Miscellany

loindhana01

My sister sent me a link to an “identify the album” quiz. The page is no longer maintained — the link to the answers returns a 404 — and at least one of the identifications is wrong, but you might find it amusing anyway.

The above is one of my favorite covers, though the album, a collection of medieval dances, is too obscure to be fair game for such a quiz. Here it is in higher resolution.

loindhana02

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Is there a superhero in your neighborhood? Check the registry. (Via Ken the Brickmuppet.)

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Introducing Edward, the Veggie-Vampire.

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I’m an embarrassment to Barack!

I only scored 14 on the Obama Test

(Via John Salmon.)

Finally

What I saw of Hare & Guu left me indifferent, but this ending is an outstanding production number. It’s my pick for the best anime ending, at least for today.

[flv width=”640″ height=”480″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/GuuDlxEd.flv[/flv]
Jungle wa itsumo Hale nochi Guu Deluxe, “Fun Fun and Shout” by Sister Mayo.

You can see the videos in full size at my video weblog, and you can compare my list with Astro’s.

Almost there

Number two. Astro and I have very different tastes, but we agree on this one:

[flv width=”720″ height=”480″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/Maromi.flv[/flv]
Paranoia Agent, “Shiroi Oka – Maromi no Theme” by Susumu Hirasawa.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and I hope you didn’t get Maromi plushies among your presents.

Now see if you can guess what number one is. Go on, I dare you. I will be astonished if anyone comes close.

At the midpoint

Number three:

[flv width=”640″ height=”480″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/ExcelEnd.flv[/flv]
Excel Saga, “Menchi Aishou no Bolero” by Excel Girls. I’m not posting the clean version because the words matter, and because some who frequent this corner of the otakusphere might recognize one of the names in the credits.

Counting them down

Number five on my list of best endings:

[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/oedo-ending2.flv[/flv]
Oh! Edo Rocket, second ending, “I Got Rhythm” by Natural High.

[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/oedo-ending1.flv[/flv]
I like both endings, so here’s the first as well: “100 miles~Niji o Oikakete” by Santara.

Advisory

moribito

I’m going to be away from the computer for a few days. Like Pete, I’m taking Moribito with me, though in my case it’s the book.

My picks for the top five anime endings should appear one a day. As you will discover, my taste is very different from Astro’s, but there is one we both chose. I don’t have time to write commentary on my picks tonight; perhaps when I get back.

Memo to the staff at ANN

When you’re burned out, do something else. You’re not doing anyone a favor by going through the motions. By the time Zac Bertschy quit his “Answerman” job, my sympathies were with the Flakes of the Week. Justin Sevakis’ review of The Sky Crawlers tells me more about Sevakis’ life than about Oshii’s movie. (Sevakis might want to look up the word “obtuse.”)

About reviews: that someone paid for a review doesn’t mean that it’s insightful, and length does not imply profundity. If you want to find what’s worth your time, you can do just as well surfing at random through the otakusphere as at ANN.

Counting down to the count down

I had planned to spend some time this evening rambling on about anime endings, but I’m dead tired. Instead, here are a couple of honorable mentions, plus an extra. The countdown begins tomorrow.

While it was introducing the characters, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was fine absurd humor. Later episodes were hit and miss, with misses predominating. (Macademi Wasshoi seems to be following a similar pattern.) The ending is pleasantly nightmarish.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/szs ending.flv[/flv]

The first few episode of Tweeny Witches left me cold, though I may give the series a second chance when I have time. The ending, with broomstick surfing, flying jalopy and Strauss, embodies all the fun that was missing from the show.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/TweenyWitches.flv[/flv]

If this had been the actual ending for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it would have been number one on my list. The real ending, which is pretty good as anime endings go, is nevertheless frustrating to watch: I want to see all the steps.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/HareHareYukai.flv[/flv]

You can see the videos at their full width at my video page.

A couple of quick notes

Funimation has been dropping hints about the licenses they’re about to announce. Most of the series guessed are of little interest to me, but a couple of possibilities might be worth my money. What I’ve seen of Soul Eater has been fun, and Oh! Edo Rocket was the second-best show of 2007.

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That other dealer is offering a bunch of cheap boxed sets for Christmas. Most of the titles are junk — Princess Princess, anyone? — but several are worth your time: Shingu, Angelic Layer, Fantastic Children, Divergence Eve. Possibly also Witch Hunter Robin (I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard good things about it from reliable sources) and Kodocha.

Count five and Miss Michiko

Astro is counting down his top five endings. It looks like fun, so I’ll probably post my own list, though it will have to wait until next week. Astro’s fourth choice, incidentally, almost made my list. It will be interesting to see if there is something we both pick.

As Astro notes, it’s harder to find good endings than good openings. Openings are intended to sell the show; often the trailer for a show is the opening. Consequently, producers typically lavish great care and expense on the opening. In contrast, the ending usually just serves to list the necessary credits, and the production is consequently perfunctory. Sometimes the ending tune might be worth hearing, but the visuals are rarely interesting. Nevertheless, I managed to come up with five that are worth both hearing and seeing.

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Here’s something I forgot to post back in October. It’s from the ninth episode of Denno Coil.

[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/michiko stories.flv[/flv]

Testing, testing

[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Sinfonietta first movement.mp3[/mp3]
Janacek, Sinfonietta, first movement: Allegretto
London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado, conductor

Can you see the mp3 player?

How about this one?

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/Sinfonietta first movement.mp3]

If you don’t see either player, click on the title of this post to open it in its own page, and see if that makes a difference.

Query

[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/08-voices.mp3[/mp3]
“Voices,” Yoko Kanno, Macross Plus OST

Can you see the mp3 player?

How about this one?

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/08-voices.mp3]

I post a lot of music on my other weblog, and recently I’ve been receiving reports that the music players are not appearing on the page. I wonder if that’s a problem here, too, since this also runs on WordPress.

Ear training

Here’s the challenge:

If you wanted to expose someone to classical music for the first time, and plant in them the same love and enjoyment you have for it – what music would you choose for their listening pleasure?

Let’s make it more difficult and limit it to…say five selections all told, whether they are complete symphonies, single canons, what have you. Pick from your favorite period, or go across the board.

What to recommend depends on your victim. If it’s your own small child, what you choose is less important than the example you set. Listen to a variety of good music and let osmosis do its work.

For older listeners, my instinct would be to favor shorter pieces over longer, suites over symphonies, accessibility over complexity, and to emphasize variety and liveliness. Robert covered the period from Vivaldi to Beethoven with his suggestions. You can regard the following as a supplement to his list.

Chopin: the ballades. Or the polonaises, or the preludes, or the etudes — Chopin’s output mostly fits neatly into CD-sized sets, and they’re all good introductions to 19th-century piano music.

Mendelssohn: the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Sure, it’s over-familiar, but it’s still wonderful, and it might be new to your listener.

Dvorak: the Slavonic Dances. Lively, melodious and not too long. Here’s Op. 46, #7 in C minor.

[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Slavonic Dance 7 Op 46.mp3[/mp3]
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jonel Perlea, conductor

Prokofiev: Toccata, Op. 11. Bartok and Prokofiev make Metallica seem like wimps. (If your listener emphatically does not care for heavy music, substitute Debussy’s La cathedrale engloutie.)

[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Prok_op11_Toccata.mp3[/mp3]
Gyorgy Sandor, piano

Stravinsky, Octet for Wind Instruments. This may be a stretch for beginning listeners, but I find this bit of neoclassicism more immediately likeable than the big ballets.

There is plenty of other music that comes to mind, of course, but these will do for now.

A final suggestion: be wary of budget releases and older recordings. I’m tempted to recommend Lipatti’s performances of the Chopin watzes, which are playing as I write this, but those were recorded nearly sixty years ago and sound like it. For neophytes, you want not only recordings of good performances but also recordings that sound good to untrained ears.

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One of my commenters notes that she sometimes can’t see the mp3 players. Has anyone else had trouble with them?

Update: here are links to the music: Dvorak, Prokofiev.