Monster update--my new favorite song, and a book and movie/s review of sorts. ^_^
Ummm, could somebody please enlighten me as to how Daite Senorita managed to make it into the Oricon lists last month? That song's crazy... solidark (yes, I finally managed to download the songs in your mp3 update). *edit* But I do like it, craziness notwithstanding. ^0^;;
Speaking of songs, my current favorite song is Teru no Uta (Therru's Song) from Studio Ghibli's upcoming movie, Gedo Senki/Tales from Earthsea. It's a soft and soothing song, and it might not be everybody's cup of tea, but still... It's difficult for me not to be biased towards this song and the movie, since Earthsea was one of my first fantasy worlds, so it definitely holds some sentimental value for me.
Download the song here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8mrt60
Lyrics and rough translation here:
http://rose-rote.hp.infoseek.co.jp/miya/gedo/songofterru.htm
http://lesukuleles.blogspot.com/2006/07/aoi-teshima-gedo-senki-kashu.html (this translation flows a bit better than the one above)
There's also an image album out for the film, with an acoustic version of the song. Mp3s can be found here at lightbreeze's journal (she has excellent music rotations--friend her!):
http://lightbreeze.livejournal.com/11288.html
There should be a music video floating around somewhere too, but I'm too lazy to look right now...
I wish I could watch the movie as soon as it comes out, but since my country never shows Ghibli movies in theaters, I guess I'll have to wait for the DVD release... Which is going to be a year away at the earliest... *cries*
Oh well. As for movies, I watched Pirated of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest and Lady in the Water over the past two weekends.
Comments on the former? Johnny Depp still rocks, but what's up with the "you and I are the same" quasi-sexual tension thing going between Captain Jack and Elizabeth? And arg, how come the movie had to end with a monster cliffhanger?!
Comments on the latter? M. Night Shyamalan must definitely be a frustrated actor. For this movie, he seems to have turned his usual cameo role (has anybody else noticed that he always plays an obscure one or two liner character in most of his movies?) into a somewhat important supporting character who gets more screentime than a cameo would normally warrant. Oh, and when I saw that scene at the end with the eagle, I leaned over to Russ and Roschie and whispered "The eagles! the eagles have come! Oops, wrong movie." *grins*
On the book front, I made another impulse buy at Powerbooks last Saturday--The Wayfarer Redemption (or The Axis Trilogy Book 1: BattleAxe in Australia). I got it because it was cheap at 189 pesos (one of those special introductory price editions that publishers put out sometimes to get readers hooked on a series) and the cover art by Luis Royo was gorgeous.
I'm almost halfway through the book now, which means that the plot is interesting enough, despite the rather generic and predictable prophecy it's built around. However, I do find the author's use of random capitalization for proper names annoying. C'mon, wouldn't you get a bit distracted with names like StarDrifter, SunSoar, FreeFall, GoldFeather, and EvenSong jumping at you every time you turn a page? Incidentally, some of those names sound like they belong to a My Little Pony (Remember that sugary sweet 80s cartoon? I will shamefully admit to loving that show to bits when I was a kid. ^_^;;), or if not that, then to some suethor's hideous creation. *shudders*
Seriously though, Sara Douglass is supposed to be one of Australia's most popular fantasy authors (ever heard of her, arabel?), but I've been reading some summaries and reviews, and from the looks of them, this series goes rapidly downhill when one of the supporting female characters in the first book suddenly morphs into a mega-canon-sue starting with the second book... Well, the hero is sort of a canon-stu as well, but our sue seems to displace even him and basically usurps the entire storyline, even if *he* is supposed to be the one referred to by the prophecy. 0_o And note that the heroine in the first book, whom everyone should be rooting for because she's the one who makes all the sacrifices and actually exhibits some character maturation along the way, is just as easily tossed out by the sue with her uber powers that just materialized from nowhere.
Oh well. I'll probably give the author the benefit of the doubt and get the next books in the series (that, and I happen to dislike leaving a series unfinished), but I get the feeling that I'm going to regret it...
BTW, tarigwaemir, don't know if you have these already, but chapters 3 and 4 of Glass Mask volume 20 have been released. I only translated up to chapter 3, but I did proof chapter 4.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/1/45302/Glass_Mask_vol20_ch03.zip
mirror: http://www.box.net/public/jvlcufjkck
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/1/45302/Glass_Mask_vol20_ch04.zip
mirror: http://www.box.net/public/937ll3mehk
Enjoy!
Speaking of songs, my current favorite song is Teru no Uta (Therru's Song) from Studio Ghibli's upcoming movie, Gedo Senki/Tales from Earthsea. It's a soft and soothing song, and it might not be everybody's cup of tea, but still... It's difficult for me not to be biased towards this song and the movie, since Earthsea was one of my first fantasy worlds, so it definitely holds some sentimental value for me.
Download the song here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/8mrt60
Lyrics and rough translation here:
http://rose-rote.hp.infoseek.co.jp/miya/gedo/songofterru.htm
http://lesukuleles.blogspot.com/2006/07/aoi-teshima-gedo-senki-kashu.html (this translation flows a bit better than the one above)
There's also an image album out for the film, with an acoustic version of the song. Mp3s can be found here at lightbreeze's journal (she has excellent music rotations--friend her!):
http://lightbreeze.livejournal.com/11288.html
There should be a music video floating around somewhere too, but I'm too lazy to look right now...
I wish I could watch the movie as soon as it comes out, but since my country never shows Ghibli movies in theaters, I guess I'll have to wait for the DVD release... Which is going to be a year away at the earliest... *cries*
Oh well. As for movies, I watched Pirated of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest and Lady in the Water over the past two weekends.
Comments on the former? Johnny Depp still rocks, but what's up with the "you and I are the same" quasi-sexual tension thing going between Captain Jack and Elizabeth? And arg, how come the movie had to end with a monster cliffhanger?!
Comments on the latter? M. Night Shyamalan must definitely be a frustrated actor. For this movie, he seems to have turned his usual cameo role (has anybody else noticed that he always plays an obscure one or two liner character in most of his movies?) into a somewhat important supporting character who gets more screentime than a cameo would normally warrant. Oh, and when I saw that scene at the end with the eagle, I leaned over to Russ and Roschie and whispered "The eagles! the eagles have come! Oops, wrong movie." *grins*
On the book front, I made another impulse buy at Powerbooks last Saturday--The Wayfarer Redemption (or The Axis Trilogy Book 1: BattleAxe in Australia). I got it because it was cheap at 189 pesos (one of those special introductory price editions that publishers put out sometimes to get readers hooked on a series) and the cover art by Luis Royo was gorgeous.
I'm almost halfway through the book now, which means that the plot is interesting enough, despite the rather generic and predictable prophecy it's built around. However, I do find the author's use of random capitalization for proper names annoying. C'mon, wouldn't you get a bit distracted with names like StarDrifter, SunSoar, FreeFall, GoldFeather, and EvenSong jumping at you every time you turn a page? Incidentally, some of those names sound like they belong to a My Little Pony (Remember that sugary sweet 80s cartoon? I will shamefully admit to loving that show to bits when I was a kid. ^_^;;), or if not that, then to some suethor's hideous creation. *shudders*
Seriously though, Sara Douglass is supposed to be one of Australia's most popular fantasy authors (ever heard of her, arabel?), but I've been reading some summaries and reviews, and from the looks of them, this series goes rapidly downhill when one of the supporting female characters in the first book suddenly morphs into a mega-canon-sue starting with the second book... Well, the hero is sort of a canon-stu as well, but our sue seems to displace even him and basically usurps the entire storyline, even if *he* is supposed to be the one referred to by the prophecy. 0_o And note that the heroine in the first book, whom everyone should be rooting for because she's the one who makes all the sacrifices and actually exhibits some character maturation along the way, is just as easily tossed out by the sue with her uber powers that just materialized from nowhere.
Oh well. I'll probably give the author the benefit of the doubt and get the next books in the series (that, and I happen to dislike leaving a series unfinished), but I get the feeling that I'm going to regret it...
BTW, tarigwaemir, don't know if you have these already, but chapters 3 and 4 of Glass Mask volume 20 have been released. I only translated up to chapter 3, but I did proof chapter 4.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/1/45302/Glass_Mask_vol20_ch03.zip
mirror: http://www.box.net/public/jvlcufjkck
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/1/45302/Glass_Mask_vol20_ch04.zip
mirror: http://www.box.net/public/937ll3mehk
Enjoy!