Netflix's Castlevania season 1 flash review

Visuals and setting:

Fluid animation and nice twilight atmosphere. The setting is supposed to be Eastern Europe but I would have liked them to incorporate more from Castlevania II including the outdoors, town structures and names. The retaking of Alucard's coat, sword and after-shadows from Symphony of the Night are a nice touch. It is surprising the use of foul language and crude tastes for this, up till now, pure series. It is quite gory as well. 

Storyline:

Somewhat slow although it picks up at the fourth episode. It is a reimagining of Castlevania III , and as such it kind of works. I was really worried at the way they portrayed the Catholic Church, but the small gesture that Trevor makes in the fourth episode while asking for the holy water, makes it alright I guess.

Voice acting:

Below average for the English version except for Trevor, which is good.

Music:

A missed opportunity in my opinion. It might be atmospheric and composed specifically for the series, but it is kind of bland and doesn't retake any themes from the videogame series. You won't find me putting it on a personal playlist or getting the vinyl. 

Could be better

Ps: Retweeted this yesterday: Mondo will release Rondo of Blood and music-wise that is something to look forward to.

Hoarding Stuff

We've talked previously about how material objects can distract one from one's purpose in life.  In light of this, collecting, while fun, can be quite deleterious to one's financial and moral being. If you are about to start a collection or have been on the first stages of major accumulation, these two titles might set you away from the death trap.

The first one is Alan Zweig's 2000 documentary Vinyl. In it he shows his and other's fondness for vinyl record collecting. It starts fine and all: as with other documentaries one kind of expects to get an inside view of a respectable interest. However, unintendedly it seems, it quite soon takes an uncomfortable turn. Instead of finding lovable, interesting interviewees, we get a whole lot of scary persons in one way or other. It starts with the man with the red shirt and doesn't let go. There are shut-ins, the man who hits the ceiling when the Zweig steps on his collection, the one who claims he's got every record in existence, and even Zweig himself making this one autobiographical if anything. The three freakiest moments are his dog, his disposal (and filming) of some of his old records on the street and the time he invites a female friend over to show her his records. This last one is so awkward that one feels sorry for the girl.

The other one is Frost's book Stuff.  In it he describes various cases of hoarding and tries to make sense psychologically of it and come up with treatments which result various degrees of success. There's the perennial goat-paths, the woman who collects pets, the one who cannot stop treating herself with clothes, the man who collects literal junk, the brothers who've got the money to accumulate actual treasures and descriptions some forced clean-outs. Irene, from the first chapter is quite charming. Definitely worth reading if you know someone with this problem.

Now, if you ever feel like beginning large-scale collecting, watch and read these two and they might scare you enough to make you desist from your project before you harm your family and loved ones.

Persuasion in the Bible

Not all ideas that we have turn out to be great. Some, in fact, turn out to be very misguided and even wrong. I had one of those when I thought about reading through the whole Bible and gathering all the quotes I could find that dealt with persuasion, no matter how inconsequential. At the time (2012) I was reading books and influence and I was taken by the way Moses could stop God from smiting the Israelites when they complained too much or how Abraham negotiated his way into saving Sodom and Gomorrah (to no avail, as it turns out) and at the same time without incurring in God's anger.

The second half of the project was to match each instance with one of Cialdini's four principles of persuasion: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, and authority.

I made my way all into Esdras in 2012, but then stopped the project for whatever reason. I didn't retake it because I decided that the Bible shouldn't be read in that way. However, for what it's worth, and a  community service, here's the raw data that I gathered with some annotations; it might come handy to someone someday:

Pure Green latex topper review

I became a back sleeper in the early 2000s because of my back problems. In the last couple of years I experimented with side sleeping, but after a few weeks I found that the protruding sides of my hips began hurting in the mornings.

These days memory foam is all the rage and I thought about getting a topper made out of it. I soon discovered many things against it:they are moderately expensive, they might get hot, they might exhale noxious fumes and, by my own experience -by testing one in a showroom-  have not that great support. Browsing the net for alternatives, I came across the Pure Green latex topper from Sleep on Latex and after searching a bit more, bought one for $149.

I got the 2 inch model in the twin size and have been sleeping on it for three months now. For delivery it was wrapped in a very tight roll made out of a plastic bag and shrinkwrap which was a bit difficult to cut through. When freed, the topper soon expanded to its full length. The first thing I did before use was to measure it and have it made a custom cover because I was planning in using it for many years and would like it from getting soiled. Apparently there are sized covers that can accommodate the topper and a bed cushion, but I didn't look into them.

The cover made and the topper placed I found a few positives and a couple of negatives. First, it was more expensive than comparable memory foam toppers, but a bargain compared with what cushions cost these days, never mind if they're made out of exotic materials. The topper is not hot at all and, while soft, gives a good support to my whole body. So far, I have found it as firm as in the first night. When newly opened, it does smell, but this has both lessened with time and was not very strong to start with.

There is no way you could fold it for storage, but you could try rolling it and tucking it somewhere when not in use. Be sure to save the bag it came in. If not secured to the mattress while in use, the topper has the tendency of shifting out of position. Not a huge problem as one adult can reset it without too much hassle. I don't see it slipping all the way off.

My sore spots, and this is the part you might be the most interested in, did get some relief, but didn't totally alleviate for good. I would say my discomfort lessened to about 50%. However, I believe that giving it a few more months will let these spots to heal some more. Having said this, I don't believe that getting the thicker, 3 incher, would give me more benefit. I would say that the 2 inch would be best for most, unless the sleeper is overweight (I'm about 175 pounds). The harder models might have something to them, but I am in no position to recommend them at this point since I have not tried them. Soft on medium mattress worked for me.

Overall, even though it didn't completely solve my problem, the topper provided considerable benefit. For the price, I don't believe one can do much better.

Albert Ellis' New Guide for Rational Living book review

We tell ourselves lies and half-truths about how things, others & ourselves should be, pretty much all the time and we end up believing it all. That's the root of Albert Ellis' New Guide for Rational Living and also the starting point to rationally fixing many neuroses.
In this book Ellis (along with Robert A. Harper) explains how these lies come about, their harm and how they can be successfully tackled. These irrational beliefs, as they call them, are:
1. You must have love or approval from all the people you find significant.
2. You must prove thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving.
3. When people act obnoxiously and unfairly, you should blame and damn them, and see them as bad, wicked, or rotten individuals.
4. You have to view things as awful, terrible, horrible, and catastrophic when you get seriously frustrated, treated unfairly, or rejected.
5. Emotional misery comes from external pressures and that you have little ability to control or change your feelings.
6. If something seems dangerous or fearsome, you must preoccupy yourself with and make yourself anxious about it.
7. You can more easily avoid facing many life difficulties and self responsibilities that undertake more rewarding forms of self-discipline.
8. Your past remains all-important and that because something strongly influenced your life, it has to keep determining your feelings and behavior today.
9. People and things should turn out better than they do and that you must view it as awful and horrible if you do not find good solutions to life's grim realities.
10. You can achieve maximum human happiness by inertia and inaction or by passively and uncommittedly "enjoying yourself."


Note the 'musts' and 'shoulds'.


Each of these beliefs are given a chapter and given the same general exposition. First, the idea is presented and explained, point by point on how it is rubbish. Then, the authors give a transcript or two from their own patient interviews showing how they beat down their patient's resistance to sanity over hogwash. Finally, again point by point, give guidelines for self-adjustment.


It appears to me that great many an unhappiness can be dealt with this approach. However, I believe that for some others this can only be a starting point and that the help of a proffesional is to be encouraged. Recommended by itself and also as a modern approach to Stoic texts.

Chiptune on vinyl: a preview

So here you have me after deciding to buy a new record player, the AT-LP3, browsing through Amazon's vinyl offerings for new records to try out, when, at the soundtracks section, I came face to face with my first videogame chiptune vinyl. This was Castlevania released by Mondo and my first reaction was that of excitement. Just imagine the wonderful tunes from Castlevania re-created and on vinyl no less. However, my excitement soon turned to puzzlement as I dug deeper. This was no enhancement, or orchestration, but the music almost straight from the NES to the vinyl. Why?

Backside of Castlevania III

You may know all about it, but this is not just a one-time event. Several record producing companies have released over the last 3 to 4 years videogame music on vinyl. Immediately after Castlevania I came across Mega Man, Zelda, Street Fighter 2 and many many more totaling about something at least two dozen titles. All these belong to a category named "chiptune" which is a subgenre of electronic music and mostly refers to music from the 8-bit and 16-bit era and new original music composed in the same style.

Why the sudden surge of interest from the labels? The vinyl revival has been going on for close to a decade now and that adds the underlying push to any musical enterprise on the format and that, granted, is a factor. I have not zeroed in on the reason (my guess is demographic trends, our desire to own and nostalgia), but I can identify some common aspects revolving around this surge of video game music on vinyl:

• Most of the music appears to be without any enhancement.

• The releases are expensive. Plain and simple with no qualifications. In comparison with regular soundtrack releases one is paying more per LP and some titles can go quite high even while still in stock. Street Fighter II retails for $75 for instance; Persona 5, a recent RPG, for $100 and that's just the standard version. Shorter soundtracks go around $20-$35.

• The availability is not that great. From what I've seen each release is typically limited to 1000 copies, though there are some that go up to 2000 and not much beyond but that's including all variants. Represses of sold-out titles do happen, but this is chancy as even popular titles have it dim. I entirely missed the Mother/ Earthbound series.

• Some releases (Persona 5, Undertale, SF2) include what appears to be every sound which I feel is overkill. Does one really need to listen to (and pay for) everything only to get to the good parts? I'd rather have a carefully selected album than every bit of incidental sound, but that's just me.

• Out of stock releases seem to fetch high prices at Discogs.

• Acoustically speaking, I can understand on some level why it would make sense for something recorded digitally on good equipment, say, from the CD-ROM era onwards be transferred to the vinyl format. However, I find no reason why chiptune would sound better on vinyl. Without rehashing all the analog versus digital controversy, I do find that magic does happen when the needle strikes the wax. For that to happen, the medium and the needle have to have something to work with and it is my belief that chiptune doesn't cut it. The beeps and boops do not seem rich enough. I am yet to experience an actual chiptune recording, so I'll withhold verdict for now.

• There are complaints online about some releases in respect of quality control. Surface noise and off-center holes do happen with some frequency.

• Artwork is the third factor of the composition-wax-looks triad. In the wider encompassing soundtracks category, as well as in our current niche discussion, care, artistry and ingenuity have been poured into the releases of our current generation. The visual designs are generally all-new for all labels recovering the essential elements of the seminal works. This ramps up the visual enjoyment of owning physical media and firmly establishes many of the releases into the collectible sphere. While some labels do slack a bit going for minimalist designs on some albums, there are others that appear to bring out consistent eye candy (Wax Work Records comes to mind). I am somewhat against collecting as a hobby, as it distracts from religious duties for one, but I just cannot help drooling over some releases. It's hard to keep myself in check.

• Returning to video game vinyl some releases include obi strips. The vinyls themselves for the most part are anything but black. There are your standard colored, but also transparent, with splatters, swirls and half-and-half.

I find that I am not that interested in most of the releases. The ones that I would really pay for are re-issues or re-recordings of the Dragonquest series (orchestral!). And maybe the release of The 7th Saga.

So what did I do? I, of course, despite my misgivings, bought the three available Castlevanias at once because Symphony of the Night is expected to be released later this year and and that's a must get for its musical merits. I thought that it would be best to assemble my whole Castlevania set now that I had the chance and not regret missed opportunities later. Later, if I decide to stick with just a few, I can resell the extra ones. And I was lucky when I ordered, because I got the flat-rate shipping from Mondo and about a week later Castlevania III did go out of stock. For now, I'm skeptical of the musical value of chiptune on vinyl, but I'll wait until I have the complete set and write you a review on them.

I'll leave you now with some resources you can click on:

Recording labels:

Mondo https://mondotees.com/

Spacelab9 https://spacelab9.com/

Ship to Shore Phono Co. https://www.shiptoshoremedia.com/

Iam8bit https://store.iam8bit.com/collections/vinyl

Datadiscs https://data-discs.com/
Brave Wave http://store.bravewave.net/music

Lists of music on vinyl (though long, both appear to be incomplete!):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_soundtracks_released_on_vinyl

https://www.discogs.com/lists/Video-Game-Music-on-Vinyl/196505

News:

Podcast:

http://videogamegrooves.com/ 

These guys appears to be on top of things:

https://twitter.com/vgmvinyl?lang=en

https://blipblop.net/

Blipblop has a list of upcomming releases which you might want to check out.

Info on particular releases:

https://www.discogs.com/

Blair Witch (2016) review

In the 2016 movie  Blair Witch, Heather's brother, James, decides to find out what really happened to his sister and find closure as his friend Lisa puts it. As it turns out, not only he, but us the fans, who have waited for years to make sense of the ending of the original movie, now have a chance to do so. With the release of this new one we get more data, albeit still fragmentary, to piece together a clearer picture.

Stepping back a bit, this new installment retakes many of the elements of the original film and rehashes them, but in a less successful fashion as many other are left out. For one, the formula is now known to the viewer and the sense of being lost is less effective this time around which also makes the film rushed. The bewilderment of Heather, Mike and Josh at being lost is palpable in the original, but altogether different this time.

Another gripe that I have with the movie is the abuse of cheap scares. You know those. It is when out of nowhere someone or something jumps at the onscreen character and hence to the viewer. One cannot but react, alright, but I think it's better to keep  at a minimum and go for more sophisticated stuff. Now that I've brought this up, I'd mention the Paranormal Activity series as another big offender in this respect.

However, there are many things to like. The witch's still good with messing with technology and pulls out some new tricks from under her shawl. The mythology is furthered on a couple of instances. There's now another plausible reason for Mike's behavior in the original and we get to see more of the house and that corner from the basement. And, what makes the movie, are just a couple of seconds which show what we really wanted to see all these years. The events from the Book of Shadows are not alluded at all.

By itself, Blair Witch pales in comparison to the original, but as a follow-up, it does work. So I give my stamp of approval for those who have watched the first one. For the rest save this one for later.

For the fans

For the rest