Well goddamn it why can't I just sleep
I've done all my little "unwind when you can't sleep" routines; I've played Tetris, I've sketched, I've made Lupin GIFs... Actually I really feel like playing more Assassin's Creed, but I know that'd only make me forget to go to sleep at all.
So whatever, random fannish thoughts help keep those "everything sucks and what are you doing with your life anyway" thoughts at bay:
- Some cursory browsing in the Assassin's Creed fandom reveals that there's a lot of fangirling for Cesare Borgia. Why? In-game, Cesare is a cruel, whiny, incestuous bastard. He rocks an awesome beard, but I can't see how that makes up for things.
Though it is indeed a fine beard.
- Also I kind of love that the fandom simply refers to the game as Ass Creed Bro.
- No wonder Jigen is my favourite character in Lupin III; He's pretty much written as a love letter to 1930s gangster flicks and 60s spaghetti westerns. I can't think of any other combination of movie tropes that would appeal more to me (except perhaps if you threw some ballroom musicals in there, but I don't quite see how that would work).
- Okay, now that I think about it, all the main characters in that show are just takes on various movie genres. Lupin is a subversion of the spyfi genre, Goemon is obviously a take on Japanese chanbara/jidageiki movies, Zenigata is... Okay, if Zenigata had been a little more hard-boiled and noir that would have worked so much better. That totaaly ought to happen. (And Fujiko evades definition as usual.)
- Okay so I feel kind of guilty for never having anything to say about Fujiko as a character, I realize that is usually a fandom faux pas to just ignore the female characters, but what can you do with Fujiko I mean? There is nothing to say, she's just there to have tits and get naked; She's a vehicle for fanservice and to inspire Lupin to do stupid things, nothing more. She's utterly awesome in Albatross: Wings of Death but that's the ONE exception to forty years of stories.
- Speaking of gangster flicks, I watched the Brian de Palma version of Scarface today. It was good, obviously, and I adore Pacino no matter what, but I'm always a little bitter when remakes completely overshadow their originals (even if the original happens to have been made by Howard Hawks). Also I kind of cracked up at the final shootout scene, because whoa was that kind of overkill.
- And as for weird and nice coincidences, how about this: Last night I finally finished Le Samouraï. Not exactly my kind of movie but gosh was Alain Delon pretty. Prettiest Frenchman ever. So I took a cursory search for Alain Delon press photos and came across this:
Alain Delon and Al Pacino at a formal dinner, I'm guessing mid-seventies. Isn't it kind of delightful to see French and American cinema meet like that? Sort of like those days when the sun and moon are visible at the same time.
I don't know, I'm kind of groggy from lack of sleep.
- Okay so earlier when I had to Wiki swashbuckling samurai movies to remind myself what "swashbuckling samurai movies" are called all proper-like, I suddenly remembered I still haven't seen Sanjuro. My mind is all "YOU ARE A BAD BAD TOSHIRO MIFUNE FAN. And don't excuse yourself by saying you didn't like Yojimbo all that much for I know you've had the soundtrack on your mp3 player ever since you saw it". Wow, I really need to watch Sanjuro.
- And just so we're clear: Listening to the Yojimbo soundtrack when you're walking down the street makes you feel like the most dangerous motherfucker who ever lived. It takes all my willpower not to walk like Sanjuro (I've read that Kurosawa told Mifune that he should base his movements on that of a big, loping dog, yeah I can kind of see it).
Okay, so what if I just do my "going to bed" routine all over again? Make a cup of tea, watch an episode of Pink Jacket, cuddle the cat. Maybe my body didn't notice the first time.
So whatever, random fannish thoughts help keep those "everything sucks and what are you doing with your life anyway" thoughts at bay:
- Some cursory browsing in the Assassin's Creed fandom reveals that there's a lot of fangirling for Cesare Borgia. Why? In-game, Cesare is a cruel, whiny, incestuous bastard. He rocks an awesome beard, but I can't see how that makes up for things.
Though it is indeed a fine beard.
- Also I kind of love that the fandom simply refers to the game as Ass Creed Bro.
- No wonder Jigen is my favourite character in Lupin III; He's pretty much written as a love letter to 1930s gangster flicks and 60s spaghetti westerns. I can't think of any other combination of movie tropes that would appeal more to me (except perhaps if you threw some ballroom musicals in there, but I don't quite see how that would work).
- Okay, now that I think about it, all the main characters in that show are just takes on various movie genres. Lupin is a subversion of the spyfi genre, Goemon is obviously a take on Japanese chanbara/jidageiki movies, Zenigata is... Okay, if Zenigata had been a little more hard-boiled and noir that would have worked so much better. That totaaly ought to happen. (And Fujiko evades definition as usual.)
- Okay so I feel kind of guilty for never having anything to say about Fujiko as a character, I realize that is usually a fandom faux pas to just ignore the female characters, but what can you do with Fujiko I mean? There is nothing to say, she's just there to have tits and get naked; She's a vehicle for fanservice and to inspire Lupin to do stupid things, nothing more. She's utterly awesome in Albatross: Wings of Death but that's the ONE exception to forty years of stories.
- Speaking of gangster flicks, I watched the Brian de Palma version of Scarface today. It was good, obviously, and I adore Pacino no matter what, but I'm always a little bitter when remakes completely overshadow their originals (even if the original happens to have been made by Howard Hawks). Also I kind of cracked up at the final shootout scene, because whoa was that kind of overkill.
- And as for weird and nice coincidences, how about this: Last night I finally finished Le Samouraï. Not exactly my kind of movie but gosh was Alain Delon pretty. Prettiest Frenchman ever. So I took a cursory search for Alain Delon press photos and came across this:
Alain Delon and Al Pacino at a formal dinner, I'm guessing mid-seventies. Isn't it kind of delightful to see French and American cinema meet like that? Sort of like those days when the sun and moon are visible at the same time.
I don't know, I'm kind of groggy from lack of sleep.
- Okay so earlier when I had to Wiki swashbuckling samurai movies to remind myself what "swashbuckling samurai movies" are called all proper-like, I suddenly remembered I still haven't seen Sanjuro. My mind is all "YOU ARE A BAD BAD TOSHIRO MIFUNE FAN. And don't excuse yourself by saying you didn't like Yojimbo all that much for I know you've had the soundtrack on your mp3 player ever since you saw it". Wow, I really need to watch Sanjuro.
- And just so we're clear: Listening to the Yojimbo soundtrack when you're walking down the street makes you feel like the most dangerous motherfucker who ever lived. It takes all my willpower not to walk like Sanjuro (I've read that Kurosawa told Mifune that he should base his movements on that of a big, loping dog, yeah I can kind of see it).
Okay, so what if I just do my "going to bed" routine all over again? Make a cup of tea, watch an episode of Pink Jacket, cuddle the cat. Maybe my body didn't notice the first time.