Gaming

I have played hundreds of video games, thousands of hours. I  don't like too consider myself a “gamer”, as I feel that it just an arbitrary label or thing to be defined as, they way I see it I'm just a guy who likes to play video games. But I would also consider myself pretty picky with my games, I don’t like to play most low-budget indie games and more casual games like a Lego game or Wii Sports. While I appreciate a lot of their concepts and art direction, I find that a lot of indie games can’t hold my attention and I quickly uninstall them and forget about them. With that preface I'll be talking about a game that I hold very near and dear to me called Dark Souls. 

Dark Souls is a Japanese studios take on western fantasy adventure games. You get a bit of story in the beginning then your thrust out into the very unforgiving world. You have to figure out what path to take and discern whats happening in the world. Dark Souls has very unforgiving combat, make one mistake and you could be down to a third of your health in almost no time. Some people might not like that but I kinda relish the challenge, and thats one thing you'll get a huge challenge. Some might call the difficulty unfair and artificial but to me it means that you have to commit to the gameplay, learn the mechanics and plan your moves the reward comes from conquering the challenge. I also adore the approach to story, there are some NPCs that give you vague hints on backstory and other characters but most of the story comes from reading item descriptions and piecing the events together. It does have its faults, some bugs appear and make some places and fight very difficult, the graphics could use polish and there are some pretty obscure things that dont translate well into English but these are minimal.          

Dark Souls is an interesting and refreshing take on video games and if you can handle the frustration you have to pick it up as soon as you can. 

Anime

Im pretty into anime and manga, I prefer to read a manga before watching the anime adaptation but I've only in the past 6 years really gotten into older genre defining manga and anime rather then the more popular ones like Naruto, Bleach and Death Note. I feel that these stories aren't complete garbage but they are very boring, bland and really add nothing to the genre as a whole besides being popular. These are my own opinions I feel everyone is entitled to their own tastes and preferences just like any other film book or movie. But that being said I would hope people would lean towards things with more substance and story to them because I feel anime is much like film, there are some truly great and innovative examples if you find them don't be fooled into thinking whats trending and popular is the standard for what is good. If your favorite manga is Attack on Titan you should look at what inspired the writer and artist to make it. I said earlier that I tend to like older manga that inspired some of the genres seen now. Some of my favorite ones are Berserk, Evangelion, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, DragonBall, Lupin the 3rd and so on. Berserk defined the grim dark fantasy aspect of some manga, Evangelion went against typical mecha stories and focused on psychological aspects of teens. DragonBall is the preeminent adventure story, Fist of the North Star is a staple for one righteous man verses impossible odds and Lupin the 3rd is just a great game of cat and mouse. All im saying is to broaden your horizons and give anime and manga respect.    

New Comics

I read Ducks by Kate Beaton for the assignment. Right of the bat I really like Beaton, I read her comic Hark! A Vagrant often, she has great comedic sense and has a very appealing art style, I even follow her on twitter where she draws her doodles and shares her musings. So I was pretty excited to read about Ducks, but then I saw that this was a more serious and less humorous comic and more just a way to tell a story about what she experienced during her time working in a particular place. I enjoy reading about something for the perspective of someone who I dont have much in common with to see how that person reacts and deals with certain events. One of these she showed was when a prostitute who was high on some kind of drug wandered onto the job site and because most of the workers were men they had to nervously ask her to help talk this person down. I though "huh what if it was me? What if the person was black and because I was one of the few blacks at the job they asked me to help?" Outside of the more sombre bit there some funny moments like a worker making a scarecrow out of an unused uniform or someone simply saying that ducks were fucking stupid. I really enjoyed reading this and look forward to more of Beaton's tales from her life.      

Travels in the Disney-Verse

I haven't seen too many Disney films but, my favorite one they have done is definitively The Emperor's New Groove. It is obviously a comedy as most Disney movies are and it follows a classic Disney theme of silliness, growing as an individual and eventual the hero trumping over some kind of obstacle in their way. The only thing about The Emperor's New Groove that bucks the preconceived formula is that out main character starts out as an unlikable person. Also there is no really love story shown. In all the other Disney movies I have seen, Mulan, The Lion King, Toy Story and Tangled the main character isnt as antagonistic as the Emperor is. But all the other Disney main stays and tropes appear, multiple musical numbers, some kind of anthropomorphic character, the big bad, a nice/plucky protagonist and some what bumbling but still good hearted partner or side kick. These attributes appear in all the other Disney movies I have seen as well.      

In class response

Prominent Symbols? From what I could read there weren't any very strong symbols in the story. It was pretty literal in what was said and done except for maybe his double life. His double life and secret identity may have been a weak symbol for his hidden feelings after Professor Incognito was broken up with. But really the story was pretty straight forward.

Connections? I was able to connect with the overarching ideas of a super villain fighting against a protagonist due to the amount of superhero literature I watch and read. And I was able to connect with him apologizing for doing certain things because he was just feeling upset at the time, like when he robbed the museum. Another thing I connected with was the idea of hiding something important from a significant other for the sake of their feelings.

Adaptation? As far as changes to this story for adaptation for some kind of media I would like to go more for a backstory for each character. I feel while this is a good hook for a story it kind of lacks deeper substance in terms of backstory and characterizations for each person mentioned. These could be delved into more if it were adapted into a TV miniseries on AMC. You could do the same changes if you were putting this story into a comic as well. Also if you were making this into a movie I would put more emphasis on to the looming Martian invasion, its only touched upon but I would put lot more urgency into the conquest of Earth.    

Hipsters

Now the term hipster is a somewhat common term for us. Its been around for decades and it has changed its meaning dozens of times over but in its core the hipster is someone who is intrenched in counter culture. Anything that he or she or the group deems as "mainstream" is to be shunned and mocked. If they do partake in mainstream media it is only to be done ironically to show how silly they deem something. They are encouraged to abide my an underground culture untouched by the mainstream corporations

It is funny that now hipster is a very accepted mainstream culture and people do it to seem cooler. Many people who claim to be hipsters do it superficially and are on many mainstream cites like Tumblr or something like that. Even though it is a mainstream culture it is still somewhat looked down upon, when people think of hipsters now of days they think of individuals who are arrogant, think themselves better than other people and somewhat annoying. They always knew about that band before they went mainstream, or this little coffee shop that was so cool before people found out about it or proudly exclaim how they exclusively shop at thrift shops and the Salvation Army.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Bx1s8Nus8 Neutral Milk Hotel
         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVo9aG3ZQU4 Grizzly Bear

Now music that truly represents hipsters is kinda hard to find because if it was really underground it would probably be recorded on cassette tapes or something but these bands I found give off the same kind of vibe I imagine that hipsters identify with, they have crazy classifications like Psychedelic Folk, Synth Psychedelic Pop and even just Hipster. Now I actually really like both of these bands but I feel they might be under the classification of hipster indie, but you can buy them on Itunes so that kinda ruins it.    

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http://www.fashion-pins.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/hipster-fashion-men-summer41-hipster-menswear-styles---the-definition-of-rad-from-musician-gt42vp8k.jpg

Hipster clothing I think is supposed to evoke the idea that the person dosent care about what they have on or that the clothes are second and and from a thrift shop. Its kind of ironic that there are dozens of outlet stores that sell these kinds of clothes and more likely then not that where modern day hipsters buy from so that $3 shirt actually cost $20. Beards are a must as well as just mustaches that are twirled up. I like having a beard so Im not shaving anytime soon and I think the twirled mustache is because its a 19th century thing.

All in all hipsters are defined by the time they live in, to my knowledge this is the current day hipster. All about irony, indie stuff and old retro things, what hipster might be in 10 or 20 years I have no idea but they have their own established music, fashion and entertainment.

Palo Alto

The collection of stories called "Palo Alto" were in contrast to "Colorless" fairly unmoving. While both did show general apathy and reflection in their main characters Murakami did it in a more compelling and thoughtful way then James Franco. With Murakami's book the main character while depressed and somewhat apathetic was still somewhat likable, he had gone thru things that many people at Ringling might have, he used some dream-like sequences that could have been real or just the character's neurosis. While in Palo Alto its just shitty high school kids and their shitty high school problems to be quite honest. Some of them do bad things or have band things happen to them but there is no conclusion or consequences to these they just happen and end.

Murakami uses plain and simple writing to describe interesting subject matter, the dream sequences are very cool and surreal and the journey to find out what happened to his former friends and to discover what his color is, is a very enjoyable subject to experience. It gives the reading some incentive to keep on with the story.

But with Franco's novel the stories are not only written simply which is fine, the subject matter is so blah and uninteresting it was hard for me to want to read more of these stories. As where Murakami has dashes of surrealism and wonder to make the reader question whats the rules of the world and whats happening, Franco has very dry and stale stories that sound like a college freshmen telling people stories of their high school.