You Might be an Introvert if...

...you're terrified of talking on the phone! Well, I'm fine if somebody is calling me, but if I have call them and state the reasons it's like... brrrrr. Scary. Even worse when you have to call your orchestra conductor who has a really thick foreign accent! :D... :(

 

I was trying for some uh, fancy panel composition so um... yeah. Tell me how it worked out.

A Quick Guide to Manga Iconography

Heh heh, I love using smart sounding words like 'Iconography'. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make a little guide to all the various symbols that I use in my comics. Just in case anybody was wondering what those weird twisty red things were. ;) Oh, and please excuse the weird stains in the background. I took these pictures on a plastic table in the backyard, and there used to be a lot of rusty junk sitting on top of it, and some of the rust rubbed off on the table. :P

Here's all of them close up, just to make them easier to read.

I just now realized that some, if not most of these are bone-shatteringly
obvious.

I... accidentally smudged the pink on her face. :P

 Hope you could read my handwriting. :)

Corpse Bride Soundtrack by Danny Elfman [2005]

If I had to pick a favorite composer, I'd pick (after a lot of pacing and muttering) Danny Elfman. With Javier Navarrete, Yoko Shimomura, Michael Giacchino, and Murray Gold as very close runners-up.
(Not very good at staying on track, are I?) Anyhoo, Corpse Bride is kind of a hard movie to explain without sounding delisional, but it's basically this. A nervous young man goes out into the woods to practice his wedding vows. Jokingly, he slides his wedding ring onto the 'finger' of a dead bush, but turns out it wasn't a dead branch- but the skeleton arm of a dead woman killed on her wedding day. The dead woman rises from her grave and declares that they're now married. It's based on a Jewish folk tale, and is better than it sounds, trust me.
I fell in love with the soundtrack, and added it to the steadily growing list of musicals I like. Which is rather disturbingly long for somebody who professes to dislike musicals. Ahem. On with it.
Danny Elfman's music has a very sparkly, fantastical feel. I love his use of celesta, flute, and chorus especially. And he utilizes the string section to sound particularly 'spindly'. (You understand what I mean when I say 'spindly' sounding, right? If not, I'll try to be more wise in my choice of adjectives ;) I'm only going to describe the tracks that stand out to me, since Corpse Bride has a really long tracklisting. :P

1. Main Title
I love this track. The main theme pops up a lot in the soundtrack, and it might have turned out really repetitive *cough*christophebeck*cough* but I think that it worked very well here. The main theme is very melancholy and delicate sounding, and fits very well with the butterfly motif that is very prominent in the opening scene.
2. According To Plan
My siblings love this song. It ranks right up there with One Jump Ahead and Do You Hear the People Sing as a song that we like to sing at random times throughout the day. It's a pretty good song, though I wish it maybe had a verse with Victor and Victoria, instead of just their parents prancing around being haughty. But it serves it's purpose and establishes the plot nicely.
3. Victor's Piano Solo
Yay, the main theme again! This is a very beautiful arrangement of the main theme, but it ends rather suddenly with Victor exclaiming "Oh! Do forgive me!" Freaked me out the first time I listened. XD
4. Into The Forest
This track has some over-dramatic shrieking chorus towards the middle, but once you get past that bit it's quite haunting. I love the upbeat reprise of the main theme that appears in the first half, too.  Oh, and have I mentioned the use of organ/harpsichord? Because those instruments are used very well in this score, especially in this track.
5. Remains of the Day
Allright, Danny Elfman once again playing a singing skeleton. XD This song is really jazzy, and so catchy. I love the xylophone, it sounds kind of bone-ish. If that makes any sense? Anyway, this song explains the backstory for the Corpse Bride, and it does a good job of it.
6/7. Casting a Spell/Moon Dance
Listing these together because they're one of those pairs of tracks that segue into each other and are one piece of music even if they're separate tracks. Casting a Spell is a little ominous sounding, but not excessively so. And I just like Moon Dance because (a) that was a really gorgeous scene in the movie and (b) it has a flute solo and some cool choir stuff.
8. Victor's Deception
Not much to say on this one, but I really loved the little instrumental of Tears to Shed at the very end of the track. So I figured it was worth listing as a noteworthy track.
9. Tears to ShedThis track has singing in it, by Emily, A Spider Lady, and the Maggot that lives in Emily's head. It bounces between chipper and incredibly heartbreaking, and I love the contrast between The Spider and the Maggot's part, and then Emily's part in the song. The only thing is that the Maggot has a rather irritating voice.
10. The Piano Duet
I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, but it's a very lovely mashup of the melodies for Tears to Shed and The Main Theme.
18. Finale
... Yeah, I skipped a few. It's good music, but they don't stick out as much in my head. This song on the other hand almost makes my heart stop with how pretty it is. Especially at 1:25. And this still isn't the most beautiful track in the score (in my admittedly not so humble opinion)!
19. End Credits Part 1
This is the most beautiful track in the score, if you ask me. The Finale is a very close second, but this short song (Only 1:50) sends me into a dreamy stupor every single time. It's very melancholy and wistful, and for some reason it makes me think of a spider web with dewdrops on it. Am I weird? :P

The Verdict: A+
Three Favorites: End Credits Part 1, Finale, and... Remains of the Day? I can't decide!

Memorial Day

 

May God bless our fallen Troops in the land, sky, and sea.

The Tale of Despereaux [2003]

Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big eared mouse to fall in love with a beautiful human princess named Pea? The answer is... yes. Of course, it's ridiculous. Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: Powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.
-Chapter Five: What Furlough Saw

You'll have to forgive me for being so sentimental about this book, because it's one of my favorite books. I love it so much that I willfully (and with great joy) ignore the age recommendation on the back of the book. Ages 7-12? Really? Why should children be the only ones to enjoy this story?
The Tale of Despereaux is about a tiny, sickly, big-eared mouse boy who falls desperately in love with a human princess. However, his actions (Instead of eating books, he reads them, for example) deeply disturb the other mice, and he is banished to the dungeons where he'll surely be devoured by rats.
I suppose that does sound a little childish, and it was very appealing to my ten-year-old self. But here's the thing. I've read Michael Crichton and Victor Hugo, and this book holds up very well next to those books. Because even though the premise is simple, this is a very intricate book. It's told in a non-linear fashion which is very interesting, and it's very deep.
Our hero, Despereaux knows his limits. He knows that he is tiny, he knows that he is sickly. At the beginning of the book, he faints as often as Lucie Manette at a courtroom trial. But he is gallant, and his devotion to the princess is what gives him his strength. Despereaux's faith is challenged, and he almost loses faith completely. And yet he keeps on going anyway. That is a really admirable show of character, at least to me. There's also Chiaroscuro, a rat from the dungeon who's love and yearning for the light leads to tragedy, and Miggery Sow, a simple serving girl who wants desperately to be a princess. All these characters have satisfying and complete story-arcs. The only one who I think is maybe a little flat is the princess Pea herself. She suffers from Cosette/Lucie syndrome. Her purpose as a character is to be the person who's presence drives the other character's actions. But even she has her flaws and moments of conflict.
The writing is quite good. It's very easy to read and understand, but it's not like reading a Little Golden Book or something like that. It's simple, but not condescendingly so. And there is so much quotable-ness. Okay, that isn't a word, but there are a lot of very interesting passages from the book that warrant mention, especially the one at the top of the post. Here are a few more.

 

Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.

-Chapter Three: Once Upon a Time

 

Farewell is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises absolutely nothing.

-Chapter Twelve: Adieu

 

The dungeon, reader, stank. It stank of despair and suffering and hopelessness. Which is to say that the dungeon smelled of rats.

-Chapter Fourteen: Darkness

 

"Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Start at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light."

-Chapter Fifteen: Light

 

Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact, think that life is very funny. And they are right, reader. They are right.

-Chapter Sixteen: Blinded by the Light

 

There are those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman.

-Chapter Twenty-Two: He puts his heart together again

 

Reader, there is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name. Nothing.

-Chapter Fifty: In which the Princess says his name

 

The Verdict: A+

As you can see from the quotes above, this book isn't all sunshine and lollypops. There are sad things that happen, and dark things. I think it might be a little too much for some younger kids. But there's also a lot of light and forgiveness. It's definitely not your average fairy tale story. So for that reason, even though it doesn't look like much on the outside, I recommend this book. :)
Have I oversold my point or WHAT?





Kingdom Hearts [2002]

"The Heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down there's a light that never goes out!"
-Sora

Here's the post where all of you automatically think less of me after reading. ;)
Anyhoo, Kingdom Hearts is a RPG [role-playing game] from Japan, made by the same people who develop those popular Final Fantasy games. Kingdom Hearts has become quite famous in gaming circles too, and also has an abominable amount of sequels. But today I'm just reviewing the first game, because it's arguably the best. (though I did really like KH2, and the prequel one. Haven't played the others though)
I suppose I should explain the plot a little bit. Kingdom Hearts (Or as it's known as in Japan: Kingudamu Hatsu) is sort of a Final Fantasy/Disney mash up, and should be disastrous, but isn't. Each Disney movie is a 'world', and all the worlds are separate from each other, but share the same sky (they all just look like stars to one and other). One of these worlds, Destiny Islands (silly name, lol) is where Sora and his two friends Riku and Kairi are plotting to make a raft and explore the vast ocean, looking for another one of these worlds that they've heard so much about. Then, the night before they were going to set sail, these strange shadow monsters called 'Heartless' attack, and destroy the world. Sora is flung to another world, and in the process gets ahold of some mystical weapon thing called a Keyblade. He teams up with Donald and Goofy, who are looking for the King of their world who went missing (guess who their king is), and they set off to rescue the worlds from the Heartless. In short, it makes about as much sense as your average episode of Lost.

That's the plot in a nutshell. It sounds quite ridiculous and silly, but it works surprisingly well and is a really fun game to play. The controls are easy to get the hang of (especially in the ps3 re-release), but it still requires lots of strategy and what not. It's by no means an easy game (which you might be led into thinking, due to the E rating), and actually gets infuriatingly difficult. I'm looking at you, Pooh's Swing mini-game! You're also able to swap out Donald or Goofy for a Disney character from the world you're in. For example, in Agrabah, you can team up with Aladdin if you want.

I love the world design in this game. Aside from the Disney worlds, there are original locations, like Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, and Hollow Bastion. They're well designed, and there's always a lot of detail to the scenery.

And before I get onto a verdict, I feel I should rant about the music. Because this game has beautiful music. Seriously. Even if you think video games are silly wastes of time, the music itself warrants a listen. I mean, just the menu music is enough to get me all nostalgic and misty-eyed... then after about five minutes of that my siblings get impatient and click something for me. And there's a very wide range of emotion in the music, it can be sentimental, eerie, haunting, cheerful, the whole ten miles. Of course, there's always the exception. The track that is just kind of silly and always makes me laugh is the background music for Atlantica (The Little Mermaid). It's an arrangement of Under the Sea, but it sounds like the dorky grocery-store version. If that makes any sense?

And something else that is a little irritating is that there are one or two instances of minor plot holes that could have been easily fixed with a line or two of dialogue, or additional exposition. Arguably it's not that bad, I mean, my brain filled in the bits that made no sense, but still. Your brain shouldn't have to fill stuff in.

The Verdict: A

Maybe I'm not being fair, since this game is something from when I was little that I really liked, and I have nice memories associated with it. But even without all that, I think I would like it. Kingdom Hearts has a decent plot, lovely music, and good characters. Kind of cheesy sometimes, but it's all very charming, if you get what I mean. It's a fun game that is never too easy, and overall, I recommend it. :)

Content Advisory: Nothing really bad. I just thought it would be a good idea since this is a game you know, and people have a lot of differing opinions on what's okay in a game and what's not. Pretty much the only enemies you fight are little monsters called heartless. There's no language, and nothing very suggestive. A few lady characters have skimpy outfits though, be forewarned.

Jaaaaaaaane!

I liked Jane Eyre, but in all seriousness, this part made me laugh so hard. I can only imagine what dear ol' St. John (someone else, not the Apostle) was thinking as that went down...

I tried to mess with the brightness on the dinky photo editor that came with the computer. How does it look? Not... dark or anything? Readable?