A fantasy world Destination. PANDAMAN approved.
A beautiful island resort that unfortunately, doesn't belong to Tyrael. :(
Stanford University. Really? A little too unrecognizable...
Friday, June 22, 2012
Second Life
Second Life is, in my opinion, a bad representation of a virtual/alternate reality world. Long story short, the graphics and controls are horrible, and the learning curve would probably turn away a lot of people. Nonetheless, I spent some time with it and made a PANDAMAN named Tyrael. Screenshots below.
Monday, June 18, 2012
THE MARMALADE
A friend shared this video on Facebook. The marriage of art and technology, and not to mention the editing in the video itself, is amazing. All those cool videos and commercials? This is how they do it. Wow.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Plastic Surgery...
We were talking about plastic surgery in a class or two, and it's certainly a debatable topic. Personally, I feel that if you want to use plastic surgery as a means to change yourself or for art, and not for injury related reasons, then you're probably insecure about something. No matter how brutally honest you might be, you are subconsciously insecure about your looks. Could be due to past trauma or experiences. Just my quick two cents.
On a related and rather interesting and funny note, I mentioned in class that Koreans have a supposed high rate of plastic surgery. A quote straight out of the article: "In a 2009 survey by the market research firm Trend Monitor, one of every five women in Seoul between the ages of 19 and 49 said they had undergone plastic surgery."
I mean, look at their stars and singers...
Not hatin' or judgin', but analyzin'!!
On a related and rather interesting and funny note, I mentioned in class that Koreans have a supposed high rate of plastic surgery. A quote straight out of the article: "In a 2009 survey by the market research firm Trend Monitor, one of every five women in Seoul between the ages of 19 and 49 said they had undergone plastic surgery."
I mean, look at their stars and singers...
The women are.. "too perfect".
(*They're Korean, but this song is their Japanese debut.)
And the men have some... "feminine" undertones...
Not hatin' or judgin', but analyzin'!!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Crash Course World History
All this talk about art and its historical backgrounds has made me want to review and refresh some topics... Here's a great weekly web series that touches upon various world history topics.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9
Their channel also has videos on biology/chemistry. Hilarious, yet somewhat effective (if not more), way to learn and review!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9
Their channel also has videos on biology/chemistry. Hilarious, yet somewhat effective (if not more), way to learn and review!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Alternative History and Fate/Zero
All this talk about art and history has got me thinking. I've always had a decent interest in history, and world history specifically. I strongly believe that it's important to learn from our past so that we don't repeat it.
Alternative history has recently gained my interest. I define it as the "what if's" and "could have been's". Sometimes, history isn't all what it seems, especially since the victors of wars are the ones to write it. And nothing is preventing it from being rewritten... The conspiracy and pseudo-science filled Assassin's Creed franchise is one example. I'll expand on that lore in another post. For now, I want to look at the Japanese media franchise, Fate/Zero. It's actually the prequel to Fate/stay night, which was originally a Japanese visual novel, essentially a character driven narrative consisting of a video game and a dating simulation with some very suggestive/explicit themes. I never got into Fate/stay night or its subsequent anime adaptation, but the Fate/Zero anime adaptation really captivated me.
The plot: 7 "Masters" each summon a "Heroic Spirit" from the past in one of 7 classes (Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker). These "Servants" then battle it out in Fuyuki City for the coveted Holy Grail. This particular battle royale is the fourth Holy Grail War.
Although there are many aspects of magic and fantasy, the most interesting and relevant part of Fate/Zero are the Servants, as they are each based on a once living or mythological person. The main protagonist is Saber, who is actually King Arthur, King of Knights. Forced to ascend to the throne, she sacrificed her otherwise normal feminine life to save Britain. Another hero, Rider, is Alexander the Great, also known as Iskandar and the King of Conquerors. In both cases, as seen below, they defy what we know about these historic figures: King Arthur was actually female, and Alexander was not a short man as he is described to be. More historical comparisons can be found here.
Alternative history has recently gained my interest. I define it as the "what if's" and "could have been's". Sometimes, history isn't all what it seems, especially since the victors of wars are the ones to write it. And nothing is preventing it from being rewritten... The conspiracy and pseudo-science filled Assassin's Creed franchise is one example. I'll expand on that lore in another post. For now, I want to look at the Japanese media franchise, Fate/Zero. It's actually the prequel to Fate/stay night, which was originally a Japanese visual novel, essentially a character driven narrative consisting of a video game and a dating simulation with some very suggestive/explicit themes. I never got into Fate/stay night or its subsequent anime adaptation, but the Fate/Zero anime adaptation really captivated me.
The plot: 7 "Masters" each summon a "Heroic Spirit" from the past in one of 7 classes (Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker). These "Servants" then battle it out in Fuyuki City for the coveted Holy Grail. This particular battle royale is the fourth Holy Grail War.
Although there are many aspects of magic and fantasy, the most interesting and relevant part of Fate/Zero are the Servants, as they are each based on a once living or mythological person. The main protagonist is Saber, who is actually King Arthur, King of Knights. Forced to ascend to the throne, she sacrificed her otherwise normal feminine life to save Britain. Another hero, Rider, is Alexander the Great, also known as Iskandar and the King of Conquerors. In both cases, as seen below, they defy what we know about these historic figures: King Arthur was actually female, and Alexander was not a short man as he is described to be. More historical comparisons can be found here.
Aside from using real historical backgrounds and mythologies, the series delves into much philosophical ideals, with themes including morality, being a king, insanity, and tragedy. The series is also beautiful, both visually and aural. I could wax on and on about how awesome the franchise and series is, but I will spare you, because videos are worth a million words. :)
Archer (Gilgamesh) versus Berserker (Lancelot), while the rest of the heroes watch in awe. Notice the insanely fluid animation and epic soundtrack. Watch it on the YouTube page for maximum awesomeness. Later, they fight in the air on friggin' jets. No lie, but YouTube has since removed those clips.
YouTube's pretty anal about removing copyrighted material, so here are links to the opening themes on Vimeo. They offer a great glimpse into what the series is about in 1.5 minutes each.
http://vimeo.com/39949297
Amazing ending theme depicting each of the heroes in historical context: http://vimeo.com/31497071
Amazing ending theme depicting each of the heroes in historical context: http://vimeo.com/31497071
The action scenes and deep character interactions in the anime kept me interested. I've since looked up each historical figure and learned a lot. It's legally streamed at Crunchyroll, and the series will end with episode 25 at the end of June. I'm glad this series was picked up for simulcast (simultaneous broadcasting in places other than Japan), because it deserves as much exposure as possible. I dare say this is better than that Game of Thrones that everyone talks about nowadays... Although I admit, I should watch that too.
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Dangers of Knowledge
After reading Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, it's obvious that knowing too much could, to put it bluntly, lead to really bad things. In my paper, I related this concept to Fullmetal Alchemist, a very popular long running franchise in print (manga, or comics, published since 2001) and animation (a 50+ episode series running from 2003-2004 with its remake of 60+ episodes in 2009-2010, each followed by feature length films in 2005 and 2011).
The narrative is essentially about two brothers, Ed and Al Elric, who learn alchemy. Their mother dies suddenly when they're very young. Having learned alchemy from the materials left behind from the father who left the family, the brothers attempt the forbidden act of resurrecting their mother. Disaster strikes, as the resurrection is impossible; you can't bring back the souls of the dead. The brothers are permanently scarred with Ed losing an arm and a leg, and Al losing his entire body and having his soul bound to a suit of armor. Despite all this, they embark on a journey to find the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies... and in pursuit of more knowledge, they find more suffering...
Below is an English dubbed trailer by Funimation (inferior to the original Japanese version, but the only Japanese ones I can find are from the official website and they don't have subtitles...):
The narrative is essentially about two brothers, Ed and Al Elric, who learn alchemy. Their mother dies suddenly when they're very young. Having learned alchemy from the materials left behind from the father who left the family, the brothers attempt the forbidden act of resurrecting their mother. Disaster strikes, as the resurrection is impossible; you can't bring back the souls of the dead. The brothers are permanently scarred with Ed losing an arm and a leg, and Al losing his entire body and having his soul bound to a suit of armor. Despite all this, they embark on a journey to find the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies... and in pursuit of more knowledge, they find more suffering...
Below is an English dubbed trailer by Funimation (inferior to the original Japanese version, but the only Japanese ones I can find are from the official website and they don't have subtitles...):
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
RE: "Guys and Dolls" Documentary
This is in response to the documentary, "Guys and Dolls", that we saw in class today. Indeed, the people in the documentary are not "normal". They seek genuine companionship in inanimate but lifelike dolls. Humans are social creatures, but sometimes, it doesn't always work out right. As stated by some of the men in the video, they had bad experiences with real women or other circumstances (mother's sudden death for instance) that prompted them to seek out alternative partner options.
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