algroth

nvm

Sun Ra came to this world from Saturn and left it a better place. This remains one of my favorites of his, insane stuff: Also, spamming my own personal favorite in return, here's a band that could combine Sun Ra's spritual/sci-fi delirium with Can's hypnotic groove into one weird, funky and transcendent jam:

For what it's worth, inXile's been actively responding on Twitter at many of the questions asked to them about their own acquisition by Microsoft. On the question of online stores and GoG, their response is: "We're keeping our backer commitments for BT4 and WL3. Beyond that, it's hard to say. It's still very early in this new relationship." This would suggest other platforms are not out of the question, at least for the community-backed stuff currently in the works. On the other hand this suggests Win/Xbox exclusivity may be a part of the deal for future non-backer games for them. So, assuming the deal with Obsidian was similar, sad times.

Do you guys not have consoles? Nope. And I'd probably get a Switch or a PS4 before I'd get an Xbox too. Also I'm very much in the same field as you, Doom. My experiences with corp mergers/acquisitions has always been a net negative, to me and to the product in general. Hoping it's not the case here, and I wish the people at Obsidian the best.

So what does this mean for non-Win10/Xbox players?

Christ, Daredevil S3 was *good*.

I don't hate Rush, but I'm not much of a fan either. I'm a fan of prog and some 70s hard rock, but as a combination of both I always felt them very creaky, like they managed to both bastardize prog and neuter hard rock in the act. As a prog band they're never particularly adventurous and don't have a particularly evocative sound, while their overreliance on subpar hard rock licks and riffs and hooks gave them something of an AOR/kitsch factor to their music (not to mention their atrocious lyrics, but hey, they hardly were alone on that front regarding prog); meanwhile as a hard rock band they've always sounded too thin and tinny to my ears, they feel very powerless. But they do have some enjoyable moments in albums like A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, and I do think they made up for most of their shortcomings as a hard rock band in a live setting. But yeah, can't say I've felt the need to listen to them in fifteen years.

What I'm curious about is what this number represents exactly regarding the sales thus far. Looking at the dividends per sales graph on the site, this would suggest Deadfire's sold less than 100k copies, but based on leaked Steam numbers back in July, it had up to that point sold 203k copies on that platform alone. So what gives?

At least it gave us this: [Youtube]

I mean...I guess it's possible it wasn't supposed to be funny. But between the constant random sarcastic comments made by the camera man and Genya ridiculously and comedically inserting himself into the films, it seemed like it was supposed to be. Well, I was laughing a lot, anyways, . As for the ending...having her die in such a predictable and silly movie-like manner was just bad, and then to end the movie on THAT line? I guess it was supposed to be a big epiphany or whatever, but talk about undercutting the rest of the movie - between that and her saying earlier in the film that she only acted so that she could have the freedom to continue her search felt like her basically admitting that her entire life was a joke. Talk about depressing dying words...really did not sit well with me. But again, journey vs. destination, and the journey was fine (though it was fitting that the destination of a movie about a woman's life sucked...just like the ultimate destination of all our lives, eh?). As for Paprika...didn't realize it was the same director, and it's probably a good thing I didn't, since I found it to be...not very good at all.Yeah, my reaction to Paprika was pretty mixed - I enjoyed aspects of its design and all the narrative arc involving the detective and psychologist's relationship. It's with that villainous plot involving mind control through dream invasion or something that I felt the whole affair became extremely silly and banal, and undermined whatever oneiric quality the film was aiming for. Weirdly enough I feel a certain parallel can be drawn with Deadfire, but still, agreed. Not very good.

Finally catching up with Luke Cage. Pretty good so far, the blaxploitation elements may be a little more overplayed so far relative to the first season (and that was pretty on-the-nose already), but I don't really mind that so much, it's an enjoyable imaginary they've got going, I like the swagger to the whole thing. But man, Mustafa Shakir!!! What a charismatic, utterly magnetic dude. "STOKES. Mariah STOKES." Absolutely loving his part as the Bushmaster so far, he's great.

The composer's Justin Bell. Don't know if he has any ties with Morrowind, but influence is never out of the question either.

Speaking of which, Patrick H. Willems released this vid the other day which is pretty damn good: She's been doing some great work, I agree! An experimental art film is not a movie? I love Eraserhead but it's definitely one of Lynch's more hard-going films, along the likes of Inland Empire or Fire Walk With Me. Regarding Millennium Actress I felt back when I watched it that it had the best ending of any of Kon's films... Though for me Kon's films always had trouble with their endings (Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika were especially bad in this front). I can't off the top of my head recall much comedy in it, which maybe means I should have another look at it. Still, I enjoyed the way it told the protagonist's story through the different fictions she as an actress took part in and through them reflected on the changes to the Japanese film industry through a period I'm particularly into. I found it very creative and moving.

I think Aronofsky's wanted to adapt Perfect Blue to live action for a while too, and owns the rights to it but never quite managed to lift the project off the ground. Black Swan was sort of his take on the film, if I recall how he referred it as correctly. Anyhow... I realize that I might have come across a bit sniffy about my remarks on Perfect Blue, what with my remarks on the genre tropes and so on - but I do think it's a fine film. With regards to the subgenre I refer to, I can't say the exact name for it but there's a long tradition of melodramas/psychological dramas that deal with performers and artists finding the fictional work they're creating seeping into reality and blurring the lines with fiction and sanity and so on. Usually I've found that when it comes to blurring the lines between reality and fiction in this subgenre there's often certain techniques that are used the likes of unifying two distinctly separate times or spaces through classic raccord elements or an apparent continuity in dialogue, the presence of elements in an allegedly 'real' scene that break a fourth wall and lend it a 'staged' perception or likewise the omission of context to evidence a particular 'fictional' scene is actually so, characters embodying dual personalities that interchange between their fictional role and 'real' selves and so on, an approach to focalization that seems to start off fairly detatched to that of the protagonist but grows increasingly or intermittently fixed on the first-person perspective from their eyes, etc. I think I'm being disingenuous in recommending The Red Shoes in comparison to Perfect Blue because I reckon viewing any film in comparison to another probably detracts from the experience overall and because I reckon that The Red Shoes does play as more of a melodrama with these surreal/psychological flairs moreso than a full psychological/surreal film exploiting all the previous point to their utmost the way something like Perfect Blue, or Inland Empire or Suspiria for example, do; but that said, it's the earliest example I can think of off the top of my head of this sort of narrative and there's moments throughout that are very prescient about how future films would tackle these kinds of storylines, and no doubt served as influence at least for, if not Perfect Blue, then at the very least the films that would inspire it in turn. And also won't spoil which but there's a sequence in the film which in my opinion is arguably the finest sequence ever committed to film - you'll know the one when you see it I think, Bart. Would love to hear your thoughts on it when you check it out! Millennium Actress too.

I thought Perfect Blue was pretty decent, but I also feel like it played really heavily into the well-worn tropes and cliches of its particular subgenre and, well, surreal cinema at large. I felt that it was enjoyable enough but the way the film tried to blur the divisions between reality and performance by abstracting time and place or correlating scenes and dialogues throygh montages, the use of dissonant soundscapes, repetition and so on was all pretty 101 for this sort of film, it's basically the kind of thing filmmakers like Lynch, Aronofsky and Argento have built careers on, and the first two at least have done in more intriguing fashion. I can also recommend The Red Shoes as a high landmark of the genre. Also with regards to Satoshi Kon's work I always feel like he was at his best when the style he employed here wasn't ysed for the sake of an oneiric effect, but for a more Malickan impressionist one as with Millennium Actress which to me is his finest film. Granted, it's been a long while since I last saw it so my opinion could be pretty different nowadays, kind of going by memory on my impressions above. And speaking of impressionist cinema, this to me is The Wind Rises to a tee. Much like Satoshi Kon's transition from Perfect Blue to Millennium Actress I feel this is the film where Miyazaki's more freeform experimentations with visuals and narrative from his past three films found a perfect match with the themes of his latest, which seems to be a reflection on the ephemeral nature of life as seen through dreams initially but also experiences, memory and ultimately even one's legacy. When there was all the talk about this being Miyazaki's last film, it kind of held a firmer ground than either Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away as the film did seem to almost be commenting on an artist's oeuvre and be remarking on the artist's journey and so on - that final dream sequence could very well have had Miyazaki himself as a protagonist instead. I feel the approach to the romance is odd but strangely fitting to this narrative too: it comes about almost feverishly and dissipates much like a fleeting thing. Ultimately even the dream depicts the woman at the height of her loveliness opposite to how we'd last been seeing her, she's an idealized version and even memory seems to distort or erase the signs of the experiences they lived together. I think it's really wonderful myself, I found it very moving.

Can we get to a whole page or r/wooosh?

Also, something of a 'celebrity', but this is pretty brutal: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46036058 Whitey Bulger got beaten to death in a US federal prison.

R.I.P.

I've been meaning to check it out. Have You In My Wilderness was one of the better albums of 2015, and probably my favorite that came to my attention from outside my primary music scene. For once the Pitchfork-cult hyped something appropriately. I will warn right off the bat, it's a *very* different beast to Have You in my Wilderness. It is a wildly experimental and abstract record through and through, placing a lot of focus on lush and maximalist textures and clusters, and a maelstrom of influences and genres through moving between modern classical, avant-folk, avant-garde jazz, krautrock, minimalism et al. It's a proper feast for the ears, one of those occasional records that comes from an artist with a wildly ambitious vision and both the talent and the resources to see it through. Really worth the listen.

You can't. In Deadfire grimoires act rather as extensions to your spell repertoire instead.

Julia Holter's Aviary is the album of the year and, quite possibly, album of the decade so far. [Youtube]

Oh! I missed it, sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSjsNzffUGQ

HOLY **** THIS WORLDS IS INSANE

I'm not certain I'm following this. It sounds like you're saying you prefer a game that immerses the player over a game that engages you through themes and directly makes you a participant. But you then claim that Pillars is the sort of game that you don't prefer, while proceeding to claim that you love such games because they are distinctly "Obsidian"? Either you're confusing your use of former and latter, or this is a heck of a backhanded compliment! Or, I just somehow missed your point. No, I'm saying that both games engaged me in different ways. Generally I reckon I prefer the latter case (being engaged by the themes and ideas) but mostly because it's rarer for games to engage that way with me, and why I like Obsidian and Pillars particularly. I reckon that in that sense I was expecting to be engaged in a different manner to how Deadfire ultimately engaged with me, if that makes any sense.