RS Greatest Emo Albums: 34-31

First album (#34) is Owls by Owls. So basically another Cap'n Jazz album. I really like Cap'n Jazz so I'm excited for this one (Algernon Calladweller is also in this post so a lot of Cap'n Jazz). So the first song ("What Whorse You Wrote Id On") could maybe be a bit more energetic but on the other hand I like the chill, almost islandy feel at the beginning. Really liking the start of "I Want the Quiet Moments of a Party Girl." The guitar is doing cool things (almost reminds me of Big Black or Shellac but less abrasive), there's a nice driving bass. Let's drive to Alaska indeed. Favorite song of the album so far, it's driving in a way that almost reminds me of something like Neu!'s "Hero" (but only sort of) and I like songs like that. Plus the weird ending. "Everyone Is My Friend" is even better. Tim Kinsella is finally putting some energy in his singing and the instrumentation is fun. Despite the big mood in the title "I Want the Blindingly Cute to Confide In Me" didn't really grab me at first. But it does start building up, which is cool. Are those bongos? The switch between the first and second halves of "Holy Fucking Ghost" was weird at first but I think it works well. Really liking the weird, offbeat (?) claps and the back vocals. "Later" (which is cheating because it's a Japan only bonus track) is pretty fun, all the parts of it except maybe the vocals (not that the vocals are bad, they're just the weakest part of this song). 

Overall, this album is pretty good but I miss the energy of Cap'n Jazz. And I get it. Cap' Jazz encapsulates that late teens spirit and now the members are young adults and so they are different. Still miss it though. The album feels a bit incoherent at times, like the different instruments aren't really communicating with each other but like not in a fun anarchic way. Vocals could be a bit more yelly or at least not so lethargic. Not my favorite Kinsella project, that's for sure. But like I said, still good and is probably the sort of thing that would grow on me with repeat listens.   

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The next album is The Medicine by The Jazz June, the video of which I was going to use apparently disappeared between when I loaded it up a couple days ago now. But I found a backup playlist. So let's go! The Jazz June is a band I had never heard of before starting this list, so that's going to be interesting.

The first song is "Viva La Speed Metal". It's interesting enough, there's some cool rhythms and changes going on."The Scars to Prove it" is such an emo title. I like the musical shifts in different parts of the song (as people following this series certainly know). I like how "Except" starts. And its riffs, especially near the end. "The Phone Works Both Ways" has a really fun bass line and the guitar starts doing some crazy stuff in the last third or so. The title track builds up well and I quite like the chorus (?) both lyrically and musically. "So I fucked up but I'm getting on with my life/it feels like there's a point to everything" so true homie, so true. The shift after that (well the first iteration of the chorus) to a different style is weird but I really like it. It builds up so well and the guitars just sound cool.

"At the Artist's Leisure, Pt. 2" also has a really good building start and just gets better when the bass comes in. The high pitched guitars in the middle are cool. The beginning is definitely the best part of this song. "Motorhead's Roadie" has a bass solo, or at least a cool bass. Nice and driving. The bridge (? the quite part in the middle) does the loud to quiet to loud nicely. This song does go on too long though, it just doesn't build up right to justify the length. There's a lot going on musically in "Get on the Bus" but I'm not sure it works. And now for a 10 minute song. Will it build right? "Balance" starts good. The riffs work together, are driving and it seems to be getting larger quite nicely. It gets a little lamer about of a third of the way in but quickly catches itself. The reverby and echoy vocals actually work well and I like the random piano and squealy guitars (synths?) in the middle. What is this bizarre sample? I'd say overall this is pretty good for a long song. Gets a bit self indulgent at parts but it stays mostly coherent (at least the first 8 minutes at least, the last two minutes feel more disconnected with the rest of the song though it's a fun crescendo in its own right) and there's some really cool sounds going over the driving bass which keeps everything together.   

Verdict: This album is fine but not my favorite. It has a problem with too much happening in any given song, and not in a fun way like The Brave Little Abacus. This distracts from both the songs themselves and their build-up crescendo that a lot of emo songs like these ones try to do. And I have no idea what's going on the lyrics, but again they aren't delivered in a way that makes that not matter like say Cap'n Jazz (or The Brave Little Abacus, but those lyrics are amazing. Then again, so are some of Cap'n Jazz's). It's not bad by any means and it certainly is emo, so credit due where credit is due. My favorite songs are probably "The Medicine" and "Balance". 

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Third album (#32) is Some Kind of Cadwallader by Algernon Cadwallader. Weirdly enough, I actually haven't listened to them (partially because of this but mostly because they just haven't shown up in my playlists for some reason...so this must not be true because I've apparently listened to all of Parrot Flies but I have no idea when and a youtube history search reveals nothing) so I'm fairly excited. Just gotta say that I love the album cover (and all their album covers really, though their self titled album/compilation is clearly a rip off of Fishing for Birds concept art). I kinda want to buy their vinyl just for that, but first I want to see if I like the album.

I like the way this one starts. Good twinkly guitars and screams/yells. No idea what he's saying though (looking at the lyrics, they're really aping the Cap'n Jazz nonesense). Great build up into a scream and then the end of the song. So yeah, "Casual Discussion in a Dome between Two Temples" is a banger. Great bass in the title track. The vocals in "The Stars" are really channeling Cap'n Jazz. Another good bass in "Horror" while the guitar goes off and does whatever it does. Also great opening line, being about a toilet and all. Wait is that a harmonica? Interesting. And it builds really well with the "ooohs" and everything,  before coming back down nicely. "Motivational Song" definitely hits its stride when it's just actual nonsense before the real quiet bridge (?), not that point isn't nice too. Love the feedback at the end.

...I just got the pun of "Yo Soy Milk". It's not just saying I am milk in bad Spanish, it's also soy milk. Anyway fun song but not much to say. Once again, a good bass. "On Up" is an exercise in stretching out words. Love the congas (?) and after the first line or two the instrumentation in general gets better...and weirder post slide whistle (?). "Katie's Conscience" feels a lot like Cap'n Jazz in its energy and just in general (hilariously, I read a Pitchfork review after listening to this album which pointed to this exact song as acing the Cap'n Jazz exam and getting extra credit). Great screams near the end. Awesome driving bass in "Serial Killer Status" even if it is simple. And now is time for a 13 minute closer in "In Response to Irresponsibility". It starts out good but lets see if it can justify itself. Three minutes in (just before the vocals) and the build up receded but there's like maracas and shakers so all is good. Plus the way the guitars come back in is great. I like the feedback that starts like halfway through the song. Okay like 8-9 minutes in gets really weird in a good way, with what sounds like tape loops or some other sort of manipulation. There's still a lot of song left so I wonder where it goes from here. Doesn't quite build back up but there's some good noise. Song still probably overstays its welcome.

Anyway this is probably my favorite album of this review (so far?). I saw the one comment on youtube that was like "Cap'n Jazz vocals with American Football guitars" and that's fairly accurate. The whole album has an energy level that I like. Is Cap'n Jazz better? Well none of the songs are as good as "Little League" and there's nothing quite like that amazing three song opener of Shmap'n Shmazz but Algernon Cadwallader is definitely more competent and the instrumentation is probably a bit better. So yeah I like Cap'n Jazz more, but this is a better Cap'n Jazz clone than Owls, which is literally just Cap'n Jazz.

Imma buy that vinyl now.

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The last album for this post is Kill Them with Kindness by the Jealous Sound. What an emo name. I don't think I'd ever heard of them before starting this activity.

First song sounds fine. Definitely more on the poppy side, but not in a bad way. Reminds me a lot of Jimmy Eat World, but a bit slower and with more phaser (?). All these songs have very pop-punky guitars (lots of power chords or whatever). Again fine, it's just quite different from all the midwest emo I've been listening to.  Liking the intro synth on "The Fold Out". I'm vibing with "Does That Make Sense" for some reason. Liking "Abandon, Abandon"'s guitars for some reason and once again, loving the synth on "Troublesome". So much glissando and just that good kinda sharp vibe. Ugh "Recovery Room" is a ballad. Ballads are hit or miss on a good day and this one is definitely a miss (today at least). It's six minutes long too. Closer ("Above the Waves") is a pretty traditional closer. There's some build up (in a pop way, not a midwest emo way) but it's still like the rest of the album overall. Last rendition of the chorus (with the backing vocals) is pretty great.

Vocals are very samey across all the songs and not in a fun yelly way (so much reverb). I know that's how this style of emo is (there's two! Brand New albums on this list. Tied with Jimmy Eat World. Only Mike Kinsella has more) and the main focus really is the lyrics, not the delivery, but more variety would be nice. Or at least more energy. 

As a side note, I love how with each release the album cover gets higher and higher quality.

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And with that, another set of albums done. Almost a quarter of the way through the list. Everything was actually emo this time and it sure revealed my preferences for fast, very energetic music. And cool album covers. I keep going back and forth about buying the Owls album. I think I will because the local record shop apparently has a special, indie record store only edition and I love colored vinyls. But there's another, slightly more expensive special edition on Bandcamp, so we'll see (I guess quite a bit more expensive with shipping).

RS Greatest Emo Albums: 38-35

A continuation of this project I started. Putting 4 together this time because why not. No real themes as far as I am aware of to bind these together and not much pre-music commentary to make so off we go.

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The first album today, at number 38, is Intersections by Into It. Over It. (how fitting). Never heard of them before, apparently it's a one-man project (or at least was when this album was recorded)? Notably, it's the only album on the list from after 2008. And to be quite frank, one of the only ones released within 10 years of the article's publication in 2016. So that's interesting since the article is otherwise lacking emo revival/fourth wave representation (the album from 2008 is also revival iirc). On to the album itself though.

Liking this album so far (which checks out, I like midwest emo). "New North-Side Air" has some cool instruments. I'm quite digging "A Curse Worth Believing", especially the beginning. But like the layered vocals are cool (and sounding like a noisy Death Cab song isn't a bad thing). Liking "Upstate Blues" a lot too. Really fun guitars, the loud-quiet dynamic and I love the line "If misery loves company than what does that make me?" cause I'm cringe (end fades into the next song really well too. Love a good transition). Speaking of that next song, the build up for "No Amount of Sound" is great. No idea what the song is about though. "A Pair of Matching Taxi Rides" is also awesome. The guitars (there's some real noisey/fuzzy ones that remind me of some of the sounds I was experimenting with for Ghelded Kultz 10 years ago, before this album came out even) and the way it changes over the song. "Your Antique Organ" is a softer song (on an already soft album) but there's some really cool instrumentation in the background. Another great song overall. And is the last song ("Contractual Obligation") a break up song? I love break-up songs, plus it just sounds fun and has a lot going on (I do love layered vocals). Also the lines "The look of your name is such an eyesore" and "Today I walked alone for the first time/Reclaimed the finer brick from your fault lines" are big mood.

Yeah I like this album. Unsurprising. I like midwest emo, I like indie rock, I like twinkly guitars, I like noise. Plus I've apparently liked other projects this guy is in (like Pet Symmetry). Good choice Rolling Stone.

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Album number 2 (well 37) is one I know quite well, Indian Summer's Science 1994. I think I first listened to it in 2017, maybe 2018? Point is, I've known it for a long time. So some fun facts about this album. In true punk fashion, it's actually a compilation album of all (or at least most of) their prior work. The names of the songs on bandcamp are completely different than what they are normally known by and I'm pretty sure none of the songs have official titles (though they do have well known ones). Since it was only a dollar on bandcamp and I love this album, that's what I'll be using. I'll need notes to align the track names though.

"I think your train is leaving" ("giving") starts soft but has really good build up and riffs. Also I can only assume that the lyrics are entirely literal. "Touch The Wings Of An Angel... Doesn’t Mean You Can Fly" ("birth") has an awesome riff. I really like the staticky quality at the beginning of "Aren't you Angel" ("thunder"), in a way it almost reminds me of Daniel Johnson. Also that song uses dynamics so well (and screams). "Waiting" ("by") is just awesome when it gets all quiet for a second as the singer says "killer" and then goes into an almost metallic repetitive riff (which almost reminds me of Big Black). 

And then we get to "Angry Son" ("sleeping"). This is the song that introduced me to Indian Summer and it is just wonderful. The quiet start with spoken word lyrics. Just perfection when the loud guitar comes in. A driving bass in the background (sounds like something from Low of all bands. Almost like it was ripped out of "Lullaby"). And an iconic ending with a record playing in the background (same as the beginning. As much as I love Origami Angel, this is how samples should be done since it really adds to the song. It's funny, I'm not much one for noodling and long songs, but some of my favorite songs in general are really long, even self indulgent. "Diamond Sea" by Sonic Youth, "Do you know how to waltz?" and "Lullaby" by Low, "SexBomb" by Flipper and as I just mentioned "Angry Song" all would count.

"Orchard" ("with") has a really cool riff all through it and the chorus is deliciously noisy. As usual "Sugar Pill" ("his") has a great build-up and the screams of "pills" abound in a good way. The bass on "Reflections On Milkweed" ("daughter") is also so great, especially how it interplays with the guitar (both in twinkle and noise mode). 

While I'm glad that this album made the list, 37 is much too low. It's not just a historically important album (well sort of. Indian Summer was important, the album was released well after their heyday but all the songs were already there), it's a great album. Every song is great (even the ones I didn't mention), "Angry Son" is literally one of the best emo songs of all time and few bands have done the loud-quiet dynamic and build ups better than Indian Summer. 

Have an 8bit cover of "Angry Son".

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Number 36 on the list is Gatefold by Orchid. So the first real screamo/skramz album on the list (not that some of the prior ones didn't have good screams, Science 1994 for instance). 

Starts out very loud and creamy. Definitely faster/more hardcore than any of the albums so far (which checks out, Orchid was a powerviolence band). These songs are short too. I think I like "Loft Party" and "I wanna fight" switches between loud and less loud really well. End of "A Visit from Dr. Goodsex" is fun. I'm liking "We Love Prison" which is more typical of post-hardcore and less powerviolencey than other songs imo. The style switch in "Flip the Tapes" is cool and especially impressive seeing as the whole song is < 30s. "Tigers" is a masterpiece. It's slow compared to the rest of the album but the main riff is good and the lyrics are fun ("I make love in theory and touch myself in practice" is a banger of a line and the whole thing is making fun of intellectuals). Sound effects at the start of "Let's Commodify Sexuality" are great. The drum break/solo at the beginning of "Discourse of Desire" would be fun to sample for something. "None More Black" is good. 

This album is whatever. There's parts I like and I'm impressed how much can be fit in very short run times, but in the end it isn't really my style. Better than most grindcore though (all grindcore?).

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Last album for this post, at number 35, is Coheed and Cambria's Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. Wait since when was Coheed and Cambria emo and the article even acknowledges that this is when they went really prog. I know that emo and prog aren't anathema to each other (lots of math rock in emo after all) but it still feels weird. I haven't listened to Coheed and Cambria since high school and even then it was a pretty rare occurrence (usually tied to pony music videos I think). But here we go I guess (also 70 minutes of sci fi rock opera? This better be amazing, else I'm going to die).

So it starts off with slow strings and a piano? I mean not my thing but the piano riff is cool enough I guess. Decent atmosphere? Not a big fan of "Always and Never". It's a nice little soft song but I prefer my falsettos screamed. Cool synths I guess (especially at the end)?  [At this point I change the playlist I'm using because I got the single version/music video version of the next song]. "Welcome Home" has a good riff but I prefer it before it goes electric. Not a fan of the vocals (cue the people who are like "but you love the Brave Little Abacus!" Yeah, that's why I don't like these vocals). Oh no, a solo while cellos (?) are plagiarizing "Kashmir". "Ten Speed" is whatever. More guitar wank but it isn't twinkly. "Crossing the Frame" has some crescendo/buildup which I like and a good bass. Still doesn't grab me all that much. "Writing Writer" is okay. My favorite part might be the bridge, since the drums, bass and synths are being cool. I think I actually like "Once Upon Your Dead Body". Good bass, good rhythm guitar and I am sort of actually listening to the lyrics. "The Suffering" is fine. I like the piano and the heys. "Mother May" is decent. 

And now onto the four 7 minute songs all called "Willing Well" (I can't stand prog). The start of "I" is good but then it's just a regular song (with a cool bass, tbf). Well a regular song that changes a bunch, but not really in a way I like. "II" has a nice bounce near the beginning but that's about it. And I guess I like how it sounds kind of jolly/upbeat (the first 2 minutes at least). Yeah I stop liking it after about that point, with some minor exceptions. "III" starts like "Event Horizon" (by Šyþed Pyklez, not Coheed and Cambria) but getting faster instead of slower. We had the same idea though. And then the songs diverge wildly ("Event Horizon" is better). Don't like where this is going 4 minutes in (the kinda start/stoppy section). I liked the end though. Same could be said about "IV", the outro is the best part. Might be one of my favorite parts of the album actually. 

It's not like this album is bad or anything. Didn't want to completely turn it off or anything. I can see why other people would like it. But I just don't vibe with it. And I'm annoyed that this took a spot on the list. Maybe the lyrics are emo (I didn't care to pay attention) but musically it isn't at all. Unlike Love and Death (which I complained about last time) I can't even think of a good reason for this being in the running for this list at all. I'm not saying it stole the spot from just got back from the discomfort... (it should have been on the list but no one knew about Brave Little Abacus in 2016, especially not the weirdos at Rolling Stone) but there's plenty of more deserving, actual emo albums. So I'm a bit miffed. I've heard their first (and to lesser extent second) album actually is pretty post-hardcore/emo so maybe that would have been a better inclusion. But alas.

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Well six albums in and only three were unambiguously emo. Not a great start to this list. Two were sort of emo (and definitely associated with emo in pop culture so the inclusion makes enough sense) and one I don't get how it made the list at all. Looking forward to the next set, which has some bands I've heard of and some I haven't but even the ones I've heard of I don't think I've listened to the albums. So that should be fun. 

Rolling Stone's 40 Greatest Emo Albums of all Time: 40-39

I felt it would be good to do some actual hobby stuff on this blog again, instead of just whining about my feelings. I enjoy complaining about music and I happened to have this article open on a tab since I was reading about Shmap'n Shmazz so why not go through all 40 albums and see what happens. Of course, the fact that it's a list of emo albums means that I'm not really avoiding the whining about my feelings part, but on the other hand. Also I swear I listen to things other than emo. In fact most of what I listen to is probably closer to alternative/indie rock (especially of the garage variety). Or like quiet indie pop singer-song writers. I'm not that much of a stereotype! (Well I am, but in a hipster way)

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The first album on the list is In Love and Death by the Used. I've never gone out of my way to listen to the Used. In fact, despite being well aware of them since high school (mostly because I knew what bands had mormon ties), I don't think I've ever listened to a song by them before this. If this is their best album, I guess I wasn't missing much.

I mean the album is fine. I can see why people who like 3rd wave emo like it (I'm not a huge fan of the genre outside of Jimmy Eat World...middle school biases will always remain I guess 😛... and for that matter I think most people consider JEW 2nd wave even though they have that pop sound associated with the 3rd wave. Then again waves are about time periods more than sound. It's not like 2nd wave= midwest and 3rd wave = emo pop even if those were the dominant genres during the waves. But I digress). I can also see why people might like the lyrics but none of the songs really pulled me hard enough to actually bother looking at them or thinking about them. My guess is that they are probably cringe for emo, which is already the cringest of all genres (Šyþed Pyklez is an emo band, actually). None of the music/guitar work really got to me either. It just was there.

Favorite songs? Uhhh I think I liked "Let it Bleed", "Light with a Sharpened Edge" and "Lunacy Fringe". No idea what any of them are about but I'm pretty sure those were the ones I liked the most. Not gonna bother going back and checking, let alone relistening to them.

So yeah, that's In Love and Death. I'm sure it's very deep and I guess putting something from them on the list works from a representation standpoint. But this got in over 10 Songs? Or something by Marietta? Or please be nice (okay this one might've been too obscure)? I'll also note here that the article says it was published in 2019 but the text seems to indicate it was actually made in 2016 and there's only one album post 2008. So they're missing a lot of good stuff even ignoring that they couldn't rank albums from the future (Somewhere City is a perfect album, dammit, even if some of Origami Angel's later work has higher highs).

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The next album is A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! at the Disco. I actually have listened to this album before, in fact it might be the only P!atD album I've listened to. I seem to recall it being a bit too poppy/theatrical for my liking (though still good) but we'll see how I feel this time through. 

Pretty strong opening to be honest. "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage" is a fun, punchy song, has good bass and fun electronic stuff (also this band is one that loved absurd titles. I forgot for a second). Next few songs are fine but not as fun as that first (technically second) one. "Time to Dance" doesn't even feel as danceable as you'd think given the title. Where's the bass? "Intermission" is good. It's not emo (from a genre standpoint, honestly this whole album is pretty borderline but that's Rolling Stone for you), but it's good.

Less of a fan of the second half of the album, probably to the surprise of no one. There's some pretty fun stuff on it but I have a complicated relationship with theater kids. The bass intro on "I Constantly Thank God For Esteban" (and the spanishish guitar) is pretty sweet.

I think this is another band that people really like the lyrics of but I don't care enough to look at them. Also I'm pretty sure they're they're probably a lot cleverer and less "emo" than most "emo" bands. Take that as you will.  

Based on the above my favorite songs are "The Only Difference...", "Intermission" and "Esteban" which I think is a pretty unpopular opinion overall. Which checks out honestly.

To be quite frank I know P!atD is strongly associated with emo in pop culture but this album is probably one of the biggest offenders on the list (and the entry actually recognizes this). Good album (I certainly like it more than In Love and Death) but barely emo adjacent at best. It's not even that pop punky so it's not covering that side of the genre either.    

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It's pretty funny that both of these albums have Mormon ties (and I think are the only albums on the list that do). Apostates, but ties all the same. Doctrines of Salvation will put Šyþed Pyklez into this esteemed (?) group, though not apostate. And also not having any emo songs since the album is basically electronica (and emotions).

Your Name: how to do the remake right

So there's been a push (by Japanese investors iirc) to do a westernized live-action remake of Your Name. Completely unnecessary but let's suppose that there's no way to stop this venture. What currently is being done (at least the rumors I've heard) and what should be done to actually capture the spirit of the movie? Spoilers below, obviously.

On tubers and how to translate them

 I've been playing a lot of xenoblade recently and have many thoughts about it, as can be seen on my reddit profile. As much as I like it, there's something extremely immersion breaking for me: taro is referred to as potatoes.

If I remember correctly, spongy spuds are first introduced around when the party's food gets stolen. At the very least I saw a bag full of them at some point in Maktha Wildwood and I recognized them right away as taro. Which was cool because taro is not a commonly seen plant, especially for westerners. It's only later on we get to the problematic part. See, Zeon's ascension quest is about growing crops, specifically "spongy spuds" for his colony. The name spongy spud itself is fine, it's a fictional world after all. However, they are also referred to as potatoes, taters and other less ambiguous names. This is despite both the tubers and the plants are clearly modeled after taro. Even the advice to harvest after the leaves start wilting is a taro trait (though potatoes do have similar advice. I wonder if cassava does as well, it might be a general root crop thing). So that was pretty frusterating.

Now, localizing taro as potato isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, most English speakers aren't going to be that familiar with taro. But it does become a lot worse when you're localizing something that has images along with the text, since even if you don't know what taro is it is pretty obvious that those aren't potatoes. It reminds me of the "jelly donut-onigiri" controversy from the Pokemon anime way back when. The idea of turning onigiri into jelly donuts to make it more relevant to the audience isn't a bad thing. Doing that when it is clearly referencing an image which is not a jelly donut is an issue. (Funnily enough, onigiri does play a minor role in Xenoblade 3 and its name is not translated). 

Anyway, I actually went to the Japanese version of the game to see what the original text called them. Spud, potato, tater, etc all seem to be used as translations for the same word imo "tuber". So while the original text doesn't seem to explicitly label it as taro (as far as I could tell), it doesn't explicitly call it potato either. Localizing this to a bunch of words for more variety is reasonable enough but again, the translators should've looked at what it was referring to before making some of these translations. 

You know what the worst part is? I seem to be the only person to notice this and care enough to complain! At least, I haven't encountered anyone else yet who was like "yep, that's clearly taro."

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In other farming related video game news Harvestella looks pretty awesome but I hope it doesn't neglect farming too much. And someone needs to make a farming sim that caters towards caters towards my desire for complex agronomy and agricultural markets while still maintaining the sort of whimsy often found in these games (that is, I want more realism but don't want to play John Deere Combine Simulator 2022: Deluxe Edition). Maybe I'll rant about that some day.

Some tv show ideas

 I'm currently avoiding the massive pile of work (and have been avoiding for quite some time) so I figured I'd blog some of my more creative thoughts. Thoughts that have been kicking around my head for a decade.

I am not the creative type, in the sense that I'm no good at "the arts". In fact I am very much a consumer in the pejorative sense of the word. But I have been fascinated by creative processes for a long time and have always been something of a world builder. And so my whole life, I've entertained myself by (mentally) sketching out games, novels, movies and so on. It must've been around 2011 when I expanded to thinking about western animation as well clearly inspired by My Little Pony. And so now I finally am writing down some of those ideas?

But first, why western animation, especially those more oriented towards youngish people. One because that's what I knew but I also think there's some interesting constraints when you're trying to make something appealing to kids that can still draw in and appeal to an older demographic. Also I like pissing off those people.

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The Mythos Wyrm Show

This was basically my take at a parody of somewhat plot driven but still slice of lifey/episodic, 9-13 year old target audience with a large teenage/young adult periphery demographic, that I based around a skeleton of characters I'd been using forever. It's a pretty big archetype but apparently it's still around. Anyway, the main conceit is that there's this tightly driven plot but everything is aired out of order (except the first episode and the finale). Oh and main characters can die/permanently disappear. So you never know exactly why a character is or isn't in an episode, nor do you know if inconsistencies are because of bad writing or character development. The main idea is that the Demon Slayers are fighting a war against the Demon King and this is their journey to unite a bunch of imps/other demon tribes in rebellion against the Demon King. Oh and trying to work with a mysterious Afrit who claims to be the former ruler of this plane and his four disaster themed sons...

I've even thought up some episodes. The series opens up with a POV of Mythos Wyrm waking up and someone commenting that he got hit on the head. Then there's some introductions (a reminder of what he showed already know but hey, maybe that brick caused some memory loss) and we're off.

A play on the idea of the bottle episode would be a two-parter (aired together, I'm not that much of a monster) where Mythos Wyrm and the Demon King end up stuck in a cavern together and have to work together to get out, all while discussing their feelings and philosophies (Mythos Wyrm's semi-anarchism vs the paternalism of the Demon King). Just to end up fighting again when they get out. 

The finale would be a grand assault on the Demon King's palace, where all the remaining characters end up dead, while Mythos Wyrm fights the Demon King in the throne room. But then, as he's about to kill the Demon King, the world falls apart around him and he ends up in a modern office, where he learns his tv show is being cancelled. Then he rampages around, eventually finding the executives, just for a brick to hit his head and everything goes dark...

Oh and all the main characters are sort of 1 dimensional animated show archetypes (with twists), like the comic relief character who mostly relies on reference humor (which lands flat to the other characters and the viewers because it is all out of day). Or the chick who exists basically because these shows always have a chick in order to appeal to an audience you're never capturing.

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The Šyþed Pyklez Show

Classic sitcom about an up and coming band and their struggles surviving (while being bankrolled by the main character's record executive dad). Complete with an unlikable main character and terrible songs. Their sitcom archnemesis is another band ("The Knights of Shythe) who are actually successful but are considered sell outs. Not much more to say about it

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Unnamed Island Hopping Show

This one is based on an RPG setting that I've been tossing around ideas for at least half a decade (Actually over 6 years by this point), but I'll fully admit that the idea of doing this as a tv show came after watching Castlevania and Avatar: The Last Airbender this past fall. One of the big ideas I've wanted explore is a story where there is a chosen one and the main characters interact with the chosen one but also aren't really part of that story. And this setting would be a good place to explore it. Another thing I want to do is make sure that the characters are masters of their own fate, rather than passive and reactionary. But that's a broader writing problem.

The setting (and this tv show idea) deserve their own posts so I'll just outline it here. The son of a colonial administrator is hired to be a scout/guide/bodyguard by a priest who wants an escort to the capital of one of the local kingdoms. But soon enough it appears he and his friend (a newly arrived soldier/constable) bit off a more than they could chew on this mission, as the priest is more than he appeared to be and the tenuous peace between the colonists and the locals starts to unravel...

Season two would continue with them and another traveling companion, now considered fugitives and deserters, deciding they'll explore the Treasure Island instead. But when they get captured by an old pirate king, their only chance of freedom is uncovering information about a mysterious and charismatic new pirate prince, the Jago Hitam who poses a threat to both the traditional power structures and the colonial administrators...

The third seasons follows our adventurers in the Treasure Islands. This is the most episodic of the seasons, as the protagonists hop island to island and try to avoid the war that's engulfing the rest of the archipelago. Rather than directly continuing the plot, the main purpose of this season (other than generating action figures) is really diving into character motivations, like the protagonist's feeling of conflict between his father's nation and his mother's home and how the group can't just keeping running away from their problems. Oh and it dives more into lore as well, especially with all the ancient ruins spread across the islands...

The final season is a return to the main islands and a race to stop the potential end of the world by solving the mysteries of civilization past. But can the protagonists actually prevent a prophecy from happening? And does it even matter that the protagonists may not be able to effect change outside their own lives?

 While I assume what would draw the most Avatar comparisons is the Asian influence and the many different cultures but honestly that's unfair. The magic system is based around capturing spirits and summoning (so basically pokemon combined with alchemy), not elements; the different cultures aren't really different in magic or philosophy (as usually seen in Avatar clones); the cultures themselves are very Austronesian/Pacific instead of East Asian; and rather than deconstructing the Chosen One trope by showing how much it sucks, it's more about controlling one's destiny even in a world dictated by the Chosen One. But wanting to incorporate cool martial arts (in this case based on pencak silat), that's an actual Avatar influence.

Anyway, this one is worth more discussion so I'll blog about it more some other time.

 

88 lines about 44 Demons

A little Halloween special, let's learn about some of the demons (omūkaq) and monster the kikxotians believe in. A lot might be presented in more informal ways (only the second part of a reduplication for example, or using back reduplication to represent full reduplication). This isn't meant to represent a specific dialect (though some are regional monsters), it's to fit the semi-poetry of the piece. With all apologies to the Nails

1. Vcūpa comes out the swamp to play; his stench makes me want to cry
2. Olūgaw looks mighty nice but her teeth are no lie.
3. Lālīwl feast till the sun comes up and starve throughout the day
4. Yyīpu get you what you want, but you'll never be able to pay.
5. Mrisu has an unnerving smile, with gifts that trap your soul
6. Gdīku is much simpler, he'll just eat you whole.
7. Dōkhol īkkabat looks pretty from a distance; but he'll steer you wrong
8. Jarif cannot be seen, as you flee her mournful song.
9. Pjūpō nimasat may be dead; you'd never know as you're chased
10. Āginx āpijpat is a stout old chap; you must flee in haste.
    
11. Rokāmr seems mighty harmless, as he sucks you in
    
12. Ovūmac won't give you the time, not even when you sin.
    
13. Lvutā mwomit is looking for a student, but her advice isn't prudent
14. Olūvat puthlūt needs a teacher, but he's most impudent.
    
15. Fqilu sees without eyes, his nose ensure you can't hide
    
16. Wyīúu mkoqit approaches in confidence, a presence you mustn't abide.
    
17. Omūlad bōmāshat is another sultry soul, she watches as you sleep
18. Cuwphīcu is sailors' bane foremost, and drags slow ships into the deep.
    
19. Tikat looks like a massive bat, from above he cracks your skull
    
20. Zhimar stalks from underground, your bones won't make his teeth dull.
    
21. Knupi takes things that are not his, gold is his bread and butter  
22. Āruyt tībilat prefers your blood a la carte, as it flows into the gutter.
    
23. Wixax can't move fast, so the trees are his base
    
24. Shotūr will never move at all, yet you must beware his embrace.
    
25. Thavdo literally cannot be described, an agony you can't survive
    
26. Twuwi seems to be a peaceful field, until your footsteps turn it alive.
    
27. Ksuphā is just a shadow, her presence wrecks your mind
    
28. Sōfok úyukāt is a sickly light, stare too long to go blind.
    
29. Zōtod cpuwāt teaches one thing: not every book is an ally
    
30. Awābth must not be trusted, for he's the dark one's spy.
    
31. Xsīmu īípachat walks in silence, as he sucks your life
    
32. Tbīlu tdocit stays quiet too, but she prefers to use a knife.
    
33. Khāpas rxībut is slow and meaty; hunt it and meet your doom
    
34. Brumā thāxakhat moves you fast, in her hand your life shall zoom.
    
35. Wxurā fōdāíat seeks his court, his words are little snares
    
36. Rqīnu āxudcat wants your pity, never trust his wares.
37. Karol preys on those with heart, your mercy shall be your end
    
38. Khāmfukhā prays for those alone, his companionship is pretend.
    
39. Fapōmuf has a fearsome sting, the pain will never leave
    
40. Laíōpul lies in wait, to feed on those that grieve.
    
41. Hnibu hunts in plain sight, his traps are travelers' rests,
    
42. Smufā catches those who are tired, you'll wake up as he digests.
    
43. Qcilu lives in dark caves, he makes our tunnels fall
    
44. Khluzā, cursed be his name; he's the king of them all.
    

This of course is a small sampling of the demons in their world. Some are pretty normal to our sense of monsters, like the Pjūpō nimasat (lit. running corpse) which is basically just a revenant or the Omūlad bōmāshat (forbidden beauty) which is a classic ghost lady like a kuntilanak. Others aren't so much monsters in the way we think of them so much as archetypes of corrupted people, like the Hnibu (so-called builder) who kills people in collapsing buildings, the Āginx āpijpat (killing grinder) who is basically just a serial killer who disposes of the bodies by turning them into flour or the Ovūmac (self-centered person), an eerily beautiful spirit who encourages you to give up everything for nothing in return. Some are very animalistic like the bat-like Tikat (thing which descend from the sky) or the stinging bug Fapōmuf (great wasp). Some are actually more like cursed objects like Zōtod cpuwāt (devouring ink/the devil's ink) which grant wishes at the cost of your life or Rokāmr (great heap) which is a pile of stuff that eats people. And then there's the eldritch ones, like the Thavdo (flattening) which somehow forces people into 2-dimensions, the Twuwi (so called snowfield), which is a field of snow that eats people, or the Ksuphā (thing that makes others uncomfortable) which is a presence or being that drives people crazy.

Slavery among the People of Kikxo: A President's Day Special

I'm doing this instead of homework because I can't focus on homework right now because my face is numb.  Silly dentist fixing my teeth.

I wanted to do a whole big article on the political system of the úīkmo Kīkxot, but I do have plenty of homework to do and really am not feeling up to it.  So I'll talk about something more minor but still president's day related: slavery.

The úīkmo Kīkxot are, if nothing else, xenophobic. Not necessarily in the "hatred of foreigners" way so much as the "hatred of strangers" way. You can figure out the difference for yourself. And they do love their slavery. They take from whoever sells and from the people they conqueror. Their religion proscribes only one rule: No follower of Kīkxo may enslave fellow travelers. The different sects interpret this in very different ways, with an extreme few saying that forbids all slavery all the way to the sects that think that means even enslaving members of other sects is okay. But for most people, it means non-followers of Kikxot are fair game.

Most people do not own slaves but those that do use them for a variety of tasks. Agriculture, manufacturing, running a household, teaching and whatever else. Slaves can even have fairly high status, personal wealth and other things that we wouldn't associate with slaves in our culture. They are (in theory) to be cared for and protected, sometimes even like a family member. But they are not free (whatever that means) and ultimately report and execute the will of their owners.

Slavery is a highly valued and protected institution among the Úīkmo Kīkxot, which may be hard to understand for a westerner. It stems from their religious beliefs ultimately. To them, Kīkxo is the ultimate protector in the fight between Good and Evil. One who worships and submits to Kīkxo is accepting his protection. When a follower of Kīkxo enslaves someone, Kīkxo's protection extends over that slave. To the followers of Kīkxo, slavery is a means of extending Kīkxo's good will and love to the ignorant savages who refuse to accept it on their own. To the followers of Kīkxo it is inhumane to free slaves and release them from the protection Kīkxo offers them. It is the evil one who tells slaves they want to be free, that deludes people into wanting to free slaves. Now of course, in theory if a slave converts to Kīkxo, they should be freed, though many slaveowners, reasonably fearing it is simply a deception to seek freedom and betray Kīkxo and the forces of good, do not accept such conversions. At least, that's what their reasoning is.

Theologians and scribes often debate the role that slavery plays in spreading the truth to other lands ("Are our neighbors converting just to avoid slave raids? Should such deceitful traitors be enslaved to teach them a lesson?" or "Are we really only spreading the religion as an excuse to expand and take more slaves?" Things like that) they almost always agree that it is a good thing and an essential part civilized life.

Happy Presidents Day

Bad Conglanging Ideas: A link

Just a fun little link that I found on reddit (r/badlinguistics is such a blast)

badconlangingideas.tumblr.com

Adventures in Indonesian translation pt 1

What I perceived as a very poor translation on Facebook has lead me to start submitting translations for Google again (it's interface is more userfriendly than facebook's. Also, it lets me do Indonesian to English, which they might need more than english to indonesian. But I like to do both) and I've been submitting translations for English from Indonesian.

For those that don't know, the way this works is I am given a phrase or sentence (with no context) and then asked to give a translation. Not having context can make it pretty hard, and man do I get some funny things. What follows is some funny ones I've got, or ones that provide good translation notes.

• "Hidup bebas di dalam air laut dan tawar."
• I can't tell if this is some sort of saying or word of wisdom or if it is information about a fish. Is it an advertisement offering a way to free yourself from the perils of water? I eventually decided it was probably about a fish.
• "Berita tertangkapnya tuyul tersebut membuat banyak orang penasaran."
• Tuyul, a small spirit of the familiar sort. Where does Google get these to translate? Tuyul can't even be translated into english without a translator's footnote, imo. Penasaran is an interesting word too. Here (and most other places) it is being used like an adjective, even though the wordform itself is a noun. I translated as curious (since that's how I almost always see it being used, and makes sense in this case), but my dictionary says that it literally means "angered" or "anxious to find out something". I guess the second one could mean curious, but why not just say that? Tertangkapnya is also an interesting word being a nominalization. I have an article about -nya nominalizations somewhere, I should probably read it again sometime.
• "Einstein dengan teori relativitas khusus dan umumnya."
• This, as far as I can tell, is a fragment in English and Indonesian. It's easy to translate (you probably don't need to know indonesian to translate it), but it NEEDS MORE CONTEXT
• "Begitu mereka terjerumus, adalah masalah besar di kemudian hari."
• Terjerumus appears to be a new word for me. I think in this case it is definitely being used like "to fall into sin". Also, this appears to be a case where "adalah" means"ada-lah" not "is".
• "Saya membeli kertas, pena, dan tinta."
• This is the one where I realized I was translating most things into the past tense. Probably accurate, but context is really important for translations and even more so for Indonesian, where tense is so context based.
• "Bonus dihitung dan diberikan secara harian."
•  I realized I've been doing a similar sort of thing with things that could be singular or plural. I think in this case it is plural. Honestly, I've gotten pretty bad at marking plurals in english sometimes, it just doesn't seem important anymore.
• "Saya raba seluruh bagian tubuh yang sensitif"
• This is the second translation that I think it pulled from a porn site. I'm translating these as unerotically as possible. "I groped all the sensitive body parts".
• "Apa sih penyebab tubuh kita bisa merasakan gatal?"
• I don't get many translations that use particles like "sih". Kind of hard to translate, but not too bad overall, though I did a pretty liberal translation on this one.
• "Cara menghilangkan jerawat yang aman adalah secara tradisional."
• I'm looking at this one and seeing reasonable translations. First I thought it would be "a safe and traditional way to remove acne", but then I noticed the adalah. The best translation would probably be "A safe way to remove acne is traditionally" and play on the fact that English does allow (I think) adverbs in the predicate like that.
• "Tak pernah secuilpun kudengar kabar tentang dirinya."
• Who even uses language like this? I guess I should try to preserve the formality of it. Trying to decide if I change the word order or preserve it for poetic sake.
• "Kamu wonderwoman, yang membuatku ngerasa jadi superman"
• I don't want the context on this one. Hopefully it's a song or a poem.

Other random translation note. -nya and dia are really difficult because I never know if to translate them to he or she, or if a straight singular they is best. I NEED CONTEXT TO TRANSLATE. Google's advice? "If you feel you need more context (like gender or formality), go ahead and translate as best you can". This is why Google Translate (and all machine translations) suck. Machines can't understand the context and pragmatics of a statement.

Well that's enough for tonight. Translation is a really fun exercise.