage with additional popular vaporwave tracks.

Whether you're experiencing it for the first time or not, the initial Nintendo 64 edition introduced 3D visuals to the series, with a new combat system, and a captivating story. 114 IN-MAY 2011, IGN held a tournament-style competition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the initial The Legend of Zelda's release where fans voted Ocarina of Time the greatest Zelda game; it defeat Majora's Mask in the ultimate round. 72 The review aggregator websites Metacritic and GameRankings respectively rank the original Nintendo 64 version mainly because the best and second highest reviewed game of all time, with average scores of 99/100 from Metacritic and 98% from GameRankings; 78 it held the highest rating on GameRankings until it was succeeded by Super Mario Galaxy ten years later.

On its initial Nintendo 64 release, Ocarina of Period received perfect examine scores from nearly all gaming publications that reviewed it, 77 99 including Famitsu, 82 Edge , 80 Electronic Gaming Monthly, 81 GameSpot, 84 and IGN. The button layout of the Nintendo 64 controller resembles the holes of the ocarinas in the overall game, 72 and players must figure out how to play several tracks to complete the overall game. Ocarina of Time's music was compiled by Koji Kondo , the composer responsible for music for the majority of the games in The Legend of Zelda series.

Shigeru Miyamoto originally maintained that a version of the game for the Nintendo 3DS was only a complex demo with the probability of being progressed into a full game, 60 but Nintendo of America announced the game in June 2010. 45 Furthermore to Ocarina of Period, the disc also includes the original The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Hyperlink , Majora's Mask, a demo of The Wind Waker, and a Zelda retrospective featurette. The "Ura" name is due to Grasp Quest's origins, as an growth to the Ocarina of Period cartridge in the type of a 64DD disk, under the working title Ura Zelda.

Although popularly thought to have been changed because of general public outcry, the chanting was actually removed after the company found out it violated their very own policy to avoid religious materials in games, 40 and the altered versions of Ocarina of Period were made just before the game's original release. Nintendo ultimately migrated the development of Ocarina of Time from disk to cartridge press due to the high data functionality requirements imposed by consistently reading 500 motion-captured personality animations throughout gameplay, 15 intending to follow its release with a 64DD growth disk. At the Hyrule Castle garden, Hyperlink meets Princess Zelda, who believes Ganondorf , king of the Gerudo, is seeking the Triforce , a holy relic that provides its holder godlike power.

Part method through the main quest, Link promises the Master Sword in the Temple of Time; when Hyperlink takes the sword, he is sealed for seven years, until he becomes an adult, and therefore strong plenty of to wield the Master Sword. In one side-quest, Link trades products he cannot make use of himself among non-player heroes This trading sequence features ten items that must be delivered of their individual time limits, and ends with Link getting an item he can use, the two-handed Biggoron Sword, the biggest and strongest sword in the overall game. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Period can be a fantasy action-adventure game with role-playing and puzzle components set in a large, expansive environment.

At the Hyrule Castle garden, Link meets Princess Zelda, who believes Ganondorf, king of the Gerudo, is searching for the Triforce, a holy relic that provides its holder godlike power. Ocarina of Time's gameplay launched features like a target-lock system and context-sensitive buttons which have since become common in 3D adventure games. Ocarina of Time may be the fifth game in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the 1st with 3D graphics.

Those folks who worked our way through the initial version 12 years back will find Ocarina of Time 3DS just as brilliant as we remember. As we said, Hyrule isn't big or heavily populated at all, but Ocarina of Time 3D makes the most of it. Somehow, the overall game does more to establish interesting situations, locations and character types with primitive graphics and some lines of text than some modern games manage with all their photorealistic, motion-captured mumbo-jumbo. When Ocarina of Time first appeared it seemed like a masterclass in 3D games design, and even now it's hard never to feel impressed at what sort of game introduces new equipment or new principles after that runs with them, twisting concepts and messing together with your preconceptions so that you're solving puzzle after puzzle without ever feeling like you're running through a gauntlet of conundrums.

Those folks who worked our way through the initial version will see Ocarina of Time 3DS just as brilliant as we remember. Despite its somewhat smooth soundscape, Ocarina of Time 3D is an excellent version of an already brilliant game, and is very easily the strongest name on the fledgling 3DS platform. I also experienced Ocarina of Period on the Gamecube (a Wind Waker add-on disc), so its simple to appreciate what they've finished with the 3DS version.

In this game Link sets off on a legendary trip through time to fully stop Ganondorf, the Gerudo King of Thieves who is seeking the Tri-force, a holy relic that gives it holders the ultimate power.

[murasaki-murasame]

I always love hearing about new manga/LN licenses and release dates and whatnot. Even if it’s always a bit stressful to look at my ever-increasing backlog of stuff I plan to order and think to myself “if this was a physical stack of books then it would be enough to literally kill me if it collapsed”.

[[Rambles about new Vertical licenses/announcements under the cut since it got a big long]]

Though thankfully most of these announcements from Vertical are just clarifications on when they plan to release stuff they’ve announced already. Which is nice. There’s not much I plan to get there. Mostly just the rest of the Monogatari books they put out. I’m still super happy that they seem to be intending to pretty much release the entire series. I’ve spent the last like year and a half in constant fear that they’d drop it. So this is neat. Especially since they also seem to be planning a three month schedule for everything after Neko. Which is honestly a faster schedule than I’d expect, especially with how they’re already going through a process of releasing three volumes of Bake, two volumes of Nise, and two volumes of Neko with a two month gap between almost all of them. They’re really working hard to get this series out fast. Which is nice because it’s super long. [I’m also hoping that they just stick to more or less using the JP covers of the series from Nise onward, which I think look really nice, especially when they’re spread across the entire front cover. I’m still reeling over their design choices with their Bake releases. I’m bracing myself for even the spines of the rest of the series to not match the Kizu/Bake releases. We’ll see]

I’m also probably going to pick up Voices of a Distant Star since it’s just one volume long and I think this is basically the only Sahara Mizu manga licensed in English. I’ll try and watch the movie first, though. I also might get She and Her Cat? Maybe? I at least remember that the anime version made me cry the hardest I’ve ever cried while watching an anime, so I’m curious to see if the manga is as emotional.

I’m REALLY surprised to hear that they’re going to do omnibus rereleases of Flowers of Evil, though. Wow. I guess it must be a pretty big seller of theirs. I’m not sure how to feel about this, since I already planned to get the single volumes in order to reread the series, and now this just increases my fear that they’re going to go out of stock [some of them are already out of stock on Book Depository but that might not be permanent just yet] before I have time to get them. So now I’m just hoping and praying that I like the designs they’re going to use for the omnibus versions [since apparently they’re going to have ‘new cover art’???]. If I don’t like them, that’d kinda suck, since I’ve always quite liked the designs of the single volumes. But they have potential to look even better than the originals. I’m definitely wondering what ‘new art’ they’re going to use, especially since there’s not exactly been any omnibus editions released in Japan with new cover art to use. It’d be a shame if they somehow don’t even use the creator’s art for it, since his style is really stunning. We’ll see. On the one hand I’d want the cover designs to all match, but on the other hand I really like how each ‘arc’ of the series had a complete shift in cover design style in the single volume editions, so it’d be really neat if the omnibus editions replicate that, considering that they’re going to be divided up along those exact lines.

Well, at the very least the first volume of that is out at the end of October so it probably won’t be long before we get new info on that.

EDIT: OK I saw a bit of extra info about this on twitter that makes me more excited. Apparently this will be in a large trim size [presumably bigger than their original releases, which I THINK were smaller than average?? Not sure. I’d need to find images of them], and they’re trying to get colour insert pages for it that weren’t even included in the JP volume releases, so that’s interesting. It also sounds like they don’t really have the ‘new art’ for it organized yet and are making some form of plans to get some, so . . . I dunno how that’s gonna pan out. I guess we’ll just wait and see. But even if the covers hypothetically suck, these new releases definitely seem nice enough for me to want to get them, especially if the single volumes will be going out of stock within the next year or so. I’ve been planning to reread the series for a really long time now, so this should be a nice opportunity. It’s kinda reminding me of how I’ve been rereading Punpun via the omnibus releases of that series. [[I also still need to eventually finish the Flowers of Evil anime]]

[sinceileftyoublog]

M. Geddes Gengras Interview: Happy Accidents

Photo by Gabrielle Valenti

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Producer M. Geddes Gengras has taken advantage of quarantine to release music at a breakneck pace. Living among the nature (and Brooklyn spillover region) of Hudson, NY, he’s got six distinct releases on his Bandcamp this year alone, half under the moniker PERSONABLE. The most notable is the full-length album Time Makes Nothing Happen, a propulsive, techno-heavy record released in May but filled with many tracks that date back years past. (Thumping, clattering, glitchy opener “Dragging My Feet” is from the Aughts!) “I put it out there and wasn’t really sure whether anybody was gonna buy it or listen to it,” he told me over the phone last month. Indeed, as much as Bandcamp Fridays have helped, self-releasing still carries and inherent risk. “It either does really well or disappears,” he said. Plus, Time was far different from the material he had been working on and releasing under any moniker.

As it turns out, the album caught the ears of Max Allison, co-founder of Chicago bonkers experimental label Hausu Mountain. It wasn’t out of the blue; after all, Hausu had released Gengras’ I Am The Last of That Green and Warm​-​Hued World last year. But they had been long talking about doing another record, and while something never-before-heard is still in the works, Gengras and Hausu decided to physically release Time on CD and cassette, with a bonus track for good measure. It’ll be out November 13th. Most importantly, the record fits nicely within Hausu’s increasingly wonderfully sundry catalog.

Below, read my conversation with Gengras about the original record and the rerelease, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What was the inspiration behind the aesthetic of this record?

M. Geddes Gengras: For the past few years, I had been putting out music at a much slower pace than I had been in the past. I wasn’t working on as much stuff and wasn’t recording as much. My process had gotten a lot more layered. My last record for Hausu I had made pretty quickly, but it was very dense. A lot of going over and over and changing things bit by bit. Lots of editing, micromanaging of sound. This one, it’s all live, with maybe a single overdub. I had a couple old tracks I never found a place to put out, and they had never really fit in with the straight techno stuff, but it was also a little too rhythmic and beat-oriented for what I had been releasing under my own name. The division between those two things had just been sort of pushed out to the extreme in a couple ways. So this was something where I was trying to bring it all together in a playful way, making decisions really quickly, first take-best take, and not obsessing over every contour and curve of each track. Trying to do something that felt a little more impulsive.

SILY: That impulsiveness speaks to the spirit of Hausu Mountain, which is funny, because you didn’t even make this record for them.

MGG: Absolutely. But I feel like it was inspired by them, even if indirectly. The last one I put out on Hausu, there are certainly things in their catalog that go along with it, but so much of what they put out is hyperactive, hyperkinetic off-the-wall. Max’s stuff is so crazy. It’s so bonkers. He’s one of those musicians where I’m just like, “I don’t know how you come up with that.” I don’t know how his brain works. It blows my mind.

When I’m working on something, I think about people. I think about an audience, even if it’s just one person or a couple people. It helps my mind file my way through decisions that might take longer otherwise. [laughs] Max and [label co-founder Doug Kaplan] and Hausu, we had been talking about doing another record together, and this wasn’t intended to be that, but that sort of ethos and spirit pervaded its way into this. It was also pretty early in the whole quarantine thing, and I wanted to do something that was fun, that wasn’t dour ambient music. I wanted something that felt like what I needed to hear at that time.

SILY: The notes on the back of the CD say “composed for/by synthesizers.” It speaks to the randomness inherent in synthesis and improvisation that was how this record was recorded.

MGG: Definitely. I know some people hear something in their head, and they make it. I don’t work like that most of the time. Sometimes, things like that happen, but that’s usually well down the road into the project, and I’m like, “I can hear this part over that.” This is just setting up machines, laying around with them, and being influenced and inspired compositionally by what they are doing. It’s a little more like riding a horse than driving a car: You can tell it what to do, but it’s not always gonna do what you want it to. That’s the fun part for me.

The things that I love when I listen to the recordings is the stuff I didn’t necessarily do but emerged out of these processes and systems I built. Those are the things that really excite me. It feels more like collaboration and less like sitting alone in a room and plugging wires into things.

SILY: Tell me about the bonus track. Was that just added on when you knew it was going to be rereleased?

MGG: When we talked about doing a physical release, I wanted something that was a little value add. [laughs] I was really happy with the way the original record flowed from beginning to end, so it was a practical thing. We were playing around with the order, and it felt a little lopsided. That was a good excuse. I had a couple things left over from the sessions and a couple earlier things I slotted in there, and what I ended up putting in was a year or two old. Something I made and forgot about that sat on my hard drive. I started digging for tracks for an appropriate length. It’s not really an exciting story now that I tell it. [laughs]

I have a handful of tracks that don’t really fit in with the kind of aesthetic I want to do with the PERSONABLE releases because they’re slicker and stripped down. But they haven’t really fit with other releases I’ve done. One thing I’ve done a lot during quarantine is go through a bunch of old stuff. I have a lot of finished recordings that have for one reason or another never found their way out there. In a time when I’ve been feeling particularly productive, it’s been good to clean that stuff out. Find something I like that I want to get out there.

SILY: How did you come up with the track titles of the record?

MGG: Coming up with titles is probably my least favorite part of making a record. [laughs] It’s always the last thing that I do. Maybe that makes it harder, because I’m attempting to put words on something that has existed in a wordless space for a while. I started with the album title, which I stole from a book by Roland Barthes, Mourning Diary, which I was thumbing through. The title caught my eye, and I was thinking a lot about time--I think a lot about time in general--and my music plays with the concept of time, whether it’s distorting your perception of time, or this release, different rhythms, which are expressions of organized time. I started with that, and then I went through the tracks and listened to them over and over again and wrote down words and imagery that came to mind. I started using that as a launching point. Some of the track titles are descriptive of what the sounds sound like to me, and some of them are more playing with the imagery I get when I hear it. It’s not a terribly deep process. It’s usually done in kind of a panic, and sometimes it’s okay. It’s one of those things after the fact I’m like, “It’s fine, I guess. At least I did it.”

SILY: So the album art got the Hausu treatment, too.

MGG: Oh yes. Max asked whether I wanted to do that, and I said, “In fact, I demand it.” Any time I can see a new piece of Max’s art, I’m excited to. His aesthetic is so deeply up my alley as a lifelong gamer from the Super Nintendo generation. He somehow makes the most psychedelic 16-bit dreamscapes and gets things perfectly, and it’s never what I expect. Both this and the last one. I love the aesthetic of Hausu. It’s so fried and beautiful and fits the sound of the label. They’ve created this visual umbrella: You can spot it from a mile away.

SILY: Are you doing any sort of release show with them?

MGG: That remains to be seen. I think it would be fun to do something. I’m a little intimidated about performing this kind of stuff live because it’s out of my comfort zone. I’d like to do something. It’s probably a lot easier to do something like this now that we’re trapped in our houses than it would be to [coordinate] from our respective cities otherwise. I’m gonna say yes, and then I’m gonna talk to Max and Doug. [laughs] I’ll be like, “I told the guy!”

SILY: Yeah. “In fact, it’s already published.”

MGG: That’s how you get things done. You start with the media and work backwards. But I haven’t done a performance since the first or second month of quarantine. I’m kind of itching to do something.

SILY: What’s next for you?

MGG: I’ve got a few really cool collaborations I’m working on right now that I’m really excited about. I’ve got a record with Miles Seaton from Akron/Family. I played with them for about a year. We made a record and did the basic tracking here in Hudson a little over a year ago. I’m right now going through the mixing and overdubs. It’s a strange record: a lot of weird instrumentation and operating in zones we don’t normally work in. I’m working on a project with this guy from Los Angeles that’s a video game-themed band that’s happening via WeTransfer. And I’m doing a record with a friend of mine who records as Psychic Reality that we made three years ago. A few solo things. And a few other things I can’t talk about yet.

I find it helpful to put something down for a long time, come back to it later, and see what makes sense. Coming out of a long period of inactivity, I’m trying to poke my brain cells a little bit, and one way of doing that is to work with amazing musicians.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, reading, or watching lately that’s caught your attention?

MGG: I’ve been reading a lot of Stephen King. I had been already, and it just seems extremely appropriate right now. It’s nice to curl into something where you could blast through a few hundred pages at your leisure. I haven’t been listening to a ton of music except for a lot of Imaginary Softwoods. That’s been my go-to recently. A lot of Keith Jarrett, too. I’ve been feeling really melodic, beautiful things. And the other side of that is I’ve been revisiting a lot of my favorite hardcore records from the late 90′s. As our world descends into chaos, I feel like it’s more relevant than ever.