Rock operas and new glasses.

Oh my god Protomen why have I been ignoring the links and recommendations until now.

This music is just so epic. It is like original-Pokemon-theme-song plus every-dramatic-song-from-a-musical plus the-friggin-opera plus magic. That kind of epic. I want to conquer the world in a montage with this as my soundtrack. (Also, robots.)

Okay, I have always been enamored with musicals, since as far back as I can remember. I'm pretty sure it started because my parents had a copy of the Phantom of the Opera original cast soundtrack and it was one of the only things I listened to when I was young. (This also explains my deep-set nostalgia for certain U2, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, and Simon and Garfunkel albums. I listened to my dad's music a lot. Also a whole bunch of classical stuff we had around. Four Seasons, anyone?) There's just something really alluring about a collection of music that tells a story. Sure, normal songs are great. Normal songs can tell stories too, in themselves. But god, there's just something beautiful about musicals, and also these albums presented as rock operas, etc.

So this afternoon, when I finally clicked a link to the Protomen site that I've passed by at least three times, I ended up listening to the songs on loop while making my alpha channels and animating for several hours, and then deciding that I needed to acquire the entire story. This..this is pretty cool. I've had the two albums on repeat four times around already. Something that has always interested me: different methods of storytelling. So yes, I love reading books and short stories and poems, but lately I've been extremely attracted to graphic novels and webcomics because of the highly visual element, and also I guess I want to be an animator, so there's another method in animated movies. And I used to be very interested in plays, and that came back into the picture with last year's acting class. (One reason why I enjoy MSPA and Homestuck so much is that I am very impressed by the new medium Andrew Hussie has created. It's part comic, part video game, part animated series, part who-even-knows-anymore, and totally engaging.) So I've been sitting around imagining the events of the Protomen songs, visualizing them behind my eyes, and it's awesome. (Strangely, all the robots look rather like The One Electronic from Rice Boy, which, incidentally, is also a fantastic webcomic-thing.) I can't decide whether I would like it if it were made into a film, or whether I prefer it as only an audible story. What interests me about receiving a story purely in song is that music is extremely effective in helping to conjure visuals. You can see the setting with barely any words, sometimes, based on the contour given by the instruments.

Guess basically what I am trying to say is that this is a Pretty Cool Band with a couple of Pretty Cool Albums and some Pretty Cool Stories and I hope they make more.

...

I went home for the weekend; got back Sunday night. Refilled some medicine prescriptions, got my eyes checked. So I got new glasses! I have always liked getting new glasses; there's just something refreshing about it, and the fact that it only happens every few years makes it a novelty. These are kind of a new style for me; they make my face look different. Maybe it's just more obvious to me because I'm used to seeing my face, but..it's interesting. Whenever I get new glasses, mirrors become distracting for a few days. I just can't help staring at the new thing. I guess it's a good thing I'm not planning on getting any drastic haircuts or strange facial piercings, or I would startle myself every time I'm in the bathroom.

But mainly I went home to see my cat. God I missed her so much.

...

Ughhhh it is almost five in the morning ughhhh I am such an idiot ughhhh I have so much work to do tomorrow ughhhh okay goodnight.

Olivia

PS. Oh, last weekend I finally (finally ughhhh) got through The Last Airbender. Only took me what, three months? The verdict is here, if you want. Next movie I talk about will be an enjoyable one, I think. I just got around to reading the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, so maybe that'll be it.