Stuff that was removed(or was it?) and other things.

So yeah, other stuff was here, but now it's gone. Because fuck that post. Also now talking about other stuff. Like metal. But first, I need to talk to some indie bands about something which has really been pissing me off for a while now. C'mere for a second indie bands, I promise I won't bite. See? No biting! Now put your collective ears to my mouth so I can whisper a secret in your ear. Whats that you say? "Dorian, this is a blog, people read blogs!" Oh silly indie bands, I can do really tiny print that'll be sure to piss of my one reader, which may not be a good idea, but this is a secret so I'll have to piss off my reader to so that. Ready for it? Here it comes, the big secret thing that I want indie bands to know.












STOP FUCKING IMITATING SIGUR ROS!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, why do indie bands keep trying to do that falsetto shit? It's obnoxious and really only Ben Gibbard can do it right. Also Sigur Ros sucks. The Album Leaf is much better and you'd have to have your head stuck so far up your own ass that you can accurately describe the contents of your own stomach if you think that Sigur Ros is better. I mean, The Album Leaf is like.....one of the best downtempo bands ever. And Sigur Ros are only a crappy indie pop band. Let me demonstrate why The Album Leaf is awesome for all the poor saps who have never heard of them.

I mean, check that shit out! It's all mellow and shit! Also awesome. I mean, I can't say enough nice things about this band and this song. It makes my top 100 Greatest Songs of All Time (which is actually really hard to do) easily. Anyway, now that I've gotten that nasty bit of business off my chest, time to talk about the greatest nu metal band you have never heard of. And I'm gonna do it in another paragraph, fucking crazy isn't it? Well mostly I'm doing it so my Senior English Teacher Mr. Isackson doesn't want to drag my sorry ass back to his class if he ever catches sight of this blog.

Anyway the name of this awesome band is Maximum the Hormone, and..........................well what more can I say other than they are probably one of the greatest metal bands in Japan (well, them and the ever awesome Gallhammer) and probably the entire gorram world (Gallhammer too in fact). I hate to label them as nu metal, because they are so much better than that label. But it fits, in that they are a bass heavy metal band with a screaming/singing dynamic. They don't take themselves seriously though, I mean, songs like Kuso Breakin Nō Breakin Lily are just so, well, kinda silly just bright and light(even though there is a dude screaming his throat out for one of the vocals on the song). So yeah, go look em up. I gotta go do stuff. I'll talk about the band more later.

Totally Nothing. Move Along!

Totally nothing here. Nothing was ever here. Move along.

Stuff

Well, tomorrow I'll be starting my first Psychology course, which of course means that I'll know how the whole world works by the end of the first class. Just you wait, I'll start going off on know-it-all rants about how things work and all that jazz(so not much different from what happens on here anyway!). Prepare for my know-it-all bullshit. It's gonna be obnoxious. Trust me.

Great OPs in Anime(Part the First)

Like many people on the Information Super Highway, I love anime. And like many people who watch anime, I watch the opening title sequence. First to see what song plays before the show, and secondly to get a sorta general vibe about the show. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with anime, what usually happens is that the anime studios and the writers approach bands or their managers for a song. Or the studio contacts a record label and they pick a band and one of their singles. And there are a couple of other ways that OPs(opening songs), but explaining how that happens is boring, and I'm not too sure all the ways songs get there anyway.

Anyway, most OPs are usually either okay, inoffensive, kinda lame, or good. Once in a while, an anime will have a really top shelf OP song. Like, so good  that you hunt down that OP through any means necessary. A great OP can change an anime too, it can colour your experience of the show. Great OPs can make a good show great, a great show a classic, or a bad show tolerable. This is a post devoted to such OPs, along with an explanation of which anime the OP is from and a bit about the anime in question.

First off is the OP from the absolutely amazing Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Second Gig.

The song here is called Rise, it's performed by Origa, a Russian pop singer. The programming and instrumentation is all done by the show's composer Yoko Kano. Now, this OP really fits the theme of the show, because the show is about a group of SWAT-esque police officers in the near future. And yeah, I know that sounds silly, but trust me, this show is really great. But watching the original 1995 movie and the first season of Stand Alone Complex(Second Gig being the second season). A link to the show's wikipedia page, for a better explanation of the show

Next we have the rather over-the-top, balls out metal OP from the equally over-the-top anime Needless

The song is written and performed by GRANRODEO, and the song is called Modern Strange Cowboy. And if I may say, this song should go with everything. I mean, like, everything. Car commercials, skin-care ads, McDonald's Happy Meal ads, depression medication ads, you name it. Anyway, Needless is a parody of almost every action anime ever, it's very much the Stephen Colbert of anime. Not as subtle, but still. Where you can watch this amazingly awesome show

And now for a show which Needless probably parodied, but which has a bitchin' OP, 11eyes.

This piece of bitching music is written and performed by Ayane(whose name is Japanese for sound design). The song is entitled Arrival of Tears. Now, 11eyes was well.....................................okay. It's not a great anime, it's just a kinda goodish anime. My reveiw of the anime says it all. In fact I'll just post a link to the show page and you can read the reveiw for yourself. I'm Elicoor13 on there too.



Making up for the lame show preceding it comes Durarara!! A rather well done, Tarantino-esque anime.

Now, this song really kinda encapsulates the series and the attitude so well. I dunno the lyrics, but the music and the way it's sung really kinda give a sense of what kind of anime it is. It's actually very similar to another FUCKING AMAZING show called Baccano!(the exclamation point is in the title by the way). Watch Durarara!! here. And totally go check out Baccano, seriously. But give it a few episodes, things may not make sense at first. Actually, think of Baccano kinda like Pulp Fiction. It'll help, trust me.

And last but certainly not least comes one of the greatest anime ever, Serial Experiments Lain.

This OP is one of the few OPs that is actually done in English, and was written by an English band. Which is actually really unheard of. And it really does make sense that the OP would be so unique, because this is a very unique show. The show is very unique and is not for everyone. Hell, most people really don't like this show because it's pretty confusing. But if you roll with it and actually think about the show while watching, you will be rewarded by one of the most profound anime shows to ever come out of Japan. If you're up to it, watch Serial Experiments Lain here. Good luck, and I don't blame you for not watching the show all the way through.


 Well, that was fun. I'll definitely do more of these sometime later. Also if the videos don't work on Sky7, make a user account and click the broken link button. One of the amazing linkers will go and find another mirror.

HA HA! Now I got a new title! Suck on that everyone else who is as unoriginal as me!

So yeah, now this blog is The Smithy of My Soul. That's taken from a line in James Joyce's book "The  Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man". Good book, you should go read it. Like, now. Because it's awesome. But make sure to get Mythic Worlds, Modern Words by Joseph Campbell to go along with it. It's a wonderful help to have in case you get lost in all the symbolism. Also it's really cool to read as far as you can into TPoaAaaYM(The  Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man), then read Mythic Worlds Modern Words. And it's also really cool to compare your own ideas to that of Campbell's. Needless to say, I have a more original title, you need to go get those two books, and well, people need to read more books. Because books are more than just things for the intellectual elite to hold over everyone's heads. More average people need to read the classics, because they have so much to offer. So enough of my yakkin', or else this post will be as long as War and Peace(pro-tip, don't read it. It's too long, there are too many characters, and it's just a mess. You need a flowchart to figure what is happening half the time. But I'll reveiw War and Peace some other time(Lucky you!)). So yeah, until next time!

GAH!!!

Just found out that my blog title isn't as original as I thought. Damn me and my unimaginative blog title!

The First Post

So I have my own blog now eh? Pretty slick.