Two more songs, two more questions

[petronia]

Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining
Rilo Kiley - Dreamworld

I'd actually never listened to Rilo Kiley (though I'd heard of them) until a couple of flisters stuck them on mix CDs a few weeks ago. Cursory investigation seems to indicate that they didn't use to be this intent on splitting the difference between Fleetwood Mac and Stars, but I'm really not complaining. XD

canis_m also asked about manga recently read: Charmian sent me the first volume of Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi, so that was the last thing. I read it very quickly, sort of skimming the politics, the way I semi-watch Chinese historical dramas with my parents. It has that vibe to it. Like the non-relationship between Prince Umayado and Emishi, which just screams "seventy episodes of melodrama topped by a depressing Bouddhist moral". XD; Though of course Chinese historical dramas will give one an actual girl and not a murderous psychic bishounen. Isn't it kind of like writing a story in which King Arthur or George Washington is a murderous psychic bishounen...? Charmian and I were WTFing at each other over the fact that this series ran in Lala. Lala. Home of Ouran High School Host Club, etc.

It's a lot of fun. XD I wish people would write more characters like that nowadays, but they've broken the mold. In fact Feilong out of Viewfinder's appeal to his constituency is probably this - he has a sliver of the hysterical edge bared by shoujo manga anti-heroes of an age long past. Like the tanbi equivalent of Amy Winehouse.

The other book I've been reading is Ono Natsume's Danza, but I'm still not done with it after three months. ^^; It's lovely, though; particularly the time travel one. There's just a sense of grace and good humour and restraint omnipresent in her work, even when she's being sentimental.

...And now I'm falling asleep, darn it.

Comments

[izkariote.livejournal.com]

Yay for music~ ♥

That manga sounds interesting. I'll try and look it up when I'm off my KHR high. o_o

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

Danza just resists fast reading, doesn't it? (It took me a vacation before I could finish the model town story.)

The time travel one is lovely, but also somewhat harsh about reality--what with the rules, as explained by the time traveller. I'm torn with that one between being touched, and railing against the unfeeling universe. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I think Ono Natsume is like the manga equivalent of the Slow Food movement. XD

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

I dunno, Lala runs some seriously weird shit sometimes.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

But chapter upon chapter of intricate Imperial court politics???

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

well, they ran HaruToki, which is basically just that, only with male harems in, and they ran .... oh god, my mind is blanking on the exact titles, but I remember last year they were running a supernatural thing quite like Mushishi and I am pretty sure they've run court politics type stuff before. ...what is Vampire Knight but a court politics manga, come to think of it.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Though of course Chinese historical dramas will give one an actual girl and not a murderous psychic bishounen.

There's a girl in Hi Izuru. Two of them. You just have to wait. (You *didn't* watch Woxin then. Gou Jian pwns Xi Shi all over the map. No contest.)

Isn't it kind of like writing a story in which King Arthur or George Washington is a murderous psychic bishounen...?

Yyeeeesss and no. Shotoku Taishi has a flipping cult going, great and wise and birth foretold by agents of heaven and choirs of Buddhist angels singing when he was born outside the stable door. *But*. There's been some revisionist work done on this cultural view of him- oh here, found the email passage.

"Incidentally, while Yamagishi Ryoko was running Tokoroten in the monthly magazine, the renowned yet controversial Japanese historian Takeshi Umehara was working on his theory of Shotoku Taishi as well. His view on Shotoku Taishi is quite unorthodox and ominous, too. His previous work with regard to the Prince, "Kakusareta Juujika (the Hidden Cross) - a Theory on Houryuuji", is an essential side text for serious Tokoroten fen. In this book, he set up a hypothesis that Houryuuji is in fact the temple built by the Fujiwara family to appease the vengeful soul of Shoutoku Taishi; Houryuuji is so filled with mysteries and shadows of death. It's a frightful book, but an extremely convincing read.

"Have you heard of Guze (savior of the world) - Kannon situated in Yume-dono (dream house) in the east palace of Houryuuji (which was supposed to be the former Ikaruga-no-sato, Umayado's residence)? It's a life-size statue (180 cm) of Shoutoku Taishi that had been tightly wrapped up with 500 yards of white cloths like a mummy, forbidden to be seen by anyone for more than 1,200 years. It was the American philosopher and art historian Fenollosa who, with the permission from the Meiji governments, ordered the priests of Houryuuji to open the Zushi that contained the statue and unwrap the kannon sometime around 1890. Reportedly, the horrorstricken priests ran in all directions in fear of evil consequences when the American and his assistants opened the box (zushi) and revealed the kannon statue.

"I didn't know, until I read Umehara's book, that Guze-kannon was a hollowed wood statue, which was unprecedented and extremely difficult to make. Umehara explains that the sculptor deliberately did so to depict the ghost of Shoutoku Taishi with just the facade and no substance, rather than the real being. Then, Guze-kannon holds a cinerary urn in his hands instead of a round gem stone ordinary kannons hold. The scholar says that the premise is the urn contains the bones of children and grandchildren of Umayado all annihilated by the ancestors of the Fujiwara family. Then, there is the halo he's carrying in his back. It's a ghastly halo of blazing fire, and so is his hat. Burning haloes may not be too unusual, but the way the halo is attached to this statue is absolutely frightening. It's nailed directly to the back of the kannon's head. Everyone with just a bit of religious knowledge shall consider this as a downright blasphemy, Christian, Buddhist, or whatever. Therefore people were strictly forbidden to see the kannon. In short, Guze-kannon is, in Umehara's opinion, is the occult doll to confine Umayado and his children's curse and wrath. Umehara is inclined to believe that an empress (Koumyou Kougou) from the Fujiwara family ordered the statue after all four Fujiwara brothers died from an epidemic one after another."

I think Yamagishi took Umehara's earlier work and ran with it. The influence is best seen in the side story about Umayado's kids contained at the end of the last bunko Hi Izuru.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Woxin is unusual though! I've never seen anything like it. XD; But in the mainland ones you often get quite complex, strong female characters. (Xi Shi in Woxin is cast/portrayed as a modern "cute girl" and comes off as vaguely anachronistic, to me. Like Keira Knightley doing Elizabeth Bennett.)

Thanks for the info, this is really interesting. :0

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Woxin is unusual though!

So everyone tells me. Doesn't encourage me to watch other mainland drama, alas. (Are modern cute girls that milk-and-watery, really?)

You do know your layout doesn't allow one to highlight with a view to cut and paste in the comments? Start to highlight words and it highlights everything, and one has to force ?style=mine. Just mentioning.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The modern ideal seems to be. I'm not very impressed. XD

o_O Highlighting works fine for me. I do want to change this layout but I don't know what to change it to...

[penguinparity.livejournal.com]

Rilo Kiley is pretty good, I really like their CD. Dreamworld is definitely one of my favorite songs on the album! I saw them in concert in San Diego back in October and while I like their music, it was a bit too mellow for a live show.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

Charmian and I were WTFing at each other over the fact that this series ran in Lala.

...Bronze ran in Margaret, didn't it? So maybe there's a precedent for this sort of aberration. XD Am not sure I'm prepared to face Shotoku Taishi as a murderous psychic bishounen, though.