I may be the first to leave!
But I won't be the first to breath while I burst a sneeze.
I may be the first to buy,
But I won't brush off a 'give me bread please' (only when it's money).
I brush my hair, but I ain't scared,
Because the brush points aren't metal, and accidents are accidental.
So even if you live your life in fear,
All you should really be is aware: that it's really detrimental.
Time is flying by waaay too fast lately.
I'm up at book 42 in the One Piece manga as of today - and was around book 36 at the time I should've posted this, which makes for a pretty even reading pace of 18 books/week since I started.
I don't plan to read all the way as the final book I have is 66 (the final segment of the One Piece manga published in Sweden - it didn't sell well enough), and I'd like to pause at a good point. Maybe right before the Strawhat reunion at the Sabaody Archipelago... or right after. Maybe. Maybe it won't be so easy to stop reading once I reach that point, though.
I've been spending both nights and train rides to and from work flipping pages lately, and it just keeps getting better and better, and better than I remember it. I'm surprised that it doesn't seem to matter how many times I go through this one particular manga - it still evokes the same inspiring sense of adventure and emotion, and I realize once again that Eiichiro Oda is a story-telling genius. Who else could build up an intrigue for so long - all without filler or repetition, and still have it conclude with such finality, rather than running out into the sand like most stories do when they go on for years without end?
It's like that with most of the entertainment I partake in. I keep dropping them if they go on too long. The boss fights in both Final Fantasy 4 and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow are lined-up before this. For some reason I keep picking up something else right before I'm done with the current project... but not when it comes to One Piece! Not yet. Not even with the anime, no matter how sub-par it's become.
So whatever does this one series have that other forms of entertainment don't? Probably something about continual attention requirement. You can't drop it for a second, whereas games easily turn into a grind either just before or after their final phases. That and a great story, and character, and continuity, and an obvious care for all of this by aforementioned author. I'll save the full analysis for some other post though, this is starting to take over my weekly summery.
Despite lack of time and a feverish reading of One Piece manga, it's been a pretty good week. Pretty good. Not bad...
Actually it's been hella stressful. I think I woke up 3/7 days with a headache. Too late nights, too sweet food and too much computer. We went to a traditional gather-together event called Lilla Julafton (Little Christmas Eve) this weekend and had a good time there, but otherwise it's been tiresome and non-mentionable.
I boxed a bit on Monday, but then barely exercised at all the rest of the week. I'm about to upload that project I promised the week before last. I've been falling behind with Project 2016, even though I've been skipping my 750 Word batches for a couple of weeks now, but I'm caught up with the hundreds. There's a few collabs I really want to finish before the New Year, and other projects, and so much I doubt I'll be able to finish... but what's the rush? You can only do so much in a day anyway. Better leave the rest till the next and just plow through it at a steady pace, one step at a rhyme (pun!).
The last three weeks I've been posting mine and Jabun's collabs over on my SoundCloud profile - one track each Monday, and I'll probably be adding a link in the sidebar soon to my profile. Though Newgrounds is my home eternally, it wouldn't hurt to gain a few followers on the bigger social soundsites as well. You'll always hear my stuff either here or at NG first, but I plan on uploading most of it to SC as well come next year... and maybe some of my older stuff as well.
On the blog I've posted this, 6 reviews, 2 new on old titles, and here's last week. Been eating a ton of mandarins too. It's nuts. And nuts. The week passed fast, and that's that, and sorry for the late posting about it. Work's coming to a pause tomorrow so hopefully there'll be time to catch up. Onto the recently also very non-mentionable and routine
CDB Updates:
More like update. Are you up? Great! Time is up: hey.
Today is the day...
Today is the day...
Something changes in me.
I get my head out the gutter and be
What I claim to be!
You'll see - today's the day that I take what I need!
The key! To get me out of this cage and be free!
You say: I can't ever escape my esteem,
Can't live my dream, cant maintain my regime,
Can complain but cant proclaim; I cant be, what I'm aiming to be!
But all you do is pull lies, I'm going bullseye! Yeah.
A dog's whimpering nearby.
I wish behind close doors,
I wish in the next train,
I wish on a station,
I wish in a dark park,
I wish on a rugged mat,
They shouldn't bring dogs on,
The subway that rolls.
The whimper it sharpens,
Like it's started barking,
The wagon's embarking,
It jumps in my heart and,
It rolls through my ears,
Like a soldier with fear,
And a lump in his gut,
I've had this enough.
Cuts into the soul,
Like a sinus infection,
Case of the whimpering dog.
I type,
All night,
Alright,
I stop.
I drop.
Cover up,
Above my neck,
Dream a sec.
Here's a classic movie brought back to life the right way! Truthful to the original in setting and intrigue, but with all new characters, chemistry, and chain of events.
Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier make up the seven, and it feels like they're a well-picked gathering. They all have unique personalities, but work well together - just like the originals did.
Haley Bennett plays the girl in the movie, and Peter Sarsgaard the villain, and at least up until the end I feel he was convincingly villainous.
There's plenty of gunfights and action. First in collecting the men, then in preparing the village, and finally: defending it. There's not so much time building up character, though, and in the final few scenes it feels they take the vengeance a few steps too far - breaking down the villain, and over-clarifying how magnificent the story really was with the final narration. It was magnificent without, and probably even more so. A good movie doesn't tell the viewer what to feel - it makes you feel. And even if the emotion isn't as deep as for example the anime interpretation of the Asian original on which the first Magnificent Seven was based (Seven Samurai), it's good enough that they could have skipped that final line.
The story's the same as in the prequel, and in the movie it was based upon, but it seems it's not been overtold quite yet. This reinterpretation was most welcome, and well-done. Draws are quick and the action's gritty. It's Western as it should be.
Looks like the genre is getting a bit of an upswing too lately. Tarantino's work, with recent Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, maybe? I hope it stays. I missed out on the early days of the genre, but I'm getting a fair share with these new ones. They're not all magnificent, but not bad.
rated 3/5: not bad