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petroniaAside from the macros, the funniest bit of the whole business is how membership in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
grindeldore apparently doubled overnight. In other words there were people in HP fandom who either a) did not think of shipping a fairly obvious pairing until it was canonically approved by JKR or b) did not feel justified in shipping a fairly obvious pairing until it was canonically approved by JKR. HILARITY. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
Sororial unit says, and she is right, that if you look at the landscape with an objective eye Remus is the false positive but Sirius is the flier-under (to cop![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaobell's SSBB story). Like - he's clearly not into girls, is Sirius. Harry must really be a horrible 'Stu, though, because he'd be batting three for three on the banned-from-LJ front XD (Snape because he looks like Lily; Sirius because he looks like James; Dumbledore because... he's Jesus?).
Set foot in an HMV for the first time in months. They lowered the prices on Bowie's back catalogue! Now one album is 20$ pre-tax instead of 26$. I KNOW AMAZING RITE. I got a copy of The Magic Position (wanted Wind In The Wires, was unsurprised by Tomlab's lack of distribution) and the deluxe edition of Silent Shout, which had also been slashed to 20$. Unlike the Bowie this is actually a steal since it includes the album, a complete live recording of the album, all of The Knife's music videos and their concert DVD. Too, for some reason they made a mistake with my boxset so I have an extra copy of the second CD. 6o_Ov
I wanted Fabric 36 but HMV was sold out (they carry all the other interesting Fabric mixes). Didn't have time to scour the shops for it, so I'm spoilering myself by downloading selected tracks. It's more amazing than I thought it'd be. Also Phil Sherbourne is OTM re this being a canny move, because I have to buy the thing. ^^; There's no choice. I can't download single tracks because it's mixed, and I can't download the whole thing (assuming someone is shameless enough to up it) because it's a Fabric mix, and somehow Fabric mixes have to come inna tin. The tyranny of the matching set and so on. NAISU MOVE RICARDO.
Basically all of the above involve me noticing that X has become one of my favorite artists of all time without me ever actually paying for X's recorded output.
Reviews of various stuff (it's funny how, through all my flip-flops and reservations re what I ought to blog about, I've never lost the ironclad conviction that people want to hear my opinion on topics relevant to their interests XD;;):
Samim, "Heater": I was grouchy and all prepared not to like this but it's too much fun. It's kind of... a lulz!pop! version of Villalobos' ethnographic-techno though? i.e. how does this even remotely count as minimal. If someone stuck an OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE under a Forro In The Dark track would it then be chartable as minimal? Actually it probably would. orz
Thing is I've hit the point with techno where I basically hate everything except Ricardo Villalobos and Lawrence, which I took as a sign to get out of the genre and listen to something else for a while. XD; Hence why I am working my way down Pitchfork's sidebar of most-read reviews. I KNOW RITE.
Black and White (Tekkonkinkreet): read this over a few days (it came in the same shipment as Empire of Ivory). It turns out the film adaptation hewed much closer to the manga than I'd expected - most of the obvious changes were in art direction, rather than storyline or dialogue. I sort of want to watch it again now. XD (dipping_sauce, I'll lend this to you when I give back your CDs.)
Empire of Ivory: the series continues incrementally depressing. ^^; I liked the subplot with Mrs. Erasmus, very much - that was a standout. Using horrible epidemic as excuse to send Temeraire & co. to Africa sort of felt cheap to me, though. XD; Like, so this unknown and vicious disease carried from the New World can be cured by a single application of a wild mushroom from... South Africa? Conveniently happened upon by Our Heroes in a previous installment? O RLY? Actually this sort of plot crops up all the time in her fic but I don't mind because there it only serves as framework for the moe/squee anyway. Also much like her fic, there's a hefty dose of liberal wish-fulfillment in the worldbuilding (see: Lex Luthor takes two weeks, fixes global warming), but I don't know if that should be construed as a criticism. XD
What I'd expected was for the disease to spread from England to France naturally, with attendant political fallout, and then Lawrence and Temeraire find the cure and gallantly save the world. So now I have no idea what'll happen to the poor things next. No, actually I do - I think we're going to end up in America. Better than Botany Bay (sorry Aussies on flist). ...Do the United States even properly exist in this 'verse? It would be hilarious if the Revolution hadn't happened yet. I SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING.
Spitz, Sazanami: my only problem with this is the niggling suspicion it's Waiting For The Siren's Call mark II, i.e. the band doing by-the-numbers extremely well so we get all excited but after 195,882 plays it turns out the thing has only 80% of the staying power of their earlier albums as it's only 80% as good throughout (as opposed to a mix of 70% and 100%, back when their sound was still evolving). And then one never wants to listen to the thing again. I know, I'm a horrible jaded person and should stop reviewing things. XD;
Other than that Sazanami (still) sounds like genius, though. I figure it made it to #1 on the basis of the tracks everyone knew were ace, starting with "Mahou no kotoba" from last summer, but then you play the actual album and hit unheralded[1] tracks like "Momo" and it's like, HOW. HOW'D THEY JUST DO THAT. The guitar line is perfection; one talks a lot about Kusano but much of this stuff can't be pulled off without a tight band. Probably a lot of why I like it has to do with them revisiting Hachimitsu's aesthetic, ahaha. Only without the attempt at dub, or the woodwinds ballad (see point above). Also did they in all seriousness name a song "Sabaku no hana", dying.
The first time I properly heard "Fushigi" was running to school the morning after, in the odd weather Montreal gets when a hurricane that made land on the Gulf Coast works its way up to Canada - unseasonable warmth, humid gales, rain. It nearly made me cry - not even the lyrics, just the way the melody takes flight.
[1] except bycanis_m. XD
grindeldore apparently doubled overnight. In other words there were people in HP fandom who either a) did not think of shipping a fairly obvious pairing until it was canonically approved by JKR or b) did not feel justified in shipping a fairly obvious pairing until it was canonically approved by JKR. HILARITY. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? Sororial unit says, and she is right, that if you look at the landscape with an objective eye Remus is the false positive but Sirius is the flier-under (to cop
chaobell's SSBB story). Like - he's clearly not into girls, is Sirius. Harry must really be a horrible 'Stu, though, because he'd be batting three for three on the banned-from-LJ front XD (Snape because he looks like Lily; Sirius because he looks like James; Dumbledore because... he's Jesus?).Set foot in an HMV for the first time in months. They lowered the prices on Bowie's back catalogue! Now one album is 20$ pre-tax instead of 26$. I KNOW AMAZING RITE. I got a copy of The Magic Position (wanted Wind In The Wires, was unsurprised by Tomlab's lack of distribution) and the deluxe edition of Silent Shout, which had also been slashed to 20$. Unlike the Bowie this is actually a steal since it includes the album, a complete live recording of the album, all of The Knife's music videos and their concert DVD. Too, for some reason they made a mistake with my boxset so I have an extra copy of the second CD. 6o_Ov
I wanted Fabric 36 but HMV was sold out (they carry all the other interesting Fabric mixes). Didn't have time to scour the shops for it, so I'm spoilering myself by downloading selected tracks. It's more amazing than I thought it'd be. Also Phil Sherbourne is OTM re this being a canny move, because I have to buy the thing. ^^; There's no choice. I can't download single tracks because it's mixed, and I can't download the whole thing (assuming someone is shameless enough to up it) because it's a Fabric mix, and somehow Fabric mixes have to come inna tin. The tyranny of the matching set and so on. NAISU MOVE RICARDO.
Basically all of the above involve me noticing that X has become one of my favorite artists of all time without me ever actually paying for X's recorded output.
Reviews of various stuff (it's funny how, through all my flip-flops and reservations re what I ought to blog about, I've never lost the ironclad conviction that people want to hear my opinion on topics relevant to their interests XD;;):
Samim, "Heater": I was grouchy and all prepared not to like this but it's too much fun. It's kind of... a lulz!pop! version of Villalobos' ethnographic-techno though? i.e. how does this even remotely count as minimal. If someone stuck an OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE under a Forro In The Dark track would it then be chartable as minimal? Actually it probably would. orz
Thing is I've hit the point with techno where I basically hate everything except Ricardo Villalobos and Lawrence, which I took as a sign to get out of the genre and listen to something else for a while. XD; Hence why I am working my way down Pitchfork's sidebar of most-read reviews. I KNOW RITE.
Black and White (Tekkonkinkreet): read this over a few days (it came in the same shipment as Empire of Ivory). It turns out the film adaptation hewed much closer to the manga than I'd expected - most of the obvious changes were in art direction, rather than storyline or dialogue. I sort of want to watch it again now. XD (
dipping_sauce, I'll lend this to you when I give back your CDs.)Empire of Ivory: the series continues incrementally depressing. ^^; I liked the subplot with Mrs. Erasmus, very much - that was a standout. Using horrible epidemic as excuse to send Temeraire & co. to Africa sort of felt cheap to me, though. XD; Like, so this unknown and vicious disease carried from the New World can be cured by a single application of a wild mushroom from... South Africa? Conveniently happened upon by Our Heroes in a previous installment? O RLY? Actually this sort of plot crops up all the time in her fic but I don't mind because there it only serves as framework for the moe/squee anyway. Also much like her fic, there's a hefty dose of liberal wish-fulfillment in the worldbuilding (see: Lex Luthor takes two weeks, fixes global warming), but I don't know if that should be construed as a criticism. XD
What I'd expected was for the disease to spread from England to France naturally, with attendant political fallout, and then Lawrence and Temeraire find the cure and gallantly save the world. So now I have no idea what'll happen to the poor things next. No, actually I do - I think we're going to end up in America. Better than Botany Bay (sorry Aussies on flist). ...Do the United States even properly exist in this 'verse? It would be hilarious if the Revolution hadn't happened yet. I SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING.
Spitz, Sazanami: my only problem with this is the niggling suspicion it's Waiting For The Siren's Call mark II, i.e. the band doing by-the-numbers extremely well so we get all excited but after 195,882 plays it turns out the thing has only 80% of the staying power of their earlier albums as it's only 80% as good throughout (as opposed to a mix of 70% and 100%, back when their sound was still evolving). And then one never wants to listen to the thing again. I know, I'm a horrible jaded person and should stop reviewing things. XD;
Other than that Sazanami (still) sounds like genius, though. I figure it made it to #1 on the basis of the tracks everyone knew were ace, starting with "Mahou no kotoba" from last summer, but then you play the actual album and hit unheralded[1] tracks like "Momo" and it's like, HOW. HOW'D THEY JUST DO THAT. The guitar line is perfection; one talks a lot about Kusano but much of this stuff can't be pulled off without a tight band. Probably a lot of why I like it has to do with them revisiting Hachimitsu's aesthetic, ahaha. Only without the attempt at dub, or the woodwinds ballad (see point above). Also did they in all seriousness name a song "Sabaku no hana", dying.
The first time I properly heard "Fushigi" was running to school the morning after, in the odd weather Montreal gets when a hurricane that made land on the Gulf Coast works its way up to Canada - unseasonable warmth, humid gales, rain. It nearly made me cry - not even the lyrics, just the way the melody takes flight.
[1] except by
canis_m. XD
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 04:16 am (UTC)I lolled. XD
no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 11:49 am (UTC)(No, I really don't look around much in fandom. I just wait for interesting links to fall into my lap, pretty much. Laaaaazy fan.)
no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 10:29 pm (UTC)Your horrible jadedness aside XD I've just realized that for the most part I haven't experienced Spitz albums as albums: my first exposure to the band was Recycle (a compilation), followed by a collection of ill-gotten tracks in no particular order. For several years that was how I listened to them.
Not sure what I'm getting at unless it's that no amount of overplaying is going to render "Momo," "Fushigi" etc. less than 100% awesomesauce, although whether Sazanami as an entity will hold up over time like Hachimitsu has...is a question I'm totally unfit to answer, as I have no real perception of Hachimitsu-the-album to begin with. XD;;;;
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 04:21 am (UTC)I think I got linked to the thing the moment I finished the book... there is or was a second one,
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 04:36 am (UTC)Rare black beast Taiki meets rare black beast Temeraire OK GO.
It is a mark of my love for Spitz that I judge them by unfairly jaded indie-ist standards, there are only a few mainstream Japanese artists who rate this kind of picking apart XD (Chara is another). And... in accordance with such I think of them as an album act, what the hey, didn't I get all my Spitz from you to begin with? XD;; So why do I have Hachimitsu, Mikazuki Rock, Souvenir and half of Crispy! as distinct entities? Am I just that anal-retentively organized? (probably Y)
no subject
Date: 2007-10-25 03:50 am (UTC)(Wait, do you not have Hayabusa?)
OK GO.
!!! This reminds me, not long ago
no subject
Date: 2007-10-25 04:26 am (UTC)I can't imagine seme!Temeraire (though by all standard physical metrics...). Novik herself is not a stickler, though. Or rather IMO she exhibits a preference for whichever is more brainbreaking. XD;;