Mood: Cybernetic
Listening to: Deep Impact, a compilation album comprised of songs by various artists, published by Odd Records
Am currently right in the midst of my Y2K arc... time to drone about all the things I like.
I've particularly liked things from the 2000s for quite a while, but now it has taken a new form in Y2K, which is specifically for the late 90s and early 00s. The primary way this has expressed itself is in my obsession with psytrance music. This arc began on June 1st. So it's currently been going for a month and a half.
As for the music side of things, there is more information on my music page, but I'll say things here too. On the first of June I was listening to a gothic rock album called Heaven in Decline by Die Laughing. This was like the most boring gothic rock album I'd heard and it was so mid and so I was looking for something new. In my browsing of RYM I found an album cover that looked like an early CG render and I found myself enjoying it aesthetically. So I looked for more like it. I was able to find a couple of Y2K aesthetic style cover lists on the site and browsed through them. I found that a very large portion of them were psytrance albums, and thanks to my previous experience with the popular gateway of Infected Mushroom, I had a slight interest in them. So I started listening as soon as my boring album was over.
This was the new thing I needed musically. It was so different from anything I'd been super into before, and it was fascinating. It opened me up to the world of EDM and the even wider world of electronic music in general. Integration by Bitstream Dream, which was also on one of those lists, properly introduced me to trip hop. I was really into listening to that specifically at the turn of the month, while gaining an interest in graffiti due to Jet Set Radio. But I'm getting ahead of myself!!
I almost exclusively listen to albums from the early to mid 2000s when I'm listening to this stuff.
Psytrance to me is: cyberspace. I imagine myself in a digital world, full of binary code, early 3D models, electricity, robots, and things like that. Robotics, machines, wires, abstract retrofuturistic technology. It's like I'm in a secret little world where everything looks like early CGI and the internet is new and exciting again. It exemplifies the fascination with technology around the time period and how cool it was.
Trip hop to me is: Hip teenage girls in white chrome outfits going out to tag around the city and will fuck you up like they're in an action film if you mess with them. Something about this music feels inextricably feminine to me. Male vocals ruin it. This genre is less homogenous than psytrance is, though, so different albums give different feels. All of it still feels Y2K to me. It's less metalheart and old web—it's not fully electronic so it feels more human and more colorful. This is why I associate it with Jet Set Radio and other colorful Y2K style art.
Those are the main ones but I have listened to a little bit of techno and house as well. I just don't have strong aesthetic ties with them like I do the others, so I don't enjoy them as much.
As for film, I watched a bunch of that as well, around the Y2K era, most of which I didn't like, but some of which I did. Those are 9, The One, FearDotCom, and A.LI.CE. Okay, 9 isn't from the Y2K era, but it's still relatively early CG.
9 I like because of its simple, tight plot, and short runtime. I like the strong color identity it has, and the broken down world that robots rule. Really really cool robotic stuff in there as well as some slight gothic fusion. (People say this about everything dark but seriously, they are in a Gothic cathedral.)
The One I like because it copies The Matrix. It also has a simple, tight plot and short runtime, actually. Science fiction gadgets, nu metal hits, Hong Kong action, computer generated stuff, lots of quotable lines, and tremendous fun.
FearDotCom I like because of its cold, blue visual style and creepy little ghost girl, which are tropes I am a huge fan of. Early internet nonsense, lots of boobs on screen (HUGE bonus for me), and silliness. Found as a DVD at my local store and I knew it couldn't be good, so I wanted it.
A.LI.CE I like because it had the exact look I was in the mood for, which is very early CG surreality. And it's an anime, so the main character looks cute instead of disgustingly ugly. Robots and cyberspace and stuff, I loved it. May end up being a comfort watch.
As for shows, first was Fireball, a CG anime from 2008. This is one I remembered from a tweet I saw years ago and bookmarked because I thought the robot girl was cute. I eventually got rid of the bookmark because I was never actively into that stuff, until now! I found it again by looking through Wikipedia lists of shows. I like the robots and comedy style and animation style of this show. I will watch the sequels, or at least the next one.
Quickly I began to watch My Life as a Teenage Robot, because more cute robot girl! It's a very Y2K show, and I think it's entertaining and funny. It makes me laugh. I enjoy this art style as well. This style was old to me and before my time even when I was a kid, so it's interesting watching it now. Definitely a fan. Oh and Tiff is so cute (even if she is a bitch).
Now I'm in the middle of three shorts anime:
Sweet Valerian, 2004. Very colorful and cute and seems to have taken inspiration from the Powerpuff Girls. I am enjoying this more as it goes on.
Super Milk-Chan, 1998. Another one made in the cute colorful style. This one is funny and pretty random and I enjoy it so far. This has a sequel made in 2000 which I will probably also watch.
Platonic Chain, 2002. This is CG, and I've never seen an anime like it, because the episode runtime is 6 and a half minutes, but the actual episode only takes up 3 minutes. More of the runtime of the episode is stuff that isn't the episode. I do not like this one so far, but we'll see how it goes...
Lastly, I've started watching Code Lyoko, and this is the most exciting one to me right now. At the moment I have watched nine episodes. And I'm watching SUBBED thank you. This is what I need in my life right now... soooo Y2K. I don't know if I'll end up watching everything. Just aiming for the first season right now at least. I'm gonna talk about this show for a bit.
I love a whole lot about this show but that also magnifies my issues I have with it. I like the animation, the premise, the style, the designs, the robots, the skateboards, the secret factory place, it's all SO COOL. What I wish for is that the characters would be given more distinctive qualities. There isn't much to the characters right now outside of vague personalities. What I do like about them is that they don't care what other people think of them, so they have a self-confidence that helps avoid pointless drama in the show. Jeremy is definitely the most interesting character so far, because he actually has a goal that he works towards (unlike me). My personal favorite is Yumi, though, because of her style, and again, her don't-give-a-fuck sort of attitude.
The fact that they travel back in time at the end of every single episode means that there are practically no stakes, and nothing that happens will have any noticeable consequences. It seems 1-24 can be watched in any order for that reason, but Wikipedia says that after that the order matters, so I assume that changes later. I have no problem with shows being episodic, and they don't necessarily need to have a plot that moves forward. That's not my issue at all. I just don't feel that the characters are that interesting, and they cannot grow in a string of episodes that you may watch in any order. So, even if they don't grow, I'd like some more characterization and dynamics. What they like, what they dislike, what they do for fun, how they feel about each other, that kind of thing.
I also feel that I don't have enough context. Or rather, I want to know more about how this world works. The viewer accepts a lot at face value as we are thrown into the show as their conflict is already established and they have worked out a system and everyone is aware of all the variables. Nothing is explained to the audience, which isn't really a flaw but it leaves me wanting the answers to so many questions. Again, I assume things become more interesting at the end of the season and beyond, so I'm treating this first big string of episodes as a long setting of the stage where you aren't meant to ask that many questions, and instead just watch and have fun. The formula is pretty fun, but I need more to spice it up. I have episode-specific writing complaints but those are too specific to detail here. Anyway! Really enjoying that show.
Other than that,, oh yeah, real spaces outside of cyberspace exist too. Dentist appointments where they drill into my mouth for an hour are funnnn just kidding no they're not! But I've been getting my dental situation slowly fixed and taking care of my teeth so that's good. Job interview, I was rejected, no surprise. It's been hot so I've been utilizing AC-dono.
I'd like to switch to Linux at some point but I'd like an SSD drive first and I need a flash drive as well, so I can't yet. But that probably is something I'll do in the future, and then proceed to customize my desktop to make it look like the year 2000.
Games are harder to experience, and I've been gaining interest in sixth-generation consoles—especially the Dreamcast, and less so the Xbox. I watched a longplay of Jet Set Radio and I think that game is wicked cool. I just started watching a longplay of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and wow this game is so creepy and weird. I became reminded of it while listening to psytrance because it shares a similar vibe in my head. I thought it was an Oddworld game on the Xbox that my brother played when I was a kid, that I got the very faint memories from... but now I think it was the original one for PlayStation. I'm not sure. Anyway, I dig this game's vibe.
I have interest in plenty of Dreamcast games and I'd love to go buy all the stuff to play them but I do not have that ability right now! Like Cool Cool Toon, Mr. Driller, ChuChu Rocket, Pop'n Music, Space Channel 5... so I suppose I will admire them from afar for now, until hopefully someday in the future I can play them for myself.
That's a look at my obsession for the past month and a half! Now have a spooky night tonight.