Month: August 2016

Around the household we’ve been listening to Area 11 since the Yogscast featured the instrumental section between “Vectors” and “Euphemia” as part of the theme music for their Minecraft videos. (Curiously, in the original version of their album All The Lights In The Sky that I bought on iTunes in 2013, that section is at the end of “Vectors”; if I play the album on Spotify now, it comes at the start of “Euphemia”. The two tracks flow into each other seamlessly, but I wonder why the track division has changed.)

Their first album was amazing, easily one of my favourites of 2013. They put out an EP and toured the UK towards the end of 2014, but the timing didn’t work out for me to catch them live. Earlier this year we caught wind that they were going to be bringing out a new album, and touring again. This time, the timing worked out perfectly: they played The Mash House in Edinburgh on Wednesday 20 July, right in the middle of Alex and Fiona’s school summer holidays. With me still flying to Edinburgh for work every other week, it was easy for me to line up a business trip and bring the two of them with me as well!

Fiona and I have been to a variety of concerts over the last year, but The Mash House is by far the smallest venue we’ve been to. Alex was with us for Imagine Dragons back in February as well, and this was smaller than anything he has experienced too. The Mash House is accessed from a small door down a tiny alleyway just off Chambers Street. There’s a bar at the front of the house, and a 250 person capacity suite further in. It wasn’t full, and we were able to get a good position just four or five heads from the stage. Alex is 180cm tall now, so he had a good view. Fiona is still a fair bit shorter, and she had to weave around to see everything. I’m not sure if I was the oldest person in the crowd (again), but I certainly wasn’t far off.

Opening act Milestones were good. In the break before Area 11 came on, Sparkles* wandered from the back of the room to the stage a couple of times to check the setup, looking very serious and concentrated. (In promotional photos he often wears a stern frown; I think because otherwise he’d be mistaken for an adorable teddy bear.)

1. Override [C]
2. The Contract
3. Watchmaker
4. Versus
5. In the Blind
6. Homunculus
7. Processor
8. After the Flags
9. Angel Lust
10. Dream & Reality
11. All the Lights in the Sky
12. Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill

Encore:

13. Tokyo House Party

Now, Alex can be quite sensitive to loud noise, and he isn’t generally a big music fan. Live music is mostly take it or leave it for him. But by the end of this gig he was jumping along to the beat, and pumping his fists in the air with a great big grin. I loved it, too. I particularly appreciated the sound engineering that allowed Jonathan “Kogie” Kogan’s bass to shine through. At first listen, Area 11 are very heavy on vocals and guitars, but when you go listening for it, the bass is amazing.

The A’DAM Toren Lookout deck has been open for a few weeks now, but the swing had its first public rides today. We didn’t plan it that way, but my parents were in town, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go up there, have a look around, and take a ride.

It’s amazing.

Fiona and I recently watched Ghostbusters and Finding Dory in the cinema. Ghostbusters was fun, but it spent too much time paying homage to the original. What I’m really excited for is where they go next, now that they’ve got a great set of characters teed up, and have got all the introductions out of the way. Surely there is going to be a sequel.

As for Finding Dory, it’s both a sequel and a homage to Finding Nemo. It’s the same plot, remixed with different themes for a different protagonist. Despite trusting Pixar and director Andrew Stanton to deliver a beautiful, fun, and emotionally rich film, I hadn’t been looking forward to it. If Fiona hadn’t been so eager, I wouldn’t have made a cinema trip to see it. And I did enjoy it! Just as Dory stole the show in Finding Nemo, Hank the octopus septopus steals the show here. The two seals struck a curiously wrong note, though. In a film whose core theme is about kindness and emotionally supporting people in need, it was unsettling to see their constant bullying of a smaller, weaker, weird-looking seal being played for laughs.

Once I got past the initial hump of Person of Interest’s first season, I’ve been storming through the episodes. I’m almost at the end of season 3 now. I’m finding it especially interesting in the light of recently having read Nick Bostrom’s book Superintelligence, because the accidental emergence of AI is what drives the entire arc of the show. (It might look like just another altruist vigilante action show, but it’s actually science fiction.) The book’s academic themes and scenarios are still fresh in my mind, and I’m finding more depth in the show than I think I otherwise would. The downside is that I get impatient when they do a number-of-the-week episode that doesn’t move the big plot forward.

That big comic books haul from a few weeks ago? Here goes:

• Wolverine (2013): Hunting Season and Killable. Lovely classic action superhero artwork from Alan Davis. Story: meh.
• Wolverines: Dancing with the Devil; Claw, Blade and Fang; The Living and the Dead, Destiny. Mostly filler. Albeit with lovely visuals from a variety of artists. The art style changing from issue to issue kept things fresh.
• Captain Marvel (2014): Higher, Further, Faster, More; Stay Fly; and Alis Volat Propriis. First two books are great, third one suffers from having to show just a single slice of a Marvel crossover storyline (The Black Vortex), and feels disconnected as a result.
• She-Hulk (2014): Law and Disorder and Disorderly Conduct. Brilliant. Witty and full of superheroic antics, but without a constant sense of violence being the only option. In fact, Jennifer Walters being a lawyer makes it her least preferred option. Her desire to be accepted as a professional for her law practice makes this the kind of low-powered, relatable superhero story I love. I also adore Javier Pulido’s take on her, which is much more cartoonish and athletic than classic hyper-muscular sexualized She-Hulk. Not as obviously comedic as Howard The Duck and Squirrel Girl, but quite in line with their quirky and irreverent attitude to the Marvel universe. Want more of this.
• Manhattan Projects vol 1. Intriguing supernatural alt-history, spinning off lots of ideas around what might have happened if the Manhattan Project was a nexus of paranormal investigation and engineering. Very dark. Not sure if I’ll continue with the series.
• Rocket Raccoon: A Chasing Tale. Skottie Young’s art style reminds me of the loose and flowing art style of 1980s-era European comics like Robbedoes (Spirou). The storyline is I found bit take-it-or-leave-it.
• Spider-Gwen: Most Wanted. It’s OK. I’m not really feeling it.
• Silk: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon. Liked this a lot, especially Stacey Lee’s artwork.