Trivia that matter
One of the finest examples of sheer geekery I’ve ever come across is the comments thread to this post of Steven’s.
Of current shows, I’m watching only GATE and Ushio and Tora. Both, however, are very good in their different ways and are sufficient to make this a good summer for anime.
Update: The ninth episode of GATE was a major disappointment, and I’ll probably skip it in future rewatches. However, it did give Rory a chance to wear something more tasteful than her usual ita outfit.
… but I won’t vote for Cthulhu, either. Instead, here’s my choice for 2016:
• But they’re fictional characters! you say. And Donald Trump is real?
• But it’s against the Constitution! That might have been true in the past, but no longer. Nowadays, the meaning of the Constitution depends on what side of the bed Anthony Kennedy gets up on in the morning. It’s just a matter of picking the right day to present the question.
• But they’re not even from our world, let alone our country! Big deal. The same is true of the lousy golfer currently in the white house.
Do I expect Lelei and Rory to win? Probably not; I have a poor record with political endorsements. But there’s no question that an intelligent, responsible mage and a semi-divine warrior would do a better job leading the country than the present administration or the clown who wants to run the circus.
Continue reading “I won’t settle for the lesser of two evils …”
Rory Mercury demonstrates the proper attitude to take with politicians in the eighth episde of GATE.
Be courteous to goth-loli girls, particularly when they are 961 years old and carry axes that strong men can’t budge.
The volcanic webcam star Sakurajima might be heading for a major eruption in the near future. The Japanese Meteorological Agency has raised the alert level for the Kagoshima area to “4,” advising residents in the districts nearest the volcano to prepare to evacuate.
While there are numerous webcams pointed at the Kyushu mountain, the only one I’ve found with a reliable night-time view is on the JMA’s page. Starting at the bottom of the list, it’s the first entry with a four-character name.
For further discussion, scroll down to the most recent comments here. The JMA released a statement here (pdf). It’s in Japanese only, but there are interesting maps and charts to study, and you can copy and paste the text into Giggle Translate.
Katanagatari, by the way, is a very good show.
Update: Meanwhile, in Ecuador …
I made videos of a couple of my arrangements using art scrounged from the internet and posted them on YouTube. There will be more. I started a page for them here.
It turns out that I’m not the first person to write a Touhou rag. Here’s a bouncy rendition of Chen’s theme from Perfect Cherry Blossom.
Something for your eyes while I work on stuff to hurt your ears.
Inside Typhoon Soudelar a couple of days ago. There are a couple more plots here.
Think carefully about how you name your children, even if you’re fictional characters. This goes double when you’re royalty.
One of the novelties of this week’s episode of GATE is that next week’s preview was in the middle of the show. I’m curious to see if there will be any Wagner.
Update: Yep, there was a little Wagner, with helicopters.
Here’s “Bad Apple” arranged as a strathspey/reel combination. I made two recordings, the first solo piano, the second strings, ((Solo fiddle would have been better, but none of my virtual violins sounded right.)) piano and bass. The score is here.
Two Bad Apples (piano) (Right-click the titles to download the mp3s.)
*****
Memo to the Brickmuppet: Non-existent tornadoes are rarely dangerous. Lost sleep because of faulty sirens is a greater concern. Also, what the hell is a “vibrant and rewarding social life”? The words don’t go together.
From The Wind Rises.
… there was Naoko Soga.
(Via Dr. Boli.)
I just discovered that I wasn’t the first person to try to turn “U.N. Owen Was Her?” into something bright and cheerful.
*****
I’ve started a new music page for my Touhou arrangements.
So it seems they kicked this thing off with a production meeting where they asked: How can we update Ushio and Tora to make it relevant to the 21st century?
And then fired everyone who offered suggestions.
That makes two shows that might be worth my time this summer. (The other is GATE.)
(The art is from here.)
While there are plenty of Vocaloid cover versions of popular songs, examples of live human vocalists covering songs originally “performed” by software singers are less common. They do exist, though, and Wagakki Band‘s first album consists entirely of Vocaloid songs. Even without the novelty repertoire, the group is noteworthy for their lively combination of traditional Japanese instruments and hard rock. I’m curious to hear their second album, which features their own material.
I think this is the original, with Hatsune Miku.
If you’d like to play along, there are plenty of arrangements here.
(Via Vocaloidism.)
Touhou melodies generally are in minor modes. However, if you invert them — e.g., where the original goes up a major second, the transformed melody goes down a major second — you frequently get bright, cheerful major key tunes. I combined several inverted themes and made a piano rag out of them. Here is the “Gensokyo Rag.”
Touhou music aficionados might find it interesting to identify the original tunes. The excerpts from “U.N. Owen” should be easy to spot, but the others may be more challenging. Standing on your head might help.
You can download it here.
Update: The sources of the tunes I used are identified below the fold.
The score is up at my MuseScore page.
I sampled a few of the summer offerings on Crunchyroll. Classroom Crisis‘ chief distinction is that every single one of its characters is annoying. It also make unreasonable demands on one’s willing suspension of disbelief. Pass.
GATE, on the other hand, might be very good if it doesn’t overplay the otaku card. See Steven for comments and screencaps. Update: There’s a more detailed discussion of the first episode here, with lots of screencaps.
I eventually dropped every spring series, though I might yet finish Rin-ne and Etotama. Mostly when I watch anything, it’s either an old movie — Airplane! and This Is Spinal Tap are still very funny — or neglected anime — Shounen Onmyouji deserves a license rescue, and Un-Go, though partly spoiled by too many novelties, provides something to think about and warms my cold, cynical heart.
I recently discovered that Hulu has The Avengers from the 1960s, with Diana Rigg and the late Patrick Macnee in glorious black-and-white. I’m pleased to note that Steed and Mrs. Peel remain excellent company. Checking just now, I see that Patrick McGoohan’s Secret Agent is also available. I’ll have to see how well it corresponds to my memories.
… and now back to the inverted world.
I’m in the middle of a complicated project, and I’ll probably remain scarce for a while. The picture above is a sort of preview.