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dispetal · 5 years

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every even number :^)

Boy oh boy – here we go! Under cut, ‘cause it gets LONG.

PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND GESTURE.2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest?

Oh, Ruby usually uses all the space around her. She’s very sporadic and will use up all the space around her because it’s hard for her to stand still (it’s the good good ADHD). At rest she’ll still tend to use up her space in small ways, she has to constantly be moving and doing things with her hands.

4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does?

She’s relatively small - 5′2″ - and I headcanon her as a little rounder than the series portrays her as? Like, she’s toned but still has chubby cheeks and chubby upper arms and a little bit of tummy. She’s round. Because she’s not nearly as good at hand to hand combat as, say, Yang, she’s a little softer and a little more weak, especially in her core. ( She’s not entirely dependent on her weapon, but she’s mostly dependent on it! )

6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these?

Fast. She’s speedy quick, like, all the time. As mentioned earlier, she has to be moving constantly or doing something to keep her mind stimulated. The only times she really isn’t moving a lot is when she’s over exerted herself, so say, after battles and stuff.

8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell?

Ooh! This is easy! This comes in two parts. For one: she’s most at ease around the people she loves, normally when relaxing. Like, if she’s playing video games with Yang and Qrow, or if she’s hanging out with RNJR or RWBY just chilling. Alternatively, she’s most at ease when she knows she’s got a battle or fight. When she’s fighting, she’s in her element. Oddly enough, she’s also least at ease when she’s fighting a fight she doesn’t know how to win – or if she’s doing something she doesn’t know how to do. She’s not exactly comfortable in social situations, especially ones that have a lot of sarcasm.

10. What energizes and drains them most?

Motivation and lack of motivation. That good ol Hyperfixation™ feeling. She grapples with executive dysfunction quite often when it’s something she doesn’t particularly care about. ( Classes at Beacon were particularly hard because of this, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to learn, it’s that sometimes her brain wouldn’t let her learn ).

12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands?

As mentioned before, she’s Everywhere. Her hands are always fiddling with something or playing with the hem of her “combat skirt” and she’s also prone to looking around. Her mind wonders so it takes her a while to really focus in unless it’s something she’s hyperfixated on.

DISPOSITION AND TEMPERAMENT.14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

She has a strong sense of morality and she cares deeply about helping the people who can’t be helped. She’s got an almost romanticized view of being a huntress – at least at the beginning – and would do anything to become one and serve justice in a way she sees fit. She grew up with all of the fairy tales and stories told to her by her family and that imbued a sense of almost childlike wonder in her. She is willing to lend a hand and gives second chances because she believes in the inherent good in people and that it can be accessed even if tedious. That, however, also makes her hard to deal with because she’s stubborn. She’s optimistic ( read more about that here ) but that also goes to her detriment as well. As far as passions and callings go, easily – EASILY her biggest passion / calling is being a huntress. Spirituality works a bit different for her, the beliefs that she holds are more in people than incorporeal beings. In this, though, her love of fairy tales can also be considered a belief of some kind or a spirituality / faith at its core. The fairy tales and legends she grew up on had become a sort of faith to her. She revered the heroes in the stories and wanted to lead by their example – ergo, a following.

16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like?

She does dream, but the dreams vary. Lately she’s had more nightmares than real dreams but rarely addresses them, they’re all of her friends dying or the worst possible scenario. When she was a kid she used to have dreams about her mother or her family reuniting or her becoming a huntress as an older girl. Now, her dreams are less dreams and more nightmares, her past and passed friends all in shambling corpses, telling her how little she did to save them – that she could’ve done more. That’s why she wakes early. That’s why she likes being awake. Not because she doesn’t get tired – it’s because she doesn’t want to dream. Not anymore. She’d much prefer to be awake.

18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why?

Ooh, interesting question! I think the most likely path is for her to realize the err of her coping mechanisms and get help with the help of her team. Bad end though, is something I’d want to see. Bad end Ruby would probably break ( because of the loss of another party member – more than likely Qrow or anyone from RWBY though at this point it could be ANY one of her friends ) and the silver eyes would end up doing more harm than good. Salem could brainwash her and use her as a minion. There are millions of ways she could get corrupted and I’m interested in exploring them, but I’m also interested in exploring one where she admits to her faults and gets help. I’d like to see Ruby put herself first for once.

CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS.20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships?

Oh boy, that’d have to be a post for another time, because I could go into every single interaction she has. I’ll keep this one broad though and say she’s pretty easy to get along with and pretty easy to make friends with. She’s always looking for new friends and new opportunities to talk to people. She’s very curious and invested in the people she likes! More intimate relationships will see different sides of her but most see her as the cheery girl she presents as – the girl who wants to help others out. She also forms personal relationships but they’re all based from a very real and pure heart that loves to make friends.

22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ?

There are people who think Ruby’s Too Much All Of The Time because of her bouncy / plucky / optimistic nature. She’s also very loud – it’s hard for her to control her volume and sometimes more difficult to read social cues which can kind of put people off. But, most of the time, they see her as an open, cheery girl who loves people, and sometimes that pisses people off. She’s a good person though, at heart, and that draws people in.

24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference?

Oof. This is a good one. She presents herself, as mentioned above, as a bubbly, optimistic, loud, fun-loving person. In actuality, she’s very sad. She’s very sad and developed several unhealthy coping mechanisms that from the outside look totally healthy. Whereas Qrow depends on cynicism and alcoholism as his way to deal with grief, Ruby does the opposite. She relies on optimism and hope in an unhealthy way. ( Sidenote: she also eats a lot out of a way to deal with her grief: fun fact ). Not many people – if anyone – have seen the really sad part of her because she’s repressed it so far. What she doesn’t realize is sadness when repressed often leads to anger unprompted. She’s repressed enough at this point to get very, very angry at another, and that’s horrifying to think about.

26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does?

She’s “open” with relationships. In that she’s totally okay with the other person being open and she’s very warm and welcoming and excitable, but she puts most of if not all of her focus into that other person and how they feel in the relationship. Romantically, she isn’t actively looking for a partner, though she wouldn’t mind one. ( I will say, I doubt that her having a partner at this time is healthy. ) It’s hard for her to read people so the person who has the crush would have to straight up say “hey, let’s date” because otherwise it’s a lost cause. Usually she’s very flattered even if the feelings aren’t returned! Someone having a crush never ruins a friendship for her.

ACTIVITIES AND PREFERENCES.28. What are they likely to do if they have the opportunity, resources, and time to accomplish it? Why?

Anything, if she really wants to. She’s a determined person.

30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much?

Ooh! She’s got a lot of activity needed but if it’s unprompted and sudden it can trigger a sensory overload. Large crowds make her uncomfortable for that reason. She can be around people but only really when she’s prepared herself to do so. Even then, it can be hard for her. Stimming helps with that! Her most common stims are spreading her hands out, hands flapping, or playing with something in her hands! Tapping also helps.

32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why?

Other than the obvious being crescent rose, her cape is symbolic as hell. I’m gonna get into that in a separate post.

THINKING AND LEARNING.34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

I think I’ve pretty much already answered this one? Check 14 again. ( I will go into her opinion on Faunus rights -- spoiler, she’s completely for them -- later. )

36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this?

Emotions, emotions, emotions. She is lead by her heart almost completely. Sometimes she’s prone to thinking things out rationally but most of the time? She’s all heart bapey. She doesn’t mind people thinking logically but sometimes she wonders why people don’t listen to their hearts more, unaware that it can be as harmful as it can be good.

38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why?

I think if she totally snapped that could all change but it’d take quite a lot of time to get that way.

40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?

Everything! She’s a very curious girl and asks a lot of questions! It’s not because she’s completely unaware but more that she’s totally interested in the things around her. It doesn’t take much to spark curiosity and imagination but things like semblances or fighting styles are things that pique her curiosity.

#soultimed #hc.

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10839346-blog · 5 years

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The Best of Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean was born October 28, 1987 in Long Beach, California. Soon after, his family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. Many of Frank’s songs tie back to his New Orleans beginnings. Ocean first big mixtape, named Nostalgia Ultra was released in 2011. His first studio album was called Channel Orange., it was released July 2012. His second album was released in 2016 titled, Blonde.

After he released his first studio album he had many interviews, played at many festivals and performed in many concerts , but almost a year later Frank had mostly disappeared from the limelight. Frank says he doesn't really try to be a mystery man but instead he just says that's just how he is. After this absence, he rarely posted on social media, but when he did post he hinted toward a new album being made. Frank Ocean then posted a pic saying a new album titled Boys Don't Cry, was to be released July 2015. July came but no album was released. This same scenario happened multiple times, Frank would say a realse date but the month would come and go nd nothing would be released. On August 1st, a black and white live video started on his channel. On August 20th, almost 4 years after his first release, Frank finally released his long awaited album, Blonde. Picking the best 5 songs between Nostalgia, Channel Orange, and Blonde was almost an impossible task. However, here are Frank Ocean's best top 5 songs.

#5 Bad religion

Frank Ocean's 5th best song, “Bad Religion,” was released in 2012 on the album Channel Orange. Less than 24 hours after the release of Channel Orange, Ocean posted on his tumbler an “open letter” about his current struggles and what this album was about. While many famous people would go on a talk show to explain something like this, Frank choose a different route in which he posted a small letter explaining that this album was mostly about his first love, the only thing that really surprised people was that this album was about a boy.

The letter that Ocean shared with the world is very open and honest. In it, he shares his experience of being in love with a boy he met when he was 19. He talks about how they spent the majority of the Summer together. In the song, “ Bad Religion,” Ocean writes about unrequited love. In his letter, Ocean says, “I sat there and told my friend how I felt, I wept as the words left my mouth. I grieved for them, knowing I could never take them back for myself. He patted my back. He said kind things.He did his best, but he wouldn’t admit the same. He had to go back inside soon, it was late and his girlfriend was waiting for him upstairs. He wouldn’t tell the truth about his feelings for me for another 3 years”. In this song he says, “It's a bad religion, this unrequited love, to me it's nothing but a one-man cult, And cyanide in my styrofoam cup, I can never make him love me, Never make him love me”. The song is referring to his first love, this boy who he loved so much but who wouldn't tell him the same. As the letter is wrapping up it says, ”Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was. Some things never are.. and we were. I won’t forget you. I won’t forget the summer. I’ll remember who I was when I met you.” Frank Ocean's song “Bad Religion” is his 5th best song because of all of the ties that is has to his open letter.

#4 Ivy

“Ivy,” is Franks 4th best song. Some critics say this is one of Ocean's best work. This song is the second track of the album Blonde. This song is explained by some as a heartbreaking memory or dream. “The song has been likened to "a diary entry where a long-buried memory surges back into his mind in bits and pieces, with the "bittersweet angst" being compared to Brian Wilson, "mourn[ing]" that "We'll never be those kids again"” (wikipedia.org).

It is speculated that the song is called “Ivy,” because Ivy is a parasitic plant that isn't good for the tree surrounding it, much like the relationship Ocean sings about in this song. Frank is singing to someone who he was once close with until they realized that their relationship was toxic for both of them. This is Franks 4th best song because almost everyone can relate to this song. Most people understand having a failed relationship. Many people know how it feels to be in a relationship when you are young that falls apart when you begin to grow up. That's why the line, “You ain't a kid no more We'll never be those kids again” touches people so deeply, it reminds them of an old forgotten memory or dream that even if it didn't work out, “But we both know that deep down The feeling still deep down is good”.

#3 Self Control

Franks Ocean’s 3rd best song is “Self Control.” This song was also released on Ocean’s 2016 album, Blonde. Something very unique in this song is the fact that Frank uses a lot of auto- tune. He uses the autotune to make his pitch sound higher. He makes himself sound higher because he wants to sound younger. Autotune isn't the only element that hints to a time when he was younger. In the first couple of lines he talks about wet dreams and drugs which both introduce the immature level he represents in “Self Control.”

The chorus of the song is him asking someone to stay with him, but as someone who is young often does, after extending the invite, he says “it’s nothing”- to try to seem nonchalant and cool. Many people think that this song is also about his first love, the boy that Franks Ocean’s open letter was about. While the lyrics and autotune make this song very interesting, that is not exactly what makes this Franks 3rd best song. The reason this is Frank's 3rd best song is because of the outro. He sings, “I, I, I Know you gotta leave, leave, leave Take down some summertime Give up, just tonight, night, night I, I, I Know you got someone comin' You're spittin' game, know you got it”- He repeats this multiple times. It's hard to put into words how beautiful this outro is. When talking about his songs, Frank once said, “They are just cords, just Melodys. I don't know what combinations of those objects make me feel how I need to feel but I know precisely the feeling that needs to happen.” I think Frank gave everyone this feeling he is talking about in this outro.

#2 Pyramids

Oceans 2nd best song is “Pyramids.” This song is on his Channel Orange album. This song is placed in the middle of the album. Not only that but the whole album is 62 minutes and 18 seconds. At Exactly 31 minutes and 9 seconds you are in the middle of this song “Pyramids,” the song changes totally and this marks the first half of the album and the last half and how they are very different.

Within the song “Pyramids,” the first half is very different from the second half. This creative genius is what makes this Frank Ocean's 2nd best song. The first half of this 9:53 song is about the ancient Egyptian ruler Cleopatra. The song starts with him talking about cheetahs because it is said that she kept cheetahs as pets. As the songs continues you discover that Cleopatra has been taken. It seems like the person who has taken her is promising her a good future. The lyrics say, “We'll run to the future, shining like diamonds In a rocky world, rocky-rocky world”. Promising her a rich future with diamonds. In the beginning Frank says that Cleopatra was stolen, he then reveals that she actually left on her own free will and with that being said we come to part 2 of the song. The 2nd half of the song is now in present day, still with Cleopatra but a totally different Cleopatra. This Cleopatra is a prostitute. He says she is working at the pyramids (which is most likely a strip club). As Ocean continues the song, you can easily tell the narrator of the story has fallen in love with Cleopatra. At the end of the song he says, “But your love ain't free no more.” It seems as if the narrator of both the first and second sections of the song have lost their lovers called Cleopatra. This very in depth and intriguing story and its creative presentation is what makes this song Frank's 2nd best.

#1 Novacane

The all time best song by Frank Ocean is “Novacane.” This song is the only one on my list from Nostalgia Ultra, a mixtape that was produced in 2011. One of the first things someone might realize about this song is the spelling of “Novacane.” In the medical world, the word novacane is spelled novocaine and refers to a drug usually used by dentist for numbing. The different spelling of this word might not strike some as something significant but there are actually lots of meaning behind spelling the way Frank does. The word Nova means “A star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months” (dictionary.com) The word “cane” has multiple meanings but here it's referring to a cane or a crutch as something that some people rely on in their everyday lives, such as a drug addict relies on drugs as a crutch or a cane in their everyday lives. After listening to the song you can easily tell why it is spelled the way it is. This song is about a woman who like the nova star, increased the brightness is his life for a couple months until she left, and he was relying on her in his everyday life like a cane. It is also called “novcane” because after she leaves he is left completely numb to any other woman and to any other feelings in the way the drug novocaine leaves your mouth numb to feeling.

The reason this song is Frank Ocean's #1 song is because of all the double and even triple meanings within it. The lyrics are rich with these layered meaning and ideas. After this woman leaves him, Frank is extremely numb to every feeling. The outro of the song is the best part, he starts with saying “I can't feel a thing, can't feel, can't feel a thing,” after that line is repeated he changes and starts saying, “I can fulfill her”. A change that is very subtle and most people don't even pick up on it.

Each song that Frank sings has a variety of meanings, innuendo, and interpretations. Every song has a story full of beautiful and descriptive language. Frank is a genius and has added so much to the musical word. These top 5 songs are more than just songs they are very personal narrations of his life and we are all blessed to know them.

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sonkitty · 7 years

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SonKitty/Kazamacat Tekken 7 Review

Video Transcription:

Greetings, all. I'm Cathy also known as Cat to some people. I'm going to review Tekken 7. If you're unfamiliar with me, I'm a huge fan of Devil Jin and Jin Kazama. In fact, I mostly play these games for those characters. I do not play at a competitive level and mostly practice and fight the CPU in modes provided by the games. I will approach the game from this viewpoint, and a very large chunk of it will be about the story.

In fact, that's where we'll start. I am not going to shy from spoilers, so if you care about that, stop watching now. The story presented to us throughout the trailers over the years is Kazumi asking some figure, we later learn to be a guest character, Akuma from the Street Fighter fighting game series, to kill Heihachi if she can't. He's going to do all these terrible things, he being Heihachi, and the trailers build up this big final showdown between Heihachi and Kazuya with Jin not at all present. Kazumi aside, Tekken players have seen this story before, and it ended with Jin being a big factor-by that, I mean Tekken 4.

Well, in the case of Tekken 7, we got the story that was advertised. I'll say that. And I had a lot of complaints about Tekken 6 not being that, because that was going to be some big showdown between Jin and Kazuya and instead, we got an entire mode dedicated to two crappy expansion characters. Of note, Alisa is one of my mains, but my head-canon of her is extremely different from Namcanon. I even change her name to Melissa to indicate she's my version of Alisa.

I think the story mode was handled better in that I got to be some different characters as opposed to stuck with two expansion characters. Overall, I still prefer the Tekken 5 approach best. In that game, characters get prologue art, a cut scene or two I call interludes with other characters they meet at the tournament, of relevance to them, and then an ending.

The story itself is really bad. Let's start with the voice-over telling us repeatedly throughout the story that fighting is about who's left standing, nothing else. That's it? Nothing about training? Nothing about learning through failure to be better? And while we're at it, “left standing” and “still alive” can mean two different things, but the context of the climactic moment in this game is Kazuya kills Heihachi, which would mean that main theme of the story then is that in order to fight, you should kill the person so you are the only person left standing. I don't think that's a good message. And I think even if the message were that the game seems to confuse fighting with winning and to me, they're not the same thing.

Another bad component of the story is the Jin hunt. There are a lot of characters who should be going after Jin in some capacity: Kazuya, Raven, Miguel, Hwoarang. Nina was having the Mishima Zaibatsu search for him, but when Heihachi showed up and took the Mishima Zaibatsu from her, his logic went that in order to expose Kazuya, he needs Jin and my initial reaction that was, “No, you don't.” And then the story proceeds with them not getting Jin and exposing Kazuya anyway, so that pretty much confirmed exactly what I thought. And do not get me started on Lars. Oh, nope, it's too late, we have to do this. If you don't know me, Lars is my most hated character ever. He goes after Jin under the pretense of, “We have to put everything on Jin. Now my initial reaction was, “I don't know what he means. What, like execute him, put him on trial? What?” And by the way, no, he doesn't.

So let me see if I have this straight. This turd from the last game, last mainline story game, went and took over half of the Tekken Force, as part of some rebellion to the hostile world take-over and then after he gets exactly what he wants in Tekken 6, he still think she needs Jin, that Jin can solve the entire world's problem because Jin was the entire world's problem. Now I have always had a problem with the fact that Tekken 6 includes this “over half” line of the Tekken Force because I don't actually believe some half-baked expansion character can do that and this now half-baked plot point only further convinces me. But anyway, Jin's like, “yeah, the solution for everything is for me to kill Kazuya because I have the Devil's blood.”

Now, they could have made this work better with instead of saying, “We need Jin for reasons that don't make sense, actually, we don't want Jin's body in the wrong hands because the likes of Kazuya or the UN may not simply kill him but try experiment on him, and he's dangerous because Devil.” Oh, and you do not save people from tyranny by killing one person.

I really wish I could be done talking about Lars, I hate him so much, but this story is so, so bad. I hated playing Scenario Campaign, and I especially hated the contrived drama of Alisa's shutdown as some dramatic death and the ridiculous excuse for a friendship these two had and all of this awfulness is shown as, “yeah, we really did that, and we're sticking by it.” Alisa could be so much more and better without him. But anyway, back to that annoying butt-head. The story also says that the only reason Heihachi fathered this turd was to prove that he did not have the devil gene. The story also says Heihachi dropped Kazuya off a cliff to prove it to him that Kazuya had the devil gene. Otherwise, the fall would kill Kazuya. So, based on the game's own logic presented in its own story mode, Lars should be dead because Heihachi would have killed him in trying to prove he did not have the devil gene and yet...what a failure.

The narration is by a man who lost his family to the war, and one of the reviews I skimmed said the deadpan narration was comical though perhaps not intended to be so. I mainly found the opening funny because I wondered what story I walked into that started talking about a son's love for his father. Anyway, I kept wondering if he'd be Gigas or something, but no, and overall, I don't think I cared for it. The story mode focuses on the Mishima family so a lot of characters do not make the cut for having a presence here, yet nameless here does.

Can you believe that I'm still not done in telling you how bad this story is? So, as mentioned earlier, Kazumi asked Akuma to kill Heihachi and, we later find out, Kazuya too. Akuma, he's in this story even though a lot of other Tekken characters aren't, goes to do that, defeats Kazuya, and given that he was asked to kill him, said he was there to kill him, guess what he did not do? He did not check to see if Kazuya was dead, meaning he did not kill him. He just left!

I feel disappointed that Kazumi really was dead because that means we have five Mishima characters throughout the series (Heihachi, Kazuya, Jin, Jinpachi and now Kazumi), and the only woman among them is the one who is so definitively dead, her role in the story is actually a flashback even though she was the arcade boss.

I'm almost done on the story part. After you beat the story mode, you can get endings for other characters by playing their episodes. On the one hand, this made unlocking their endings really easy. On the other hand, most of these endings were not very good and even if they had good points, they were generally pretty short, presumably because of time and effort dedicated to the awfulness of the Mishima story. Devil Jin appears in his own and Hwoarang's episodes. Jin appears in Miguel's. I knew going into this game that I couldn't think of any version of the story that would satisfy me after the debacle of Tekken 6 so my main bar was some good Jin and Devil Jin footage and there was so little of it, I'm overall disappointed.

Onward, to everything else.

Arcade Battle is only 5 matches and left me confused with the ending of Akuma flexing his power and then getting a Game Over screen, thought I'd done something wrong. I haven't really looked back since playing the story mode. Treasure Battle is similar to past Ghost Battle modes, but you do not get to pick from three different opponents and you do have to deal with these gimmicks like turbo battle, double damage, aerial combo and Special Matches against certain characters. They are Kazumi, Heihachi, Devil Kazuya, Jin Kazama, and Akuma. After awhile, these gimmicks are mildly annoying and if I'm not in the mood, I will exit. Rare items are too rare. After awhile, you're mostly earning money and just waiting around to hit the 2,000 battle mark to unlock everything at once. I mainly wanted Jin's Tekken 6 coat and since I'm not very good at using him, I tried Katarina and Lucky Chloe some, that also took a long time.

The practice mode is great. It has the usual elements and maybe past games had this feature, and I didn't notice but you can practice at specific points in the stages that have wall, balcony and/or floor breaks. I've done a lot of practicing. I think because I didn't play Tag 2 much and my mind struggles a lot since November 9th of last year, it helps alleviate stress and maybe one day, I'll be able to do those electrics every time or almost. I can say that I've been doing them more often and even got up to 3 at once.

New game-play mechanics include a Rage Art and Rage Drive. I love using Rage Arts. I usually don't even try for a Rage Drive but if I keep practicing, maybe I'll work them in. Devil Jin starts with a hellsweep, but the one or two times I focused on trying it in a Treasure Battle match, it didn't go well and I guess I gave up on it. I saw this really powerful Rage Drive combo with a Katarina player on Twitter and tried to learn it. I never did, but I learned the first part, and she has since become one of my mains. Hopefully, I'll remember to go back to trying it. My mains this time around include Devil Jin, Jin Kazama, Katarina, and Alisa. To a degree, you could include Lucky Chloe though I admit, it was mostly for manipulating the CPU. I picked up at least one combo. And you know, I wanted to add more mains, but when you start dedicating time to specific characters to learn more. well, it feels like there's only so much room in my brain for them sometimes. I missed Xiaoyu and Lili so played them a little but when I do a rotation of my main characters in Treasure Battle, I don't even think of trying them. Maybe I will, now that I've written this review.

That was quite a tangent but back to mechanics. Bound is gone, and now we have um, a tailspin move, and I don't remember on Tekken Zaibatsu if the “s” stood for “spin” or for “screw,” and the game itself doesn't seem to actually say, so, but it's a spinning move. And the spin can be used in combos. There are also, some moves have new properties called Power Crush, like Jin and Devil Jin have had Corpse Thrust for at least since Tekken 5, no, even longer um, but that is now a Power Crush move. Um, and for someone like me, that was extremely helpful against the CPU in Treasure Battle. The game lacks other usual modes from past games like Survival and Team Battle. Um, I liked Team Battle so I miss it. Survival's nice too, I mainly like miss Team Battle though.

Customizations are again not as good as what Tekken 6 offered. My Alisa customization in Tekken 6 wore a blue best over a long-sleeved black shirt, not an option. She wore shorts with her Battle Boots. You can get the Battle Boots this time but if you want to use them, they are with the bikini bottom. Again for all the tops like in Tag 2, you cannot pick say a specific pair of gloves you want with a shirt or jacket. Gloves either come with it or they don't. The hair options regress even more because I can no longer get the bushy ponytail I used to be reminiscent of Leona from King of Fighters for Alisa. For me, that is a significant part of my vision for the customization I want so that was a loss. I'm thinking about making a video of how backwards customization has gone for another time.

Another thing that's gone is replays. They'd be a few seconds to show what happened at the end of the match, and you could use that time to pick a button for a specific win pose if you wanted. You can still try to get a win pose you want, but the time frame is much tighter, and I miss the actual replays themselves as well.

The game has this cool feature that offers a jukebox where you can customize what music you listen to in the game. You can use tracks from past games, and that's really great. I tend to turn the music off because I concentrate better with none at all in Practice, and then just don't bother turn it back on a lot of time but when I do have it on, I don't like some of the Tekken 7 tracks, so I'm glad I had this feature to set them to other ones.

Moving on, I really, really love that technology has come to a point where we can all so easily share things, especially on PS4. I can show off my customizations and clip some random funny thing that happened. I've even used it to analyze what I might be missing in practice through like a frame-by-frame replay.

Quick remark on customizations. Before Patch 1.03, you could get some really dark black colors on your people and then after the update, many of them turn to a lighter gray that I know myself and others did not like at all. That it was so hard, it was hard to see sometimes, like in actual matches, but I find it hard to believe that it couldn't be better handled.

Anyway, back to sharing. I can see if my PS4 friends liked the things I shared on Twitter. Another perk of technology sharing is being able to watch so much top-level Tekken play so easily, thanks to YouTube and Twitch.

So, all in all, I found some things to enjoy this game, and I do intend to keep playing. Um, but I do kind of feel, that with the long wait, um, and even with my, what I felt, tempered expectations, of kind of saying, I didn't like Tekken 6, I didn't like these things, I know that these things can happen again, and trying to ready myself for what it could be, I'm still disappointed that so many things changed and not for the better. And I do hope that eventually, if this series continues, um, we can go back to a better place, similar to what we had before instead of feeling like the series is slowly stripping away some of the, a lot of the things that we took for granted um, in enjoying what Namco, not gave us, but you know, they put forth for us to buy. And so, you know, hopefully things will get better. Well, let me re-phrase that because I am not an optimistic or hopeful person when it comes to Tekken. Um, it'll be nice if that ever happens. I'll say that. I do not expect it to happen and it is, I do hope, that things do not keep getting worse. At the very least, I can say that.

So anyway, thanks for listening and/or watching my video. Bye-bye.

#tekken 7 #sonkitty

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musiccosmosru · 6 years

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From the menacing keys of “Still D.R.E.” to the thunderous strings of “Candy Shop” and “Lean Back” to the downcast arpeggios of “Cry Me a River,” few musicians have defined the sound of a decade quite like Scott Storch. The one-time keyboardist for The Roots became a Dr. Dre acolyte, and eventually the go-to sonic architect for an era when rap seized a hold of the mainstream it has yet to relinquish.

Along the way, Storch accrued vast wealth and prominence—as well as a nasty cocaine habit that caused him to blow through virtually all of the fortune. But after years of struggles, the hitmaker is married, sober (save for weed), and appears on track for something of a career renaissance.

Having become a rap fan in the mid-2000s, Scott Storch’s production was some of the first that really captivated me. The way he could tuck an irresistible melody into every song while still giving his vocalist room to shine remains a rare skill, and his versatility in working with everyone from The Game to Juvenile to Beyoncé is highly underrated.

Storch’s fall from grace was something that always saddened me, particularly as hip-hop grew more melodic, and the industry seemed better suited for his particular style than ever before. Thankfully, he’s back in the studio working with artists like A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Thutmose, Swae Lee, artists with the kind of chops that he can showcase through his production.

Still Storch, a new documentary from British filmmaker Rollo Jackson, tells the story of Storch’s peaks, valleys, and current trek back to the top through the man’s words and his jaw-dropping laundry list of hits.

Jackson, who directed Stormzy’s Gang Signs & Prayer film and Jamie xx’s “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” video, brings plenty of style and flare to Storch’s saga, but he also recognizes the power of simply capturing Scott in his element, presenting his compositions on a grand piano in a dimly-lit room.

Seeing Storch at the film’s premiere, surrounded by friends, his wife Florence (who he credits with helping pull him out of his spiral), and a particularly boisterous Fat Joe, was comforting. His infectious and accessible production was a gateway into hip-hop for thousands of young fans, and seeing him on his feet and back behind the keys is a reminder of what music almost lost.

Following the film’s premiere, we spoke to Jackson about getting the documentary made, the songs he absolutely needed to include, and what it’s like to talk music in the back of Scott Storch’s Rolls Royce.

When did you first get in touch with Scott about making this film?

We shot the film at the end of last year, and it was during summer last year that Joseph [Patel] at VEVO got in touch with me. He’s someone I’ve known since he was at FADER working as a commissioner there, and he was highly involved in the Stormzy film I did. For years before that, I talked to him about the idea of the film, which he was really into, but between us it sort of never happened and we slept on it for a long time.

Our first forays to contact Scott directly didn’t result in anything. We didn’t have a direct link; he knew a few people, I had half a link. It’s funny, those guys can be quite insular, and it’s sort of about who you know, and emailing the address at scottstorch.com never came to anything either [Laughs].

But then last year, Joseph got in touch with me and said, “You’ll never guess what. Someone I’m working with happens to be an old friend and has worked with the guy who now manages Scott and has been for the past year or so. It’s this guy Steve Lobel.” Steve was keen to do something for Scott and get his story out there and get it told in a good way, and so we had a few phone calls, which were quite surreal for me, having these conference calls with Steve and Scott.

What was he like as an interview subject?

I think he was prepared for the questions I was going to ask, it’s not like it was a live TV interview or anything, and we had done a lot of groundwork beforehand. In a totally true way, I’m coming to this as a fan and someone who enjoyed the music the first time around and feels like there’s a story to tell…I wasn’t looking to expose any lascivious rumors or anything like that, it was just painting a portrait in a way that was truthful, but also found a good admiration as well as honesty from his point of view. I was really struck by his eloquence.

The first time we met, we had a really long dinner with me and his management and the guys from VEVO and the guys from Somesuch. At the dinner, I came away and totally surprised, I thought this would be someone who was only tuned into hip-hop and hip-hop production, and we ended up talking about [electronic DJ] Josh Wink, who he knew from Philadelphia, which was a very left field reference for me. I wouldn’t have put those two together in the Venn diagram of musicians. It was obvious straight away that he had a much broader circle of knowledge than in a way even he himself lets on, and that people give him credit for.

Did that figure into why you wanted to showcase so much of him playing piano?

Absolutely. I think there’s no clearer way to show an innate talent than someone just doing it, and also there’s a nice contrast in a way to someone sitting down at a grand piano, and then cutting to a Fat Joe video or a 50 Cent video or something like that, and saying that this all came from the same place.

What was it like for you as a fan to be sitting there and watching him go from playing songs like “Let Me Love You” to “Candy Shop” to “Still D.R.E.” back to back to back?

It was amazing. I knew that he had made all of those songs, but for me there were some key moments I wanted him to hit as well. Different tempo songs so we could get different moods across, and we had to choose which ones we used in video form and which ones we chose of him playing the piano.

In between takes, he would be like, “Hey, what about this one? What about this one?” They weren’t totally relevant to the documentary and would have probably cost us an extra $2 million in clearance, but that in itself was incredible…It’s almost like a piano player filling in at a bar, someone names a tune and he can play it.

The music in the film is really impressive and must have been quite the undertaking to clear. Were there any specific records that you knew you really wanted in there, whether it was a favorite of yours or something that you think helps tell Scott’s story?

“Still D.R.E.” was an obvious one, because that was kind of the turning point in his own career, I think he’d be willing to say. That was a real pivotal moment for him. For me, the songs that I loved were “Cry Me a River” and Mario’s “Let Me Love You.” We got quite lucky, there were a couple of painful decisions about what we couldn’t use, but I ticked most of the boxes, put it that way. The ones that I just named were the ones I really wanted.

Mario was interesting, because he was relatively unknown, and there was a whole thing that Scott talked about: that single wasn’t even going to be on the album, and then they shelved the album for a long time, and then they had a new person come in to the record label and they were like, “Oh my God, what are you doing? You’re mad, this should be the single.” It became the lead single and it was No. 1 for weeks and weeks. That was also quite a big moment.

There were a lot of moments in the movies where you employed difference creative visual flourishes. You had dancing scenes, elegant cars, and you even had him playing with Thutmose on a helipad. How do those different elements help illustrate the message of the movie? How did you decide to add them?

The helicopter pad was a reference to hip-hop videos, something that’s kind of ridiculous and bombastic but visually striking. It was almost a stunt, I was like, “Can we get a grand piano on a helipad?”

IT WAS ABOUT NOT PUTTING HIM ON A PEDESTAL, BUT ISOLATING HIM A LITTLE BIT…IT’S THE OLD CLICHE OF COMING OUT FROM BEHIND THE DESK.

That was a stunt where I thought, “What’s another way of contrasting him in the dark studio setup?” And it’s probably the type of scenario where you’re more likely to see the artists he’s produced for, you’re more likely to see a rapper on a helipad than a producer, so that kind of gave him the limelight. Then, I was aware that I didn’t want it to be interview, archive, interview, archive, so I wanted to divide up some of the songs into ones that didn’t make sense to play on the piano, like “Lean Back” for instance, and I wanted to represent those in another way. We do include the video on that one, but I thought the idea of having a dancer was something that I liked as a thread, as another kind of glue that made sense with that music…

The car is another hip-hop trope and we had fun with it and broke it down and used it in a slightly unobvious way. Rather than having someone driving, it’s just kind of a palette for us to show words and lyrics and things like that.

Breaking down and isolating those tropes sort of mirrors how the entire film examines Scott as an artist in his own right and not just a component in all these hit songs.

It was about not putting him on a pedestal, but isolating him a little bit as well, and it’s the old cliché of coming out from behind the desk. I didn’t want to interview him in a classic studio environment, he’s done that before.

Speaking of isolation, Scott’s basically the sole interview in the film, and he does talk about how people turned their backs on him when he went through his period of deep addiction. Did you reach out to other artists for interviews? Did people not want to participate or did you want to keep it to just being as much of Scott as possible?

We very consciously decided to not go down that route, and when the project opened up, we realized that because of the amount of time that we were going to have with him, and with the other projects that I was involved in at the time, and the budget that we were going to have and the way I wanted to approach the film, we weren’t going to be able to film for months and months and months. That would have been amazing, but also exhausting, and maybe a slightly more obvious root to go down.

Lots of people at the premiere were talking about how they could have easily watched a feature-length version of this. Was there anything you had to leave on the cutting room floor that you wish had been included?

There’s nothing that didn’t make it in there, apart from a couple of clips of him playing tracks that we couldn’t use for licensing reasons. Most of the stuff we shot we were pretty careful and well prepared, because we had such a dense shooting schedule. In an alternate reality, I’d have had more money and more time and hung out with him more because he’s very fun, and maybe we could have gone really deep into his production process with current artists and stuff like that, but I think we hint at that with the Thutmose performance and things like that.

What was he like as a guy to hang out with and spend a few days following around?

Very nice, constantly quipping and making jokes. He’s his own person. I think he’s probably happiest when he’s working. He seems like someone who is very at ease with himself and obviously wasn’t in the past. I think he’s maybe a shyer person than people realize. Not diva-ish or anything like that.

One of the first things we did were the shots when we were driving in his car. He was heading to the studio, and it was about an hour long drive—as everything is in L.A.—and he just rattled through other peoples’ music. He played music off his phone for an hour, which was such a pleasure. It was pretty surreal to be sitting in the back of his Rolls Royce with him just cycling through his playlists. That in itself kind of sums everything up. He was putting on everything from Sister Nancy, which was fairly unexpected, to other reggae, to classic hip-hop that he really liked.

One thing that I noticed looking through your filmography is that you’ve worked with a lot of producers, people like Squarepusher and Jamie xx. What interests you specifically about producers as subjects and collaborators?

I think I like producers and artists. I just like music, full stop, whether it’s people who sing or people who write music or both. I tend to be drawn to trying to make films about music that I like, because I’m interested in what that music would look like on the screen, or the lifestyle of the people making it, like in Scott’s case, or the emotions that it brings up. Or where the narrative lies in lyrics, like with Stormzy. I think there are different qualities depending on the artist or producer. I probably wouldn’t have made the same film in the same way about another artist.

One last thing, in the course of filming the movie and spending all this time with Scott, did you ever see him without his sunglasses on?

[Laughs] I think I did a couple of times, a couple of times. Maybe to clean them. I’m trying to remember if when we ate together he was wearing them then, which was 11 at night and inside.

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