JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)

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  • some like to bleed 2003-01-21 11:52:15
    Wanna apologize for the last entry before the Ronnies; Kujaku-oh *is* available domestically; my fault for not looking under "Peacock King" in the RightStuf catalog. Still, that doesn't mean Megazone 23 ISN'T crap on toast.

    Video is crankin' along right fine; I've already got well more than 100% overage and am going steadily on 200%. This one may rate another warning, depending on how it develops: "This video contains several extremely graphic medical scenes. Viewers are cautioned." Nothing as hardcore as #30, but something like that don't come often down the pike.

    Con news: both #54 and #56 are in the contest at Tekkoshocon, and the Sakura-Con entry got sent off this morning. SVCD is teh kool. I'll send one and a note along with the VHS of my AniBo entry -- for which I found a case that would actually stand up to my stress test. Namely, putting a tape inside, belting it dead-center both sides with a hammer and checking for damage. Only a minor ding on the lower side, and the tape still played -- nift.

    Current video: Danzig, "Five Finger Crawl" to Black Jack movie. Progress check: 65%. Expected catalog number #66. Ten minutes of source to clip through later today, maybe charts and drafting tonight, but it's definitely going to finish before club. Not sure how many/what effects will be going into this one yet, not even raw ideas.

    -- Kai out

     
  • 2002 Point of Impact Ron Quintana "Ronnie" Awards 2003-01-20 11:14:17
    On the principle of "better late than never", here follow the oft delayed 2002 Ronnies, named after Ron Quintana, perhaps the most influential metal journalist of his day. For those of you who don't know, Ron was the first to come up with the name "Metallica", but a certain L. Ulrich told him it sucked, so he could use it for his band's name, and Ron had to go with another appelation for his zine. Dome and Krgin may have made more opinions, but Ron Quintana did something real.

    And so without further ado:


    Best Black Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    This was a down year for black metal, overall, despite the rumors of a Dissection release due next year after seven years of prison and silence. Emperor hung it up after last year's _Prometheus..._, and there has been no accession to the vacating of the black metal throne. Mayhem still hasn't followed 2000's uneven _Grand Declaration of War_, Varg's last album sank him even further into irrelevance, and Nokturnal Mortum have apparently dropped off the face of the earth into the bottomless morass that is NSBM distribution. "Return of The Vampire Lord" showed some promise on their last The End release, the repackaging of their _Barbarian Dreams_ demo, but the track has been around for a while; it's not truly *new* music.
    Some of you out there are saying, "Hey, wait, Dimmu and Cradle put out albums this year too!" Unfortunately, those are the people who don't understand black metal. To understand black metal, and to understand why Cradle of Filth will NEVER be considered for this caption, and why Dimmu Borgir hasn't been taken seriously since 1993, you must listen to Bathory on vinyl, and you must take a walk through a forest on a winter midnight. If you don't understand it after that, you never will.
    Despite the apparent fall of Norway, there has been some good news for black metal in other parts of the world. Sigh's spring US tour, though short, was an unqualified success (on the heels of finishing second to Emperor for this award last year), and the top round of albums for this award had some good news for other parts of Europe. Two bands demonstrated the continuing importance of the Polish scene, and especially the old-school rigor of that scene, to the genre as a whole, and Ancient Rites, with _Dim Carcosa_ FINALLY being released on Hammerheart, showed that there is life in Dutch black metal after the apparent demise of Bifrost and disappearance of Fenris. Even Ireland got into the act again; Primordial hit with _Storm Before Calm_ even bigger than they did on last year's _Spirit The Earth Aflame_. As good as this is, there is the feel of Borknagar on _The Olden Domain_; it *will*, however imposssibly, get better from here. It's just like those who were there were saying back in 1998; viking metal wasn't going to last, but black metal was going to be a lot better for its coming into existence.
    However, there was still one great bright spot for those who like their black metal pointy and corpsepainted; the best black metal album of 2002. From a group that a lot of people forget has been around since 1991, this record isn't quite their best work, but is almost up to that level in musical proficiency, songwriting, and evil intent -- and of course, in nonsensical lyrics. While _Sons Of Northern Darkness_ isn't _At The Heart Of Winter_, it *is* the Best Black Metal Album of 2002, and Immortal takes home the top honors for the first time since that record came out in 1999.


    Best Power/True Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    There's only one album out there that deserves this distinction, but these awards can't go to re-recorded material, so it's out of the running. You'll see it later.
    In point of fact, this caption has not been remotely competitive for a long time. Last year Gamma Ray walked away with top honors for _No World Order_; Maiden's reunion on _Brave New World_ made 2000's award a foregone conclusion; nothing could stand up to Gamma Ray's _Power Plant_ in 1999, and the Guardians blew everyone out of the water with _Nightfall..._ back in 1998, which is about how long these awards have been going. This year is different, though: there is no obviously superior album out.
    Yes, HammerFall, Rhapsody, and a bunch of other artists put out new material, but the power metal scene appears to be stratifying into two levels: one that's trending more and more towards thrash, as exemplified by Nocturnal Rites and Angel Dust (neither of whom put records out this year), and the other drifting steadily further and further away from metal. For the fan of melodic vocals and godlike guitar, there seems to be nothing but despair in the cards.
    However, all is not lost; the number of marquee bands that did NOT release an album this year in this caption is staggering. 2003 promises new material from at least Iced Earth, Savatage, and Gamma Ray, and possibly from Demons & Wizards and Iron Maiden. Even if Primal Fear puts out another CD next year, there's no way they'll come as close to the final nod as they did for _Black Sun_, which wasn't very.
    Despite the fact that it was on the short list for Biggest Disappointment of 2002, the award in this caption this year goes to a good CD from a band that had led their audience to expect something worldshattering. It's over-produced and largely unperformable, the result of too much time spent in the studio, but in the end it's decent, and this year, "decent", especially for a band on this level, goes a long way. The award for Best Power/True Metal Album of 2002 goes, with a heavy heart, to Blind Guardian, for _A Night At The Opera_. The promise of "And Then There Was Silence" went unfulfilled, but there wasn't anything better released. Wait for next year.


    Best Live Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    How many live albums came out this year, anyways? Everybody knows that there can only be one, so let's get this over with: the Best Live Metal Album of 2002 goes unanimously to Iron Maiden for _Rock In Rio_. There's little that can compete with two CDs chock full o' Maiden in any case, but when it's this good, any notion of competition goes out the window. Bruce's efforts on the tracks from the infamous "Blaze era" are nothing short of stellar, and the resurrection performed by his voice on such songs previously written off as irredemable clunkers bears witness not only to Steve Harris' occasionally underrated writing skills, but to the fact that this is the Maiden that was always meant to be. UP THA FUCKIN IRONS!!!!


    Best Thrash Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    2002 was another, and perhaps the most visible, year in the so-called thrash metal revival, with new works from The Defaced, Dew-Scented, The Forsaken, and other bands out of northern Europe, and a major US tour from Kreator and Destruction. However, in these awards, due to the judges being old enough to remember when giants like Dark Angel and Onslaught walked the earth, the 'new wave' of thrash hasn't had as much success as those who have been playing the music since it originally meant something. Slayer won last year for the renewed violence and truer sound of _God Hates Us All_, and in 2000, Nevermore inaugurated the caption (yes, I like many other people called thrash dead after the Big Four went belly-up in the late 1990s) with the Harvard-smart, stone-heavy _Dead Heart In A Dead World_.
    This years winners may have made the most real contribution to any thrash metal revival that may be going on. They're just about the most high-profile underground band in the mainstream scope of vision (with In Flames and Iced Earth floating a little ways back), due to prominent slots on several high-profile national tours by less true bands or promotion agencies. However, they're not anyone's trend band or poster children; they've been doing this for more than ten years, and carry metric tons of scene cred for what they've been able to accomplish musically as well as in terms of visibility and commercial success.
    With split-second time changes, insane time signatures (13/8, anybody?) rarely seen outside of avant-garde jazz, and expertly handled seven- and eight-string guitars driven over the full range of their capabilities, this year's winner of Best Thrash Metal Album has reaffirmed one of the most fundamental principles of metal: that it is individual mastery, rather than studio tricks and enhancements, that truly defines musical excellence. Ozzy Osbourne and Tool recognize this as well; accordingly, they've given prime positions on their recent tours to Meshuggah, from Sweden, winners of the award for Best Thrash Metal Album of 2002 for their album _Nothing_.


    Best Death Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    The year started on a decidedly less than auspicious note for the death metal world, with the loss of Chuck Schuldiner, the principal inventor of the style, to brain cancer on December 13, 2001. Chuck had been moving away from the raw brutality of his first albums for the better part of a decade, but the pain of the loss of such a talent and such a visionary was undeniable.
    Great things were expected from death metal this year, and in large part the bands that were expected to deliver did. However, there were some disappointments, and some surprises.
    One surprise came from Sweden, in the form of four successive albums that led to the popular quip, "white is the new black". Gardenian, Soilwork, In Flames, and Dark Tranquillity all released albums with a predominantly white cover design in the period January-September, bucking trend in a genre that has lived and died by black since Black Sabbath's _Masters of Reality_ came out in 1972. Another surprise was that In Flames' offering was the worst of the four.
    _Reroute To Remain_ is not a really *bad* CD on the level of Megadeth's's _The World Needs A Hero_ (Biggest Disappointment, 2001), but it does seem to confirm the fears of a lot of scenesters that In Flames are too into touring with Slipknot and Soulfly, and not enough into the Slayer and Iced Earth gigs they've been supporting. It also had the misfortune of coming out betwen Soilwork's announcement of musical maturity on _Natural Born Chaos_ and Dark Tranquillity's stunning and transcendant _Damage Done_, which rewrote all the Gothenburg rules, and will be remembered along with In Flames' _The Jester Race_ as inaugurating a new era in death metal.
    If Sweden was the world's one source for death metal, _Damage Done_ would win this caption hands down. However, the scene is worldwide, and the best death metal album of 2002 comes from American shores. In truth, though, its spiritual home is much farther east. At the base of this band's unique sound, honed now over three albums, is the fast, muscling, brutality set by Chuck as the standard for the style, and rounding it out is a relentless ear for the grating and threatening in primitive traditional instruments, as well as an expansive and informed lyrical vision of deadly commitment. On this album, the band flat-out stunned death metal fans accustomed to either tired goregrind or melodic hooks flavored with a hint of crunch with a nuclear assault both intellectually advanced and neck-breakingly brutal. The award for Best Death Metal Album of 2002 can go to none other than Nile, from South Carolina, for the masterpiece that is _In Their Darkened Shrines_. Like Amon Amarth, they have found their niche, and have succeeded in keeping out imitators by doing it better than anyone else could hope to.


    Best Doom/Depressive Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    Normally, this is an easy caption to award; it's been either Opeth or Sentenced as long as the awards have been given, and is largely predicated on who has an album out that year of those two bands. However, 2002's iteration was surprisingly competitive, with the eventual winner looking to become another permanent heavy hitter in this category.
    Not winning, but being quite impressive with their label debut, were North Carolina quartet Daylight Dies. Anchored by longtime Opeth and Katatonia confidant Jesse Haff (drums), they provided a rare bright spot on an often overhyped and underperforming Relapse roster. If the *debut* is this good, they'll be winning this award on a regular basis before long.
    For a few weeks in July, it appeared that Sentenced had the top honors sewn up. _The Cold White Light_ is a worthy followup to _Crimson_ (unjustly slighted by many critics), packed full of good writing and music both tuneful and melancholic. In any other year, it would be an easy win, even against much of Opeth's catalog, and it certainly deserves to be recognized for its own substantial merits. However, there was a better doom/depressive album waiting in the wings, from a source both likely and unforeseen.
    Most of the time, when a band switches captions between their first and second full albums, and fills the intervening space with an EP that can't even be accurately described, let alone categorized, they're assured of being ignored for any and all honors. Not so for the winners of this year's award. On their first release, they provided excellent self-despairing black metal, and on their second full studio album, the balance in their sound has shifted enough to produce an awe-inspiring depressive masterpiece flavored with ice-cold, razor-sharp, touches of pure black metal. In truth, they deserve their own caption.
    But it wouldn't be any fun just giving out a Best Oak Metal award every time Agalloch puts out a CD, now would it? Yes, the Best Doom/Depressive Metal Album of 2002 honors go to Agalloch of Portland, Oregon, for _The Mantle_, easily the best record to come out on The End this year. Agalloch may never cross over into the metal mainstream, but every one of their fans is a fan for life. Give this one a spin and join us.


    Best Lyrics, 2002:
    ----
    This caption was narrowly won by a band that came very close to winning one of the weakest captions in this year's awards over a band that came very close to winning perhaps the strongest category. As good as Dark Tranquillity's lyrics for _Damage Done_ are, they must needs be defeated by the set that ends with the following paragraphs:
    "If our last album "Spirit The Earth Aflame" was the call to arms, a statement of intent, the desire and will to bring about the winds of change...to meet a new challenge head on. Storm Before Calm is the struggle to meet this new order, be it the struggle of one man, a race, a nation, the struggle within us all. Yet above all Storm Before Calm is about History...it is about how you see, feel and find yourself in relation to the past. The lessons it teaches us but also the liberties that today's age takes with our history and our heritage. Are we writing our own pages within the annals of history...right here, right now, today. Storm Before Calm is primal, it seeks to question the morals, religions and cultures imposed upon us, the questioning of oneself. Discovering your true place within this vast question.
    "Discovering your place within your history, within the vastness of deeds and action, of places and of peoples.
    "You are both sacrifice and solution."
    With poetry not only artistically advanced but purposeful and effective, Primordial thus becomes the recipients of the award for Best Lyrics of 2002, for their album _Storm Before Calm_.


    Biggest Disappointment, 2002:
    ----
    This award came down to a choice between two CDs less than wholeheartedly embraced by the metal community. Unlike last year, when it was obvious that _The World Needs A Hero_ sucked beyond any form of repair and Megadeth was headed towards the rocks rather than back into the limelight, neither was truly *bad*, but everyone was aware that both bands concerned could do much better.
    Blind Guardian fans had been waiting more than three years for new material to follow _Nightfall In Middle Earth_ when _A Night At The Opera_ dropped this spring. The studio process had been a matter of common record over the fifteen months of the entire recording and mixing process, and there had been an online contest to select the lyrical subject matter of one track via fan suggestion. There was a lot of excitement, but in with it some cautious voices. When Metallica spent next to forever in the studio, they came out with the Black Album, a mixed bag if ever there was, and the contest to pick the lyrical subject really meant that the Guardians had a song that needed lyrics, and no lyrical ideas. However, these concerns were drowned out by the release of the single, _And Then There Was Silence_, which seemed to vindicate the time and complexity of the recording process.
    However, what sounds great on a four-digit epic does not necessarily carry over to a whole album of songs of varying length. After the initial euphoria wore off, much of the metal community realized that _ANATO_ *was* over-produced, over-tracked, and top-heavy to the point of unperformability. It failed the ultimate test of any metal album: it could not successfully be taken live. Too many songs featured too many choirs for the audience to perform, and kept Hansi singing for far too long, submerging Marcus and Andre's once-featured guitar talents. More varied drumming and effects from Thomen were a small bright spot, but those who noticed these also usually noticed that many of the guitar riffs sounded as though they had been simply recycled from the _Nightfall..._sessions.
    It must be said, in all honesty, that _ANATO_'s good points, and good songs, very closely balance its weaker elements. The same is not true for the other greatly disappointing album of 2002. This CD was put out by a band whose last release had given some cause for concern, as it was less varied and technical than prior efforts, and appeared to be leaning away from the underground, towards trend. However, that record was at least focused, and uniformly metal, where this one was distracted with techno and neo-country breaks and not unified in the slightest. Not so much "fourteen songs of conscious insanity" as "fourteen random songs etched onto a piece of silicon, without thought to any semblance of order or consistency". This band had been warned, and chose to ignore that warning. They put out a flawed, unfocused, not-quite-album that would be a sure sitting target for negative criticism, and they lost the prime place in their scene that they had held for six years when their principal rivals came out with a world-breaker.
    Obviously, the Biggest Disappointment of 2002 "award" goes to In Flames, for _Reroute To Remain_. Hopefully, they'll take this dubious distinction back into the studio and come out with something befitting their back catalog; they've still got a lot of good metal left in them (see Jesper's almost ironically violent performance on Dimension Zero's _Silent Night Fever_), but whether they let it out and into our ears is up to them.


    Best AMV-Use Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    This past year can be classified as a rebuilding year for metal in AMVs -- or could be, if there was any point to build back to. Otaku Vengeance stayed offline for most of the year, opening a void between nu- and real metal styles where before there had been crossover and the opportunity for such, as well as some genuinely creative and original ideas. On the plus side, there was a slight uptick in the visibilty of metal on www.animemusicvideos.org, with the release of nailz1000's now much-acclaimed "Dead Boy's Poem".
    In competition the outlook was bleak. The 75-video 'pulse of the community', AWA's Pro contest, included only one indisputably metal video. The only convention win recorded by a metal video was Kai Stromler's "D I S A R M", which took Best Action at CNAnime, historically among the weakest fields for AMVs.
    However, in the bunches of Nightwish admiriers who fill the .org's forums, and in the still young careers of the two creators mentioned above, there is promise for the future. Metal has an uphill row to hoe in the otaku world, but with sufficient skill and commitment, it can be done, and well.
    In this spirit, a new award is announced this year for best metal album for use in AMVs. The problem with a lot of excellent metal is that it is almost unvideographable; songs run for six minutes or more, fight against themselves by design, and incorporate strange and jarring textures designed more to overawe than to appeal. The album that can deliver a wide swath of good, competitive videos on its own is a rare bird indeed.
    The inaugural honoree for this award is a 2002 release that is not only singable, midtempo, varied, and universal, but packing an indisputable and substantial metal punch. The first CD to be honored as Best AMV-Use Metal Album (of 2002) is Sentenced's runner-up for the Doom/Depressive caption, _The Cold White Light_. Every song is more or less videographable, and the ones that are good have the potential to be astounding. Buy it. Work your ideas. Win some con captions for the scene.


    Best Metal Album, 2002:
    ----
    This year brings an odd situation: the album winning the top award overall didn't win its own caption. In 2001, Emperor took both the top award and the black metal caption for their final performance, repeating Enslaved's feat, with _Mardraum_, of the year before. 1999 saw Hypocrisy win both death metal and overall with their self-titled album; to find a situation like the current one, you have to go back to the 1998 edition, where Iced Earth won top honors for _Something Wicked This Way Comes_ in the first version of the awards, despite finishing behind Blind Guardian's _Nightfall..._ for the power/true metal caption. Like then, this year's overall winner, no matter how cliche it sounds, substantially transcends genre on their way to pure metal excellence.
    2002 will be remembered as the year that the conventional wisdom on the NWOSDM was finally turned upside-down for once and for all, ending an era that began in 1995 with _The Jester Race_. The Gothenburg sound had, of course, been under constant development with every release from every band connected to that corner of the scene, but in 2002, it received a substantial redefinition at the hands of the band responsible for the best metal album of the year.
    This six-piece condensed, refined, and reshaped the new Swedish sound to a form fitting the twenty-first century, but with a solid grounding in the basics that made metal at the end of the twentieth. It seems, to a certain degree, as though the swinging back and forth from one extreme to the other over their two previous albums has stabilized itself and brought itself into balance.
    This band has been around since the very inception of the Gothenburg scene, and they have released good material before. However, they had not released, before this year, an album clearly standing head and shoulders above the competition, either at home or abroad. On the best metal album of 2002, this group moves beyond the confines of death metal to set a new and vital pattern for metal as a whole. The honors for Best Metal Album of 2002 go to Sweden's Dark Tranquillity for their astounding _Damage Done_, despite not winning the Death Metal subcaption.


    Best Label, 2002:
    ----
    This one's an easy answer. Only one label both re-secured the services of Nevermore, and put out three of the above-honored albums, including the Best Album of 2002. That would be Century Media, now the biggest but also still the best label in heavy metal today. A close second, as always, was The End, largely on the strength of their amazing Omega mail-order section, still the only metal mail order where the more obscure a recording, the more likely it's carried. Slipping substantially was Nuclear Blast, for whom Soilwork and Immortal provided bright spots in amidst a nonspectacular outing from Hypocrisy, lackluster performances from Primal Fear and In Flames, and a disturbing over-reliance on HammerFall. NB actually fell past Relapse/Necropolis, who seemed to make a business turnaround in 2002, but lost points from a lot of fans for pushing way, way too hard on non-exceptional new bands such as Mastodon and High On Fire. With the exceptions of Amon Amarth, In Extremo, and the venerable Cannibal Corpse, Metal Blade, once the anchor of the scene, has nearly fallen off the radar screen. Noise, while still retaining Gamma Ray and Iron Savior and picking up Dragonthrone, isn't in much better shape, still reeling from losing Stratovarius to Nuclear Blast. Looking ahead to 2003, with new material due from Nevermore, Opeth, Sigh, Sentenced's side bands, Borknagar, Angel Dust, and Zyklon, among others, Century Media's continued dominance seems to be assured.


    So real quick:
    --
    Best Black Metal Album:
    Immortal, _Sons Of Northern Darkness_
    Best Power/True Metal Album:
    Blind Guardian, _A Night At The Opera_
    Best Live Metal Album:
    Iron Maiden, _Rock In Rio_
    Best Thrash Metal Album:
    Meshuggah, _Nothing_
    Best Death Metal Album:
    Nile, _In Their Darkened Shrines_
    Best Doom/Depressive Metal Album:
    Agalloch, _The Mantle_
    Best Lyrics:
    Primordial, _Storm Before Calm_
    Biggest Disappointment:
    In Flames, _Reroute To Remain_
    Best AMV-Use Metal Album:
    Sentenced, _The Cold White Light_
    Best Label:
    Century Media
    Best Metal Album:
    Dark Tranquillity, _Damage Done_

     
  • the more they take 2003-01-18 18:00:42
    I ironed out the problem with my capture card. VBR/CBR issues that I was dumb not to catch in the first place. I didn't notice it with Jin-Roh because of the picture size problem, which just played up the level of detail and graining to the point where the card was constantly pulling true 8Mbps. With TV Kenshin though....detail levels went through the floor, surprise surprise. So right now I'm capturing Black Jack, because I can't defend my home turf with any kind of video made from:
    *a tape made in a low-end Walmart VCR
    *of a show from an old EP tape
    *duped from
    *something originally recorded from LD.

    That's one-two-three-four gens right there before it goes digital, and two of them are at speeds that just shouldn't be even under consideration for tape transmission. With only a week or so left, I don't have time to order Kujaku-oh in from overseas, if it's even still in print.

    Why a cool, bloodthirsty, occult/martial arts shonen like this was not brought over, and a huge piece of unadulterated crap like Megazone 23 (unfortunately, the "main attraction" at club this week) was is utterly beyond my capacity. At least now a bunch of other post-Eva anime fans have learned why "Carl Macek" is a synonym for "fucktard", though not a lot was made of his name in the credits.

    Current video: Danzig, "Five Finger Crawl" to Black Jack movie. Progress check: 4%. Expected catalog number #66. It'tatori ya -- it's capturing right now. This one is probably going to be KK, and it's a nice twist of fate that a song off Danzig's _6:66: Devil's Child_ is going to be SH 066 -- particularly since even *I* don't think I'm going to ever reach SH 666, and we might as well gather ye roses while ye may.

    --Kai out

     
  • put your body on a shelf 2003-01-17 12:36:33
    As the entry shows, video #65 is done, and ready to be boxed off to Sakura Con as soon as I get an idea of how to do a SVCD. Nero supports it template-wise, and I've gotten the videos that are going to be going into shape with regard to format, but authoring these things is kinda complex, if you want to be sure you get it right. And I have to get a tape and a sturdy mailing shell for AniBo.

    Based on how good #66 turns out, I may or may not send #65 to AniBo. It's a decent video, but I know I can do better,and want to in defense of my home turf. The only problem is that #66, like #64, may have problems getting past their censors, which would suck. Or maybe not, if I turned up at the con with a hundred-pack of CDs and a sign saying "THE AMVS THE CONTEST DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE". Game-time decision; I'll have #66 ready by the end of next week, which is somewhat pushing the envelope, but I had less time to get more stuff together for AWA, and I made that deadline.

    Current video: taking a break, but the next one is going to be Gamma Ray, "Fire Below" to Kujaku-oh 2, with an anticipated catalog number of #66. This could go either way, but will probably end up not being KK. The one after, though, will be a different story.

    -- Kai out

     
  • to burn right through 2003-01-16 12:07:38
    Not quite done clipping yet; still about a minute left to go through, but I'm already well over 100% overage, and could conceivably just stop right here and work with what source I have, but the last time I did that was on #34, and that one turned into absolute garbage. This one, though, should be pretty cool, and compensate for #64 probably not getting shown at AniBo. Bastids.

    Current video: Sentenced, "No One There" to Rurouni Kenshin. Progress check: 73%. Expected catalog number: #65. I can't believe I've already put eleven hours into this one. It should have wrapped, front to back, in less than ten. Hopefully this problem does not repeat itself with Media Blasters' Berserk DVDs, as I'm going to need the whole series for that one. Look for it at a certain high-profile contest in late summer.

    Shook up the prod schedule a little to move back a vid I didn't believe too hard in, and push up a few in which I did. Next one #66, will appropriately use Kujaku-oh, allowing me to add another anime to the catalog, which I don't do nearly as much as I add bands.

    --Kai out

     
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