Mostly a music dump

[petronia]

basso, "Orso e intellettuale": Italian politician BL manga. No really. Like 75% of the tankoubon is about Italian politicians, 20% is about gelato, and 10% is about Italian politicians and gelato (percentages sum to greater than 100 as some respondents chose more than one answer). Relative to this, breaks imaginable upper boundary for toshiue uke and then some. Remind me to talk about this one in greater depth as is too out-there not to talk about.

Italy is getting to be a theme. Maybe it will be to '06 what Germany was to '05?

Music dump! Mini-theme is "stuff that sounds like 80s pop", but not in the usual way. XD

Van She - Kelly: upbeat, poppy, tons of synth but not synthpop... I don't even know if I should call this indie. What it sounds like to me is Cars. ^^;

The Modern - Industry (Radio Edit): I have a mental picture of the members of this band going, "Hey, is 'Don't You Want Me' a nifty song or what? ...Let's write a prequel to it!"

The Bravery - An Honest Mistake
The Bravery - An Honest Mistake (Super Discount Remix)

Self-explanatory. Really I just wanted to push the Etienne de Crecy electrohouse remix that I uploaded during the name-spelling meme, I like it rather a lot more than the original. :3 Nearly anything with synth arpeggios is good with me.

She Wants Revenge - These Things (Beat Detectives Remix): there is such a thing as pushed too far. I actively hate this song (to the point where I think I used to have the original version but deleted it, and I never delete anything!) because the lyrics are unbelievably inane - no, really, I find it hard to believe anyone could write a chorus like this without parodic intent - but musically it's a ridiculously catchy Cure/Depeche knockoff that gets stuck in my head. = =+ There should be a special circle of Hell reserved for people who write earworms with dumb lyrics.

Placebo - Pure Morning (Les Rhythmes Digitales Mix): and here we have exhibit A. I like Placebo on the whole but this song was the bane of the late 90s as I experienced them. Jacques Lu Cont did a lovely job with this remix, actually, I just wish he'd filtered the crap out of Brian Molko's vocals so I wouldn't be able to tell what he's singing. :P

Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodrive: My Friend Dario's skanky metrosexual Italian cousin (I tell you this is getting to be a theme). Sounds like an 80s action movie car chase in the best way. Apparently the vinyl EP is programmatic and tells the story of how this guy crashes his Ferrari, dies and returns to the highway as A NIGHT-CRUISING ZOMBIE.

Cagedbaby - Hello There (Presets Remix): single was uploaded by surlykitty a week or two past, I've been playing it obsessively. ♥ The original is probably most sonically interesting but I like this remix better as is more disco-ready.

Cut Copy - Saturdays: not only is this built on the same groove as "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", so that you can actually sing the latter right over it, but it makes sense as a duet! (An indiepop not!lovestory about how an emo boy falls for a party girl but she never takes his calls - or maybe he stupidly phones her up in the middle of the night and causes her parents to yell at her.)

Started JoJo pt.4. There's this Out Hud song called "Hair Dude, You're Stepping On My Mystique"... no, actually that's the punchline. It's an instrumental. XD

I like how Josuke's stand is also short range + punching + time-based special "attack" - that is, when he heals it's a sort of localised "rewind", putting things back where they were (though he doesn't always get it right? XD). Though I was only able to conceptualize it like this because that's how Orihime's healing works in Bleach! Um. Wouldn't it be cool if Orihime could punch right through people and pull her hand out and act like nothing had happened

Comments

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Whaaaaat, what did you think of the end of part 3?

Also, <3 for the music; you probably know my feelings on anything that sounds like synthy 80s nonsense.

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

Josuke is adorable, right? XD Not as strong in the punching as other joestar stands though. XD And yeah, his stand restores things, but not necessarily "as they were before" but rather "as Josuke imagines they were before" XD;;; Well, tragically, like many stand powers, its abilities are vague and vary slightly from chapter to chapter depending on the plot points Araki needs to make. XD I think all he does is think of weird shit that could happen, then make some new stand users that would sort of work with the ones he's already got to cause the scene in question to occur, and if their skills as previously indicated don't work QUITE right, oh wellz! XD As I do my jojo page, I'm discovering to my chagrin how little internal consistency there is sometimes in Jojo, especially between different parts XD alas~ (but then the random insanity makes it fun, too... at least you never know what to expect! XD)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I'm going to write a separate post on part 3! I just wanted to note down the thing about Josuke's attack before I forget. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Giant plotholes off the top of my head:

1) How did Dio end up in the coffin when Erina floated off in it at the end of part 1?

2) There is no way that Joseph should lose any kind of contest involving the surface tension of a liquid. D:

3) If Holly was sick because she couldn't handle her stand, then Josuke was also sick because he couldn't handle his stand (presumably he was too young, though some people are born with theirs). So why didn't his stand disappear when Dio was destroyed? ...Actually the most logical result would be for all four Joestar stands to disappear. *sweats* Either that or the explanation is just not what I think it is.

Josuke's existence in and of itself is like RETCON LOLZ. Though he is adorable! :0 He is totally the sweetie of the clan.

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

cut copy! they opened for franz ferdinand; i need their album. *downloads*

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

There is a LOT OF RETCON, DUDE. If you do the math, Jotaro has a six-year-old daughter in this arc. orz What is he doing wandering about the world?! (Then again, Araki sort of addresses that later on; Jotaro's daughter is PISSED at being neglected in favor of...dolphins...and stuff... XD

I'm not sure about the coffin, really. And the D'Arby fight is a HUGE GAPING PLOTHOLE WTF (but it leads to using Jotaro's poker face to amusing effect, right?)

I'm not sure, but it looks like the children of stand-users get really sick whenever something big involving stands happens (Josuke got sick when Dio was killed, and as you'll see, Jolyne apparently got really sick with a high fever at the time of arc 4 - and dad was too busy chasing serial killers to come home and make sure she wasn't dying! No love!)

Josuke is just so outright adorable, but as you'll see, he's totally his father's son (what did you make of THAT, btw? XD) One of the scenes that makes me giggle every time I think of it is when Jotaro finally meets Josuke's mom (have you gotten there yet?)

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

1) i thought erina floated off in a lifeboat?
2) yeah, we were all like WHAT, HE CAN USE HAMON WHAT (but then he ALSO is getting older at a normal human rate, which HE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO and in this interview when they asked him why Araki basically answered, "well I just felt like it" which I take to mean he forgot. >_>)
3) I think Josuke was sick not because of a stand, but because daddy was getting nearly killed at the time and the MYSTICAL JOESTAR BLOOD links kids to their parents or some nonsense? XD Jolyne had the same thing happen to her when daddy is badly injured fighting in Part 4 (in part 6 we learn that when she was 6 or whatever, she had a horrible fever, and if you do the timeline math, it's right when Jotaro is fighting Kira in Mori-oh, which also explains why he didn't come back to see her... he was busy. XD Though he doesn't, you know, bother to explain this to his family. God, world's worst daddy. XD;)

Josuke's totally retcon. XD

Oh and basically later in part 4 it's implied (if not explicitly stated?) that Dio got his stand because he was shot with the stone arrow, and due to the MYSTICAL JOESTAR BLOOD CONNECTION (previously mentioned), the others all got it too... and see, it's my theory that regardless of whatever it is that the stone arrow does to awaken your stand, it OBVIOUSLY changes your DNA for it to happen: this is proven because parents with stands often have kids with stands (even if the kid doesn't get jabbed with a stone arrow to awaken it). Some characters like Polnareff or Giogio were apparently born with it, indicating it can be passed along as genetic info. (Much like hamon-potential which skipped George II but came to Joseph, and Araki has mentioned that stands are basically a manifestation of the same principles as hamon although he seems confused about what those principles ARE.)

Uh anyhow in conclusion: they all got their DNA changed so even if Dio dies, it's not gonna change them back, thus (for once!) it actually makes sense that they'll keep their stands. I think the idea is that much like in Persona, stands initially manifest for one of two reasons:

1) stone arrow/joestar blood activation/etc (outside influence pulling the stand out)
2) trauma (if you are scared/desperate/hurt enough, it will manifest.)

holly never had #2 and Dio's uh, malevolent stand-use or something was forcing her stand to manifest suddenly although it wouldn't normally, and she couldn't control it... we can theorize that after he was toast, his stand (which is directly connected to all of theirs in terms of powers and so on for some reason? eh) stopped "pulling" on hers. Imagine a big spider-shape connection; the World is the body, and each other joestar is a leg. One leg can't move another, really, but the body can move any leg. Something like that maybe?

(Why do I try to make araki's nonsense make logical sense or be consistent? XD)

oh, btw, on a totally different subject, do you have any remixes of "Dare" by the Gorillaz? I am DESPERATE for the remix they are always playing on our radio station but they never fucking say what mix it is, they just call it the "rock remix" which is the least helpful thing evar, and I have snagged like 5 mixes off the interweb and NONE OF THEM ARE IT so I'm sad.

[motorbike.livejournal.com]

Oh YAY all my favorite and sure-to-be new favorite bands are apparently grouped under one subgenre. ♥

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think this is one where the er... worldbuilding is quite the focus, more the WTF. XD

I don't know of Josuke is that weak, but (being vague so not to spoil Sabina) it seems like he doesn't have as much occasion to show off the punching vs. punchy opponents as the other Joestars? Frex, part 4 would probably be more naturally an RPG than a fighting game.

[cis.livejournal.com]

I have never heard the JLC remix of 'pure morning' before: it is really, really, nigglingly simlilar to something - well just the strings, the way they cadence, mid-nineties semi-credible dancebient?, it is v v frustrating not being able to place it. HELP. It has an occasional dude singing in an open-voweled manner that means you can't tell if there are lyrics or just sounds! it is from maybe 1996? it is not massive attack or 'standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hand' or faithless i don't think, maybe it is moby? anyway PAKURI.
(I largely do not like placebo beyond like 'nancy boy'; which I think is a british indie thing, rather like not liking muse after the first album. every time i discover that placebo are still around - usually via the lj of some fandom person or other - I sneer on nme-trained reflex.)

I think I've decided to like She Wants Revenge just on principle; I like how you have the constant suspicion that they're taking the piss, I mean this is so an 'interpol lyrics are kind of dumb amirite?' song!

That superdiscount remix is insanely cute. casio-present carnival noises! hearts hearts hearts. The problem is that it makes 'honest mistake' sound even more strokes-y, with the fuzz over the voice and by constrast with the much more rounded sounds around it, and then I start thinking 'actually wouldn't this be better if we replaced the dude with an anonymous house diva? or just got rid of all traces of the original song?' and, yeah.

[vonbrigthi.livejournal.com]

You've read Orso e intellettuale! :D I picked that book up on the cover design alone (well and the description on the back -- suits! italian men! kanji!). ~_~; Actually no, it was really nice, and apparently this author has another pen name? Um. Yeah, but I uh.

I love Josuke. Part 4 is pretty experimental and uh, has lots of retcon/what happened 3 chapters ago has no relevance now bits, but it's still lots of fun. Less fighting and more mystery solving and outwitting than the other series, I think. And Josuke is such a fashion whore. And Jotaro is ... WHY a marine biologist. DX

[morinotokei.livejournal.com]

>Like 75% of the tankoubon is about Italian politicians, 20% is about gelato, and 10% is about Italian politicians and gelato<

Ahaha yes, please do talk about this some more. xDDD Although now I'm in the mood for gelato.

[jantalaimon.livejournal.com]

...yanno, i'd wanted to do a driving soundtrack for awhile, but i think a zombie driving soundtrack would be even better. >3

[petronia.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much why I bought it too! Ahaha. But no, it's better written than I thought it would be, even, and clearly I share some part of the mangaka's aesthetics. :x

Maybe out of all the valuable life experience Jotaro gained during that 55-day roadtrip, he decided what he most wanted to take up again was scuba diving in the Red Sea? XD ...Joestar men all have wacky yet stellar careers anyway. Like how is Joseph 'the real-estate king of New York' (it makes me think of Donald Trump).

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Josuke is just so outright adorable, but as you'll see, he's totally his father's son (what did you make of THAT, btw? XD)

I'm not sure what to make of it! XD I sort of vacillate between "WTF, OOC!" and "Hey, everyone messes up in life from time to time." Which I think is representative of how my perception of the characters themselves waffles between realism (emotional, at least) and... not. I'm not sure how I imprinted on this idea that Joestars are naturally monogamous to begin with; Jonathan and Erina I suppose, or - as with much else - by way of contrast with the Brando whorishness. Ahahaha um. Joseph had been married to Suzy Q for nearly fifty years when Josuke happened. :/ (Oddly, although them getting married was random from a storytelling perspective I felt it was more realistic than not - I think it's because we have a family friend who served in WWII and he brought back an Italian war bride after a whirlwind courtship. XD And they stayed married for forty years. So it sort of felt like that to me.)

Because you don't get to see any of it happening (Joseph-Tomoko or... Jotaro and mystery!wife) you start wondering how the hell it worked, though. Having gotten a sense of Tomoko I'm not sure if she wasn't the one to jump him (and Joseph is a "Ah whattheheck why not!" type, so). XD;;; お...オヤジコン？（当たり前だろう）

As for Jotaro my immediate instinct is to say "He must not have loved her at all and only got married for the sake of legitimizing the child!" ...Which, uh.

One of the scenes that makes me giggle every time I think of it is when Jotaro finally meets Josuke's mom (have you gotten there yet?)

Ahaha yes. What can one say, she's short and they're all quite similar from the star mark on down. T_T (When she spaced out at him she looked like she was thinking, "It's... a newer model... ♥?") Meanwhile Jotaro obviously trying to decide how he should killerate Joseph for landing him in this mess etc.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Erina floated off in the coffin! I noticed it at the time, like, "Oh, how useful." XD

Actually, for nearly 70 years old Joseph wasn't doing badly at all in part 3. :0 It didn't seem to me like he'd aged at a faster rate than Straits when you see him at the beginning of part 2. Lisa Lisa looked 20-something at 50 but she's supposed to be a stronger hamon user than Joseph, and controls are few as hamon users tend not to survive. XD;; It'd be hard if you were going to live in society anyway (as opposed to the highlands of Tibet), people would start thinking you were the vampire. Or had a portrait rotting away in the attic.

So Holly's stand just went back to being a dormant seed-thing afterward? I guess that would make sense. Like it's still "there" in potentio but she's unable to use/control it, so it never manifests.

...But the MYSTICAL JOESTAR BLOOD CONNECTION (tm) does not make logical sense period. XD Although it's obviously there as part of the story. I mean if you modify a person's DNA, their progeny inherit the mutation, but not if they had said progeny a hundred years before the mutation takes place. So we're back to teh psychic connectedness and the Joestars being one spiritual whole. (For instance - and I am referring to a chart here - if hypothetically Giorno and Jolyne got married their children would be their own first cousins thrice removed. Spiritually.)

I've only got the Soulwax remix of "Dare", I wouldn't think it was the "rock" remix. ^^;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You're right, I thought it sounded familiar too - and wondered if it was Moby, but I don't know Moby well enough to identify. XD

I've never listened to a Placebo album all through but the singles are generally all right with me! Brian Molko has one of those voices I should hate but mysteriously don't. I think I may enjoy the concept better than the execution, though, up to and including what I've always heard was a fandom full of crazed wanktastic RPSers. XD As for She Wants Revenge, if they were taking the piss with this song I'd revise my opinion accordingly but I know nothing about them and would not research for the world. XD

Yeah, "having gone this far, it would sound better with a house diva" is the Achilles' heel of this type of remix really. I get that with JLC's all the time.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

XD XD I would do much for the zombiefied remix of that track, actually, but I can't hunt it down.

[angrybabble.livejournal.com]

was it the coffin?? *goes to look* oh shit it was XD well, he must have brought a spare? XD XD XD

Joseph was only 65! A good Sean Connery age (srsly, look at Mr Connery in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen screens and you'll see the resemblance)! XD Well I mean, he was pretty fit for an older guy, but he should have looked much younger! Even Japanese people noticed! In this interview I'm translating they asked him, "Araki-sensei, didn't you say when LisaLisa appeared that hamon slows down the aging process? How come Joseph's aging normally, didn't you say he's even stronger than she is? (he is, even if her training is better)" and he's seriously all like "oh, well, I just felt like making him old" XD; (And he's REALLY old in part 4... it makes me really sad to see old jiji joseph going around all old and no longer full of spunky retardation! He was still his retarded self in part 3, just a bit older and a LITTLE wiser, but in part 4 he's all... old T_T)

And obviously the MYSTICAL JOESTAR BLOOD CONNECTION is partially psychic or otherwise magical in nature! It makes logical sense when you assume it's MAGIC. XD I was mentioning the DNA thing as an aside (that's why they keep the powers after being changed), but getting them in the first place? That's because the Joestar bloodline is MAGICAL. XD I mean we can theorize that potential for hamon/stands is in a lot of people's blood (as in part 2 they talked about a whole clan of hamon users) but often needs to be activated somehow. In their case I guess it was because their incesturiffic bloodline all had it really powerfully and maybe because Dio was a vampire already and that made it even more powerful or something. You can't discount the vampire thing. XD Anyhow, in part 5 Trish develops a stand slowly; we can maybe theorize it's because her daddy has one and so do all her friends... though it finally manifests only when she's in danger and desperate to do something. So, since I doubt she was ever stabbed with a stone arrow (even though her dad may have been), maybe we can theorize that hamon-bearing familial bloodlines in general are linked in the Jojo universe? XD

I have the soulwax remix already... sigh. T_T

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Hey, the scuba diving in the Red Sea is awesome! XD (I basically did a similar worldwind tour of Egypt when I was 14, complete with the scuba sidetrip.)

Then again, the Joestars can afford to do whatever they damn well please; they have the entire Speedwagon Corporation behind them ready to pour money and resources into whatever they choose. XD

[jokersama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really is the sort of silly thing Joseph might have done on a whim, isn't it? (Or RETCONNNNNNNNNNing liek whoa XD, but then, although everyone can imagine Joseph doing something stupid and randomly knocking some poor woman up, the other option is Jotaro and...no. That'd have been even MORE OOC. XD)

We figure it was something like this:

Joseph: Augh I have all these manga I want to read but they're all in cursed Japanese! T_T
Tomoko: Hey, I can translate those for you, no problem! :D
Joseph: Really? Sweet! What do you want in return?
Tomoko: ...........>D (<-- of course, as you say, she must have her ozikon piqued by Sean Connery here)
Joseph: ...oh well, the things I do for Hokuto no KenEngland!

Can YOU think of a more plausible explanation?

Poor Jotaro; he's so put upon in the earlier arcs. XD He would be......28 or 29 in Arc 4.

[harajukufuuri.livejournal.com]

given Orihime's personality though I doubt she'd ever resort to punching people; however Ishida might punch them for her, the way things were going in canon!

[cis.livejournal.com]

(the moby it sounds like btw is 'porcelain' and from 2000 so if there is pakuri it's in the opposite direction.)