South of Nowhere, first episode

Watched the premiere of "South of Nowhere" and was glad to see the promise of young lesbians on tv. yay! I could actually relate to the main characters because I'm from a small town and I feel exactly like the three siblings do when I'm around big-city folk. I don't do any fancy handshake stuff - I just do a simple handshake. I don't do popularity contests and I don't do the dating/dance thing. I also don't do the beat up someone for looking at me weird/looking at my gf too much thing. And the parent saying anti-gay things around me when I think I might be gay is also a home-run hitter as well. I look forward to the next episode.

Noir

Assuming you are all good at looking things up in Wikipedia, I will skip to my review of the series:

I've read it all over the 'net and I agree - I am amazed anyone continues to watch Noir after the first five episodes. They repeat so many scenes over and over, like a blacksmith pounding an anville, I just want to shout, "Enough already!" I suppose it might not of been so bad if I were watching it weekly as it aired on TV but that is not the case with watching it on DVD. Luckily I was prepared with the knowlege that the first eps were like this and so persevered, much to my delight.

The first few episodes are pretty standard as far as story goes. There is some mystery but it's mostly confusing - repetitious flashbacks and the usual Japanese storytelling element of just throwing the audience into the story and making the viewer figure stuff out over time. The story is kind of slow, developmentally, until the third main character, Chloe, shows up. Then the series really takes off: the action sequences are more interesting, the plot becomes more direct, and the characters are now a part of a giant story arc that takes them to the last episode, rather than living more episodically.

As of the first half of the series, I was thinking Noir was okay but not my favorite. After that last half Noir became one of my favorite anime. The limited animation is eased over with good music by Yuki Kajiura (some of the music, like that damn watch song and the opening theme I really don't like), and like Wikipedia says, the lack of blood kind of adds to the stylistic air of it all. I think if there HAD been blood, it might of felt too much like a gore-fest with plot and characters being secondary. Although it pissed me off when OUR characters got hurt and unrealistically nothing came of it except maybe some bandages or a hole in the shirt.

Noir seems pretty unique to me in the world of anime. It's definetly done in a film noir style - in framing, in dialogue, in story, and in action. It's amazing how much can be conveyed in the flinch of an eye rather than giant stretches of dialogue. Noir made me appreciate the subleties that can be achieved on a small budget with anime. Noir even holds up in re-watching and I find that when compared to other gunfighting anime, I like Noir the best - even beyond higher budgeted series like Ghost in the Shell. Noir excells in its simplicity.

I've seen a lot of anime since I originally watched Noir and this is still one of my favorites.

Mogwai

Mogwai is a "post-rock"/progressive band from Scotland, which is a really undescriptive description. It's rather gentle drawn out music based around a single theme for each song. Post rock is to rock what new-age is to folk -- some new age, particularly the more ambient stuff, is drawn out and rather gentle, changing in sound and pattern over time. That's what Mogwai's music is, only with electric guitars and the like - and instrumental. Nice background music.

For the most part Mogwai is made up of electric guitars and drums - little to no vocals (I have most of their songs and there's only a handful of songs with vocals). Even the fastest song is still quite slow by most standards. The songs tend to be very atmospheric and slowly evolve and progress, like trance music.

My favorite songs are those that have some kind of hook and those that build and build, slowly layering on the guitars until they burst.

Some key favorite songs:
New Paths to Helicon, part II (Government Commissions version)
Golden Porsche
Ratts of the Capital
Burn Girl Prom Queen
Dial: Revenge
You Don't Know Jesus
Summer
Waltz for Aidan
Stanley Kubrick

Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

Spoilers for the entire series: this is a rant. Consider yourself warned.
When I watched this, I was watching it for yuri content and little else. It wasn't the most painful thing I'd ever seen, and sadly I must admit the masturbation scenes (Hazuki) were unfortunatley the best part if you're going to be a loser fan-girl about it, because any scene involving Hatsuki (Eve) was just too painful to watch. Some of the episodes were dreadfully boring - like, most of the ones without Hazuki. Episodes with Gargantua were dull - and he just pissed me off. The only decent eps with him were of when he was a kid, and even then only the last episode of him with a kid was at all interesting to me because at that point they'd finally FOUND Eve and I was able to cheer Hazuki on in trying to talk Eve/Hatsumi into staying with her.

Which of course, didn't happen, and the whole thing being in Hazuki's head and she being the only one in her reality to remember Hazuki was ridiculous. How depressing is that?!? What is the POINT of an ending like that? I *almost* don't mind tragic endings if they have a greater purpose, but this one didn't. Eve is all powerful, she could choose to be with whomever she wanted to. I mean, its' not like she'd be missed at the library -- she'd already been GONE for hundreds of years, albeit in different worlds for 16 years at a time, but still, she never went BACK to the library or her real job in between those lives. So what DIFFERENCE would it make if she took one more little break and spent a life with Hazumi?

And Lilith's hat was UGLY and large and pointless. I hated it near as much as I hated that bloated little bird.

I liked the outer space episode, that was pretty good. The thing with the parents was CREEPY. I didn't see that coming at all.

Anyway. As much as I just complained, I don't regret watching it at all. I don't think I'll watch it AGAIN, but as far as shoujo-ai/yuri history goes, it is a well known example (unfortunately, heh) and to have a better frame of reference for yuri in anime, I feel more knowlegeable the more I watch. Like with lesbian films - I've watched a lot of them, and a lot of bad ones, too (like "Therese and Isabelle", this 60's French pulp black and white film that was SO terribly dubbed in the version I saw... it was laughably bad - to the point of where I'd actually watch it again just to make fun of it some more). So, yeah.

The Birthday Massacre

This is one of those wonderful instances of happy accident. My boss was the one who stumbled upon The Birthday Massacre (TBM for short) while looking for a "happy birthday" song to send to someone for their birthday. He found the song "Happy Birthday" by TBM and was disturbed by it. I went and listened to it to see what he was talking about and liked what I heard. I made offsite backups of their songs to review before purchasing both their albums Nothing and Nowhere and Violet.

TBM's music is hard to describe. It has heavy synth-goth electric guitars remeniscent of APerfectCircle/Lacuna Coil/The Cure - with that warped echoey 80's sound. The chord progressions are not your typical metal/goth at all. Then there's all this 80's synth that sounds like something from an 80's cartoon film like Rainbow Brite except that the mood of the music overall kills any potential cheesyness usually associated with such synths. And that's the key to the music - the mood it captures. The lyrics themselves are dark; horror stuff - like a narration from the video game "Alice" or if you made depressing endings for 80's films like "Pretty in Pink" and "Sixteen Candles". TBM's name comes from one of the songs, about a literal birthday massacre where the birthday boy and his girl kill all the guests. But if you weren't paying attention to the lyrics of most of their songs you wouldn't guess that's what they were sinigng about because the music doesn't have that immediate sense of doom or horror that most pop-goth music does.

The most impressive thing for me is the nostalgia of it. You probably had to of grown up as a kid in the 80's to really appreciate this: for me, my most treasured memories of being a kid in the 80's were of swords and sorcery, of riding horseback and defeating immesurable etherial magics. Stuff like "The Neverending Story", "Labyrinth", and Jim Henson's "the Storyteller" capture that dark mythology with creatures equally scary and creepy but fascinating and magical. TBM's music, for me, captures the sound of my memories, the way I felt back then, believing in this drama much larger than me. Their music is at once 80's but dark and mysterious and modern at the same time. I've never heard anything that FELT like a memory before; like I know it. It's like smelling something that you hadn't smelled since you were a kid and wondering how the hell it could be here, now, and being overtaken with memory at it.

So, yeah. Yay! I likey very much. Oh, and very cool - they recorded this as their previous incarnation "Imagica" - they did a remake of the Neverending Story theme song. :D Which is probably the most positive/bubbly thing they've done by far, but hey....

Edit to add: I always thought the lyrics and mood of their song "The Dream" described the main character Sarah of the film Labyrinth pretty well. Then one day I stumbled across a fan video for Labyrinth that uses this song! It's not half bad, either. :D

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

Spoilers for Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith"

To be rather brief: I thought this film was much better than I and II, but still not as good as the original trilogy, which I grew up with.

What I did like: I liked that the digital effects got better. I liked that they started to make the ships look used; they had texture to them, made them look more real. Still looked digital but it's progress, I guess. I also liked that the ships were degenerating into the ships of the original trilogy -- it was cool to see the predecessors to the Star Destroyer class ships, and the ships that will eventually evolve into Tie Fighters and X-Wings. It was so cool to see the familiar ship of Bail Organa - and what a shock when we suddenly got to go INSIDE. One of the last ships we see inside of is the FIRST ship we see inside of in Star Wars IV: A New Hope. What a blast from the past that was.

The only planet I really liked was the Wookie homeworld - that place was cool; I'd actually like to go there. It was cool to see the Storm Trooper forest uniforms - to see how ALL storm trooper uniforms evolved. Really shows how the Empire in the future makes everything uniform and sterile. Corouscant was impressive but too much to look at when you get up close. The shots of it from space are astounding, to see an entire planet made of city... scary.

What I did not like: The digital stuff was just still too shiny for me. Yoda was still too shiny, the ships were still too shiny, the worlds were still too shiny... Much better than the last two films, yes, but still not as good as if they'd built sets, ships, and puppets. I don't know if thats just because I grew up with the look of the originals, but I'm sticking to my opinion.

The dialoge was some of the most trite, cheesy, and ridiculous stuff I've heard in a long time, barring the last two Star Wars films. The scenes between Padme and Anakin were some of the MOST painful, particularly because I KNOW these people can act and I've seen them do so but to see them hobbled by such terrible dialogue and direction literally made me cringe and shift in my seat.

The story itself: I liked how they showed Anakins evolution; it just felt too rushed in a lot of ways. The entire storyline felt like it was on the right track but just didn't go the whole mile. Kaisa informed me that Anakins shift to the Dark Side WAS quick once Palpatine got to him after Anakin killed Mace Windu - that once you start down the Dark Path, the change is pretty swift. So I guess this all would of felt more natural if you KNEW that ahead of time, but most folks don't and it still felt rushed to me. It really sucks that this film suffered so badly because George Lucas was so hell bent on covering his ass with his pulp story obsession - it didnt feel like a pulp at ALL to me; so why couldn't he let the creation be what it was supposed to BE? It could of been a really strong film with a powerful story, but instead it was laughable. Watching it, I didn't know whether to take pity on the poor film or laugh at it and turn it away.

In a morbid way I did like when Anakin finally fell - when Obi Wan cut off his legs and arm and left him to burn and die. When you see everything Anakin went through in this film, you almost wish the original trilogy had showed more of Vader's side of things to further help with his vindication at the end to be more powerful. It really goes to show that he was doing the wrong things for the sort of right reasons and that really he wasn't an evil guy, just twisted. We see so many stories of good people going bad and somehow they seem so irredeemable becuase of that. We forget that equally, you can take utterly evil people and turn them to good, too. You have to forget about 'tainting'; that's seeing things from only a 'good' standpoint.

One other thing that bugged me: there also seemed to be two kinds of shots - full shots and tight medium shots. Especially during the light sabre fights - you were so close you couldn't see what they were doing. It didn't serve to pull me into the fights at ALL - it felt cramped and the entire time I kept wishing they'd pull out so I could see what was going on.

Did you catch...
The Millenium Falcon in the lower right corner near the beginning, showing some kind of spaceport on some well-lit planet?

The guy who played that one "storm trooper" with the dark hair, whom Palpatine contacted and had attack Obi Wan? The guy played Jengo Fett in the last two films.

At the very end, Vader and Palpatine were on the bridge of a star Destroyer looking at the construction of the first Death Star. They were accompanied by General Tarkin (who would become Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars IV: A New Hope). Here, however, he was played by Wayne Pygram, the guy who played Scorpius in "Farscape". (I missed that part - Kaisa caught it).

Garbage: Bleed Like Me

Am listening to Garbage's new album, Bleed Like Me.

If I were to rate the songs on each Garbage album, overall I'd give Version 2.0 the higher rating of the first three albums, just because I like the songs on that album more evenly. However, I like the feel, attitude, and sound of the first album the best.

Bleed Like Me is like a combination of the first two albums (thank goodness, because I really didn't like Beautiful Garbage). It's got more edge but the uniquely jarring 'garbage' sound of the first album is still non-existant. The overall sound of the album is more in a punk vein with driving beats and rhythm guitar. Vocally, Shirley seems to sing with moderation, so though the material is lyrically edgier, she doesn't quite have the dark, commanding tone she had on the first two albums.

That said, the album feels too short - it's only 45 minutes long with 11 songs. Either some of the songs need to be extended or they needed another two songs on here. This isn't to say it makes the album bad; it's kind of the same with Neko Case, whose songs usually average at a length of 3 minutes each, making her albums around a half hour in length each.

The album overall has a consistent feel, a strong theme. Not quite as catchy for singing along as Version 2.0.

Overall, I'm pleasantly suprised; it's different than I thought it would be - it talks about the dark places without dwelling in them, is how I'd put it. A nice recovery after their last album, at least for me, since I didn't like the last album. They kind of brought back the strong pulsing beat of the guitars and drums that was signature Garbage from the first two albums.

1) "Bad Boyfriend" has bite remeniscent of "Medication" and "I Think I'm Paranoid".

2) "Run Baby Run" is my favorite; sounds like a radio hit the way it is structured. Again, a blend of the lighter songs off the two first albums. Reminds me of some of the songs from Hole's Celebrity Skin album.

3) "Right Between the Eyes" is another lighter feeling song, also guitar driven, though. Goes with "Run Baby Run".

4) "Why Do You Love Me" seems to draw from punk music in its structure, particularly the guitar riffs. Probably has the most repetitive chorus ever written by Garbage; I don't know if I like it or if it'll annoy me.

5) "Bleed Like Me" is probably the darkest song they've ever written as far as content, about self abuse, hurt. From struggling with gender identity to cutting and suicide. This song has the closest feel to the first album, polished dysfunction. Now this is Garbage.

6) "Metal Heart" is another darker song, faster paced and very mechanical feeling; edgy.

7) "Sex is Not the Enemy" is a pro-sex song that for some reason brings to mind the B-52's on crack with lots of electric guitars.

8) "It's All Over But the Crying" is the first slower song, has a piano in it. Don't know what to say about it.

9) "Boys Wanna Fight"... 'but the girls are happy to dance all night'. Fuzzed out lyrics, moshing beat kinda. By this point the album has kept up such an even beat that it all feels like it blurrs together.

10) "Why Don't You Come Over" has this off-kilter chord progression and vocal melodies remeniscent of mid-career Suzanne Vega in the chorus, except with electric guitars.

11) "Happy Home" is the last mellowish song that has a slightly different sound structure, enough to stick with you at the end. It doesn't remind me of anything, which is probably good at this point. Original is good.

Overall the album isn't as innovative and interesting as either of Garbage's first two albums and I really don't find myself wanting to go out of my way to listen to Bleed Like Me. If you're a diehard fan, then you'll like the album but if you're growing out of the band then it's possible to do without this album.