Sun, 16 Feb: Weekly Review 49

I watched the first episode of season 2 of Ghost in the Shell 22045 on Netflix. Major Motoko and Section 9 seek out a Russian national called Kukushkin who seems to know a lot about the post-humans introduced in season one. Their trail leads them to one such very dangerous post-human who wants the Russian, a woman called Suzuka. Purin features in this episode helping Batou track down the Russian. There’s a strange exchange between them where Purin seems to suggest they both ‘stay’ the night at the swish hotel they’re investigating and Batou accuses her of sexual harassment. C’mon, lighten up, big guy! Anyway, they find Kukushkin now hiding in the body of a robo servant called Ginger. At this point Suzuka appears and the fight is on for custody of Ginger. This was a fun episode highlighting some good detective work from Purin and setting us up for the rest of the series. The only negative I could see was the Tachikomas weren’t featured. The end credits now are the ones I remember with the cast looking spiffy. I thought they were used in the first season, but no, it’s the second season. Yay!

I watched the second ep of GITS 2045 season two. After Motoko and Section 9 throw their best at Suzuka, the post-human woman, she still gets away in spectacular fashion (calls down an airplane to attack Purin and the Tachikomas she’s enlisted to fight her).

I borrowed a couple of irresistible books from the library today. One was The Art of Classic Sci-Fi Movies Edited by Adam Newell, the other was The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop by Ian McFarlane. Both weighty coffee-table tomes, I will devour them in the coming days.

I started going through the Encyclopedia. I cut straight to some random artists, starting with The Tol-Puddle Martyrs (mainly just to see if they were there), then Blackfeather, Clouds, Underground Lovers, The Dingoes, Died Pretty, Go Betweens and Cheetah. Some of these are my favourite bands, some I was just curious about. I have Cheetah’s one and only album Rock and Roll Women. It’s tasty pussy rock! There’s a sentence for ya! After that I settled down and went through the A’s. I’m mainly interested in just what’s in here, and what’s not. I notice already no King Fox. Man, I love this book!

As I’ve been going through that Australian Rock and Pop Encyclopedia lots of songs are popping out as ones to listen to. So I’ve been compiling a playlist of tunes on Spotify based on them. It’s simply called Oz Encyclopedia. I’ll be adding to it as I get through the book. I’m presently up to the C’s. Must say, I’m surprise how many of these songs and artists are on Spotify because I’ve found it a very US and Europe-centric platform.

I finally discovered Youtube have a copy of the film FM. This is a film from 1978, about the machinations of the staff at a radio station in LA. It was made around the same time as the similar TV show WKRP in Cincinatti. It produced an amazing soundtrack album full of the pick of the LA sound of that time, including The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and it had a great theme song by Steely Dan. Even though I’ve got a lot of those songs, I realise now I really want a copy of it. I saw it in the cinema with my brother Carl when it came out, and I’ve always wanted to see it again. But I read that it’s a film that’s rarely if ever been given a video or dvd release, mainly because of the copyright problems with the soundtrack. I’ve always figured there was probably at least a video of it somewhere, and I’ve always checked for it at op shops where they still sell old videotapes. So it was so great to find it was there up on good old Youtube.

I spent the arvo after the lunch with Jeanette and Shirley watching it. It’s kind of better and worse than I remember it. Part of the worst is because the early scene where the radio station manager is late to his dj shift has the soundtrack missing. This is because the song played is Life In the Fast Lane, and apparently Don Henley did not allow it to be used. I worried that this would be a pattern throughout the film – constant soundtrack dropouts because copyright permission couldn’t be given for certain songs – but it was thankfully the only instance of this. This film was such a nostalgic trip for me, an evocation of the times, and it has heart. Thank you to ACME Videos who put the film up online for us to enjoy!

Watched the first ep of the new Time To Twice series TTT Again, which is a return to the format of the first one they did, four years ago. I won’t bore about the details, but it was lots of wholesome happiness.

Picked up my K-pop goodies from K-pop Time. They were a digipak of Twice’s Strategy, Rose’s Rosie album and the four dvd set of Aespa’s Aepisode Synk concerts. The Aespa packaging is very lavish with a large booklet. Can’t wait to watch the dvds.

I’ve started listening to my Within Temptation albums in the car in preparation for the upcoming concert. First one is their second album, Mother Earth (I don’t have the first, called Enter). Singer Sharon Den Adel sports a perm on the cover. A solid album with perhaps too many slow/quiet songs, and too much of a celtic vibe, but some good songs there. I really love Ice Queen, a dynamic heavy number, and the final song, Perfect Harmony. This song is a bit like the old standard Nature Boy, and in this song Elves are mentioned. What with Susan and the Gael Baudino book, it seems Elves are in the air for me lately. I did an edit version of Perfect Harmony a while back because it flogs that chorus way too much. Thus, I cut out the final chorus.

When I got around to watching the first disc of Aepisode, which was the concert, it looked like the package didn’t have the music videos I wanted. Then in my annoyance at that I dropped a can of vodka on the carpeted floor. Damn! But the concert was great, so I felt a little placated. And the carpet can wait.

I also had a listen to the digipak of Strategy. The songs Keeper and Magical are so good. They’re both just sentimental pop songs, but I like them more then the more boppin’ dance tracks. The lyrics to Keeper, written by Twice’s Dahyun, are really nice. Here they are…

Keeper
(lyrics: Kim Dahyun)

자꾸만 시선이 마주치고

내게서 눈을 뗄 수가 없지

뭔가 다르다는 걸 넌 느꼈지

You know it you should, oh, never let me go

달빛 아래 조명 받아 더욱 빛나, rosy cheeks, kissable lips

감미로운 향기까지

Shiny like a piece of metal, gentle like a flower petal

나지막이 속삭여줄게

I’m a keeper (keeper), ah, ah, ah

Yeah, you need me (need me), ah, ah, ah

Never leave me (leave me), ah, ah, ah

When you meet me

Can’t hide, can’t hide your smile

찰나의 감정이 아니야

끝나지 않을 거야, I’m sure

It’s a green light, green light (green light)

Yeah, that’s right, that’s right (that’s right)

얼어있던 네 가슴속을 부드럽게 감싸 녹여줄게

I’m your delight, delight, alright

달빛 아래 조명 받아 더욱 빛나, rosy cheeks, kissable lips

감미로운 향기까지 (향기까지, 향기까지)

Shiny like a piece of metal, gentlе like a flower petal

나지막이 속삭여줄게 (yеah)

I’m a keeper (keeper), ah, ah, ah (I)

Yeah, you need me (need me, need me), ah, ah, ah (oh, yeah)

Never leave me (leave me), ah, ah, ah

When you meet me (never leave, never leave, never leave)

Can’t hide, can’t hide your smile

Like a star

It’s shining (you know, it’s shining, shining)

In your heart

I’m a keeper, can’t hide, can’t hide your smile

걷잡을 수도 없이

점점 마음이 커져가

It’s worth it, 난 자신해

Feeling, oh, so bright today, so bright today

I’m a keeper (keeper), ah, ah, ah (I)

Yeah, you need me (yeah, you need me), ah, ah, ah (oh, yeah)

Never leave me (leave me), ah, ah, ah

When you meet me (never leave, never leave, never leave)

Can’t hide, can’t hide your smile

Like a star (you know, it’s the brightest day)

It’s shining (you know, it’s the brightest day)

In your heart (you know, it’s the brightest day)

I’m a keeper, can’t hide, can’t hide your smile

Watched some Youtube, as is my want. There was a nice clip of Twice Nayeon performing a cover song called Kimagure Romantic at an event called Beat AX Vol 5 at Ariake Arena in Japan. I liked how the backing dancers did all the dancing with Nayeon joining in during instrumental breaks. Sounded like a good song. I have no idea of the context of this, apart from it was a two-day Nayeon solo concert. Why Beat Ax? Why Vol 5? 

I cancelled my subscription to the Allkpop newsletters today. I was just getting sick of the focus on Kpop and Kdrama stars dying or having illnesses and all the ridiculous controversies. And there were rarely any stories on Twice or other Kpop items of interest to me. It was just wasting my time, so it had to go. Call it a life hack.

Read the final story in the Gael Baudino Spires of Spirit book, called The Shadow of the Starlight. A young woman named Amy is working for the elves Hadden and Lauri’s surveying company and is another elf in-waiting. But she has demons, especially a partner called Ron who has been abusing her. It’s up to Lauri to help her with the transition and ultimately to help Amy free herself from Ron’s clutches. This requires her to discover her hidden talent (it seems all elves have special healing talents) and hers is to access what I’m gonna call ‘black hole energy’ to help, and in Ron’s case, to control people. This brings up an interesting issue for her: should she use this potentially destructive talent to help her people in their dealings with hostile ‘normals’? And why didn’t the first elves of the past use these powers to protect themselves? Or did they? Baudino’s descriptions of Lauri’s powers fighting amongst her inner stars to free Amy from the darkness of the black hole are dynamic and very cinematic. This was an amazing book. Baudino is a real discovery for me.

I started watching the TV series Salvation, the one about preparations for an asteroid hitting the Earth that I grabbed from the library recently. Saw the first three eps. It’s not bad, if not completely convincing. There’s a brainiac entrepreneur pulling strings, a plucky MIT Astronomy student who discovers the killer asteroid, and his girlfriend, a budding science fiction author whose favourites are Asimov and Heinlein. I think it’s maybe this last detail that I have the most trouble in believing. Gives me the feeling that the writers don’t actually know their science fiction and so went with the only ones they’d heard of, coz those old fuddy-duddy authors are not the type a young woman would be inspired by, believe me.

Played and digitised half of my album 25 RCA Rarities. Was an interesting song by a group called the Cardinals called 20 and In, a medley of sorts mimicking various groups from the time and suggesting their members would be called up for military service (this is during the Vietnam era). The Tribute To the King was also interesting. The King being, well, you know.

I read another interview in Andy Partridge’s book Complicated Game. This one was about the song No Thugs In Our House from XTC’s English Settlement. He revealed the character of the ‘thug’ Graham was based on, in part, bassist Colin Moulding’s mysterious brother Graham, whom he had never met. It was the third single off the album, and I still have my copy, which has an amazing picture sleeve that features puppet show cutouts.

I watched the Urusei Yatsura Top 50 eps Rebel Without a Clue and And Then There Were None. Rebel was the episode where Lum and Ataru and the gang make a school film. As usual with them, they go all in and come up with a completely nonsensical though insightful film about who they are. Then There Were None was a nice riff on the old Agatha Christie story with Lum and the gang invited to a creepy house on a deserted island where they each get bumped off till no one is left. The reveal at the end that they were only play-acting to try to ‘scare’ Ataru into forgoing his girl-chasing activities fell a bit flat.

Watched another two eps of my Urusei Yatsura anime. These were one about Ten’s Mother visiting and the other was one of the Top 50 called Miserable: A Loving and Roving Mother, about Ataru’s mother. A couple of mother-themed episodes. In the first Ten’s mother turns out to be a fire-fighter – a funny twist when you consider Ten, with his constant fire breathing, is an arsonist. Ataru has great fun setting Ten up to blow his fire breath, thus bringing his mother running. He’s supposed to be a ‘good boy’ but he keeps nearly getting caught out. The second ep, about Ataru’s mother, was an interesting melancholy episode showing us her frustrations and loneliness.

I watched another Top 50 ep of my Urusei Yatsura animes. This one was number 79, The House of Mendo Summer Xmas. A fun ep where Mendo’s sister Ryoko invites the gang to a summer party. As usual, her plans are lavish and devious, featuring a giant Christmas Tree that the guests are instructed to climb before they can get to the copious food at the top of her apartment. I really loved the detail of Megane ‘dating’ little Chibi, who is dressed as a girl (everyone was required to bring a date, and this was all he could scrounge up). I love how Chibi really gets into his role and worries that he’s not pretty enough. There was even a suggestion that Megane was turned on by girl Chibi, which was funny. This was an hilarious episode, with none of the guests, not even Lum or Ataru, making it to the top, and instead being launched into the stratosphere when it’s revealed the tree is actually a rocket. As it explodes in a show of colourful fireworks, and our characters fall slowly to earth, a smiling Ryoko wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.

Valentine’s Day. Might well be the day I met my soul mate, a woman called Susan who I met at the Millgrove church on my Flexi van run. She gives off huge elvish Galadriel Earth Mother vibes I can’t resist. And yeah, I know I could just be deluding myself, but humour me. I think she’s a keeper. I guess we’ll see what the future holds, but it’s typical to me that I just finish reading a book about people becoming Elves and I meet someone who reminds me of them. Am I too becoming Elvish? It’s a pity I probably won’t have another chance to meet Susan until a month from now, coz I’m on leave for the next Flexi run due to Within Temptation at Knotfest.

I grabbed a book called Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths by Bill Eddy. I started reading it, and it’s good. It’s about high conflict personalities (or HCPs), and what we can do about them. Obviously Donald Trump is one such featured, though Hitler and Stalin and McCarthy and some others are also mentioned as examples. Reading the Preface I realised I know someone who probably has a touch of this. I also like Eddy’s idea of identifying us, when it comes to Trump and others, as either Loyalists, Dissenters (me!), Moderates or Dropouts. Makes sense and is a useful perspective.