Review: Still Got Legs by Chameleon Circuit

This album has been about for about a week, and I have had it on repeat for pretty much all of that time. So I decided that I may as well review it so that I may spread the word of it's greatness. This album is by the Band Chameleon Circuit, and it is call Still Got Legs. Chameleon Circuit is a Time Lord Rock band (or Trock for short). That means that it does songs based off of Doctor Who. I got into them because I am a big fan of band member Alex Day's solo work, and he linked to this in his blog. I liked their first album pretty well, so I gave this one a try. And I was blown away. If you want to hear it for yourself for free, you can do so here.

This is an amazing album. There are so many good songs. "Nightmares" and "The Doctor is Dying" are both dark and somber, and rock. "The Sound of Drums" is like the previous two listed songs, turned up to 11. "Mister Pond" is cool, although considering my love of badass Last Centurion Rory there may be a bit of a bias here. "Travelling Man," sounds like a Death Cab for Cutie song, and is happy with a hint of something deeper under the surface. "Regenerate Me" is a lot like the music from their debut self-titled album released about a year and a half ago or so. It is one of the weaker songs on the album, being merely good instead of amazing. "Big Bang Two" is fast and moderately interesting, with a chord change based off of "I Am The Doctor," the song that plays in Series Five & Six whenever something awesome is happening. "Still Not Ginger" is a short, lighthearted song that feels a little bit tacked on to the end of the record to leave on a happy note, but it's a fun song so I'm not complaining. "Eleven" is a rock cover of "I Am The Doctor,"which only worked to make the song even better.

The band has said that they wanted to make not just a good Doctor Who album, but a good album in general. I feel that they have succeeded. "Kiss the Girl" is a lighthearted love song about a guy who has a crush on his best friend. "Teenage Rebel" is vaguely punk-pop; it's a fun song about freedom.

The only two songs on the album that I do not really like are "Everything is Ending" and "Silence and the End of All Things." "Silence" is just a depressing song in my opinion, and just feels wimpy. It may even be longer than the scene from the show it was based upon. "Everything is Ending" I don't like mostly because I hate that woman's voice. If I am not mistaken, she was the girl in the song "Hearts" by Alex Day off of Parrot Stories, but that was only a few lines, and her voice wasn't as shrill then I recall. But, with time, even that song is stating to grow on me.

In short, this is a great album that you should get.

Musing: Transformers sexuality

So at Bot Con a few weeks ago, someone asked if Prime Knockout is gay. I'm not going to discuss the "glitch in his Spark" comment, because the only thing I have to say about it is that that was really homophobic. But the answer to that question, I would say, is no, since sexual orientation is defined by gender, which Knockout doesn't have.

Until otherwise stated, I am going to assume that Cybertronians in the Prime Universe were created the usual way for them in other continuities: by Primus, essentially a god. And you can assume that they reproduce the usual way as well, which is constructing a body in a workshop and giving it a Spark of life, either by way of Vector Sigma or the AllSpark. So they are beings that do not reproduce sexually, and were created by a non-sexual being. The concept of sex is completely alien to them, and they likely did not find out about it until they came to Earth. so Cybertronians definitively do not have sexes, but what about genders?

I would say that they do not have genders either, without sexes, the only way to define gender would be their role in society and how they are treated. And Prime Arcee, the only Autobot that would be considered to be female, doesn't seem to be treated any differently than any one else on the team. At best, gender can only be assigned based upon robot forms that vaguely resemble those of humans, and at worst the distinction is arbitrary.

So, no sexes, and no genders. without these reference points, orientation is completely meaningless. Transformers can still love (although, being a Decepticon, Knockout only really loves himself), but there are no sexual barriers for it.

What needs to be remembered is that Cybertronians existed long before humans did, and have a culture all their own. They do not sleep, do not have sex, and their eating is really refueling, with nothing resembling cuisine. Imagine a culture stripped of all of those things, the later two of which seem to make up 80% of our advertising and economy. They may be some of the most alien aliens in fiction that are still comprehensible.

Musing: Toyota & the Vocaloids

In my proud tradition of continually being late to the party, I have decided to get into the Vocaloids. I have previously browsed a few songs, but now I intended to learn more about them. I now know at least the names of all of the important ones, some of their more popular songs, and covers of English songs. (From the last of which come my love of Luka Megurine, who is actually pretty good at English.) Convinently, I soon learned that my joining of the fandom happened only a month after the announcement that they are bringing Vocaloids over to America. (Now, this ignores the existing English Vocaloids, but I would not really say that they count as they don't seem to be used as characters, or at least have only a fraction of the fans.) The following commercial seems to be the only ad so far in the "Big Dream" campaign:

Now, I have a problem with this. Mostly, it's who Miku is, and who the ad is targeted to. Considering that the announcer is the same respectable gentleman and the lighting and camerawork are the same as in all Toyota ads, we can assume that it is targeting the same people: responsible adults looking for a reliable car. In American culture, these people would not like Miku.

Miku is 16, has a squeaky voice, and has pigtails. She is a certifiable teen idol. American Adults do not like teen idols; if they like any pop singers, they tend to be a bit more mature, with a deeper voice.

I, personally, feel that Luka would be more accepted my mainstream America. She is capable of having a similar musical style to Lady Gaga, as well as darker, more soulful songs. She also already has an English voice ready, which means unlike Miku they do not have to make one. And you cannot say that she isn't popular; she and the Kagamine twins joined Miku on stage at the Giving's Day concert.

Of course, Miku still has a place in America. We still do have teen idols; and they are quite lucrative. It is just tend to target a more younger crowd. Miku could replace Hannah Montanna on store shelves. Furthermore, having both come here at the same time could show Americans the versatility of the Vocaloid2 engine. Again, this is talking about Mainstream Americans, not those who are currently into the Vocaloids.

In short, don't put all of your eggs in one basket, Toyota; Luka and Miku together will reach a broader audience then just Miku alone.

Also, I have written as much this week as I have all year. Hopefully on Saturday I will be able to write a review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, thus breaking my lateness streak.

Musing: Green Lantern & Sinestro

So, Sinestro is in the new Green Lantern movie, and he is still a Green Lantern until, I'm told, the very end. This decision has baffled me. Considering the reviews, there probably won't be a GL2 until they reboot the franchise. Why save his most iconic villain for a sequel that they were not sure they would get?

Ultimately, I decided that they were attempting to imitate the Dark Knight saga. First movie sets up origin and uses two more obscure villains, second uses arch nemesis. Batman Begins used Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul, The Dark Knight has Joker. First Green Lantern uses Parallax and Hector Hammond, second will use Sinestro.

There is a problem with that, though. First off, Green Lantern is not as popular as Batman will ever be. Batman had the big name going for it, GL does not. Second, the writing for the DK Saga is much better than what I'm told GL has. The Dark Knight is considered to be a modern day classic, while Green Lantern is considered to be a subpar summer blockbuster. Put that together and it looks like there won't be a sequel.

It seems that they imitated surface qualities of a successful work without looking deeper. So, basically what happened when they created the Dark Age of superheroes. Oh well. at least this time there are less guys named Bloodkill.

Review: Tales From the 'Field #3

In my personal experience, there tends to be two types of independent artists. First there are the new guys, just trying to break into the field. This is like a garage band that hopes to be discovered and signed by a major label. The other type are the pretentious artists, who want to stay underground and loathe anything mainstream. This type is kinda annoying, as they insist that what they do is true art, and therefore better than everything else.

From what I have heard from them, and the third issue of their comic Tales Form the 'Field (which I picked up a couple of months ago at Gem City Comic Con), I believe that the guys at Twilight Star Productions are in the latter group of artists. They work out of Springfield, Ohio, hence the name of the series. They look down on mainstream comics (which I should note is still pretty niche) such as Marvel, as they called an issue of Dark Avengers "a steaming turd," as I recall in an old article in the Dayton Daily News. Still, I read works from assholes all of the time (I still read Dilbert, after all), so I decided to try them out.

The first thing that I noticed about the comic was that they already put it in a protective bag with a board behind it when they gave it to me. This is generally a way that you protect a comic from damage, and given that no one else at GCCC did that, reinforced the air of pretension I got from these guys.

I open it up. There are about 3 complete stories, and two story fragments. The first story fragment is part called "The Unnaturals," first part of a series. Least as I can tell, it's about a superhero who gets his power from a high-tech suit hunting vampires with the aid of a Moth Man, who in this story were high priests of Atlantis who were kicked out because they prophesied the end of their civilization. This looks like it could be entertaining, but with only 4 pages of it in a single issue, it would take too much effort to get the whole story.

The next story is the third part of "Legacy." This seems to be a traditional superhero story. It certainly does look entertaining, but there are only 3 pages of it in here, so it has the same pitfalls as "The Unnaturals."

Next is the cover story, "Perfect Day." An awkward man releases an genie from a jar, and the genie allows him one wish. There is a catch, in that the effects of the wish will go away in 24 hours. He uses his wish to become a superhero, in order to woo a woman who turned him down at the beginning of the story. He performs exactly one act of heroism, takes the woman around the world, has sex with her, then falls asleep. (Some hero.) Faced with the fact that tomorrow he will go back to his old loser self, he chooses to fly to the sun to watch it as he loses his powers, burning himself alive. This does not really work as a superhero story at all, and it feels like it ends up as a Shaggy Dog Story. He we see TSP fall prey to the notion that True Art is Angsty. It wasn't a particularly entertaining story, and kind of depressing.

And the next one is even more depressing. Titled "My Girl," A girl that has previously lost her dad is now about to lose her mom to cancer, and she jumps off of a bridge. That's it. We are not with the character long enough to feel proper empathy towards her, which turns a heartwrenching tragedy into a depressing waste of time.

The last story, "Dragnet," is also pretty dark, but it is at least genuinely good. A man robs a jewelry store, and accidentally runs into a gypsy, who warns him that he will meet his end in a dragnet. He thinks she is referring to the police dragnets, so he goes by ocean. He gets caught in a fishing dragnet, and drowns when his air runs out. Not bad, like a 2 minute short story that they could expand and use as part of the Twilight Zone, although the twist is not all that surprising.

So, ranking them, I would say I like "Legacy" the best, followed by "Dragnet," then "The Unnaturals," "Perfect Day," and finally, in last place, "My Girl." I do not plan on buying any more issues of Tales From the 'Field, and I would not suggest you do either. It just is not that good.

Review: Get Equipped by The Megas

This is the first post in the review category. I may, at times, choose to review an album or movie, things like that. The first up is Get Equipped by The Megas.

There is a good chance you have not heard about them before. The Megas are a rock band themed around the video game series Mega Man. All of their songs are based around the music from the games and, for the most part, the songs relate to the character. Each song is sung as a different character from the games; since there really isn't much of a story to the games, this means that most of the songs are from the point of view of the bosses. In that case, the song itself is their stage music.

The Megas currently have two albums out, with a third on the way. Get Equipped is their debut album, and all of it's music is from Mega Man 2. (Their sophomore work, That's Megatainment, is about the first game.)

I like this band. This is one of my go-to albums when I want to listen to something for a while. Their music is energetic and (much like the colorfully killer robots that are the inspiration for the music) is neither too light or too dark, making for good listening no matter what you are feeling like at the time. This is music you can really dance too.

Sample songs:

Metal Dance /Metal Man

The Quick and the Blue / Quick Man

Song ranking (least to best*)

11. "Lamentations of a War Machone /End Song": Too slow paced for my liking. I know it's basically an epilogue, but I don't get why they didn't replace it with the boss theme (most renditions of the music from Mega Man 2 put that near the end).

10: "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis /Air Man": His personality is based upon a bad pun. Less technical than the riffs from some of their other songs, which I don't like as well, and a general bias against the song it's based off of (a common theme for this list).

9. "Blue Like You /Flash Man": Compared to the arrangements of some of the other songs, this one I don't like as well as the original. It may be the pace, or the lyrics,but I am kinda 'meh" about this song.
8. "Programmed to Fight /Crash Man": This is like, the third time that Crash Man is depicted as a heroic character (Bob & George and Crash & Bass being the other two). It seems to be a general fandom consensus. Anyway, pretty dark considering that, if these songs were the Justice League, Crash Man's stage music would be The Flash. It's energetic and lighthearted in the same way.

7. "Promise of Redemtion /Bubble Man": Consider yourself lucky you're not in last place, Bubble man. You are basically Evil Aquaman. It's mostly the part at the end that I like, and why it nabs the #7 spot.

6. "Carved From the Mighty Oak / Wood Man": Not terrible; it's just that I think that there are better songs on the album. It;s a testament to the overall strength of the record when you have to choose which songs you like the least. Blame it on me not liking Wood man's music all that much. (that and slight lyrical weakness at times).

5. "I Wanna Be the One / Dr. Wily 1-2": Many people consider Wily Castle 1 to be the best song in that game. The Megas somehow made it even more awesome than it was previously. Also, note how Mega man's attitude changes between this and 'Lamentation of a War Machine."

4. "The Quick and the Blue / Quick Man": This narrowly beats out the previous song mainly because of my love for the original song (despite never having played the game). Love the horns, breakdown, and the personality they gave Quick Man.

3. "Man on Fire / Heat Man": I'm guessing this song gets a lot of audience participation live. Considerably slower than the original piece, the beat remians steady and generally cool (no pun intended).

2. The Message from Doctor Light / Level Select": Great energy. Especially love the hamminess of the singer (my love of over-the-top singing will be further explored when I review The Protomen) and the breakdown.

1. "Metal Dance / Metal Man": this is what i love about The Megas: fast rocking, and energetic.

* "The Beginning of the End" and "A Fate Forged in Steel" are both little more than sound effects, and so are not included in this ranking.

The culture of Pop Culture

I know every song from Mega Man II by heart. I also know the names of all of the robot masters, and I have memorized the weaknesses of more than a few of them.

Which is weird, since I have never picked up that game in my life.

Rather, I have absorbed it through the Culture of Popular Culture. I am a fan of Mega Man. I have played Mega Man ZX Advent, Battle Networks 3, 5, & 6, Star Force 1 & 2, and I plan on someday picking up Mega Man Zero Anniversary Collection. I am, to a certain extent, a part of the Mega Man community. and with that, I have absorbed the history of the community; from Mega Man (released in 1984) to Mega Man 10 (released in 2009), and all of game released in between. I also am a big fan of two Mega Man themed rock bands, The Megas (who do covers of the music from the games and fleshes out the characters) and The Protomen (who turn two-line back stories in to epic rock operas).

I also enjoy Doctor Who. This is especially nice, as Doctor Who’s popularity is comparable to that of Star Wars, if the series was released with the frequency of Star Trek. It currently has been going on for 31 seasons(and 11 actors playing The Doctor) and counting, and still going strong. Not a week goes by that I do not hear something that somehow relates to Doctor Who.

Religion is not the unifying force that it once was. In a globalized world, everyone has a different religion. and with different religions come different icons; the stories and characters of one religion may be unheard of among people of other religions. Furthermore, people in the first world are simply less religious than they used to be.

But if I showed you a picture of Batman, you would probably recognize him.

And that is the Culture of Pop Culture: in a world where people are less religious than they used to be, people join fandoms to fulfill their need to feel like they belong. Sure many people probably won’t admit it, but rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals is no different than saying that Naruto Uzumaki could beat Harry Potter in a fight. Old reactions still apply as well: though toned down quite a bit, the rivalry between Team Jacob and Team Edward. is similar to the animosity between Catholics and Protestants. (likewise, the need to have someone to hate has been projected onto Twihards in general).
This is why I spend what is probably an unhealthy amount of time on Kotaku.com. It is why I am a Troper (have fun on that site all day!). It’s why I can recite the original Team Rocket Motto by heart. all of these are components of the fandoms I am a part of, and in the case of TV Tropes, it is a fandom I am in. I feel like I am a part of these communities. I fact some people become part of an activity for the community (I started researching Doctor Who so I could understand the references months before I actually started watching.) Part of the reason many people watch sports is to have something to do with their friends on the weekends, and talk to other people about come Monday Morning. For many people, their fandom community has replaced their religious community in their hearts. Ultimately, this explains the prevalence of pop culture references. They remind you that you are not alone in your interests.

The Culture of Pop culture is here; and it’s power level is over 9000.