Tri- Yearly Media Update #2 - May - August

Wild few months for me! 

For starters, my summer job ended and I got my first non-seasonal job. I don't want to get too into it on this blog for several reasons, but let's just say I've been busy. 

I started off strong in this part of the year, but it ended weakly due to my other obligations. Altogether I consumed 128 unique pieces of media (as opposed to last third's 138), so not too shabby. I'll cover literature and albums in the month's paragraphs, but films, television, and other stuff by themselves.

With May, I was waiting for my summer job to begin. It would be my last month of the year without work, so I tried to consume as much as possible. I began going to the library, I picked up a bunch of comics for Free Comic Book Day, and I even read some non-fiction, all the way from gem identification guides from the 70's, a collection of weird facts, and a memoir about the Vietnam Memorial. I read my first John Green novel, Turtles All the Way Down, one of King's first books, 'Salem's Lot, and began dozens of new manga series. In total, I read 50 books. For albums, I listened to the most here, with standouts being Spiritual State by my favorite Nujabes (rest in peace) and Aretha Franklin's Lady Soul. I also heard Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Ye by Kanye West. While I liked a lot of the songs I heard on all these albums, the only one that I really loved was Nujabes's. In total, that was 13 albums.

In June, my job began. That being said, I still managed to read quite a bit. I carried through on some manga series I began the month before, like Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer), Vagabond, and my Bakuman re-read. I finished a YA novel called Incarceron, read 1984 and The Road for the first time, and actually read a Veterinary handbook about the human-animal bond, all of which were informative if not entertaining. All in all, it was 21 books. In music I listened to only 4 albums: Skiptracing by Mile High Club (which I was told was incredible but didn't like that much), Dragon by Denki Groove (which I thought was fun and upbeat), and Shingeki no Kiseki by Linked Horizon, along with Attack on Titan Season 3's entire Original Soundtrack. I love music from the media I enjoy, and that's what puts those two ahead of the others for me.

You can already see it declining, right? 

By July, I told myself that I didn't need to consume that much. My birthday trip was coming up, four different friends were all going to visit me by the end of it, and I hit the peak of my summer job's busiest weeks. The only books I read were manga volumes (5 of them, to be exact) and I only managed a single abum -- Pink Moon, by Nick Drake. 

I got a few more things under my belt in August, but not much. I tried really hard to finish King's Cujo, Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and F. C. Yee's Avatar: The Last Airbender prequel novel, The Rise of Kyoshi. I wasn't able to, so those will be discussed in next third's entry -- all I managed were, again, a bunch of manga volumes - 10 in total, with titles like Golden Kamuy, The Promised Neverland, and Tokyo Ghoul: Re. I finished Black Torch, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, and began the grimdark fantasy classic Berserk, by Kentaro Miura. In music, I hit 4 albums again with Michael Jackson's Bad and Thriller, Scissor Sisters's bouncy Ta-Dah, and and the soundtrack of the first season of Stranger Things, probably the only "show" I care about. 

That makes it as so: 

Novels - 6

Non-Fiction - 4

Magazines - 4

Poetry - 1

Graphic Novels - 70

Movies - 28

Albums - 22

Anime - 16

Television - 1

Well... once again skewed in the favor of comics! I tried to work in some other media this time, but due to time constraints I just couldn't get everything. No matter... let's look at each category individually. 

Novels

Part of me feels really bad that I only managed six novels this time around, but goddamn does life just not care about your desires. It really doesn't, you could want something as simple as time to read a single book and it will just look you in face and go, "...NOPE!" 

That's sort of what happened this time around. I'm still learning how to manage my time with a project like this, so when I finally started my summer job all bets were off. My writing halted, my reading halted, and all I wanted to do when I got home was sleep.

I wish there was silver lining here in that the stuff I did get to was incredible, masterful works of literature that made up in quality for my lack of quantity, but that is not the case. I don't like talking too negatively about writing for obvious reasons, but part of this project is honesty and subjectivity, and I just have to tell it how it is.

I started off with Thirteenth Child, the first novel in the Frontier Magic series by Patricia C. Wrede, and it was just... awful. Awful pacing, awful characters, oddly vague setting, it wandered all over the place and didn't deliver on its premise in any meaningful way while boring me half to death. I'm gonna stop there because I'm already being very venomous, but I don't think the problems with this book lie with its demographic (it was more Middle Grade than YA). More to do with its execution. A girl's whole childhood is wrapped up in this book -- from birth to her eighteenth birthday -- and nothing happens. The title of the book comes from her unlucky circumstances of being the thirteenth child (twin to the seventh son of a seventh son) and while a few minor characters in the beginning remark about it, it is relevant in... maybe two chapters?

Yikes. Time to move on.

But moving on brings us to Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, which was also awful. I don't even know where to start with this one -- the setting is even vaguer than Thirteenth Child, which at least made sense in that it had a set time period. Incarceron wanders around in foamy prose with such light details on the actual events of the story that I genuinely forgot what was happening halfway through. I still don't entirely remember -- things happen out of nowhere and are described so awkwardly that at times the book just felt like text. I realize these two novels are the beginnings of a series, and to judge a whole story on its first installment is dreadfully unfair... but am I supposed to invest time in the narrative when it's opening is handled like this? It's okay to make mistakes, and I'm by no means the only person with an opinion on these books. Many love them. That's more than okay -- that's great, because it proves my point about the subjectivity of art. I just can't do it myself.

So I decided to go with a favorite. Stephen King.

Oh boy was I in for more hurt.

With 'Salem's Lot, his second novel and the classic foray into vampires taking over a small town, I expected to be given a savory narrative about the destruction of normalcy, the ever-creeping crawl of vampirism on innocents the way parasites feed off an unknowing host. And it delivered that... kind of? I don't know, I was too distracted by the endlessly boring small-town drama that, instead of really painting a picture of the life they live (for it to be torn down by an outside enemy) only ever made me peek at when the chapter was gonna end. Good lord, it's described as a slow burn, but not only is the climax of the story dutifully underwhelming (thematically more so than on a level of spectacle), the "slow-burn" setup to get there is the sloggiest of slogs. I was knee-deep in a bog, moving at a snail's pace to finish. One of his first, yes, but also one of his weakest.

At this point I'm probably asking for someone to swoop in on my first book and leave a scathing, nasty, awful review, but it would have happened whether I said this stuff or not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There was a bit of sunshine, though. I read my first John Green book, Turtles All the Way Down, which while not exactly something I relate to, it was something that gave me an understanding of how to not only write a compelling, conventional story, but also how to utilize actual mental illness in a way that raises awareness and doesn't need to adhere to standard literary tropes -- what I mean by this is a bit of a spoiler, so I'll keep quiet; but it is enough to keep me suitably interested in Green's other works from hereon out. 

Then came Cormac Mccarthy's The Road, supposedly the saddest book there is. It certainly tries to be, with despair and violence that would make more empathetic or squeamish readers want to put it down. But instead of really "portraying" suffering through a bleak, dead world like this, he more showcases it, you know? With hunger, cannibalism and torture, the lack of any animals or clean air in a world ravaged by a never-specified catastrophe, the plight of a father and his son (and the terror they live through) is never fully articulated. It's just... on the page, if you get what I mean. This may be due to its really strange prose style (no quotation marks, short sentences, a straightforward way of wording things) but I think it's due to an attempt to paint a world so bleak it hurts by combining prose with content. It's got a decent little ending, but in many of its other messages it just falls flat. 

So what was the standout? What was the one book I read that really did pull in the sunshine? 

1984 by George Orwell. How ironic.

This was leaps and bounds above the others. And I really mean that. I don't really want to sit here and talk about its complexities and nuances, because this book has been analyzed to death and back. It's a classic, after all, and a classic in science fiction and dystopia alike. It's taught in schools. It has historical relevance. If we're gonna take the Big Three of dystopian science fiction, I would still pick Fahrenheit 451 as the best, and Brave New World as an effective but self-indulgent last, which would normally put 1984 in the middle of the tree. But I actually like it more than that. It's almost as good or just as good as Fahrenheit, with a strong world, a strong message, and a S T R O N G ending. 

BEST: 1984 by George Orwell
WORST: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

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Non-Fiction

Interesting batch of books this time, all with unique stories of how I had acquired them. First up, we have Leslie Gilbert Elman's Weird but True: 200 Astounding, Outrageous, Totally Off the Wall Facts. I got it for Christmas many years ago as a gift from my aunt, who loves sending me books.

You wanna know what I remember from that book?

Nothing.
(Moving on!) 

Next up was a book I got from my third grade teacher. I had a thing for gemstones back then -- still do -- and she, taking notice, gave me a tiny children's field guide called Usborne's Spotter's Guides: Rocks and Minerals. Hardly thicker than an envelope, the book is from 1979, and has pictures/names/descriptions of various stones and minerals. There's also information about time periods, geological formations, and fossils that might be outdated at this point? I don't know -- but it's good to read about these things because I use information like this in my writing. Without this book, I wouldn't know what chalcedony is (it's a kind of quarts that forms "bubbles," and not sharp crystals) nor would I know that pyrolusite was often mistaken as fossils of some kind due to their inner patterns. When writing fantasy, small details in your world matter -- the fact that the Xenean High Council board chambers are made of malachite (instead of, say, emerald) is something that enriches the world and lore of my story. Especially when, in cases like mine, materials like plants, metals or stones could be relevant to the magic somehow.

And the third was another bit of writing I thought I'd learn something from; The Veterinary Clinics of North America: The Human-Companion Animal Bond, a medical journal from 1985! I have not even a passing knowledge of the medical field, but I do know that we're constantly making advancements and discoveries in all fields of science. I thought that reading studies from decades ago would broaden my understanding of how well we update widely available information. Beyond that, I'm sure some of what I learned is still relevant today. For example, apparently people in the 80's were embarrassed to admit their love for their pets. Can you believe that? There was a whole passage about people unable to deal with the deaths of their pets, but not being comfortable admitting just how much they loved them. I can't imagine that line of thought at all -- I hug and kiss and pet my dog constantly, he means so much to me.

There's also the knowledge that cultural attitudes toward animals have religious relevance. You know how much the ancient Egyptians (and Greeks, to an extent) revered cats? Well, their role in those systems of belief played a direct role in cats being seen as pagan in Christian societies (such as cats accompanying witches as familiars, black cats being bad luck and such). That makes so much sense, considering how thoroughly western society has been formed by Christian beliefs. There's also the fact that by the time we started truly domesticating cats, dogs had already been alongside people for several thousand years. Fascinating stuff you can learn if you just pick up any random book.

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Magazines 

All throughout my childhood, I routinely read two magazines; LEGO Club Magazine, and National Geographic Kids. That has always been my only foray into the medium at all; LEGO catalogues and game booklets, as well as the fun and informative Nat Geo, but for children (so without all the horror of the real world). I still have most issues of these magazines, and whether that's because I like to hold onto my knowledge or I'm just a hoarder is up to you. Regardless, I had never read another magazine ever.

Well that's a lie. I think I flipped through Game Informer once.

But other than that, magazines to me were just a joke. A money sink, like tabloids and all that hullabaloo. But I realized I'd do well to broaden my perspective, you know? Everyone would do well to do that to themselves once in a while. You might learn something.

So I decided that magazines would be things I'd record in these media logs, cause why not? They won't be frequent (because yikes are magazines ridiculously overpriced), but might as well learn a little, right?

I started with a LEGO fan-magazine called Brick Fanatics, from which I saw information about the new Overwatch line LEGO put out earlier this year (a good bunch of sets, if I do say so myself), a few incredible models like Matthew Ashton's amazing classic spaceship, how to tell a fake minifigure from a real one, and the pros/cons of buying multiple copies of LEGO's newest Quidditch Set.

There were great building techniques too, but what stuck out to me was the quote from Jme Wheeler's article, "where do ideas come from?" Jme says, "One piece of LEGO doesn't mean just one possible build. Inspiration can and will strike." There's a photo of DC's Manbat inside a birthday cake piece - but beside it is a lamp that uses the cake piece upside down. The idea of "seed pieces" is not new, and something I encourage new builders to think about when building with LEGO. A piece that looks unique or interesting may be the very seed with which you grow your creation! So in all, it was a decent read.

The June issue of Otaku USA was not actually that interesting. Just a few boring anime/manga reviews, a few pages of a strange manga by Atsushi Okada called Nyankees, (it's about stray cats and their way of life portrayed by Japanese street thugs), and little else. There was a huge section for Neon Genesis Evangelion, but there was nothing in that field I hadn't heard.

So then there was Archeology: Rediscovering a Lost Peruvian Pastime. I love me some archeology, and here I learned that dogs and humans have coexisted for at least 11,500 years, Greenland (during the time of the Vikings) was not as cold as it is now, and Stonehenge may have been made to track the movements of the sun and moon.

The last one I read was the May edition of National Geographic, titled Leonardo.

I learned a lot about the micro-plastics in the ocean (hopefully one day we can de-politicize pollution and climate change, because it is very real and very much something we need to take responsibility for) and how they affect the ecosystem, which was poignant and eye-opening. They don't teach you this stuff in school. Another thing they won't tell in school is that Leonardo Da Vinci was gay, and had only male lovers. The article about him and how he was creating what were essentially blueprints for tanks and airplanes so long before those things actually came to be is fascinating, and along with his extensive artwork truly helped me understand just how much of a genius this man was.

I unfortunately did not get to any more magazines, and I partly blame National Geographic. I liked the stuff I learned from the issue I read, so I decided to get a subscription with the card in the center of the copy I picked up at the bookstore. Dad wanted to read them too, so we split the price -- but he suggested we just do it online. So we did.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited for four months until eventually I had him take a look at what was going on, and found out that for whatever reason, it didn't get processed. So the whole time I was waiting on Nat Geo it wasn't even gonna show up.

Nice.

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Poetry

I only read one poetry collection and it was really fucking bad.

I don't even want to mention it by name. So please, please don't make me.

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Graphic Novels

Oh yikes, lots to cover here.

Before we get into what makes up the majority of this list (manga), I want to talk about one of the funniest graphic novels I have ever read, which is KC Green's Graveyard Quest.

A story about an undertaker haunted by his angry father. He keeps his mother's body in the cabinet in the living room, and one day when it disappears he goes on a journey through hell to retrieve it.

The facial expressions alone in this comic are the stuff of hilarity, but so are many of the jokes. It uses these elements in a really unique way, eventually painting a story about a disjointed, flawed relationship between a father's expectations and a son's problems. I recommend it to everyone.

There's also a bunch of Free Comic Book day comics I got, and all of them were bad.

Then there's the manga. For series I started in this time-frame, it was Detective Conan, Dr. Stone, Gleipnir, Radiant, Golden Kamuy, Vagabond, Komi Can't Communicate, Dorohedoro, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Doraemon, Ran and the Gray World, and Berserk. 

So which ones won out? Which ones will I be continuing?

Golden Kamuy, Berserk, and Vagabond. They're the most mature and captivating stories of the bunch. I also decided to go with Kimetsu no Yaiba in hopes that it will really take root and grow, as for now it's good, but bare of what makes something a classic.

In terms of series I continued with, I finished Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, and adored it. People like to say that series tanks in the last few volumes, but I genuinely disagree. I can't say why without getting into some serious spoilers about the setting and who eventually becomes the main antagonist, but its messages and characters really made the story worthwhile. I've been reading it since 2014 (which is when I started seriously reading and collecting manga) and I'm honestly heartbroken to see it go -- but all good things must come to an end, and I think Magi's conclusion, while a little quick, is a good one. A happy ending -- not that everything needs a happy ending, but it was a good pick-me up for a series that does actually portray tragedy in a strong way.

Another standout I think is Tokyo Ghoul: Re, in that the story has broken down and gotten so jumbled to a degree that I am honestly appalled with each volume. At this point my insistence on seeing it out with each release is just an example of the sunk-cost fallacy, but I'm the kind of person who likes to own what they read, and I've already committed. Only four volumes to go, thankfully.

Of course the other manga I have been continuing -- mainly, The Promised Neverland and Attack on Titan, are nothing short of extraordinary. I still can't get over how well Attack on Titan has gotten especially. A really multifaceted, complex story about the nature of humanity, discrimination, suffering, and the cycle of human violence. The story flipped the idea of a formless enemy on its head with a deep exploration of the idea that "we are our own worst enemy," and the awful things we do to each other in the name of freedom.

A story where, despite differences and violence and war, the ultimate path to "freedom" is compassion. It's obvious that the story is going to end in at least some level of tragedy, and right now the protagonist doesn't exactly agree with all these ideas -- but we have yet to see the actual outcome. And while I think the story is truly going to end off with a massive punch to the gut, I think it will end with the idea that we, as a people, may be capable of change. That, or the cycle of violence begins anew -- and that is also a very strong message... a message we've proved throughout our specie's history time and time again. This story has been set up to be effective regardless of the message it ends on, which is just genius level writing.

To see a phenomenon of what seemed strictly like action/mystery go to a very dystopian, honest story of our crimes against each other and what we can do to break that cycle is honestly breathtaking. Each chapter leaves me in awe.

And for The Promised Neverland, I just have to say that it's good -- very good -- but the quality it had as a battle of wits and a race against the clock in the beginning of the story is lost a bit, as it has turned into quite a bit of action instead of some really strong mindgames. I don't particularly mind the change, and I can see it going a direction that has a lot of potential -- but I do miss what the series used to be, even if only for a few volumes.

Other series I've read were Hunter x Hunter (not that the man makes much of it) and Bakuman, which I have read before and am happy to be re-reading.

BEST CONTINUING TITLE: Attack on Titan, by Hajime Isayama
STANDOUT VOLUME: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic vol 37 (for wrapping up the story in a satisfying way)
BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL: Graveyard Quest by KC Green
WORST CONTINUING TITLE: Tokyo Ghoul: Re by Sui Ishida
WORST GRAPHIC NOVEL: There really wasn't one this time around!
And the most important award...
BEST HIATUS: Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi

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Movies

I'm a pretty off-and-on movie watcher. I love film as a medium, and have a big list of favorite movies (that you can find in the "view my complete profile" link beside my profile picture) and a lot of my work is inspired by masterworks of film that have touched me on a very deep, personal level.

But like I said, I'm off-and-on. Some months I can manage dozens of movies, maybe more -- and other months I get around to, like... two. I prioritize reading, and that takes much longer for fewer units.

But this year, I've gotten to thirty-some odd movies. The first standout is Tobe Hooper's classic 1982 supernatural horror Poltergeist. I really liked this movie. As a fan of ghosts and specters, those kinds of spirits and haunting tropes, Poltergeist really cements itself as a classic in the genre with dazzling practical effects.

Some of the scenes I thought were really spectacular were what's pictured above, as well as the scene at the end of the film where dozens of caskets and coffins are bursting up through the ground from the foundation of the house. That imagery, especially with old corpses tumbling about, is some really good genre work.

Then there's Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, a fantasy film many people would consider a classic as well. I won't deny the charm and wonder of the practical effects in this film. Anyone who is familiar with Jim Henson will recognize his work on The Muppets, Sesame Street, and much of the practical effects work on many films like Star Wars (Yoda!) and The Labyrinth with David Bowie.

The Dark Crystal tells what is probably intended to be a dazzling epic fantasy, but it does fall short of portraying a deep conflict. I liked it for its artistry, and maybe the Netflix prequel, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance offers a better insight on this world that, and I quote (though I don't know who), "is clear there's more to this world than we've seen."

Between Zombieland, Mr. Mom, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (which was hilarious), I saw Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, which adapts one of my favorite novels (somewhat) faithfully (all except for the ending, which in original releases of the book was cut in western editions), but the things it cuts shouldn't be put into a live-action film. The Secret Life of Pets 2 was utter rubbish, Into the Spiderverse was pretty ambitious and entertaining, and I tried to show one of my friends the Harry Potter films. Of course, he was stubborn and refused to admit that they were at the very least charming movies, but that's neither here nor there. We had to stop at three -- when he decided that The Prisoner of Azkaban, likely the best of the Potter films (and just a fantastic "film" by itself) was only a 5/10, I realized my effort was fruitless.

I watched a few short films too, but by far the best movie I saw from May to August was none other than Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

For my whole life I had thought the film was overrated. I don't really know why -- it just looked cheesy, people praised it to high heaven, and I just never understood why. Dinosaurs? Meh.

But this was just unfair of me, because I'd never actually seen the whole thing -- just bits and pieces. I finally decided I needed to see it for myself in August, and oh my GOD. What a fantastic film, and in every way; visually, script-wise, characters and sets, even with the simplicity of the story the film is enjoyable as a suspense/action thriller alone. The action scenes are all shot so well, with unique scenarios (like a vehicle stuck in a tree, about to fall on two of the characters climbing down) that are quite engaging as devices for suspense. The effects have aged a tad, but that marks it in film history for pioneering things like CGI.

BEST MOVIE: Jurassic Park by Steven Spielberg
WORST MOVIE: The Secret Life of Pets 2 by Chris Renaud

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Albums

Let me set the record straight!

I am not a musician. I am not a music critic. I am a casual listener of the occasional song at best, and dreadfully ignorant of melody at worst. This section will be short and brief, because I don't quite have a firm understanding of what I like about certain songs/artists and what I don't like about others.

That being said, in holding to my beliefs in the subjectivity of art, I won't hesitate to lay out my thoughts. Defending them may be harder, but hey -- this is my blog.


On the "good" end of music I listened to from May to August I would say it's Lady Soul, by Aretha Franklin, Dragon by Denki Groove, Thriller by Michael Jackson, and a fantastic album called Spiritual State by Nujabes, the man himself -- one of my favorite all-time musical artists.

That leaves a lot of stuff I can barely remember a track from. I think this is just my relationship with music in general. It doesn't usually stay with me unless I really, really like it. Even of the albums listed above I can't name more than a couple of tracks from Thriller and Spiritual State, and the others I literally can't recall anything about other than generally liking the music as I listened to it. The more I type I realize that reviewing music is not in my future. Critically acclaimed albums, like Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ye by Kanye West, Skiptracing by Mile High Club, and Pink Moon by Nick Drake, I just did not care for in any way at all. And I almost can't remember a thing about them.

Maybe I won't write about music in the next entry.

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Television

If you really have read this far, then chances are you'll know the only show I gave a hoot about this year was Stranger Things.

Stranger Things is honestly the only show I give a hoot about at all, and what can I say for season 3?

It was phenomenal!

It's been since 2017 since I'd seen the first two seasons, so I did have a year of gap in my memory. That being said, I didn't forget any of the character's names, nor the setting, nor the general conflict of the story since then.

A lot changes this season; for one, (all of you have seen it, right?) instead of just channeling what are essentially 80's horror tropes like the first two seasons, we get a lot broader of a look at the 80's -- evil Russians (Cold War, remember? Red Dawn and War Games and all that), Breakfast Club-esque summertime teen drama, and all the cheesiness of beat em' up cop anti-heroes, in which Hopper gets to wear Hawaiian shirts and beat the jelly out of the Red Army like Rambo or Indiana Jones.

That of course means this season is quite a bit cheesier than the last two. A bunch of kids decode a secret Russian transmission for God's sake, and they even break into their base. Plausible? No. But that doesn't mean the show isn't still engaging, nor is it less meaningful with really good characters. I wish the story had made more progression -- the Upside Down, the Mind Flayer, all of that would do well with an explanation at some point -- but if we never get that I'll be fine as long as we do get good entertainment. Others disagree with me, but hooey on them. I liked it.

Those first two episodes are a bit rough, though. 

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Overall: 

I would say I somewhat wasted a bit of time handling some of the stuff I consumed this time around. I learned a lot, but among the things I learned was that we really just don't have a lot of time, do we? And we never know when our last day is upon us. Heavy, but true.

So now I don't know if I'm gonna read/watch/listen to stuff for the sake of it. You all can see I omitted an "Anime" section of this post, and I may not in the future -- but I didn't have anything significant to say about the stuff I watched, so it would have been filler. Filler is a waste of time for everyone.

I'm on a better track right now, as I'm writing this (in mid September, yikes), breezing through novels like I should be. I'm actually really excited to talk about the stuff I'm reading now, so stay tuned.