Finally have time for a proper update
Some days ago my home computer caught a worm which proceeded to install a spam virus, so I was treated to the annoying sight of mystery emails outbound through my antiquated filter. Now it's freezing unpredictably at startup. I can't be arsed to cleanse the infection when the hard drive needs a reformat this badly so reformat it is. But it's extra work, and my installation disc of WinXP is so old (and so much of the hardware upgraded) I expect any number of things to stop working afterward. I owe various photo memes, music etc. but it may not happen for a while, depending. ^^;
It's only worrisome because I think it may have been idling on IRC that did it - that machine is essentially unprotected against threats newer than 2003 but it's dial-up and receives no email so there're not that many vectors for infection. It'll have better security once I get it up and running again.
Anyway, onto fandom talk that is less boring:
1) Everyone by this point knows I've been watching Ouran High School Host Club, I just haven't been blogging about it. Haven't read the manga as decided I could live with the vision of anyone who was this traumatised by revelations from the Utena fanbooks ("Oh, the pointing hand? We just wanted to make sure you noticed those bits of the scenery. Spent time drawing them in and everything. ...Miki's watch? Yeah, he uses it to time things. Look, at one point he forgets to stop it and it runs for the entire episode haha do you see what we did there!"). Besides series like this are always more random at the beginning than later on, and anime allows for reorganisation.
It really is an odd little series in that it takes SKU's Mozartian trappings and... remains Mozartian with them. That's one word to describe at once the soundtrack, the chief love interest and the series itself: Mozartian. Frivolous charm, Watteauesque wistfulness, surprising strength of character. But no sturm-und-drang, no id. What I found instructive about the Alice in Wonderland episode was how easily the setup could tip over into Utena's gaping maw of Freudian surrealism - the Red Queen! - but an artistic choice was made to keep character exploration this side of the mundane, and let parody provide the heightening effect.
I do find it more entertaining the more on crack it is. I mean it's not like I would watch reverse-harem gakuenmono for serious. XD Also, raise your hand if you suspect Koyasu Takehito's kids are exactly like Haruhi in real life.
2) Over the past several months I also watched Jewel in the Palace, which sucked up as much time as you'd expect from a 70-episode drama. The innovation of the series is portmanteauing several fields of appeal, I think, as follows:
Which is a wordy way of saying I think Geumyeong is a much more interesting character. XD
What saves the character for me is the actress. She's not stunningly pretty, nor even the prettiest in the cast by far, but pulls off the unaffected likeability necessary to a character when the rest of the cast is perpetually occupied in singing his/her praises. *g* It's not hard to see that a man could fall in love with that smile. Which brings me around to Lord Min (or as I call him, Mr. Swordfighting Quotient), who is totally the fourth reason to watch this series. Watch, as he battles ninjas, busts up espionage conspiracies and works in the library! He supports her career choices because her self-realisation is as important to him as his own! I was on the floor. Shoujo love interests are not normally what you'd call realistic but this is not the usual run of shoujo love interest.
Besides after we finished watching Jewel we misguidedly started watching Stairway to Heaven and holee shit that is an hour of my life I'm never getting back. orz If Janggeum makes Haruhi look good what is there to say about the heroine of Stairway to Heaven, at least Janggeum has the horse sense to give back as good as she gets when she's fucked with.
3) Re: remixing fic - I love the idea, but to get the most out of the execution as a reader it would have to be a sterling remix of a fic I already love, and I can't remember it happening yet. Were talking at some point about currently stratospheric standards for what a remix is expected to accomplish - in dance music [1], I mean, but I think the attitude's carried over in my head. Possibly I'd have to personally run a remixing project where the signups are ficcers-I-know, rather than by fandom or whatever. [2] Or yanno, feel free to rec me your favorites. XD
[1] Speaking of which Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback (Linus Loves Remix)" is the first buzzy electrohouse I've loved in a long while. And this Tom Novy Ibiza dub thing isn't half bad either! High standards, see. marej, this is definitely not breaking the disco ball where I live. XD
[2] Not that this would be a ploy to get my own fic remixed or anything. Nothing of the sort.
It's only worrisome because I think it may have been idling on IRC that did it - that machine is essentially unprotected against threats newer than 2003 but it's dial-up and receives no email so there're not that many vectors for infection. It'll have better security once I get it up and running again.
Anyway, onto fandom talk that is less boring:
1) Everyone by this point knows I've been watching Ouran High School Host Club, I just haven't been blogging about it. Haven't read the manga as decided I could live with the vision of anyone who was this traumatised by revelations from the Utena fanbooks ("Oh, the pointing hand? We just wanted to make sure you noticed those bits of the scenery. Spent time drawing them in and everything. ...Miki's watch? Yeah, he uses it to time things. Look, at one point he forgets to stop it and it runs for the entire episode haha do you see what we did there!"). Besides series like this are always more random at the beginning than later on, and anime allows for reorganisation.
It really is an odd little series in that it takes SKU's Mozartian trappings and... remains Mozartian with them. That's one word to describe at once the soundtrack, the chief love interest and the series itself: Mozartian. Frivolous charm, Watteauesque wistfulness, surprising strength of character. But no sturm-und-drang, no id. What I found instructive about the Alice in Wonderland episode was how easily the setup could tip over into Utena's gaping maw of Freudian surrealism - the Red Queen! - but an artistic choice was made to keep character exploration this side of the mundane, and let parody provide the heightening effect.
I do find it more entertaining the more on crack it is. I mean it's not like I would watch reverse-harem gakuenmono for serious. XD Also, raise your hand if you suspect Koyasu Takehito's kids are exactly like Haruhi in real life.
2) Over the past several months I also watched Jewel in the Palace, which sucked up as much time as you'd expect from a 70-episode drama. The innovation of the series is portmanteauing several fields of appeal, I think, as follows:
- old-school shoujo of the Ace wo nerae, Glass Mask (poss. Yawara?) type, where the spunky heroine ganbarus a lot to get ahead in her chosen field, plus well-born rival, love triangle, etc. Why is this sort of thing not being written anymore? Have all the female readers gone over to shounen now that WJ's discovered fanservice?
- food pr0n. If I'd been watching by myself I would totally have been rewinding and taking notes. YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK IN THE IMPERIAL KITCHEN, GOODBYE.
- political intrigue as per the regular run of Asian historical TV drama. More absorbing than most historical dramas, in fact, given that the script goes both "upstairs" and "downstairs", embroidering at will for maximum narrative effect. XD Reminded me of Dumas at times.
Which is a wordy way of saying I think Geumyeong is a much more interesting character. XD
What saves the character for me is the actress. She's not stunningly pretty, nor even the prettiest in the cast by far, but pulls off the unaffected likeability necessary to a character when the rest of the cast is perpetually occupied in singing his/her praises. *g* It's not hard to see that a man could fall in love with that smile. Which brings me around to Lord Min (or as I call him, Mr. Swordfighting Quotient), who is totally the fourth reason to watch this series. Watch, as he battles ninjas, busts up espionage conspiracies and works in the library! He supports her career choices because her self-realisation is as important to him as his own! I was on the floor. Shoujo love interests are not normally what you'd call realistic but this is not the usual run of shoujo love interest.
Besides after we finished watching Jewel we misguidedly started watching Stairway to Heaven and holee shit that is an hour of my life I'm never getting back. orz If Janggeum makes Haruhi look good what is there to say about the heroine of Stairway to Heaven, at least Janggeum has the horse sense to give back as good as she gets when she's fucked with.
3) Re: remixing fic - I love the idea, but to get the most out of the execution as a reader it would have to be a sterling remix of a fic I already love, and I can't remember it happening yet. Were talking at some point about currently stratospheric standards for what a remix is expected to accomplish - in dance music [1], I mean, but I think the attitude's carried over in my head. Possibly I'd have to personally run a remixing project where the signups are ficcers-I-know, rather than by fandom or whatever. [2] Or yanno, feel free to rec me your favorites. XD
[1] Speaking of which Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback (Linus Loves Remix)" is the first buzzy electrohouse I've loved in a long while. And this Tom Novy Ibiza dub thing isn't half bad either! High standards, see. marej, this is definitely not breaking the disco ball where I live. XD
[2] Not that this would be a ploy to get my own fic remixed or anything. Nothing of the sort.