The thing with the possum last night continued to haunt me this morning as I discovered, when I drove my car to Healesville for the usual meet with Josh, the right wheel guard of my car was rubbing against the wheel. The impact with the poor creature had pushed it in. I tore off the guard, and that was that. Need a new guard. There was a market happening in Healesville so I went to that before the meal, as I was early. There were some nice record and cd/dvd stalls that I perused. Almost bought a couple of rare Doug Parkinson albums, but didn’t. Doug’s one of those Australian singers whose career never really took off. His biggest hit was a great cover of the Beatles’ Dear Prudence. He had a great voice and, with his leonine looks, made for a striking figure. I have the Fanny Adams album he made in England. Good proto stoner stuff. Old-school markets are cool.
The meal with Josh was a bit different this time as we had company, namely Josh’s friend’s Gary and Sadg, a married couple, and Anthony. We were back at Kang’s Chinese eating up a mess of teriyaki chicken. Josh didn’t say much while we ‘talkers’ yakked away. I recounted my day at the recent Knotfest concert, and even mentioned the run-in with the possum when Anthony asked me about my car. At one point Gary mentioned having to do the Australian Citizenship test (he’s Canadian) and one of the questions was about cricketer Don Bradman. This got me wondering if there was a patriotic musical question, say like who did Eagle Rock? Gary couldn’t answer it, but he kind of got close (thought the singer, Ross Wilson, might have played down Healesville way recently – which he did). I think this question should be MANDATORY for all potential Australian citizens.
After saying goodbye to Gary and Sadg, we went back to Josh’s place for some Asahi’s on the veranda. Again, Josh was pretty quiet, so it was mainly me and Anthony talking mainly about our jobs (he’s a road signaler) with an occasional rant against Capitalism from me. Have to admit I felt a bit relieved not having all the pressure to keep the conversation going on me, and having someone I could engage with more than Josh. There are often long stretches of silence when it’s just me and him sitting there on the veranda. I mean, it’s okay, it’s mainly ‘comfortable silence’ and just what you get when you have two introverts sitting together.
I still think maybe I should have bought those Doug Parkinson albums…
Watched episode ten of GITS 2045. The action seems to be stuck in this one setting on a new highway building site. The boy posthuman Shimamura hands the trigger for a nuclear bomb to the thousands of protesters who make up N, which now includes Togusa and Batou. A volatile mix, indeed. But why? Most disturbing, one of the tachikomas is hacked by the posthuman and now follows his every command. It feels wrong.
Watched last two eps of GITS 2045. Both were very good, especially the second last one where all the threads came together. There’s a time shift with the last episode, where Kusanagi has a choice to change the reality of things and seems to do so. There seems to be some Matrix-like body capture happening here. Can’t say I understood all the threads going on, so won’t discuss it, only to say I really need to re-watch these last few eps. It ends where the original manga ended, with Motoko saying to Batou: ‘the web is vast’.
friend?
I saw a funny/scary Twitter thread today to do with polar bears. It seems, according to the tweet by Nature Is Amazing, polar bears are one of few animal species who see humans as prey. This is probably because their habitat is such that anything that moves that’s not another bear is potential food. I liked the recurring meme that this post sparked off: ‘If not friend, why friend-shaped?’ Yes, tons of advertising has made polar bears seem cool and friendly. But they’re not. Well, I guess they are still cool though. You wouldn’t want to encounter one in the wild.
Transferred the Angel album. Apart from The Tower, I hadn’t heard it for a long time. Sounds good. Good prog metal. Had another listen later, and some other tracks are starting to stand out. Rock & Rollers is a very Kiss-like welcome to the concert rocker with a great vocal lick from singer, Frank Dimino, who goes ‘rock n ro-ullas’. Then there’s the nice ballad Mariner that echoes lyrically the Tennyson poem. Then two solid melodic rock songs in Sunday Morning and On & On. The Tower and Sunday Morning touch on some sword and sorcery themes, which I like, reminding me a little of Manowar or Dio. This is such a great lost record of my youth. It’s great to have it recovered. The cover image always reminded me of the gargoyle on the pedestal that welcomes Rod Taylor to the world of the Eloi and Morlocks in The Time Machine.
Had another viewing of my coffee table picture book Everyday Scenes From a Parallel World. What an amazing book, what wonderful illustrations. I could live inside the pictures for a long time. It’s mostly us observing mostly young girls observing the magical reality around them. Some images speak to the title, presenting unfamiliar parallel places, while others simply show the wondrous dislocation (to Western eyes) that is life in Japan. It’s a book that could change your perspective on things.
I missed seeing Within Temptation’s sideshow today. Tixel didn’t come through for me with resale tickets. Oh well. Probably just as well. I was pretty tired after work today and had an arvo sleep. I comfort myself with the fact that I did at least get to see them at Knotfest. But damn, that solo gig at Max Watts would’ve been sweet…
Watched the Kirk Douglas movie of Ulysses. This is a fondly remembered film from when I was a child. It still stands up too, especially that crazy sequence with the Cyclops. He was pretty scary to me back then, and he still is. He tells Ulysses as a thanks for making him wine, ‘I’ll eat you last’. What a great guy! And Ulysses is so cool about it, because he’s got a plan. As a child seeing that I was so impressed, because I’d be scared shitless. I like how the film puts as much emphasis on the suitors and the homecoming in Ithaca with Penelope and Telemachus as it does on Ulysses’ adventures. Using Silvana Mangano as Circe and Penelope was also a great idea. As a witch Circe glamours Ulysses into thinking she’s Penelope, but he doesn’t fall for it. Douglas’s acting in the Sirens scene was also impressive. It’s just a one-shot of him writhing on the mast as he is tormented by the voices of the Sirens, but it works so well. My only complaint is we never see the Sirens. It would have been cool to show them transforming from beautiful women back into the horrible cannibal hags they are. And Ulysses’ revenge upon the suitors is well-staged and surprisingly bloody and savage. Especially when he takes an axe to the one slightly sympathetic suitor telling him it’s too late for him to repent.
Went to Croydon, got car washed and bought a nice pair of Hush Puppy shoes and a book, a Brief Guide to Oz by Paul Simpson at an op shop. I flicked through the book while I was there and I like how comprehensive it is. He mentions just about every reference made to Oz in pop culture, including Heinlein’s Number of the Beast and Was by Geoff Ryman. I specifically sought these out; and if they weren’t in there, I probably would not have bought the book, regarding it as badly researched. I tried the Hush Puppies out later, and they were snug. I needed some new shoes after the loss of my old sneakers at Knotfest.
I’ve been listening to Within Temptation’s The Unforgiving album in the car. It’s such a good album, better than I remember. It’s their tight rock album, and as such it’s a good intro to the band for newbies. So many killer choruses. My favourites are Shot In the Dark, Faster, Lost, Sinead, A Demon’s Fate and Stairway to the Skies.Fire and Ice sounds exactly like Tori Amos. I also watched the dvd that comes with my copy of the album. It has the clips for Faster, Shot In the Dark and Sinead, which each include an opening segment that ties into the story of the album. They’re quite interesting on their own. An old woman, called Mother Maiden is a supernatural avenger of evil who recruits (usually by reviving them from the dead) ‘soldiers’ to fight this evil. Sinead is one of them and her story is one of abuse, drug addiction and murder. It’s all based on a comic book called Penance written by Steven O’Connell which I really wanna read.
I watched the fourth and final ep of Twice’s latest Time To Twice Again series. This was a lot of fun especially as a fan of Mina, because her team won and she was the star. There was a fun segment where the members had to try to punch through a layer of tiles and Mina aced it with one smooth downward punch. Watching on, Chaeyoung exhorted her to yell in Japanese ‘I’m gonna break it’, like an anime ninja, and she did. It was very cool and has become something of a meme for Onces on social media. But during the archery competition Mina sent one of her arrows landing near the centre of the bullseye – only problem was, it was the wrong target, it belonged to Smarties team. So, admittedly, it wasn’t all perfect, but made for another funny memorable moment. Earlier Mina had drawn with Jeongyeon on the jelly slap competition, both of them concentrating so hard as each quickly touched or lifted the lid that protected the jelly, and not one mistake made. Actually, Jeongyeon also smashed all her tiles, too. As did Momo, but she kind of cheated by leaning on the ones she missed and breaking them that way. It was funny how most of the other members got up and yelled foul. Momo was actually a bit of a klutz during the entire series and was generally considered the liability of any team she was on. This has been a theme with poor Momo during these shows. Great dancer, but not a great athlete or gamer. I really enjoyed this wholesome fun.
Read the second story from The Best of World SF. This was Debtless by Chen Qiufan. Another slightly disappointing story. It starts off well, detailing life on an asteroid mine out past Mars in quite a lot of impressive scientific detail, with the disquieting notion that the worker’s memories are partially erased by the Company supposedly for greater efficiency. The dangers of the job are highlighted when the narrator, Dongfang Jue, witnesses one of his colleagues dying in an accident when she tries to bring in one of the precious money-spinning asteroids. But it quickly turns into psychodrama with Dongfang dreaming of another life he might have led, trying to grasp a memory that has been erased. This storyline was a bit incoherent for me, and in any case I didn’t love the concept of debt that the workers owe the Company in the first place. Just what we need: another future dystopia where our lives are ruled by Corporations.
Listened to my two Macross albums on the way down and back from Healesville today. I’m not much of a fan of straight out soundtrack music – you know, the instrumental kind. I’m mainly interested in the vocal tracks, which I’ve talked about already. Having said that, there were some nice instrumental passages. I especially liked the instrumental Corner of Youth and the sad and moody Kizu. There was also a nice lonely trumpet thing near the end of Vol 2 called Pain. The albums aren’t on Spotify, so I plan to transfer the files to my phone and make a playlist on Audify. It’ll be mainly the vocal tracks and some favourite instrumentals.
I’ve been re-watching some dvds I have of the old anime show Macross Super Dimension Fortress (from which the above soundtracks come). They’re semi-legal copies from China with some crazy Japanese to Chinese to English subtitles. The latest episode I watched was the very silly ep where super pilot Max Genius has his fateful encounter with Milia, the Zentradi pilot. This is a notorious scene for the bad quality of the animation due to the studio sub-contracting scenes to cheaper, inferior studios due to budget concerns. Have to admit, it doesn’t look as bad as I remembered. There’s the one shot of Milia looking a bit cross-eyed, but other than that, I thought it was okay. There was even a nice arty shot of Max and Milia embracing in the reflection of the knife she’d used to try to kill him. Straight after the encounter, when she tries to kill him for being ‘better’ than him, they kiss and decide to get married. The marriage becomes a big media event for Earth, being a symbolic unification between humans and Zentradi. It inspires the Zentradi captain on the Zentradi fleet to seek peace talks. One of my favourite things about this set is the nutty dialogue rendered as Chinglish that comes up on the screen. It’s actually quite endearing. When Captain Global sends his fighter squadron out he yells ‘Sally forth!’. Angry Milia to Max during their confrontation: ‘You make me stained with being defeated!’ Then Hikaru to Max explaining why he can’t marry her: ‘What we talk our habits and thoughts are different,’ Max replies, ‘We have love that can come over it!’ Adorable. I love this series, and I love this crazy sub.
Borrowed a book on Disco from the library today. It was full of vintage shots of the era. I was surprised how ‘gay’ it was, but that was a major aspect and drive of the genre. I liked the Best Songs playlists for each year, which guided me in making my own Spotify Disco playlist. Going through it there’s clearly a drop-off in song quality around the 1978 mark, when rock artists like Rod Stewart(Do Ya Think I’m Sexy) and The Rolling Stones (Miss You) start to get in on the act. I have to say, those fashion styles have not aged well!
Got an email from My Anime List about a competition I can vote for. It’s about getting someone’s web novel produced as a professional manga. MAL’s chosen the top ten contestants, and we can read them and decide the winner, who will have their web novel turned into a manga. I like it. I’ll try to read the ten web novel ideas and vote, if I have the time.
I love how my Twitter news feeds has headlines like Murdochguttermedia, WW3, then Giselle and Karina. In my view, these last two are just as important, if not more, than the other two.
I watched the third disc of my Aespa Aepisodes dvd set. It was just a fan meeting consisting mostly of the members chatting to a TV host and playing games in front of the audience. I mostly fast forwarded this. They did perform three songs: Welcome To My World, Next Level and Don’t Blink, but that was it. There’s just one more disc, which I think is just extra material from the fan meet. Have to say it’s stretching my patience.
I watched the last disc of my Aespisode videos. This featured performances by Aespa of the songs Drama, Spicy, and You at their fan meeting. I especially liked the performance of You, the final song. Unlike with the other songs, where they were wearing radio mics, they were using hand-helds, which usually indicates they’re singing live. There were also behind the scenes clips of the filming of the videos for Drama, Spicy and Better Things. These were great, highlighting the members’ personalities and beauty. All in all, it wasn’t a bad collection of Aespa content. I don’t know why, but I always assumed their stage names were based on or close to their real names, but they’re not at all. This came to my attention on the third disc when they were talking to the interviewer and the subject of their stage names came up. Giselle’s real name is Aeri, Karina’s is Jimin (though she gets Karina from her baptised name, Katarina), Winter’s is Min-jeong and Ningning’s is Yizhuo (her surname is Ning).
I read more of Andy’s Complicated Game book. This time it was Rook he was talking about. It’s one of his most unusual XTC songs, very moody and orchestral. He says he thinks of it as an early Apple Venus song, even though it was on Nonsuch, the album before it. Listening to it, it occurred to me it reminded me of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy, which is full of rooks and crows and owls and intimations of mortality and so forth. Would it be possible to make a playlist of Songs That Sound Like Gormenghast? What would be on it, besides Rook?
Watched the Bond film Skyfall , the third in the Daniel Craig sequence that I’m doing. One of the stupidest stories ever for a Bond film, but some great action scenes. The entire opening, especially the bike ride across the roofs of the Istanbul market, was amazing. And Bond isn’t wearing a helmet, so it actually looks like Daniel Craig is riding the bike. I liked that Bond shows concern for one of his fallen comrades in the first scene, which is taken up later when he asks M if he ‘made it’ (he didn’t). A rare show of warmth and humanity for him. Javiar Bardem as the baddie Silver is great. His introduction as he walks slowly towards a tied up Bond (and us) with the story about the rats is classic. The home-erotic overtones of this scene were nicely delivered. And the scene where he reveals the effects of his cyanide poisoning, oh my god…Main problem is the story and character motivations. Silver wants to kill M for betraying him when he was a double-o agent working for her years before. But his method of doing it is so convoluted and ludicrous, even though it drives the entire story. It all hinges on Bond following Silver’s bread crumbs, being manipulated by him almost till the end. But there’s not way Silver could anticipate all the things Bond does. After Bond foils Silver’s attempt to kill M during a government hearing into MI6 (a fun scene where some of the operatives, Moneypenny and M’s male successor played by Ralph Fiennes in particular, show their in-field training) Bond whisks her off to the old family mansion in Scotland. Presumably this is to protect her, but he then has the new Q (played by Ben Wishaw) leave a trail for Silver to find them. What? Did I miss something? So, a stupid story, but still a solid Bond overall. I gave it three and a half stars on Letterboxd.
