Yay for New Projects~ (Occupation for over the Summer? Hm...)

...On an incredibly random note, chocolate Hello Panda cookies are awesome. XD

But oh. Right. Okay, so man, oh man. My friend over the internet (Puppet-chan) has recently started watching one of my favorite animes and drew me right back into watching it again. XD The series is called Higurashi (or at least, that's what I'm calling it right now since I'm too lazy to look up the full name of it), and it is sooo screwed up, but oh, so good. ^^ It's a really cute but suspenseful and even violent series, involving murder and plenty of paranoia. It will really mess with the mind...

But anyway, right. The project. There's a lot of flash parodies to the two openings, and while Puppet and I have never made a flash movie before (hell, I still have yet to make a movie period ^^; ), we want to make an attempt at this by using Death Note. We're hashing out the details of the casting and all that at the moment, but we're pretty sure we've come to all of our decisions. ^^

If anyone knows how to use flash that could give us a few pointers or suggestions to good flash programs and so on, that would be a huge help! As for the original...here it is.

The Last of the Cultural Events (Acrylics and DBZ-Odd Combination Much?)

Alrighty, I suppose I've procrastinated enough with the cultural events I actually turned in tickets and stuff to. For my first cultural event, I already have it posted here, where I did a two-in-one combo with my photo ops at Momocon. As for the other two...

The second cultural event I did was this acrylics lecture I went to at West Georgia, mentioned and suggested by the teacher. This was actually a pretty cool lecture. I've experimented with acrylics before, though without professional training. I suspect my stuff will turn out even better now, what with all the interesting new things I learned. Particularly some of the most interesting things I found in the lecture were the things on ingredients for old acrylic paints, all the different types, and storage/shipping/care need-to-knows on acrylic works. For instance, did you know that if an acrylic painting gets too cold, you can shatter it? Or if it gets too warm and/or placed on an odd texture such as bubble wrap, you'll be able to see the permanent imprint in the painting?

While we didn't get to do any real painting ourselves, there were plenty of examples and stuff passed around. My only issue with it is that not all the stuff got circulated to our side of the room, so we didn't get to see everything...but still a good deal of stuff. ^^; And best of all, we got our own set of free acrylic paints afterward! (A picture of this shall be coming soon.)

The third cultural event! The Dragonball Evolution movie-the horror!

...Okay, so I'll admit. It wasn't that bad. If a person that had never seen the series for it, it would probably be fairly decent (if not seeming vaguely reminiscent to...Power Rangers for some reason... o.O;; ). My dad went to see it with me, and not being a fan he mentioned that while it wasn't horrible, he wouldn't pay full movie price to go see it. Being a former fan of the series Dragonball/DragonballZ (yes, yes, I will admit to that...), again, I had to confess that it wasn't 'bullet-to-the-brain' bad like I'd heard another fan describe it, but...I just had to wonder where they got their ideas from, since not a whole lot of it seemed accurate with the series...at all. I'll rank it at maybe thirty percent accuracy (drop that to twenty-nine, because at the very least they could've given Piccolo antennae.)

Even so, it ranks with otaku culture and shows a bit of Japanese culture, what with their continuous references back to ki (which also tends to be known otherwise as chi, chakra, ect., and coincides with martial arts and Zen practices.) I don't quite have a picture of me at the movie to go with this on-hand at the moment, but...I'll see about getting one soon. It was taken with another camera, so yeah...

So those are my top three cultural events. *nodnod*

Yet Another Cultural Event! Renfest FTW~

I went to Renfest (or the renaissance festival) today... Good god it is overpriced. x.o;; Even more so-I heard they jacked up the prices this year, although I'm not certain. But even so, I tend to love it. I may have an anime/manga/Japan/gaming addiction, but medieval stuff and all that would probably be next in line. XD And of course, I dressed up as my SOLAR character Hoshi-a long, velvet black robe with flowing sleeves and a hood, and gold/red heart trim. I would've worn one of my cloaks too, but...meh, too hot, even now.

I went with my boyfriend Brandon and for the most part we browsed the shops; we're considering returning next weekend to fit in some shows, too. I'm quite happy with what I ended up getting too, and even got an ocarina as an early b-day present~ (I turn twenty-one on June twenty-second.) For those who wonder what an ocarina is...it's a clay flute, so to speak. Apparently it's used a lot in Legend of Zelda. And I got a basic four-hole one...I'll have a picture of it up towards the bottom, probably.

If anyone's ever noticed, I'm almost always wearing two necklaces that I got at Renfest a couple years ago, each on different years... One is a pewter rectangle hanging on a white string, the Celtic trinity engraved on it (I tend to call this as my 'good luck charm', if I ever had one), and the other is a pewter rectangle hanging on a black string with the Norse rune for 'strength' engraved on it. Well, the design wasn't quite the same this year-the pendant is circular rather than rectangular-but I ended up getting a new one all the same. This one has the Norse rune for 'knowledge' engraved on it...although I must say that I was quite tempted by the runes for 'destiny' and 'power'-they looked neat. XD

And finally, probably one of my favorite things~ (what I always look forward to when going to Renfest, in fact)... I'm working at putting together a blade collection so to speak-mainly swords and daggers-because honestly, who can deny that swords and stuff like that are pretty badass? But unfortunately, I normally can't afford the really pricy swords and stuff (like the $169 Exocath [I think that's what it was called] sword that Brandon got), so normally I go to the room next to the main sword shop where they have everything priced for a good ten bucks-probably particularly for the art. I was tempted by the Pharaoh blade but...heh, maybe next time. I'm just glad we went fairly early this year; last year we went on the last day and there wasn't much left in the selection. But anyway, right! Onto pictures.

I don't quite have a picture of me actually there yet-Brandon has those pictures on his phone, so I'll have to get them from him a bit later. And also, some of the pictures of the stuff I got are kinda sucky quality since they were taken on the cell... Bear with me on that. ^^;

My new (now-named) dagger Raine...and yes, that is a water droplet design on the sheath.

My new dagger unsheathed~

My three rune necklaces-the Celtic trinity (luck), knowledge, and strength from left to right. The one in the center is my new one.

Pictures of myself and the new ocarina are soon to come~

Death Note-L: Change the World (Fourth Cultural Event/Extra Credit)

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(Not with the awesome Alessandro Juliani voice-over for L that I watched it with, but still really good all the same.)

Okay, so I went to see the third Death Note movie, L: Change the World.

Oh. My. God. *-*

And here I suspected that it would be...just bad overall, because it's a side-story that doesn't have much to do with the original plot to Death Note. The series consists of twelve manga (thirteen, if you count the How to Read), and thirty-seven episodes, so they had to chop the series in half when a particular character died to fit it into two movies. In doing so, they had to alter the ending a bit by taking advantage of other rules of the Death Note notebook...

Gah, I don't want to spoil too much. But in my overall opinion, the first movie was good. Second movie was...okay, but a little disappointing, since I found it didn't quite hold up to the quality of the second. Maybe it was just because they seemed to have more deviation from the original series with the ending in the second movie than with the first movie overall. But anyway, because of this, the major lack of relation to the original plot, and because some of the things I had seen in the trailers...Near/Nate River being played by a Thai boy when he's actually an albino, lack of Mello with a seeming-replacement of him by use of a Japanese girl named Maki, ect.), I thought it would turn out to be crap. But, being the major L fan that I am, I couldn't pass up going to see this.

How incredibly glad I did go to see it, too.

While the movie is based on the anime/manga Death Note, the movies are actually live action, and there isn't anyone better they could've chosen to play the role of L than Kenichi Matsuyama. And of course, once again he has managed to dominate the screen with a stunning performance. The movie plot-wise could possibly be accused of being a little cliche in plot (although I haven't seen other movies with the plot), where a group of hardcore ecoterrorists try to unleash a deadly virus upon the world that's about as deadly as ebola and at least ten times more infectious than influenza. Trust me, it's not pretty. And the case needs to be solved in less than twenty-three days, due to certain circumstances of L. But the elements of L just...being L make it all worth seeing.

For instance, his hot pink getaway van 'Angel Crepe' with all the latest up-to-date technology as well as a crepe-making machine and plenty of sweet condiments. The Batmobile has got nothing on this thing. And then him babysitting the kids... XD I don't think a better portrayal could've been pulled off to emphasize L's social awkwardness than Matsuyama/L's completely lost expression and desperate shifty eyes for a nonexistent person to take over the babysitting when the kids start crying, as well has his offers of skewered sweets and manhandling of the kids whenever trouble appeared (aka practically carrying Maki under one arm at one point and putting Near in a closet.) And since L normally tends to be a detective that works behind a desk more than on the field (although he does get out a bit and even plays some tennis and fight using capoeira in the anime/manga), there were the movement scenes that couldn't be denied of a good cackle-such as the hunched-over figure of L attempting to run into the boatyard, trying to stand up straight (and walk that way), riding a bike, and sitting on the train/swinging around on the hand bars on the ceiling like a monkey while people just stared with total 'Wtf?!' expressions. And the epic action scenes of plane-jumping and so on are just awesome.

It's also great getting to see more Whammy kids (genius orphans raised to be L's successors at a place called Whammy's House) like F and K, even if they are just movie incarnations. The babysitting scenes earn their cuteness and the scenes portraying L's relationship with his late surrogate father Watari earn its drama, but to keep it from being too much sap it swings into action scenes with the terrorists and a tad bit of gore with virus victims, so it all balances out in the end. You also get to see some of Japanese culture, such as cosplay cafes, Japanese sweets (green tea flavored bean paste?!), and some of Thai culture (even though the scenes of it at the beginning of the movie are brief.) Making it even better, you get to see some behind-the-scenes clips when you stick around after the movie.

And of course, there was candy throughout the movie. Plenty and plenty of candy.

For those that aren't familiar with the series or even the other movies, I definitely recommend this movie. For those that are fans of the series and/or movies, and especially for those that are fans of L/Kenichi Matsuyama...go see it. That's all I have to say. Just go see the movie-you will not be sorry. Even though the hardcore fans might be slightly disappointed at the lack of mind games the series is known for, it's packed with action and plenty of L scenes. The masterful acting skills of the actors (Kenichi Matsuyama especially), the unique quirks and twists thrown into it, all of that makes this movie a definite work of art.

   

Kenichi Matsuyama as L in Death Note-L: Change the World (above), the second picture (below) of him with Mayako Fukuda as Maki and Narushi Fukuda as Near.

The actual L from the Death Note series.

The actual Near from the Death Note series (albino! Not...Thai... o.O;; )

Oh! And my proof for being there... They didn't have a poster at the Tinseltown theater in Fayette, however, I'll have a picture of my ticket up soon. In the meantime, here's a picture of the title screen I took with the cell while waiting for the movie to start.