Another excellent example of Cosplay, this time from the 2014 AwesomeCon convention, the ComicCon event in our nations capitol (unless, obviously, you are from some other country, in which case the correct phrase would be their nations capitol). This video was put together by the Close Quarters Cosplay team. Because I couldn’t stop there, I also had to include their Anime USA 2014 Cosplay Fun video, and I think they made an excellent choice for the music bed on that one. I particularly liked that they had a Cowboy Bebop track running while the Cowboy Bebop Cosplayers were on the screen, but the TommyHeavenly6 was a very nice touch as well.
DarwinFish105 continues to amaze me with the incredible videos he creates, which in the past have included showing the construction of a Life Size Gundam and the building of the Tokyo Sky Tree, among many others. He does all of this at temporal and visual scales which bring the massive engineering projects into the realm of the intuitively comprehensible, so that just watching them allows you to understand what is going on and how it works together.
With this video, he is using the same tools, including a collection of high-speed cameras that many feature film producers would kill to have access to. But this time the driver for the visuals is not the engineering behind the project, but the music bed underneath it. As with all good music videos, he edited what appears on the screen to support and enhance the tempo, style, and experience of the soundtrack. I like the directions he is taking his art, and look forward to continuing to watch and see what new gems he comes up with. If you didn’t recognize the filming site, welcome to Akihabara, with a side order of Shinjuku (or was that Harajuku?)
Clive Owens and Morgan Freeman star in Last Knights, an epic fantasy adventure about the fight for freedom and justice against those who seek to oppress. The reviews have not been great, but it could be entertaining. I am a bit more interested in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, taking place in 1943 Calcutta, with a full assortment of potential evildoers both military and civilian. This one is based on the fictional detective in Bengali literature created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, and if the movie does well we could have many more, since the original stories were published at a rate of 1 to 3 a year from 1932 to 1970. Interestingly enough, the author also worked in Bollywood writing screenplays, but not of Bakshy. There have been a number of other movies made about Byomkesh Bakshy, and after I see this one in the theater I am probably going to have to start tracking them down.
Oh, yeah, if you thought the two tracks they used in the trailer were the only good songs in the movie, allow me to correct that misconception by including the official Full Song Audio Jukebox. I wish western movies would do this, but since Bollywood movies are so music-centric it makes sense they would have started making these available before anyone else got around to it. Not just on YouTube to stream either, since they always give you a link to go buy the soundtrack on iTunes after you have streamed it and decided which songs you need in your permanent collection.
The first track here by Country Yard is called Hold On, the second one is I’ll Be With You. I really like this band, they have some great skill sets and excellent music; I am really hoping to hear a lot more from them. Like the third song here, Starry Night, or the 4th, In Your Room.
Nano have recorded some great Anime tracks, like the OP for B’Toom (the first song here), and some quality non-Anime music, like Hysteria, the third song shared on this page. Then there is Nevereverland…
When Taka (of One OK Rock fame) decided this was a band he liked so much he wanted to create music with them/her, I figured it was time for me to check them out. The band is Against The Current, which has manifested in a number of different ways over the past 4 years. But it boils down to the talents of Chrissy Costanza and whoever is working with her this time, with Alex Goot managing to keep up with her for a few years, and an assortment of other talented people. The Duet with Taka comes first, of course…