Saturday, December 10, 2011

Music and Performances

For the longest time I (Patrick) was mainly an auditory person, since my mom was less likely to throw tapes and CDs in the trash. It especially helped if they belonged to my brothers, further protecting them from being thrown away, which is why I know 80's music so well. Visual stuff, on the other hand, had a high likelihood of ending up in the dumpster. But enough of that. Here's a few neat songs and/or performances:
* Kazue Sawai: One of the most talented koto players of the 1900's and 2000's.
* DubFX: This guy is a sort-of techno artist who uses his own voice as the main instrument.
* Tune Yards: Her first album was made by playing all the instruments by themselves and then mixing them in her room. The result is a really rough and harsh sound with an air of mystery.
* Nefarious!: A young guy from the East Bay who goes to school in Hayward. He's already making stuff like this.
* Takagi Masakatsu: This guy makes videos first, then the music to go with them afterwards. He spawned a genre of "otographic music" such as this.
* Ryuichi Sakamoto: This guy is really big in the high-brow music scene I think.
* Shing02: One of the guys in the underground hip-hop scene who was lucky enough to have worked together with the late Nujabes.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Anime

So I (Patrick) was talking with Philip (the creator of this blog) about anime (Japanese animation with a specific way of drawing people's eyes) and manga (Japanese comics, almost always black & white, and not necessarily anime-style).

Japanese artists in general:
* Takashi Murakami: An important person for the "superflat" movement, which is a specific style of anti-art (much like how Picasso's work is also a specific style of anti-art).
* Junya Inoue: His style is usually not typical anime which is good. He is a very character-focused individual. You can see examples of his work here, here, here and here

Anime:
* Wolf's Rain (series): This helped me get through college.
* RahXephon (series): This is about a struggling painter in high school who feels like he's stifled. Then a bunch of crazy stuff happens, but the idea of painting as an expression of oneself is an important part of this anime.
* Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (film): This is about an alternate Japan where fascism persisted into modern times.
* Windy Tales (series): I like this one for its really unique art style. It was very influential on my own.

Manga:
* Domu: By the same artist of Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo), this was his first work based on the idea of psychic powers.
* Akagi: This is about a guy who really likes gambling and playing mahjong. It has a distinctive crude reductionist art style that I like. You can see some traces of it in my own sketches.
* JoJoLion: This is the latest in an 8-part series with totally out-there artwork. It is also super-detailed, with every scene being full of ridiculous things that don't necessarily belong.
* Btooom!: Drawn by Junya Inoue, this is about a 20-something guy who lives at home and is jobless. I like this manga a lot because I can totally relate to the main character's situation.

Video Games:
* Killer7: This game strongly pioneered the use of cel-shading in video games. It also has scenes with very different visual styles, such as this, this, this, and this
* Shadow of the Colossus: This is part of the Smithsonian's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit. You can see a sample here
* El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron: Each level of this game was directed by a different artist. Here's an example, and this is my favorite part.
* Panzer Dragoon Orta: One of my favorite games ever, especially this part