dubiouslog

1. DP166
2. Everyone gave me very beautiful and meaningful presents
3. I just found out there is a demo from the new album from Thurisaz and it’s so amazing I actually came

Irene, listen to this! :3

I blame the ep for finding myself singing Chiisaki Mono.

then after all the rage I come to learn Sugimori’s got a blog in which he posted the concept artworks for the Pokémon movies 10 and 11 characters and I must say that they really are gorgeous. Why won’t he use that lineart style with all of his other work I will never know, but by now you’ll all know I’m a sucker for sketchy linearts so my opinion may be somehow biased. Oh Sugimori why you do this to me, I loved you and hated you and loved you again. :(

Anyway, have a drawing of me in a cyber armor. The finished work and the base sketch are actually the same thing in this case, as I only had to work on top of the sketch and add details and shading without ever erasing it - I only cleaned up some areas in the end, like the leg on the left and so. It was inked with a Japanese brush pen I bought a few months ago but never quite figured out how to put to good use. Guess I’ll have to explore this technique more then.

On another news, guess who’s been playing Oblivion instead of doing something productive for a change? Next post will have pictures of the two characters I’ve been playing as and maybe some drawings too, who knows.

I played The Sims 3 too, and uninstalled it after a day. What a waste of my time. It’s almost impossible to make a sim who’s at least decent looking and doesn’t have that soulless doll face. The body type sliders are stupid and a thin woman will also be as flat as a sheet, which is just wrong. Men tend to look like they’re sixteen unless they have a beard, case in which they look like they’re sixteen and have a fake beard. Making a house is a pain in the ass, too. The Sims for me has always been about making a beautiful house with beautiful characters, I’ve been doing that since forever, why does it have to be that frustrating now?

I really miss the magic of the original The Sims. Anyone who played that will remember the dauntingly beautiful building mode soundtracks, like this one. Because of these pieces now I can’t help but feel there’s something grave and solemn about building a house. Like dreams are taking a shape and ceasing to be dreams.
It’s incredible to think that such quality came from a game which gained so much popularity that “true gamers” labelled it as marketed to casuals and not worth their time. Sure, The Sims brought many casual gamers to gaming, but it was no Wii Sports. It was fun, but it was also inspired and, ultimately, a work of art. It earned its place in history.

That’s how I see it at least.

30+ IN CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY FUCK YEAH. Especially because much of this success was determined by me making a large painting inspired from the work of Francis Bacon. The teacher was so impressed he even gave me a free book. So apparently my childish and anatomically impossible drawings are worth a 30+ and a free book. In your ass. :>

Even though I shouldn’t be taking such people too seriously, maybe I should really try and write down my views on art, especially as to why I deliberately choose to draw roughly and mostly ignoring anatomy. It’s not like I’m not able to make beautiful realistic drawings, you know. I just found a bunch of old stuff including a self-portrait I drew at fifteen and man, it does look nice. I’ll be scanning all that old stuff from 2004-2005 - those drawings that got lost with the HD failure and some which went lost ages before that (including the Sneasel pic who graced the very first layout of Angeltower Page). I’m also rescanning my old Pokémon comic whose pages seem to be currently located in the dark side of the interwebs - I even found some unpublished pages, so you may be in for a surprise.

And talking about comics, I’d really like to make another Pokémon comic. I’ve already been planning it out. It will be a comic divided in three or four short episodes each one focusing on a different aspect of the relationship between Pokémon and people.
The first one will take place before Pokémon and people became two different species and it will be about a little girl and his grampa. The old man discovers he can keep his niece’s life energy in a ball he created out of an Apricorn, so they play together with this toy - except that, with the passing of time, the old man becomes more and more scared of his child outgrowing their game, and ends up becoming eerily obsessive…
The second one will take place in the present and will be about a Trainer and a Fearow who fall in love for each other, thus compromising the whole training system and posing some interesting question on their relationship.
The third one will be about a “real world” girl playing Pokémon and getting emotionally attached to the creatures.
I do seem to have a predilection for real weird stuff. In case you were asking. :P

Also, I just got approved for the making of the Fearow fanlisting! Yeah Fearow. It took me a whole ten years to understand its greatness |D Sneasel is sticking to the position of favorite Pokémon ever, then Mewtwo, Porygon-Z and Fearow in no particular order. The fanlisting’s name will be Soaring Dread and it will feature an illustration of mine in the layout. I PROMISE IT’S GOING TO LOOK NICE

As for the new Hall of Changes layout I changed idea three times, then got what looks like my best layout ever. It looks so awesome that I cannot believe it was me to create it. It will feature Samus and the Orion Nebula! What can possibly go wrong? :D

Anyway, this post was really about…ME SINGING KAZE TO ISSHO NI. DUN DUN DUUUN. I would have posted Niji ga Umareta Hi too but the laptop mic wouldn’t record the high-pitched scream at the end which was supposed to show my leet singing skillz. Hahaha. As you will have understood by now, the recording is quite low-quality, but I’m so awesome so it should not be a problem. SARCASM.
Here’s the recording. My voice does sound weird in places but that’s because by the “ikutsomono deai, ikutsumono wakare” I was crying like a baby. Kaze to Issho Ni always gets to me. :<

Let me end this entry with my latest weird dream. Involving me saving a beautiful woman with long fair hair by a number of weird situations throughout some really colorful and detailed worlds. And having hot sex with her afterwards. Ten times. And because this dream was half-lucid, I could make her boobs larger whenever I wanted to. My dreams are, indeed, better than yours. Live with it. XD

STOLEN FROM IRENE
except she only tackled the anime ops, but I’m an even bigger Pokémon dork than her so HAHAH NO IRENE JUST KIDDING, JUST KIDDING

Anime openings

5. Spurt! - It somehow remembers me of the early nineties’ anime openings, so energetic
4. Ready Go! - It makes me smile :) Also nice vocals
3. Together - Maybe a bit cheesy, but I still like the overall sound. Also the lyrics are so fun :D
2. Battle Frontier - I LOVE THIS SO MUCH and even more so in the Eiga Version (sorry, no Youtube link). I used to listen to it a lot a few years ago. I even remember a few rather embarrassing mishearing games with my sister 8′D
1. Mezase Pokémon Master ‘98 - I’m linking to the Myuutsuu no Gyakushuu version rather than the original anime opening because it’s the one I grew with. I love this to pieces, I know all the lyrics by heart, also Rica Matsumoto is friggin’ awesome.

Anime endings

5. Polka O Dolka - HILARIOUS. Also I love how they’re actually saying PORUKA O DORUKA
4. Gizamimi Pichu Song - I LIKE THE GIZAMIMI PICHU SONG. SO WHAT?
3. Nyaasu no Uta - SO CUTE.
2. Type: Wild! - Rica Matsumoto again! This song reminds me of Oli, wonder what she’s up to now. Also it begins with Kaze to Issho ni :D
1. Soko ni Sora ga Arukara - Try to deny it, this is beautiful.

Movie endings

I only like three of them.
3. Niji ga Umareta Hi - The singer is just so incredible. Also, once I managed to sing it! You may not know it, but I’m actually decent at singing. Maybe I should record myself singing this?
2. Chiisaki Mono - The vocals are amazing.
1. Kaze to Issho ni - In my opinion, the best Pokémon song ever. Wonderful lyrics, wonderful music. Also yes, the little girl singing is Ai. You have no idea how much I love this.

Stuff is going on, but there’s not much to be said right now. I’m working on Blind Dreaming’s new index, Advanced Blanked’s layout (which is apparently turning out very fine), a fanlisting for weasels, stuff for Dark Claws, some new artworks and an animation exam. I’ll let you see later.

In the meanwhile, some interesting stuff. I have just discovered about the existence of fractal music; check this out. I’ve searched the web for more but any site I’ve found is either long dead or has midi files which I can’t listen to, so if you happen to be interested in this kind of stuff you’ll have to google it yourself.

The same person who composed that piece I’ve linked to also runs a very interesting webcomic called Dreaming of Eden. Top-notch stuff, if you ask me; sounds a lot like Mewtwo in Myuutsuu no Gyakushuu. Listen to that piece of fractal music while reading this webcomic, it will all make more sense. Too bad it seems to be discontinued.

Megaman II has got some of the best soundtracks from the NES era. Today I checked VGmusic for some good midi remixes of its greatest tracks, and found much more than what I was looking for. Search this page for “Mega Man II” and follow me from there, as I don’t want to direct link the midis but I don’t want to host them here without asking the sequencers first.

Airman’s Stage (5) by Starbug - upbeat, feels like the original track, and generally works
Airman’s Stage (9) by Sword-Bolt - slower and featuring a cool electric piano
Airman’s Stage (XG) by Blue Fox Verse & MaliceX - an interesting take with guitar riffs and a BASS

Boss by Trevor Kuprel - it has echoes

Bubbleman’s Stage (5) by Seth Wilson - listen to it from the beginning to the end. this is just beautiful. beautiful I say
Bubbleman’s Stage (9) by Sword-Bolt - it’s funny how it feels like you’ve been listening to this since forever
Bubbleman’s Stage (2) by Tom Kim - these tiny distorted sounds

Heatman’s Stage (2) by Trevor Kuprel - just like the original

Flashman’s Stage by Trevor Kuprel - BADASS

Opening & Title (Rock Remix) by FailureChild - THE WAY IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN
Opening & Title (Arranged) by Steven C. King - it’s good but it’s missing the peeeeeow
Opening & Title (2) by Trevor Kuprel - on the other hand, this has got the best peeeeow ever

Dr. Wily Stage 1 (11) by Sword-Bolt - just…gorgeous. there are no words for this.

After listening to these I looked for some other tracks:

Ninja Gaiden - Act 2 Stage 1 by Deuce - Is there somebody other than me out there who thinks that Ninja Gaiden had a great soundtrack?
Ninja Gaiden - Act 2 Stage 2 by Deuce - same as before

(page change)
Castlevania - Stage 1 - “Vampire Killer” by Jorge D. Fuentes - shut up I love Vampire Killer
Castlevania - Stage 1 - “Vampire Killer” (Arranged) (3) by Esposito - weird piano for the win

(another page change)
Bubsy the Bobcat - Title Screen and Bonus Stage (sequencer unknown) - someone please play this one with real instruments
Bubsy the Bobcat - Cheese Wheels of Doom (sequencer unknown) - du du du du du du du du
Bubsy the Bobcat - Invincible Bubsy (sequencer unknown) - RUN BUBSY, RUN TILL YOU CAN

Donkey Kong Country - Aquatic Ambiance (Orchestrated) by Dave Phaneuf - Let’s close this post with one of the most beautiful video game remixes I’ve ever listened to. I want to get asleep listening to this.