Had a listen to the Please Please Me album by The Beatles in the car today. Not sure what inspired it (maybe it was buying that Beatles t-shirt for Josh?), but it was good to hear it again. I listened to my mono Beatles Box Set version. So many great songs and great performances here. It’s an album that starts with I Saw Her Standing There and ends with Twist and Shout. In between there’s Love Me Do, PS I Love You, There’s A Place (a song like the Beach Boys’ celebrated In My Room, but done before that) and a bunch of great covers (Anna, Baby It’s You, Chains). Even Ringo’s song, Boys, is possibly his best song with the Beatles. I love it. And then there’s the title track which, even today, I can hear it and understand the impact it must have had on listeners when it was released all those years ago. No wonder it shot to number one. I know John Lennon prefers the next album, With/Meet the Beatles, saying it’s a better representation of where the Beatles were at then, but (respectfully) I think this one’s better.
Borrowed a couple of mangas from the library. One was Volume 7 of Magus of the Library, a series I’ve been following for a while. Obviously the title and subject resonates with me due to my job. The other was Volumes one and two of Succubus and Hitman, a manga that promises to be silly and a little sexy. I love the way manga artists draw succubi – they always look like they’re having a good dirty time.
Started reading my latest Magus of the Library manga by Mitsu Izumi. The first story was an interesting dissection of arguments around a book that may have to be banned for its content. In the end, the librarians decide not to ban the book. I really love the detail of the artwork here. It goes way beyond what other manga artists do, which can sometime be very basic indeed.
Finished Magus of the Library Vol 7. MC Theo gets his first paycheck for working at the library. What does he do with it? He sends it home to his sister, of course! Well, he does keep just enough to buy one book. He sends a letter with the money and the story details the contents of that letter, which are simply on the theme of ‘life at the library’. Elsewhere in the story there are shenanigans afoot to bring down the library. Oooohhh! Theo’s role in all this is clearly crucial, and it may be that he may even become the new Magus. It all feels a bit Harry Potterish, with Hogwarts transplanted to a giant library in some vaguely middle-eastern land on another planet. Despite that, it’s very much its own thing.
Read the first volume of the Succubus and Hitman manga by Makoto and Seigo. As expected, it was silly fun, but it was also pretty intense at times. This is definitely a Seinen (adult) manga. One of the bad guys, a mean fat bastard Yakuza who rapes and kills the MC’s mother in front of him, gets dispatched to Hell, where He is raped by a giant Hell pig! Yikes! I also read the second volume and I think I’ve had enough. But kudos to the writers who keep upping the ante on the sex and violence, instead of watering it down.
Watched Gladiator 2 at the Chirnside Cinemas. It was good, as expected, but not as good as the first one. Why? Maybe simply because it was a sequel and was therefore no longer original (Yeah, I know, but The Empire Strikes Back, blah, blah, blah – I stand by what I said). Or maybe because the main character, Lucius, wasn’t quite as interesting as Russell Crowe’s Maximus from the first. The actor was Paul Mescal, someone who was completely new to me. He acquitted himself well and fit the bill, but seemed to lack Crowe’s charisma. I dunno. Also, two of the bad guys, the two Emperors, were just a couple of decadent twinks. Denzel Washington’s character, the ambitious gladiator trainer, was the real bad guy and played him convincingly. It had all the spectacle of the Colosseum that one could want – adding a flooded arena (with sharks!) for a sea battle – but this time the focus was more on the politics and Lucius’s back story. I was worried the film would feature a lot of animals being killed (an historical feature of the Colosseum’s activities) but it’s just one big rhino, which gets bruised and battered, but lives. It’s a satisfying story that ties up the loose ends of the first film and leaves us on an epic high. It’s always great to see what Ridley Scott and his team can do with bringing the world of ancient Rome to our screens, and that’s actually enough for me. I’m glad he had Lucius re-state Maximus’s famous line that ‘What we do in this life echoes throughout eternity’. It’s such a memorable line, worth repeating in a blockbuster film. I think about it a lot. In fact, I would rephrase it as ‘If we want what we do in this life to echo through eternity, make it epic’.
Found a nice thread on Twitter by Wolf of X about ‘people being amazing’ that I retweeted. It was just tweet after tweet of people doing good things for their fellow humans, like a woman getting her dying wish to see her son graduate, and a couple of orphans finding a home – that kind of human interest thing. Very sweet and uplifting. My favourite was maybe the one of what happens ‘when big machines and men meet little boys with little trucks’. So sweet!
Picked up a fabulous little book at the library called Falling In Love With a Traveling Cat by Juno. It’s just a bunch of very kawaii drawings featuring cats doing cute things as they travel throughout Japan. I’m not really a cat person, but this is cute eye candy.
Went to Lui’s for our pre-Christmas bash. Exchanged gifts, had pizza, chatted about things; it was a good time. Together we watched Harry Potter the Half-blood Prince, which happened to be on and is the only one I hadn’t seen. Not bad. I liked how it dealt with the three MC’s romantic relationships. The tortuous trials of teens mixed in with some black magic – what could go wrong? I also liked how Malfoy’s character was given some development. About time. Then we watched some of Rage’s Top 50 music videos, which was on this night. Only saw the first half or so, but a lot of them didn’t look very promising. I liked one by Justice, an animated thing; and there was the MGMT clip which features a young woman with no arms travelling to Paris. That was interesting. We wondered if she was actually arm-less or if it was CGI. Lui got me a book for my present, a thing called Capitalism: A Horror Story by Jon Greenaway. It looks at Capitalism from a Marxist lens that equates its excesses with modern horror movies. Lui heard about it while listening to a podcast called Revolutionary Left Radio that featured an episode about the book, and figured it would suit me well. He was right. I love it. Can’t wait to read it. It was a good night.
Recorded my Bruce Johnston album, Going Public, into the computer. Was a pretty easy transfer. It starts with a fairly muted version of his song that Barry Manilow made into a huge hit, I Write the Songs. Yes, Bruce is the one who wrote the song. His solo version of Disney Girls is another muted, songwriter-type arrangement, different to the terrific full version he did with the Beach Boys on the Surf’s Up album. A couple of songs, Rock and Roll Survivor and Don’t Be Scared, sounded good. It’s early days, it’ll grow on me. But it’s good to listen to yet another Beach Boys solo work. Does Al (Jardine) have a solo album out?
Watched the film 20 Million Miles To Earth. In many ways it was just another silly creature feature with some nice Ray Harryhausen claymation work for the creature, called Ymir. But Ymir’s plight – abducted from planet Venus to fend for itself on Earth as it grows to maturity – is treated with a pathos that’s rare for these kinds of films. The parallels with King Kong are clear, and we feel even more sympathy for Ymir because the humans hunting, capturing and killing him are so cardboard. There’s a terrific scene in a barn where Ymir rages at his would-be captors and is fierce and frightening (the lighting on him is dynamic). As he gets bigger and bigger the proportions are a bit askew at times (that’s a very big claymation elephant he tussles with!). The finale in and around the Colosseum (the story’s set in Italy) is epic and appropriate, seeing as how Ymir’s fate seems to be offered up for bread and circuses. It’s a pity no attempt is made to communicate with or understand him.
Played some more Cloudpunk, the PS4 game. My character, Rania, made some more deliveries, this time needing to buy drugs off a vendor in order to bribe a bouncer to get into the delivery venue. I’m still not loving the blocky style of the game’s visuals and I think I’m over it. The novelty has worn off, even driving the hovercar around isn’t that much fun. Think I’ll put this one away, for now.
Some Onces on Twitter and Youtube are having fun making up a thread about Twice Tzuyu, how she’s secretly doing a Psychology PHD on the girls, especially Nayeon. The ‘evidence’ is clear: there’s a lot of footage of Tzuyu seemingly studying Nayeon as she talks her silly talk and does random weird things (text reads: ‘Tzuyu was studying the behaviour closely of the species called Im Nayeon for her Masters thesis.’). Most telling is the footage of Tzuyu who, when asked which member she would like to swap with, chooses Nayeon because she’s ‘curious about what’s inside her mind’. Can’t wait to read the dissertation!
Watched the sixth episode of Picard, called The Bounty. Riker, Worf and Raffaela infiltrate the Daystrom Array to find the secret weapon the Changelings stole, and encounter…Data in stasis. Before this, Riker eyeballs the Genesis Device (from Wrath of Khan) and Worf gets surprised by a Tribble in a jar that has been genetically modified to act and look like some kind of Alien facehugger. When he’s revived, Data glitches, going into various other personalities, including Lore. Brent Spiner’s acting here is brilliant. He contorts his face into Lore, and you know it without him even needing to say it. Meanwhile Picard and the rest of the crew visit Geordie at a shipyard to enlist his help. It’s a kind of graveyard for famous ships, including various Enterprises, the Voyager, and even the Bounty from ST4. This provides a plot point when Picard’s son, Jack, with the help of Geordie’s two daughters, steals the Bounty’s invisibility cloak. It’s definitely ramping up. The cliffhanger features an appearance from Deanna Troi, so it seems the gang’s now all here.
Watched the first episode of Lagrange,the Flower of Rinne season two anime. This is an enjoyable Shojo Mecha anime (a rarity) set in the seaside town of Kamogawa. It’s pure fluff and friendship by the seaside, and the three main characters, Madoka, Lan and Muginami are adorable. The only jarring note is how much fan service there is, especially with Muginami, whose character design must be seen to be believed. She looks like a 14 year old with the voluptuous body of a 22 year old.
Watched more eps of Lagrange. Good episode where Madoka and the girls leave Earth on King Dizelmine’s ship in order to find out the mystery of his rival’s little sister, Yurikano, an enigmatic young woman who is betrothed to the King and seems to be the key to solving the ‘great collapse’ of the two star systems they lead. There’s a nice onsen scene giving lots of fan service, especially of buxom Muginami. Then Madoka’s curiosity about Yurikano gets her into trouble when Dizelmine plans to transfer her consciousness into the little sister, who is in suspended animation. It all makes very little sense (especially being a second season and I haven’t explained season one) but, as Usagi Tsukino once said in Sailor Moon, I know it’s all gonna turn out fine. I really love the sunny vibe of this show, especially the scenes in Kamogawa. And I love the music. It really takes me to a sunny place.
Finally got the notice my new Twice album and two more Misamo albums are ready to pickup, so I went to the K-pop Time store and grabbed them. I also wanted Blackpink Rose’s new album, but they didn’t have it. Tried to find some taiyaki moulds at Daiso in Eastland but they didn’t have that either. Looks like I won’t be making taiyaki and taking it to my get together with Lui and his family tonight… Bringing my booty back home and unwrapping it was quite a buzz. I got a good spread of cards, including two Chaeyoungs and one of (my bias) Mina. Strangely, my two Misamo albums (the Momo and Sana ones – I bought the Mina earlier, you might recall) included a special member badge each. Now I have one for Sana and one for Momo. How come I didn’t get one with my Mina album? Damn. There was also the Twice album poster, which I don’t think is as nice as the With You-th one that I have on my bedroom wall. I still think it was the right decision to buy all three versions of the Misamo album. Placing them together Mi-Sa-Mo made me feel like all’s right with the world, so there’s the proof of it. Don’t even think of arguing with me about it!
