Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Music Spotlight - P!nk

In retrospect, I've first heard Pink's music in early 2000s. I think it was the "Get This Party Started" music video that I've seen. The song was catchy, I could tell the girl has a sense of humour and plenty of attitude. I liked that she really didn't care about looking feminine. but... it wasn't quite my thing. I didn't do a great deal of partying, so I'd normally ignore any song on the subject. Especially if it was R&B and there was a definite hip-hop vibe in the video.

Although the aforementioned song wasn't a hit with me, I was still interested in what else Pink had in store as she seemed like a likeable character. And then I've seen the "Lady Marmalade" video, which left me deeply bemused and bitterly disappointed. I'm not sure if this was a very proud moment for the singer herself. I've heard rumours that she was pretty much forced to take part in this by her producer, but I have no idea if that's true or not.

I've given up on this girl, and then "Don't Let Me Get Me" started playing on on pretty much every music channel. It instantly became one of my favourite songs as I could very easily relate to it at the time. I once again saw pink showing plenty of attitude and being funny, which I really liked.

So I've decided to look up some of her other songs. I thought "Just Like A Pill" was alright, but not much more than that. I really liked the clunky humour in it, but I think it was more catchy than actually good.
I didn't think much of "Faimly Portrait". Not because I thought she was being over-dramatic. I quite liked how the video was put together. Its just that I personally haven't experienced grief over family drama while growing up, so the song never had a chance of hitting a chord with me. 
The title of "You Make Me Sick" instantly caught my attention. I expected sarcastic lyrics and a bit of cartoony rage in the video. But I've listened to the song and I've felt like I haven't really heard her say anything. It was too Gwen Stefani for my taste and I've just decided that I don't care.

Of course, just after I've given up on her, she's released a song that hooked me in once again. She seems good at that. I'm talking about "Feel Good Time". Once again, if nothing else, the song was catchy. And once again, I've seen some of Pink's wonderfully unsophisticated humour. I really didn't care about the "Charlie's Angels" reference as it's a show I've deliberately avoided as I tend to cringe at glamorous "girl power", but I still thought the video was fun. I love how rage made her black hair turn pink. And for some reason I really liked the "sleeping in a church, riding in the dirt" part of the song.

I didn't feel like looking up any of her new stuff, but another one of her hits started popping up all over the music channels. And that was "Trouble". I liked the song, I liked the fun cartoony violence in the video. But it didn't make me want to buy a CD.

I've decided that I like Pink, but her songs are very hit and miss with me. I didn't go looking or any of her new stuff as I thought that if she comes up with something cool, it will be playing everywhere. And that's exactly what happened with "So What". I really liked it. I loved how she's managed to take her grief and sorrow and turn it into something funny. That song was impossible to get away from for a while. It was literally playing everywhere, including people's mobile phones. But you know what? I think it was good enough to!

This summer I was stuck without a computer for two months and was relying on music channels for entertainment, just like in my teenage years. Most music made me cringe. But I've seen some more cool videos from Pink. And I've noticed that she's actually pretty clever, too!

I think "Stupid Grils" is great. Sometimes there's nothing quite like a bit of righteous feminist  rage. Add a satirical approach and, surely, you get something beautiful!  
"Raise Your Glass" says "it's alright to be different" in a very clear and fun way.
And "Perfect" is just that one positive message everyone needs to hear at some point in their life.

So to wrap this up I can say that Pink is pretty awesome. She's tough, she's funny and her music is pretty good, too. Personally I really like her crude approach to comedy that is far from feminine, but doesn't go far enough to just be distasteful.
She also does plenty of activist and charity work. I'm sure you can find out more in Wikipedia if you wish!

P.S. Sober isn't one of her "comedy classics", so to say, but I quite like it.
(Random thought - I think there's a bit of Lady Gaga influence in the video).


*Insert witty caption here, cause I've failed to think of one!*

Friday, February 24, 2012

Doctor Cat/Доктор Кот

From this

by Dalia
To this

by BrokenTeapot
Resulting in this

by Klausmasterflex
Okay, I can't seriously claim the third image was influenced by any of the other two, but that's the order I saw them in as they popped up on Deviant Art. 
Am I a fan of the "Doctor Cat" comics? Not really. I can't say I dislike it, but to me this kind of comedy comes across as "too easy". I tend to enjoy more elaborate humour. But I wouldn't try to stop anyone from checking them out! 

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Super Best Friends Forever!

It looks like the animated show Lauren Faust has been working on is getting out next weekend!
You can read the "TV Guide" article about it in her DA journal.

I was expecting a full-on animated series, but it looks like we're just getting a bunch of fun and silly animated shorts instead, that will be popping up during a superhero programming block on Cartoon Network. They each run just over a minute. Would I say that's too short? Nah. As Lauren said, "it's like telling a visual joke". And a minute is plenty of time for one joke.

From what I understand, the Super BFFs are the characters below. I quite like these concepts. It's definitely Lauren's style. But I think there's a certain Genndy Tartakovsky vibe there as well. It seems to be especially strong in the Wonder Girl concept. To me she looks like she could very well be Samurai Jacks's sister, considering how bold some of the lines are. My guess is that they wanted to actually make her look Greek. I think that worked (yes, Jack is Asian. I know. The race wasn't what I meant!)
Surprisingly, I really like Supergirl here. If Lauren draws a determined-looking frowning female, it usually means they're the badass of the group. I like the fact that she doesn't look plastic. It's nice to see a tough blonde character with self-respect. (Can't tell about the "self-respect" part from a concept piece? Face it, Lauren simply won't have it any other way).

And Batgirl looks positively mental. All she's missing is a party canon.

All in all, it looks like this show is going to be great fun. I look forward to the inevitable youtube uploads.

I can't help but wonder how much accidental property damage these gals are gonna cause with their fearless deeds... Hopefully, plenty!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Mark Twain, Satan and retro animation

So I was on Youtube today and I've seen a link to a video called "Scariest kids tv show EVER!!".
Naturally, I've clicked it. I've seen Nanalan. If there was anything more disturbing in the world of children's entertainment, I had to see it to believe it!

So I've seen the video. And I liked it.
Sure, if you really want, you can start freaking out about "Satan" being in a kids' cartoon. But if you bother looking closer you'll see that this animation clearly isn't aimed at small children and "Satan" is just a name that's there to make you think. Personally I love the creepy, yet classy vibe of that clip. The Mysterious Stranger is a very charismatic character. Like any good villain, the guy's got style! Plus, there's nothing quite like a nicely-done clay animation!
I will definitely be interested in seeing the rest of this movie when I have the time.
Does anyone else miss the old classic cartoons that weren't afraid to scare people? 
If you share my nostalgia, here's a few clips from the old classics compiled into  a neat little music video!