Another music video mix for everyone. This one was obviously set for the girls, so I made it all female pop club tracks, so of course the staple artists in pop for the last decade are here. Also lately I have been playing more pop music in the club so been using these tracks a lot more recently, so feels like a fitting time to reshare this mix
Song List
1. Ke$ha – Take It Off
2. Katy Perry Feat Missy Elliot – TGIF
3. Shakira – Waka Waka
4. Beyonce – Girls Run The World
5. Rihanna – S&M
6. 2NE1 – Cant Nobody
7. Lady Gaga – Judas
8. Britney Spears – Till The World Ends
Well after those Ddos attacks have died down it seems it is business as usual… for now at least, so time to hit into episoe 9, we are coming to the end of some shows for the summer season which also means Fall/Autumn season is basically on us with the first of the new anime starting this weekend and there is a lot of new shows coming out as well as continuations of some very popular ones so it is definitely an exciting time! However it is not just anime that is starting over, in the real life adaptation of comics, we also have a heap of shows starting too so I’ll start with those this week and next episode will catch up again on the anime shows I have been watching.
Oh it is a good time to be a comic lover! So first up, let’s see what is hitting the small screen first this fall but a quick note…
ArrowOct 8th. Season 3 of what is DC’s very successful adaptation of the character
Agents of ShieldSept 23rd. Agents of Shield returns for it’s second season, I am expecting big things from this season and looking forward to the tie ins with Age of Ultron
On a side note for Agents of Shield, I am looking forward to this little crossover/back story too with Agent Carter
GothamSept 22nd. The show is set to act as an origin/back story to Nolans Batman series but focusing on detective Gordan as well as the origins of popular batman villains as well. It is an interesting idea
FlashOct 7th. Flash finally gets a proper on screen debut, with the cross overs between this and arrow and just the fact we get flash! I am excited for this
Walking DeadOct 12th. And of course who can forget zombies, zombies and more zombies! The new season is finally here, so what the hell is terminus really all about
Well that’s the TV shows, a lot of goodness there, it’s great to see these comic book adaptions hit the small screen and bringing us some fresh takes and ideas on some already fan favorite material… Seriously TV lately has been out doing movies with regards to this… but that’s another debate, for now, on to the anime for this fall I’m looking forward to…
Log Horizon Season 2Oct 4th. Looking forward to season 2 of my fav anime
Shingeki no Bahamut GenesisOct 6th. Based loosely on the card game I also play so interested to see if it is any good
Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no RondoOct 4th. Mechs vs Dragons? Sounds fun
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade WorksOct 4th. I haven’t watched this myself but have heard good things about the series and I know some people are waiting eagerly for it
Gundam: G no ReconguistaOct 2nd. A new Gundam series…
KiseijuuOct 8th. Also known as Parasyte, Kind of like a body snatches meets anime type deal yet more disturbing maybe
Magic Kaito 1412Oct 4th. Sounds a little diff, international jewel thief vibe going on
Psycho Pass 2Oct 9th. I think I need to watch the first season as this is the most anticipated anime this season
Terra FormarsSept 26th. Sounds a bit like starship troopers… sweet!
World TriggerOct 4th. Alien invasion, warriors with powers… Sounds good
At the moment these are the anime I am keeping my eye on and will endeavor to at least watch the first few episodes of. From summer season the only ones still going will be Akame Ga Kill and SAO 2 (as well as the long show runners) so it is a nice fresh start, however there is a lot starting so it will be difficult to keep up with everything! If you want to check out all the anime dropping this fall, again go here, http://www.anichart.net/fall, they have a really nice list along with countdowns to the first episode and short briefs of each anime
Well while you contemplate what your Fall viewing schedule is going to consist of (yeah good luck with that!) here is a recomended anime for you
X-men Evolution
As far as X-men go, we have seen them come across in various forms, in the cartoon world, there was the original X-men cartoon which did very well and stayed pretty true to the comics, however my favorite incarnation of the mutant team is definitely X-men Evolution, for various reason, but just overall it was done well (as can be expected from a 20min cartoon)
The plot basically follows the X-men during their high school years, dealing with trying to keep their mutant powers undercover while attending a local high school and at the same time dealing with threats that arise from either other mutants or political figures and their meddling’s. Of course magneto features heavily as an antagonist and the usual dichotomy created between him and Xavier is ever present during the show. However they have removed some of the rivals that most people are use to and added some new ones. The big thing is removing Wolverine and Jean’s ‘love’ interest which personally I really like because it was one thing about wolverines character that really annoyed me, instead Jean is in her teenage years, and her relationship with scoot is slowly developing, and instead they add the 3rd party as Rouge, which kind of works in some ways, it just makes more sense and feels more natural than the whole Jean wolverine thing.
X-men evolution deals with most of the issues bought up thru the comics, it is split into 4 seasons, each taking on a different story ark but ultimately all being tied in together, first dealing with magneto, then dealing with Mutants becoming exposed and finally taking on the man himself, Apocalypse. While there is obviously a few notable villains missing, there is more than enough to carry these 4 seasons thru even if it does appear patchy at times. The other argument is that the newer Wolverine and the X-men cartoon (that annoyingly got canned after one season) is a continuation of X-men Evo or could easily be seen as that especially since it happens when they are all older and introduces some new characters
But that aside, X-men Evo is a good watch and has a defined start and finish and follows the story of X-men in a slightly different light that I found enjoyable
Animation 7/10 – It’s a step up from the older series for sure, but the way the characters have been drawn is to reminiscent of many other cartoon series, was kind of hoping for something a little different, however they all look really good
Characters 7/10 – Each character gets their own time in the spotlight as the show progresses which is nice as we can get to know them better, but it is a rehash of what we already know, however if you are new to X-men then this is really nice
Plot 6/10 – It is simple, we already know it, there is no major twists or anything unexpected but there are some changes which I like, it is patchy in parts but it is still good
Overall 6/10 – There are amine which are better and more in-depth, however the X-men story is always a favorite and they have done well with it here and while I don’t rate it high, I do recommend watching it
My gamer tag is actually DJ Rufio, add me on Xbox Live
So with the launch of the Halo Master Chief Collection coming soon, I started looking back at some of my old Halo stat lists, a little bit hard to find since Bungie is obviously no longer in control of the Halo franchise now that it has moved to 343 Studios, but a lot of the content for Halo 3, Halo 2 and ODST is still located on the Bungie servers and websites so took a trip down memory lane digging thru all the stuff there and managed to find stats for all the games, was a bit to go thru. But with Halo waypoint, the summaries are at least easy to find.
I also got out my old Xbox 360 and found some gameplay videos I had saved so did a short compilation of them which you can see below. Most of them are from me being a cheap ass and using the gravity hammer to send fools flying in the warthog off the cliff… It was a great way to stop the flag and also it just looks funny as hell and it really was a lot of fun but it did piss some players off… meh too bad! Makes for some great game play footage!
So here is some recaps on how I use to fare playing Halo. It was especially hard playing in NZ where our internet speeds basically put anyone in NZ playing in overseas match making at a decent disadvantage. You wouldn’t notice it during mid to long range combat, but up close, esp sword exchanges, you basically had to anticipate and guess rather than move and react which ended up becoming a skill on its own. It wasn’t until Halo Reach that I moved to Korea, and oh my god, did it make a difference!
Halo: Combat Evolved
Well there are no stats to show for this which is a shame given it is where it all started and I didn’t get the anniversary edition (I knew the MC collection would eventual come so waited for that lol) It was on the original Xbox, but it reall did pave the way for todays FPS genre on consoles. We use to play via split screen above the Last Moa back in my uni days with 2 xbox’s linked up so had some epic 4v4 games… Oh how I miss beaver creek!!
Halo 2
Games: 1022 Kills: 7362 Deaths: 10584
I use to love playing Halo 2 online, but there was always a lot of match making issues which didn’t help the old KD ratio, but it was very enjoyable, but mostly enjoyed the close combat maps
Halo 3
Games 2202 Kills: 23811 Deaths: 23706
Halo 3 was awesome, I loved playing this online and had most of my favourite maps and the gameplay just felt right for both short-mid range and mid-long-range combat, it was well balanced and really was the best of the series so far
Halo 4
Games: 218 Kills: 2821 Deaths: 2469
While the graphics and matching making are a jump forward, some of the balancing and the whole loadout thing doesnt quite suit what Halo is, this aside thou it is a lot of fun with some epic maps and some good recreations of old favourites, the graphics and just overall upgrading and balancing of weapons as well as the addition of the new Promethean weapons still make this epic
Halo Reach
Games: 415 Kills: 5642 Deaths: 4065
Reach killed it for a lot of fans, thou it was hard to follow on from Halo 3 but the multiplayer just wasn’t up to scratch… at all, the new editions really missed the mark
Halo ODST
This was only firefight, which was a lot of fun when you could find other people to play with who were serious, but wasn’t really my thing. Still had some epic battles thou
Halo Wars
This really was an unsung hero for the RTS genre. RTS games have always struggled on console, but Halo Wars really did nail it with their interface to make what was a really great game. However online was never that easy, finding a team of 3v3 players who were serious wasn’t easy, but when you did get 6 players who could throw down it made for some long ass epic struggles!
So thats it for the games, there is that top down game but I never played it, looked ok thou. Once I play thru the campaigns again I will add some more gameplay footage as well as some campaign recaps. But interesting looking thru the stats, I really did play a LOT of Halo 3, and since then, well just haven’t really had the same time to play as much as I would have liked to. Least my K/D ratios are pretty good considering the game modes I like to play, e.g. mainly big team battles! I like the mix of chaos with having to actually work together, so CTF is usually my favourite game mode, however an 8vs8 on a smaller map slayer can be just as fun too! Speaking of maps…
My Top/Favourite multiplayer Maps
1. Beaver Creek (close range hectic combat, so much fun)
2. Blood Gulch/Coagulation/Hemorrhage (mid-lone range with vehicles, great for team battles)
3. Stand Off (close-mid range, great for flag games)
4. Rats Nest (I only love this map because gravity hammer vs warthog = angry warthog passengers)
5. Valhalla/Ragnarok (mid range combat, just a great map)
6. Lockout/Black Out (close range chaos)
7. Sidewinder/Avalanche (mid-long range combat, great for flag games, epic size)
8. Sandtrap (mid-long range, vehicle fun and lots of variants)
9. Midship (close range chaos)
10. Exile (close-mid range madness with vehicles)
I am definitely looking forward to going thru Halo from start to finish with the remastered graphics and also hoping they bring back some of my old time favorite maps. While some have obviously been remade and tweaked, there is still a couple of classics missing which I am hoping might make a return. I will have the Xbox One soon so will be eagerly waiting to stick my teeth into the story line again and also the new online playlists!
Ok so it has been a busy last few months, 3 trips overseas, various gigs as well as my usual ones so here is a quick recap of what I have been doing these last few months
June
Well June was a interesting month, I got to do some pretty cool things and also finished my 12 week challenge, 10kg lighter and back up to maybe 75% on the touch field
– Spent my birthday and long weekend running around Japan buying as much stuff as I could! Harajuku for clothes and Akihabara for my anime obsession
– Next weekend was UMF which I got to jam out in the redbull party jeep, pretty cool that I got to go to UMF, wasn’t the greatest of festivals but it is def one of the biggest in Korea and around the world… just a shame the line up was mud
– Spun at venue, nothing but old skool and a bit of a MJ tribute. Also it was a great crowd for early on so made the night even better
Well that was June, short but eventful.
July
July proved to be less busy, was back at venue again but the night ended up being a dud unfortunately. The main thing for July was taking on a new residence at King Club, however that ended up being short lived. Scroll to the bottom for that story…
– I spent most of the time working on my BeFM set.
– I did take a trip to Taipei which was a lot of fun
– Met with Blossom Day which was a kick start to working with JC
– TBT at Venue with Pinnacle and Rich Ben, pitty it was a dud of a night
And that was July
August was a good month
– 2nd Place at BeFM with a trip down to Busan, rocking it out on Gwangali
– Went to WDJ Festival with DJ Korea, jamming in the tent again, but to less fanfare than last year
– Started to do some proper work with JC, exciting times ahead working with her, but did have a fun night out at Bar Fly
– Started on some other projects including learning to produce music
And some other random things I got up to in August…
Went to the One Piece expo in Seoul, it was cool, mostly based around the Marine Ford Arc which was of course total epicness! (Full review in another post)
Went to my first Baseball game in Korea
And that was August, simple but fun, Sept is halfway done but it is also turning out to be another great month, it’s already coming into Autumn and the end of the year is rapidly approaching… again…
So here goes with the King Club story
My hours at bar fly changed to the late shift, so it opened up a time for me to play somewhere else, I was going to look at a second residency after summer since I am usually busy during summer but King Club offered so I thought why not, they are under new ownership and have a new direction that wanted to go in so at first I was excited about working there, because honestly I never liked the place at all or the people that use to frequent it but the hope that it would change and the possibility of the place had me in… But as I began working there it was quickly apparent that any change was going to be slow if at all. The American soldiers still frequented the place, and they bring their own brand of bullshit with them (for the 4 weeks I was there, there was at least 1 fight each weekend…) as well as wanting to hear all the new shit that you can’t dance too. The music they (the boss etc) wanted me to play wasn’t the kind of music the crowd they want to attract want to hear (I even had the bouncer? stop me at the door and start going on about some shit with the music, I just gave him the yeah whatever, like I’m going to listen to you look and walked on by, I listen to the crowd and the boss, not you) and it was just becoming apparent that the direction they wanted to go in was pretty blurry. Also at Bar Fly, the boss asked me to switch back to my old time, so since they come first, had to talk to king club and see if could switch up the schedule, the problem is all of the DJs there have a second residency that is more important to them than king club so none of them can change, which was fine with me, I was the late comer to the party and also working there was really starting to become an annoyance rather than fun, not to say I didn’t have some fun there thou! The place has a lot of potential, always has, and has some good people working there but as is always the way, direction needs to be decisive, not blurry… and changing styles up between the military and Korean/expat scene… seriously there is a reason why I hate Itaewon and even more so hate those young American soldiers and all their bullshit. I avoid the place like the plague
Ok so here is my next video. It is one of the last videos I have made, I finished it before Unleashed 7, but becasue I made them both around the same time, I put this at 8 since the tracks were slightly newer than the tracks on 7.
This video by far came out the best of all my videos, from about 4 onwards I really had a good grasp of how to make them pretty much the way I like and near perfect quality, also it was much easier to get hold of HD copies of each of these videos too, so hope you enjoy
I will upload the rest and share them but its also about time I made some new mixes as well (I have about 3 or 4 old ones that are half finished that were going to be in the series, guess could always just finish them off too)
Unleashed Volume 8 Track List
1. J Lo Feat Pitbull – Dance Again
2. Big Bang – Fantastic Baby
3. Chris Brown – Turn Up The Music
4. Far East Movement – Live My Life
5. Jay Sean Feat Pitbull – I’m All Yours
6. Ne-Yo – Burnin’ Up
Taipei is a pretty nice city, very green and settled in what I believe used to be a lake bed till it drained out thousands of years ago (I think there is still some remnants of the water towards the center of the city, but if your that interested, Wikipedia and Google!) Anyways my trip got off to a stella start with being upgraded to business class on my flight, got to love that, the reason thou being over booked is a bit of a fail… but apparently airlines do this to cover themselves in case of changes or cancelations… I’m guessing last min ones but still, it can be a risk, but in my case it was a gain.
Arrive in Taipei and wholly shit is it hot there, but the first thing I notice is how clear the sky is and how green it is, kind of puts Seoul to shame really. After checking in at the hotel I decided to check out Taipei 101 since its close to my hotel and not sure what my next 2 days will entail so thought might as well bang it out early. Easy enough to get there, the place is really modern and has that feel to it, however it is def off set by all the 100’s of tourists floating around, and since it was a Sunday, screaming shit kids. The wait to get on the elevator going up was maybe 30-40mins so not too bad given the elevator ride to the top only takes all of only 40 seconds and the view at the top is def worth it.
Taipei is a funny city in that it doesn’t have a huge amount of high buildings or a big concentration of them in a single area so 101 really stands out (almost comically if you wana be a stink guy about it) The view at the top and seeing the mountains surrounding the city is really something. The tower itself is nothing overly special, well it is but as far as towers go they all have their own little something. 101 has this huge ass swinging ball as a wind dampener (cue dirty jokes) but it is an impressive structure and if it wasn’t so tourist heavy the surrounding/adjacent mall and facilities would be much more bearable. I wanted to eat there but yeah nah, waaay to busy so ended up getting a feed from a place close to my hotel that sold NZ beef, score! and dam, the price of food is really cheap
So on to my second day, was meant to meet up with my friend but didn’t hear from so decided to first go check out a popular anime spot I had read about under Taipei Main Station, well its not actually under the station, its close to it thou (ill post specific directions in another post) but it quickly became apparent that a lot of shopping in Taipei is located underground almost directly following the subway lines, the mall here wasn’t huge, but looooong! and that was only the part I checked out. As far as toys go, they (and it seems everyone else) is miles ahead of Korea… weird but my guess is Korea is still on that whole anti Japanese buzz could be the reason… But I digress, there was many small shops rocking mostly One Piece, Hatsune Miku, Gundam and various other popular anime products, but not many of the less popular ones as expected. I was surprised to see some old G1 transformers floating around. After grabbing a feed here I decided to check out Xmien, the main ‘trendy’ shopping district, similar to Harajuku in Japan, and it is very similar but I did notice that the same local brands tended to show up in most places, it did however make a nice change from seeing immigrant Nigerians (or whatever country) peddling their bullshit gears. The area consists of maybe 4 blocks by 4 blocks space worth of shops, lots of stuff tucked away in small places but the best spot to check out is the department store, well its not really a department store, its just a big ass building fill to the brim with a heap of really good shops, kicks, clothes and anime, winning! Anyways I ended up spending most of the day shopping and by the time I rocked back to the hotel, it was food and crash while deciding what the hell to do on my next day…
I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I decided to go to the zoo, i thought about doing the temples and museums etc but honestly there is too much associated history that I know nothing about so doing those sites kind of felt pointless (I wasn’t in the mood to learn either) so I decided the zoo would be great since it is a well known zoo, and I have never seen Pandas before! So after lunch I headed out to the zoo, so easy to get to, just jump on the subway (side note, the subway system there is really good, clean and efficient) It was a little tricky at first to figure out how to plan my zoo trip since there was no real guides at the entry but I figured it out pretty quickly and started making my way thru the different sections checking out the animals. Now I love animals, I think they are so amazing and beautiful, so seeing them in a zoo is both a pleasure and depressing at the same time. Feeling happy that I can see these amazing animals but depressing that I cant see them wild and free in their natural habitat because humans are basically heartless, greedy fucktards.
First stop was the Pandas, I want one! But my god, their enclosure was just depressing, I felt so sorry for them. The line was pretty big, but the cueing line for when it gets really busy was insane, I would hate to hit there during a weekend, i was there on a Tuesday arvo, it might be holidays at the moment, I’m not sure who is and who isn’t on holiday but you can be sure weekends are stay away times. Anyways after the pandas I steadily made my way from the bottom up to the top of the valley which the zoo is nestled in, they have done well with the space they have, but as always, more is better. I really enjoyed my time at the zoo, however, people, control your fucking children! I could see quite a few people getting really pissed off with how some of the kids were acting and I was beginning to get the same way too, poor animals, having to live with that shit everyday, its bad enough they are stuck in cages…
After the zoo i decided to head up the gondola after hearing/reading it was worth the trip, yup it was! the ride is maybe 30mins of nothing but spectacular views all the way to the top where you kind of just get dumped in a hillside community that’s famous for its tea houses. I looked around for one that would have a good view of the sunset and found one that was pretty much perfect, funny that the lady beckoned my to come in but I had every intention of going there. I was surprised how quiet it was but I guess it was a weekday. Anyways had some fresh tea (im not a tea person but it tasted good0 and had some wild chicken, that ended up being waaay bigger than I thought it would be, but at any rate I got to enjoy an awesome sunset. Headed back down and made my way back to the hotel to crash again after a long ass weekend! Kind of failed with my flight time, need to remember to coincide my flight time with my check out time.
So, if you are interested in Graffiti and want to find some pieces in Shanghai, then one of the main places to check out is the Graffiti wall on Moganshan Road. It is pretty easy to find if you just get a taxi, the best thing is to start on the corner of Changhua Road and Moganshan Road and just follow the road. Some of the pieces look kinda old but a few of them look new so it seems as thou it is still used. Shanghai Railway station is kind of close (it looks close on the map but it is a solid walk)
So, 4 days in Shanghai, well all I can say is Shanghai is one of the most interesting cities I have seen, mainly because of the buildings and the huge difference and contrasts in architecture shown throughout the city. It really is extreme in some cases, not uncommon to see multi-million dollar sky rises or heritage styles sights right next to a run down slum of apartment buildings. The city itself is seemingly still under going massive change, which is evident by the multitude of construction sites littered across the city, places being completely cleared (slums etc) and new buildings being put in. The Bund seriously looks like it should be in England, but then on the opposite side of the water you have that typical Asian skyline with big tall sky scrappers and lots of neon lights. It really must be an architects dream to check this city out.
So, as for me, well first day got in, had a look around my local area, I was staying at the Renaissance Shanghai Yu Garden hotel which is right next to Yu Garden which is a pretty famous tourist trap with some stunning buildings in what is an impressive market place. The hotel itself was awesome, fully recommend staying there, the rooms are decent sized, the staff are very friendly and helpful, the pool is trippy and even has a decent fitness center, and the food there is pretty good too. Didn’t do much sat night, I was thinking of going to check out one of the clubs, but after reading some stuff online about it, I decided not to, didn’t feel like going to an over packed nightclub since I was already tired so crashed out
The next 2 days were spent shopping and looking around the city trying to find things. On the first day I didn’t do much research, I had already heard Nanjing Road was meant to be this impressive shopping mecha so thought I would end up spending half my day there then head to one of the bigger shopping malls… Well that was a fail, seriously, Nanjing road is rubbish, all it is was your usual international shopping brands all packed into a few malls scattered down a pedestrian st (some pretty big ass malls thou) Its basically the same shit you can find anywhere in the world. It is worth taking a walk up and down to see the thousands of people doing the same thing, everyone just ends up taking pictures of the big buildings and malls and doesn’t seem like anyone actually buys anything. Its more like a mall shopping district than a market style one. I did get lucky thou and found a store that sold some anime clothing, but it was really kiddy style, except for a couple of Hoodies I picked up that were neutral enough to not look too childish. Went to the super brand mall and fared no better there so ended up heading back to my hotel and jumped online for some serious research… Walked a long ass distance too
Which leads me to day 2, after looking online I managed to track down some stores to check out. Had about 6 places to check out, Mostly nestled in between Hauihai Road and Nanjing Road, it is actually a big ass area thou if you have a map and street addresses, things can be found easily enough. My success rate on the stores thou was pretty low, but luckily I did find some other stores along here that were worth checking out, but only a handful that I was really interested in, mostly located along Changle Road (which stretches a dam long way, with a few side streets that also have stuff too, but mostly fashion for women, seriously, if your a female and want to shop in shanghai, go to this area!) At the end of the day, ended up picking up only 3 T-shirts. After all that dam walking, I was kind of annoyed lol
So, after the fail of the previous 2 days, this day was a day for sightseeing, first up was off to the Graffiti walls I had randomly come across about online, a big long stretch located up by Shanghai Railway Station (I’ll post specifics with the photos I took in another post) There was some good pieces up there, but a lot of them looked pretty old which was a shame, but it is worth a look. After that, I had a quick look around Yu Garden shopping area, finally found some anime stuff on sale (had searched what felt like half the dam city lol) But it was limited (esp by the language barrier because I have a feeling one of the places is a small store that has a bigger online store, more about that in another post) I did however managed to pick up a couple of things I wanted so that was good! Next it was on to the Big Bus sightseeing ‘tour’ which is an open top double decker bus that takes you around the city, its ok but the drivers still drive like regular bus drivers so you end up flying past a lot of stuff (ill also mention how totally fucked up China is when it comes to road rules later too, needles to say I saw one dude get knocked the fuck out by a scooter as he was walking across a green light…) The tour comes with a couple of options, either just the bus, or a couple of add on’s, I took the river cruise and tourist tunnel add on. DO NOT DO THE TOURIST TUNNEL! It is the biggest waste of time ever, total rubbish! The cruise was pretty good, thou a bit of a mickey mouse affair getting there, then having to wait outside, we got a free meal which wasn’t mentioned so that was nice, however I had to deal with pushy fucking people while waiting for my food, seriously, some people are just straight dam rude, it was a buffet dinner, and seriously, it was like a pack of ravenous wolves trying to get in there… Most of them were Chinese, and older too (thou a couple of the young ones were just as bad… seriously…) Apart from that and the annoying people taking photos on the top deck, the cruise was pretty good, some amazing views! But kind of wished I had taken a more ‘upscale’ boat where people have some dam manners!
Well the cruise ended and again jumped on a bus to get taken back to the Bund (the cruise started way down river and did a loop going up and back) and then headed back to the hotel to have some food and relax before packing up my stuff and crashing. Overall it was a good trip, had enough time to not only shop but also explore the city, didn’t do everything, skipped most of the temples, but apart from that managed to see a lot of different things while also getting some relaxation and down time in too. Not sure if I’ll head back there again unless if it is to perform but definitely an awesome city.
So following up on from 2012, thre3style was again back in Korea for 2013, however this year there was def a lack of quality DJs entering with a few from the previous year not coming back to compete, however there was also some really good DJs entering this year who had some awesome performances, prob better than the previous year so it kind of balanced out (except some DJs really looked out of place up there)
Anyways here is my set for the year, had a lot of mash ups and genre switches which ended up in a pretty varied set. The performance itself was mostly ok, except for dust screwing up my needle, twice! Ruined my intro, thou no one noticed lol and another time during my set it also almost screwed me up. I was pissed about my intro thou because I had to skip a bit of it and ended up using a safe version I had made (just in case something like this happened, yeah I think things thru that far) But apart from that my set came out nice and got some good reactions from the crowd this time round and just overall had a good time up there
As for the result, well yet again didnt make it thru, and yet again there might have been some controversy on that matter, one of the comments I did manage to hear about my set was use of pre mixes, which yes some of it was pre mixed while other parts werent, there was a balance between the 2 since somethings live just dont go well and I hate having ‘dead’ space inbetween switching tracks etc which is unavoidable if your only using 2 decks without having some pre mixing going on to keep the flow going, but I had some premixes just the same as all the other DJs there (some had a lot of their sets pre mixed) so while that does make some sense, in the overall scheme of it compared to the other DJs, well yeah, possibly robbed… Also my heat was definately the hardest, I would say 6 out of us 8 should have made it thru and only 2 from the other heat were good enough to make it thru (the second heat was really very average) But again, its hard to know what the judges are thinking, its also hard to know if the foreigner card is in play or not, I would say it is likely it is but cant confirm either way, also I did hold back which maybe I shouldnt have done, it was only a heat so I did enough to make it to the finals (which obviously wasn’t enough) which if I had made it, would be a no holds barred set, but it was not to be.
So autumn (Fall) is almost upon us in the northen hemisphere and I have resorted to releasing my anime blog every 2 weeks for now, seems like a logical step since I have been busy with my DJ endeavours and the long holiday weekend is almost on us. That and I have fallen behind in a few animes except for my out right favourites so far
But the big news recently is that a lot of anime sites (esp download and torrent sites) are down due to DDos attacks, which rumor says seem to have originated from the Japanese government itself in their attempt to crack down on anime/manga piracy… still nothing confirmed thou but will be interesting to see what happens, however the episodes are still poping up on sites like KAT, Tokyo Toshokan and PB but for now it seems that a lot of these sites have indeed fallen from grace…
Akame Ga kill
Wow, at first I know people were a little off put by how the tone jumped around so rapidly, but by now I am sure people are use to it, it is still brutal and we have even seen that not every character is safe with 2 casualties already amongst the nightraid members (and not the ones I expected, thou I guess Baluat was a little obvious, cool that Tatsumi gets his Imperial arms thou) The last episode thou was a little weird at the end, why would he enter the tournament in the first place if he is meant to be an assassin, creating the obvious love interest for Lady Esdeath on the side too
Mahouka
Still not eough on the action side of things but I am still looking forward to it every weekend, but the whole brother/sister thing that is going on is really, really weird and seems to make no sense without knowing any of their past which is annoying, but apart from that I am still enjoing the show and getting to see some ass kicking outside of the school tournament
SAO2 – GGO
Well as expected this is still delivering at a slightly better pace than the first season and is making more sense at times than the first season which I am enjoying. There is less skipping forward and its interesting how it has all been tied in with Laughing Coffin too. Interested to see what happens next after the cliff hanger we were left with last episode, also, is death gun actually a part of the game or is he like a random ‘program’ that can come and go as he pleases?
Naruto
Well, loving the reunion of team 7 and the 3 way deadlock, that was pretty mean, cool that the previous Hokage are out in force too, weird that Oroichmaru is actually helping them (not to mention Sasuke’s change of heart) But least the war is coming to its climax by the looks of it and there should at least be a mean showdown between Madara and Hashirama… hopefully
One Piece
I have to admit, while watching all these other anime bolt forward at a million miles an hour, OP is basically the opposite, but given its popularity and huge world, I am glad they have the luxury to take it slow and fill in the entire story without having to skip forward missing important things that other anime often have to do. The Riku kingdom and history of them and Doflamingo is pretty cool and learning how he manipulated them all. But its getting to the point where the inevitable showdown between everyone is coming very close and almost losing patience for it to hurry up and come! But at the same time I am glad it isnt rushing ahead
I haven’t properly caught up on Agrevollen, Aldnoah Zero, Tokyo Esp and Tokyo Ghoul but will endeavour to do so in the following weeks
Recomended Anime
Air Gear
So, I found this anime randomly after searching for some fan made anime music videos to use with my dj sets and I came across someone who had used Air Gear in a pretty decent video, so I decided to check out the anime itself, glad I did! The story follows a boy named Iki and is set in a world where technology has advanced enough to allow people to basically have high powered electric rollker skates/blades with enough torque and power to allow people to ride them at great speeds, up walls and jump great distances. Thus taking extreme sports to a whole other level and giving people ‘wings’ (a common theme during the story) The story revolves around Iki learning to ride these Air Treks (in what is like a futuristic version of aggressive skating, with crews/gangs, underground races etc etc) and as he forms his own team to ride and compete against other ‘Storm Riders’ and learns that he is the ‘chosen’ one. His sisters are also part of one of the legendary A-T gangs and as the story begins, he is quickly thrown into the world revolving around Air Treks. I liked this anime because its a little different to others having an extreme sport component to it, thou as it progresses it still follows your usual anime formula of the hero on his quest thrown in the deep end only to rise from adversity, meeting his fellows compatriots etc etc, coupled with your usual weird goings on and typical shower and bathroom scenes and awkward moments thrown in for good measure (because seriously, whats an anime with out the big brestead girl getting commented on in the shower scene) But apart from the usual quirks and weirdness that is Japanese anime, this is an enjoyable watch with some interesting characters and some even weirder abilities (Akito and Agito are hillarious at times, thou also extremely disturbing as well) Add all this together and you have an anime worth watching. Oh, and the English dub version is actually pretty good! One of the rare times they get it right (swearing and all too!) The only let down was that it finished just as it was getting good, however an OVA was released that was pretty good and follows on the story further in the future but again it was only short so it is left very open ended
Animation 6/10 Its not that impressive but the characters are well drawn and have enough differences to make it ok
Characters 7/10 There are some interesting characters and some really well done interactions between some of them
Plot 5/10 Unfortunately the plot is nothing special, not to say it isnt good, its just not going to leave you going ‘god dam’
Overall 6/10 This is one of those watch if you have the time animes, it isnt mind blowing amazing but it is enjoyable enough to check it out and has a different concept than most animes but at the end of the day it does fundamentally follow the usual formula. Not on the A list of must watch, but on the B list of worth a watch
Throwback Character
Conan The Adventurer
Grey Wolf
Male
Wizard of Xanthus
Mostly magical based attacks but also physically strong and proficent in hand to hand combat
Use his staff as his outlet for his magical power, gets signifacntly upgraded with a star metal ‘Claw of Heaven’, also has his brother and sister were turned into wolves who also aid him
The serious type, wise but also similar to the others and can be quick tempered
Grey Wolf was my favourite character from this series, mainly because at the time I had a wizard obsession and he was a more bad ass wizard who not only could do magic but also hold his own in a fight.
The series itself, while old, was enjoyable, coming off the back of the successful movies, the cartoon show seemed to enjoy some success (basically any show that makes it to NZ had to have been somewhat successful at the time) The story flows different to the movies but still has a lot of the combat, thou obviously toned down for children. They made a nice little get around introducing the snake men and star metal that baneshes them from our dimension, basically allowing for combat but remvoing blood. Using the story line of the serpant set which was a main plot line in one of the movies and expanding on it more was a good move and made the cartoon feel really well thought out for what it was. The plot basically follows Conan as he is on a quest to reverse the spell placed on his family that turned them to stone, which ends up becoming a quest to put a stop to the Stigen forces and Set’s plans to invade their dimension. Along his quest he meets up with fellow heroes who aid him along the way. The good thing is that the other heroes come in and out of the series so its not always the same combination for each episode, allowing for some good cahracter interatctions. The other good thing was that the series had a definitive finale for the major plot line (which often wasnt the case for cartoons of the time) even thou some minor plots were left open ended, it was nice to be able to watch this from start to finish
akadjblaze 