Does "anyone" like Reroute?

[Villain]

inflames, just let it lie, ok? You've made your point.

Which one of his points are you referring to? You know, he has thrown so many opinions here that I really don't think he has made them all clear. I for one have enjoyed the latest conversations with him, although I admit the flames between him and Salmy are getting slightly boring.

-Villain

 

[Inflames626]

No, im afraid you are mistaken.
You see i won DT off Mikael Stanne in a drunken poker game, hence MY Dark Tranquillity, hence MY forums, hence MY thread.

Please stop assuming ownership of this thread or you will hear from my lawyers (Kindly lended to me by James Hetfield)

Thankyou.

It IS my thread.

It always slows down when I go, goes right back up when I come back.

Considering it's about .485493035474% of the board, I don't think it's too grandiose an assumption to make.

 

[Inflames626]

inflames, just let it lie, ok? You've made your point.

Dark, again, there's a click to ignore. If you don't like it that I have opinions and it gives you a headache to follow, you dont have to read them.

 

[Inflames626]

Post more vagabond

As a law student, I'm curious to know, who exactly IS James Hetfields lawyer?

A guy named King I think, but they work in groups usually.

Funny how no one thought Dr. Dre "sold out" of the rap camp when he joined the suit, and yet he's still singing about gangsta rap like he has to gangbang for food money.

Back off Metallica for a moment, angry fans, and see musical acts for what they are...BUSINESS VENTURES...and not some stupid ass ideological crusade for the fans, a free Mexico, hunger reduction in Africa, or whatever BS they can come up with.

I'd say the only person seriously interested in Africa was Paul Simon, considering he loved the country enough to use its music and musicians in so many of his works.

 

[Inflames626]

Which one of his points are you referring to? You know, he has thrown so many opinions here that I really don't think he has made them all clear. I for one have enjoyed the latest conversations with him, although I admit the flames between him and Salmy are getting slightly boring.

-Villain

Salmy's boring. Like I said, he's the dude who hated my guts in grade school who was all attitude and no substance. His quality of rebuttals have gone down the shitter, and the only things he can say when I load mile upon mile of info on him to prove him wrong is "Don't overanalyze!"

I just think such attitudes go to show you who succeeds and who doesn't in music...people who are equally able to deal with the T&A, playing boring repetitive parts over and over until it's right, and being a little business savvy are usually the people who come out on top. Once you start forgetting that it's just a highly visible way to make a living, you tend to take yourself too seriously, and the asshole phenomenon starts. Of course, in Metallica's case, you're too concerned with making a living, and you become an asshole that way, too.

As I age I just find it hard to take people who aren't themselves on stage very seriously. It's like...we all have to put up with enough bullshit every day, Brian Warner, do you seriously need to add your pithy whining to it because you know Bible-bashing still sells records?

Passe I tell you, passe.

 

[Inflames626]

About BattleTech:

BTech as a whole was definitely NOT a ripoff from Robotech/Macros - only a few of the early mecha was taken from there, but the real strength of BTech was always the socio-military-politically heavy background that made the game unique. There was a huge amount of thought put into the first House Books, making the whole idea of 31st centure feudal lords fighting each other with huge robotic warmachines - if not quite realistic - at least believable within its own concept. Too bad Stackpole, Nystul & co. were allowed to ruin all that - the Clans were basically a good idea to prevent the world from stagnating (around year 1990), but it was executed very poorly, resulting in the huge inherent contradictions between the older and newer source-material. MechWarrior 2 had very little to do with the fate of BTech, as the downhill started before it already, IMHO.

Still, the game is great, even with all the recent stuff (although I do prefer the 3020's era storywise) - it just takes so damn long to play, that only very rarely we get to play it anymore (not even once this summer, although I have a nice full scenario made...)

I will get into anime tomorrow, but this line here requires a short comment:



This is like saying: "I know what kind of music Gardenian is like, I saw the backcover of their latest album", or: "I know what kind of car the new Ferrari is, I saw a picture of it in the net".

Or do you usually review movies by movie-posters? Huh?

The few anime you mentioned are all barely average, apart from Princess Mononoke, which is definitely about as good as any 80's Studio Ghibli film - it doesn't necessarily differ muchin style from its predecessors, but the story in it is definitely unique in anime.

I recommend you watch some modern anime TV-series through and then compare them to Robotech & co. You should see how far anime has gone in less than two decades, especially quality-wise. Series like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Noir, Berserk, Last Exile, X (TV-series, not the movie) are way above anything done before them in their respective genres (and some of them are very hard to put within any genre, simply because they are so original in concept). Comparing them to Robotech & co. is more like comparing modern metal to medieval folk-music: the same roots are there, yes, but the gap is huge.

Oh, and remember to watch all your anime in Japanese, many English dubs leave huge gaps in the plot - just follow the subs and listen to the original superior voice-acting.

-Villain

Battletech's story line was very unique and enjoyable...I think I have a book around somewhere, about the Wolfpack mercenaries...I was never bashing the story (although I think Robotech's is still better), but the blatant ripping off of the mech's...a Phoenix Hawk is a Veritech, etc.

You CAN get a good idea of what Gardenian is like based on the backcover, and their albums have more in common with one another than what they don't. And usually, movie posters are created by artist teams who want to project a feeling that is something akin to the movie (unless we're talking about the classic "The Gods Must Be Crazy". Unless they do with the Ferrari what they did with the Lumina and change it from a sedan to a minivan, then yes, I can with conviction look to a picture of a Ferrari and say "I bet this is a lot like the old ones, with a new bodystyle." Anime does the same thing, just updating itself, is still very much a style, I think, given three important ideas

1) the artistic style is more similar than dissimilar
2) the newer anime is more Matrix X Files style...always some conspiracy going on
3) usually strong opinions about preserving nature, war, "the life energy of the universe", or some such nonsense.

As far as anime, again, it's too similar in recent years (again, what Vampire idea isn't an Anne Rice rip-off nowdays, to do a compatible example) for me to take a real interest in. Also, as far as plots, it's mainly not all that different from what we would do in film, however, American audiences don't take cartoons, no matter how mature, seriously.

You probably thumb your nose at cowboy bebop and stuff like that, eh?

Some of it, I just hate whenever I flip channels and find it, Trigunn for example...

Btw, despite all the flaming, I meant what I said about Scandanavia having an excellent school system, and it was because of 2 swedes I went to school with that I got to meet Jesper (IF, to them, was just another Gothenburg band that they wanted to drink with...)

I could never talk with such depth and conviction a la francais...

At the same time, when I asked my Swedish friends how they got so competent in foreign languages to the point of losing their accents and using American figures of speech, they told me "American and British tv is a strong reason to start learning it." So, for all those who criticize America's schools, I agree in a lot of ways. However, at the same time, we don't import enough French TV to give ourselves motivation to learn it so well. Nothing floods the world like English entertainment wise (followed by Japanese), so with that serving as a catalyst, English is very common. If I got Canadian TV sent down here in Arkansas (near texas, for those without a map), I'd probably be stronger in French. I envy Europe such opportunities to learn, but I also prefer living somewhere where things aren't so expensive and wars don't generally upend the whole continent every 50-100 years...

So had it not said you were from Finland, I would have considered you a fellow American based on your language skills. I commend you. But learning it from 4th grade (according to my friend Swede Rickard Sooman) helps.

Speaking of Sooman, that was just not a very traditional nordic sounding name it seems.

 

[Inflames626]

Oh, someone also made a point about why didn't my instructors make DT kind of music 10 years ago when this style was more popular...

Well, why doesn't DT make Korn right now when this style is popular right now?

Simple answer.

They don't/didn't want to.

So to answer the Q, sun fired blanks was picked out easily, it was seen for the Maiden in DT clothing that it was, and while enjoyed, it wasn't overly praised because it was another way to do the same thing.

DT would've been even cooler 10 years ago, but impossible, because it took everything that happened musically from 89-99 to make "Projector"...so, Projector would have never been made in 89...although it would have done even better then.

 

[Arch]

...

At the same time, when I asked my Swedish friends how they got so competent in foreign languages to the point of losing their accents and using American figures of speech, they told me "American and British tv is a strong reason to start learning it." So, for all those who criticize America's schools, I agree in a lot of ways. However, at the same time, we don't import enough French TV to give ourselves motivation to learn it so well. Nothing floods the world like English entertainment wise (followed by Japanese), so with that serving as a catalyst, English is very common. If I got Canadian TV sent down here in Arkansas (near texas, for those without a map), I'd probably be stronger in French. I envy Europe such opportunities to learn, but I also prefer living somewhere where things aren't so expensive and wars don't generally upend the whole continent every 50-100 years...

...

I'm not sure if your Swedish friends told you this or not, but the English language is compulsory in the Swedish school system, of course that doesn't mean every Swedish citizen is fluent in English. I would disagree that Swedes are losing their accents. There are still regional dialects and accents in Sweden that are dissimilar, for example, Vintersorg's songs are of northern Swedish accents and dialects as oppose to Southern Swedish . Anyhow, no doubt English-based media has a strong influence on many parts of the world.
The closest thing to having different languages and cultures is living in a large metropolitan area in the U.S. Los Angeles is a good example of lively people of different nationalities intermingling with each other. Maybe it'll take your mind off of things that would bore you.

 

[Inflames626]

One thing: If you're going into a studio and you're going to make music that all sounds differen,t even if it's not your taste or style, just so you avoid creating music similar to each other, even though that is your style, and what you want to do, then why are you in a studio? You shouldn't go into a studio until you know what you want to do. If it's music that winds up being influenced by Iron Maiden, and the songs all have a similar flow to it, yet you are pleased with the result, are you really going to be upset if it isn't something unique and groundbreaking? Not everyone really cares how similar a song is to another, or that there are no two points on an album that are similar. I personally don't care if I go into a studio and create music that resembles the very concept of the music I like to hear. I create what I like to create, you create what you like to create. One's creation that is more varied than another's does not, by any means, make it better, it makes it different. You may like your work better than mine, but I could say the same thing. Now who's to say who's right?

We're both right, because it's personal opinion. The whole "beauty lies in the eye of the beholder" bit.

Different in this case implies "memorable"...

which most people want to be remembered.

This also brings up the "musician" in the producer/engineer...he may like metal, but in order to stay in business he has to do all genres...which also scares off a lot of people

 

[Inflames626]

I'm not sure if your Swedish friends told you this or not, but the English language is compulsory in the Swedish school system, of course that doesn't mean every Swedish citizen is fluent in English. I would disagree that Swedes are losing their accents. There are still regional dialects and accents in Sweden that are dissimilar, for example, Vintersorg's songs are of northern Swedish accents and dialects as oppose to Southern Swedish . Anyhow, no doubt English-based media has a strong influence on many parts of the world.
The closest thing to having different languages and cultures is living in a large metropolitan area in the U.S. Los Angeles is a good example of lively people of different nationalities intermingling with each other. Maybe it'll take your mind off of things that would bore you.

True, but I think they sound remarkable considering what Nordic languages sound like. Anders Friden often sounds British to me when he just speaks...speaking of Sweden, I wanted to ask Rickard about the Sami...he was an exchange student to my high school, very smart, applied to Cambridge, wanted to be a translator for the Swedish government.

I lived in L.A. for 18 months...the "multi-culturalness", I think, is much stronger in Canadian cities, although I've never been. At the same time, why require an official 2 languages law when people in the southwest U.S. have been getting along without such a contentious piece of legislation for decades?

 

[Arch]

One thing: If you're going into a studio and you're going to make music that all sounds differen,t even if it's not your taste or style, just so you avoid creating music similar to each other, even though that is your style, and what you want to do, then why are you in a studio? You shouldn't go into a studio until you know what you want to do. If it's music that winds up being influenced by Iron Maiden, and the songs all have a similar flow to it, yet you are pleased with the result, are you really going to be upset if it isn't something unique and groundbreaking? Not everyone really cares how similar a song is to another, or that there are no two points on an album that are similar. I personally don't care if I go into a studio and create music that resembles the very concept of the music I like to hear. I create what I like to create, you create what you like to create. One's creation that is more varied than another's does not, by any means, make it better, it makes it different. You may like your work better than mine, but I could say the same thing. Now who's to say who's right?

We're both right, because it's personal opinion. The whole "beauty lies in the eye of the beholder" bit.

I gotta agree. Studio musicians and producers gotta put their prejudices aside instead of being anal about the style of music. Wasn't it Sir George Martin not a fan of Beatles' music but still employed as their producer. George Martin love's is classical music, I believe.

 

[Inflames626]

I'm not sure if your Swedish friends told you this or not, but the English language is compulsory in the Swedish school system, of course that doesn't mean every Swedish citizen is fluent in English. I would disagree that Swedes are losing their accents. There are still regional dialects and accents in Sweden that are dissimilar, for example, Vintersorg's songs are of northern Swedish accents and dialects as oppose to Southern Swedish . Anyhow, no doubt English-based media has a strong influence on many parts of the world.
The closest thing to having different languages and cultures is living in a large metropolitan area in the U.S. Los Angeles is a good example of lively people of different nationalities intermingling with each other. Maybe it'll take your mind off of things that would bore you.

In the U.S., it depends on the school system. I assume in Europe it is based on the state/province, but here schools are funded locally via a district. In Arkansas, this means not much money in a state of about 3 million people. We only got foreign languages at about 9th grade (14-15), and from there you could study Spanish or German until 12th. In America at least, in my experience of it, which was a small southern school...math and writing are much more emphasized, which I think is unfortunate. Foreign languages aren't hard if you take them in by osmosis, but when I see someone who thinks in another language then talks to me in English like my best friend would (that is, relaxed, no uhm ah uhms...) I get very self conscious. But, again, "foreign" influences are quite nil here...there's little reason to learn another language when youll probably never leave the country or an never work outside an english speaking environment.

I myself will be lucky to pass 2nd year french...

 

[Inflames626]

But if he's playing music he doesn't like, then he's just being a tool. Playing different forms of music for the sake of doing is useless to me.

He's not being a tool, he's being a studio musician, which means youre a musical mercenary, paid for completed projects...these are often people who love all forms of music unconditionally and have a tremendously varied sense of taste, but not always. As competent as GIT instructors are, they do have specialties, just like history professors.

 

[Arch]

...

I lived in L.A. for 18 months...the "multi-culturalness", I think, is much stronger in Canadian cities, although I've never been. At the same time, why required an official 2 languages law when people in the southwest U.S. have been getting along with such a contentious piece of legislation for decades?

I am assuming you're talking about the official 2 languages law in Canada? My only guess is that certain countries instill nationalism to its people, in this case, by officially having 2 languages.

That's definitely a good observation about comparing Canada's language law and people in the Southwestern U.S.

It is interesting that there are conflicts between the French-speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canada. I guess language can really divide and unite people at the same time.

 

[Inflames626]

I am assuming you're talking about the official 2 languages law in Canada? My only guess is that certain countries instill nationalism to its people, in this case, by officially having 2 languages.

That's definitely a good observation about comparing Canada's language law and people in the Southwestern U.S.

It is interesting that there are conflicts between the French-speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canada. I guess language can really divide and unite people at the same time.

Based upon my research, experiences w my Canadian ex, etc., the French feel like they are the true Canadians, which I have to agree. An Anglo-Canadian in southern Ontario is practically American, either that or so much like their British overlords that a true "Canadian" never develops. However, a French-Canadian is nothing like a Euro Frenchman, and I think its their desire to preserve French culture that makes them feel so strongly slighted.

At the same time, as other nationalities pour into Canada, one day, when Asians outnumber French people, will preserving French as an official language be a moot point? English is most countries' official language because it's so widely used...French is merely kept to placate a minority group in Canada...why should someone coming from China learn French, when it would just make more sense to learn English anyway? The French are given far too much power in Canada than their numbers warrant, although I agree that most Anglo-Canadians have too much domestic tranquillity if the only thing they can bitch about is having to learn French. At least they don't have millions of illegal immigrants pouring into Ontario daily that have no job skills (that is, that most French Canadians are economically independent people). All while 9/10 countries in the world hate you because you did or did not do something, and sometimes even hold you responsible for both at once.

I think Canada's rather looser sense of "Canadianness" will hurt them, as at the moment I think any province can just agree not to support something it doesn't want. This isn't good for emergency action, especially when Quebec is given extra options just to make it happy. If Canada had an international role as large as the U.S.'s, I think you'd see a lot more cracks in Canadian public opinion over tough choices in foreign policy.

 

[Villain]

Battletech's story line was very unique and enjoyable...I think I have a book around somewhere, about the Wolfpack mercenaries...I was never bashing the story (although I think Robotech's is still better), but the blatant ripping off of the mech's...a Phoenix Hawk is a Veritech, etc.

Well, to me a Phoenix Hawk is a Phoenix Hawk - just a matter of preference here. :Spin:

You CAN get a good idea of what Gardenian is like based on the backcover, and their albums have more in common with one another than what they don't. And usually, movie posters are created by artist teams who want to project a feeling that is something akin to the movie (unless we're talking about the classic "The Gods Must Be Crazy". Unless they do with the Ferrari what they did with the Lumina and change it from a sedan to a minivan, then yes, I can with conviction look to a picture of a Ferrari and say "I bet this is a lot like the old ones, with a new bodystyle." Anime does the same thing, just updating itself, is still very much a style, I think, given three important ideas

And what if someone said to you: "I know how modern metal music is like, I have seen the backcover of a Blink 182 album!" Because that's what your words about anime look to me.

1) the artistic style is more similar than dissimilar

True, although the range is huge today: from the ultra-realism of Jin-Roh (I forgot to tell my views about this earlier, I will talk about it soon) to the very expressive style of Noir and from the carefully minimalistic approach of Lain to the bombardment of colors in Evangelion. All the 80's anime looks exactly the same - the best of today's anime look all different.

2) the newer anime is more Matrix X Files style...always some conspiracy going on

Wrong. Watch Berserk, Last Exile, X, or any of the Ghibli movies.

3) usually strong opinions about preserving nature, war, "the life energy of the universe", or some such nonsense.

Sometimes yes, but not even nearly always. Watch Noir for example. War is a theme I happen to like myself, but even in the most war-heavy anime of today it is rarely nothing more than just a background - the themes of the series are mostly in other areas.

Take for example "Now and Then, Here and There", a great short (13 episodes) anime series from a few years ago. It has a war as the setting and it portrays many child-soldiers as characters, but it's main theme is still in the relationships between the characters in desperate (truly desperate, not talking about the 80's "happy" war-anime here) situations. It is drawn in an oldish way, but the animation is just as delicate as in other 90's series, and it has a touching sountrack by Taku Iwasaki. I like NTHT a lot, but don't recommend it to everyone, as it is very sad all the way through and many of the characters (most of which are children) are abused or killed during the series. No movie has ever made me cry, but I almost cried during episode 12.

As far as anime, again, it's too similar in recent years (again, what Vampire idea isn't an Anne Rice rip-off nowdays, to do a compatible example) for me to take a real interest in. Also, as far as plots, it's mainly not all that different from what we would do in film, however, American audiences don't take cartoons, no matter how mature, seriously.

Sadly, the same appears to be true here as well - very few Finns associate nothing else but tentacle-porn and childish Sailor Moons and Dragonballs with the word "anime". However, I have never seen a movie even closely resembling the storyline of Evangelion - which is probably why I hold it so high compared to other anime. In my opinion anime should try to achieve something that is impossible to achieve by traditional film - Evangelion is a prime example of succesfully doing that.

Oh, and about vampires, both Hellsing and Blood - the Last Vampire take a very un-Rice-like approach to vampires. The former is not a very good anime series (the manga is better), but still enjoyable; and the latter is a short movie (less than 50 minutes) with striking visuals but very little else. Definitely unlike your standard Rice-vampires, though.

You probably thumb your nose at cowboy bebop and stuff like that, eh?

Uh, despite all the recent praise towards my English skills, some sayings I'm unfamiliar with - I just assume "thumbing one's nose" is a negative expression. In which case I must say no - I like Cowboy Bebob for what it is. It may not be the best series on earth, but it is funny and enjoyable when digested in small pieces (ie. one episode at a time). The lack of a more coherent overall storyline has turned many of my friends away from the series and I agree with them that CB would be much better if it just weren't so episodic. Nevertheless, it is an okay anime-series, although not even near the best ones I have seen.

Some of it, I just hate whenever I flip channels and find it, Trigunn for example...

I'm not that familiar with Trigun myself, but I must say I'm not too impressed with what little I have seen of the series. However, I do not tend to rate series before I have seen them as a whole, so I refuse to comment it more now.

All in all, I think you have seen very little of what I consider great or even decent in modern anime. Again, I recommend you to watch through some of the best anime of the past decade (and some of this decade) and form your opinion then. You know, I won't feel pissed if you say you hate Evangelion, Berserk or Noir once you have seen them (I have some friends who hate some or all of the anime I like), but comparing them to 80's anime before you have seen them is just downright silly in my opinion.

You know, I'm not making any comments of the modern Hollywood movies, as apart from LotR and Matrix I haven't really seen any of them from the past 3 or so years. I don't know if there are any good films there, but talking about them like I really knew what they are about (based upon the movie-posters, commercials or music-videos) would make me feel stupid.

So had it not said you were from Finland, I would have considered you a fellow American based on your language skills. I commend you. But learning it from 4th grade (according to my friend Swede Rickard Sooman) helps.

Well, I only studied English from the 7th grade or so on - I started studying German in the 3rd grade. My English skills are largely based upon my reading of English literature (Tolkien here again) and English role-playing games. My style of English is still very strict and "blocky" as I must try to avoid unintentional misunderstandings in the form of bad wordings and such when I'm using Finnish proverbs translated to English (as people often think my English skills are better than they are and thus may take the meanings of my words wrong, simply because they assume the English proverbs); some people here have far superior ability to write interesting and fluent English - take Rahvin for example, whose style of English writing is simply astonishing, especially as he is not a native speaker.

The most funny thing is, many Americans use very poor English language, at least online. That's why I'm not so sure whether to take your comment as a real compliment or not. :Smug:

-Villain

 

[Niklas]

clayman pisses shits, barfs.. and whatever kinda excretion u fancy....'s all over r2r,

its an ok album but is nothing compared to all the other stuff

 

[Inflames626]

Well, to me a Phoenix Hawk is a Phoenix Hawk - just a matter of preference here. :Spin: And what if someone said to you: "I know how modern metal music is like, I have seen the backcover of a Blink 182 album!" Because that's what your words about anime look to me.
True, although the range is huge today: from the ultra-realism of Jin-Roh (I forgot to tell my views about this earlier, I will talk about it soon) to the very expressive style of Noir and from the carefully minimalistic approach of Lain to the bombardment of colors in Evangelion. All the 80's anime looks exactly the same - the best of today's anime look all different.Wrong. Watch Berserk, Last Exile, X, or any of the Ghibli movies.
Sometimes yes, but not even nearly always. Watch Noir for example. War is a theme I happen to like myself, but even in the most war-heavy anime of today it is rarely nothing more than just a background - the themes of the series are mostly in other areas.

Take for example "Now and Then, Here and There", a great short (13 episodes) anime series from a few years ago. It has a war as the setting and it portrays many child-soldiers as characters, but it's main theme is still in the relationships between the characters in desperate (truly desperate, not talking about the 80's "happy" war-anime here) situations. It is drawn in an oldish way, but the animation is just as delicate as in other 90's series, and it has a touching sountrack by Taku Iwasaki. I like NTHT a lot, but don't recommend it to everyone, as it is very sad all the way through and many of the characters (most of which are children) are abused or killed during the series. No movie has ever made me cry, but I almost cried during episode 12.Sadly, the same appears to be true here as well - very few Finns associate nothing else but tentacle-porn and childish Sailor Moons and Dragonballs with the word "anime". However, I have never seen a movie even closely resembling the storyline of Evangelion - which is probably why I hold it so high compared to other anime. In my opinion anime should try to achieve something that is impossible to achieve by traditional film - Evangelion is a prime example of succesfully doing that.

Oh, and about vampires, both Hellsing and Blood - the Last Vampire take a very un-Rice-like approach to vampires. The former is not a very good anime series (the manga is better), but still enjoyable; and the latter is a short movie (less than 50 minutes) with striking visuals but very little else. Definitely unlike your standard Rice-vampires, though.Uh, despite all the recent praise towards my English skills, some sayings I'm unfamiliar with - I just assume "thumbing one's nose" is a negative expression. In which case I must say no - I like Cowboy Bebob for what it is. It may not be the best series on earth, but it is funny and enjoyable when digested in small pieces (ie. one episode at a time). The lack of a more coherent overall storyline has turned many of my friends away from the series and I agree with them that CB would be much better if it just weren't so episodic. Nevertheless, it is an okay anime-series, although not even near the best ones I have seen.I'm not that familiar with Trigun myself, but I must say I'm not too impressed with what little I have seen of the series. However, I do not tend to rate series before I have seen them as a whole, so I refuse to comment it more now.

All in all, I think you have seen very little of what I consider great or even decent in modern anime. Again, I recommend you to watch through some of the best anime of the past decade (and some of this decade) and form your opinion then. You know, I won't feel pissed if you say you hate Evangelion, Berserk or Noir once you have seen them (I have some friends who hate some or all of the anime I like), but comparing them to 80's anime before you have seen them is just downright silly in my opinion.

You know, I'm not making any comments of the modern Hollywood movies, as apart from LotR and Matrix I haven't really seen any of them from the past 3 or so years. I don't know if there are any good films there, but talking about them like I really knew what they are about (based upon the movie-posters, commercials or music-videos) would make me feel stupid.

Well, I only studied English from the 7th grade or so on - I started studying German in the 3rd grade. My English skills are largely based upon my reading of English literature (Tolkien here again) and English role-playing games. My style of English is still very strict and "blocky" as I must try to avoid unintentional misunderstandings in the form of bad wordings and such when I'm using Finnish proverbs translated to English (as people often think my English skills are better than they are and thus may take the meanings of my words wrong, simply because they assume the English proverbs); some people here have far superior ability to write interesting and fluent English - take Rahvin for example, whose style of English writing is simply astonishing, especially as he is not a native speaker.

The most funny thing is, many Americans use very poor English language, at least online. That's why I'm not so sure whether to take your comment as a real compliment or not. :Smug:

-Villain

Take it as a compliment, although I know what you mean. Mostly we're lazy with our English in the same way that in serious french you have to say "ne...(verb)...pas" to negate something, many just use pas...a lot of what makes bad english though is just common culture, the mixing of "Spanglish, Franglish", gangland talk, urban/black, etc...all that comes together to create a separate "American" English from British English. I also know what you mean about English being "stilted", "formal" or "blocky" when spoken...don't worry, my French is the same way, and very difficult considering that English is a northern European language that's much more German than Latin, hence harsher. French sucks to write death metal in. It just really impresses me how you people are so comfortable in linguist situations...here only two years of a foreign language is the norm, and really only then for "emergency" phrases.

My Swedish friends Daniel and Ulrich (Daniel was also half-Finn but spent time in Sweden) also spoke in a very formal way...no contractions..."do not" as opposed to don't...etc. Many Swedes sound almost British to me, as Anders does on Tokyo Showdown when he speaks in between songs...but when you're that close to the Island...the only thing that really gets me is in many countries they still teach English with a British bias...when I took Spanish, it was with the Mexican "nosotros" dialect, not with the more Euro (and elegant-sounding) vosotros dialect. At the same time, the French I take is very Parisian, and I'm sure once I arrive in Ontario not only will my speaking be stilted but also my word choice will have that stiff "European" nature to it as opposed to the more "Franglish" Quebecois (for example, in Europe a diet coke is "un coca light" and in Canada it's "un coca diet").

Yes, "thumb your nose at" is like, to look down upon, or mock. But I know what you mean about phrases that don't translate exactly...French has many phrases that simply must be learned for what they are and they sound silly when taken literally in English...I used to tell my girlfriend I missed her in French, but using English as a guide instead of French, I used the verb "to miss...(a train)"...rather than to emotionally miss. She didn't tell me for a while, much to my embarrassment.

Language really frustrates me, because I want to crawl inside a language like native speakers do, when you have 40 words that mean the exact same thing but with different shades of it...what gets really confusing is when you get into poetry...unless you're highly comfortable with a language's way it forms associations between things (for example, you find Quebec Ville said in French instead of Quebec Cite, which I think sounds better), you'll find some concepts accentuated in some languages that you don't in others. I tend to see English as a very "individual word" based language, whereas Spanish and French (the other two I've studied) seem more phrase-based, which tends to be the tendency of all Latin-based languages I guess (for example, in French they have a word that means "beautiful, but short-lived", whereas there's no way to say such a thing in English). One thing I hate is reading another language's poetry...it never sounds that nice translated, and the metaphors created by the translator are just as much of an art as they were by the original creator.

I do wish European schools, etc., would stop teaching English with a British bias, "centre" etc. Because although the British did make the language, American English is more widely used by more people than the populations of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK combined. People from India still speak with an extremely British-bias, although 50 years of freedom won't erase such things.

Most people don't even know their own languages completely. That's why I have the Oxford and try to learn a new word daily. I use the Oxford instead of the Webster's because since I study the Commonwealth they use a lot of phrases that don't make sense to Americans, especially 19th century writers like Dickens. Many Canadians to me still use words I would consider old-fashioned..."She's a prude." etc.

How do you feel about Vampire Hunter D? By the way, do Finns and Russians still hate each other, and is Russian language/culture still that prevalent?

Speaking of other anime, I saw Princess Monoke all the way through and wasn't impressed much, and also hate the series Inuyasha (not the right way to spell it but...)..I always wanted to slap that little punk ass kid.
Some of the artwork like in the kiddie show Zoids is really cool though.

I like anime because it brings American themes like Die Hard, etc., to life on a much lower budget than real film and much more believeably. Hentai stuff will always ruin its credibility though, and it's really just the theme choice that bothers me. If they chose more Western themes, and drew things in a less-stylized fashion, I'd like it more. I think the tendency of a lot of anime to be either bizarre and hard to understand to the Western mind (like a lot of Michelle Yeoh action movies from the early 80's and 90's) or just a bit juvenile.

I think you're overlooking the great American contribution to animation though..."Heavy Metal"...it has a special place in my collection. FAKK2 was crap, though.

I also know what you mean about Hollywood...it just costs so much to risk a movie (not budget, but distribution) and no one with any talent has the money. Moreover, when some independent filmmaker does get money, it's more of that avant guarde hidden world Matrix crap.

 

[Inflames626]

Someone also added earlier that Pinball Map sounded gay...I'd like to disagree and offer that it's the heaviest song Flames as ever done simply because the verses grind open C so much. It simply flattens you live because of all the wind coming out of the guitar cabs from it.

In the past, my co-guitarist often used to ask me why bother with tuning down past Eb on a lot of Jester Race stuff when they rarely chugged open...in response to that I'd like to say that I think Flames are getting heavier...it's just that the more they tend to play open string riffs as opposed to "Oaken Throne" ones the more they sound like Korn because they're adding so much bass to their guitars now. This change from the "Goliaths" Black Ash style to R2R I think is more a product of simpler, lower tuned riffs than any differing fundamental approach. Certainly, since Daniel joined their drumming has gotten stronger, not that Bjorn was a bad drummer but was a "time keeper" in an AC/DC fashion more or less I would say.

I don't think singing melodically on Pinball Map made them sound any "gayer" than Jim Kjell singing distorted over a riff as happy and as major in tonality as Soulburner's Powertool. Added in the Motown-ish background singers and it's the only track I skip besides Loss, which is essentially a 2-3 min spoken word waste of time.

Also considering Clayman's strong songs like Brush the Dust Away and I think it's a very strong album, although Colony was their best attempt at fusing the pre and post Johann and Glenn styles. As far as anyone accusing them of sucking or selling out or something, two of the same men who wrote the riffs from Jester on are still in the band, so a change in band member continuity is hardly to blame for the style change (more than likely touring with more American bands is).

I think as long as they double bass we're safe..when Anders tries to sound like Sully of Godsmack, then I'll get a bit pissed off.

 

[Malaclypse]

hehe, but pinball map _is_ gay, and not just a little, but a whole shitload of it. sorry the chorus :hihihi: