paraphrased memories, because the process of writing out the last post brought them up.
:...a bunch of robots and magical girls. how can anyone like this crap?
: that sounds horrible.
: it's what I do for a living.
: I would found a school for orphans and force them to learn math and physics.
: I don't understand fantasy sports.
: I could say the same thing about coding.
: I don't want to sit in an office job all day.
: do you live to work or work to live? I work to live.
: stop playing bejeweled.
It's the ways in which we evaluate how we spend our own time, and how other people spend their time. It's always annoying when people tell you what you shouldn't be or should be doing with our own time, or judge us so to speak (especially parents...). Even with regards to my own activities, I always feel somewhat self-conscious with what people see me doing, like I feel some kind of obligation to at least look like I'm being productive even though productivity ends up being somewhat relative. Like how I'm guessing spending quiet time with God would probably sound like a waste of time to an antitheist, or conversely doing... entirely non-God centered things to a religious theist, I suppose.
Since time is evidently precious, how do you qualify what's a worthwhile activity vs. a waste of time? For some reason I feel predisposed to label activities that create or produce some kind of result that will benefit or is more relevant to other people as time-worthy. Perhaps by how much value it adds or contributes to another person's life, if you could quantify such a thing. By extension, would that make other activities that are more self-oriented (consumption of media for one thing) more of a waste of time?
And what about the different kinds of jobs out there? In small group we had a discussion about how the cultural environment of the Silicon Valley can feel... soul sucking in the way. How we get preoccupied over working on things like coding projects that (well I guess to non-technical people at least) can seem like they have nothing to do with life itself. How dangerous it is to get sucked up into this overworking, self-centered, comfort-seeking culture, while forgetting about the bigger picture of the world today. To be honest, it wasn't something I had seriously thought about before, because I felt so acclimated to living around here that it didn't occur to me that I might be neglecting other significant things in life. Although part of me wondered, is it really that soul-sucking if I don't necessarily feel the same way so much?
But then it goes back to the feeling of futility I was having a few days ago. Am I really wasting my time doing what I'm doing right now? But, shouldn't the enjoying the process of doing what I'm doing be enough?
I feel like I'm asking too many questions in this post. But it's not really something I have clear-cut answers to. As with everything else in life.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
the big three
Jotting down my thoughts on the big three of shounen manga over the past decade. If you've ever talked to me at length about manga or anime before, you probably know a lot of this already. I just felt like writing it out cause I tend to think about it a lot even though it's so old. If you have no interest in such topics then don't bother reading because this is mostly a nerd ranting about past obsessions.
Sometimes I wonder why I get so analytical about this, because in the bigger scope of things that are more important things to mull over... but then again I'm like this with pretty much anything else I'm into anyway. There are better series out there than the big three, but I've been preoccupied with them enough over the past decade that they still stand out pretty significantly for me.
So the big three of shounen manga (and I guess by extent popular anime) for the past decade: Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece.
around the beginnings of each, for me: naruto > bleach > one piece.
around the time the rescue sasuke arc was happening (2003-2004?): bleach > naruto = one piece
Sometimes I wonder why I get so analytical about this, because in the bigger scope of things that are more important things to mull over... but then again I'm like this with pretty much anything else I'm into anyway. There are better series out there than the big three, but I've been preoccupied with them enough over the past decade that they still stand out pretty significantly for me.
around the beginnings of each, for me: naruto > bleach > one piece.
- I actually was turned off by the artwork for one piece (I think my first look at it was seeing the 3rd opening on an anime openings site when I was looking up detective conan clips) and almost didn't start reading it until one of my friends in high school started raving about it in the same sentence as naruto.
- most people I know prefer naruto or bleach to one piece also, which makes sense. honestly, one piece is just harder to get into at the beginning (which is when most people drop it) because it has a lot more childish humor and cartoonish-than-usual graphics, and it doesn't really start shining until the 5th major arc (arlong park), which is about ~40 episodes/8 volumes into the anime/manga already. on the other hand., the haku arc is one of the first things you're exposed to in naruto, and by some standards is one of the best arcs in that series. or at least the elitist manga readers would so say lol.
- as a shounen series, one piece actually shares quite a bit in common in terms of the way its plot develops as naruto, and you can see the influence that dragon ball [including Z] had on both series pretty easily. luffy and naruto have similar happy-go-lucky personalities, and even the same kind of life goal - become the pirate king/hokage.
around the time the rescue sasuke arc was happening (2003-2004?): bleach > naruto = one piece
- because there was once a time when bleach was just really cool and awesome looking. the soul society arc was fun, even if the females were a little too overdramatic or useless for my tastes. (and Ryan won't stop gushing about how much he loves orihime whenever I talk to him. that and freaking tenten, ugh.)
- but this is more of a superficial comparison, and I hadn't caught up with one piece by this point so I couldn't really make a fair comparison at the time.
- in retrospect I'd say one piece >> bleach >> naruto, because luffy had an afro in davy back (it was awesome), but more seriously because eneru, kuzan, and cp 9 were better villains than aizen, and I was really growing tired of orochimaru and sasuke by this point.
as of the last few years: one piece >>>>>>>>>>> naruto (and I stopped reading bleach because I don't care anymore)
on naruto recently:
- I actually went for a period where I stopped reading naruto (around the time where Sai appears) because I stopped caring as well. but recent developments have made me start reading again- namely, the fact that the series is supposed to end soon, and also because I still had unresolved things I wanted to see, since there was a time that Naruto was my favorite manga after all. I think this is more of my high school self looking for closure.
- reasons I still read naruto:
1. to see sasuke dead (likely won't happen if the author does some kind of redemption crap. ugh, all sasuke does is let himself be manipulated by other people anyway)
2. to see naruto physically turn into the 9-tails (8-tails, chakra, and miniature forms don't count. this is one of the reasons I started reading the series)
3. to see tobi's face unmasked (as of the last couple of months this one has been done)
on one piece:
1. the childish humor still appeals to me. and it doesn't quite get old because there's always new ways to bend even the old jokes or character personality quirks to fit the current arc's context or situation, which I find really amusing to see.
2. the series has a better sense of its own scope than naruto does. I mean, I find it really hard to appreciate someone like gaara becoming kazekage at such a young age, and all of the other characters went from rookies to surpassing their mentors within two years while still being teenagers, which doesn't strike me as very realistic. on the other hand, despite becoming a major force to be reckoned with, luffy still has a long way to go even after the time jump to achieve the same kind of status as shanks or whitebeard did in the new world.
3. world building. the series reached the halfway point of grand line two years ago, and the other half (the new world) seems even more expansive and endless at the current rate it's going. the nature of the entire series comprising a voyage through multiple islands allows for a lot of creativity (every island has something unique about it), and we never really know what to expect next. this also applies to the characters, and the lore/backstory behind the world that's established as each island is visited, which plays a huge part in the overall direction of the series (see the foreshadowing point).
3. world building. the series reached the halfway point of grand line two years ago, and the other half (the new world) seems even more expansive and endless at the current rate it's going. the nature of the entire series comprising a voyage through multiple islands allows for a lot of creativity (every island has something unique about it), and we never really know what to expect next. this also applies to the characters, and the lore/backstory behind the world that's established as each island is visited, which plays a huge part in the overall direction of the series (see the foreshadowing point).
4. one piece is still actually refreshing to read, and I can't really predict anything right now, whereas naruto has always struck me as somewhat predictable (case in point - the tobi reveal. it almost felt like something that you'd only see in fan fiction.).
5. on that note, subtle foreshadowing. one piece is full of it. the will of d; ace's vivre card; almost all of blackbeard's story over the course of the series; the spirit fixing the going merry; the first encounter with kuzan warning everyone about robin's history, and the siege of o'hara; the poneglyphs; the void century which we still know nothing of yet; anything involving rayleigh; kuma's willed regression into a robot; any scenes involving the world government; the shichibukai or the 4 emperors; the repeated references to characters we haven't really seen yet but who have had a major impact on the story, such as dr. vegapunk and big mom. elements that are mentioned in passing in the early volumes suddenly become prominent 40 volumes later. it's well planned.
6. this is more of a personal preference, but with the possible exception of the most recent war arc, naruto has been very much oriented around successive/sequential 1 on 1 battles. by contrast, one piece feels more chaotic and complicated in a sense when major events are happening because it jumps around between a lot of events and battles happening simultaneously in different locations, to the point where a provided map is necessary to visualize where everything is happening. each arc in itself is its own war.
7. because of the main cast size (luffy's 9-man crew so far), one piece has historically lent itself more easily to strategic and varied teamwork-oriented battles. a lot of the time it will still end up reducing to 1-on-1 at some point (luffy, zoro,and sanji being the team heavy-weights means that they almost always will get 1-on-1 battles), but you can take a look at any character's page on the one piece wiki and see all of the battles they've taken part in, and it's noticeable how often you have different combinations of people in the battles taking place. I use the list of most recent battles from Robin's page as an example:
- Robin, Monkey D. Luffy, and Chopper vs. Sentomaru
- Robin vs. Ammo Knights
- Straw Hat Pirates and Jinbe vs. New Fishman Pirates
- Robin vs. Hammond
- Robin and Luffy vs Centuars
- Robin, Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp vs. Brownbeard and the Centaur Patrol Unit
- Robin and Franky vs. G-5 Marines, Centaurs, and Satyrs
- Robin, Smoker (in Tashigi's body), Tashigi (in Smoker's body) and Franky vs. Caesar Clown
- Robin, Kinemon, Nami, Usopp, and Brook vs. Vegapunk's Dragon
- Robin, Zoro, and Nami vs. Monet
8. in the case of the weaker characters, it's interesting how the author's managed to utilize their abilities creatively in spite of being overshadowed by their stronger team-mates. the alabasta arc was the first place where I really recognized this - in particular, nami figuring out how to use the clima-tact for the first time while trying not to be killed by ms. double-finger, and usopp+chopper's first major battle against the mole woman and the guy with the gun-dog.
9. if the previous point didn't make it obvious, the characters in this series are ridiculously random and it's kind of amusing to see who appears in each arc. Take the current on-going arc: a poison gas man, artificial centaur soldiers, giant children suffering from candy withdrawal, a living poisonous blob, a snow harpy, dragons, a samurai head, and a double-agent vice admiral working for an ex-pirate that also happens to be an underworld broker. and trafalgar law (the guy who can control space and split people apart into floating body parts), smoker, and tashigi coming back as temporary allies. all on an island whose weather system changed because ice-man and lava-man had a geographically catastrophic duel there.
9. if the previous point didn't make it obvious, the characters in this series are ridiculously random and it's kind of amusing to see who appears in each arc. Take the current on-going arc: a poison gas man, artificial centaur soldiers, giant children suffering from candy withdrawal, a living poisonous blob, a snow harpy, dragons, a samurai head, and a double-agent vice admiral working for an ex-pirate that also happens to be an underworld broker. and trafalgar law (the guy who can control space and split people apart into floating body parts), smoker, and tashigi coming back as temporary allies. all on an island whose weather system changed because ice-man and lava-man had a geographically catastrophic duel there.
10. so I actually put off reading one piece for weeks at a time and then read a bunch of chapters in one session, whereas I do a better job of keeping up with naruto each week. this is because one piece tends to cram a lot of things into each panel so I actually can't speed-read it and have to pay attention to what is happening in each panel, where naruto's panels are more straightforward and easier to skim cause the author takes up more space with simple pictures.
11. naruto is one year younger than one piece but is most likely ending within the next couple of years. one piece climaxed at its halfway point about two years ago now, and is still going strong with no end in sight.
12. with that said, the one piece anime is kind of not as fun to watch because it feels a lot more drawn out than the manga does (which is true of naruto also). you can also tell that the animation is lower quality because it gets churned out weekly and has fillers to make up for time. one thing I noticed about the anime is that it makes it more apparent how often the author uses the plot device of random generic characters (soldiers and other battle participants) providing commentary on the major battles going on, or being amazed at some new ability being demonstrated. it's a little annoying.
aside about fairy tail:
- a lot of comparisons have been made recently between one piece and fairy tail, which I also like. both have similar art-styles and are very teamwork-friendship oriented, considering the similarities in structure between the pirate crews of one piece and the guilds of fairy tail.
- having caught up with both mangas though, I'd have to say one piece is still better than fairy tail. technically, one piece has the advantage of having been around longer, but at this point fairy tail at its peak doesn't really compare with the heights that one piece has reached over the course of its running- although to be honest, it's really hard for anything to compare with the build-up that led to one piece's marineford arc. I'm starting to feel like fairy tail is running out of ideas also, having just started another tournament-style arc after a time jump, of all things. tournaments in shounen series are getting pretty old now.
- I think the one thing that fairy tail does a better job with is balancing its female characters; one piece mainly has nami (who acts like stereotypical fanservice sometimes) and robin (who's always been quiet), and then a handful of extended characters, whereas fairy tail has lucy, erza, wendy, carla, mirajane, cana, etc. and the guild's founder was a female. one piece has a very male-dominated world in comparison.
11. naruto is one year younger than one piece but is most likely ending within the next couple of years. one piece climaxed at its halfway point about two years ago now, and is still going strong with no end in sight.
12. with that said, the one piece anime is kind of not as fun to watch because it feels a lot more drawn out than the manga does (which is true of naruto also). you can also tell that the animation is lower quality because it gets churned out weekly and has fillers to make up for time. one thing I noticed about the anime is that it makes it more apparent how often the author uses the plot device of random generic characters (soldiers and other battle participants) providing commentary on the major battles going on, or being amazed at some new ability being demonstrated. it's a little annoying.
aside about fairy tail:
- a lot of comparisons have been made recently between one piece and fairy tail, which I also like. both have similar art-styles and are very teamwork-friendship oriented, considering the similarities in structure between the pirate crews of one piece and the guilds of fairy tail.
- having caught up with both mangas though, I'd have to say one piece is still better than fairy tail. technically, one piece has the advantage of having been around longer, but at this point fairy tail at its peak doesn't really compare with the heights that one piece has reached over the course of its running- although to be honest, it's really hard for anything to compare with the build-up that led to one piece's marineford arc. I'm starting to feel like fairy tail is running out of ideas also, having just started another tournament-style arc after a time jump, of all things. tournaments in shounen series are getting pretty old now.
- I think the one thing that fairy tail does a better job with is balancing its female characters; one piece mainly has nami (who acts like stereotypical fanservice sometimes) and robin (who's always been quiet), and then a handful of extended characters, whereas fairy tail has lucy, erza, wendy, carla, mirajane, cana, etc. and the guild's founder was a female. one piece has a very male-dominated world in comparison.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Dream Post #44? or #46?
In parts from last night:
- I start work at a new job... at an arcade in the middle of what looks like some part of Sunnyvale? My boss is Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad (although I don't realize it until after I wake up - it's the voice), and he tells me that I'm pretty much free to slack off and play Pacman whenever I want to. For some reason the Pacman game in the arcade doesn't feel like normal Pacman, but I can't figure out why. I start feeling like I'm not getting enough work and end up leaving at some point.
- Walking past a fenced community (same city) on the other side of which I can see the roots and sewage, or roots of sewage? branch out from the community's ground into the exterior environment, resulting in a bunch of dead looking trees and walls outside. But the inside looks nice and pristine. I pass by a really nice looking playground and swing-set, although I'm paranoid that the adults on it are swinging too high - I've always had this paranoid fear of people swinging too high off a swing-set and falling off.
- Miki and Justin are back! and I see that Miki has brand new fancy red car parked next to mine.... with a really long wagon handle extending out from the top of the trunk. She demonstrates to me how she can push the car around the parking lot with the handle as if the car is a lawn mower or a vacuum cleaner, but I'm afraid she's going to cause a car accident at the speed she's going, because it's still a car.
Later on, Miki, Justin, Kyrie, and some other folks I don't remember sneak into Oprah's closet that looks more like a store, in the middle of a strip mall. My mom happens to be a security guard and walks in with me following her as I'm afraid they might get caught, but I notice that they've hidden themselves inside the backpacks and suitcases.
Later on I'm at home running after Kyrie in a game of tag (and what the freak Kyrie's running so fast I swear she's going to break something) and I hear from the television that Oprah has died from being poisoned, and I wonder if the sneak-in from earlier has anything to do with it. Except the name called out from the TV is Ochah Malfoy, but I recognize it as Oprah anyway.
- (dream after sleeping again after being woken up by alarm) - I'm in a new English class with Ryan and some IV folks that is in a room that looks oddly converted from the chapel at my elementary school. It's bring your own book to class first day and Ryan and I have novelizations of the recent Spiderman movie.
Erica is sitting in front of us, and she says, "Thanks guys, but I think Heart of Darkness is a little too below my reading level," as she pulls out that book plus a bunch of children's picture books from her backpack. Hearing her comment, the teacher snatches Heart of Darkness from Erica's desk leaving her with only the picture books.
And then I'm woken up by Wes knocking on the door.
- I start work at a new job... at an arcade in the middle of what looks like some part of Sunnyvale? My boss is Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad (although I don't realize it until after I wake up - it's the voice), and he tells me that I'm pretty much free to slack off and play Pacman whenever I want to. For some reason the Pacman game in the arcade doesn't feel like normal Pacman, but I can't figure out why. I start feeling like I'm not getting enough work and end up leaving at some point.
- Walking past a fenced community (same city) on the other side of which I can see the roots and sewage, or roots of sewage? branch out from the community's ground into the exterior environment, resulting in a bunch of dead looking trees and walls outside. But the inside looks nice and pristine. I pass by a really nice looking playground and swing-set, although I'm paranoid that the adults on it are swinging too high - I've always had this paranoid fear of people swinging too high off a swing-set and falling off.
- Miki and Justin are back! and I see that Miki has brand new fancy red car parked next to mine.... with a really long wagon handle extending out from the top of the trunk. She demonstrates to me how she can push the car around the parking lot with the handle as if the car is a lawn mower or a vacuum cleaner, but I'm afraid she's going to cause a car accident at the speed she's going, because it's still a car.
Later on, Miki, Justin, Kyrie, and some other folks I don't remember sneak into Oprah's closet that looks more like a store, in the middle of a strip mall. My mom happens to be a security guard and walks in with me following her as I'm afraid they might get caught, but I notice that they've hidden themselves inside the backpacks and suitcases.
Later on I'm at home running after Kyrie in a game of tag (and what the freak Kyrie's running so fast I swear she's going to break something) and I hear from the television that Oprah has died from being poisoned, and I wonder if the sneak-in from earlier has anything to do with it. Except the name called out from the TV is Ochah Malfoy, but I recognize it as Oprah anyway.
- (dream after sleeping again after being woken up by alarm) - I'm in a new English class with Ryan and some IV folks that is in a room that looks oddly converted from the chapel at my elementary school. It's bring your own book to class first day and Ryan and I have novelizations of the recent Spiderman movie.
Erica is sitting in front of us, and she says, "Thanks guys, but I think Heart of Darkness is a little too below my reading level," as she pulls out that book plus a bunch of children's picture books from her backpack. Hearing her comment, the teacher snatches Heart of Darkness from Erica's desk leaving her with only the picture books.
And then I'm woken up by Wes knocking on the door.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Stars concert impressions
Setlist
favorite moments of the night:
- Torquil: "No one's loved us like you have, SF. This is for you." leading right into Ageless Beauty
- Dancing to We Don't Want Your Body
- Turning the mic to the audience for us to yell out the ending lines to Your Ex-lover is Dead. and the violin!
- Amy's "whoops" lyrical slip-up in the middle of Look Up. You could see Torquil trying not to laugh while singing his lines in response.
- everyone jumping during Hold on When You Get in Love and Let Go When You Give It
- the light/percussion sequence at the end of Walls
- One More Night during the encore. THEY ACTUALLY PLAYED IT! It is so much better live.
- The audience singing along to what felt like most of the songs? But Your Ex-lover is Dead, Elevator Love Letter, and One More Night in particular. It always feels magical whenever those songs are playing. I can't recall another concert that had so much singing-along going on.
and other things:
- The girl standing behind me sang along out loud for a good number of the songs, and it was a bit distracting because her voice was a little whiny sounding. -_-
- she left for a few songs, but then the guy who was standing behind her started singing out loud also in a similarly whiny sounding voice. I tried edging sideways a bit so I could hear the band better but didn't exactly have much success. sigh.
- I got thrown off for a second when Torquil replaced "The Velvet Underground" with "The Digital Underground" in Soft Revolution. Keeping up with the times, I guess.
- I'm actually not that big of a fan of Do You Want to Die Together? (the lyrics are weird.) and Take Me To The Riot, but their live versions were good enough to sing along with anyway.
- The only songs I was missing at the end were Set Yourself On Fire, and perhaps Sleep Tonight (the trumpet! I miss the trumpet!), but maybe some other time. if Stars ever does a greatest hits kind of concert, I will definitely go, even if it means going all the way to Canada for it, heh.
- Free posters on the way out! The last time I was at The Fillmore, they were giving them out too... Is this just typical of that venue? They have the venue name and date labeled on them.
- I mentioned before to some people that the single (Hold on...) was my favorite song from the new album, but in light of this concert and a serious relisten, I think I like Walls, The Theory of Relativity, and The Loose Ends Will Make Knots more. That might not make as much sense since they didn't even play the last song at the concert, but yeah.
- This is the first concert I've been to where I recognized every single song that played. Achievement Unlocked!... just kidding.
This was probably my favorite concert of all the concerts I've been to. Stars has a really good stage presence, and I love seeing Torquil and Amy interact during their songs (especially considering the duet style a lot of their songs have). They just look like they're having so much fun in the process. It was a really rewarding experience for a fan that's been following them for years - just to see them still alive and going strong. I feel like my view of the experience might be a bit colored as a fan, though (since I was really emotionally invested in this concert compared to usual) - I'm curious how it was for newer fans.
If my impressions are any indication though, I still heavily favor their older songs to their newer ones. I mean, The North is still a decent album, but it still doesn't quite hold a candle to most of Set Yourself on Fire or some of their other older songs in terms of memorability for me. That said, I do like it more than their last album, which felt a little too overproduced, so I think I enjoyed this concert more than if I would've if I'd seen them two years ago anyway.
I'll admit, though, it's hard to beat the heights that SYOF set - so I feel a bit mixed every time a new album comes out, with the sense of "oh, this is pretty good... but not as good as it could've been." I don't really know how to describe it; like it's one thing to be catchy and well-made, but Stars' older songs have a certain quality that doesn't seem to be there as much in their newer stuff ... (more restrained and less overly dramatic?) although The North feels closer to their older style than the last album did, anyway. I think I just need to appreciate the effort they've been putting into their newer stuff though, since they're still trying to make new material after all these years at least. If they keep up this trend, I hope their next work will be even better.
It does make me wonder, though - perhaps next time if I see them again, I might find whatever songs that return from this album on that tour just as nostalgically refreshing as well.
As an aside, I also found out that Torquil played the voice of Bill Badger from Rupert, a cartoon I used to watch on Nickelodeon as a kid (and made a tumblr post about earlier this year!). I tried re-watching a clip from that series, and holy crap I wouldn't have been able to recognize that character as him no matter how I tried.
favorite moments of the night:
- Torquil: "No one's loved us like you have, SF. This is for you." leading right into Ageless Beauty
- Dancing to We Don't Want Your Body
- Turning the mic to the audience for us to yell out the ending lines to Your Ex-lover is Dead. and the violin!
- Amy's "whoops" lyrical slip-up in the middle of Look Up. You could see Torquil trying not to laugh while singing his lines in response.
- everyone jumping during Hold on When You Get in Love and Let Go When You Give It
- the light/percussion sequence at the end of Walls
- One More Night during the encore. THEY ACTUALLY PLAYED IT! It is so much better live.
- The audience singing along to what felt like most of the songs? But Your Ex-lover is Dead, Elevator Love Letter, and One More Night in particular. It always feels magical whenever those songs are playing. I can't recall another concert that had so much singing-along going on.
and other things:
- The girl standing behind me sang along out loud for a good number of the songs, and it was a bit distracting because her voice was a little whiny sounding. -_-
- she left for a few songs, but then the guy who was standing behind her started singing out loud also in a similarly whiny sounding voice. I tried edging sideways a bit so I could hear the band better but didn't exactly have much success. sigh.
- I got thrown off for a second when Torquil replaced "The Velvet Underground" with "The Digital Underground" in Soft Revolution. Keeping up with the times, I guess.
- I'm actually not that big of a fan of Do You Want to Die Together? (the lyrics are weird.) and Take Me To The Riot, but their live versions were good enough to sing along with anyway.
- The only songs I was missing at the end were Set Yourself On Fire, and perhaps Sleep Tonight (the trumpet! I miss the trumpet!), but maybe some other time. if Stars ever does a greatest hits kind of concert, I will definitely go, even if it means going all the way to Canada for it, heh.
- Free posters on the way out! The last time I was at The Fillmore, they were giving them out too... Is this just typical of that venue? They have the venue name and date labeled on them.
- I mentioned before to some people that the single (Hold on...) was my favorite song from the new album, but in light of this concert and a serious relisten, I think I like Walls, The Theory of Relativity, and The Loose Ends Will Make Knots more. That might not make as much sense since they didn't even play the last song at the concert, but yeah.
- This is the first concert I've been to where I recognized every single song that played. Achievement Unlocked!... just kidding.
This was probably my favorite concert of all the concerts I've been to. Stars has a really good stage presence, and I love seeing Torquil and Amy interact during their songs (especially considering the duet style a lot of their songs have). They just look like they're having so much fun in the process. It was a really rewarding experience for a fan that's been following them for years - just to see them still alive and going strong. I feel like my view of the experience might be a bit colored as a fan, though (since I was really emotionally invested in this concert compared to usual) - I'm curious how it was for newer fans.
If my impressions are any indication though, I still heavily favor their older songs to their newer ones. I mean, The North is still a decent album, but it still doesn't quite hold a candle to most of Set Yourself on Fire or some of their other older songs in terms of memorability for me. That said, I do like it more than their last album, which felt a little too overproduced, so I think I enjoyed this concert more than if I would've if I'd seen them two years ago anyway.
I'll admit, though, it's hard to beat the heights that SYOF set - so I feel a bit mixed every time a new album comes out, with the sense of "oh, this is pretty good... but not as good as it could've been." I don't really know how to describe it; like it's one thing to be catchy and well-made, but Stars' older songs have a certain quality that doesn't seem to be there as much in their newer stuff ... (more restrained and less overly dramatic?) although The North feels closer to their older style than the last album did, anyway. I think I just need to appreciate the effort they've been putting into their newer stuff though, since they're still trying to make new material after all these years at least. If they keep up this trend, I hope their next work will be even better.
It does make me wonder, though - perhaps next time if I see them again, I might find whatever songs that return from this album on that tour just as nostalgically refreshing as well.
As an aside, I also found out that Torquil played the voice of Bill Badger from Rupert, a cartoon I used to watch on Nickelodeon as a kid (and made a tumblr post about earlier this year!). I tried re-watching a clip from that series, and holy crap I wouldn't have been able to recognize that character as him no matter how I tried.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Stars and happy-sounding depressing music
Stars is playing in SF tomorrow!!! I don't think I've been this excited for an event in a long time. I mean, all of the other concerts this year were good and all, but none of them have been playing for me on repeat over the last 7 years as much as Stars has. Even though their last couple of albums haven't been as great. But I haven't been able to focus all day in excitement for tomorrow, even though I was able to get by the past few days completely fine. -_-
I've been following the setlist from their tour this year so far and I'm kinda sad (okay, VERY sad) that it looks they won't be playing Set Yourself on Fire or One More Night (I guess since they were played really often on past tours) so I tided myself over in the meantime by watching their live versions on youtube. I should've bought tickets when they were touring two years ago and Harrison saw them. Oh well.
I've been noticing a trend in a lot of my favorite music tending to sound happy or mellow (major, Ryan? :P), but with cynical or morbid lyrics. I don't usually notice the lyrics when I first hear a song, but then I find myself really liking them... even though they aren't exactly happy.. I feel like it reflects my outlook on life sometimes. See, in Stars' case:
Elevator Love Letter:
I'll take her home after midnight
And if she likes, I'll tell her lies
How we'll be in love by the morning
I don't think she knows
That I'm saying good bye
Your Ex-lover is Dead:
There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm sorry there's nothing to say
The Magnetic Fields have a few songs also...
You Must Be Out of Your Mind:
I want you crawling back to me
Down on your knees, yeah
Like an appendectomy
Sans anesthesia
You think you can leave the past behind
You must be out of your mind
If you think you can simply press rewind
You must be out of your mind, son
I've been following the setlist from their tour this year so far and I'm kinda sad (okay, VERY sad) that it looks they won't be playing Set Yourself on Fire or One More Night (I guess since they were played really often on past tours) so I tided myself over in the meantime by watching their live versions on youtube. I should've bought tickets when they were touring two years ago and Harrison saw them. Oh well.
I've been noticing a trend in a lot of my favorite music tending to sound happy or mellow (major, Ryan? :P), but with cynical or morbid lyrics. I don't usually notice the lyrics when I first hear a song, but then I find myself really liking them... even though they aren't exactly happy.. I feel like it reflects my outlook on life sometimes. See, in Stars' case:
Elevator Love Letter:
I'll take her home after midnight
And if she likes, I'll tell her lies
How we'll be in love by the morning
I don't think she knows
That I'm saying good bye
Your Ex-lover is Dead:
There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm sorry there's nothing to say
The Magnetic Fields have a few songs also...
You Must Be Out of Your Mind:
I want you crawling back to me
Down on your knees, yeah
Like an appendectomy
Sans anesthesia
You think you can leave the past behind
You must be out of your mind
If you think you can simply press rewind
You must be out of your mind, son
A vodka bottle gave you those raccoon eyes
We got beat up just for holding hands
Take ecstasy with me, baby
Take ecstasy with me
(okay, I just love the title)
I went out to the forest and caught
A hundred thousand fireflies
As they ricochet round the room
They remind me of your starry eyes
Someone else's might not have made me so sad
But this is the worst night I ever had
'cause I'm afraid of the dark without you close to me
You won't be happy with me,
But give me one more chance
You won't be happy anyway
And then of course, there's The Smiths.
And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine
Wanted
The Fresh Air interview from yesterday brought up an interesting point with regards to the high frequency of people texting or just being on their phones all the time in our current culture: that this kind of behavior stems psychologically from our desire to know that we are wanted by someone. At least, I can feel it myself. How often do I get momentarily excited myself the moment I hear my phone go off or see the LED light go off, indicating that I have a new e-mail/text message/whichever? (and the disappointment that follows if it's just an e-mail from coursera or some other mass mailing list >_>).
And on that note- what about all of those times where you find out about some event that you haven't been invited to? It always makes me somewhat uncomfortable to hear about such things before and after the fact, even though it happens all the time anyway. Even though I probably wouldn't have gone to a lot of these events anyway, the notion of being invited is good enough, because it at least lets me know that other people want to see and hang out with me. Just as getting a text message is good enough, because it reminds me that people want to talk to me.
This kind of thinking... it's so self-centered. It's all about looking for reassurance that I'm wanted, that I'm needed, that I have enough worth and value to be in other people's lives. And if none of that happens, then it reflects badly on me as a person because I'm probably either a bad friend or a bad person or I just happen to suck at keeping in touch with people or all of the above. I've even heard this come out of other people's mouths with regards to why person x is never invited to events and so on. It's a route that's well paved to lead to depression in the long run.
I struggled a lot with this myself. Having to invite myself to other people's events after hearing about it over the grapevine; wondering if they'd forgotten me or if they just didn't want to hang out with me in the first place, even though they were pretty nice around me anyway. Always seeing them instant message each other offhand while my own windows were bare, because I didn't like initiating such things myself, but I'd still wonder what was wrong with me anyway. Hearing them talk about past or future events in front of me that I hadn't been invited to. Eventually I just grew fed up and stopped seeing them for a while altogether, although to them it probably didn't feel like such a long time considering how infrequently I was around them anyway.
And ironically, months later, I still hang out with some of them once in a while now anyway, because things just worked out in a weird way like that. I kind of always knew how trivial a lot of my worries were, but I still let them get to me anyway. And it's funny how even now it still gets to me once in a while, when I already should know better.
It's stupid how often we worry about such things, when there are people out there who have few friends to count on because of their current situation, because of a mental illness, because of a disability, or because of some other issue. I'm reminded of it every once in a while because someone very close to me is in that position... and I realize how blessed I am to have the experiences I've been able to have. My anxiety about my social self-worth is nothing in the big scheme of things.
And on that note- what about all of those times where you find out about some event that you haven't been invited to? It always makes me somewhat uncomfortable to hear about such things before and after the fact, even though it happens all the time anyway. Even though I probably wouldn't have gone to a lot of these events anyway, the notion of being invited is good enough, because it at least lets me know that other people want to see and hang out with me. Just as getting a text message is good enough, because it reminds me that people want to talk to me.
This kind of thinking... it's so self-centered. It's all about looking for reassurance that I'm wanted, that I'm needed, that I have enough worth and value to be in other people's lives. And if none of that happens, then it reflects badly on me as a person because I'm probably either a bad friend or a bad person or I just happen to suck at keeping in touch with people or all of the above. I've even heard this come out of other people's mouths with regards to why person x is never invited to events and so on. It's a route that's well paved to lead to depression in the long run.
I struggled a lot with this myself. Having to invite myself to other people's events after hearing about it over the grapevine; wondering if they'd forgotten me or if they just didn't want to hang out with me in the first place, even though they were pretty nice around me anyway. Always seeing them instant message each other offhand while my own windows were bare, because I didn't like initiating such things myself, but I'd still wonder what was wrong with me anyway. Hearing them talk about past or future events in front of me that I hadn't been invited to. Eventually I just grew fed up and stopped seeing them for a while altogether, although to them it probably didn't feel like such a long time considering how infrequently I was around them anyway.
And ironically, months later, I still hang out with some of them once in a while now anyway, because things just worked out in a weird way like that. I kind of always knew how trivial a lot of my worries were, but I still let them get to me anyway. And it's funny how even now it still gets to me once in a while, when I already should know better.
It's stupid how often we worry about such things, when there are people out there who have few friends to count on because of their current situation, because of a mental illness, because of a disability, or because of some other issue. I'm reminded of it every once in a while because someone very close to me is in that position... and I realize how blessed I am to have the experiences I've been able to have. My anxiety about my social self-worth is nothing in the big scheme of things.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)