I don’t know why I go out of my way to make obscure references and bad puns in my blog titles, but I do. I think I must think my fans (who I am now addressing in the 3rd person for no reason,) must want to be entertained. After all, I am a musician and writer, or at least that is the crux of this blog. Should I ever really do any indie software development on this blog, posts like these will contrast awkwardly with more technically minded work. I should probably start a separate blog at that point.

Anyway, my throat is raw – I think I’m some kind of sick. I cut lectures for extra sleep. I am trying to avoid the doctors, mainly because I’d have to learn how to use the school insurance system. I’m bureaucracy-adverse, so I would love to just sleep it off. However, homework calls me from pure recovery, so I should probably get some nyquil now and call it a day. At least I’ve pretended to work by posting this.

I’ll end on amusing piece of dialogue:

“What’s your school like?”

“What’s it like? I never really thought about it. It’s on top of this mountain, so it feels kind of isolated and lonely up there sometimes, even though that’s also why it has a pretty great view.”

Life is only stranger than fiction because life can give you the chills when it’s too close to fiction. Then, it’s like a forbidden wall between worlds was broached.

художник на икониИкони на светци

To make this count towards my requisite blogging, I will start with this obvious filler sentence. Also, I broke a key rule from the previous lecture about brevity in sentence structure. Also, while I’m taking about class, I should put a notebook in my backpack, so I can do the in class writing assignments.

Hmm, that’s three sentences. I wonder if my prof appreciates the explicitly meta writing style that I’m employing, or whether he finds cliche and overdone.

Anyway, I wrote some music, and yes, it is about the same stuff I’ve been blogging about for the last week. (I bet that is even more annoying to the professor.)

Ultraklystron vs. Juno – Focus (Remix-Cover)

Ultraklystron – Katawa Shoujo

I figured that after dragging myself unexpectedly through the ringer this last week with Katawa Shoujo, watching a movie might be nice break. It’d be some light mental junk food to cleanse my palette. At least that’s what I thought the opportunity came up to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World with Nursehella. I mean, it’s based off a fairly cartoony looking comic I hadn’t read, and it was directed by Edgar Wright (of Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame.)

See article title.

Yeah, instead I was treated to an amped up version of some of my own experiences with surreal fight scenes interspersed. I could spell that out, but the people who know me probably get it, and the people who don’t know me aren’t owed details. A lot of the plot points and best lines might as have been shuriken or piano wire. When they hadn’t been said/done to me, I’m the one who had said/done them. It almost violated the film’s sanctity. I figured that at worst, my critical side would’ve been picking apart the special effects, and best I would’ve just been enjoying the story. Instead, I was pretty much just indexing actions and lines against my own experiences past a certain point. It was unnatural.

I wish I’d read the comic. I might have saved a lot of good people some trouble since my life isn’t as warm as the film’s end. The things I can take from it are lessons I was already taking from the rest of this week’s self-inflicted emotional roller-coaster. The good endings come from doing things for me while still being considerate of the perspective and feelings of others, even when I can’t fully fathom that viewpoint. It’s a pretty odd set things to take to heart in someways.

Might as well watch Ano Natsu’s second episode and see if that’s a kick in the ribs too.

8:00 PM
Apr 7, Sat
Venue TBA

Boston, MA
With: Supercommuter, JoCo, Paul & Storm
Cover: Free w/ PAX badge
Date confirmed (and switched to Saturday)

Frankly, I should probably go back and bundle this all up a little more cleanly as review for toonzone.net, but for now, I think I can indulge myself in some more relaxed writing. In fact, if only because I’m supposed to blog for my writing class, I feel I can voice my opinions here and then double dip later. Nobody really reads this page anyway.

Back on topic, I’ve gradually stumbled through some more of Katawa Shoujo. I’ve been playing it honestly, and rather than aim for a character, I’ve let the chips fall where they may and answered everything honestly. The result actually has surprised me. I completed the path for Emi Ibarazaki with the good ending, and that alone kind of felt unexpected. I am not an athletic person by nature, but I made the decision I would’ve made if in the same situation – if it’s run or die, I’ll get up and run.

The more richly surprising part is the extent that certain aspects of the Emi path have mimicked my own relationship history. I didn’t expect my responses in game to lead to a progression with parallels to my real world habits. I almost feel like I’m gaining new insight into my own behavior and choices. I’m not sure exactly what that says about the writing in a quantitative sense. If nothing else though, it has me suckered in. I want to play through another route, and see whether it’s just the nature of the game, or something deeper.

In fact, maybe the game isn’t good at all, and I’m just having too much fun thinking about the Lacanian aspects of the visual novel medium for the first time as I play. Is a visual novel only good so long as you see yourself reflected the visual novel’s Other? Does the player only feel like they been reflected because they want to believe their choices impact the Other? Does this mean the player will enjoy the game without regard to it’s objective qualities because of the very structure of the game? I mean, is it only good because it’s fitting what I’ve been led to believe are the patterns I’d fall into naturally? I don’t know because I’ve never thought about it before. I do think there is a certain rose tinting that comes into play here, but that’s the human condition to some extent. Where does one’s limited perception end, and the manipulation of that limited perception begin?

Of all the things I would’ve thought could engage my contemplative side, Katawa Shoujo should’ve been at the bottom of the list. Maybe that’s the best I can expect since the game probably wasn’t intended to spark these questions. I guess that constitutes quality.

On the flip side, it breaks up my over-intellectualizing up with some genuine humor in between the odd and possibly imagined parallels. Laughs are laughs, and even if some of them are a bit morose or surreal, they are there. How bad can a smile be?

Even though I just played a show in Seattle last month, it seems I have signed on for even more. On February 11th, I’m playing a free show at the Shipwreck in Seattle. There is a Magic the Gathering tournament beforehand if you’re interested in that kind of thing. If not but you’re still in the area, please turn out. Later, on April 7th, I’m performing at Norwescon. In fact, on April 5th, Rai Kamishiro is also playing Norwescon, and I should at least be her DJ for that set, though I may jump on a couple of songs myself. Rai (and perhaps also myself) are also looking at doing a panel at SakuraCon the same weekend if the logistics can be sorted.

What does this “influx” of activity mean? As I’ve said previously, 3 (or 4) albums I am involved with in varying degrees are nearing completion. However, what’s become obvious to me now is just how close all of these releases might be. My own album, Animatic, is almost done as there are only a few outstanding collaborative elements to be sent to me, and even the bonus/remix disc is fairly well appointed and effectively complete. Neither Rai’s nor Nursehella’s albums will be as lengthy as mine, so while they each have more work do on them, I don’t doubt that they’ll be wrapped up sooner rather than later. Once the vocals are recorded, it should be an manageable, almost mechanical process. Therefore, it’s a safe bet to say this Spring should bring a unplanned deluge of music from myself and my associates.

Of course, with university soaking up the majority of my time, I won’t be touring. Gigging regularly in Seattle? Sure, as often as Death*Star, Klopfenpop and other artists in the Emerald Empire crew and overall Seattle Area will have me. I’d do shows up here in Vancouver if the opportunity could be seized (actually much easier said than done since I need some Seattlites to drive up to fill the bill.) However, I wouldn’t rule out some touring for Rai and Nursehella, albeit separately and in radically different venues probably. Still, both have pitched some very interesting plans. Should said plans come together, I hope my (largely overlapping) fanbase gets out to support them because it does directly support me.

Or to summarize, let’s put it in the words of rapper T.I.:

“Big things poppin’ [...] failure’s not an option.”

So, like many other internet savvy otaku, I have long been aware of the Katawa Shoujo project. At least a few of my friends have cosplayed as characters from the title, and I had seen the little fan comics that have floated around the internet about it. However, I imagine that like most people, I figured nothing would really come of it.

After all, countless internet forums have had their goofy ideas for projects created by forum members, but usually you’re lucky if you get passed the idea and concept art stage. If that it doesn’t stop there, you’ll maybe see a very mediocre first level or some very rough animation at best. In fact, I can think of at least 2 or 3 I’ve been involved with myself in some small way. Usually, creative projects on the internet are most productive when one or two people do something with little-to-no external input.

Yet, here we are with a full visual novel game with good art and good music, all inspired by single page joke from a decade-old doujinshi. It’s a miracle that it exists at all. However, that won’t stop me from nitpicking.

While a lot of the aesthetic aspects of the game are remarkable for an independent, no-budget project, the writing starts off very, very slow. It’s vastly too wordy (perhaps like these blog posts?,) and the tone is a little too inwardly focused on the protagonist. To make matters worse, that inner focus is a bland self-loathing, the kind that you’d think an otaku-made project would avoid considering how commonplace that complaint is in regards to anime and manga. It’s also a bit inauthentic. One gets the feeling sometimes that the writers lack the life experience to communicate the right feeling in some of these scenarios. Maybe that’s to be expected a bit as well, but while it may make for an interesting meta-commentary, it’s a hassle to sit through walls of text that don’t really engage the player. To make matters worse, there are a lot of different dialogue options, especially early on, and that feels off for a game like this. Being able to take some ownership of the protagonist is critical in visual novels, and I wouldn’t have minded a bit more in Katawa Shoujo at all.

Troubles aside, I can’t seem to really let it go now that I’m into it. It’s clearly a little undercooked, but I still can’t help but marvel that it was served at all. There are also a few sharp bits of characterization and humorous dialogue that manage to string the player along in spite of themselves, and that’s quite impressive since those pieces have to override the drawbacks. I’m certainly glad that I did a little tribute track to the game which will turn up on my next record because, if nothing else, it’s a nod to the efforts of people who beat the odds for fan projects on web forums.

Good show.

Front and bandmates are in Utica, NY for a SUNY/IT show on Sunday night. They’d love to invite you, but it’s a closed-campus show. So you still have part of the afternoon left to enroll, and/or photoshop yourself a student ID.

Posted to Bootleg Review by MC Frontalot.

This is not technically a bootleg review since I paid for a 48-hour rental on Amazon, but I did watch it at like 480p blown up to fullscreen so it was pretty similar to watching it embedded on a russian pharmacy affiliate link traffic funnel page.

This plot summary is written in tribute to Gabe’s ‘The Hunt For The Worst Movie Of All Time‘ while that feature is on hiatus.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Poor James Franco. His dad John Lithgow has a disease. It is called THE DISEASE throughout but also at some point accidentally called Alzheimer’s, and obviously it’s Alzheimer’s because when it’s acting up John Lithgow can’t play piano excellently or hold his fork the right direction. So obviously James Franco is devoting his life to developing and testing a new ANTI THE DISEASE drug called one-twelve. One-twelve has no side effects. Except that it makes test chimps into noble revolutionaries. Oops!

Our man’s reporting his success to a group of people in business suits that is both the governing body of the drug company and a set of potential investors(?) when his powerpoint presentation goes so poorly that testing is discontinued and all the apes are put to death. Doctor(?) Franco heads home in defeat, pausing only to adopt a newborn chimp who’s already received ape-smartening chemicals prenatally. Oh, right! One-twelve! He takes some of that home too in case he wants to give it to his dying father. After three years he figures, sure. Why not.

His dad has an immediate total recovery! But our boy is cagey, and keeps this wildly exciting CURE FOR ALZHEIMER’S a secret. Perhaps he is hardened by years of subterfuge — his grim duty of protecting and hiding the stolen chimp Caesar. Caesar of course is the smartest ape on the planet, wears clothes, enjoys a gym at home but prefers trips to the redwoods, is protective of John Lithgow, pummels a neighbor, and winds up in an intensely implausible ape prison in San Bruno.

Sure, it’s posh upstairs, but down on the cell block it is all cruel guards and corrupt wardens. You get mush and hay and if you complain you get the hose. Caesar leans his head against his drawing of a window and dreams of home.

Instead of rescuing his chimp son, James Franco reports to his mean boss that one-twelve made his dad smarter than HE EVEN WAS BEFORE HE HAD ALZHEIMER’S, which means obviously that research is back on and it’s time to load up on chimps. Some of these are deliveries from the same ape jail where Caesar lives, so apparently it is an ape jail SLASH test monkey emporium, but when James Franco comes to bail him out, Caesar opts to remain. He would rather escape on his own, steal smart drugs from the fridge, break BACK into ape jail, dose up an army of supergenius ape guerrillas, liberate the drug lab, liberate the zoo (though only the primate exhibit? why not share your smart gas, ape dicks?), and then lead his cohort toward primatey paradise (Sausalito, I think).

It’s a panic on the Golden Gate! The apes whoop ass on the police, mercilessly killing the mean boss from the drug company (who’s helping shoot at them from a helicopter for some reason), then trundle off into freedom’s bosom.

James Franco is only momentarily confused when, in the sun-dappled glade of their final farewell, Caesar speaks English. "This film is terrible and I have not looked like a real living creature for even one frame of it, but I’d like you to trust that all of us CGI apes belong here, in Sausalito, and not in your attic."

James Franco makes a few more hilarious acting faces and they part in peace. Except: his recent upgrade of the Alzheimer’s cure ALSO escaped the lab and is super poisonous and now the whole human race will be wiped out in several weeks. Oops again! Cue credits.

So, I have a new review up on ToonZone.net about Usagi Drop. It figures that long after I’d put the review to bed, it turns out the manga manages to have a bit of a train wreck ending, but the anime cuts it off while it’s still heart-warming and sweet. A rare moment where I really must say the show is better than the book.

Speaking of reviews, it looks like one of mine has been quoted on the front page of FUNimation’s site for Princess Jellyfish (screencap here.) I really do hope the title does well for them. It’s a bit of a risk since it’s a fairly offbeat title. I suspect if it doesn’t payoff, I may not be quoted on another FUNimation webpage anytime soon, as I seem to have a habit of latching on to the offbeat lately, and they did post my review of Princess Jellyfish to their facebook page as a means of gauging whether a DVD/Blu-Ray release should be done.