Happy Cinco De Mayo!

YouTube Obsession

I love art analysis. Good analysis can open an entirely new perspective and also introduce historical contexts to the choices made when an artist created a piece. It’s the big reason why I like to read the New York Review of Books, because they have articles about all the arts; Books, plays, operas, paintings, etc.

Inspraggio is art analysis on YouTube.

One of the amazing things about good art is that it can be transfixing in any era despite the viewer having no context of its creation. Take the painting "Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels" by Jean Fouquet.

One look and you know that is beautiful and effective. However, a deeper understanding as explored in the video makes this painting even more interesting as a entirely human creation.

The video alludes to ‘mysteries’ in the paint but also points out that with proper study these mysteries are actually interesting human choices. I love that about art. Maybe I missed my calling in art history but nothing interests me more than learning about art.

Watching

So as ya’ll know, I grew up in the sticks. Middle of nowhere southern Indiana, we didn’t get dial-up internet until 2001 and satalite DSL internet till 2005. In fact, the area I lived in still does not have access to cable. I say all this because I completely missed out on have a childhood with Sailor Moon.

Of course I was aware of Anime in general. I watched Akria, Fist of the North Star, all of the original Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop via bootleg VHS, not to mention I was obsessed with Digimon which aired on my local FOX affiliate out of Louisville, KY. All these had deep and lasting effects on my psyche. But after watching some Sailor Moon with my partner (Who did grow up with the show) I can only imagine how much I would have loved the show as a kid.

To be specific, we watched the 1994-1995 OVAs Hearts in Ice and Black Dream Hole. As an adult I can appreciate just how girly these shows are in relation to mainstream action anime. Sure there are great female characters in other anime but as for a show that is aimed at solely at a fem audience there really isn’t another like it.

Anyway, the movies are pure cake. I love a good sentai show and each character has their own personality and I just eat that shit up. My partner was filling me in on the surprisingly deep lore and I just know I would have been all over this as a kid.

I also have an obsession with getting a Tuxedo Mask outfit made completely out of leather.

Reading

It’s been a minute since I’ve delved into a truly high-level scifi book and The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks has been the perfect reentry to the genre.

Every scifi epic suffers from contextual-whiplash in early chapters that comes from trying to introduce an entirely different universe organically without turning into a full-on exposition bomb. Banks successfully side-steps this problem in the early chapters by starting the book in a decidedly human and low level perspective. As the book has opened up in the later chapters, a fully realized and interesting universe has emerged along with a galactic-scale story.

It really made me think about my own writing and how I can often stump myself by not wanting to get too into the ‘lore’ of a world I created in fear that it will be too much for the reader. When in actuality, if the world is interesting people will want to read it; The trick is to introduce it in interesting ways.

Playing

I don’t remember when I started playing the 2021 rogue-like Returnal but (ironically) I would fall into the same loop every time I would play; Play, make .0001% progress, get frustrated, get burnout, quit.

And when I say “get frustrated” I mean punching pillows upset. Very few games get my blood up like Returnal. There is just a crazy element of unfairness that permeates the entire experience. Everything exists in this world to kill the player. Enemies have about 25% more health than they should and some are only best killed by weapons you may not have at the time. Thankfully the player is very mobile and very fast, but most maps are so constrained and filled with hazards that this asset often becomes a liability. Meta progress¹ , is so incredibly slow and rigorous that I started to wonder if there actually is meta progress.

I say all this because Returnal is one of the best games I have ever played. The gunplay and movement alone are so good I am in awe that no other game feels like this. The meta progress is a slow burn at first but really opens up into crazier and crazier weapons and items later in the game. This is accompanied by a story that could only be told in this video game designed exactly how it is designed and I fuck with that.

The game is a rogue-like and the story is all about an astronaut who wakes up after her ship crashes on a Lovecraftian horror planet. Every time she dies, she wakes up just after the crash. The character knows this and is tormented by this much as the player is frustrated by dying over and over. This cycle leads to the best Act I reveal I may have ever experienced in a video game.

The game is so hard and is not anything like the “souls game” brand of easternized-western fantasy, that I am absolutely floored that this was a launch title for the PS5. You need a fun and light Crash Bandicoot adventure for a launch title not a soul crushing ball-buster with ludonarrative storytelling. Yet, I am so glad it got made and I highly recommend playing and sticking with this game.

Oh and play with online connection.

Sports?

Sort of lol

r/RelationshipAdvice: My (male,73) entire stoic-hardass media mythos is being torn down by my gross relationship with my girlfriend (Female, 25)

I was just going to put this article under other notables but feel it deserves more attention due to it coinciding with other happenings in NFL media.

Shannon Sharpe a 56yo retired NFL tight-end turned Black-media podcast host is being accused of SA toward a 22yo woman. First off, believe victims, always. Secondly, the racial and sex-worker elements of this story is why it is getting any kind of traction in the news over Bilechick’s 50year age-gap relationship with his girlfriend.

There is a lot of he-said-she-said happening in the Sharpe story but if all that Sharpe is saying is true, then he was having a purely -albeit deviant- sexual relationship with this woman² . That’s it! I find that fucking someone 30 years younger than you is far less creepy than being in a relationship with someone 50 years younger than you.

Because let’s not overlook the gross power dynamic happening in Bilechick’s relationship. There is no way any conversation they have is not one sided and patronizing. No way. She was born 5 months before 9/11! You were born before the creation of the nickel defense! What on Earth do you talk about? Gross.

At least Sharpe’s relationship was just about sex. Both adults were getting something. The prudishness that surrounds cis-straight monogamy and it’s obsession with dictating how adults should behave in bed is anti-queer af. I’m so sick of it. Because guess what? Old people should be getting laid. GASP! Young people should be able to fuck old people if they want. PEARLS CLUTCHED! Sex work is real work. FAINTS!

I am 38, I have sexual partners that range from 15 years my senior to 15 years my junior. We fuck, we maybe have a quick chat about Cowboy Carter tickets as I put my clothes back on but the idea of dating someone just 10 years younger or older than me sounds incredibly uncomfortable.

TLDR: Fuck till you die. Date in your age bracket.

³

Other Notables

** Obviously, I love art analysis and this a great way to present analysis on the internet.

** Why everyone should hate AI

** Memory Lane: The absolutely sickening Shiva summon from Final Fantasy X

1  Unless played in the online mode.

2  I am not going to comment on the roleplaying or physicality of a sexual relationship between consenting adults. Nor will I comment of the profession of the woman other than this: People don’t understand that all labor is selling your body.

3  This rant has gone on far to long for me to even address the patriarchal hypocrisy underlying these stories. Maybe for another rant.