The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (A, 98.75%)

Dear Followers, After a long, a fulfilling Thanksgiving Break, I am not looking forward to facing all of the assignments I let pile up over the past few days. As I explained to Ishmam Ahmed yesterday, right now I feel as if I have come back home after a prolonged vacation in a foreign land and now I am consolidating the experience in order to relish every last moment. This Thanksgiving Break, I didn't finish any college applications or finish the work I missed last week like I told myself I would. No, instead, I sat down and played one of the best Wii games ever created: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I remember when I first saw SS in action at E3 2010 I was disappointed. The colorful, exaggerated character designs and minimalist...

Casablanca: A Microcosm Of A War-Torn World

Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, which originally was never expected to be any more than an ordinary film, is now heralded as one of the greatest films in history. The film focuses on Rick Blaine, the cynical owner of “Rick’s Café Américain.” However, Rick soon ends up in a quagmire when he acquires two valuable exit-visas and runs into Ilsa Lund, the woman who broke his heart in Paris, and her husband Victor Lazlo who are seeking passage to America. The Moroccan city of Casablanca provides an appropriate backdrop for the film, helping flesh out each of the characters in the film and establishing a ripe atmosphere for the film’s conflict and eventual resolution. The backdrop in Casablanca, created and shot almost entirely on studio sets, effectively portrays an exotic vision of Casablanca while...

A-Music Week 6

Dear Followers, Today. I uploaded my new anime schedule for Fall/Winter 2011. Fall 2011 was kind of a let down for anime, but Winter 2011/2012 looks to be providing some really interesting shows such as Kyousogiga which looks to be a FLCL/Studio Ghibli/Summer Wars/Natsume Yuujinchou hybrid and of course a new season of Bakemonogatari, now labeled Nisemonogatari, and serving as what I understand to be a prequel to the main series. The PV for Kyousogiga rocks by the way and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In4YoCWTKiM. This weekend I marathoned Kanagatari, a 12-episode show, hard. Each episode is 50 minutes long, and I felt like a real hikikomori as I spent my Saturday in my room with the lights off, covered in blankets,...

Unforgiven: Debunking The American Western

The American Western continues to be a Hollywood mainstay because of its connections to America’s cultural identity. However, Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, released in 1992, has served to disturb the formulaic American Western by challenging the validity of its classic legendary narrative. Various elements in Unforigven, including its memorable characters and cinematography, seamlessly combine in order to achieve such an aim. Unforgiven critically examines the issue of violence in modern society. By showcasing the destructive power of violence, Eastwood successfully captures the horror of killing a man in Unforgiven. When Davey Bunting is shot in the side, his death is not swift and painless, but protracted and miserable. Davey is completely helpless, only able to drag his dusty body behind...

Alien: Analyzing What Makes Us Jump

Alien, released in 1979, is an unprecedented synthesis of science fiction and horror whose product is one of film’s finest creations. Directed by Ripley Scott, Alien is a rather straightforward narrative describing a commercial spaceship which picks up an uninvited visitor in the form of an extraterrestrial life form which seeks to murder the crew in its entirety. Ever since it was first shown, Alien has elicited fright from various audiences with its combination of visually repulsive imagery and heart-thumping suspense scenes. However, while both elements are integral to the film as a whole, Alien’s use of psychological horror is the driving force of fear within the film. By successfully exploiting a human fear of the unknown, Alien elicits a unique and personal feeling of horror from each...

A-Music Week 5

Dear Followers, Screw the introduction. 1. Buddy - Maaya Sakamoto Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~ OP Version 2. Stay Beautiful - Diggy-Mo 3. Days - Flow Eureka seveN OP Version 4. Day By Day - SNSD 5. Sayonara Memories - SUPERCELL 6. ผู้ชาย (Gent) - Slur 7. Hito To No Kyori No Hakari Kata- Plenty 8. Song Of The Seasons - Mimi 9. Thousand Enemies - Girls Dead Monster 10. O2 - Orange Range Code Geass R2 OP Version Brings Back Memories, N...

Care Packages A La Mode

Dear Followers, I couldn't handle having warning signs all over my blog anymore, so I decided to install a new template. As always, the instructions provided by the internet were insufficient in effectively guiding me through the reconstruction process, and much of what you see is the result of a schizophrenic guess-and-check process with HTML. After playing around for around an hour or so, I finally have created a blog design that I am comfortable with. I really shouldn't be blogging today, but once I start something I have a really hard time stopping. So, here's an onslaught of posts for anybody who's interested. The substance of the post you are reading right now is basically a conglomeration of individual posts I mean to write...