Saturday, January 15, 2005

Doodly.

Comment Commentary

Shin- I actually figured out a better way to emulate that.. Visual style, that two-toned rendering of the amplifier. It's pretty freaking sweet.

Mimmi- Well, in the song the letter's telling him that his wife/girlfriend/whatever actually died, instead of just leaving him, but I'd prefer that theory.

Azure- :/

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Today.. It's funny. Throughout the day there was a hundred things I wanted to write about on here, but as I sit down to actually write it I forget.

Due to the two days off of school we had this week (thanks, flooding), and that goddamn No Child Left Behind Act, we rushed through a ton of math that I personally wish we hadn't. We had a big test on this stuff today, and though I left three blank because I didn't have time to bullshit an answer, it seems as if I still filled out more than a lot of other people. If I checked everything right, and calculated it correctly, I got a low B.

Oh well. Lord knows I had much worse last year.

I've been working on that Stella Deus drawing for the past couple days, and I finally printed out a high resolution version of the drawing last night. There are lots of intricate details on this character's outfit, and a typical JPEG wasn't enough. I was just about done with the lines and began shading as my teacher told me that I should focus on doing my own stuff and not copy others'.

I'm not sure what it was about that statement that got me agitated. Maybe it was the way that he said it, or the fact that I had been pouring a ton of detail into this thing, or how I suck at character designs and one can only improve by mimicking, but something got me ticked. That, however, was brushed off, and I went back to shading in the breasts.

:)

Speaking of that drawing, I just have to clean up the lines and blend the shading a little more, and it'll be ready to scan. As I predicted, the eyes make her look nothing like the real version, which makes it a bust, but hopefully this title will remain low-key enough so that nobody will even know where the hell this person came from.

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When I came home, there was a package from Amazon.com sitting on my porch. If you recall (or give two shits), I ordered the new White Stripes DVD and Excel Saga manga volume five some time last week, and to avoid paying any more, I did the free shipping. According to the site, free shipping tends to take eight to nine days, but I got it almost a week ahead of when I was supposed to. This made me happy.

I was aware that the manga had been shipped a day later, so the only thing that belonged to me in there (my brother used his "gift card" to buy goddamn Zoo Tycoon) was the DVD, but that was not at all a letdown.

The packaging is somewhat unconventional. It's not in the typical plastic Amaray case- it's a cardboard-ish box with some incredibly attractive art on it.

(Opening it was as easy as blinking, compared to the rest of the DVD nation. It only took me fifty seconds.)

Instead of the typical one-page insert on the left side, there was a pretty thick book with the set list in it, and, again, accompanied by some kickass art. Another thing I liked about the booklet: Each track had its history printed beneath it, with interesting little tidbits mixed in.

The concert itself was very good. Of course, I've never been to a live White Stripes performance, nor have I seen one on TV, so I didn't quite know what to expect. Those around me tend to think that they're only two people, so they can't be too interesting, but it was.. Quite entertaining. Jack was odd (and I do mean that- he was enthusiastic one minute and incredibly mellow the next), but Meg was a lot more energetic than I ever pictured her. Together, they created a unique, half-personal show.

I heard a lot of songs that I never have before (though a lot of their songs end up sounding like Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground, heh), and that was nice.

I've heard people say that the band tends to "reinterpret" their songs in concert, and now I know exactly what that means. It's great to hear some of your favorite songs remixed (if you can call it that without destroying the very foundation and belief of this band), and it's even better when they're strung together seamlessly.

For those two reasons I could equate it to a minimalistic rock revival-style rave, but I'm not going to.

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I was told to copy, like, fifteen CDs of music I don't particularly care for today by a friend. I'm doing it, in hopes that I'll find some songs that will reward me for my efforts, but so far it ain't happening.

One of the CDs was the "best of" Red Hot Chili Peppers album, which is decent, but other than that it's bands like The Hives and The Strokes and a bunch of indie bands you'll never, ever hear of.

Closing statement: The commentary on the Reno 911 DVD, though sparse, is incredibly enjoyable. The deleted scenes are hit-and-miss, but they also have the Samuel Jackson Beer commercial from Chappelle's Show, so it all balances out.

EDIT: Yep, that theme is gone already. Fear the red, fear the black. Fear the fact that I came that close to stealing Shin's color scheme.
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