Cultural Consumption
Mar. 10th, 2007 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddNow I can't remember where I got this link (maybe, possibly from someone's livejournal?) but if you've ever played D&D, or any similar RPG, or if you like The Lord of the Rings, or if you're into any kind of geeky stuff at all, you all must go read it now:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14
Hell, everyone should go read this now.
Lately read and seen:
Sailor Moon, vol. 9 (Naoko Takeuchi, English translation): This corresponds to the third TV season and involves the Witches 5, Mistress 9 and the awakening of Sailor Saturn. It's Sailor Moon, what else can I say? The Outer Senshi are around, and they're always cool, so that's a plus. Sailor Moon becomes Super Sailor Moon, so she gets wings and even sparklier jewelry, the power of friendship helps everyone through, etc. etc. What really bugged me was the lettering. Not only was the font annoying, but the words looked really clumsy in the thought/speaking balloons. I know that when translating from Japanese, it's tough to get around the fact that the ballons are vertical rather than horizontal, but pretty much every other translated manga I've read, whether in French or in English, managed to do just fine, so why did the people at Tokyopop screw up?
C.R.A.Z.Y.: A coming-of-age and coming-out story about Zachary, born in 1960 in Quebec, the fourth of five brothers (the Z. in the title, the other letters are his brothers' names). The music of the era plays a big part in the story of the family so for any music fans will appreciate it. Even if you don't care much about music, it's a good film and worth seeing. Although, and I don't care if I sound picky, the sound mixing could really have been done better. I was watching it last evening, in my little thin-walled apartment and had to turn the volume waaaay up to understand each of the (many) whispered conversations throughout the film -- only to have another song blasted out loud two minutes later, sending me scrambling for the volume button again. There must be a happy medium, folks.
Slings & Arrows (both series, 6 episodes each): My family kindly gave me these DVDs for Christmas. Thank you, family! The first series, where they put on a production of Hamlet (hence the title) was looped a million times on Showcase a couple of years ago, so I'd seen all the episodes mulitple times except the fourth one, for some reason, which I'd never seen in its entirety. In the second series, made a couple of years after the first, the original cast is back (though Rachel McAdams and Luke Kirby are only there for the first episode) and trying to get through the Scottish play. It's not quite as funny as the first season, but it's still much funnier than most of what passes for comedy on tv nowadays, and made me laugh out loud several times -- the Romeo & Juliet rehearsal that you see in episode 6 just about killed me, it was PERFECT, especially after the set-up, over several episodes, of people complaining about it. There's even a third season now, about King Lear, which I want to see badly. And it always tickles me to see something made-in-Canada, especially something that pokes fun at funding for the arts and Ministers of Culture. I'd recommend these series to anyone, because they're good, and that goes double for anyone who has any interest in Shakespeare or theatre in general.
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14
Hell, everyone should go read this now.
Lately read and seen:
Sailor Moon, vol. 9 (Naoko Takeuchi, English translation): This corresponds to the third TV season and involves the Witches 5, Mistress 9 and the awakening of Sailor Saturn. It's Sailor Moon, what else can I say? The Outer Senshi are around, and they're always cool, so that's a plus. Sailor Moon becomes Super Sailor Moon, so she gets wings and even sparklier jewelry, the power of friendship helps everyone through, etc. etc. What really bugged me was the lettering. Not only was the font annoying, but the words looked really clumsy in the thought/speaking balloons. I know that when translating from Japanese, it's tough to get around the fact that the ballons are vertical rather than horizontal, but pretty much every other translated manga I've read, whether in French or in English, managed to do just fine, so why did the people at Tokyopop screw up?
C.R.A.Z.Y.: A coming-of-age and coming-out story about Zachary, born in 1960 in Quebec, the fourth of five brothers (the Z. in the title, the other letters are his brothers' names). The music of the era plays a big part in the story of the family so for any music fans will appreciate it. Even if you don't care much about music, it's a good film and worth seeing. Although, and I don't care if I sound picky, the sound mixing could really have been done better. I was watching it last evening, in my little thin-walled apartment and had to turn the volume waaaay up to understand each of the (many) whispered conversations throughout the film -- only to have another song blasted out loud two minutes later, sending me scrambling for the volume button again. There must be a happy medium, folks.
Slings & Arrows (both series, 6 episodes each): My family kindly gave me these DVDs for Christmas. Thank you, family! The first series, where they put on a production of Hamlet (hence the title) was looped a million times on Showcase a couple of years ago, so I'd seen all the episodes mulitple times except the fourth one, for some reason, which I'd never seen in its entirety. In the second series, made a couple of years after the first, the original cast is back (though Rachel McAdams and Luke Kirby are only there for the first episode) and trying to get through the Scottish play. It's not quite as funny as the first season, but it's still much funnier than most of what passes for comedy on tv nowadays, and made me laugh out loud several times -- the Romeo & Juliet rehearsal that you see in episode 6 just about killed me, it was PERFECT, especially after the set-up, over several episodes, of people complaining about it. There's even a third season now, about King Lear, which I want to see badly. And it always tickles me to see something made-in-Canada, especially something that pokes fun at funding for the arts and Ministers of Culture. I'd recommend these series to anyone, because they're good, and that goes double for anyone who has any interest in Shakespeare or theatre in general.
