Trip week 1 1/2; Muppets; Baccano!; whales and Tumblr stuff
» As of today I've been in NYC/Jersey for just over a week. The trip went about as hitch-less as any transatlantic journey, and arguably better than most; the back-of-seat TV didn't work for my row but I had three seats to myself, an iPod touch and a laptop, so I didn't exactly mourn the chance to see Green Lantern for free.
After a day to recover, I went to chuckro's parents' place for Thanksgiving with the man himself, jethrien and xannoside. I'm kind of amazed and impressed at how many people there remembered me even a little, given that the last time I attended Thanksgiving there was ... what, six years ago? And this was only my third time. But anyway, everyone was very welcoming and I had a lovely time, so thanks one last time for the invite.
» On Saturday xannoside and I went to see The Muppets. It's been too long since I last saw one of the other films, so it's hard to compare (especially since the last one I did see was Muppets in Space), but I enjoyed it greatly and may very well buy the soundtrack at some point, since I loved all the songs old and new. I do wonder whether Walter, the new Muppet character, will stick around for later projects. I'm not sure what they'd do with him, honestly, since his character arc is over and his personality isn't nearly as sharply designed as the main Muppets'. If we're going to have a Muppet filling the "newbie/young'un" role I'd prefer Robin, honestly.
» Meanwhile, my brother and I are about halfway through Baccano!, an anime I wasn't at all sure I would enjoy but am immensely. The first episode was confusing, but I'm impressed at how well the story juggles multiple narratives in multiple times while remaining (fairly) easy to follow. I also like how distinct and personable all the characters are, even though we're only seeing out of order snapshots of their lives. A lot of high-concept series (in any medium) tend to fall down a little on characterization, and since I almost always prioritize strong character over strong plot they don't "stick" in my memory even if I enjoyed the consumption. Of course, Baccano! has two built-in advantages here. Firstly that it's an adaptation, so it doesn't need to create memorable characters so much as distill them. Second, I don't know how well it'll stick, but it almost doesn't matter since I'm definitely going to want to rewatch to pick up all the details I missed the first time -- and I'm already wondering if there's a fan edit that recuts the entire series into chronological order.
» Plans for the near future: gaming at chuckro and jethrien's this evening -- who knows, maybe I'll have a handle on this whole tabletop thing by the time I leave. And on Sunday, tsukechick and I will be going to the Muppets exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image, possibly meeting other folks there as well.
» Today's Neat Science Link: the Whale Song Project asks internet users to help biologists understand whale songs better by helping to categorize them by similarity of sound.
» Notable FYSW occurences: No meta or anything, since I didn't have time to prep anything for the queue before I left. However, I'm running a giveaway for Spider-Man/Mary Jane: You Just Hit the Jackpot!, a trade of some of MJ's key appearances. Anyone with a tumblr is welcome to enter until midnight December 13th.
Also, the Newsarama twitter has just followed FYSW's twitter. Um.
On my personal tumblr I had feelings about Flash Thompson and Peter Parker (warning for discussion of alcoholism and child abuse). There are things that grate on me about Remender's Venom run, but there's some good character work going on there as well. We'll see how long it sticks after the inevitable cancellation.
After a day to recover, I went to chuckro's parents' place for Thanksgiving with the man himself, jethrien and xannoside. I'm kind of amazed and impressed at how many people there remembered me even a little, given that the last time I attended Thanksgiving there was ... what, six years ago? And this was only my third time. But anyway, everyone was very welcoming and I had a lovely time, so thanks one last time for the invite.
» On Saturday xannoside and I went to see The Muppets. It's been too long since I last saw one of the other films, so it's hard to compare (especially since the last one I did see was Muppets in Space), but I enjoyed it greatly and may very well buy the soundtrack at some point, since I loved all the songs old and new. I do wonder whether Walter, the new Muppet character, will stick around for later projects. I'm not sure what they'd do with him, honestly, since his character arc is over and his personality isn't nearly as sharply designed as the main Muppets'. If we're going to have a Muppet filling the "newbie/young'un" role I'd prefer Robin, honestly.
» Meanwhile, my brother and I are about halfway through Baccano!, an anime I wasn't at all sure I would enjoy but am immensely. The first episode was confusing, but I'm impressed at how well the story juggles multiple narratives in multiple times while remaining (fairly) easy to follow. I also like how distinct and personable all the characters are, even though we're only seeing out of order snapshots of their lives. A lot of high-concept series (in any medium) tend to fall down a little on characterization, and since I almost always prioritize strong character over strong plot they don't "stick" in my memory even if I enjoyed the consumption. Of course, Baccano! has two built-in advantages here. Firstly that it's an adaptation, so it doesn't need to create memorable characters so much as distill them. Second, I don't know how well it'll stick, but it almost doesn't matter since I'm definitely going to want to rewatch to pick up all the details I missed the first time -- and I'm already wondering if there's a fan edit that recuts the entire series into chronological order.
» Plans for the near future: gaming at chuckro and jethrien's this evening -- who knows, maybe I'll have a handle on this whole tabletop thing by the time I leave. And on Sunday, tsukechick and I will be going to the Muppets exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image, possibly meeting other folks there as well.
» Today's Neat Science Link: the Whale Song Project asks internet users to help biologists understand whale songs better by helping to categorize them by similarity of sound.
» Notable FYSW occurences: No meta or anything, since I didn't have time to prep anything for the queue before I left. However, I'm running a giveaway for Spider-Man/Mary Jane: You Just Hit the Jackpot!, a trade of some of MJ's key appearances. Anyone with a tumblr is welcome to enter until midnight December 13th.
Also, the Newsarama twitter has just followed FYSW's twitter. Um.
On my personal tumblr I had feelings about Flash Thompson and Peter Parker (warning for discussion of alcoholism and child abuse). There are things that grate on me about Remender's Venom run, but there's some good character work going on there as well. We'll see how long it sticks after the inevitable cancellation.