aizobenizol

[aizobenizol]

mars express & monkey man

GO SEE MARS EXPRESS. best sci-fi movie I’ve seen in a long time.

Monkey Man suffers a lot from a structural issue. Flashbacks keep happening and and even though each time there are new scenes they dont have much information we couldn’t infer from the first few flashbacks. like bro, trust us, we understand ur grievances and need for revenge.

The film tries to set up two villains, one of them is the lackey, the other is his boss. The lackey is decent, he’s a fighter and fought the protagonist twice. That can’t be said for the boss cuz I couldn’t even tell if he knows exactly who the protagonist is. The vibe I got from him is that he recognized the protagonist as someone his past crimes have traumatized but nothing more. He was introduced in a very mild way, like this self-made success man. The movie doesn’t show his evil side till half way of the movie. And the scene where he first showed his hidden evil side is actually quite chilling. I really expected him to be a fighter too, and he carries this religious fervor with him. But lol his first and only confrontation with the protagonist ends in like 5 minutes. like bruh. I was hyped and you wasted the hype. I thought he’s gonna kick the protagonist’s ass. The trailer’s narration painted him as a demonic and almost mythic figure and I was so waiting for that narration to happen in the movie but it never did. This maybe skewered my perception of how he’s supposedly to be a constant and dominating presence in the movie and pose a physical threat to the protagonist.

At the mid point of the movie, I was like “this is black panther meet dmc reboot!”. Hanuman, or at least the version the protagonist represents, is posited as the protector of the weak and poor. This is way I never got much john wick vibe from the film at least not tonally. both movies have grief and revenge but the protagonists regards themselves differently: john wick is just a professional killer who wanna kill people who killed his dog, he does it for himself; hanuman started out just to get revenge for his mom, but the injustice his mom and his people faced is systematic, he came to realize he’s fighting for not just himself but for others who are opressed. This is the black panther part.

The dmc reboot vibe is based on positing the boss as the demon king, so it’s kinda shaky since only the trailer established him as such. He’s never shown to have any mythical powress. but the scene where he extinguished the candle flame made me think that’s where the movie is taking the character. In dmc reboot, the demons have human vessels who control big corporations who control the populace. If the boss villain is the demon king and not just in a metaphorical way, he would fit the same premise.

My favorite scenes are the people cheering and throwing red confetti down onto the boss villain at the bottom of a building, when he walks onto the podium to make a speech, and when he first showed his evil side.

GO WATCH MARS EXPRESS!

#marsexpress #monkeyman

[aizobenizol]

stories/settings about (scaling) a towering structure

<comics>

The Spire-takes place in a tall city separated by levels

<games>

Jusant-you climb a mountain

What remains of Edith Finch-you go through each room till you reach the top.

Sifu-the museum. you keep going up the floors. also you started the game in the lowest area and reach the mountain top at the end.

Rainworld-the wall. I never played much of it tho.

Elden Ring DLC-you scale a spiral tower in the sky.

<movies>

The summit of the gods

[aizobenizol]

why into the spiderverse flows so well

originally this is just a generic post about me listing why i think ITSV is better than ATSV in many departments despite many ppl claiming otherwise. one of the aspects i want to touch on is how well scenes flow into one another in ITSV so i went about analyzing how each scene does so. there are lots of scenes, so this became a post of its own.

It’s genuinely impressive how every scene, and I mean EVERY scene except one, flows into the next one smoothly

(I divided these scenes pretty arbitrarily, some of them are bigger sequences combining multiple scenes. so take the scene numbering and naming with a grain of salt.)

0. the bonkers spiderverse intro. the continuous build up of tension thru multiverse visuals and tense music is channeled into chris pine’s narration “all right let’s do this one last time”.

1. chris pine’s spiderman origin story. it ends with peter parker saying “there’s only one spiderman, and you are looking at him”. we immediately cut to miles morales drawing, showing that peter parker is about to be proven wrong.

2. miles going to school part one. this sequence actually contains 3 sub-sequences (miles getting ready at home, miles greeting his old school mates, miles slapping stickers everywhere). it ends with miles tripping and forced to ride his dad jefferson’s car.

3. miles going to school part two -- aka the dad talk. the sub-sequences include jefferson trying to bond with miles and the argument about the new school. it ends with miles forced to say ‘i love you dad’ in front of everyone and getting laughed at when he entered the school.

4. the school day scene. building off the tension of not fitting in and getting laughed at, miles is overwhelmed by school work. it ends with miles being late to his physics class.

5. the physics class scene. it goes beyond miles meeting gwen in class. he’s assigned an essay by his physics teacher. it ends with him stressing over the essay and heading out to see uncle aaron.

6. at uncle aaron’s place scene. sub-sequences include miles getting there, and miles and aaron talking about his day at school. it ends with aaron taking miles to a place to ‘throw up’ his art to help him relax.

7. underground graffiti scene. sub-sequences include getting to the graffiti place and miles painting. it ends with miles getting bitten by spider 42. he starts noticing changes in his body the next day.

8. the spiderman ‘puberty’ scene. it contains 2 sub-sequences (miles noticing changes and running into gwen, miles escaping from security), and both parts are comedy gold. it ends with miles accidentally reading ganke’s spiderman comics and questioning if there could be 2 spidermen. he needs answers so he goes looking for them in the place where he’s bitten.

9. finding spider 42 scene. self-explanatory. it ends with miles spider sense tingling and guiding him towards where chris pine’s spiderman and green goblin are fighting.

10. spiderman vs green goblin scene. it ends with miles falling in the collider facility and spiderman saving him.

11. a meet between two spidermen scene. it ends with spiderman swinging into action once again to stop the collider and prowler stopping him.

12. spiderman vs prowler scene. it ends with kingpin activating collider.

13. the collider explosion. it ends with spiderman seriously injured.

14. the death of spiderman scene. 2 sub-sequences (spiderman passing the torch to miles and kingpin killing spiderman). it ends with prowler going after miles.

15. escape from prowler scene. it ends with miles running home.

16. the morales family scene. it ends with spiderman’s death being broadcast.

17. remembering spiderman scene. it lasts for the entire of ‘scared of the dark’ song. it ends with miles thinking the city is counting on him as the new spiderman so he goes to train his power.

18. the training scene. it ends with miles falling and breaking the goober. miles feels he’s failed chris pine’s spiderman and he goes to his grave.

19. the graveyard scene. it ends with miles venom striking peter b parker.

20. peter b parker’s origin story. a little interlude.

21. ‘catch the s train’ chase. my favorite fucking sequence of the movie hands down. everything i want from an action scene. it ends with miles escaping the pdny with an unconscious peter.

22. a meet between two spidermen reprised. it ends with peter agreeing to show miles the ropes, but first...

23. the burger scene. it ends with the two heading out to alchemax.

24. the alchemax heist. it ends with spider-gwen saving the day (not to mention her origin story) and kingpin fuming and having a ...

25. penclick flashback. it ends with him questioning doc ock.

26. doc ock and kingpin argues. we cut to see our hero trio heading back on hudson valley explorer.

27. gwen and miles bonding on the explorer. it ends with them at aunt may’s place

(the transition from 27 to 28 is definitely the weakest one imo since there wasn’t any buildup to it)

28. peter and aunt may reunite. it ends with them entering chris pine’s spiderman’s spidercave.

29. the trio admires the spidercave. it ends with them meeting peni parker, spider-ham and spider-noir.

30. the secondary trio’s origin stories. it ends with the spider people arguing who’s gonna shut down the collider and ...

31. miles trying to prove he has what it takes to turn off the collider. it ends with him feeling powerless and left.

32. miles walking to uncle aaron’s place and his parents worrying about him. it ends with miles leaving a note to aaron.

33. hiding from prowler. and dropping the big reveal.

34. running away from prowler. it ends with miles running back to aunt may’s place to meet up with others. but he was followed.

35. spider folk vs sinister five(?). it ends with uncle aaron’s death.

36. everyone comforts miles. it ends with ganke entering and passing out.

37. peter telling miles he’s not ready. it ends with miles feeling down and jefferson shows up to talk

38. the dad talk reprised. it ends with miles having renewed faith in himself

39. the leap of faith. second best sequence, single best frame of the movie with miles rising into the cityscape.

40. spider folk infiltrating kingpin’s facility. it ends with them getting ambushed and miles turning the tide.

41. spider folk defeat the villains. it ends with them gaining control of the collider.

42. the spider folk bid farewell. it ends with peter taking a leap of faith and miles going toe to toe with kingpin.

43. miles vs kingpin. it ends with miles winning and collider exploding.

44. miles talk to his dad. it ends with miles being acknowledged as spiderman by the people.

45. miles spiderman sequence.

there you have it. almost every ITSV scene has a logical connection with what comes before and after. this is why the movie flows so well and its pacing is so good.

[aizobenizol]

01/29/2021

second day of class. waited till last minute to finish the reading but hey i finished the reading! 

[aizobenizol]

01/28/2021

first day of class. Dk why but watching lecture gets me fired up. Let’s do this!

[aizobenizol]

01/13/2020

1) i really dk how to draw anything except for head. I like the hair shape

2) color is fun. dk why but i really like to draw face with an open mouth 

[aizobenizol]

fav Bloodborne ost (and my thoughts on them)

Laurence, the First Vicar - most revelatory

perhaps my fav track of the album. it and ludwig are vying for the top spot but it beats ludwig on a thin margin by being more consistent. Ludwig the holy blade is awesome but it feels disjointed from ludwig the accursed. Laurence just has the overall better quality and it flows from start to finish (ludwig is more like okay then holy shit!). 

Laurence track also hits hard because how unexpected its emotion is. The track reprises parts of the cleric beast theme, which is pretty sinister, but the added organ, the new strings and the altered choir makes everything feels warm and soft instead from the very beginning. It feels much more human. The choir solo at the mid point feels natural and that it is guiding you from one half to the next (luwdig’s choir solo instead works only as the beginning of phase 1 but not as the end of phase 1). and then the goddamn cello hits and comes with it the revelation: despite being one of the most crucial figure in the game, Laurence probably has the least amount of dialogue, and is therefore the most mysterious. u can argue that ludwig had zero in the base game but you do get to interact with him verbally after his defeat. Laurence, on the other hand, gets one scene with Willem and is never seen again till this fight. we know what he did and how his actions led to Yharnam’s ruin but we had few clues as to what his motivations were. I personally didn’t hate him, I just felt ambivalent about him. 

Then the cello kicks in and I immediately understood: I understood how his character is to be viewed and what from software’s verdict on this man’s life is. 

as a player, I went in, expecting another cleric beast and a menacing track, instead I was treated to a sorrowful waltz filled with regret... and a FUCKING fire puppy paddling freestyle!

Ludwig, the Accursed/the Holy Blade (phase 2) - most heroic

Learning this piece on piano rn, what more can i say? Phase 2 is bombast and grandiose, and out of all the osts on this list, it’s the only one that can be described “uplifting” and “heroic” and makes you wanna headbang to a full-fledge orchestral ensemble. It’s just so fun to listen to and play --it makes waltz badass and me want to learn. 

Bloodborne - most Bloodborne

The definitive track of the game for me. If someone asks me which soundtrack represents Bloodborne, I will direct them to this -- a mix of dread, mystery, horror, madness and unknown. Omen is too short for me. I definitely hear Kilar’s Dracula in this.

Gehrman, the First Hunter - most sorrowful

the first boss fight soundtrack that I liked and listened to repeatedly before I even laid my hands on the game. I don’t really much to say about it besides it reminds me of a moonlit flower field.

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower (phase 1) - most dazzling

imo Kitamura does her best work when she’s focusing on instruments and that string duet in phase 1 is perfect. so is the interplay between trumpets and strings after that. Once the choir kicks in it just overpowers everything else and the instruments stop standing out. For the Dark Soul is my fav track of DS3 precisely because how elegantly the violin (or is it viola) dances with the piano and the vocal. and i like sir alonne despite its heavy use of choir because the violin really pops against the voice and is never completely drowned out by the human voice. there are also far more twists and turns than lady maria phase 2 so overall just more interesting (btw does anyone feel like ebrietas is about to start whenever they hear alonne’ beginning?)

Orphan of Kos (phase 1) - most existential

Really drives home the sadness, the loneliness and the longing of the sea, where life began. There is something primordial about that image of Orphan standing over the grey and rainy shoreline, looking to the distance... as if it feels abandoned and is trying to return to something, perhaps the cosmos itself. Phase 2, lol fuck phase 2 the rage and the intensity feel to different from phase 1. i wished it had gone down the Gehrman route and focuses on the tragic aspect, but alas gehrman is far more elegant a boss than orphan is. 

Honorable mentions?

Living Failures: phase 2 epic, when the sky turns to the cosmos it is so fitting

Soothing Hymn: fuck you

[aizobenizol]

fav bb quotes

“Ah sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean. A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all there is and can be.”     

“Mercy for the poor, wizened child.” 

“A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea, source of all greatness, all things that be.”

“weep with us...”  --fishing hamlet priest

“It isn’t fair. it just isn’t fair.”   -- simon

“Have you heard how curiously the sea churns? Like a storm, but like the rain, only gentle, like dripping water...”   --research hall head

“The night brims with defiled scum, and is permeated by their rotten stench. Just think, now you’re all set to hunt and kill to your heart’s content!”  --valtr

“Curse the fiends, their children too. And their children, forever true.”  --fishing hamlet chant

“Oh I know very well, how the secrets beckon so sweetly.”  --lady maria 

“As you once did the vacuous rom, grant us eyes, grant us eyes!”  --micolash

“Beasts all over the shop. You will be one of them, sooner or later.”  --father gascoigne

[aizobenizol]

01/03/20 01/04/20

learnt this recipe from RB and yesterday I finally decided that it’s time to try. filled mushroom caps with shredded butter, bed crumbs, chopped onions, chopped carrots, beaten eggs and some more butter. and salt but not too much. put in the oven for 220C for 20 min with foil on top and then 10 without the foil. turned out a little burned on the top. it’s all cooked, but quite bland. 

tried it again tonight. I cut off the top of the caps so they don’t easily topple, did a cross cut on the bottom. melt the butter then mixed it with beaten eggs, pour that into the cap. oh forgot to mention, i marinated the caps in salt and soy sauce for 5 min give or take to add more flavor. so caps, melt butter mixed with egg, the rest is pretty much the same except i poured another layer of melted butter. 200C for 20 min with foil then 8 without. much tastier this time. i should name it (how about golden caps?) i think i will keep experimenting. 

woke up at 7:50 to the alarm, couldn’t get up and went back to sleep. got up at 10am. honestly really frustrated. I went to bed at 12 which is pretty early and this still happened. but i need to press on. it’s about trial and error and commitment

the presentation is in 2 days. geez i really know how to be efficiently. but oh well, i’m not just going against how I have been living my life last year but against how ive been in the past 6 or more yrs. it’s not gon be easy. nothing is built in one day. 

jujutsu kaisen is surprisingly good. every main character is likable. 

01/05/20 need to do

1. complete uot app (prob not qualified but whatever)

2. ppt: answer 10 questions in bold

3. intro to cp/ludwig