Occult Week
My posts from today are a rather eclectic collection of things I've been doing for the last two weeks.
-watched Hellsing, the anime. I had been misled into thinking it was a phenomenal anime because of Kay's fantastic AMV, but I ended up not liking it too much. I liked the way they treated Victoria's angst with becoming a vampire (not an original subject in modern vampire lore, but still well done), the infighting among different vampire hunting organizations (mainly the Catholic and Protestant branches) and the thorough knowledge of British military structure. Still, I wouldn't say it was great because it taxed my suspension of disbelief just a wee bit much. Honestly, any fantasy character (and by my definition, horror still counts as a part of the fantasy genre by dint of being "fantastic") with powers must have rules regarding them somehow, in order to be believable. If in this universe vampires are killed by blessed silver, then it shouldn't be too much to ask that a vampire who is stabbed/shot greviously with blessed silver be killed consistently. Anyone with godlike powers ought to have a set limit to their godlike powers, or else a story degenerates from being a story, and turns into a special effects extravaganza (*cough* Matrix 3... *cough*). Besides, too many questions were unanswered for there to be much semblance of a plot. I should also note that there's an absurdly high mortality rate for... well, all the characters.
Also, though Jeremy prefers watching anime with subtitles, Helsing, which takes place in London, really should be watched dubbed. It takes place in London, therefore you ought to watch it in English. This is a no-brainer. Most of the voices are pretty good. Integra's voice actress is right on the mark, as is Ferguson's, though he's only a minor character. Alucard's voice actor has a nice voice, but can't act for shit. Walter sounds like a nondescript English butler but isn't bad. Victoria's voice is annoying because it's too "snobby British" for a cop. Priest Anderson, they gave an over the top Irish accent, which makes sense because he's Catholic, but I just never imagined him that way. It's like making Wolfwood Irish.. it's not something you'd do. But I prefer the dub just because the translation flows better in English than the translation for the sub, which is rather bad. There are just little things you wouldn't do in English that are annoying in the sub. For example, the translation of names. Alucard is translated as "Arucard," Ferguson as "Fargason," Integra (a girl's name) as "Integral," Anderson as "Andersong"... It's silly. Random epithets are clunky. Who gets called "Little Kitten" as a nickname? This is "Baka-chan" in Japanese so it makes sense there, but in English, a kitten, by definition, is little. And no one, as far as I've experienced, has ever been called a "sow" or a "whore-bitch."
-Van Helsing, the movie. It was fun. I liked it. It had many scenes that made me jump (but then again I shriek when Niall jumps out at me from around a corner), non-stop action, cool Gothic scenery, asskicking weapons (repeat-fire crossbow, anyone?) and trite comedy which I found funny anyway (I never claimed to have refined tastes). Downside- many scenes with lots of goop, and Kate Beckinsale in slutty make up. Their Dracula wasn't that great... fairly cookie cutter. It's not, you know.. high drama, but it is a fun movie.
-Hellboy. It's good. It has likeable, quirky characters with defined personalities that you can relate to emotionally and deadpan humor in the strangest places. Plus, some of the concepts are pretty original (a clockwork villain??). Not as fast-paced as Van Helsing, but of course it makes up for this with having better, you know, story and acting. Gee.
Wish they wouldn't do that, "Oh my god, somebody save my kittens!" cliche they do in every movie when some natural disaster or monster is killing people in the city left and right, and some moronic woman wants the hero to save her cat, but at least it's in character. Hellboy likes kittens. And chili. And pancakes. That's what I love about him; you can't be hatin' on a superhero who likes pancakes. And plus, the first ever human/demon romance story arc I've ever seen.
-Jeremy's favorite anime, Vampire Princess Miyu. She's a vampire. She's a princess. But don't be fooled, both of these aspects are completely irrelevant to the actual plot. Anyway, it's about this vampire schoolgirl (!!!) who acts as an immortal guardian to mankind, slaying demons who prey on human emotions. Despite sounding corny, it's rather well done, a bit depressing even, as it is essentially an ironic commentary on human nature. Each episode has a demon that preys on some human's flaw or dream, and the demon's appearance and manner of feeding somehow relates to said human weakeness. This format allows it to go on a truckload of philosophical tangents. It's a bit hard to understand since (according to Jeremy) it takes many concepts from Shinto and uses theatrical devices from kabuki, but the incoherence is the result of an alien culture, not because its creators were incompetent with storytelling. Oh, and the last episode made me cry for like ten minutes nonstop. Not really an uplifting anime, but it's damn good.
Saturday, May 15, 2004
Museum Weekend, Part 2
After lunch, went to the Dime Museum in Baltimore. As we went in, the director explained to us that it was an authentic recreation of traveling sideshows from the 19th century, which is basically a disclaimer that anything we see that's offensive is "history," not sensationalism. Therefore he covers his ass and we can't sue him.
Though it's intended as history, it's not that edifying. The main draw of the museum is what drew our ancestors (okay, your white ancestors) to freak shows a hundred years ago... weird ass shit.
It's got the world's largest bat, which weighs 600 ponds and "can kill a horse." It's a baseball bat. Har har har.
It's also got an "authentic" fossilized fairy and the world's biggest wall of ties. It has Victorian samplers, which would be exquisitely lovely except that they're embroidered completely in human hair. God, Victorians! I think their imperialist tendencies must've been compensatory for something. There was a good deal of relics from the Victorian era, like jewelry made tiger claws, or more eerily, people's baby teeth, and a landscape picture supposedly made of multicolored butterfly wings glued onto a backing (it looked very cool, but could've been done with tissue paper as well). Naturally, there were also some mummies, one of an "Amazon," and one of some pharoah, which I would be disinclined to accept as authentic if it weren't for the fact that the mummy of Ramses the first was actually found in a dime museum by Niagara Falls. (True!)
After lunch, went to the Dime Museum in Baltimore. As we went in, the director explained to us that it was an authentic recreation of traveling sideshows from the 19th century, which is basically a disclaimer that anything we see that's offensive is "history," not sensationalism. Therefore he covers his ass and we can't sue him.
Though it's intended as history, it's not that edifying. The main draw of the museum is what drew our ancestors (okay, your white ancestors) to freak shows a hundred years ago... weird ass shit.
It's got the world's largest bat, which weighs 600 ponds and "can kill a horse." It's a baseball bat. Har har har.
It's also got an "authentic" fossilized fairy and the world's biggest wall of ties. It has Victorian samplers, which would be exquisitely lovely except that they're embroidered completely in human hair. God, Victorians! I think their imperialist tendencies must've been compensatory for something. There was a good deal of relics from the Victorian era, like jewelry made tiger claws, or more eerily, people's baby teeth, and a landscape picture supposedly made of multicolored butterfly wings glued onto a backing (it looked very cool, but could've been done with tissue paper as well). Naturally, there were also some mummies, one of an "Amazon," and one of some pharoah, which I would be disinclined to accept as authentic if it weren't for the fact that the mummy of Ramses the first was actually found in a dime museum by Niagara Falls. (True!)
Museum Weekend, Part 1
My dorm sponsored a trip to see some museums in Fell's Point on the first of May, so I went, with Jeremy. Went to the Great Blacks in Wax Museum, a rather cheesy place in Baltimore, but sadly the most visited museum there. Baltimore is not that great a place. Did learn a few things though.
-Did you know that Pushkin was black? <--- (I purposefully do not capitalize this, unlike my socialistic sociology book. IMHO, there are no such thing as races, only ethnicities. Therefore black is an adjective, not a proper noun). I find this tidbit of knowledge to be pretty cool. I knew he was a great Russian writer, but didn't know he was black. I'm glad he was taught to us in school as "a great Russian writer" rather than a "great black writer," because the latter would imply that he's only worth studying because he's black and therefore satisfying some "cultural diversity" quota in the school curriculum.
-Did you know that Rastafarianism is actually a religion combining mysticism and Judeo-Christian beliefs? And all this time I just thought it was a dress style.
-Sheba was a great civilization that was a precursor to Ethiopia. All my friends at UMBC are science majors of some sort and so they don't understand what motivates me to read up on these things on my own. They are my friends in terms of social activities and entertainment, but it gets a bit lonely sometimes in the academic sector. I wish I knew more about the ancient world. It's rather remarkable how many great civilizations we've forgotten. 500 years of influence and centuries later, it's as if you never were. Ashes to ashes, I suppose. Persia, Kush, Canaan, Syria, Phoenicia, Anatolia, Abbyssinia, Aramaia are all names to me, and yet what places they must have been.
My dorm sponsored a trip to see some museums in Fell's Point on the first of May, so I went, with Jeremy. Went to the Great Blacks in Wax Museum, a rather cheesy place in Baltimore, but sadly the most visited museum there. Baltimore is not that great a place. Did learn a few things though.
-Did you know that Pushkin was black? <--- (I purposefully do not capitalize this, unlike my socialistic sociology book. IMHO, there are no such thing as races, only ethnicities. Therefore black is an adjective, not a proper noun). I find this tidbit of knowledge to be pretty cool. I knew he was a great Russian writer, but didn't know he was black. I'm glad he was taught to us in school as "a great Russian writer" rather than a "great black writer," because the latter would imply that he's only worth studying because he's black and therefore satisfying some "cultural diversity" quota in the school curriculum.
-Did you know that Rastafarianism is actually a religion combining mysticism and Judeo-Christian beliefs? And all this time I just thought it was a dress style.
-Sheba was a great civilization that was a precursor to Ethiopia. All my friends at UMBC are science majors of some sort and so they don't understand what motivates me to read up on these things on my own. They are my friends in terms of social activities and entertainment, but it gets a bit lonely sometimes in the academic sector. I wish I knew more about the ancient world. It's rather remarkable how many great civilizations we've forgotten. 500 years of influence and centuries later, it's as if you never were. Ashes to ashes, I suppose. Persia, Kush, Canaan, Syria, Phoenicia, Anatolia, Abbyssinia, Aramaia are all names to me, and yet what places they must have been.
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