If anyone read this blog, I would have to remind them that this monthly meta series could end at any time. Like anything. But I could maybe review records instead. Hm, I just had some internal monologue on the subject. Don’t need to type that out at all. Felt pretty good. Yep.

Tumblr

Renamed the main tumblr. Just the title. After I changed the url I was keeping the old name for SEO purposes in case someone was googling for it after hearing the podcast. But I deleted the podcasts, and a spammer bought the old domain. So that’s that. Also, I got back into the reblog tumblr. I liked the design after all. There’s a few original posts here and there but I’m calling it the reblog tumblr because I’m trying to phase out reblogging on the main one. Probably not completely, but it goes weeks at a time of only reblogs, and it’s really thought out sequences of reblogs which is making me nuts and I don’t think anyone even notices it. The queue was over 100 at some points, unworkable. The Halloween thing I’m doing now I’m not doing again. Running out the queue to the end of the year.

“Band”

Trying to clear out more old stuff. Working solo at the moment. Thought about changing the name of the band many times or starting a new one. I run into a lot of cool Japanese words or phrases when I’m studying that I think about using but then I look it up it’s always taken by some pretentious douchebags and then I think it’s the perfect name.

J-pop vs. Metal

I went through all the old posts and replaced any deleted videos. This was a lot harder to do in the blogspot version. On the sidebar of the site you’ve got the social link icons and a link (really several links) that takes you to random pages. If the podcast stays up with no problems it will likely continue. I was only going to take another short break again and do that every 10 episodes to make it something cohesive. But then October comes up and what, I’m gonna make it creepier? Better for people just to go back and listen again if they want their fix. Who wants to listen to new music they have never heard before on Halloween anyway?

Been thinking about mp3 rates. The first 9 eps used 128. Thought it was alright. Bass gets a little muddy. 10th used 320, wanted to see if it was clearer, which is is, but the file’s a little big. Used VBR after that. Seems like it would be best. I dunno. Reading this guys advice here but he thinks all mp3s sound terrible. (He’s talking about the rates for recording, not data compression, but I think a similar concept applies.) His other thoughts on digital recording are worth reading.

Shows vs. Shows

As a movie, Through the Never was a pretty great show. Never seen Metallica live, but people tell me that as they’ve drifted into MOR hard rock territory over the years with their new records, their mighty back catalog has also been dragged along into a watered-down mush. There was a lot of nonsense in this thing, but the sound of the band was definitely not an issue. It’s like 90% the classic sound—even the newer songs that are not that great sounded pretty good. And Trujillo is a great player. His whole crabwalking thing never seemed to fit, but it kinda did here. And he keeps Lars on time. The rest of the thing I am not even commenting on, but they put in a great performance.

I don’t know how much longer they can last like that, and they definitely don’t have another movie in them, but musically their performance here rescues their legacy quite a bit for me.

Oh my, oh no, one word is meaning more than one thing. Joined Crunchyroll on the 2-week free offer to watch all of Attack on Titan. Kinda loved it. Also watch the first eps of Kill La Kill. That show is pretty goofy but it’s fun. Notice both shows feature people gaining superpowers by cutting themselves AND unexplained amounts of steam?

I guess I’ll come back when I have $6 a month or whatever. They have dramas too. I haven’t torrented since before youtube so I haven’t seen most new stuff, just random clips. I do have Netflix, but they just cut off my streaming cause I’m on the cheapo 2-disc plan. Which is a fine plan.

Flickr vs. Instagram

Stopped paying for flickr because I don’t need more than a TB. Instagram is cool right now but they censor shit, or rather force you to censor shit or they delete you which is not cool, even tho I mostly post pictures of the sidewalk, but anyway, it’s gonna suck when they put in ads which is gonna happen soon. So I think flickr will get more social again after that if they don’t screw it up too.

Marc Maron vs. Mari Yaguchi

Both Marc Maron and Mari Yaguchi are having some personal problems. Yaguchi’s has forced her to retire. Maron’s has forced him back into heart-rending opening monologs which end hilariously. I really liked Mari’s TV work. I haven’t seen Maron’s TV work. Unless you count Remote Control. That was a long time ago. I am not happy about either of these things. I want Japanese celebrities to be able to fuck whoever they want. Within reason. I mean I guess that whole thing wasn’t right. No it wasn’t. But she should still be able to work. What I’m saying is these J-celebs have to live up to this impossible image or it’s over. Those fans won’t allow them to have a life that is not some version of perfect. But what if Marc Maron fans are doing the same but in reverse? Do we need Marc Maron to be miserable? Is he making his life miserable…for us? The thing is, those J-celebs, idols, whatever, don’t really need to be perfect. We just don’t need to find out about it. What I’m saying is, Marc Maron, ideally, I would like you to be happy. But you can keep that happiness under wraps, man. You’re our misery idol. We don’t need to know.

Maybe I never got over Jesus not being real.
^^^^^^^^^^This was just in my draft like that and I don’t remember how I was supposed to work it in.

Anki vs. Credit card

Still plugging away on Anki. Never updated my desktop version, which was 1.0, and it’s stopped working. But I got everything on the iPod. I think doing Anki everyday has organized my brain better, which is helping me pay off my credit card. Really tho? Or am i just over-committed to this list format I just came up with?

Japaneseclass.jp is also a great learning tool I just started using, which would fit better under the heading “Japanese learning tools” or something. The great thing about it is, after you know the language you can just sit around all day answering the questions you already know like these jerkoffs in the top ten.

Youtubes vs. Vimeo

I have two youtube accounts (1, 2) and one Vimeo account (1). I have uploaded some old concert footage. Some of them were uploaded years ago but they look a lot better now and the sound is synced. Learning more about video.

Admen vs. Artists

You know, there could be a set of of circumstances were maybe I would work in or with “The Ad World”. If this entire blog was about how I was trying to do this, repeatedly, desperately, I suppose it would be somewhat scandalous to call them all scumbags. Foolish, even. Ill-advised. Well, it’s not about that. And I don’t think I called them all scumbags. But, for example, if they were to pay me. If they were to pay me, in money, for work I considered reasonable, perhaps I would work with them. This has not occurred.

Look, I’m not really conservative about the definition of “Art”. You could take horse_ebooks, print it out, silkscreen it some nice 60lb. acid-free, frame it and hang it in a gallery and that’s Art. Of course, if you did do that before last month, hopefully it sold, because you now some totally worthless stock on your hands. Exactly zero people would buy such a piece for aesthetics alone, which in my opinion, makes it BAD ART. “Good” and “bad” are subjective, even on a consensus basis. But if you remove the judgement, what is and is not art is so slippery. Calling something “art” doesn’t elevate it in my opinion either, so there’s no reason to seek it out as validation. Parts of this whole horse_ebooks thing is in the art category, but when they try to take credit for this whole part they did not make that was not intended as art by the original creator and then try to retcon their intent into that, that is just bullshit. It’s like Duchamp taking his readymades from the art gallery to an industrial design show. You are plain saying something is something that it isn’t. Wait, that could be art. It’s like claiming you’ve done something that you haven’t. (Altho many professionals outsource or have uncredited assistants.) The famous quote is that art is whatever you can get away with, but this illustrates the danger of taking quotes seriously. Like the oft-cited “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” That’s about supplies! %