Love Never Dies review

There are spoilers in this review. It's of this Melbourne production of Love Never Dies which is free to watch this weekend:

This Andrew Lloyd Webber musical isn't bad bad in the same way as some of the others, it just makes me feel ill watching it.

I think maybe the show would have been better if the characters weren't supposed to be the ones from Phantom, because it makes all of my red flags go off seeing Christine so quickly welcoming of the phantom just because he says he feels great pain without her and they reminisce about their "one night" together.

I mean, I am still thinking of him as a real horror; manipulative / stalker / threatening / murdering.

And both phantom and Raoul - when confronting each other - treat her as a possession, and Raoul has become just angry and useless... there's no-one really to root for out of the two of them.

And I would not put a child in the trust of a twisted and murderous man just because he's biologically his father.

It's not that the show is bad bad, it just makes me feel like everything the show wants me to get on board with is wrong. I'm sitting there going "no, no, no, no, no" at every moment that I think is supposed to be positive.

I think if you looked at the book for this musical in isolation, this phantom would be no more of a horror than a grumpy goth with bad skin.

So... either you have a phantom who is far too horrible for you to want him to succeed, or a completely declawed phantom who is just bland.

A word I don't like

I don't mind the word "moist" at all. I am not sure why people don't like it. But I really don't like when people are doing a cooking show or cooking instructional video and use the word "slurry" to describe mixing something into a paste - because it just makes me thinks of farms and how they smell.

Currently playing : Nier

I'm currently playing Nier (not Automata) on Xbox 360.

I really like it. It is a beautiful, sad game, with beautiful music and good artwork.

I finished the game with one ending last night, and decided - rather than play and get the next ending to the game, I would start over again from nothing.

There's an achievement for completing the whole game under 15 hours which I'm aiming for. I'm skipping all the sidequests, which means sadly I miss out on Devola & Popola singing together.

It is unrelentingly sad, just chock full of sad stories, sometimes unnecessarily sad. 

For example - when you go to turn in your final fishing sub-quest, there's another man standing in the quest-giver's place. He tells you that the old man who gave you the quest died then says no-one in town really liked him anyway. I mean, come on, writers, you didn't need to do that! This has no impact on the overall story of the game, they just decide to throw in things like that all the time.

But the sadness is a good outlet for me in this world we're living in. It's easier to put your heart into a bunch of fictional grief and feel that than look at the world today pretending along with everyone else that the daily massive amounts of death aren't that bad.

What's The Buzz - Jesus Christ Superstar - sounds like invincibility to me

Andrew Lloyd Webber has been releasing musicals for the public to enjoy for free for a short window of time during this lockdown period. This week, it is appropriately Jesus Christ Superstar.

I say "appropriately", but really... he's made Jesus Christ available for 48 hours from Good Friday until Easter Sunday, which is the exact opposite of how Easter is supposed to work.

Anyway. I started watching, and this song "What's The Buzz" starts up.

And I think to myself... hang on, this tune... what is it? It is the song of my people. Yes! It is:

Sorry, that's all I can think now. (Yes I know Jesus Christ Superstar came first)

Persona - Poem for Everyone's Souls & Elvis Presley - My Boy

I noticed a thing.

The melody for "Poem For Everyone's Souls" - which is the music for the Velvet Room in all the Persona games - and the chorus to the song "My Boy" by Elvis Presley really sound a lot like each other.

(listen at @1:35)


(listen at @0:31)

Recommended Twitch musicians

If you're on lockdown and are hankering for some live music, well, you can get that on the internet nowadays. Here are some of my favourite musicians on Twitch:

• Plastic Josh
  https://www.twitch.tv/plasticjosh
  Songlist: https://www.streamersonglist.com/s/plasticjosh/songs
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6FfAxaRvMrikzkied5Kduv
  UK musician - guitar (both acoustic and electric) and piano, has a voice of gold. Wide range of music - if I said it was "the kind of music Q Magazine likes" would you know what I mean? Does a fantastic Gethsemane. Made me actually enjoy Radiohead songs outside of Creep. Especially look out for streams where his brother comes along to join him singing on duets. He has his own band "Plastic Sun" and their original songs are great (but a right bugger if you want to sing one in the shower)
• lara6683
  https://www.twitch.tv/lara6683
  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lara6683
  Songlist: https://goo.gl/6AVr4n
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2v5wjWQZ9ViJUXAetTQcZ6
  Many years ago, maybe a decade by now, I enjoyed listening to some piano covers of video game songs by someone called Lara de Wit. Then about 2 years ago, YouTube decided I ought to listen to a "mega medley that was supposed to be 5 minutes" that goes on for about an hour and a half. By someone called lara6683. And she was just taking suggestions from chat and playing a seemingly endless medley out of it all. Just out of memory. Then after a while, I found out that Lara de Wit and lara6683 were the same person. Her thing is that she's really, really good at learning new songs by ear. If you pay her a bucket of money at the start of a stream, she is likely to live learn a song of your choosing. She's also very good at taking songs and mashing them together on the fly, her improvisational / arrangement skills are fantastic. She is very popular and often gets over 1000 concurrent viewers. Song requests are generally sub-only and at her discretion - so 100 people might request and she'll pick an hour and a half's worth of songs out of the list. 
• ortopilot
  https://www.twitch.tv/ortopilot
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3CckGnXzzJ9GARII95dDek
  Another UK musician, this one's a Northern English singer / songwriter who plays keyboard and guitar and is an absolute wizard with a looper, and makes some solid, funky music. His sound setup is studio quality. His streams are generally a good time.
• supershigi
  https://www.twitch.tv/supershigi
  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/supershigi
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2RnGA202UcoKq6KjzQCbNR
  Laura Shigihara is one of my favourite video game composers. When Plants vs Zombies came out, I loved the soundtrack so much I went and bought it separately and listened to it over and over. In the game To The Moon, her song Everything's Alright is the most perfectly fitting song within a game I think I've ever heard. So when she started streaming, it was like a goddess coming down to earth. She plays keyboard, has the sweetest, gentlest voice, and is generally a super nice person.
• Spence Elliot
  https://www.twitch.tv/spenceelliott
  This guy is seriously as though one of the Beach Boys was born 50 years too late, or something. Has a great voice, plays acoustic guitar and piano. He specialises in 1960s - 1970s music, mainly folk but also rock and stuff. All his song requests are paid. He's really, really good. And really welcoming and friendly too.
• Contracrostics
  https://www.twitch.tv/contracrostics
  Exceptional classical pianist named Matt, from the USA, who has an amazing antique grand piano right there in his house. When he plays, it's like a story. It's beautiful. He'll only play what he wants to, but he's got a ton of classical sheet music, and I've never disliked anything he's played. He doesn't always stream music though - sometimes he plays games. He's a really chill guy and it's nice to watch his gaming streams too.
• knumb the geek
  https://www.twitch.tv/knumbthegeek
  Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/knumbthegeek
  "Folk-punk" American musician named Kevin - amazing on fiddle, also plays guitar and mandolin. Often uses a looper. Sings enthusiastically, though he kinda sounds like Goofy (but, a smarter version). Has a really great, contemplative, wild, brutal, and sometimes funny set of songs on his playlist, some of which he's written himself. Oh and a bunch of American and Irish traditional tunes too.
• Mermaid Unicorn
  https://www.twitch.tv/mermaidunicorn
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6gfQSJ07CJAEvOwKz4sX2f
  Canadian musician Alanna Sterling is one of the greatest talents around at the moment, I'd say. I'm not going to list all the instruments they play, let's just say "all of them", because it basically is. Their song "Monsters Under My Bed" was probably the best original song I heard in the whole of 2019.
• Jonathan Ong
  https://www.twitch.tv/jonathanong
  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwbNxgXSHBjGBUjKHVZS7ZA
  Dr Ong is like a mad scientist of music, from Australia. He's an amazing, outstanding pianist. He also plays flute and saxophone and otamatone. His stream has "The Most Keyboards On Twitch" (TMKOT) - he has dozens of them, all doing different things - and he seems to have an unending desire to acquire more of them. He also has a baby grand in his room which he usually plays. He'll play intricate classical pieces just to warm up, before playing whatever pop / rock / video game music / memes people hurl at him to play for the next 5 hours or so. I especially love when he covers either Muse or Nier on piano. People often pay him to make loops of songs, he'll listen and create his own version, layering and layering and layering. He has really funny animations and overlays too.  I've seen him play a piano with 102 keys (and he broke it just through playing it, I don't think he's allowed back there anymore). I've seen him play for so many hours he literally stopped to go and superglue his fingers back together, and he came back giggling like a maniac. He's just started on some serious compositions too, which are really fine.
• Texasraw
  https://www.twitch.tv/texasraw
  Nice to see an older musician on Twitch. He's from Texas as the name suggests, and he plays hit rock songs from the previous century on electric guitar & kick drum. He's really good but I also feel like he's a bit underappreciated.
• Lemonagogo
  https://www.twitch.tv/lemonagogo
  Singer / guitarist from the US, has a really nice, soothing voice. Her knowledge of 80s pop music is pretty legendary. 
• Venusworld
  https://www.twitch.tv/venusworld
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4BQv8prfL0d4D0qR0q474d
  also Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4nuyPqafby01SAz10TFNU5
  Venus is a singer / songwriter from English, so posh she could play Mary Poppins without having to affect an accent. She writes some surprisingly dark songs, my favourite of hers is "Before You Go". Her community are really supportive and sing along in chat when she sings original songs. She previously recorded under the name Sophie Janes before settling on the name Venus, that's why she has two Spotify channels.

I'm listing nationalities mostly so you get an idea for the timezones they'll stream for. Though some just seem to be on at whatever time they feel like (e.g. Jonathan Ong, Contracrostics, Johnny Kuik). All the Germans speak perfect English because of course they do.

Also worth a mention: SavingMusicLive - this is where a lot of charity music streams are held, Gluecks (German, pianist), Johnny Kuik (UK keyboardist, plays along to a lot of anime music and East-Asian pop), pealeaf (Canadian, pianist), meriamber (Australian, songwriter - writes some hilarious songs), Dan Chapman (amazing vocalist, songwriter, guitar & keyboard), Andrew Telles (piano, keyboard), Tammy Blackmedia (singer-songwriter, guitar & keyboard), CallsignScarecrow (UK, vocals, guitar, large beard), Egglyberts (UK, pianist), Liz Singer (vocalist, covers musicals and pop music, heck of a belt), ka_klick (US, guitarist, sings nerdy songs he's written), Megan Lenius (US singer songwriter, her song Allison is brilliant), Umilele (Ukraine, ukelele), KristyKates (US, guitar, vocals, generally very nice person), theluckmusic (wow these voices! Guitar, keyboard), JadothMusic (German, singer / guitarist), pianoimproman (piano, keyboards), matthewkheafy (US metal musician Matt Heafy from the band Trivium), Luck Reunion (Willie Nelson, Paul Simon & co are going to do a live concert soonish)

And, I don't know if they're gone for good, because they haven't streamed in ages, but these folks are great: Kyle Landry (pianist), ihazabeard (vocals, guitar), BagelRabbit (violin improv)

I Drove All Night

This is one of those songs that I love but also rant about.

It's a great song. There are so many great versions; Cyndi Lauper, Roy Orbison, Celine Dion...  I really like the version by The Protomen too. It's like the Roy Orbison version, but ramped up and more epic.

BUT!

I just want to say to the two guys who wrote this song... "No, it's totally not alright".

Seriously, if I was dating a guy and I thought he was 200 miles away but he got horny and drove up, snuck and crept in to my bed and woke me up by [surprise sexy times] I'd wake up terrified assuming it's an intruder and lamp him. If it didn't end in fatality it would end in "We need to talk".

And you know! You know by listening to the song the guy knows he's doing something terrible, or he wouldn't have to ask "is that alright?" so much. No it's not alright!

And I don't know if this is just what I get out of it, but I feel like he thinks he's earned his sexy times just because he drove so far, and he's going to be mega pissed off and act like a pest if he gets home to "go away, I'm sleeping!". There's definitely a sense of entitlement I get out of these lyrics.

The fact it's sometimes covered by women doesn't make it better. It's still creepy.

And I know this was written before mobile phones so phoning to ask "is that alright" before driving all that way isn't that simple.

This song... I have so many problems with it and I don't think of it as romantic at all, but I still like it, and I really like the various artists who've performed it. I suppose that's a bit weird.

Perfect balance

I just looked up how many people there are in the world. There are 7.7 billion people. I also saw that in 1960, there were 3 billion. So if Thanos did his thing, he'd have to come back and do it every 40 years or so to really achieve "balance".

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night is a really great game

I kickstarted Koji Igarashi's new super-not-a-Castlevania game "Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night" 4 years ago and got my copy last Tuesday. Played it *a lot*.

It really is a great game. I think it's possibly better than a IGA-era Castlevania game because there are so many weapons to use, leading to so many play-styles, and I do like variety. Other than that - same basics you would expect from an "Igavania". 2D platformer, explore a huge castle, fight some bosses, collect enemy drops and skills, use new skills to explore further... and yes there is a "backstep" button. :)

The story of the game is alchemy / anti-church / experimenting on children / post-apocalypse (hmm, that makes it sound like Bat Out Of Hell 2100. It's not anything like Bat 2100!), but you can happily ignore that if you like. There are both English and Japanese voice options. I played in Japanese (honestly I don't think the English dub for Symphony Of The Night is worth celebrating, I know it became a camp cult hit for its awfulness but I have no attachment to it).

You can also change the colour of blood in the options. I like that you can do that, and I turned blood purple. There are lots of little Easter Eggs too. And cool weird things like... enemies that look like giant heads of people's pets (I think this was a kickstarter reward!)

The only thing I didn't think was great in the design of the game was that with the art they used in the game (which is beautiful); sometimes it was hard to see what's foreground and background, but I got used to it after a few hours of playing.

I started the game pretty much as soon as I could, so I started playing on version 1.01 and a few hours later they released version 1.02, but I read that it messed up the save file so I decided to finish the game as soon as possible and not update until I was done. Well, I don't know if that was the best idea, because version 1.01 was patched because a few of the last boss fights in the game didn't show up on the in-game bestiary list.

So I updated the game with patch 1.02 and started a New Game+ and completed the entire game again. There were a few things changed with the patch. I think poison was nerfed, I beat a lot of the bosses first time round using poison and keeping my distance, but that seemed less potent in version 1.02. Also I thought the secret boss fight with the vampire librarian was much harder in version 1.02.

I got the platinum trophy on PSN for completing every trophy on Sunday night after 5 days and 5 hours of intense gaming (the time taken is logged on psnprofiles). I think it was a really great game.  It's updated to version 1.03 now so everything I said specific to patches is probably irrelevant now too, haha.

I didn't fight IGA because his secret boss fight (not very secret) wasn't patched in to the PS4 version yet. I'll have to return at some point!

Conclusion: well worth waiting 4 years for this game, even though I finished the whole thing twice within 5 days!

Dear world: Meat Loaf's name is Meat Loaf. It's that simple!

One thing that's really getting to irritate me a little more all the time, is how everyone who wants to talk about Meat Loaf is obsessed with either the "origin" of his name, or will insist on calling him Marvin Lee Aday.

If he's in interview, it's often one of the first thing they ask, or if it's an article, they'll be all "Oh but Marvin Lee Aday is his REAL name".

But I know a few different people who have had troubled backgrounds who decided to legally change their name, because they desperately want to be disassociated with that family name, they want to leave that behind, they want to be themselves, they want to be judged on their own merit.

And to dredge up the old name like that, it's a thing you don't do. It's just uncomfortable, rude.

The old name is dead. The new name, that's who they are.

With Meat Loaf, that's his name. His real name. It's also the name of his stage persona, but it's also his actual name. People who know him just call him "Meat" in his life. It's not the same as an actor who acts under a stage name.

Meat changed his name legally several times - he changed it to "Meat Loaf", but he said - he had trouble passing through customs (and for someone was was seemingly on endless world tours, this is a problem) - so he legally changed it to "Michael Lee Aday". The system is happier with this. But everyone on a personal level calls him Meat.

So every time I hear those same words from an interviewer "so the name Meat Loaf...", I cringe a little. No wonder he makes up a new "origin story" every time.