Monday, August 7, 2006

   The First to Know and Understand.....
Hey everybody. How’s it going?

So, after months of neglecting to do so, I changed-up the intro to my site again. ^_^
You’ll be happy to know I finally got rid of that flash-gear poll that’s been there forever (thank you to all who participated!). I tallied-up the results for future reference. Hmmmm…it appears that “Female Fan-Service” won by a long shot. As reluctant as I am to draw such a thing, you may have just convinced me to try it. *giggle* Do you girls have any suggestions for specific ideas I could use that you would find entertaining? X)

I also put up a new Header for my site (don’t you just love my combination of humor and mastery of MS Paint? XD ). Yes, yes, I’m sure my new slogan for my site could be taken as something remotely dirty, but it’s meant to be funny. Josh certainly thought it was. X) What do you guys think?
By the way, did anyone here understand the humor of my previous site-header? You know, this one:

I’m gonna’ be real miffed if nobody got this joke. =/ Surly I can’t be the only one here familiar with The Twilight Zone.

Another thing you hopefully noticed immediately was that I now have music available for you to listen to.
I’ve been talking about how much I love Symphony X for a while now, but now it’s time for you all to see why. =)
I have it on “Auto-Play”, so it should start playing as soon as you enter my site. Is the file working for you? Hopefully Videodesk won’t screw it up (as it has many times before).

So, if it is working, how do you like it? ^_^ It’s one of my all-time favorite songs by them; “Evolution (The Grand Design)”.
For those wondering, Symphony X is a neo-classical metal group. That means they’re considered heavy metal, but the metal is written with the style and influence of classical music (my favorite! *o* ). Hopefully you can hear that while listening to the song.
Also, Symphony X’s favorite subject it classic mythology, and pretty much all of their songs are written about a myth or something with a mythological texture. “Evolution (The Grand Design)” is the start-up song to the album “V: The New Mythology Suite”; an album where each song is a chapter in the story of the fabled continent of Atlantis. Thusly, “Evolution” is about the creation of Atlantis by the grand beings of wisdom. The first Atlantean was “Ptah-Khnemu”, high-priest of the temple of Ra and the wise ruler and hero of the Atlanteans (known as “The Bringer of Light”).

Like any of Symphony X’s songs, I love the lyrics to this one. ^_^ They also captured a wonderful, raw sense of energy and creation which fits the song perfectly.
Don’t you just love listening to the electric-guitar thunder away while the symphonic strings and brasses sing in the background? Personally, I think it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. ^_^

So, tell me if you like Symphony X and I’ll post more of them for you. =)

Allright, that’s about enough about my stupid site-intro. Now onto something more interesting.
In other Otaku news, Miyoko-chan has posted some lovely ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of her room on her site! ^o^
As you may or may not know, Erin-chan recently rearranged her room and is now ready to show us the final product (and compare it to what it looked like before).
As you also may or may not know, Erin-chan’s computer recently bit the bullet, but has now been resurrected thus allowing Erin-chan access back to The Otaku. As I’m sure everyone is, I’m glad to have The Erin-chan back. b~_^
Oh, and by the way, if you’re reading this, Erin-chan, I’ll be coming by to comment on those photos in your post later tonight. ~_^
Same goes for everyone else reading this; I’ll be by to comment either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Speaking of Erin-chan, I’m still working on her birthday present.
I hope my mom can get Photoshop up and running soon. ToT I want to ensure the utmost quality in my gift-art (which I hopefully will be able to soon do a lot more of). Plus, I’m sort of at a stuck-point; if I continue working with pencil at this point I may mess it up beyond repair, so I wanna’ start coloring it digitally now and see if that looks good. Please be patient, Erin-chan, and I promise you’ll have your B-day pic done soon.

By the way, before I go, did you all get to see those screen-shots I posted from Dead Rising yesterday?
I took em’ down earlier today because they stretched my site out and may have caused loading problems for some of you visiting my site.
I thought everyone had seen em’, but if I took them down too early please tell me and I’ll re-post them for you. ^_^

Here’s today’s Art-Feature…
“Heart-Broken” by Matsu-sensei:

Matsu-sensei (though his real name is Matt) has recently become one of my favorite comic artists. He shows genuine American comic-art skill, but has been influenced by the refined, expressive and detailed style of manga and anime. His favorite mangas are Naruto and Love Hina (sound like familiar choices of manga? XD Great minds think alike, I guess), and their styles have greatly influenced his work. In the end, we get an art style that I described to Josh as “if Akamatsu drew ninjas”.

Though Matt’s ninjas are no where to be seen in this piece, it’s still a small glimpse at his work and his style (though this doesn’t serve as an example of his entire style; this is merely how he does chibis).
The art here is simple digital doodles, but still communicates a message. After reading, that “message” may seem dark, but is an honest and relatively toned-down form of expression while avoiding being depressing or overly Emo-looking.

Case in point, what impresses me most about this piece is how deep it is for a mini-comic featuring chibis. Unlike most mini-comics, this is about expressing emotion rather than humor. The two characters you see here are Matt (the artist’s representation of himself) and Blanca, his girlfriend. As you can see, Blanca moves in to get a hug from Matt, and Matt kindly obliges. However, as they move closer, Blanca pulls out a kitchen knife and gives Matt a savage stab right in the heart. Blanca of course seems oblivious to how she’s hurt Matt, and stares on lovingly as he bleeds.
If you haven’t guessed yet, it’s an emotional metaphor for how Blanca can unknowingly hurt Matt’s feelings with her misguided actions, leaving Matt in a state of heart-ache and depression.
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