Archive for January, 2009

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Timeflip The Second: Silent Hill Cosplay

Posted in Archive with tags , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2009 by speedxgrapher

There seems to be a trouble with time, yet again, and instead of the following part in the Time Capsule Series, the sands of time have dropped on a Silent Hill. Though there weren’t many cosplays (contrary to rumored belief, Silent Hill is NOT that popular among the manga/anime crowd, who usually puts its cosplaying skills to work), the ones we were witness to made the whole thing worth our while. Speaking strictly for myself, this party was one of the best in terms of themed photography. Le Ciel, Katya and Sarcana must be commended on orchestrating a Silent Hill show, during which, dressed with the tunes of Akira Yamaoka and aided by strobe and laser, they reenacted popular motifs of the Silent Hill nurses, as well as one of the most widely known scenes: that of Pyramid Head massacring the nurses and dragging them away. The show had elements from Silent Hill 2, 3 and Origins. Special congratulations go to Countess Bathory and Evil Lolita (the latter a WiP member, last I knew – can’t know for sure now), who were behind the timing and choreography.

You will notice that the photos, especially the Silent Hill ones, are a bundle of Photoshop joy: this is due, in part, to the fact that I wanted to experiment with a few of them, but more largely to my wanting to keep with the Silent Hill feel and color palette. I hope you like them. If, by some freak chance, they are too dark for you to see anything, I would appreciate a note, that I may possibly ameliorate them. Welcome then, to Alchemilla Hospital. We hope you enjoy your stay.

I believe that the most memorable punchlines of the party were:

(1) Addressed to me: “Dude, I saw an L with boobs!”

(2) Me: Now, who the fuck is that chick dancing in the cage? (Stupid question: there were two of them).

New Guy: Uh, that would be my girlfriend.

Me: Ah, OK (I show him picture in camera): this one?

New Guy: Er, nope.

Me: How about this one?

New guy: Oh, yeah, that’s the one. Do you have EVERYONE’s picture in there?!

To which, I believe, no answer is required. It was a very fun night, much contrary to my anticipation (I can’t really stand Akira Yamaoka for very long) and of surprising artistic value. I hope you enjoyed the photos, I hope some of you will comment here to help me fill any blanks and questions you have seen and finally, I have a confession to make: I do not know the first thing about Silent Hill, apart from pictures and some artwork, so if you see anything that doesn’t gel, first blame the internet and second, tell me what it is so I can fix it.

Perturbed dreams,

Speedgrapher

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Time Capsule Files: Cosplay Part 2 – Generation of Chaos

Posted in Archive with tags , , , , , , , on January 22, 2009 by speedxgrapher

However it may seem, the title of this post does not refer to the anime but in fact, to you all. Yes, YOU. Furthermore, this post is dedicated to you people in earnest, for two reasons: first, for your unending patience with my irregular posting patterns and habits and second because, editing these pictures, I was reminded how much fun I had taking them, whether I was on the decks or not. You live and breathe these nights as if they were oxygen. Make no mistake, Otaku Culture in Athens is not about Le Ciel, myself or anyone else who organizes, promotes or publicizes it – it’s about each and every one of you who will cosplay, sing-along, mosh, train-dance or do a V-sign when they feel pin-pricks from images and music that mean to them something warm and unexplainable. It’s about all of you as a community that loves this insane and honest-to-God-cool culture, that started out with kids wearing bottle-lensed glasses and keeping to themselves and has come, passing through 40 waves of uncertainty and struggle, to geeks being the cool crowd.

The youngest among you, or those only recently introduced to this wonderful madness (or is it Mad Wonderland?) that is modern Japan, may not know it looking at things now, but there was time when Greek otaku were weird even by geek standards (about the same time when ISDN-128 was akin to the Holy Grail) and now, there are people in the US and Germany who are astounded that the Greek Japanese culture scene is so big and active. No matter what you hear, no matter what they tell you, no matter how anything is advertised, no ONE person, no ONE team can take credit for this. To paraphrase, in true geek fashion, some 2nd Edition AD&D, any culture, any trend, is only as strong and survives only as long as its fans will support it. As Star Trek’s Wesley Crusher put it in Dork Tower: “Geeks got it together”. Thank you, and enjoy the show.

To close off, this was the first set I played on that night:

Playlist – 2008-11-14 - The Gauss Protocol Vol. 1

01 – FLCL – Funny Bunny.mp3

02 – Uchyuu Senkan Yamato (TV OP).mp3

03 – Iga no Kabamaru – Circus Game.mp3

04 – Getter Robo – Getter Robo (TV OP – TV Size).MP3

05 – Jungle wa Itsumo Hare no Chi Guu – Love Tropicana (TV OP).mp3

06 – One Piece – Ready! (BGM).mp3

07 – Hunter x Hunter GI Final – Believe in Tomorrow (OVA OP).mp3

08 – Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs [Extended] .mp3

09 – Speedgrapher – Girls on Film (TV OP).mp3

10 – Naruto Shippuuden – Hero’s Come Back.mp3

11 – Ranma – I Can’t Become A Sweet Nice Girl.mp3.mp3

12 – Kuroshitsuji – Monochrome no Kiss (TV OP).mp3

13 – Blood+ – Colors of the Heart (TV OP 2).mp3

14 – Ga-Rei Zero – Paradise Lost (TV OP 1).mp3

15 – Shion no Ou – Lady Love (TV OP).mp3

16 – Vandread – Overdrive.mp3

17 – Soul Eater – Resonance (TV OP).mp3

The whole point was that, since I had two lists to play, I would start in a silly, funky, lighthearted way, reach a peak by the end of this set and start at that peak in the second set (which would be rather late), gradually toning down in beat. I think it worked pretty well. My inspiration for this was the graph of Gaussian Distribution, shown below like so:

In earnest,

Speedgrapher

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Back in Action

Posted in Errata, Events with tags , , , , , on January 22, 2009 by speedxgrapher

All right then, now that the poll has been concluded, we can get back to work. First of all, I want to thank all of you who took the time to vote and therefore, affect the form of this blog. You can see the results for yourselves here (just click on “View Results”) and since WordPress apps keep being menstrual, I would like to add that, there were also 2 answers in the “Other” section, one being “Hai desu! Cannot live without commenting” and the other “I am not sure, maybe some people in the pictures do not like being commented on”. The actual results of the vote, should you be too bored to go look, will become evident in the post I will make in a couple of hours from now.

In other news, Le Ciel’s Saturday Theme Nights may have been stopped due to club policy, but the Fridays are still going strong. This week, the poster features you people, in a picture I assume was taken by Raven (I met some people from the One Piece troupe the other day and they asked me about it – sadly, no, it is not a picture I have taken, so I reasonably assume it is hers. Good job dear Morrigan-companion!).

Power to the (J-) People!

Power to the (J-) People!

Here I see the Flame Alchemist, Accela, the One Piece Troupe and
Rita-drops (have a nice trip and stay in the U.K. baby girl!).

See you in a little while,

Speedgrapher

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