totally forgot about the outsider human guy plot, i guess it really is that similar. fairy girl pretty hot, though.

Here in Rochester for Christmas, and Ross and I went to see Avatar on Monday – taking in a sweet 11:50am matinee. I wish it was more of a compleat Roaringshark outing with more members in attendance, but alas Rob only arrived home today (improbably passed him going to the airport to pick up my aunt) and Mark is already hanging out with Darren on Cutspring Rd.

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so far we got Commando Man:

and Sheep Man:

A while ago I posted, I think on my old blog, on Greg Dulli’s (ex-Afghan Whigs, currently Twilight Singers, Gutter Twins) immaculate taste in cover songs.  Dulli, whose music tends toward an r&b/hard rock fusion and whose songs tend to take on issues of guilt and lust, has what I can only call an uncanny ability to make the most disparate of songs sound like something off of Gentleman or Black Love.  Particularly when covering rhythm and blues and funk songs, the Dulli treatment has a way of exposing the obsession, doubt and overall badness that lurk beneath many songs that we tend to interpret as overtly sentimental or more-or-less sweet come-ons.  The Afghan Whigs’ driving, incendiary version of Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” is a good example, as is the Whigs’ equally impressive take on TLC’s “Creep.”  (Note: both of these can be found on Youtube)

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This is a very personal review post for me. As I’ve mentioned previously, over the course of the year my taste in music has changed radically. Before I get into this though I just want to warn you that I say some harsh things below and I wouldn’t want anybody to think that it’s somehow directed at them. The venom primarily comes from what I consider some of my own failures and chagrin these many years on at having ever been into something which was ultimately unrewarding.

Anyway, about a year ago it seemed I was losing interest in music in general. I’ve never been die hard about buying the latest albums and primarily got into stuff through friends, but the orbit of my interest I’d say was very much within various alternative music scenes. As I inevitably found myself wanting to be free of all of that dead weight I mistook it as a loss of interest. However, I think I had to go through that period of doubt to bring into closer alignment what I say I like with what I actually like. You don’t really notice it when you’re following what’s in your heart, in a way that’s partially invisible to you (because, obviously why would you be doing anything else).

So I guess that’s it, music stopped being a chore. And for me, that’s what the whole indie music scene is. To be as up front as possible, I’ve got a mountain of resentment for the entire indie music scene but I don’t think it necessarily prevents me from giving an honest take. For all of the crap that people talk about major labels, corporate music, and greed it’s actually indie music which is the most commodified form of entertainment ever. It’s all about what you buy. Let’s face it, as far as music goes some adolescent kid taking piano lessons is infinitely more credible than the most happening indie music doofus. Ultimately what counts for credentials for indie music, basically knowledge of a bunch of tiresome people and branding and the nerve to want to serve yourself up a bunch of sterile listening experiences.

Anyway, this all coincided with a growing interest in anime. So right around the time I was checking out Eric Johnson videos on youtube I was reading Sumomomo Momomo in yen plus (the yen press anthology). I really felt it listening to the song ‘SRV’, playing guitar like that and the characters in the pages of Sumomomo Momomo didn’t necessarily have to be separate.

Manga Review

Sumomomo Momomo Vol. 2 (Shinobu Ohtaka): To me, the cover of the second volume of Sumomomo Momomo is one of the most deeply moving images I’ve ever seen. It is a picture of Momoko, the female lead, smiling. Her’s is a face of pure happiness and joy, and everything that is good in humanity and the world…basically everything that’s missing in my own life.

The plot of this manga is as follows. Momoko and Koushi are heirs to leaders of two martial arts clans whose parents arrange their marriage. While Momoko is a very strong martial artist and eager to wed, Koushi can’t stand martial arts or martial artists, has no interest in marrying Momoko, and just wants to do good in school and become a lawyer. Koushi becomes the target of an assassination plot and Momoko must use her skill’s to not only protect him but to woo him as well.

Instead of a regular review I thought I’d share some of my favorite panels. bwahaha.

What's Momoko Doing?!

Miyamoto deciding maybe she doesn't want to kill Koushi.

The class rep! Just after Koushi tells her that she's his best friend

Album Review

Venus Isle (Eric Johnson): If you listen to rock radio you may have heard the song ‘Cliffs of Dover’ by Eric Johnson which appears on his album ‘Ah Via Musicom’ which precedes the album I’m talking about ‘Venus Isle.’ This album was released in 1996. It was one of those years in the making projects due to Johnson allegedly being quite a perfectionist in the studio. In recent interviews I’ve seen he seems to have some measure of regret about losing the sense of fun in music and piecing songs together. Notwithstanding there are some great tracks on Venus Isle. Not only is there some great guitar tone and playing but Johnson has a pretty unique rock voice. My favorite tracks are ‘SRV’ and ‘When the Sun Meets the Sky’ which I’d recommend anybody to check out.

You can find the latter track on youtube. I think this song has the single greatest “yeah” in all of music which you can hear at about 1:19.

Like I said above, I was getting into some of the songs on Venus Isle and Sumomomo Momomo at the same time, and I think they’ll be forever linked in my thoughts. I can’t hear ‘SRV’ without thinking of Momoko’s face, or try to learn ‘When the Sun Meets the Sky’ without in some way imagining who I’m really wanting to play it for.

A victory for the arts in Sacramento!  Sacramento’s own Blownload have made the AV Club’s list of 2009’s amazingly great/hilariously bad band names.  As I was reading the list, I was disappointed to see that there were apparently no Fire Escape-affiliated bands on the list – until I got to the end and discovered Blownload in the “Sex” category.  Still, it’s a disappointment that Killgasm and Sexrat aren’t included.  There’s always next year…

Truth be told, I write these announce posts because every now and then I miss blogging.

But yeah, pretty jealous of zach and rob for living in sacramento. Huge snowstorm yesterday had to wait until like 7 at night or so to leave work because of how backed up the traffic was.

Ross and nick’s latest podcast is up at the audioshocker. I have to say, they’ve really got their act together in terms of putting out new podcasts, making sure to get together and recording it. I’ve been trying for months to put up just one new rs podcast. T_T

Found some interesting older ‘at the movies’ reviews. Both movie night movies, Xtro, Jaws 4. I love the intro, it’s like yes I want the vending machine that serves notebooks and OH NO!, we’re sneaking up to the balcony.

Hey everybody. Things have been going pretty well in Sacramento so far, but I’ll confess that for whatever reason I don’t feel like I’ve explored very much of the city yet. Sacramento seems to be a lot like Rochester, except with more people out and about and more things to do. On Tuesday night Rob, Chu, and I went to go see Tristeza play at Sexrat haunt The Blue Lamp Lounge after an excellent meal at local vegetarian/vegan restaurant Andy Nguyen’s.
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I can’t believe it’s been a month since the last chapter of my fanfic. Well, I finally have a title that I’m going with, “Fair Embrace.” This chapter has been written for a while but I put off posting it. And actually I finished the next chapter as well and have some ideas for new tracks. So anyway, I’ll try to get the next chapter up soon and also have new songs. I apologize for not having any music in this post, T_T.

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters or any aspect of Final Fantasy VII

As far as he knew Cloud was bringing Yuffie back to Seventh Heaven. The rain had let up hours before and the sun was setting. The knot in his stomach that he had felt at first glimpse of Midgar on the horizon intensified as they pulled up outside of the bar.

“Well,” he said, “here you are.”

“Yeah, you’ll be meeting the business end of the conformer if you think you’re going to steal away now,” she replied.

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