Attraction and Appeal

Just some food for thought I would share. Add in to it if you want.

Something is bugging me. I just thought of something thats rattling my brain. This all started with an indulge into a discussion to music and what makes it appeal to the listener and why. Then it becomes a self discussion about attraction in general, which is where I am now.

Long ago as a kid, I was subjugated to listen to other people's music much to my dismay. It didn't work out to me as I didn't understand why it was popular to begin with. Then time after time more of the same music was forced against my sanity and it became a nuisance to the point where I couldn't take it. What drove me to the breaking point was listening to Jenny from the Block 20,000 times a day when working near a kids area....in the summer heat. Yeah it sucked. Then Hollaback Girl was being played on a flour covered radio and no way to turn it off. It just sucked the fun out of making cardboard flavored pizzas. Though not as sanity crippling as the former, but still annoying.

Then I discovered anime soundtracks and really got into it. Maybe it was because the difference between the drivel that I was ensnared to didn't appeal to me. Which is why I developed a love for foreign music, jpop and jrock mostly. Why? For the most part, the sounds are different, the lyrics with or without are inspirational (with some rare exceptions) and it was a language I barely understand self taught.

It was then that I discovered doujin music and embraced it's individuality. I tried to figure out what doujin music was as it was a different entity from it's modern jpop counterpart. For one thing it's not as mainstream and only a handful of people know of it's existence. It's unique, original, and it takes inspiration from other forms. A few examples of doujin music would be Crow's Claw and Demetori and newly discovered Hellion Sounds and Preludio. When I discovered Mario and Zelda Big Band Live and it's rendition of Dragon Roost Island from Windwaker and proclaimed it to be musical porn to the ears, not to be confused with music FROM porn with pornstaches and big afros, then it got to me up to this point where I started questioning to what makes this music appeal to me.

The best example would be Video Game Music and it's attractiveness. Most common answer would be nostalgia, however nostalgia aside there are people who like video game music yet nary picked up a controller ever. I listen to it because it was the music I grew up with...at least thats all I can remember. Others see it as a genre in and of itself that they can relate to. Now heres where it gets tricky. How does music in general appeal to us as humans (or half humans) to attract us to it's melodic charms (or dissonant screams)?

When sharing with someone who has never heard even a simple tune of VGM, they don't know what to think. I myself wouldn't want to share it with someone who has no recollection to even once being a gamer, nor would I share jpop who doesn't even know what it is. I got off tangent for a second there, but the question I have is this: What is appeal, what is attraction, what attracts us to the music the we listen to, and what makes it appealing and why to all 4 questions. That can go as well as to human appeal and attraction as well as it is still in the same as it draws us to whatever we seek.

I leave this up for discussion with those who see this, and maybe you tell me your interpretation to what appeal and attraction is and why something appeals or attracts you. Music would be the common theme for this discussion, but you can explain other things as well, so I'll leave it at that.

Stay Gold.

DesuDes Brigade and internet homelessness

Just when I got to starting this new arc I go into clip show mode. I hate that. I don't want to recall what happened during the summer. I already did that. Instead I'll reminisce about the DesuDes Brigade. And why I'm related to these people. It'll be short but sweet.

DesuDes or D2Brigade is a site I am now frequently visiting. It's run by a Haruhiesque team of 5. They review anime and sometimes do Let's Plays for the hell of it. One of them is affiliated with Thatguywiththeglasses and is seen as the most intellectual of the group yet the others aren't regarded just like her. They are all fun if you can get a hold of them.

Each of the brigaders are unique and have their own panache of humor that can't be seen in other reviewers...I mean there are alot of reviewers out there, but D2 is who I see often. They offer reviews in their own sort of originality. Most people on the net do the same thing and claim that they can do it 10 times better, but it's the brigaders that offer something that my old home lacked until now. Nakama and heart. Allow me to explain.

Before I discovered DesuDes, I was part of a forum on Anime Academy. It's or it was an anime review site where most of them reviewed shows based on subs and considered dubs to be middle of the road. At first when I arrived, I was naive. I read the "Curriculum" and learned alot of Japanese culture. I frequently visited the forums and observed people come and go. As the years went by, there came elitists who pretty much poisoned the well and just bothered most who had done nothing to be chosen as the ridiculed. One in particular is someone who I will not mention under distinction. He was part of a group of elitists who caused trouble and looked down on others as inferior. For one I hate elitism! For two for two I hate being looked down upon as a inferior. This person got into my personal space so much I was driven into a state of insanity as I couldn't take on someone like him, let alone his group of elitists. His reign didn't stop there. He was also on IRC as he was the only one there that can be recognized. I went there under the name Hybrid, but sadly that's how they saw me.

As I started college I drew away from Anime Academy as the relationship went sour. I met a few briefly and became friends with a few from the forums. One of them is a personal favorite client of mine under the name Risen Hell Fire. He is cool and is always asking for rare things for my business. Syner became Tsukasa as he and I traded friendly chat about lives. He now works at gamestop and Dairy Queen I suppose and has a fanbase under Game Over Gaming. Elric became Zapper101. Hes kind of a conundrum. Hes bound to get depressed for reasons I have no idea to what it pertains to and is a writer for RPGFan. Under the Zapper name Elric has gained a group of followers that check out his playthroughs of various games, countdown of VG music themes of various variety. Ash-chan or Ash is an outgoing girl who lives nearby. Moving from Sunnyvale to Scotts Creek to Cupertino, I would guess shes just living in the bay area and pays seldom visits to the academy. Lastly, Ender is the only professor next to Two-Twenty that still chugs out reviews when they have time. I befriended him but haven't flushed out character development with him. Out of the thousands of people on the forums, those are who I kept in contact.

The Academy has fallen on downed times as the Professors of the Academy have moved on with life and the site seems desolate and baron with barely any reviews. Similar to Vallco during the mid 2000s where shit hit the fan. Because Kain, the founder, left the Academy Mugs has to take care of it himself with Corpse or Crapse the next thing to a mod if anything to take care of stuff in case something goes wrong. I think the main reason why Kain and a bunch of others left is because the elitists were influenced by Futaba's evil twin. I forget it's name, but pretty much it can be best described as scum of the earth. Like naruto fans and anime n00bs. I left the Academy on my own will to avoid the elitist who drove me to madness and my time is spent on Thatguywiththeglasses and D2. Sometimes I'll pop in as a lurker to see if there's any progress being made and hopefully the spamming bots, presumably the leftovers of the elitist's wrath and the reason why it's been on bad times. I honestly don't know. If there is no activity on a forum then it will be flooded by bots. That much I observed looking at Fanime and Anime Destiny 09. I hope there's progress with AA.

After wandering through the Internet as a drifter on the information superhighway, I discovered a budding reviewer named Professor Otaku and started talking to him. Around that time I was still with the radio station and told him I would like to interview him. Coincidentally he was with another website which I forgot about and he left that site to fly solo. With this entourage of JesuOtaku, Vixen, Arkada and Malakye they formed the DesuDes Brigade and became quite popular. D2 is now my home. I just gotta get on the forums more.

I'm going to try my best to describe the characters in this site and if it's not to the liking, well, give a guy a shot and this is how I see them:

* Professor Otaku - host of Anime Dissection and OVA-101. Hes the del facto leader of the group. The Haruhi if you will. Prof is snarky, hes deadpan, and very brash to the content that he sees. He at times may fangasm at his favorite which is basically going against the whole reviewing for the sake of reviewing. I like him because hes not afraid to tell it like it is. Plus he likes Super Gals. An automatic plus since Super Gals is the one series that made me cry. If it something makes you cry then it's a good one. And he likes Angelic Layer. Also good.

* Arkada - The Yuki of the group and infamous Canadian who claims to punch the fictional narwhals and eat their blubber as peanut butter. Hes also very hammy. Arkada hosts Glass Reflections which is very stylish. His title card is beautiful and how he does it is a mystery even to me. Arkada had a brief encounter with a computer program that digitally imprisoned him which went nowhere. Most of the time if there's a plot that goes nowhere and you don't know how to resolve it, just say I got better. Somehow it actually works sometimes. Quick reflections is his 5 second movie schtick but related to anime. If he isn't hamming it up as a true actor/Canadian (at least I think Canadians like to) He claims to be a real man. And that can't be denied with his proclamation that Real Men Watch Princess Tutu. That's a man alright, but is tea as good as Tutu? To which I ask which is manlier Tea or Princess Tutu? I know what he'll choose.

* Vixen - She is the Mikuru of the group but rather an opposite one. Shes the anti moeblob as goes against anything moe. She hosts Kit-suki and takes on anime, while her Film Fox goes for films. Twilight is a pet peeve and with no distinction do I not disagree with that. If I said it wrong, I hate Twilight to. For some reason she wears corsets and flaunts it. Not too much on corsets or fanservice, but shes cute. Too bad shes got this tendency to go apeshit over the fact that the fanservice gimmick is part of her job. I would go crazy to if I had to see manservice. Shes got this streak of a yandere when perverted stuff happens around her, or to her. Otherwise, shes rather decent. Kinda wish I could talk to her casually like the others.

* JesuOtaku - Shes is Kyon I guess. Shes snarky, blunt and intellectual in her reviews. Her rating system is rather interesting as 5 stars are the standard to reviewing something. It depends really. I review stuff based on Reviews on the Run or Judgment Day and they score stuff based on 1 through 10 with .5 increments. I don't agree with some that they lay the smackdown on, but hey it's their opinion. JO was picked up on Thatguywiththeglasses.com on loan to Linkara who seems to be in charge of the whole Inked Reality subsite which is about animation. I told Prof that you guys will get picked up on the site and so the prophecy was fulfilled. JO also reviews other content on some other site that I go to. I forget though.

* Malakye - The Itsuki of the group and possibly the tamest pervert I've seen. He hovers over the streams and forums as the warden and makes sure things are stable. He also has a show called Sake Shots where he watches something while partaking on endless gobs of rice wine. Hes pretty nice and a bit perverted building a robot buddy girl for some reason.

Occasionally the 5 brigaders have weekly to periodical podcasts. One of them being Pocky Spot, a variety show that shows off whatever they can find in the anime industry. Weekly Highlights is whatever Malakye can find, mostly game related that was talked about around 5 days ago. Occasionally he will show his "true" side and his robot buddy, Miku then and Tsubake now will put him in place. Manga Spotlight was a manga segment that Prof featured. Usually it's something that's palatable, but theres probably one time that there was a manga so bad he stormed off. However due to the closing of his source closing Prof started the Most Awesome Thing. MAT was it's own entity but moved to Pocky Spot because he needed something to fill the gap. Fanservice Corner is fanservice. Vix hates it, and will occasionally snap. Manservice Corner is Manservice, she will drool. Dropped Frames is JO's segment where she will see something in a different anime and show something similar to it in reference. Anime Swag Bag is Arkada's and he shows whats on sale based on whatever they can find. Mailbag Showdown is the Q and A where he is at his hammiest.

The podcast I briefly mentioned is the Desu Rattle. Whatever they have in mind they talk about. Haven't heard most of it because I kinda screwed the pooch in my interview with them. I tried doing a weekend edition of the Limit Break, but constant interruptions caused it to be a mitigated disaster. I just hope they forgive me and hope I can do a where are they now now segment if I ever get back to Limit Break. That however is less likely.

With that I feel much better knowing that I have a new home with D2. So far in the IRC chat I've met many colorful people. Now I just gotta get out of my shy streak and go to their damn forums and think of myself as a user and not as a businessman. Friend the friendlies.