Monday, December 18, 2017

Manami Matsumae, Keener Critters & Junji Ito's Uzumaki

Weekly Update 2017-51: The penultimate update of the year brings the music of Manami Matsumae, delightfully Canadian messenger stickers and Uzumaki, the horrifically wonderful work of Junji Ito.

Music: Manami Matsumae
It's not very often that I come across a gem like this. Legendary producer of the original soundtrack for Mega Man and many video games following, the Tokyo-based composer has released an album showcasing her illustrious career so far. The title Three Movements encompasses the concept for the album: three separate sets of songs that are purposefully ordered in a way that showcases her career. The album as a whole is simply a masterpiece, with such contrasting styles of music flowing into each other so easily. Check it out below. And I really have to give a shoutout to the album art, which is equally beautiful (and contains three fields of colour to mimic the title!




Accomplishment:
I've got a serious list of food to make over the holiday, and I'm going to be meal prepping like crazy so that I don't have to prepare any food for the whole month of January. Okay, that's a bit insane, but it could happen.

I also took my bike in to get fixed, which wasn't as terrible an experience as I thought it might be. I was able to bike home from the shop, which was nice considering I haven't been able to bike in this darn weather since last Monday.

Goal:
I'm hoping to bike to work one day this week, but that will really depend on the weather so it's more like a hope than a goal.

I'd also like to take out Anna Karenina from the library this week, to attempt to read as one of my Holiday goals.

Random Thought: Canadian Slang
I came across these cute and super Canadian Facebook stickers designed by Deshi Deng:

A puffin from Newfoundland that says Whaddya at b'y? What will they think of next?!

I have never been able to truly express myself through the medium of Facebook Messenger, until now. All of these are so Canadian. I especially like how there was some confusion over exactly what the Loon was holding/throwing out like chedda'. Read below:


Inspiration: Junji Ito
Through some slightly unnerving means, I have come into the temporary possession of a copy of Junji Ito's Uzumaki (Japanese for Spiral), a horror manga that is apparently quite horrific in both story and illustration style. Ito is a master of drawing imagery that unnerves the viewer, horrific looks on people's faces when they come to a realization that something terrible is happening to them and there is nothing they can do but accept it.

His work is very well received, but at the same time this book is so horrific and terrifying that it has made a friend of mine very upset to look at spirals.

I'll admit the scariness of this page isn't quite as strong in gif form (or on its own without context), but I did that on purpose. You're welcome.

I find the idea of horror very attractive but do not handle it well myself, so I try my best to avoid it. Being home alone with the book has only drawn me closer to it, though I promised myself that I would only read one chapter per day so as not to melt my brain into a puddle of fear.

Let's hope I don't become like mister eye-roller up there when I'm done.

No comments:

Post a Comment