Tuesday, May 10, 2005

But the God of the people I hated...

Tony, you might remember that you recommended spending more time with Antichrist Superstar in the Marilyn Manson thread on OB. As it turns out, my sister's friend bought her Antichrist Superstar, Portrait of an American Family and Smells Like Children for her birthday. So, I've had even more of an opportunity to immerse myself in the earlier stuff. I have to say...sure enough, I'm definitely warming to Antichrist Superstar. I've mentioned it before (and I know you've had a similar experience), but it's so interesting that I can pretty much dislike a Manson album at first and then end up being hopelessly addicted. If I give myself plenty of air-time, I usually end up finding something to like. My two favourite tracks on this album so far would have to be Angel With the Scabbed Wings and Antichrist Superstar. I also have a video of the former being performed live and wow...very impressive. While I'm on this subject, I should mention that I bought the Guns, God & Government DVD a little while ago. It had some good elements, but I got really frustrated with some of the weird editing (the cutting between different performances of the same song, resulting in sudden, inexplicable costume changes lol). That annoyed me. Bleh. But there were some worthwhile moments. I loved that bit with M.W. Gacy and the Japanese girls in the hotel room...my sister and I were having a good laugh at that. ~_^ So now, I have to go out there and buy the other DVDs. Is there anything I should look for first? I welcome your recommendations. In other news, I'm hoping to finally get my Nintendo DS this week. Don't you love shipping delays? In addition to that, I should also be entering Guild Wars this week, which will be great. I am really looking forward to playing the game with fellow community members - I already know at least half a dozen of you who play it, which is fantastic. It should be lots of fun. I don't know what else to say at the moment. Perhaps I should leave this open for questions?

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Sunday, May 8, 2005

The nature of the leeches...

Well, it looks like myO 3.0 and Premium development is soon to hit full stride. So I imagine that will occupy the majority of my time online, which certainly isn't a bad thing. It'll be nice to get knee-deep in that stuff and to have most of our construction work focused on it. I'm not quite sure where that leaves OtakuBoards, though. I am already scouting for new staff; a handful will probably be hired within the week. I expect our overall staff to increase significantly. In the end, we may end up with double what we have today. So at the very least, it should mean better Moderator coverage and so on. For those of you who are actually on staff, don't worry if there's any confusion at the moment. I'll be making a thread that deals with all of the upcoming changes. Hopefully I'll have time to do that very shortly. In other news, I went to buy Guild Wars from the local EB on the weekend. However, they'd already sold out. I was told that after the next shipment, they don't know when they'll be getting more copies. The suggestion was that perhaps Guild Wars has a lower allocation in Australia...which surprises me. As far as I know, World of Warcraft has been hugely popular here. And online gaming is quite strong in this country in general - Counter Strike still pulls massive numbers from Australia and Europe. So I basically ordered a copy and paid the entire amount there and then. It is expected to arrive this week, which is great. Hopefully it isn't as delayed as an album I ordered from Sanity (which is now in its third week of not being in my hands, even though they promised it'd arrive in one week...). If any of you follow the video game industry, you may have seen some of the nasty and semi-nasty comments flying back and forth lately. In between Bill Gates' assertion that Nintendo will only be a niche player in the next generation and Sony's comment that Xbox 360 is more of an "Xbox 1.5" rather than a major new platform, Nintendo itself has been pretty quiet. I really can't wait for E3 this year - it's going to be one of the more interesting shows within the history of the industry. Xbox 360 is probably the system that is the most known about at the moment. That's largely due to the fact that it is expected to launch later this year (so its development is obviously further along than Revolution or PS3). I think Xbox 360 will be a lot of fun. If it were backward compatible with the first system, I'd buy one on launch without question. But since it isn't, I will probably buy an Xbox when the price comes down further...and then get a 360 at some point in the distant future. The only thing that would change my mind is if Xbox 360 somehow drags more franchises away from Sony. And who knows, that may very well happen. Sony are not in good financial shape and their new CEO seems pretty disinterested in the PlayStation business. He seems more focused on building up Sony's strength in the consumer electronics market (ie: TVs, DVD players and so on). Not to say that he'll somehow pay no attention to PlayStation 3...but PS3 already has a few factors going against it. For one, there's PSP. This system is great, but in amongst its various problems are a launch that fell slightly short of Sony's own expectations and production costs that are, to be blunt, astronomical. It's not a good business model. PlayStation 3 is a big risk in some ways. Its technology is highly advanced and experimental - it will introduce many firsts. Unlike Xbox 360 and Revolution, it isn't really based on any existing or very recent architecture. Its CPU and its core components are being engineered specifically for the unit; or should I say, PS3 will represent the introduction of those technologies (Cell will debut in PS3 and is supposed to be used in other devices beyond that). While PS3 will be incredibly powerful - well beyond Xbox 360 and Revolution - that power will come at a much higher production cost. This makes me wonder if PS3 itself will be more expensive for consumers or if Sony will do the big no-no and take heavy losses on hardware. If the latter occurs, combined with a launch one year after their main competitor...well, it isn't great. And if their middleware isn't as easy as what Microsoft and Nintendo are planning, I think they're potentially hitting a brick wall. This is especially true of Xbox 360 jumps out of the gate with great sales in its first year. There's also the whole Blu-Ray/HD-DVD issue. I don't know how far along PS3's hardware development is...but it can't be good if they have to suddenly switch media format during the latter stage of the system's development. We aren't just talking a new laser here; this is something that could affect any and all games that are currently in development for the system. It may not be a huge issue for each specific game, but it's obviously one extra headache for Sony. As for Nintendo, there isn't much to say. Lots and lots of rumors and that's about it. Regardless what he says, Matt knows about as much as Aries when it comes to Revolution (maybe some if you will know what I'm talking about there, lol). If Nintendo show the actual unit and some video, I think it will definitely surprise people. But who knows what they'll show. All I can say is that ever since GameCube, Nintendo has really been snubbing conventional wisdom in the game industry. GameCube's entire design and appeal was totally different from any console that had ever been made up until that point. I think Revolution will be the same, but go a lot further. Anyway, it's going to be an amazing show. We will hopefully see the actual PlayStation 3 hardware and maybe some video demonstrations. I'm looking forward to that. Whatever happens, PS3 can't possibly be as unattractive as the new Xbox (which is not especially ugly, it's just highly bland and uninspired).

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Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Big Sigh

What a week! It's been a crazy time for me here at home. I will spare you the details right now, except to say that my family seems to have walked into a giant vortex and emerged on the other side a little better off. No, that probably won't make any sense, but it's about the best way I can describe the week without being specific. This (as well as real-world work) has meant that my activity online hasn't been as high as I'd have liked. But generally things are okay - it hasn't made a whole lot of difference for the most part. Freelance stuff is continuing and everything else is sort of a non-issue at the moment. I spent much of yesterday experimenting with designs for OtakuBoards. While I have no intention of perpetually leaving the site as it is, I would rather not throw something out there just for the sake of it. Whatever I do has to be a substantial improvement, I think. But still, I have been thinking that I should personalize OB a little more...make it more me. I have some ideas about that, which you'll no doubt see in due course. I've also realized that OB can't progress without a new staff. Having given this issue great consideration, I think that I'm basically going to have to remove a good 95% of OB's staff and appoint an entirely new group. There are so many reasons for this including people's lack of time/interest/whatever. That's all cool, I mean, it happens. It just means that I'm going to have to sit down with Dagger and be very aggressive in hunting down new staff. I suppose that at the end of the day, I can give OB a new skin and some new features and that's all good. But I want to do more than that. The site needs to freshen up and change in some other ways. Having a fresh, motivated team behind that effort will only help the progress. I also need to come up with a domain for myself. I've gone through dozens of names and haven't come across anything I'm terribly interested in. It's important though, because once that domain is secured, I will be able to finalize my own portfolio site and various other stuff. So wish me luck on that. ~_^ That's about it for now. Nothing too interesting I'm afraid. Oh, except that on Saturday, I saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm one of those terrible people who saw the film without having read any of the books, but I did find the film to be delightful. There were a lot of fantastic ideas in there - somehow the entire movie reminded me of a dream I've had before. Still, it was good fun. At some point, if time permits, I'd definitely enjoy tracking down the books.

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Sunday, May 1, 2005

Naked & Ashamed

Don't worry, that title has nothing to do with me, it just happens to be the name of a cool song. I want to thank everyone for your kind birthday wishes over the last couple of days. I really appreciate it. My birthday was okay - it was a pretty quiet affair, but that's fine. I had dinner with my sister and her friend on Friday and on Saturday night I saw a movie with a friend. So it was nice. Anyway, I will probably update with something more substantial in a few days. Right now I'm just enjoying my weekend. ~_^

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Thursday, April 28, 2005

Happiness and Sunshine: Part 2

Wow, what a morning! Today I received a package from Annie. I knew it was going to be great, but I wasn't quite prepred for its true greatness. ~_^ I received three very special items; a box of chocolate covered cherries (of course), a Mechanical Animals CD (in far better condition than the one I bought recently) and an incredibly cool Marilyn Manson t-shirt! Wow. Talk about hitting the spot. ~_^ So I'd like to thank the lovely Annie for her amazing gift. I seem to be receiving more and more packages lately! And all of them have been so wonderful. This package comes just in time for my birthday too, which is very nice indeed. ^_^

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Sunday, April 24, 2005

Happiness and Sunshine

"During The Renaissance, when they wished to imitate Immortal Greece, they produced Raphael. Ingres wished to imitate Raphael, and became Ingres. Cezanne wished to imitate Poussin, and thus became Cezanne. Dali wanted to imitate Meissonier and THE RESULT WAS DALI. Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing." - Salvador Dali Interesting words from one of my favourite artists. Those of you who read N-Sider at all may notice the latest edition of N-Banter, which involves myself and Jeff. It's really the first time that either of us have mentioned Matt (Matt Cassamasina of IGNcube) by name, when it comes to our fundamental disagreements with him. I doubt that this will mean anything beyond what's in the article (afterall, even N-Sider staff publicly disagree within their articles), but still, it's noteable that we are challenging his view. The more I think about it, the more I think he'd be better running the IGNgear section or something. It's not that I have anything against Matt. Far from it - he's actually very good to work with. However, he simply doesn't understand the company that he is covering. I'm not saying he should agree with Nintendo, but how can you agree or disagree with something if you don't understand it? It seems to me that this is the key problem with Matt and because he runs IGNcube, it's a problem that permeates that entire site. Even the Nintendo Minute questions (which I referenced in the N-Banter article) are biased and aren't constructive. There seems to be a competitive attitude over at that site. IGNcube seems to almost grudgingly cover Nintendo, as if they really want to be somewhere else the whole time. The fact that they make constant erroneous comparisions and get involved in things that really have nothing to do with Nintendo is part of that. In truth, I think IGNcube still does some good stuff. That is, when Matt isn't involved. The other IGN channels (gaming channels) are all reasonably good - as good as any other site, really. So my qualms aren't really with IGN as an entire group, so much as with Matt himself. Perhaps I am a bit spoiled, but I always like the idea that those covering Nintendo are the people who a) understand the company and b) are passionate about it. As I said, that doesn't mean they need to agree with Nintendo. I know I certainly don't agree with them all the time. But at least when I disagree, I have some understanding of their motivations and how they operate. And why has IGN been linking to that stupid blog, with the guy who has recently "spilled" so-called exclusive inside information about Revolution? The guy said that he'd have information by the end of the week. And yeah, he did. But what was it? It was all repeated information and speculation from everyone else. In other words, nothing new. And what was with the whole touch screen speculation? Iwata has stated that Revolution won't contain a touch screen. Yet this guy also asserted that touch screens would somehow be important to both Microsoft and Sony in the future - even though there's no indication whatsoever that Xbox 360 or PS3 would contain such a feature. I don't know. I don't like this period before E3, where the speculation runs rampant. People frequently get excited and let down. And then it often turns out that the real news it pretty different from the speculation itself. Why are people not content to just say "I don't know"? Why are people so eager to fill in the gaps, no matter how erroneous or sloppy their answers are? Maybe I'm unique in that I'm okay with "not knowing". Funny, this actually relates to my comments in OB's various religious threads too.

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Death by Record

Wow, what a lazy weekend. I'd kind of intended to go out somewhere, considering how busy the week had been. But so far, nothing. Eh...I just feel tired. I wish my bed was bigger (I want to roll over ten times and not fall off). Thanks for the comments on the last post, everyone. Panda, I hope that you are feeling okay - I read about your health concerns and responded on your page, but I wanted to shout out to you from here and let you know that you're in my thoughts. Best of luck and I hope you feel okay soon. ^_^ In other news, Para-noir is keeping me company now. Somehow, that song seems very appropriate for my life at the moment. I'm not sure if it's too dark, but you will find lines from that song in my intro image. I'm not really sad about it. In fact, I don't feel anything. Somehow it just seems expected and normal. Oh well. I don't dwell on things a lot these days (or as much as I used to) and being so busy definitely helps - it's a good way to refocus your mind on more productive things. By the way, you should go over to Mimmi's myOtaku and give her a hug. Spread the love, people. ~_^

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Saturday, April 23, 2005

TV made you God.

So, the fetish continues. I just bought a couple more Marilyn Manson albums and I've had one of my trademark changes of heart when it comes to myOtaku layout. But still, it's just another thing to add to my folio (whenever I get that thing up). Hopefully, whether you pay attention to my updates or not, the constant image changes keep you interested. At the very least, you know it's an adventure each time you refresh. ~_^ Theme changing reminds me of something. Apparently we were going to have a myOtaku theme competition of sorts over at OtakuBoards. Shy, whatever happened to that? Where is my Event Master? It's very quiet around here. *tumble weed rolls past* So anyway, it's my birthday next Saturday. I've been thinking about it a lot, because I was wanting to actually do something this year. Usually my birthdays pass with very little fanfare - I haven't had a party for it in years and years. Usually I'm attending other people's parties, lol. My sister's birthday is on May 2nd, so now that she's a bit older, we thought we might do something together. She suggested a costume party, which I like the idea of. However, she has since backed off that idea - apparently she doesn't want to host a big party. She feels that if she's constantly monitoring things, she won't be able to have fun. So I said I'd do that, but still, I don't think she's as keen on the idea anymore. That sucks. It would have been a good excuse to break out the purple top hat. ~_^ Oh well. I know that next year, she'll be 18...and that will be the end of me. Since we are so close, we will no doubt be going everywhere together. Next year we're wanting to take a big trip down to Phillip Island (sans parents) so that we can spend our birthdays there. That should be good. Beach parties are fun, especially at Phillip Island, where the beaches are completely deserted during the off season. Kat: Um, I'm not sure really. If I couldn't go as Wonka (or some variant on Manson), I'm not sure who I'd go as. Perhaps a male stripper? Fireman jacket with the helmet and boots, with nothing but underwear underneath? *shrug* ...and yes, I like the background. It's become very me, I think. ~_^ Besides, it reminds me of the wallpaper from a very old mansion. So it suits a few of my themes, I think. Shin-san: But see, you don't need to change your layout frequently. You actually put energy into your updates (unlike myself), so you are able to attract people with that quite easily.

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Thursday, April 21, 2005

DerLustmorder

Yesterday I was helping Adam with our new Cosplay site. Mostly it was just about testing the system we have in place and so on. Everything has come along very well, it's a nice piece of work. I really know nothing about cosplay personally, except that it's pretty popular among anime fans - especially older fans who tend to make a big deal about it at conventions. Of course, there's a darker side to cosplay (ie: Man Faye), but I must admit that I've seen some extraordinary creativity in the field. From the little I know, cosplay sites tend to only allow a very limited number of pictures. My understanding is that theOtaku.com: Cosplay will offer something like six pictures per gallery (with as many galleries as you like). It's also my understanding that there will be no approval process - all cosplayers will be able to upload their work and see immediate results. Of course, it will still require strong moderation. But from what I've seen so far, it looks like a compelling addition to the network. Hopefully the keen cosplayers out there will use theOtaku.com: Cosplay as an introduction to the rest of our network. In other news, I want to thank Tony for making a bunch of Manson stuff available to me. As I mentioned on AIM, it'll help me to decide what I'm going to buy first. Also, for those who don't know, Annie has moved to a new location. I just thought I'd give her a little plug. ~_^

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Omega and the Mechanical Animals

I really don't mean any harm toward Mr. Lanning, but I find it very ironic that his company is now leaving the video game industry. This same decision from a man who promised to deliver a revelation with Much's Oddysee. Mhm. But seriously, I wish Lorne Lanning the best of luck. He's actually an incredibly creative and talented guy. Earlier tonight I was talking Marilyn Manson with my sister. She's a big fan and like me she's a relatively artistic person. She has a strong interest in photography and different types of art media (charcoal, watercolour, etc). If I can ever show you her work, I will. Her charcoal work in particular is brilliant - absolutely brilliant. Some of her pieces are almost photorealistic. Not bad for a sixteen year old. I thought that she may be interested in learning about Gottfried Helnwein. Helnwein is an artist in his own right (in quite a large array of media), but he has also collaborated heavily with Marilyn Manson over recent years. His work is really a mixture of different philosophies, but if you look at his photography you'll find that most of it is pretty grotesque stuff. He collaborated with Marilyn Manson on The Golden Age of Grotesque, which had pretty interesting results. This led to a deeper discussion about Marilyn Manson's art. Actually, the discussion began because I was thinking about the thread on OB related to this subject. Obviously there's far too much to say about his work overall to go into a lot of detail here, but I thought I'd share one thing with you: "Along with representing Mercury, Manson's personification of the Androgyne also is symbolic of half of the songs of Mechanical Animals. In album artwork the opposite cover of the album shows Manson dressed as Omega, the lead singer of the fictitious group Omega And The Mechanical Animals. Instead of the song progressions being cyclical like Antichrist Svperstar or linear like Holy Wood, Mechanical Animals represents the same era of time and space. With the story told with The Triptych of Manson's albums Antichrist Svperstar, Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood, an autobiographical story of Manson's life about a boy growing up and influenced by the world and wanting to change the world, to start a revolution. But when that revolution was enacted it ceased to be dangerous and any method of change, it becomes another product. And the only way to destroy the corruption and stop the hollow revolution is to destroy what you create and thus inherently destroying yourself. Mechanical Animals represents the point in the story of this rise to fame and where the revolution becomes another mere product. The side and half of the album represented by Omega And The Mechanical Animals shows the public side, the debaucherous and self-indulgent aspect of it. Ambivalent of the corruption of the revolution, this side of the album is full of facetious over the top hollow anthems of disenchantment. The other half of the album however shows not the public and indulgent side, but rather the internal and unseen conflict within; the sadness, innocence and sincerity which had been lost in the public light. The album's cover reflects this, just as the reverse side of Omega reflects the indulgent and hollow perspective of it. The Androgyne demonstrates this fragile childlike innocence. And one of the more esoteric representations of this is that Manson has six fingers on his left hand." Note the sixth finger in the close-up above. That's one tiny little tidbit. But isn't it fascinating? And that's just in relation to one album. This is the sort of thing that I think most people are missing. I remember one guy said that Manson's visual image was there as a kind of crutch, to back-up his music. It's funny, because in actual fact, there is a very clear and meaningful correlation between the well-crafted visuals and the very specifically-developed lyrics and music. I wish that more bands put such thought into their music and image. Afterall, why can't music correlate with imagery that is just as detailed and multi-layered as the music itself? It's great that I can use both my eyes and my ears to have a richer experience. If you are interested in learning more about this stuff, you should go here. It's become a favourite site, simply due to the wealth of historical information. It's also a really interesting way to learn about Marilyn Manson's many, many influeces in history (both in terms of art and religion). It doesn't disappoint.

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