monthly recap (october 2024)
i'm still just working and flopping around.
YE@RBOOK: idolmaster 20th anniversary fanbook
remember when i wrote about how i'm done with working on fanprojects and crap because i'm a grownass adult who doesn't have the time for it? anyway i'm stupid so i'm running the idolmaster 20th anniversary fanbook.
new website
i updated the personal site that i never use. the new URL is milaza.net since .art was getting too expensive. not sure what to do with the rest of my business cards. i'll update the rest of the pages and get to transferring the TGAAshit domains later.
travis scott: circus maximus tour
earlier this week, i got really excited about acting as a comedy reporter for whatever reason, so i decided to attend one of the cheapest yet biggest events in townâ the travis scott concert! because he had pushed the concert ahead for one day just a week before it was set to run, there were a bunch of $25 USD tickets for sale. the view was quite clear despite it being an obstructed ticket. there were still a lot of empty seats around me.
the visual, audio, and pyrotechnic effects were impressive. however, i could hardly hear travis through his muffled mic and i was disappointed at the 15-minute opening act that left the crowd dry for another 45 minutes until travis appearedâ after most people had already been waiting 2.5 hours. travis's set was only an hour long and he didn't have any guests either.
other people seemed to get into it a lot, but i don't know if it was worth using up one of eden park's six concert slots per year. i think the same crowd could've fit in spark arena or western springs instead.
of course when it comes to travis scott, the question isn't just the size of the crowd, but also their attitude. it was fine. there was certainly fighting but even from afar you could tell it was just teenagers brawling for fun. it really felt like a normal party but at a way bigger capacity.
art log
can you tell that tama was the only AINI character i cared about?
media log
- joker: folie Ă deux: lady gaga being announced for the sequel was the reason i watched the original joker to begin with, so i get pissed off if i see people talk about how the musical aspect was what killed joker 2. it's just a boring film that doesn't utilize gaga well at all. i dislike the idea that the film was so bad because todd phillips didn't care about the people who liked the first joker, because phillips didn't service people who felt mid about the first joker either. it's still perfectly possible to tell a storyline where joker gets destroyed by his own legacy and have cool supervillain scenes that involve the musical element. even if you despise joker's ideology, how are you supposed to like the message of this film when the thing that finally breaks joker is
him getting sexually assaulted? i don't know who this film was made for. - tyrion cuthbert: arcane ascension - chapter 1: the graphics are surprisingly high-quality. i was about to say it's an interesting concept to involve magic in a detective courtroom game but then i remembered that's the same in every single ace attorney game anyway.
- the boys S4E7-8: i don't know why they had to pair kimiko and frenchie romantically.
- kagurabachi C1-C14: kaGOATrabachi. i really like the artwork. the artist draws with a strong sense of control.
- ai: the somnium files - true end: that was a game that existed. i liked the twist, but it was ultimately a twist that just existed to be cool... unless you want to dive deep into the true end's scenario but i really don't. uchikoshi did the exact same plotline 20 years ago. boring characters, worse gameplay, ultimately meaningless mystery.
- persona 2 eternal punishment - hotel pleaides: i play P2EP so sparsely that i hardly remember what's going on but i still love the cast. i'm happy to see nanjo and elly again.
- scream queens S1E1: scream queens just feels like it has all of glee's meanness and none of its heart. i'm only on the first episode though, so i'll see if i enjoy it more later. it's interesting at least.
- john oliver is still working through the rage: my recent jono and ben kick has got me thinking about comedy more consciously. it's interesting to see john oliver's thoughts on comedy because he even uses his love for it as a mask to be unseriousâ acting like it isn't his goal to bring serious topics to the limelight when it so clearly is. are all british people like this? anyway, i don't understand why the journo has such a hard time understanding that john oliver doesn't consider himself a journalist. it's not like he's the one who researches shit himself!
- needy streamer overload: the localization is very impressive! stories like these make me feel so mentally regular because i don't relate to them at all lol. i like this type of shinymas-esque simulation gameplay a lot, but i don't feel very motivated to play it when i'd just be following guides anyway. i think it'd be more enjoyable if stats were more randomized/riskier or if it were more limited for the first few turnsâ creating a game where the goal truly is to reach 1 million subs and not to backtrack and go crazy to find all of the endings. but engaging gameplay isn't really necessary for a story-focused game like this.
- needy girl overdose run with my sick C1-C6: checked out the manga adaptation for comparison. here,
p-chan is his own character in contrast to the game where he's just a figment of ame's imagination. this isn't a problem in itself, but doesn't this p-chan have too much personality, backstory, and distinct design? i think he should've been a generic black-hair otaku-type guy. the lack of p-amu romance also feels weird when it defines their relationship in the game... unless they're planning to have p-chan fall back into another scandal, but i don't see what the point of that would be. just show them in a creepy codependent relationship already. - sensei! i like you so much!: the artwork is adorable and i like the style of gameplay, but i'm just here for the character maker. it's difficult if you like silly tops.
- the office UK S1E1: i thought my sense of humor would align with the british because i'm from new zealand, but the american version is a lot funnier after all. i can't believe martin freeman plays the equivalent of jim. the dwight-equivalent is fantastic though.
- the office S2E17-17: i forgot that i had already watched these before, but they're still hilarious. ryan is such a shitcunt! i love him.
- venom: the last dance: i watched it in IMAX on release day and a few days after that with my friends. it's okay, but i don't like it as much as the first two venom films.
i think the main reason is that it lacks any side characters that i care aboutâ i loved anne and dan from V1 and also enjoyed the villains from V2. the hippie family and scientist storylines were boring in comparison. it also lacked an epic battle against the final bossâ all we got instead was a fight against the cronies. like, venom died for that? the ending of V2 was too perfect and this took place so soon after that i mostly feel sad eddie and venom only got a year to have gay sex together. - slylock fox: slylock fox is one of the few older newspaper comics where you feel like the creator genuinely puts effort into the artwork and coming up with unique ideas, even if they're designed for 5 year olds. i want to draw herlock sholmes as a slylock fox strip sometime but no one's gonna get it except for me.
- gil thorp: been meaning to get into gil thorp for a long time so the switch to WWDITS dojinshi artist rachel merrill was a good opportunity. it seems confusing to read at first but if you start from the july-august strips you'll be fine. apparently the author is also a millenial, so it's really funny to see chainsaw man and nonbinary protags featured in such mainstream media that no one under 60 years old reads.