Sunday, August 28, 2005

Bad Karma?

Well, it's official. I must have done something to really anger some important diety or dieties this month. I had two job interviews in the past two weeks, both of which interested me very much. I had put the second on to the back of my mind with the idea that if the first one fell through, the second one could be a fall back position. The first, a position at a restaurant, would have been something fun and different for me. I was surprised I even got the interview at all, since I have no work experience. Have you ever done something and could tell by the way things were going that it was too good to last? I can tell that with job interviews. I've been interviewed a few times, so I have an idea in my mind's eye of things. When the interviewer is overly impressed, and seems not to be bothered by negative aspects of the interview or application, it's time to worry. When the interview goes that well, I know I can't expect to get hired. The second job interview was for a temporary position at a seasonal costume shop. My having three years of theatrical experience, I thought I might stand a chance, but after going to their open house/group interview, I don't think I'll hear from them. They had six people divided into four teams to conduct four rapidfire interviews all in one night. I tallied my points (one for each interview station) based on the interviewer(s) reactions to the way I answered their questions. I came out negative three, and that is not good news for me. As the shop is to begin activity this coming week, I won't count on being one of their employees, since I'm sure they'd need at least two days to properly train employees on register, inventory, and whatever else they'd be doing. Anyway, that one went downhill fast even as I was bouncing from one interviewer to the next. If lessons be learned from this, don't get your hopes up when applying for a job you really want to get. Now, imagine my surprise when I finally get on here after a few days(more like a week) distraction with employers to find that Art of Otaku drawing guide project being brought up on theotaku main page. For those that don't know, I loudly expressed my issues with that project back in April or May when it was first presented, calling out to the self proclaimed Anime art experts, wanting only their input to make the project successful. It seems the wound from that thorn in my side has not yet been healed. It seems the initial abasement was not enough to satisfy the Fates, and they want me to suffer more agony and bleeding from a still sore gash. I would go into the weak man's pity me routine, but quite frankly, I don't give a [Censored] about pity, and I don't really want it. I'm too tired to care about any of that. I'm too tired to care how I feel myself right now. Of all things, I want a simple break. I want something that I try to do(other than my art which is driven by passion) to go right, and get me further than I am right now. I don't know why I even mentioned it at all, since I can't get the break I'm looking for here. Words of wisdom elude me tonight, as often they do in times of stress. I'll sign off for now. . . Anime Dreams

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Friday, August 5, 2005

Great News!!!

I just got the best news all year, and It's all I can to do keep from running up and down the stairs shouting wonderful in Japanese. The iTunes Music Store Japan is now open. Don't believe me, here's my source: From Japan Times I've also checked out the store itself in iTunes. Anime Dreams.

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Monday, June 27, 2005

Thoughts from the Desert

Light reflections on troubled waters dance before my eyes. Whispering without words, the fluid movements lure away doubts, tease away fears, and wear away frustrations. That said, I've been able to give my art some thought of late, though I don't have anything to post here yet. I let myself get caught up in other things and believe me, my art has suffered for it. I will not let that happen again. I still have some lingering mop up work on those pointed distractions, but will be more able to focus on the passion of mine which I find very calming, that being my art. If I've learned anything in the past few days, I have learned that some things just are not worth burning out my insides on. Getting worried and defensive about little things now will not resolve them, and ther will always be arrogant, pig headed, simple-minded, discriminatory, self interested, and just plain vile scumbag filth trying to dictate what music I'm supposed to like, not like, and spend my money on, not mentioning any corporate names, (aside)Napster(end aside). I will not let that get to me at this point, but I will continue to vent my frustrations, and belittle the company that deserves nothing but belittling until they do their job right. I also ask that anyone using, or know of friends who are using Napster to stop. Make them feel the financial pinch of money not being spent on them, maybe then, they'll get off their ivory tower and actually go after good music. Anime Dreams, if such things exist anymore. ~C.S.

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Friday, June 24, 2005

What Dreams May Come. . .

I'm the first to admit when I've been a real jerk about something, and my previous posts, ranting mindlessly on the digital music services can attest to that. As a fan of the music that is being excluded, I do have a right to be angry, but I need to put my energy toward positive change, rather than spewing foul garbage and not getting anything done. I did learn through my experience though that it's not a good idea to fight windmills, whether or not they look like giants. I've had some time to think about it, and unfortunately, I need to make some personal changes before I can get even close to what I want. ~C.S

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Friday, June 17, 2005

   Lighting Fools' Way

Well, my fight with Napster is over, and guess what, they won. Napster had the following to say regarding the issue of not carrying Japanese Pop music. ". . .the reason that Japanese pop music is not on our service. . .is the inability to obtain the rights to offer this music on our service. . . Music distibution in Japan is a very closed system and requires a local partner which we do not have at this time." ". . .I can assure you that including the largest variety of music possible on our service is a major goal of ours. It is in our financial interest to have content that appeals to the widest variety of musical taste. . .we welcome all who appreciate music regardless of their tastes and preferences." The letter was signed by ther Senior Director of Customer Support(look it up, I'm angry, not spiteful, I won't post his name here). But read the comments, he contradicts himself in saying we're too lazy to do the legwork to acquire Japanese Pop music, yet we want to have the widest variety of music to reach out everyone's tastes. Am I supposed to be a complete idiot and believe that? How can anyone say in one breath, we can't get the music you want, but we want to get the music you want, does that make any sense at all? It boils down to this, Napster says they don't have Japanese Pop music, they can not get it, and will not even try to get it anytime soon. As such, they are now on my lower than garbage list. Thank you to all who supported the effort, but don't get your hopes up. Anime Dreams. Please look out for the shards of mine all over the place, the loud noise you heard earlier was them crashing down around me.

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Friday, June 10, 2005

Bit of Interest

Since it comes out in "Limited Release" today, and I found it while checking out Yahoo, I thought I'd share a review of Howl's Moving Castle with the rest of you from an unlikely source, Space.com. Anyway, the review page takes a while to load(those on dial-up may want to disable flash animations before clicking the link) http://www.space.com/entertainment/050610_howls_review.html Happy reading Anime Dreams

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Monday, June 6, 2005

Last Stand

Yesterday, I began the first phase of what will truly be my last stand on the digital music matter. I attempted to contact the RIAA, but only time will tell if they even read their e-mail, much less are interested in helping bridge the gap between fans and the music they want to hear. I have a letter that will be mailed to Napster. Since they do not respond to online inquiries from me anymore, I'm gong the old fashioned route. I have drafted up a letter that I will attempt to send to major record labels in Japan. If that effort fails, then I will have failed. I do not have the energy, or strength of will to be the ONLY person persistently pursuing this idealistic fantasy of being able to buy Japanese Pop music from the local digital music services. There is no point in my continuing a fight when I am the only one who shows up ready for a long term battle on the anime/Japanese Pop music fans' side. Once again, I have become the accepted reject, once again I find myself not fitting into the online community I've made my home. After about a month, I'm sure I'll know at least something. If I don't hear anything at all by that time, I can be sure my efforts were in vain. I can only hope at least one letter is read and taken seriously. I can only hope that at least one label, one artist is willing to give the fans here a chance to access the music in a safe, legal, digital format. It would only take one to start a whole movement, at least, I'd like to believe that. For those who seek to follow in my footsteps, try a different route, I'm wading neck deep in quicksand. Anime Dreams

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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Editorial

I don't have a bunch of fancy words and sentences to make my thoughts sound good this time. I've trtied to put what I'm thinking together coherently, but I can't do that, so I'm just going to put my thoughts down as I think them. Last year at about this time, I was introduced to Napster (the legal, Roxio owned $.99 per song Napster) when my family upgraded their computer(the fancy way of saying they got a new one). Anyway, I got to looking around and discovered that while they claim to have a great selection, one genre is blatantly obviously missing from their library, Japanese Pop. I started making a few simple requests at first, and I kept checking on their progress as best I could. After taking a few months break from that, I renewed my campaign to see Japanese Pop made part of the Napster library. Now, a year later and my work has shown no progress at all, not a single artist, not a single track has been added. Now I can't speak for everyone, and more and more it seems like I'm speaking for myself, which isn't fun when you think you have a group behind you and all you get is the echo from your own voice. I'm tired of going into those two-bit hack record stores (FYE, Suncoast, et.c.) and not finding the kinds of music I'm looking for, and not having a credit card makes online shopping a bit difficult. I think it's time the U.S. music download services were made to live up to their advertising lies, and start carrying a wider selection of music. I was told by Bandai when I asked about it that someone else also contacted them about the same thing. Bandai is in a good position to go to the record labels of the music they're licensed to distribute and tell them: "our audience is looking for this music and not having any luck finding it in the stores, they'd like to get it digitally in a safe and legal manner." The U.S. licensees can't and won't do that if only two fans out of the how many thousands contact them saying "we'd like to be able to buy the full versions of this song or that song from such and such anime series on Napster, iTunes Music Store, RealRhapsody or whatever your preferred Music Download Service is." The following is my opinion alone and does not represent the opinion of this website, it's host, creator, or any other members. I'm ready to throw in the towel and let those discriminatory money hungry jerks win the war. I can't keep up the fight if I don't have good sound backup. As anime fans, don't we owe each other some kind of support? I don't have infinite patience, I'm not trying to change the world or anything big like that, I just want to be able to buy my favorite music in such a way as is convenient, and affordable for me. May your anime dreams not turn to the nighmarish dreamscapes mine have been twisted into.

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Saturday, May 28, 2005

Toxic Nonsense

I have been commenting on the lack of Japanese Pop music on the legal Digital Music Services (iTunes Music Store, Napster, MusicNow, Musicmatch, RealRhapsody, and a whole list of others) for some time now. I will continue to bring it up as a public service to all fans of the genre until our efforts begin to see recognition. In my communications with Bandai several weeks ago on the subject, I was informed that I am not the only person asking around and trying to get Japanese Pop music featured by those services. The only way we as anime and Japanese Pop music fans will be taken seriously is if we get together and come up with some kind of plan to show those Digital Music Services that we aren't just freaky Otaku hacks trying to make trouble. It is as simple as enough people contacting those services and said "We want Japanese Pop music." They'll have to listen eventually, or risk getting the reputation that they don't even try to honor requests for music. I have turned people away from Napster specifically for that very reason. I point out Napster because I have tried to use it before, and the ads for Napster that show up here and on theotaku.com annoy me to no end. I did start a new round of discussions with Napster recently, but they have not yet replied to my page long e-mail on why I'm thinking their staff is lazy and discriminating against the Japanese Pop genre. I also sent them contact information for quite a few resources on the matter, including licensed distributers here in the US(they can provide information on original publishers, and who to contact to acquire licenses to carry the music in the digital medium), Japanese record labels, and other sources that might be of use to them. If I hear from them at all besides a form generated autoresponse e-mail(which I already got), I'll be impressed. Next week, I will begin to start from the other end, contacting Japanese record labels, the U.S. Distributers, and the other sources myself. If I can't get something done from this end, I'll go to the source and try to get something going from that end. I encourage anyone who uses Napster, iTunes Music Store, or any of the Digital Music Services to start requesting Japanese Pop music. Request a lot, and request it often, that will get someone's attention. Anime Dreams

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Saturday, May 21, 2005

Toxic Nonsense

I saw the "Calling All Fan Artists" article. Since I do not qualify for such an important undertaking, I will not be applying. I do have to say I took personal insult with the offhand comment related to drawing experience. I believe the line was something like: "Not simply tracing characters from other anime." The few pieces of art in my portfolio are from existing anime yes, but I freehand EVERYTHING I draw. I do not allow myself to trace, that's the easy way out, and I don't take it. I'm prepared to prove myself as an emerging artist here with my works. It's time I stopped taking this laying down as a sort of fun little hobby. I'm serious about my art, and am ready to show that. It is not just a hobby for me, it is a passion. It is something I really enjoy doing, and will not cease to enjoy. Basically, expect some changes from me here in the future. Anime Dreams from the Toxic Desert.

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