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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III. Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe.

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers.

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point.

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing. This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome.

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast.

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list.

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend.

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome.

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows.

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again.

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up.

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4.

So with our major players out of the way, let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands. Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off. Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain.

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more. The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have. This show is just great at costume design.

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback.

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious.

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working. Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant. Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time.

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up. F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly.

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly. At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in.

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do.

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense.

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room.

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda.

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian.

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go.

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it.

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior.

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances.

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included.

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her. It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag.

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you.

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him. Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t. It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to. So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight.

However at home Virgil points out it was Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow.

#static shock #static #virgil hawkins #richie foley #robert hawkins #sharon hawkins #hotstreak #milestone comics #dc comics #dc animated universe #dcau #dwayne mcduffie #robert l washington IIII #kids wb #hbo max #2000s #animation #black lives matter #black history month

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twistedtummies2 · 4 years

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31 Days of Disney Villainy - Number 2

The 31 Days of Disney Villainy Continues! I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Villains from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ film output. We’re very nearly at the end of the race! Our second place villain is one shadowy character. Number 2 is…Dr. Facilier, from The Princess and the Frog.

There has recently been a bit of backlash about this character over the past couple of years. You see, when this Shadow Man first appeared, he was accepted with enormous applause. Disney immediately recognized the character’s popularity and began marketing him like wildfire; perhaps more than any other character in this movie, he made the biggest impact. His villain song was widely considered the best part of the film, and everything about this bad guy seemed to click with audiences back in 2009 and the early 2010s in a HUGE way. Pretty soon, he was taking over stage shows from other villains, popping up in costume around the parks, getting all kinds of merchandise out of his image…this guy was, for a while, everyone’s New Favorite Disney Villain. However, starting somewhere in the mid-to-late 2010s, that opinion seemed to change. Lots of people have seemingly fallen out of love with Facilier over time, pointing out that, even though he’s a really fun character, he’s something of a peripheral antagonist. The chief weakness people point out is that he almost never interacts with the main protagonists. I suppose that’s fair, but other great villains have had limited interaction with the protagonists too, and we still love them. Others have stated his motivations are weak, and I honestly disagree with that: Facilier is motivated primarily by greed, envy, and ambition. He resents the rich and famous of New Orleans, seemingly feeling shunned by society, and uses his voodoo powers to try and gain wealth and power. In the process, he also plans to repay his debt with the “Friends on the Other Side” who allow him to do his dastardly, dark work. It’s a relatively standard setup, I suppose, but it’s an understandable motivation and set of goals, and I think it ultimately works out. It also serves as a great parallel to Tiana: even though the two only have one brief interaction, it’s indicated that she somehow knows about him, and he seems to know a lot about her (whether this is because they have some history or simply due to Facilier’s powers in the case of the latter, at least, is hard to determine). Tiana, like Facilier, has huge dreams of fortune and prestige, and at times seems frustrated by those who lord their own prominence over her. However, Tiana never loses sight of her humanity (ironically, since she gets turned into a frog), and comes to realize that there are more important things in life. Facilier, however, never learns that lesson. I also want to give credit to this character for having probably the best “Disney Villain Kill Scene” since Scar’s murder of Mufasa: in this case, Facilier ends up killing a major supporting character (I won’t say who or how; if you’ve seen the film, or know anything about this guy, you probably already know), which is kind of a big accomplishment, as I said before. The animation and sense of style this character has is wonderful; with his Baron Samedi-inspired design and slick, smooth, snappy way of moving, he’s a joy every time he pops up. There’s just so much raw personality and charisma to him. Plus, he’s a legitimately awesome con man…more awesome than you might think! He not only manages to con people, but the way he talks to his “Friends” indicates he knows how to play their cards, too; he can find ANYBODY’S weakness and exploit it, and he knows how to use the power of wordplay to his cunning advantage. Top it off with the sultry, strong voice of Keith David (this is easily my favorite performance of his; sorry, Goliath and Spawn), and it’s pretty clear why he made such a big splash when he first came out…and it’s equally clear why I still name him as my second favorite Disney Villain. But, of course, there is still one more I like even better. Tomorrow, the countdown concludes with My All Time Favorite Disney Villain. HINT: If You Haven’t Guessed Who It Is By Now…That IS An Awkward Situation.

#31 days of disney villainy #halloween advent calendar #halloween #october #disney villains #countdown #penultimate entry #dr. facilier #shadow man #facilier #princess and the frog #ARE YA READY?!

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knifeonmars · 4 years

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Capsule Reviews - May 2020 - The Cape Stuff

I read a lot of comics in May. Here’s what I thought of some of the superhero and superhero-adjacent comics I read.

Arms of the Octopus

A nostalgia pick, the collection of several annual issues containing a crossover between Superior Spider-Man, The Invincible Hulk, and the All-New X-Men. It is an artifact of a very specific and bizarre time in Marvel Comics, when Doc Ock was Spider-Man, the Hulk worked for SHIELD, and the original five teen X-Men were stranded in their own future. For a pure, relatively straightforward crossover romp, it's quite enjoyable. Spider-Man is a jerk, the Hulk fights a robot, the X-Men are befuddled by the present, all of the major beats for that particular moment in the Marvel Universe are there, and it's got some really great art. Jake Wyatt, during his regrettably short-lived stint with Marvel and the great Kris Anka unfortunately overshadow the other contributors, but it's all very good, if not the most accessible comic.

Maxwell's Demons

I came to Maxwell's Demons having heard a lot of critical buzz and with my expectations set rather high. I did not care for this book at all. Ambitious is the best word for this series, and that's not a bad thing. It's got ideas, about the craft, about the genre, about philosophy in general. It never quite manages to carry things off though; it's not as smart as it wants to be, and the high-minded ideas are never incorporated in particularly elegant ways. Three of the story's five chapters are essentially extended monologues in which the main character rambles on about some glorified shower thought for 20-plus pages. The first and second chapters are the exceptions to this pattern, and are quite solid as far as pointedly derivative superhero riffs go, even if the second chapter's riff on "What if Miracleman #17 was significantly less intelligent" is more than a little shameless in its lack of originality. The fourth chapter, by contrast, is the nadir of the series, easily the most embarrassing Manic Pixie Dream Girl tripe I've seen played straight in literal years. I'm reminded a lot of Translucid, another superhero pastiche, which essentially sought to do for Batman what Maxwell's Demons seeks to do for Lex Luthor. I warmed to Translucid significantly on my second read and I wonder if the same will end up being true for Maxwell's Demons, but I find that Translucid simply did a better job of incorporating original ideas and stating its themes in ways less stupefyingly clunky than Maxwell's Demon's ever manages. I hate to call a book pretentious, especially an ambitious one, but at present that's how I feel about this book.

Twilight

Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Howard Chaykin's Watchmen-for-mid-century-space-heroes epic. It's good. Fabulous art, some really interesting ideas and a great premise. It's also more than a little Chaykin-y, with most of the male characters having fraught but amiable relationships with their much-too-good-for-them-and-they-both-know-it ex-wives. It has this particular brand of low grade misogyny that idealizes women but in doing so denies them interiority and, ultimately, humanity. Leaving that aside, though it is a major point to leave aside, it’s story of humanity rotting over eons of immortality, mad space gods, and humanity’s proclivity towards colonialism and genocide, it's great. It’s not an altogether pleasant book, it can be nasty and strange, in ways both intentional and unintentional, but it’s original and engaging and decidedly well made. Something of an overlooked classic of that era’s DC output.

Green Lantern: Earth One

Literally the only one of DC's Earth One graphic novels that's worth a damn. Where most of the other Earth One books choose to start things off in a world resembling our own, Green Lantern starts off in a scifi future resembling something along the lines of Ad Astra or The Expanse, with Earth controlled by an only alluded to totalitarian government, humanity colonizing and mining the solar system, and Hal Jordan as a spacefaring roughneck who dreads the prospect of returning to Earth. Earth One is the rare Green Lantern story that manages to make Earth as interesting as the rest of the universe. The bulk of the action leaves this behind to focus on unearth the lost legacy of the Green Lanterns and refits their mythology in a clean way which will be unsurprising for anyone with a passing familiarity with the original comics but is still satisfying ad fresh. Fabulous art, fun take on the mythology, I'm left both wanting more and being satisfied with what we got.

Spider-Man: Life Story

In a just world, Chip Zdarksy, one of Marvel’s best writers these days, would be writing both Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, instead of having been relegated to shortlived spinoffs. Because life just isn’t fair sometimes, instead he was given this admittedly ambitious project, his all-encompassing take on the Spider-Man story as played out in real time. In the end it’s bold and engaging, but more than a little clipped in execution. Each issue is a snippet of Peter Parker's life as we catch up to him in a new decade so readers only get a quick glimpse of the action and are left to fill in the substantial gaps by drawing on our knowledge of continuity. The obvious comparison is John Byrne's Superman/Batman: Generations, but where that story really only took the broad strokes of those characters' continuity into account in writing its decades spanning story, Spider-Man: Life Story is dedicated to the remixing of Spider-Man's publishing canon. So it can’t just take an archetypal view of Spider-Man and play that out to its logical conclusion, instead it’s stuck trying to incorporate version of prominent Spider-Man stories like Kraven's Last Hunt, Venom, and Civil War. The result means that there’s a ton of exposition in each issue, and frequent use of shorthand to gloss over things which have happened since the previous issue, and it never manages to explore the series’ original ideas in detail. Also, I'll die mad that Michel Fiffe, the genius behind COPRA and one of my favorite cartoonists, public pitched basically this exact story a year or so before this project was announced, and even if Marvel didn't actually steal the idea, I'll forever pine for Fiffe's take on this premise.

Star Wars: The Crimson Empire Saga

Long before the Disney's take on Star Wars, with their codified takes on the mythology and careful curation of the franchise, there was the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, where seemingly anyone could tell any story they wanted using the mythology of Star Wars. While it resulted in some good stuff, like Timothy Zahn's fondly remembered Thrawn books, the vast majority of it was workmanlike or even bad. Crimson Empire falls firmly into the category of bad, a dumber than dirt story about an extremely cool space guy and his code of honor. It's the kind of story where multiple characters say "He's just one man!" right before or right after seeing their legion of anonymous flunkies getting demolished by the hero. It's got an inexplicable and bad love story. In the three miniseries collected here it spends about two pages total dealing with the idea that maybe, just maybe, the fact that it's main character is dedicated to the lost honor of Emperor Palpatine, a space fascist, maybe his code of honor is completely fucked. Of those three miniseries, only the first story is anywhere near something that could be called good. I wouldn’t called Crimson Empire utterly abysmal, but it’s not unironically good. If the name Kyle Katarn means anything to you, you might get something out of this as a nostalgia trip, but otherwise it has no redeeming qualities.

Deathstroke: Legacy

The first of the New 52 Deathstroke stories, which was never well regarded until Christopher Priest took it over with Deathstroke: Rebirth, I was driven to read this by a conceptual fondness for this era's Deathstroke basically looking and acting like an action figure. Through that lens, it's quite enjoyable. It's not as obviously in on the joke in the way that the classic Taskmaster: Unthinkable is, but it's over the top, has fun designs and baddies, and Joe Bennett (years before his career best heights in Immortal Hulk) provides consistently good art. As a pure action comic, it's good.

Wolverine MAX: Permanent Rage

Here's the thing about Wolverine: There are very few good Wolverine solo stories. Wolverine is a genuinely good character, but most of his solo stories are dumb action affairs, and there's literally never been a Wolverine comic that's even halfway as good as the Logan movie. Permanent Rage, the first storyline from the Wolverine MAX series though, is actually pretty decent. It plays out a lot like you might imagine a Wolverine movie made around 2004, with no superheroes, a Japanese setting that allows for some distracting orientalism, unrelenting violence, and a noir-inspired storyline. The present day storyline is all well and good, not great, but solid and relatively low-key, but what makes the book is the presence of Sabretooth as the main villain. His relationship with Wolverine, fleshed out through flashbacks drawn by some really talented artists, is probably one of the best takes on that relationship that Marvel has ever put out. The casting of Wolverine and Sabretooth as two lonely immortals, bound together by hate and the knowledge that they are each other's only true companions, absolutely makes this book. Is it great? No, but it's got enough interesting things going on that fans of dark superheroes stories would probably find something to enjoy. Subsequent volumes of Wolverine MAX moved even further from the character’s superhero trappings and supporting characters, which is a pity, but this one remains readable and enjoyable on its own.

Marshal Law Omnibus

A collection all of the non-licensed and non-text-only Marshal Law stories. It's weird, it's punk, it's violent, it's sick of superheroes but self-aware about it own silliness in a way that Garth Ennis' work like The Boys has never been (Incidentally, the fifth story contained here, Super Babylon, is just every self-righteous complaint Ennis made about superheroes in The Boys but presented with a modicum of good humor). It's quite fun as a mean-spirited anti-superhero romp, but anyone who is particularly invested in the moral rectitude of, like, the Flash, might find it an unpleasant read so I would advise avoiding it if that's you. It's also not perfect, even for what it is: it's approach to sex work and kink is very dated, it relies on sexual violence a little too much, and by the time you get to the final story, Secret Tribunal, it's come to revel in its previously ironic fascist and misogynist imagery and characters just a little too much. The third installment, Kingdom of the Blind, is for my money, the strongest of the lot, featuring both the most straightforward premise and the most incisive satire the collection has to offer.

#capsule reviews #words

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tenchiforum · 5 years

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For the first time ever, the Toonami versions of OVA1/2, Universe, and Tokyo are available online! On their respective archive.org pages you can access each episode easily.

Watch now: OVA1/2, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo.

For users who keep up with contemporary anime communities, we also have an upload for the entire run available on Nyaa.

It’s been quite a journey in getting these episodes from analog to digital. If you’re interested in reading about the process of how these almost lost-to-time edits came into our hands and how we’ve gone about preserving them before the tapes rot, then sit back and enjoy the story below!

Part 1: Toonami – A Love Story.

Tenchi Muyo! and Toonami are tied together like the red thread of fate often times referenced in many East Asian myths. For those who aren’t aware, Toonami was a programming block on the Cartoon Network channel. Starting in 1997, it did one thing for anime that no other channel in the English-speaking world had ever done: showcased anime during “PrimeTime” (In North America at least, this was 4pm to 7pm Eastern Standard time). Before the internet, having this block of time meant having the most eyes on your product, meaning exposure was huge. Oftentimes whoever got on this block, regardless of the channel, was “made.”

However, it wouldn’t be until mid 1999, with a soft-rebranding, a new host, and an almost entirely anime-focused block, that Toonami would take over the world.

And on July 3rd, 2000, an entire generation was introduced to Tenchi Muyo! for the first time.

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- The now legendary two minute Toonami promo.

Thanks to the efforts of Jason DeMarco, Sean Akins, Gill Austin, Sean Polinski, and the rest of the Toonami crew, the “Toonami generation,” still to this day, is the largest block of Tenchi Muyo! fans. Whether it was Toonami US, UK, or Australia. Tenchiforum is a testament to this fact. I personally would not be here were it not for Toonami, so to say that fans of Tenchi Muyo! hold Toonami in a high regard is an understatement.

I had always wanted to somehow, some way, get the Toonami version of Tenchi up for everyone to see again, but my old Toonami VHS recordings were long gone, and I figured trying to piece together the Toonami version from other people’s tapes would just be too hard with how many episodes were broadcast, that was until… 2012

In mid-to-late 2012, I found out that Pioneer actually released a home video version of what was shown on Toonami. It was simply released as “Tenchi Muyo!” in those big, white, clam shell VHS cases (that most people probably remember for old Disney movies). I felt as though I had struck gold! I was able to get a hold of the first two OVA, and was able to rip them to my computer.

- Vol. 1 & Vol. 5 of “Tenchi Muyo!” – No distinction was made that they were separate series.

Though I was high on my endorphin-induced nostalgia, I ran into a couple of unforeseen problems.

First and foremost, the equipment I was using was not great. I used an old StarTech composite to USB dongle and the software that came with it. While this isn’t necessarily bad at first glance (it doesn’t support Windows 10), I had no experience whatsoever in the field of digital transfer. While I think my rips were okay for the time, I knew even then that they were too low of bit-rate and the quality of the rips suffered for it.

Because I also had no VCR at the time that had S-Video output, I was only able to output from composite, which meant the whopping 240p equivalent VHS tapes look fuzzier than they probably should. (I realize that VHS is technically an analog format, meaning that a 1:1 equivalent digital representation is hard to pin down or that someone might argue that it did technically output 480i over composite, but basically it was 240p.)

Another problem was the software itself, I had no idea about Virtualdub, AmaRecTV, or other helpful capture software, so I only recorded at a lower bit-rate, again producing an inferior quality rip.

I also ran into the problem of showcasing the videos. Funimation (who now owns the vast majority of the Tenchi Muyo! franchise in North America) had finally started really cracking down on people uploading videos to Youtube. Even though my videos were not completely the same, the algorithm immediately flagged and blocked them. This led me to uploading the videos to Facebook. I had to cut them in half because of Facebook’s restriction to roughly only 12 minutes of video. Somehow in the process, some of the videos had audio drop out for a minute or two, and for some the audio dropped out completely.

Arguably the biggest blow though, was when I learned that this set of Toonami tapes was incomplete. Pioneer stopped producing the Toonami version for home video after they finished releasing Universe. Meaning, the only way to get the Toonami version of Tenchi in Tokyo, was hope that someone, somewhere, had taped it 11 years earlier.

While Tenchi in Tokyo has been getting more appreciation from fans as of late – thanks in part to most newer entries in the Tenchi OVA sucking harder than a vacuum – in the year 2000, it was the black sheep of the Tenchi Muyo! franchise. So expecting fans to have recorded any of it, let alone the entire series, was the long shot of all long shots. But even still, I made a post on the forum in 2013 asking if anyone knew anyone that might have anything.

Naturally, no one had any leads, and all of these previous problems meant that this project would, frustratingly, have to be shelved indefinitely.

Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Part 2: Deferred Dreams Don’t Die.

On April 5th, 2019, a person by the name of Talos dropped into our Discord server, and posted an introduction. Like so many, they had gotten into Tenchi through Toonami, but what would change everything, was this.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading, someone actually had it!

Instinctively, I reached out to Talos via PM to ascertain how to go about acquiring these tapes, and admittedly, to see how legit this claim actually was. Because the fact of the matter is, when you’ve been around Tenchi fandom as long as I have, you’ll quickly realize the best bullshitters in the world come from this fandom.

But Talos was more than the genuine article! They sent over pictures and an incredibly detailed analysis of the quality of their tapes, watching through them all again to prove to me that their claim was valid.

It can’t be said enough that this all would not be possible without Talos, their willingness to work with me and send me their own personal tapes that they’ve kept for almost two decades just goes to show how awesome they are and how much they care about the fandom.

So the deal was struck, and the dream that laid deferred for almost six years lived again.

- A time capsule from another era.

But with dreams from the past, come the demons that plagued them way back when. I still only had the setup I once had, and at this time I was really trying to be tight with my finances for a number of different reasons, but this opportunity was too good to pass up, I wasn’t going to let this dream go, even if it wasn’t perfect.

Talos’ tapes showed up, and I rolled up my sleeves.

So I put in the first tape, the first seven episodes of Tokyo, into the old VCR I used to originally rip the Pioneer tapes, a JVC HR-VP650U….

And static…

Or rather, a tape that would play for 3 seconds, then immediately drop to static.

This wouldn’t work.

I then tried my other VCR, a Sony SLV-N50 from the mid-to-late 90’s that I was able to “fix” by removing the old Android Kikaider tape that got stuck in there many years prior.

It worked!…..but…..not all that well.

While it did actually play the tape relatively smoothly, the colors were completely washed out in comparison to the JVC, and it had this weird color flickering that was particularly noticeable when black backgrounds were on screen. (This was not unique to this tape, it did it with everything I put in there.)

As much as it pained me, there was no way I was going to rip it with this setup.

So the hunt began for not just a replacement VCR, but one that was high quality and recommended among enthusiasts for digital transfer. Which meant research and long winding rabbit holes of non-answers and vagueness, and unfortunately, money.

Without a doubt, the de facto list of best VCRs for transferring comes from digitalFAQ.com. This list is not only informative but gives you a broad range of ones to look for in the event you can’t find an “elite” one. However, this list has also become the de facto list used by people who are hawking their sets on eBay to try and get every penny from enthusiasts and new-comers as possible.

After three frustrating weeks of losing bid wars on eBay, someone finally put up one of the good sets, the JVC SR-V10U. I quickly sent them what I thought was a reasonable but not bank-breaking offer….

And they accepted! The beast was finally mine.

Immediately upon unwrapping and testing it, the quality difference between what I had then and what I was looking at now was staggering. The SR-V10U had beautiful color, while having the incredible ability to stabilize the old tapes with its TBC (Time Base Corrector), as well as onboard Video Stabilization option. Combined with the ability to output video via the superior S-Video cable, I now had something that, despite its age and typical old VHS wear, was way better than I could have imagined.

Part 3: No Need for Nostalgia.

You’re probably thinking to yourself “Dagon, why go through the trouble? The OVA has a beautiful Blu-ray release, and Universe and Tokyo have pretty decent DVD releases. Why would you ever want to rip old VHS tapes of an inferior quality release that was in some cases censored?”

- The now famous Toonami “bikinis”.

Because this version of Tenchi Muyo! is a piece of history. Not only is it a piece of Tenchi history, but a piece of Toonami history as well. Being able to preserve this in the best quality possible is being able to point to future generations and say “This is why I’m here.”

For a lot of us it’s about taking us back to a simpler time, grade school, high school, university. Taking us back to a time before the internet was what it is today.

So now we can, after almost 20 years, re-watch the version of Tenchi Muyo! that brought so many of us joy and wonder.

#tenchiforum #tenchi muyo #toonami #toonami promo #cartoon network #tenchi universe #tenchi in tokyo #toonami tenchi muyo #anime nostalgia #90's anime #vhs #vhs anime

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billehrman · 5 years

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Wakeup Call

The sharp drop in equity prices and bond yields during December has clearly been a wakeup call for all politicians, businessmen, consumers and investors around the globe. We believe that a new reality and fear has set in that will lead to positive change on many fronts including the Fed.

Fear of a global synchronous downturn along with deflationary pressures has been rising for months which we have highlighted since October. Maximum pressure seemed to have peaked this week, but we won’t see real change until the Fed reverses course and/or trade deals are reached. Whether the markets stabilize and move up soon remains to be seen, but we are hopeful and pleased that 2018 is ending along with maximum tax-selling pressure.

Let us reiterate once again that our stock market is significantly undervalued today even if you assume that operating earnings are flat in 2019 which we do not see at this point. In fact, the economic outlook both here and abroad stand to benefit big time by the precipitous drop in oil prices. The world consumes approximately 34 billion barrels of oil per year which includes 7.3 billion barrels/year consumed in the US. The $35 to $40 per barrel price drop since October translates to a global savings of $1.4 trillion dollars including approximately $290 billion here. Quite a tax cut for all while also a major depressant on inflation which gives the Fed cover to lower rates which we still envision as their next move.

Stop listening to the pundits who mention that the stock multiple today is at the low end of its historical range because current 10-year bond yields are 400 basis points lower than their historical range and liquidity ratios are up. Today’s market is cheap by any measure for the investor willing to look over the dip in the valley. We finally began to add to our portfolios mid-week expecting tax selling to abate and new money to enter the market next week as portfolios are rebalanced and 2018 401 money was invested.

We can’t believe that the Fed will continue to turn deaf ears to rapidly declining global growth and rising deflationary pressures. These are supposedly very smart guys who say that they’re data dependent. Well, inflation is running well below their 2.0% target and is still not reflective of the huge decline in energy and industrial commodity prices. What are they looking at?

The Philips curve is outdated, and there is significant downward pressure on prices including labor caused by globalization, disruptors and technology. The Fed should promote growth and declare victory, while their real fear should be snowballing synchronous downturn and deflation. Since the BOJ and ECB are virtually powerless to ease much more and their governments are powerless to act too, it is up to the Fed and China’s government to stimulate their economies to right the global economic ship away from further weakness.

China has started to act as its economy is weakening at an accelerating rate. Did you happen to notice their most recent industrial output report? It actually declined year over year! And consumer sales are weakening too. So, the government has reacted with massive tax cuts, monetary stimulus and reduction in tariffs to stimulate demand. It may stem the decline, but don’t expect to see 6+% growth anytime soon until there are trade deals. Don’t believe the rhetoric out of China that they can withstand a trade war. Not true!

Economic growth continues to slow in the US too, as evidenced by weakening industrial production, housing/auto sales, and business/consumer sentiment. It was no surprise that Christmas sales were strong increasing over 5% over last year but retail profit growth will be held back by higher labor and shipping costs. The stock market swooning big time in December will penalize both business and consumer sentiment as we enter 2019. It does not help that no additional trade deals are close to being reached and that we have a government in total disarray. What would you do under these circumstances? We fully expect businesses to maintain tight controls over hiring, expenses and spending in 2019 well remembering past periods of economic weakness. We expect any economic weakness to end quickly as the Fed is ready to react, cut rates and possibly freeze its reduction in balance sheet assets. We also expect Trump to accept trade deals more readily if he expects to have a chance running in 2020. His re-election clock is ticking.

The sharp declines in all the financial markets have clearly been a wakeup call for all. Positive change is in the air!

So, what are we doing?

We entered the week with the highest level of cash since we began anew in 2013. The sharp decline on Monday and early Wednesday was such that many of our buy points in many stocks were hit so we finally pulled the trigger adding new names and adding to existing positions. We also felt that investor sentiment was near its low point; tax-selling would end soon to be followed by portfolio rebalancing adding equities; and finally, new 401(k) money would be invested in January. We ended the week still with a lot of cash and dry powder to take advantage of any further weakness in the markets.

The bottom line is that we feel somewhat better about the future than we did even a week ago. The global meltdown has been a clear wakeup call for action finally to those in position to enact positive and needed change in policies. Will the Fed finally capitulate, declare victory on inflation and lower rates? We think so! Will China enact even more policies to stimulate domestic growth? Yes, we think so! Will trade deals with Europe, Japan, Australia and India finally be reached in 2019? We think yes! Will the trade ceasefire be extended with China until an all-inclusive deal can be reached down the road? Yes, again! Will our government including Trump act like adults and put country over party? Doubt it!

No one rings the bell at the bottom, so we took our first baby step by raising the equity portion of our portfolio mid-week by several percent. It is hard to imagine investor sentiment getting any more pessimistic than it is now or values getting much better too. Remember that the current perception of the future is likely to differ from its ultimate reality. When we can pick up great companies selling below market multiples with excellent management; market dominant positions; strong top and bottom line growth; excellent finances with growing free cash flow; with dividend yields in excess of the 10-year treasury rate and finally with large stock buybacks, it behooves us to act as true fundamental investors with a one to two-year time frame. We are humble enough and have been there before to know that we may be early and that the current environment is still risky so we are still holding significant cash reserves to take advantage when/if others panic. Systematic trading is the bane of fundamental investors like us.

Have we hit bottom? We truthfully don’t know for sure but it is clear that the wakeup call went out to all in December. Change is in the air, and many stocks are just too cheap.

Our portfolios remain concentrated in healthcare, consumer non-durables, technology at a low multiple to growth, cable with content including Disney, domestic steel, special situations and industrial commodity companies. Corporations will continue to spend on technology as it is a huge enhancement to productivity reducing costs. We expect industrial commodity prices to bottom over the next six months as selling prices cannot stay below cash costs for long without large cutbacks in capacity which will lead to higher prices down the road. Some of these companies are generating record free cash flow even at this point in the global economic cycle so their huge dividends and large stock buybacks won’t be cut. We own no bonds and are flat the dollar although we expect it to weaken this year. Finally, we still recommend reducing real estate and private equity holdings as their prices remain inflated compared to equities.

We want to wish all of you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; always look at your asset mix with risk controls, do independent research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman Paix et ProspéritéC LLC

#investing #finance #wallstreet #stockmarket

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s0mebodyto-love · 5 years

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finsta

a/n: I’m back with a Ben fic to output my emotions about real life things lmao so here you go!! My actual experience ends with the post, so I’m hoping something actually happens lmaoooo. Here’s college!Ben with some childhood friendship and some fluff thrown in too.

WC: 1750

Every Thursday night, the bar right across the street from the bus station hosts a karaoke night, and on many an occasion you find yourself there with your little crew. It’s you, your roommate, and some of the girls you sing with in an on-campus choir for non-music majors. The drinks are cheap and everyone goes to sing and have a good time right before the weekend hits.

The little Irish pub lowers its lights and the prices of drinks, and fills quickly. Bursts of cold air blow through the door as it opens and shuts, regulars going in and out to smoke and college students pouring in.

You and you friends swagger in, wrists donning loose orange paper bands showing that you’re the right age remain inside and order drinks. You get a beer, while the others in your group sip on vodka crans and ciders, and you all commandeer a table towards the raised dining area acting as the stage tonight.

At this specific location, karaoke can be anything. Throughout the night, you see people singing their hearts out to Disney, ABBA, and Fifth Harmony. Anything goes, and everyone is singing everything. It even comes down to a group of nearly thirty-somethings singing “I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 29” that leaves you in stitches as you sing along.

However, the song you sing hits a little bit more towards home than you expected.

This week has already been a little bit rough. You’ve been on your period, and you reminded yourself of your on-again-off-again feelings for someone back at home… Ben Jones. You’ve known each other since the earlier days of schooling, back when you were 10 years old and him 11. Over the years, it snuck on you slowly just how much you liked him. Your families get along, and have known each other just as long as you two have.

You don’t talk a lot, and most of that has to do with the fact you go to different universities.

But whenever you’re both home, you find yourselves sitting at a high-top at the local coffee shop or shoved into a tiny booth at a local restaurant to sit, eat, and talk for three hours at a time, at the very least. There’s no one else you’ve ever been able to do anything like this with, and that’s made a large impact on your love life.

Any attempt at a date with anyone else is a comparison to Ben.

So this week, karaoke. Right.

You sang Maroon 5’s “Payphone”, rather poorly but you kicked major ass at the rap (which no one expected), and you got to sing it while an old flame from freshman year was in the room.

“Whatever happened,” you wonder, “to those plans we made for two? A load of bullcrap.”

~*~*~

The crowd tapers off from the pub around 1 AM, as a pair of girls sing Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and as your crew decides to venture into the cold drizzle to get late-night pizza. At this point, you’re tipsy, two of your friends are drunk, and the last two of your friends are sober.

The pizza parlor is packed with college students leaving other bars in groups of 5-6 and pack into booths with the steam still rising from slices of pizza. Your crew stands in the front and orders, then moves into a similar booth and get to talking about anything and everything.

And you get to talking about Ben, after talking about a different date you went on that was okay but clearly was no comparison to the boy you know from home.

“He’s just… everything I guess? My person?” your rambling begins.

“I don’t know, he’s just always been one of my good friends, he knows my family, he’s known me forever… If I’m still attracted to him after all his bad hair phases, I think that means something?” You bring up pictures on your phone too, trying to make the point that one you two would be so good looking together, and two he’s just so attractive to you and you absolutely have to show that off to anyone who will listen.

“Like, see?” They do.

The conversation moves forward after that, but you’re stuck. As you always have been.

You’re quiet the rest of the night, your thoughts stuck throughout the car ride back to campus.

As soon as you and your roommate walk through the door to your apartment, you book it to your bathroom; no longer shared after one of your other roommates moved out at the end of last semester.

Drunk you pees, then sits on your phone for five minutes, typing away on a caption for the finsta post you know Ben will have access to, but unsure if he’d ever read it.

i know you can see this and i hope i’m making this obvious enough. because here is where im most open, and if i don’t get it out now im afraid i wont. liquid courage. its you. it has been you since i realized i cant spend three hours with anyone else in a starbucks and get away with it. no one compares to you, and no one will. and i get you probably don’t feel the same. but if i don’t say anything i know ill regret it. youre the person i see when im singing all these dumb fucking love songs, and im sorry. and here i am, i guess. im sorry. ignore this, or maybe tell me what you think. im sorry.

You smash period and enter repeatedly so the block of text isn’t the focus of the finsta feed, and post.

It’s like in “We Bought a Zoo”. Twenty seconds of courage, even if it’s the liquid kind.

~*~*~

The next day sees no response from Ben, and you’re not surprised. He’s not on social media often enough, let alone that he’d actually see your drunk post. But you let it be, because you’re almost afraid to know what his response is.

A week passes by, and still nothing. Your friends are wondering about it too, and you have no updates for them.

And you’re too afraid to text him.

Friday night sees you driving four hours home, and mid-drive it appears.

[@yourfinsta] @bennieandthejones has liked your photo

And then, a text.

I think we need to talk. When are you home again?

Your heart pounds, and before you can think about it, you call him.

Within one ring, he picks up.

“Hello?”

“I’m literally driving home right now. I have a busy day tomorrow, but I can squeeze you in at noon-ish. Lunch?” Your voice shakes a little, but then so does his.

“Um, yeah. Okay. Usual place?”

“Yeah, I think this calls for real food and ice cream.”

“Ok, I’ll see you then. And y/n?”

“Yeah?”

He pauses, hesitant and unsure of what he wants to say.

“Nevermind, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He hangs up, and your heart starts pounding again. That night at home, your sleep is rough but you make it through.

~*~*~

At 12:03, you arrive at the local diner you and Ben frequent when you catch up. He’s already sitting in a booth, wearing a maroon sweater and dark wash jeans. You slide into the bench opposite him.

“Hey.” You greet him.

“Greet” he says in response. An inside joke, a good start you suppose.

“So… I guess I have some explaining to do?” you ask, and he nods.

“It’s just… I want you to know I don’t want to force you into any of this. I was drunk and when I’m drunk, a lot of my feelings come out whether or not they should. And that’s what happened that night. And you’re stuck in this because of that. I’ve had these feelings on and off for years, which is why I never really pursued it. But recently… I felt those feelings really strongly, especially after I ended up on a date and then I realized that all I really wanted was for it to be you, and not this random grad student I went out with.” You take a deep breath.

“Long story short, I think I’ve liked you longer than I actually know. And not telling you was kind of killing me. Please respond.”

Ben looks at you very seriously, closed fists pressed against his chin and elbows propped up on the table. He takes a minute to think, and the minute starts to feel closer to an hour. He starts speaking slowly.

“Did you know”, he questions, “that I started having feelings for you back in high school? You were dating that kid from the high school in the town over, and I remember feeling this immense jealousy because it should have been me. That never went away, and I remember you two breaking up because college was looming and I knew that starting something wasn’t a good idea. I was leaving too, how could I ask you to start something when I was about to leave? And then you ended up going to school far away and I couldn’t ask you to tie yourself to me when there’s so much to experience. I took what I could get, and that was this. For us. I’m sorry.”

Your eyebrows furrow together.

“You have no reason to apologize here, you goof.” You look down at the table, skin flushing slightly. Ben makes his way from his side of the booth to yours and carefully puts one arm around your shoulder, while grasping at your hand with his open one.

“I’m apologizing for not doing this sooner,” he mumbles, gazing at your lips before looking back into your eyes. “Is this okay?”

You nod yes, and verbally confirm.

“I’m good, yeah.” You whisper, leaning in closer towards him. You two are still maintaining eye contact, and your heart is pounding.

He leans in quickly, pressing his lips against yours briefly before pulling away. His lips were softer than you expected, and they were sweet too.

“Still good?” he asks, arm still around you and with no apparent plans to move back to the other side of the booth.

“More than, yeah.” A small smile is on your face, cheeks flushed and slightly bashful. You’ve never been one for PDA, and this was more than enough for you.

“Good. Where does this put us then?”

“Together, I think.”

“I like the sound of that.”

#ben hardy #bohemian rhapsody #borhap cast #queen #roger taylor #joe mazzello #john deacon #rami malek #freddie mercury #gwilym lee #brian may #ben hardy x reader #mia writes

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dailyonlineoffer · 3 years

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Taking Television to the next level: 4K TV’s

The TV innovation scene has seen a huge change and improvement, with plenty of advances coming up from OLEDs to QLEDs, webOS to Android OS, HD to Ultra HD, hence settling on a choice to purchase a TV out and out the abbreviation for over-burden. With the approach of web TV, clients presently watch what they need, when they need and how they need it. In this article, we will perceive what made this conceivable, how energetic the TVs have become, and why TV seeing experience has changed tremendously, on account of class-driving advancements that have arisen as of late. There is a wide variety of 4K Tv's are available on today offer.

4K – Next Generation of High Resolution

The goal has been the principal jungle gym for development throughout the long term and we have moved now from HD to 4K. It may sound a little exaggeration, however unmistakable TV advancements would not have been conceivable if not for superior quality innovation.

How about we take a gander at how the goal has advanced throughout the long term. The first in this arrangement comes to the HD or High Definition by and large given in spending TVs which give the goal of 1280×720. Additionally called 720p where p implies reformist output. Above it comes Full HD, ordinarily seen in mid-range TVs which gives the goal of 1920×1080. Likewise called 1080p and utilizes the angle proportion of 16:9. What's more, again above it comes, as many may have effectively speculated, is 4K or UHD. Even though it's right, there is a distinction between 4K and UHD as well, however, they are frequently utilized conversely. UHD or Ultra High Definition which hasoal of 3840x2160 which is double that of Full HD and threefold that of essentially HD. Then again, the genuine 4K has the goal of 4096×2160. Along these lines, rather being essentially 4x of Full HD, 4K gets its name from estimating 4000+ pixels on its longest side. Even though in a bid to more readily showcase their items, brands like Netflix and Google allude to UHD as 4K.

If these wordings have effectively confounded you, there is one more to add to this wretchedness! It's Ultra HD Premium which is another class of HDs whose principal importance is that they are ensured. This confirmed confirmation is given by the UHD Alliance bunch which is made out of cross-body enterprises like film studios, customer gadgets makers, and substance merchants. There are around 35 organizations part of it which incorporate rumored names like Disney, Amazon, and Netflix. As of now just top brands, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic have their TVs which are Ultra HD Premium guaranteed. It's astounding to realize that Sony isn't part of this world-class list, as they haven't chosen to go for this confirmation for their TVs yet. Be that as it may, as a concealment Sony utilizes its restrictive Triluminos innovation in the LED show to deliver a more extensive range of shading so watchers can appreciate a more striking and consistent life tone.

Normally 4K is accessible from TVs of 40 inch or more, however, to get the visual effect of 4K, the TV must be sufficiently large. Preferably a TV of size 49 inch or greater is most appropriate for 4K. Likewise, the substance accessible on 4K in India is at present restricted to a couple of sports channels and National Geographic (source: Wikipedia). So except if you watch a great deal of Ultra HD films, you won't get a ton of 4K substance in India. In any case, because of upscaling accessible in most 4K TV, your standard full HD substance will get upscaled to 4K, yet it might turn out somewhat grainy in tremendous TVs.

Improved Picture Engines By Premium Brands

To manage the always expanding pixel tally and convey fresh and clear picture organizations furnished with various picture motors. For 4K TVs, Sony offers X Reality Pro motor which cleverly upscales each pixel to give unparalleled clearness. To do as such, it adds the missing tones, shine, liveliness, surface, and subtleties to the given picture. LG then again gives Triple XD the motor works in 3 significant boundaries—difference, shading, and commotion. It improves picture quality by expanding dark levels and brilliance, adjusting shading tones, and gives simple and MPEG clamor decrease calculations. To release captivating amusement with remarkable picture quality, astounding profundity, splendid shadings, Samsung utilized 3D HyperReal Engine. It is the mind of Samsung 3D TV, overseeing the shading, difference, and movement to its ideal level. Even though the top-notch scope of TVs offers a shocking 4K goal, a large portion of the sources, particularly in India don't give local 4K substance. This implies there is the need to upscale them when circulated on the TV, yet then they are in danger of seeming foggy or grainy. To adapt up to this, Panasonic has utilized a 4K Fine Remaster motor.

so, just make sure you explore the best 4KTv's available on today online offers.

#todayoffer todayonlineoffers

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vsionvry · 4 years

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Something Good Will Come With Time: 3D Artist Grace Casas on Futurism, Inspiration and Taking Time Away From Creating

Grace Casas is undeniably, effortlessly chill. Cool-headed and easy to talk to, the digital artist was a delight to speak to on all things nostalgia, Disney World, Animal Crossing, and becoming an artist at the wee age of five. Casas tackled balancing the demands of working as a full-time artist and having time to create works for herself that transport her and her viewers to other, more positive, and hopeful worlds.

ME: How’s your morning been going?

GC: It’s been going alright. Just a little bit of work here and there and prepping for this.

ME: Oh nice, the work that you create, that’s your main job right?

GC: Well, not necessarily. I have a full-time job as a CG Generalist, so I still do 3D work, but the personal stuff you see on Instagram that’s all on my own.

ME: Wow, that’s amazing.

GC: Yeah. Thank you!

ME: Is it difficult balancing your full-time work and your personal work?

GC: Absolutely. I struggle with that all the time—especially when quarantine started over here. I work a lot and try to make time to do my personal work.

ME: Do you sleep well? [chuckles]

GC: [laughs] I try. I try.

ME: [laughs] Nice. Where is here? Florida right?

GC: Well, I did live in Florida but I actually moved to New York a year and a half ago. Now I’m living in Brooklyn.

ME: Oh shoot. Me too!

GC: Oh hey! Which part?

ME: I’m in Bushwick.

GC: [gasp and laughter] Oh My God. Me too!

ME and GC: [laughing]

ME: Wow, that’s crazy. Small world. I listened to part of a podcast you did with someone and I remember you talking about Miami so I just decided that you lived there.

GC: I mean, hey, Florida is my hometown. I was born and raised there so it will always be home to me.

ME: Do you think moving from Florida to New York has affected what kind of work you’re making?

GC:I think so. For sure. A lot of my work is based in nostalgia and architecture that I grew up around which is very mid-century, space-age inspired stuff. Then I come to New York and it’s a totally different vibe. The environment is very concrete and very old school.

ME: That’s real. How do you feel about nostalgia as a concept and a feeling?

GC: I think it’s a really important feeling that everybody can relate to. I think it’s important that people and especially artists take a look at their roots because it really influences different people’s styles and paths.

ME: I agree. What are some of your favorite moments from childhood that has drifted into some of your artwork? Are there any Easter eggs or things like that?

GC: Yeah, my favorite parts of my childhood that influenced the work that I do now is definitely going to the beach and going to Disney a lot. I grew up right next to Disney World in Florida and it was always a place of wonder and magic of course. There was also this sense of futurism that Walt Disney himself really got influenced and inspired by. You see a lot of that in the architecture and his vision for Disney as a whole and the future. I saw it too and it blew my mind.

ME: Were you a big fan of Epcot then?

GC: Yeah, Epcot is just a source of pure inspiration. The aesthetic is so good to me.

ME: That’s so cool. I went to Disney World one time when I was fifteen and I had just read Fast Food Nation. I thought Disney was evil and in all the pictures I’m just frowning and it’s full of pure teenage angst [laughter]. I was like, “Hmph I don’t want to be here,” but I couldn’t deny that Epcot was really cool in all my rebellion.

GC: [laughs] I feel that.

ME: So, I’d like to hear more about architecture since it’s something you keep saying. What is it about architecture and buildings that speaks to you so much?

GC: I’m a very visual-feeling person and the whole “I have to see it to believe it,” sentiment really resonates with me. I think the best way to get immersed in any experience is the environment that you’re in; if you go to an art gallery that has a really interactive exhibition where it puts you in what seems to be a different world— I feel like that’s the best way to experience the feeling of being in another world or a different state of mind.

The best example of this sentiment is Yayoi Kusama and her installations and exhibitions. I can relate to that and I’m just trying to create that feeling in 3D and virtually rather than real life.

ME: Do you ever work with any traditional mediums or do you only do digital?

GC: So, I started out as an illustrator. Actually, I wanted to be a tattoo artist, but for some reason, digital design and seeing other 3D artists really inspired me. I think that’s where I found myself and my medium.

ME: Wow. I feel like a lot of your landscapes are very comforting especially since the [world’s] landscape is very doom, gloom, and chaos. Do you also feel like the works that you’re creating can offer a source of escape for people?

GC: That’s kind of why I do it. I made work mainly as an escape for myself— as selfish as that sounds—I made work for myself to escape to the good feelings, vibes, and nostalgia that I had as a kid where I just felt fascinated by everything.

Then I started noticing that people were also feeling the same way. They found a sense of comfort and nostalgia. Even as I move toward the future in my work, I think it offers a sense of hope for the future. Right now, everything seems like it’s going down the toilet.

“Honestly, it’s nice to think about a world in our distant future where we’re not bound by doom and gloom but inspired to move forward.”

ME: Does your use of color and shape directly relate to that mission? You use a lot of bright and bold colors, sometimes even neon.

GC: The bright and bold colors is definitely a mix of Florida as a whole— Florida is very bright and overexposed. Baby pinks end up being bright pinks and bright blues are just bright. There’s that sense of midcentury there and use of light and bright colors to paint a happy future and neons are definitely from when Florida turns off at night. It’s still bright in a different way.

ME: What are some of your favorite textures?

GC: Textures?

ME: Yeah, I know that’s kind of a weird question.

GC: No! Honestly I’ve never been asked that before its kind of a cool question. I think my favorite textures are anything that looks or feels soft or cozy.

ME: Mmmm.

GC: Or pretty basic texture, nothing too rough. Actually, I really like tiles a lot. [laughs]

ME: I do too! They’re so cool and refreshing. Cool to the touch.

GC: Yeah, exactly.

ME: Do you have a favorite artist?

GC: Yes I have a few favorite artists. Are you referring to classical artists or artists that exist now?

ME: All of them, just tell me all about your favorites and what you like about them.

GC: Okay, so I’ll start with what’s coming up to my head right now. There are two artists that I am heavily inspired by on Instagram right now: Andrés Reisinger, he’s another 3D artist and his work is so clean and wonderful. It inspired a bit of my textures and what I hope to be better at in the future in terms of technical work. There is also Alexis Cristodoulou, he’s another 3D environment render artist and I like him for the same reason why I like Andrés. They just have beautiful outcome of their work: the rendering, the output, the quality, its all just beautiful and it does inspire a lot of my composition.

When it comes to classical work that is a very interesting question. I think Pablo Picasso is one of my favorites in terms of classical. Mainly because he really thought outside of the box and he learned the traditional way to paint and draw and is a master of the principles and the elements but then he was like,

“I’m not bound by this; let’s experiment, let’s explore, let’s create something new.”

That something “new” I carry with me a lot in my own work. I’m an artist, I can make anything I want. [laughter]

ME: Yeah. I can definitely see that in your work.

GC: I shouldn’t be bound by what I see outside my window. I can really push the envelope in 3D.

ME: What’s inspiring you right now? Is there anything you’ve been seeing or watching that has you excited to make stuff?

GC: Yeah, I’ve been finding a lot of vintage architecture on Pinterest and vintage, space-age technology. There’s a lot of interesting ways that they built fancy tvs that we don’t really use anymore, but I’m trying to envision them as an environment rather than a piece of technology. I’m expanding old, space-age technology and blowing it up into a whole world.

ME: Do you watch a lot of tv?

GC: I do. I watch a lot of Netflix. [laughter]

ME: Have you heard of this show called LoveCraft Country?

GC: Yes. I watched the first episode and it was pretty insane.

ME: Yeah! It’s so good though! When you were talking about surrealism and futurism I was thinking about how, later on in the show you start seeing a lot of those elements in the show. So, I was curious as to whether you had seen it.

GC: Ohh. It’s on HBO right? I don’t have HBO yet so I kind of have to mooch of somebody.

ME: Alright, alright. I feel that. But when you do get it you need to watch it!

GC: I love Black Mirror. Damn, that show is so cool.

ME: It is. What’s your favorite episode?

GC: I think it was the dating app one. So the dating app makes two people go into a virtual world where they essentially play out their romance in a simulation.The simulation lays out how compatible they will be personality-wise by playing out different scenarios. When you’re watching it, it doesn’t tell you that its all a simulation, but you’re just seeing these two people trying to escape it and like try and find each other. At the end when you find out its a dating app you’re like whoa! The technology is just so out there. I feel like it’s very realistic though.

ME: Yeah that’s crazy. I feel like a lot of your work has this Black Mirror, light sci-fi whimsy to it. There’s a little humor and cheekiness in it. Would you say that’s part of your personality? Are you a funny person?

GC: I would definitely say I’m a fun person. Even though I work a lot and tend to stay indoors a lot, you invite me out for a party and I will dance my ass off. I love to go have fun with friends, drinking, partying whatever. I’m fun once you get to know me.

ME: What’s your sign?

GC: I’m a Gemini.

ME: AHHH me too! [laughter]

GC: AHHH [laughter]

ME: When’s your birthday?

GC: May 28th.

ME: Oh you’re a May Gemini. Wowww. I’m a June Gemini. June 17.

GC: Ayee look at that!

ME: What excites you the most about life right now?

GC: Right now, its hard to say. [laughter]

ME: [hard laughing]

GC: Mainly because, its like hmmmm maybe going outside [laughter] but I think in terms of like a year timeline, is things turning up and getting out of this slump as they say. I feel like this pandemic and this whole economic collapse doesn’t happen all the time. It doesn’t happen every few years. It feels like a very unique experience that we’re going through and will, maybe once we’re out of it, usher us into a new age of technology and innovation and serve a mini-Renaissance if you will.

“With a lot of bad times comes a lot of good times because progress isn’t stagnant.”

ME: I definitely agree. My mom always told me that things get like ten times worse before they get any better. So, like as much bad shit is happening right now, it can only be great after this.

GC: It’s going to be great.

ME: It’s going to be so great. What excites you the most about your creative process?

GC: Ooo what excites me the most? I think seeing everything come together and also getting like a Eureka moment where I’m like ‘Oh my god, this would look good!’ and then I experiment with it and its like ‘Oh my god, it does!’ and it ends up being totally incredible. I get inspired and get that fire to go to my computer and start clacking away and just doing what I do. It excites me to create in general.

ME: Do you create your work from references or is a lot of it just off the dome?

GC: 90% of it is off the dome.

ME: Whoa.

GC: And then the other 10% of it is that I will go outside and take a picture and experiment with how I can make something of my own or I’ll look at another artist’s piece and I’ll pick parts that I really like and like before, make it my own and experiment.

ME: Is the second part more of what you do when you’re lacking inspiration or can’t come up with something?

GC: Oh yeah. Yeah [laughs]

ME: So that’s your go-to move? Are there any other things you do when you’re not motivated?

GC: It’s not my go-to. Everyone has their creative blocks where they can’t make anything, but I feel like when I do get creative blocks I take my time. To overcome a block I take my time and I don’t force myself to make anything rushed. I look at other art and consume inspiration before I start getting inspired again and it usually ends up working out that way.

ME: Yeah, I’m the same way. One time, I had a writing block for like two years, but honestly everything that happened in that time was stuff that— I kind of just lived a little. Everything that I’ve written since then is some of the best stuff I’ve ever done you know?

“Exactly. People forget that creative blocks doesn’t mean it lasts for like two weeks or a month. It can last for years before you start to find yourself again.”

ME: Yeah! Sometimes it means you need to pay a little more attention to what’s going on around you in your life.

GC: For sure.

ME: So do you take days off from your art?

GC: Oh, absolutely. Especially when I’m feeling burnt out from my own job. Which tends to happen a lot because I work pretty intense hours. I take breaks. I play video games. I don’t focus on the need to make something for anyone else and I focus on the need to create something inspirational. Something good will come with time.

ME: Yeah I feel that. What kind of video games do you play?

GC: Oh, I love Animal Crossing.

ME: Ah! Me too!

GC: I love Mario.

ME and GC: [laughter]

ME: You have a Switch?

GC: Yeah I have a Switch and its amazing. Nintendo for life.

ME: Oh I know. Oh my god. That’s what I do when I’m stressed out too. I just play Animal Crossing until I feel better.

ME and GC: [laughter]

GC: I feel that. Oh man.

ME: When you’re burnt out, do you do any like— people are really into journaling and meditation or sound baths or whatever—

GC: [laughs]

ME: Do you find any of that stuff useful?

GC: Okay. I have ADD. I find that meditation is basically like a mental prison sometimes. I used to do a lot of journaling and it does help me get my thoughts out there when I’m feeling really low and burnt out. I do it every now and then, but sometimes all I need is a good shower or a walk around my block. A walk to the park honestly helps so much because you can get really tied up with how you’re feeling when you’re constantly working in one place and sometimes a change of pace is just what I need. It’s like okay, I exerted all this mental energy and now I can just focus on what’s important.

ME: Okay, I have one more question. At what age did you begin to feel like an artist?

GC: Oh when I was born honestly. I just remember a very specific memory where I was 5 or 6 years old. I wasn’t even in kindergarten yet. I was in like preschool. One day, in my room I decided to draw all of my classmates. It’s a really shitty drawing. I’m telling you.

Everyone is triangular and it’s a crayon mess. Some people are like pink or blue or green and it just looks chaotic. When I showed my parents, I remember everyone was so ecstatic. They were like, look at what you did! You made this artwork and its so beautiful! She’s drawing from reality! To this day, we still have that picture in a frame. Ever since then I was an artist.

With that, Grace laughs and we exchange pleasantries and well-wishes to each other— each of us ending the call, turning to our computer screens, and getting to work. We stare at the screen searching for inspiration, searching for hope, and mining for ores of progress in other worlds.

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merriammusicinc · 4 years

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Yamaha P515 Digital Piano Review & Demo

youtube

Introduction

In this article, we're going to be taking a look at Yamaha's P515, the flagship of Yamaha's P series. We'll be looking at the action, the sound engine and obviously talking about the rest of its features and what other instruments you could be looking at in parallel to the Yamaha if you are on a search for a portable instrument in that $1,500 to $2,000 price range.

Yamaha P515 Digital Piano Review Video Transcription

Sound Engine:

We'll start by discussing the sound. The P515 happens to be equipped with a pretty advanced tone engine, with 256 maximum note polyphony. For people out there who aren't too sure what polyphony is or why it's potentially important, a given digital piano's polyphony count represents the maximum number of individual tones that this can sort of simultaneously play at one time. We have detailed video on our YouTube channel explaining polyphony in more depth if you're interested. 256 note polyphony means you could technically hold the damper pedal down, sweep all the way up and down the piano voices three times before the processor starts dropping notes. Under any normal playing circumstance, 256 notes polyphony is plenty and has become the standard for higher quality instruments, starting around the $2,000 price point and going and up from there.

In terms of the sound engine itself, the main acoustic piano samples Yamaha has used here is their Yamaha CFX concert grand piano as well as the Bosendorfer Imperial concert, both 9 ft concert grands. Yamaha refers to their sampling process as Binaural Sampling, which is then enhanced by Stereophonic Optimizer technology for headphone use. These samples sound quite distinct from one another with the CFX sample bring quite colorful, bright and very dynamic, whereas the Bosendorfer Imperial piano sample is a darker natural sound with a more compressed dynamic experience. There's of course some other acoustic piano samples as well making up a pretty good variety of tones to choose from. Overall, the acoustic piano sample here offers an all around authentic piano playing experience, especially with the CFX and Bosendorfer Imperial piano samples.

There's this function called Piano Room, which operates very similar to what like the Roland's Piano Designer, Kawai's Virtual Technician apps. The piano room app allows for intelligent acoustic control of some of the finer nuances of piano tone. For example, some of the parameters you can edit are lid position height, the brightness of the hammer, touch response curve, reverb depth, metronome, master tuning, damper resonance, string resonance, virtual resonance modeling(VRM), and aliquot resonance. As you can guess, that allows the user a lot of control to customize the piano tone, which is something that's essentially becoming a standard feature on most digial pianos at this price point. It's nice to see that Yamaha is also doing a really nice job with this here. I enjoy the graphic nature of the user interface here, as some instruments leave it up to shortcut command and you can't really visualize what's happening, so having the display makes the whole process more intuitive.

The onboard speakers are rated at 40 watts in total. There's 15 watts per side for the main and then it also lists two 5-watt tweeters. The main speaker is basically a two-way speaker system with a main speaker inside the cone. Embedded on top is an additional tweeter and they rate those separately. 40 watts is enough to fill a small room, and certainly enough that you don't need an amplifier to enjoy private playing. It's probably not enough to gig with, but likely fine for lighter rehearsals.

Other sound categories here include the standard E piano stuff, including a nice Phaser EP. There's also a patch that sounds like a Wurlitzer, as well as a "Disney" patch, labeled DX. Once you get into the clav, the vibes and the strings patches there's a little bit of hit and miss in how well these sound come across, but the acoustic piano and E. piano tones are definitely very well executed. The Yamaha tone is quite specific - a totally different experience than playing, for example, a Kawai which tends to be a little thicker in terms of the tone and maybe a little warmer. Roland's generally have wide selection of sounds and once you get to the FP-90, there's sound modeling which is a totally different experience. Some people really like that, and others don't. For people who are a fan of the Yamaha style of tone, I think they've done a really great job and the piano should work in a variety musical genres.

That's basically a wrap up of the discussion of the tone engine, and a quick review of the types of sounds that are included on-board, and a few other thoughts as well.

Piano Action:

Let's talk about the action on this P515. There are things about the action that I like, and then there are things about the action that I would say is important that you be aware of it. I'm not going to necessarily categorize these aspects as positive or negative, but rather a buyer beware. We'll go through these observations one by one.

The action Yamaha has put into the P515 is what they call the NWX(Natural Wood X) action. This action is a wooden key/plastic key hybrid and both visually as well as in a tactile sense gives you a smooth release and greater feel of an acoustic grand piano. Many digital pianos in this price range offer a featured referred to as escapement or let-off. Escapement is the sensation on a key that is caused by the jack slipping off the knuckle on a grand piano. Basically, you've set the hammer in motion, it swings up, hits the string, without being physically connected to anything so it can bounce back freely, and reset the action. On a real piano this sensation is readily apparent, and within the last 5 to 10 years, digital piano manufacturers have started including that sensation in the portable design of their keyboards to make it feel a little bit more like an acoustic grand piano. I was always puzzled by this because I always thought that this sensation was an unintended sensation on an acoustic piano, to begin with. In any case, it does make you feel more familiar when you're in front of digital technology if you've got some experience playing an acoustic piano.

While Yamaha advertises that the P515 has escapement, I actually double-check that with the specs because after I first played one, I didn't really feel the escapement sensation at all. For people who are looking for a keyboard where that escapement is a little more prominent in terms of the sensation it gives you, this action may fall short of the mark. For people who don't like the feel anyway, just ignore the specs and carry on.

The key surface on the white keys is basically a polished white plastic. This is a very different approach than what most high-end digital pianos have taken within the last few years, which is to go with with a pretty porous white surface to give a greater sense of texture. In the case of Roland or Casio, they've actually gone with a full ivory keytops texture, so Yamaha's choice here is a little bit unusual. The drawback with a polished key surface is that they tend to be quite grippy anytime you're in a more humid environment which can make it a bit more difficult to play intricate music that requires precision of finger position. Otherwise, it's just a personal choice that's neither good nor bad, just something to be aware of.

The black keys on the other hand have a very grooved, deep texture. The feeling is similar to that of a new Mason & Hamlin acoustic piano from the last 10 years or so, for anyone whose had a chance to play one. It sort of feels like an unfinished ebony wood type of texture. Again, this quite a bit different than what you get on most digital pianos, and it's something that some folks will love, and others will not. The NWX uses a triple sensor which means you're going to have very accurate MIDI output, which is great.

Coming to the last subject and probably the one that needs to be addressed most directly is the weight of the keys. Before I'd played the P515, I'd been on a number of forums to read about other people's impressions, and the weight of the keys is a topic of discussion quite often, as several people had made the comment that the keys were heavy. I come from an acoustic piano world originally, and an acoustic piano should have a key weight (meaning the amount of weight that it takes to put the key in motion) anywhere from about mid-40s at the very lowest up to about 60 grams at the very heaviest. Most concert technicians usually try and weigh the key depending on whether it's at the bottom of the piano or the top of the piano, anywhere from the low to high 50 grams. These keys on the P515 are considerably heavier than that. In that respect, it's consistent with some of the larger Yamaha stage pianos of the past like the CP300. I played one of those for years in a pit band and it had really heavy keys as well. This is something that Yamaha's user community may be used to and appreciate, but for somebody who's not used to it, playing on this instrument for an extended period of time is somewhat fatiguing. I'm someone who's used to playing multiple gigs per week and having those gigs be three to four hours long, so my playing muscles are well conditioned and I find this action tiring.

I hope this isn't coming across as necessarily a negative, as some may love it and It may be exactly what you're looking for. For people who are looking for a strong sense sense of depth to the key, perhaps this action exactly what you're looking for. But it's something to be aware of that the keys are in the 70-gram range, heavier than a grand piano action.

Features/Accessories/Connectivity:

The Yamaha P515 is comes standard with a few extra accessories, and offers some optional add-on's as well. With wooden accents and polished details, the P-515 looks as good as it sounds. This is consistent with what you generally find in the market from your major manufacturers. Good comparisons to the P515 would be the Roland FP-60 or FP-90, as well the Kawai ES8. The first thing that's included with the P515 is a very solid sustain pedal unit (FC4A). I really like the inclusion of a robust sustain pedal, and it's really frusterating when digital pianos come with those little plastic square pedals that just skid all over the place. This pedal is much more stable and it offers the ability to perform half-pedaling.

The P515 also comes with an integrated music rest, as well as a standard PA-300C power supply. In terms of optional add-on's, you've got available a matching keyboard stand for the keyboard itself, which compliments the furniture and makes the instrument look a little bit more like a stationary piano. There's a triple pedal system that you can be added on as well, and the inclusion of both the stand and triple pedal essentially turns the P515 into a home digital piano.

In terms of connectivity on the back of the instrument, the P515 features an independent 1/4-inch aux outs and aux in, a mini-jack audio input and a Bluetooth radio for quick connection to an iPad or other device. I have to give kudos to Yamaha in terms of how easy it is to turn on and off the Bluetooth audio function. On many digital pianos this feature can be somewhat hidden and require a look at the manual to switch on, so the ease of use of the feature here is most welcome.

Last but not least, there's USB connection that heads out to the computer that also acts as a USB audio connector. This mean the Yamaha P515 is going to work really well if you've got some external software instruments that you're using, such as Ableton, with the P515 functioning as a MIDI controller. There's no need for any of this external mixing as it all goes in and out through the USB connector, so this is super handy. On the front of the P515, we've got a USB device port. This is for things like audio recording, so you can plug that in and you can record WAV straight to here - another super useful feature.

When it comes to features, the P515 has all the standard kinds of digital piano features that you would expect. There's transpose, split, dual mode, sound boost, and EQ. Navigating all of the features is very easy via the user interface. One last function I'm going to highlight here is the rhythm function with onboard accompaniment. There's a lot of control here, and this function would work great for fun at home or light professional applications.

Yamaha has also made available the Smart Pianist app for iOS, which creates a remote control touch screen interface, super cool. The Smart Pianist app also has the ability to access the songs in your iOS device's music library and create chord charts to make for easy play along with your favorite songs.

Conclusions:

This pretty much wraps up our review of the Yamaha 515 - an instrument that is definitely focused on delivering a high quality, authentic piano experience. I'm very impressed with the acoustic piano sounds, the E piano sounds and how easy it is to use the piano editing module. Be aware that this is a heavier action featured here, and somebody who isn't accustomed to that or isn't expecting that this might feel a bit of buyer's remorse if they purchase the instrument before trying it. Otherwise, this is a capable instrument and certainly anyone who is in the market for a high-end all-in-one portable digital piano, should have this instrument on your wish list to check out, along with the Roland FP60, FP90 and Kawai ES8. Thanks for reading!

The post Yamaha P515 Digital Piano Review & Demo first appeared on Merriam Pianos

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biofunmy · 5 years

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All the streaming services, ranked

If you’re struggling with which streaming service suits your needs, here are the pros and cons of the biggest brands. USA TODAY

Welcome to the era of the Streaming Wars.

Hollywood is getting more crowded than ever as two new online streaming services, Apple TV+ and Disney+, join the digital fight for your eyeballs and money in November. And there’s still more to come: Next spring, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and Comcast’s Peacock join the mix.

With Netflix, Hulu and Amazon already dominating the streaming world, and smaller players like CBS All Access, Shudder and Acorn TV fighting for their place in the mix, the new TV landscape can be a daunting avalanche of choices, and subscribing to every new service can easily end up costing more than that cable bill you already cut.

But not all streaming services are created equal. Before you subscribe to the latest, consider our list of the major services, ranked from best to worst. We’ve included only services not available as a cable channel (sorry, HBO Now), and those streaming in 2019 (we’ll get back to HBO Max and Peacock later).

The Handmaid’s Tale was Hulu’s first breakout hit. (Photo: Hulu)

1. Hulu

Cost: $5.99/month with ads; $11.99/month commercial-free

Originals: A mix of award-winning high profile dramas (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Act”), tiny, quirky and acclaimed comedies (“PEN15,” “Shrill”) and occasional theatrical or streaming-only films (“Little Monsters,” “Fyre Fraud”).

Library: Includes currently airing TV shows on ABC, NBC and Fox (“The Masked Singer,” “Stumptown”) paired with archival series (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Designing Women,” “Seinfeld”) and films (“Boyz n the Hood”).

Kid-friendly? A robust kids’ section has mostly older shows (“Sailor Moon,” “Doug”) but a few originals like “The Bravest Knight.”

Hulu tops our list because it’s a broadly appealing service that offers plenty of genres and styles without scraping the bottom of the barrel for new content. The ability to watch current broadcast shows in-season is a huge advantage. And Hulu has the best selection of archival TV series with a solid showing of films, too. Its originals could be better, but the service has wisely chosen not to overload us with shoddy new programming, a mistake its biggest competitor, Netflix, has unfortunately made. Hulu’s value is likely to grow in the next few years, now that Disney effectively owns the service. Adult Marvel content will likely gravitate here, along with a trove of FX series.

Sadie Sink, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Caleb McLaughlin in Stranger Things 3 . (Photo: Netflix.)

2. Netflix

Cost: $8.99/month to watch on one screen at once, $12.99/month to watch on two screens or $15.99/month to watch on four screens in Ultra HD.

Originals: Has the largest crop of originals, which means the biggest mix in quality as well. Notables include “Stranger Things,” “Queer Eye” and “The Crown,” in addition to Oscar-bait movies like Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.”

Library: Shrinking every year. Although some stalwarts remain on the service (“Breaking Bad,” “Dexter,” “Supernatural”), Netflix is investing in originals, not in holding onto the rights for legacy series and films. (“Friends,” “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” are among those shifting elsewhere by 2021 for U.S. subscribers).

Kid-friendly? Netflix’s kids’ section is massive, populated mostly with dozens of originals (A “Boss Baby” series, an upcoming “Green Eggs and Ham” adaptation) and some library content (“Pokemon”).

Netflix may be synonymous with the idea of streaming content, but while it pioneered the format, it hasn’t perfected it. The service has a huge number of films and TV shows to choose from, but that library isn’t as good as it once was. Netflix’s biggest flaw is that it is abandoning its archival content in favor of an ever-more-mediocre slate of originals across all genres of TV and film. Some of these series are brilliant (“The Crown,” “BoJack Horseman”), others are decent (“Queer Eye”), but most are poor facsimiles of better TV (“Ozark,” “Fuller House”). The movies that premiere on the service without a theatrical run (and thus, aren’t vying for Oscars) have a distinct “TV movie” vibe. Still, Netflix is a really valuable service and the biggest name in the game, only slightly edged out by Hulu.

Pedro Pascal stars as the title character in the new Disney+ series, “The Mandalorian.” (Photo: Francois Duhamel, Lucasfilm Ltd.)

3. Disney+

Cost: $6.99/month or $69.99/year (available Nov. 12)

Originals: The first Star Wars live-action series (“The Mandalorian”), teen comedy “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” “Toy Story” spinoff “Forky Asks a Question” and a slew of nonfiction series. More Star Wars and Marvel series are promised over the next few years.

Library: The Disney Vault has opened, and classics (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”) and duds (“The Shaggy D.A.”) alike will flood the service, along with recent blockbusters (“Avengers: Endgame”) from the studio. Some titles inherited from the merger with 20th Century Fox (“The Simpsons”) also are available.

Kid-friendly? Extremely. All content on the service is family friendly to some degree, to fit with the Disney brand.

The biggest threat to existing services comes from the biggest conglomerate in Hollywood. Disney is flexing its considerable muscle by offering its classic films paired with original series from its biggest brands: Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel. Its huge library is its biggest advantage, as is the ability to reboot and revive (“Lizzie McGuire,” here we come). But the biggest disadvantage is the lack of diversity in programming. Everything here will be very Disney in tone and style, and the service has no plans for mature programming and mindless reality TV, which has its time and place. If you have kids, the value of the service goes up exponentially, but for those of us not trying to entertain tykes, other streamers have more to choose from.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge takes a smoking break as the titular character in Amazon’s “Fleabag.” (Photo: STEVE SCHOFIELD/AMAZON)

4. Amazon Prime Video

Cost: $12.99/month, but comes with free two-day shipping

Originals: “Jack Ryan,” “Bosch,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and lots of small, awards-friendly fare, a lineup that’s changing rapidly as the company embraces genre shows like an upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series.

Library: A wide assortment that most notably includes Masterpiece dramas(“Downton Abbey”), mid-2000s procedurals (“The Closer,” “Bones”), USA Network shows (“Mr. Robot,” “Suits”) and some older HBO programming.

Kid-friendly? Yes, Amazon includes originals like “Kung Fu Panda” and Nickelodeon series like “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Dora the Explorer.”

Amazon’s TV output is perfectly acceptable, especially if you like quaint British television and series your grandparents will enjoy. The streamer excels at comedies (Emmy-winning “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Fleabag”) and has an impressive selection of British TV (“Doctor Who,” “Broadchurch”). Its library of old series and originals is not as big as Hulu and Netflix, but it does have Oscar-nominated films (“The Big Sick” and “Manchester by the Sea”) acquired from festivals. Your money goes further, because it pays for two-day shipping with TV as a bonus, but it still offers a higher proportion of niche programming than its rivals. Unlike Netflix or Hulu, it can’t replace your cable subscription all on its own, but its lineup will expand to include a fashion series from Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum and an expensive “Rings” adaptation.

Sonequa Martin-Green returns as Michael Burnham for a third season of “Star Trek: Discovery.” (Photo: JOHN MEDLAND/CBS)

5. CBS All Access

Cost: $5.99/month with commercials, $9.99/month without

Originals: “Star Trek: Discovery,” “The Good Fight,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Why Women Kill”

Library: Current (and recent) CBS series, classics (“I Love Lucy”) and movies (“Rocky”).

Kid-friendly? Some library content like “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Everybody Hates Chris,” but nothing for preschoolers and no originals.

Don’t knock the Eye’s streaming service until you’ve tried it. It’s a little on the expensive side for the number of originals, but its streaming shows have a better batting average when it comes to quality (“The Good Fight” is one of the best shows on TV). In addition to CBS shows, its library includes a treasure trove of classic films and TV, such as “Happy Days” and “The Brady Bunch.” However, it’s still limited in scope, so seeing some episodes of “Star Trek: Picard” a few times a year may not be worth the expense.

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon star in the new Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.” (Photo: Apple)

6. Apple TV+

Cost: $4.99/month; free for one year with purchase of an Apple product (available Nov. 1)

Originals: “The Morning Show,” “See,” “For All Mankind,” “Dickinson,” “The Elephant Queen,” “Oprah’s Book Club,” and other new shows from M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg.

Library: None

Kid friendly? Nope

Despite its low price tag, Apple has a distinct disadvantage in value because it has no back library of classic shows or films. You could burn through their entire new catalog in a few weeks. And you wouldn’t get much from binge-watching the new series, which include “The Morning Show,” a mediocre soap starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. The best of the bunch is alternate history drama “For All Mankind,” from the creator of “Battlestar Galactica,” but is it worth the money to see just one maybe-good show? Probably not.

Three decades after “The Karate Kid,” Johnny (left, William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) face off again in “Cobra Kai.” (Photo: YOUTUBE RED)

Honorable mentions: AcornTV, Britbox, Shudder, YouTube and Facebook Watch

A few other, much smaller streaming services are vying for your wallet. AcornTV and BritBox are for serious Anglophiles (Acorn has more mysteries, Britbox has all of classic “Doctor Who”). Shudder is devoted to horror. Facebook Watch and YouTube are a mix of user-created and professional content. Facebook Watch has one good original series (“Sorry for Your Loss” starring Elisabeth Olsen); so does YouTube (“Karate Kid” sequel “Cobra Kai”). Facebook Watch is free if you have time for it, and YouTube also has a free tier, with ads.

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themattress · 7 years

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This quote rings true. Things should not stay the same and stagnate, stories and media should take risks and do new things. BUT there’s also a fine balance here, and an opposite extreme - sometimes things change for the worse and those changes should be walked back when that becomes apparent. However, many immediately decry such sentiments as people having “nostalgia goggles” or being stuck in the past when they should just blindly accept the present and future even when it’s not very good. This is foolish, and I agree with the quote above: if something new and different is detrimental to the work, then the course should be reversed back to what worked before. In fact, this has even happened in many past cases.

Disney - Following the Disney Renaissance ending in 1999, Disney took a sudden shift toward the cynical and “hip”, particularly following the success of Dreamworks’ Shrek. Fantasia 2000, Dinosaur, The Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, and Chicken Little were all affected to varying degrees. The most successful film in this period was Lilo & Stitch...oddly enough, the only one to be completely emotionally sincere. Thanks to John Lasseter stepping in following Michael Eisner’s ousting, Disney gradually returned to its old, traditional emotional sincerity, sparking a new renaissance.

Star Wars - The notorious prequels drove Star Wars into a rut, and while the animated The Clone Wars series ultimately improved, it didn’t absolve the Old Republic fatigue many fans were feeling for well over a decade. After Disney’s purchase of the franchise, it returned to the Original Trilogy era with its Rebels animated series, Rogue One movie, and various books and comics, plus moving forward into a whole new era with a new film trilogy, although even that - for better or for worse - is heavily linked to the Original Trilogy and its aesthetics.

Star Trek - After a good start with the 2009 reboot film, Star Trek took a bad turn with the sequel, Stark Trek Into Darkness, which bore slim resemblance to anything Star Trek...except for, needlessly and insultingly, The Wrath of Khan. With Star Trek Beyond, however, the ship was righted, the previous film completely forgotten about, and things felt like they should again, with the crew exploring new worlds and going where none has ever gone before.

Pokemon - This one is weird, since its a double-twist example. With Gen V, the games took a different route with new innovations based more toward casual gamers, and became more story-focused than before. This drew a considerable backlash from the more hardcore gamer community, and so they returned to the older style but with new, hardcore gamer-oriented gimmicks in Gen VI. But then, Gen VII happened and the franchise moved back toward the Gen V-style of casual gamer-oriented stuff and a heavier focus on story, so it seems Gen VI didn’t pan out like the developers had hoped, and the Gen V route was really the way to go.

This also happened with the anime. After a decade of stagnating formulaic writing, the staff used the Gen V series to return to the original style of the original Kanto series, before Pokemon became a huge phenomenon and the writers’ creativity became limited as a result. Again, this drew an outcry from the vocal minority of hardcore fans who like the other style for some unfathomable reason, and so they switched back to that style in the Gen VI series. But then, with the Gen VII series, they’ve once again gone closer to the original Kanto series style, complete with a movie based on the first episode of the Kanto series and Ash’s original traveling companions Misty and Brock returning for a while. Not surprising - fans may have loved the Gen VI series, but it was a ratings bomb in Japan among the target audience.

Digimon - I’m naming this because it’s an example of this process FAILING. After the series had a string of lackluster outings - Frontier, Savers, and (especially due to its third season) Xros Wars - Digimon returned to its roots, going back to the Adventure-verse with Digimon Adventure TRI. This was a good idea, but its execution has failed for three reasons - it’s being done as a series of OVA movies rather than as a TV show like it should have been, it writes out all Digimon Adventure 02 elements it doesn’t like including the new main characters from that series, and it has increasingly become fixated on the new Creator’s Pet duo of Meiko and Meicoomon at the detriment of the original main characters it was supposedly going to be all about. It’s a trainwreck, and I’m ready for it to end at this point.

Ben 10 - This one’s obvious. Man of Action’s original series featuring the 10-year old version of Ben was a huge success, but then Cartoon Network took them off the franchise and forced a time skip, and none of the teen Ben sequels got anywhere close to the original’s worldwide acclaim. And so, they finally wised up and let Man of Action return with a rebooted series following 10-year old Ben again, which improved after a shaky start and now toy commercials that feel like they would have fit in 2006 are airing on TV once more. It’s a good feeling.

Spongebob Squarepants - Stephen Hillenburg and Derek Drymon left after the movie that followed the third season, and the show devolved into a banal, mean-spirited mess afterward. Thankfully, Hillenburg has returned to the show recently and is doing an admirable job setting things right, with the recent episodes and especially the Sponge Out Of Water movie being entertaining on the level of the show in its glory days. The question is: how long will it last?

Sonic the Hedgehog - Two words: Sonic. Mania. After years and years of fail after fail from 3D Sonic, Sega paired with Christian Whitehead to finally, truly resurrect 2D Sonic, in a game that feels like it comes fresh off of Sonic 3 & Knuckles in the mid-90s, and it is awesome. It’s clear that Sonic does not work nearly as well as a talking 3D character with a vast supporting cast and increasingly complicated stories as he does as a silent 2D protagonist with a select few friends and enemies, starring in games that are light on plot. I’m sorry, it’s just true.

DC Comics - DC was struggling for some time as it was, but the New 52 was a particularly disastrous move on their part. You could count the stand-out good comics from that initiative on one hand - two if you’re being really generous. Now that the New 52 has been set back, things are starting to get better. Even their movie output now has a new hopeful future thanks to the success of Wonder Woman. They’d better keep to this path, it’s working.

Spider-Man - Even the property that sparked this quote has seen this happen, just this year, in fact. First off, after Sam Raimi’s original film trilogy concluded, Sony rebooted the film franchise solely so that they could keep the rights, and made their Amazing Spider-Man films more edgy in tone and more in line with whatever their marketing department decided was hip and in at the time. They bombed, and Sony made a deal with Marvel, leading to Spider-Man: Homecoming which feels more in line with the spirit of Spider-Man, albeit updated for modern times. And then, Disney ended its mostly horrendous Ultimate Spider-Man show, replacing it with a new show that, again, feels more in line with the spirit of Spider-Man, closer to the ‘90s show and The Spectacular Spider-Man, and it is perfectly entertaining.

So yeah, sometimes new and different isn’t always good.

Sometimes, older is best.

#Analysis #Disney #Star Wars #Star Trek #Pokemon #Digimon #Ben 10 #Spongebob Squarepants #Sonic the Hedgehog #DC Comics #Spider-Man #This has been a PSA

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beckykingba2a · 5 years

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Background Research on Virtual Reality

This is purely research and from websites, it is not my own writing but a compilation of topical broad research on my topic of choice.

http://fortune.com/2016/04/25/disney-nokia-virtual-reality-camera-deal/

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2016/04/25/nokia-technologies-ozo-to-enable-virtual-reality-experiences-for-disney-movies/

“Nokia Technologies (2016) work with Disney to provide equipment and VR technologies to support the creation of special VR content for a range of Disney films. Most recently, Nokia and Disney used OZO to create two 360 videos for the April premiere of Disney's The Jungle Book

OZO will help Disney bring their film properties to life in new ways through an immersive entertainment experience.”

https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/28/9064499/nokia-vr-camera-ozo

“Today Nokia is beginning to lay out its vision. At an event for the entertainment industry in Los Angeles tonight, Nokia is announcing Ozo, a next-generation camera for capturing audio and video in 360 degrees. Nokia intends for the device, which is now in its pre-production phase, to become the default mode of shooting virtual-reality experiences for Hollywood, the media, and the advertising industry. A formal launch, along with a final sale price, is planned for the fall. But Ozo is not a consumer camera — the device is expected to sell in the mid-five figures.

Ozo affixes to a standard tripod and outputs video in standard formats. You can watch Ozo video on a headset like Oculus' or as a 3D video posted to a site like YouTube. The goal was to make a system that would integrate into filmmakers' existing workflows, Nokia executives said, and not to trap them in proprietary file formats.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2017/10/10/nokia-focuses-on-patent-brand-and-technology-licensing-and-targets-faster-growth-in-digital-health-with-sharpened-strategy-for-nokia-technologies/

“In digital media, the slower-than-expected development of the VR market means that Nokia Technologies plans to reduce investments and focus more on technology licensing opportunities. The unit aims to halt the development of further versions of the OZO VR camera and hardware while maintaining commitments to existing customers.

The potential reductions are expected to affect up to 310 of the roughly 1090 employees in Nokia Technologies, mainly in Finland, the US and the UK. To start the process, Nokia today has invited employee representatives of Nokia Technologies in Finland to cooperation negotiations.”

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/10/16452114/nokia-killing-off-ozo-virtual-reality-camera-310-jobs-lost

“It was only two years ago that Nokia announced the Ozo camera system and positioned it as a high-end option for filmmakers to capture 360-degree video. The camera originally sold for $60,000, though the price was eventually cut to $45,000. In a press statement, Nokia said it will “maintain commitments” to existing Ozo customers, though did not clarify what that means.”

http://www.goodnewsfinland.com/disney-goes-virtual-nokia-technologies/

“Virtual reality represents a new frontier in storytelling, and we’re thrilled to be bringing this VR technology to the team at Disney,” states Ramzi Haidamus, president at Nokia Technologies. “OZO will help Disney bring their film properties to life in new ways through immersive entertainment experiences, and our focus will be on helping them get the most out of VR as they begin to uncover all that it has to offer.

OZO is the world’s first and sole virtual reality camera for professional content creators. The camera offers real-time VR preview, 3D 360 degree spatial audio and video capture, full compatibility with professional workflows and multiple head-mounted displays. It also significantly reduces post-production time, complexity and cost.”

https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/history.html

“The Nintendo Virtual Boy (originally known as VR-32) was a 3D gaming console that was hyped to be the first ever portable console that could display true 3D graphics. It was first released in Japan and North America at a price of $180 but it was a commercial failure despite price drops. The reported reasons for this failure were a lack of colour in graphics (games were in red and black), there was a lack of software support and it was difficult to use the console in a comfortable position. The following year they discontinued its production and sale.”

https://futureofstorytelling.org/video/glen-keane-step-into-the-page

“Keane has spent his career embracing new tools, from digital environments to 3D animation to today's virtual reality, which finally enables him to step into his drawings and wander freely through his imagination. At FoST, he'll explore how to tap into your own creativity, connecting to emotion and character more directly than ever before?”

Keane's VR painting is created in Tiltbrush

youtube

https://www.blender.org/

“Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. You can create animation in 2D and add a 3D environment all in this 1 program.”

http://what-when-how.com/hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets/hybrid-animation-the-main-problems-hybrid-animation-integrating-2d-and-3d-assets-part-1/

“Yet ever since the first appearance of a 3D glowing bauble in a 2D animated film, Disney’s The Black Cauldron, artists have been finding inventive ways to combine the animation media. The use of 2D/3D at Disney predates The Black Cauldron and can be seen in a short test done by John Lassiter titled Where the Wild Things Are (1983).”

https://interestinglyanimated.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/2d3d-animation-combined-disneys-paperman/

“John Kahrs Is Still “Pursuing” This Process At Disney”

https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/05/15/cheaper-vr-is-coming-will-it-be-enough-to-kick-start-consumer-interest/

“The Oculus Go is one device designed to target consumers who have been reluctant to invest in VR because of the price. First revealed in 2017, the Oculus Go is a standalone headset device that doesn’t require a smartphone to be used—nor does it require a bulky computer setup.

Instead, for just $199, users can have a fully immersed VR experience. As you might imagine, the Oculus Go experience won’t be as high-quality as the full Oculus Rift experience, but it should be enough to win over some new users.

The Oculus Rift, for its part, is getting cheaper as well; a headset these days will set you back $399. For this, you’ll still need a sophisticated computer, however, and due to the high price of GPUs, it’s no longer cost-efficient to build your own PC from scratch. You can still expect to pay $1,000 or more for a high-quality gaming PC, though it’s possible to find options for $750 if you don’t mind a budget model. That’s still $1,150 out the door for a full VR setup, however, which is more than many consumers are willing to pay.

Oculus isn’t the only name in VR, of course. Google’s smartphone-based Daydream is already going for around $50, though any VR experience powered by a smartphone is going to be less immersive and detailed than one powered by a gaming PC.

Then there are options like PlayStation VR, which makes use of the PS4 console to give users a high-quality VR experience—though game selection is more limited than it is with a PC and Oculus Rift.

The other issues with VR

Price is one of the biggest issues critics have found with modern VR, but there are other factors keeping the tech from taking off.

Lack of killer content. There isn’t any core content that makes people want to rush out and buy a VR unit. Game consoles often launch with one or two must-have games that draw consumers to the main product, but there aren’t any standout VR titles that have justified a $1,000+ investment. Some piece of content needs to bridge the gap between low-expectation users and technology.

Gaming alignment. Do you have any friends who dislike video games but are obsessed with VR? Probably not. While VR has uses beyond gaming, the general public has a strong association with VR as a piece of gaming technology. There are millions of gamers to market VR to, but VR developers are hoping to reach a wider audience. Because they haven’t been able to shed the gaming-specific association yet, an entire segment of the public is practically unreachable right now.

VR sickness. VR developers also haven’t solved the problem of VR sickness, the motion sickness-like state of nausea that occurs in many users when engaging in a VR world. While many people can engage in VR endlessly without an issue, many others report unpleasant feelings when using VR. It’s certainly not a selling point.

Usability. Today’s smartphone-based VR headsets are lightweight and portable, but the fully-featured headset units are usually wired, clunky, uncomfortable, and not very portable. This lack of usability makes them less appealing to many.

Is price enough?

So far, lower prices have been enough to stimulate more consumer interest. According to Canalys Research analyst Vincent Thielke, “VR adoption in the consumer segment is highly dependent on price, and Oculus’ strategy of lowering prices has definitely helped drive adoption.”

Cumulatively, by the fourth quarter of 2017, more than 1 million VR headsets had been sold across brands—a figure few would have expected, given the clunky, underwhelming start that most brands saw.

VR adoption is definitely growing, but consumer interest remains an issue, and for more complicated, hard-to-fix reasons than price. Getting lower-priced models to market may be beneficial in kick-starting both sales and consumer interest, but it isn’t enough to foster widespread adoption. For that, VR companies will have to dig a bit deeper.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/10/vr-arcades-are-gaming-centers-of-the-future.html

https://www.superdataresearch.com/market-data/virtual-reality-industry-report/

The nascent VR gaming industry earned $286.7 million last year, per SuperData Research. However, the firm projected it will grow into a $2.3 billion industry by 2020.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/10/vr-arcades-are-gaming-centers-of-the-future.html

While there are millions of personal headset owners out there — Sony’s PlayStation VR headset alone sold more than 1 million units as of June 2017 — VR is not yet widespread.

The nascent VR gaming industry earned $286.7 million last year, according to SuperData Research, but could grow $2.3 billion industry by 2020. Though you can buy Google Cardboard viewers for $15 you can use with your smartphone, gaming headsets alone are hundreds of dollars. Facebook’s Oculus Rift starts at $399, while an HTC Vive starts at $599 — not to mention the computers and other equipment you’ll need to run high-end VR experiences.

#report

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