Finales and comebacks...

Orphan Black is the shit.

So many epic finales in TV shows.
It's a shame how much the Game of Thrones show-writers have put GRRM's complex characters through the trope-factory treatment, especially when it comes to the women whose stories were altered to lift up male characters... to then turn the women into evil traitors to make the male characters seem like noble victims at their hands. Happens so much in media generally, but it's a special kind of frustration when the source material very skillfully doesn't play into any of that shit. Still an epic show.

Orphan Black though. Orphan Black. HO-LEE SHIT. Orphan Black. What a great fuckin' show.
All day errday I'm here for the Clone Club.
Orphan Black.

My scanner decided to check out a few weeks ago for seemingly no reason. And yesterday suddenly decided to work perfectly with no intervention from myself. M'kay.
Thusly, got to complete the tribute to THIS finale...

Which was such an insane game. A terrifying affair. A heart-attack inducing comeback. So pleased for Mesut that he got some kind of trophy in his first season at Arsenal. Real Madrid finished up their season by winning the Champion's League, which  similarly made me happy that those guys got their shit together with Mourinho being gone.

I may or may not continue the Mesut sketches through next season. Probably not for every game at least. This project has successfully gotten me back to art-ing with confidence in my fingers and taping methods. Maybe I'll do highlights? That would be fun. I've loved doing it regardless.

On the topic of football--the World Cup has been an explosively compelling tournament thus far. Only one game has been a crap game really. Everything else has been wildly entertaining. And sooo many goals! It must be the heat and humidity putting the balance of play in favor of offense. Beautiful goals! And so many that certainly the total amount of goals in the 2010 cup will be well exceeded. I couldn't watch the last 30 minutes of the Germany vs. Ghana game. Brutal nerves. There's no way I'll get through the US vs. Germany game on Thursday. No way. I won't watch until I've seen the results. Lol. Too invested in the success of both sides. Brilliant tournament though. Absolutely brilliant.

More comebacks...

I'm re-investing a ton of time into webdesign code stuff. Working on getting HTML5 on lock. I'll be re-forming kpoppy for the third time to be much more compliant to the best coding practices. It's all valid as it is now, but a lot of it is archaic in nature.

JYJ's comeback next month will be followed by an Asia tour. Surely will be their last before military enlistment. I'm sooo curious what the sound of their album will be. Jae posted a clip of a piano piece he has been working on to Instagram. Beautiful new ballad. Gosh... I just can't wait!

And finally, a comeback that made me weep in the midst of gardening. Sora is back! SOOORRRAAAA! Came right back to her favorite branch of the wisteria and chatted at me. I went to get some peanuts and burst into tears when she hopped down right next to me to grab one. The only difference is that she is now followed around by TWO SCREECHING CHILDREN! Hahahahaaa. So clearly she has been nesting. Her little fledglings are all puffy and grey with the typically incessant screaming of new scrub jays. They're hilarious. And momma is very patient.

Also have seen less of GeroGero since she returned, which makes me think he's one of those nesting assistants like Chibi was last year. In fact, after hanging out with Gero a bunch and him getting very comfortable I realized that he might be Chibi. Chibi's distinguishing characteristics were that he was immediately at ease around me and liked to break open peanuts in my presence. Even if I was standing or walking right by him. And he stood very tall compared to the others. That's why I called him Chibi... sarcastically. This jay I was calling Gero ended up displaying exactly these traits. Got some great video footage, too. It would be cool if it really was Chibi, back to the neighborhood to help Sora nest again. Their social system is really fascinating.

So fucking happy to see Sora again--happy and healthy with her new babies.

Of pigeons, plants, and plotholes...

We have a garden this year! My pops rearranged one of the beds and got rid of another that wasn't getting enough sun. A little more strategic now. Looks great. He also put a ton of work into putting up some cages and netting. Cats are a problem around here. Or should I say that cat shit is a problem around here. One of them will even shit in the gravel next to a garden bed--out of spite? I don't know. Lol. Little bastards.

I finished up watering today and thought I'd take a picture while the plants are all still small. This bed has tomatoes, green beans, and basil. The bed to the left, not in the shot, has strawberries, green beans (from seed), and marigolds. Zucchini and squash are in mounds to the right.
So, I was checking the pictures to see if the sunlight wasn't blowing them out...

And then a visitor showed up...

With his buddy...

And all their friends.

O.O

Band-tailed pigeons. I think I might have mentioned them before? Maybe not. They're new. First saw one... a couple months ago? I was chillin' outside with the jays when this same little flock descended. They're huge. It was like being invaded by turkeys or vultures. All dark and ominous. Also skittish. Not at all like city pigeons. Even walking past inside our house, they'll see the movement and flee in a feather tornado. It's slightly hilarious. This was the first opportunity I've had to take proper pictures. I was shocked they didn't take off as soon as they saw me outside.

Smallest to largest, we now get: Goldfinches, House Finches, Oak Titmice, Dark-eyed Juncos, American Robins, California Towhees, Mourning Doves, Western Scrub Jays, Eurasian Collared Doves, and Band-tailed Pigeons. Mockingbirds and crows use the tallest trees in the area, but don't come into the yard.

So many doves! Although, they've replaced each other a bit. The mournings got bumped out by the eurasians, and the eurasians are getting bumped out by the band-tails. They're all still around though. There's this truly massive oak tree a block over that is its own freaking ecosystem. I wonder what it's like to live under it. Lol. Bird paradise.

***

Currently a gunman on the loose in Canada. Killing people. Has it even been a week since that misogynist/racist/batshit insane guy went on his little rampage? Geez louise.

***

Finished 'The Mote in God's Eye'. I'm working on reading a bunch of sci-fi classics that I have failed to get to. Asimov's 'Foundation' will be next. I feel shame that I've never read Asimov anything. So much shame. Must remedy this.

The Mote ended up being a disappointment, which surprised me. My main problem was that I kept having to ponder whether the authors were purposefully making the characters stupid... or if the authors themselves were ignorant about the topics they were writing on. I'm still unsure. I am sure that it's partly because it was written in '74. It's supposedly "hard sci-fi", but the lack of legitimate science got to be grating. Like... the scientific method itself hasn't made any great leaps since the 70s. The method has existed for much longer than that. And yet the scientists in the story don't use it when it would make the most sense to... with the first intelligent alien species humanity as ever encountered. I love first-contact stories, but yeesh, this one is lethargic and frustrating. The Moties, the aliens, are actually quite cool and well-developed. But the humans are painfully dumb and one-dimensional throughout. I was rooting for the Moties to obliterate humanity by the end. LOL I'm not sure if that was the intended effect.

Here's an example from the perspective of the science expedition's linguist... and chaplain:

"Chaplain David Hardy watched the miniatures only through the intercom because that way he wasn't involved in the endless speculations on what Moties were. It was a question of scientific interest to Horvath and his people; but to Chaplain Hardy there was more than intellectual curiosity at stake. It was his job to determine if Moties were human. Horvath's scientists only wondered if they were intelligent."

Wut. Firstly, this passage comes long after it is abundantly clear that the Moties are far more technologically advanced than humans. Secondly, it's the Chaplain's job to determine if the alien species ARE HUMAN? WHAT?! Like, wouldn't the very first fucking tests be to compare the Motie genetic code to humans and other Earth species? Like, duh? And that would be done BY SCIENTISTS. The Chaplain goes on to ponder if they have souls or if they are perhaps angels... really ugly angels... wut. It just... it doesn't compute. And this kind of thing happens throughout the book many many times.

Coffee. I wish I kept a tally of how often coffee was talked about. The making of it. The drinking of it. Coffee. Coffee coffee coffee. Everyone is always drinking coffee. Or brandy. All these on-duty scientists and military officers drinking alcohol... and coffee. Oh, except for the ridiculously stereotyped Russian captain of the military escort ship. He drinks tea. But coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee. I was hoping the Moties would poison the coffee and kill off the whole expedition. No such luck. All that coffee? Useless filler.

The single woman on the expedition is also the only anthropologist. The authors clearly want the reader to see her as competent, smart, and compassionate, which is cool. But she's a terrible anthropologist. She brings all of her own personal baggage to the table when discussing Motie culture with the Moties. That's like rule #1 in the anthropologist handbook of things to never do. This is a case where I have to assume the authors don't know what anthropologists actually do. Very little critical objectivity is practiced by ANY of the scientists on-board. It gets tiring.
And, of course, whenever the lone woman in the story talks to any man, he's scrutinizing her looks in his head and flirting with her. In the end, she rather suddenly falls completely in love with the lead protagonist and 'hero'.
Cue eyeroll.

TOO LONG. Must stop writing. Must get to drawing!

Another Kpopcalypse...

Oh, Kpop... how I love and hate you. Hahaha.

I feel a bit cruel as I go along with the default expectation that another Kpopcalypse is always around the corner. It's just a matter of who is the next victim. SME's gargantuan hype-train for EXO has been in a dead-sprint for two years. It was only a matter of time before something went off the rails. I never go into the group. Haven't really delved into any group since the DBSK Kpopcalypse. But the news today certainly perked up my eyes and ears. Looks like one of the 12 members of the group has sued SME. So this is the... what... 4th? 5th time an SME artist has sued the company? And that's just the big cases. Who knows what kind of madness goes on internally.

There's a kind of sick delight in seeing the dark Kpop underbelly in the light of day every once in a while. Especially SME's. Lol. Anyway, EXO fans are absolutely losing their shit. A lot of DBSK/JYJ fans are trying to help console them, including myself, which is all kinds of sad and vaguely adorable. Definitely feel bad for the kid though. Kris. He's alone in the suit. It'll be just like Hangeng. Contract terminated and bye byeeeeeee.

Meanwhile, as a reminder of the aforementioned DBSK Kpopcalypse, Junsu held a couple concerts in Japan and performed a medley of the old Tohoshinki songs. He has been doing those 'Genie Time' segments at his concerts for a few years now and the most popular 'wishes' from Japanese fans have been singing the old songs. He must have realized the fans were really craving to hear them again and he delivered in exquisitely bittersweet form:


I wept... so much.
You can hear fans sobbing in every fancam.
E-m-o-t-i-o-n-a-l as fuck.
And on the technical side, rather impressive. Junsu's voice has really grown with all these musicals and solo tours. Incredible to hear the old songs sung with his fully matured voice. Hard enough to sing his actual part from Love in the Ice, much less with all the following lines that he would usually be breathing through. And so much practice keeping it relatively steady while crying. Done that a lot in the last few years I guess. But yeah, him breaking down at the end and the audience like a choir building to lift him back up.
ALL MY TEARS. ALL OF THEM.
Just such a touching gesture that he did it at all. So special.

A little tribute to each of the excerpted songs...

Begin: One of my favorites. Incredible blend when they sang this as five. Reminds me of watching their DVD commentary and Changmin was teasing Junsu (as usual) trying to get him to say what 'begin' meant. And after much banter, Junsu deadpanned 'hajimarusaaaaaaaaa' and they all lost it.

Stand By You: Beloved to all fans as it was the song they were promoting when they performed at Tokyo Dome and the audience turned the classic DBSK Red Ocean into a sea of blue as a surprise for them.

Sky: For being the summer anthem and a standard for every tour and A-Nation. An absolute ton of bubbly energy and fan-service during their final tour before the split.

Heart, Mind & Soul: For being the very first DBSK concert performance I looked up on Youtube forever ago. Their 1st Japan tour. And Junsu walked out and my jaw dropped when he belted this part and nailed it. Essentially it's exactly the song which made me a Junsu stan. Beautifully done at Tokyo Dome, too, once all their voices had developed and gotten familiarized with Japanese.

Love in the Ice: A treasure of a song that blew my mind when they first performed it at Soul Power and Yoochun went up an octave during the bridge. When they started including it in concerts Junsu said that it felt like he was taking years off his life every time he got through his part.

Proud: Instant trigger for tears for all fans because of the double encore performance when they played the Budoukan. An achievement that made them all feel like they had made it. The brutal work and isolation in Japan had been worth it. And Yoochun cried. Which made Junsu cry. And they had a moment.

Asu wa Kuru Kara: My favorite DBSK song. Period. With lyrics I've quoted in this blog a few times. A chorus that I have had to remind myself of often in the last couple years. And it's also Junsu's baby. His personal favorite. A song that always made him teary, which he countered during rehearsals by replacing the epic 'Harukanaaaaa' (far away) with 'Hanagikaaaaaa' (nose ring). Lmao.


Oh, and during the actual Genie Time, he was requested to sing the Japanese version of 'Let It Go'. Even though I'm sick of the song, and hearing it just makes me depressed now that I've seen the movie... I could hear Junsu sing it all damn day:



Cheeky pianist jumping in. Cuuuuute.

Aaaaand... he's doing Dracula for his next musical. As Dracula. Ahem. :D

Another ding...

Not much new to add. 28. Another birthday accompanied by a sad little *ding*. Ha!
As per tradition, the weather turned grey and drizzly for me today, which I appreciated. That's not sarcasm, btw.

I sprained my right ankle... let's see... two weeks ago. While jogging. No good deed goes unpunished. Lol. It's not terrible. I could walk on it pretty quickly. Iced/elevated it immediately, which helped a ton. Just been bummed out because I was doing pretty well with the running. So I've been doing lots of weight-lifting, abdominal stuff, and careful squats while it heals. Probably won't feel comfortable with normal ankle-use for a few months still. At least. Blaaargh!

The above sketch was a meditative stream of conscious thing for The Art Assignment on Youtube. Still want to do a few of the other projects. Love all the educational stuff Vlogbrothers and Co. are always working on. Fun to participate.

Been watching a metric fuck-ton of shows. Mad Men has been good. Game of Thrones has been excessively rape-y, which is obnoxious and gross, but most of the other plots are great. Just started watching Orphan Black a few days ago and marathoned it in record time. That is a faaaaassst-moving show. Incredibly hard to stop watching. Love it, but I'm concerned it will go the way of Alias or Lost before long. Still trying to get through all of Star Trek. I have come to the much-dreaded original series. The women characters are insufferable. Every plot thus far has been focused on a woman. And the women are all fragile, whimpering, incompetent, decorative, seductresses, who are humored by the men. A show like Mad Men puts a lot of these old sexist ideas on display to bring the awfulness of it to the viewer's attention. But Star Trek is actually from that era and it's nearly unbearable to watch. Dammit. I'm hoping it will improve in the 2nd and 3rd seasons... if I can ever push through the 1st.

Saw Frozen finally and have mixed feelings. It looks pretty. Not a fan of the music. What I pulled from the overall message is not like anything I've heard in any media review until I just now googled it. To me, it was a metaphor... allegory? Ahem... I'll use metaphor... for dealing with mental illness as a society. Elsa's innate nature is unique to her, but potentially dangerous and just generally foreign and scary to everyone else. So she is told to hide it away. She is isolated and conditioned to fear herself and the outside world. She is a problem that must be suppressed and kept away from other people. It's confirmed that she's dangerous when she accidentally hurts her sister.

The reaction of the community is to help her sister heal. True love kisses and all that. Put a bandaid on it. In the end, her sister finally breaks the mold and instead of going for the expected fixes, sacrifices her own comfort to save/reconnect with Elsa. This helps Elsa 'heal', which heals everyone in turn and then happily ever after yada yada figure skating.

I don't know how obvious this was to anyone else watching it. It jumped at me immediately because it's my own experience. I started sobbing and had to pause the movie when her father gave her the gloves as a small child. Holy shit. Yeah. Kinda close to home.

Anyway, I have mixed feelings, because the media and everyone has been so obsessed with the movie and the song that we've all heard a million times too many, and I haven't seen a single serious discussion about the underlying story being related to mental illness. Lots about sexism, pressure on young girls to conform, that kind of thing. But that's not what I got out of it at all. Not sure how to feel about that. It also made me hate the song more. All the associations are about empowerment and being a badass, but in the mental illness narrative, the song is Elsa's desperation to isolate herself further and this choice nearly destroys everything.

Wow. I had no intention of rambling on about this.

GeroGero has quickly become very friendly. Almost enough to make me think it was Sora, but with totally different routine behaviors, unlike any other Scrub Jay I've seen. Definitely a different bird. Cool.