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acid the tears of remorse
2002-12-27 18:36:32
Back from holidays, and my box is currently torn down awaiting resurrection. In an hour or so we see if the surgery was successful, or if I have to buy a DVD drive after all.
Currently listening to _Sound of Perseverance_, which sounds like the perfect album for Death to have gone out on. Where _Symbolic_ has a go-for-broke feel of expanding out to new vistas, new worlds, new ways of thinking, _Sound..._ ties the musical expansiveness and experimentation back down to the death metal realism of the preceding two discs for a final statement of violence, melancholy, and unbowed, uncompromising personal force. _Symbolic_ is a starting point for the rest of us; _Sound..._ is the masterful coda on Chuck's unfortunately short career.
Heavy Metal Christmas kicked amazing ass, and I can't wait for the reunion show of Life In Vain and Rapid Charlie on the 11th, which Ravage and MPD will also be playing at. More details on said show in a later post.
Speaking of MPD, video #63 is finished, and will be posted once I get access to the info again and give it a proper grade. It sets another editing-speed record, just in time to get said record cracked in half by video #64, no matter how it gets done. That one's going to be under wraps until it's complete, though a few people from club have been told what it is. This is the video that I'm rolling with for Anime Boston (at least; some other cons may get it as well), the one that establishes Kuroi Kenshi properly and "spirits the earth aflame".
2002 metal awards almost set. Look for those soon enough. Also, look for a new-year challenge to win a screener (labeled, not full-q) copy of video #64 and mixdowns of all the videos not on the Hasshin! releases out so far.
That's it, I'm hungry again and there's probably some football on.
--Kai out
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don't dare to think
2002-12-19 11:57:27
Like 3000 other people posting to this db, I saw The Two Towers yesterday. Unlike may, I am in two minds about it. As a movie, it's incredible. As an adaptation, of the book, though, it sucks hard. I felt like I was watching a Tolkien remix, but to some extent it's unavoidable due to the split structure of the original work. You'd really need two movies for a faithful treatment.
This doesn't take away, though, from the incredible cinematography, worthy acting, and incredible production values. Gollum is probably going to go down in history as the first really believable CG character; shame that we had to go through Jar-Jar and the Final Fantasy movie to get here, but it was necessary. They played around with the story on this one a lot more than on Fellowship, but when the DVD special edition comes out, we'll all be able to edit our own version that skips the capture by Faramir and the Please Women Come See This Movie Aragorn/Arwen flashbacks.
The strangest thing about about this film by far, though, was the very Japanese way of handling the Legolas-Gimli dynamic. In the book, they're friendly rivals, and Gimli not only talks less but kicks a lot more ass. On film, though, it's impossible for me to see him in action and not think of Hajime from Mitokomon, and Legolas as Suke-san prodding him around every now and then.
This movie also gave more support to a certain strand of interpreting these films that, if brought out into the open, could result in a lot of well-meaning people saying very bad things about Peter Jackson and his production staff, which are probably not true. On this issue I will hold my tongue for another two years, then articulate the theory if nobody else has picked up on it. It would make a hell of a graduate thesis for somebody, and it could sell a lot of papers if the right daily opened it at the right time.
No video progress today; I got in at 2AM from seeing the above, and my brother came home yesterday, so we spent the afternoon watching Boondock Saints, another cool flick. Lots of righteous whacking, Woo-inspired camera work, Hong-Kong-style comedy between the leads when they're not shooting mobsters, Ron Jeremy as a sleazeball wiseguy, and a Russian thug who gets killed by a toilet thrown off a five-story building. Gotta love it.
--Kai out
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can't take no more distorted days
2002-12-18 11:55:28
Video is humming along; I look to come in about 40 seconds under 100% overage, but I've already got 100% coverage, so the last ep, whenever I clip it, is going to be basically gravy, and cutback on looping. A little jawflap, but some of it I should be able to lipsynch.
Progress may get cut back a little this week, though, as there's The Two Towers to go see, and Heavy Metal Christmas at Sputnik's on Friday (MPD and Ravage -- if you're metal and in E-Mass and you miss this, YOU'RE WRONG!), and maybe Gangs of New York if I can swing it. Forget this "Leo's in it" crap, Scorsese worked damn hard to get it historically right. Maybe also Drumline; it looks from the promos like it got marching band right, which has historically been extremely hard for people who have not been in a hardcore, competitive program, and Aaron McGruder hasn't had Huey make fun of it yet, so it's probably decent.
Current video: My Pet Demon, "Self Destruct" to Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran. Progress check: 62%. Expected catalog number: #63. Phade sent me a bug report yesterday on video #10, the first signed one that I've gotten. I mailed back explaining the current DC-linking system, and suggested some ways to smooth things over a little bit. If the suggestions are taken (and they probably won't seeing as the DC ain't THAT big yet), then I've got to redo a bunch of links, but it's worth it for clarity.
side note: why the HELL can't shonen anime artists draw musical instruments right? It drives me up the wall. Even in Black Heaven, the bass isn't ever drawn to proper scale, and Oji's Flying V mutates between like eight different variations on the body shape. They always draw GUNS right; why not instruments? This is mostly prompted by the cello in the fourth One OVA; they got the violin mostly right in episode 2, but apparently nobody ever told them that all string instruments TAPER along the neck to the headstock. A short list of shoujo titles that get instruments right: Gravitation (guitar), Marmalade Boy (guitar, bass), Here Is Greenwood (trombone), Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar (flute, harp, trumpet, cello, violin, despite the magical liberties with design), Kodomo no Omocha (trumpet), Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran (guitar). Sure, there's only a few cuts of guitar in one episode in that last, but it's drawn *correctly*, unlike the ukelele in Ajimu Beach Story, which has almost the same body shape, but is never drawn to any standard of consistency, let alone accuracy, even though it's one of the central points of the story.
--Kai out
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this creature in human form
2002-12-17 12:37:22
All links are up. Such a bother, but it's necessary. Hopefully I'll get some good progress in on the book as well as the video today.
With the current crop of releases Red Wolf informs me that I represent 1/3 of the total DC catalog. This is somewhat unsettling, and I hope that some other people will get CDs out before the next bunch drops in February. A lot of cons with February deadlines means a bunch of CDs dropping as well; probably two more PC, and another SC and possibly KK if things shape up correctly. Odds on, though, I'm still not going to be able to get that card working correctly.
Current video: My Pet Demon, "Self Destruct" to Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran. Progress check: 50%. Expected catalog number: #63. This'll be the first video that I did serious use of sub-kill via letterbox cropping on, and it's presenting its own set of challenges. First, I have to balance the screensizes correctly so I don't get undue distortion on the resize, and then I have to select clips that don't LOOK as though the bottom has been cut off them. Staying away from mouth movement's in there as well, but despite these squeezes I'm on pace for about 100% overage.
--Kai out.
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i had a mind block
2002-12-16 13:08:51
...but now I've got video #62 up, and #63 under way. Also, the next two volumes of the PC, the first KK release, and the Gamma Ray Special Collection volume are all now at the DC. However, even though I have the links, I'm not going to do all the work to get them up until tomorrow. It's late and I have stuff to do.
All the grad school materials Michigan requires are on their way or at least cleared for such; Sword willing, I'll get in, but going this late means an uphill road. Almost ready for the '02 metal awards; just two albums lacking. I'm also working on a book, but that keeps getting preempted to do video stuff when it shouldn't be. I need better time management, and a more collegiate sleep cycle.
Current video: My Pet Demon, "Self Destruct" to Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran. Progress check: 35%. Expected catalog number: #63. The song is edited, though most people won't have heard it to notice, or be able to hear that I cut out the guitar solo between the lock-in section and the last chorus. I've only seen one video done to this series, and it had a TV-clock overlay in the top left corner. How unprofessional is that? I know I've done a few vids with watermarks left in, but those are a lot smaller and at least transparent. That clock thing is on a level with off-topic subs.
--Kai out.
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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