Anime Review: Solo Leveling

Video game vibes, simplistic plot, addictive action.

With all of the hype and publicity surrounding Solo Leveling, you might expect a show with deep, meaningful character exploration, complex drama, and a thoughtfully created cast of fascinating allies and enemies. But that is not the case. Solo Leveling is a story of a person who undergoes a transformation from being weak to reawakening a powerful new version of himself, one that continues to grow stronger as the story progresses. However, both the protagonist and the side characters have very limited backstories—in most cases just enough to identify them. Compared to highly popular cerebral dramas like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and The Apothecary Diaries, it’s interesting to see a series like Solo Leveling with very linear plotting and minimal introspection being nominated for Anime of the Year. But Solo Leveling succeeds by unapologetically leaning into what it does best: action. 

Solo Leveling is an anime based on the Korean manhwa of the same name. It’s set in a near future version of Korea where trans-dimensional portals appear randomly in urban places. Hunters are magic-equipped people who are trained to enter the portals (referred to as dungeons), kill the creatures inside, and take as much of the treasure/gems piled inside as they can. Once the key creature/demon is killed, the portal will close and life in the neighborhood can return to normal. The dungeons are ranked based on the danger inside and the hunters are ranked based on their strength. Sung Jinwoo is a comparatively weak, kind-hearted but naïve, bottom-ranked hunter who does dangerous dungeon hunting work to earn money to take care of his teenaged younger sister. Their father is absent and their mother has been in a coma for the last few years. In the opening episode, Jinwoo joins an ill-fated hunter team for a low-ranked dungeon. However, the dungeon turns out to be far more dangerous than expected and, after a lethal injury, Jinwoo is reborn with new and growing magical powers. The series is about him secretly getting stronger under the guidance of a videogame-style message screen that only he can see. He later connects with a rich corporate playboy, Yoo Jin Ho, who want to prove himself as a hunter. Jin Ho pays the expenses of the dungeon raiding so that he can work with Jinwoo as he continues to get stronger. Jinwoo is motivated to progress in the game system to earn an elixir that will revive his mother. He eventually becomes a necromancer who can revive and control creatures and warriors he has killed in battle. 

Over time, his appearance changes. His height increases, he is more well-built, his voice gets deeper, and even his face changes, becoming more angular. Despite the initial uneven pacing of the early episodes, the show gains momentum as Jinwoo gets stronger and less fearful. As he changes physically, he also becomes more stoic, cynical, and cold. He has no deep friendships or bitter rivalries. There is no romance (in the first two seasons) and, unlike many anime, there is no significant social commentary, cleverness, or even much emotional depth. With a few exceptions, the appeal of the show lies primarily in the addictiveness of the escalating adventures. In the second season, an elite team of hunters is introduced. They provide some much needed character interest for the series. The second season drops hints about Jinwoo’s long lost father and about the mystery of why Jinwoo is able to become as strong as he is. 

The process of dungeon raiding is an interesting concept with the hunters basically walking in, killing the residents and stealing their property. No one really attempts to engage with those living in the portal spaces and no one has any moral hesitation about colonizing their property. There is no attempt at diplomacy or compromise since the creatures are alien and different. Even when the residents are humanoid and conversant, they are still mostly dismissed and disrespected. The show is designed with a video game aesthetic allowing it to ignore those kinds of real-world moral scruples. Later in the story the plot shifts to an island overrun with giant flying ants. We also get a culture clash between the Japanese hunters and the Korean hunters with the Japanese characters portrayed as arrogant, angry, and egotistical. It’s an interesting cultural shift from the usual anime paradigm. 

For Jinwoo, every new obstacle becomes a stepping stone to bring him to a higher level and, since he knows this, he remains calm and motivated by challenges rather than fearful. His ability to align everyone he has beaten to his service makes him seem almost invincible. As a result, this is a series which is better enjoyed stacked up and binged. The appeal of the narrative lies in the bingeworthy fun of watching him calmly become wildly stronger in each episode. However, the single minded pragmatism and nonstop action make the occasional thoughtful and affecting moments stand out. In the second season we get one episode of him becoming truly emotional in a tear-jerker scene. In a later episode, we see him help one hunter team deal with the loss of a beloved colleague. Those moments stand out as deep connections in a journey of otherwise stoic power. 

While recent seasons of other popular anime have been filled with thoughtful, cerebral, or emotional storylines, Solo Leveling gives us a straightforward, reliable, and ultimately kind, action hero experiencing an increasingly exciting adventure. An outrageously strong character doing outrageously strong feats in the face of outrageously devastating odds feels strangely cathartic. And, that makes the show enjoyable, even for those of us who prefer deeper character explorations.

--

The Math

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

Highlights:

• Escalating, addicting action
• Linear, video game storytelling
• Outstanding animation balances limited character explorations

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.

Anime Review: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Gorgeous, slow-burn, adventure storytelling that takes a unique approach to building unforgettable characters

Among the likely contenders for Anime of the Year is relative newcomer, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, a story of a bored, eternally youthful elf mage, who begins her next adventure after completing a ten-year heroic quest with three friends. Despite the seemingly simple premise, the storytelling style is so clever that the basic journey narrative subtly becomes a unique psychological and emotional introspection as the characters progress through various adventures. The initial slow pacing and absence of feelings from the protagonist gradually evolve into intense adventures and a poignant, time-reversed exploration of the psychological connection between an indifferent, bored, immortal mage and a joyous, charismatic, but very mortal hero.

Frieren is a youthful, white-haired elf mage. She is not only incredibly powerful using magic; she is also essentially immortal, having been alive for centuries. But what sets her apart in the narrative is her personality. She is confident and curious but not really passionate about most things (except for finding new spells and grimoires (magic books)—then she becomes child-like). Prior to the start of the story, Frieren joins a party of heroes on a ten-year quest to defeat the demon king. The group consists of Frieren, the mage; optimistic young Himmel, the heroic fighter; quirky, wine-loving Heiter, the priest; and strong, reliable dwarf, Eisen the warrior.

The anime begins at the end of their quest, when the four heroes return home after vanquishing the demon king. Initially, we aren’t given much backstory context about the demon king or why he needed to be vanquished. That detail is mostly beside the point, apparently. The heroes return home to much fanfare, celebration, and even monuments in their honor. However, the four remain contemplative of their time together. Frieren moves on without sentiment and without much of a future goal.

Years later, she encounters an aged but still joyous Himmel just before he dies of old age. She also encounters a much older Priest Heiter who asks Frieren to mentor a magically gifted orphan girl he has sheltered. The child, Fern, progresses under years of tutelage and Frieren reluctantly becomes attached to her. Later, the also long-lived Eisen, the dwarf warrior, gives Frieren his apprentice, a teenaged boy named Stark. Her new crew begins to resemble the original heroes’ party as they eventually pick up a priest (with his own complications) and deal with a range of obstacles throughout their journey, including monster attacks, vengeful elven mages, dangerous dungeons, political intrigue, personal grief and loss, and the inevitable tournament/competition arc, which adds a slew of new and intriguing side characters, including some semi-likeable antagonists.

Frieren has elements of many iconic journey stories, including Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, and the tear-jerker anime (which I loved), To Your Eternity. The show takes a clever approach to showing us what life is like for a near-immortal like Frieren to interact with short-lived but ultimately beloved humans. Many of the key human characters age dramatically between meetings with Frieren, and even though the time seems short to her, we see that it is catastrophically impactful to humans. On the other hand, in her new journey, Frieren must become a mentor to the talented (and quietly opinionated) orphan Fern and later to the insecure boy Stark as he finds his own inner, as well as external, strength.

In her interactions with her two young apprentices, we see the way time slows down for Frieren. After gradually recalling lessons from her journey with the original heroes’ party, she begins to see the world in a new way. She ironically bonds with her old teammates long after they are gone and, in the case of Himmel, she seems to be slowly falling in love with him decades after he has died. It’s not romance in the traditional sense, but it is emotionally gorgeous and incredibly, poignantly sweet. Instead of being or feeling tragic, her moments of post-death connections feel like a celebration.

That is the true strength and uniqueness of the show: the way it celebrates kindness and thoughtfulness without becoming morose or overly sentimental. Frieren herself remains aloof, irritating, funny, and quirky. There is only one time where she truly breaks down and sobs, and it is a showstopper moment for the series. This is when we realize the show isn’t really about this thousand-year-old elf mage; it is about all of us, humanity, in this current moment. Can we choose bravery, kindness, strength, thoughtfulness, and compassion in the face of terrible circumstances or in the face of the relentless pull of ordinary, everyday life? Frieren reminds us that everything we do matters, and everything we do will be remembered long after our journey ends.

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10.

Highlights:

• A quietly powerful study of the human condition
• Unusual pacing mixed with lots of action
• So many appealing characters in a unique storytelling format

POSTED BY: Ann Michelle Harris – Multitasking, fiction writing Trekkie currently dreaming of her next beach vacation.

SIDE QUESTS: Non-Fiction & History

Here at Ye Olde Fansite(e), the vast majority of what we review and talk about is fiction (sadly, lightsabers still fall into that category). I have a longstanding love non-fiction, particularly history in general. For me, this mostly takes the form of books, because for some reason, I can rarely get into documentaries.

As a confirmed sci-fi geek, I love how history informs our view of the future and what is possible. The patterns which emerge, how powers rise and fall, where conflicts come from, how people behave in various societies — these are fascinating all on their own, but I think it makes our imaginings that much more interesting. It certainly informs my own writing as much as anything.

'History' is obviously a really broad brush to paint with, since, ya know, it describes literally everything which has ever happened. So here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

Flags of Our Fathers & Flyboys, by James Bradley: The thing I enjoy most in learning about history are all the little details, the things which get lost. Both of these books are completely fascinating, Flags of our Fathers for doing a deep dive into the people in the most famous photo in history, and Flyboys, well, just read it. Be warned: it's traumatizing.

Isaac Newton, by James Gleick: A deep look at who Newton was as a person, and his motivations. You'll come away from reading this feeling like you really know the man. His other work on chaos (which is a whole other post) and Feynman are equally brilliant.

Rocket Boys aka October Sky, by Homer Hickem: I think the book is also named October Sky now, thanks to the meh movie made out of it. The book, as per usual, is much better and more interesting. Small town group of kids exploring their curiosity and learning everything they can, American 1950's coal town education notwithstanding.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly: More people overcoming odds with science (yeahsciencedotgif) There is a theme here, isn't there? The movie is fantastic, but as above, there is so, so much more in the book.

Those are just a few. But if you haven't picked up a non-fiction or history book since school, I highly recommend picking a subject that you love and finding some books or documentaries on it - like baseball? The Battered Bastards of Baseball on Netlix is amazing. Movie buff? There are endless books on movies themselves, directors, actors, etc. Or if you want to learn about making them (or criticizing them!), there are some great YouTube channels out there.

And if you stumble across something fun, please share!

-DESR
Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories (which should be on YOUR summer reading list). You can read his other ramblings and musings on a variety of topics (mostly writing) on his blog. When not holed up in his office
tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore.

SIDE QUESTS: The Theremin!

SIDE QUESTS is an occasional essay series where we explore some of the other stuff we geek out about. A nerd cannot live on but sci-fi and fantasy alone...though it's certainly fun to try.

What Are We Talking About?

Today, we're talking about the theremin — an electronic instrument invented in the 1920s, that became the sound of science fiction in the 1950s, and which a performer plays without actually touching. It is way hard to play (believe me, I try), and when successfully done, it appears to be accomplished by magic. The theremin is a wonderful, inexplicable oddity, and if someone ever described me in similar terms, I could die happy. This may be part of my attraction to the instrument.

The Basics

You've heard a theremin, or at least something that is intended to fool you into thinking it's a theremin (but is likely some kind of synth that is actually comprehensible to mortals without perfect pitch). Basically, the theremin is a box with an antenna sticking up out of one side, and a second, looped antenna sticking out of the opposite side. The one sticking up controls the pitch, the loop controls the volume, and you literally wave your hands in the air to make it work.

Leon Theremin patented the instrument in 1928, and in 1950, Bernard Herrmann used it to score the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. It had been used in other prominent films before then, including Hitchcock's Spellbound, but after The Day the Earth Stood Still, the instrument and its ethereal sound seemed to become a hallmark of the sci-fi genre. Forbidden Planet, for instance, doesn't use a theremin in the score, but it sure sounds like one. The sound became so iconic and so identified with genre movies that in 1994, it was the focal point of Howard Shore's score for Ed Wood, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. The performer on that score was Lydia Kavina, who learned the instrument from Theremin himself. How cool is that??

The Rabbit Hole

I've been fascinated with the theremin since I saw one played in a music store while I was in college. It's only been in the last couple of years that I considered trying to obtain one, and I finally did so at the end of 2017. How to learn to play this crazy thing except via YouTube? And what better for plunging down fathomless rabbit holes than...well, YouTube?

My "teacher" has been Carolina Eyck, who, as it happens, learned the instrument from Lydia Kavina, who learned it from Leon Theremin. I mean, I'm to the point where I can play "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" right about half the time. Maybe almost half. These women can play Rachmaninoff. It is mesmerizing to watch. So I watched a lot of theremin videos.

But then.

But then I discovered that "playing Ennio Morricone on theremin" is a thing. Spaghetti Western music played on a magic sci-fi box? Friends, I was lost. My nerd heart was enraptured. Enjoy!

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, multi-instrumentalist, Emmy-winning producer, and all-around rabbit hole dweller.

SIDE QUESTS: RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 3 - The Season That Broke the Competition

What Are We Talking About?

I'm a huge fan of reality competition TV shows, particularly RuPaul's Drag Race. It's a creative, funny competition between some wild personalities that never fails to entertain. But the All Stars seasons, particularly the most recent, have broken the competition in ways that turn the results from the best of the best to the winner of a game, and there's a big distinction between the two.

The Basics

If you're unfamiliar with the show, here it is. A dozen-ish drag queens start. Through a series of challenges playing to the strengths of a well-rounded drag queen, they're eliminated one by one until three (sometimes four) remain. Each episode, after a challenge, a panel of judges helps Ru select the top queen (who gets a prize) and the bottom two, with the rest being safe from elimination. The bottom two perform a lip sync and Ru picks who stays and who goes home. In each stage of the competition, the panel of judges and RuPaul select the winners and the losers. This is standard RuPaul's Drag Race.

All Stars has been messed with from the start. As an All Stars season, they start with queens from previous seasons of the main show that did not win the crown. The first season put every queen into a pair with a competitor. They both had to perform well to win challenges and it wasn't until late in the game when competitors were judged on their performance alone. All Stars season two course corrected by starting everyone out on their own, but it still changed the competition. Instead of Ru picking the winner and loser each week, Ru picked the top two and the bottom three (sometimes two). The top two would lip sync for the right to choose who went home. The bottoms pleaded their cases for staying in the competition to the top two. Ru still picked the top all stars all the way, and ultimately the finale winner, but it was from a selection whittled down by the competitors and not the judges.

Throughout season 2, Roxxxy Andrews was consistently, repeatedly in the bottom. She was almost always up for elimination. She was consistently saved by her friends in the top. None of them would send Roxxxy home. They, arguably, sent home more talented drag queens, because of their personal biases. When Alaska won All Stars season 2, it could be said that she won it with an asterisk because she didn't have to compete against the best in the end; she just had to make sure none of the competitors sent her home.

But factors in season 3 of All Stars broke the competition in ways that fundamentally changed it from a competition to a game; no more a matter of being the best but playing better than the others. What follows will contain spoilers for All Stars season 3, which very recently ended! Do not keep reading if you are avoiding spoilers!

The Rabbit Hole 

All Stars season 3 followed the same formula as season 2; winners pick who goes home. But it broke in three different ways. The first is that Ru offered an eliminated queen a way back into the competition. Every show does this, but it's a bigger mess when they were eliminated by someone else possibly still in the competition. There was a big segment where all of the (currently) eliminated queens met with the competitors still in it and they argued about who eliminated whom and why. It was very dramatic and exposed the tension inflicted upon them by this competition. In the end, Ru brought back Morgan McMichaels, the first eliminated queen.

This is a problem. Morgan didn't compete for most of the show. She had to sit out because she was eliminated. Being brought back when most of her competitors were already gone meant she stood a greater chance of convincing the rest to keep her. Also, Morgan said from the start that she was going to eliminate her biggest competitors. Not the worst of the bottom queens, the best. She's not alone in this, as everyone is free to choose who they want to eliminate for any reason, but it puts a huge spotlight on the problem with letting competitors eliminate each other. Sometimes the best go home in a moment of vulnerability because they're the best.

The second way in which the competition broke was that BenDelaCreme was allowed to eliminate herself. She was the obvious front runner, she won a lip sync late in the competition, and she sent herself home. Her reasons are inconsequential, but the result is that she was shaping the competition by having a strong presence at the start, and then she cut herself out, leaving everyone else to know that their victories are only viable in her absence. Ru consistently put Dela in the top two because she's the best. When she dropped out, it let everyone know, including Ru, that she had no competition. Anyone who wins season 3 All Stars has to know that if Dela hadn't quit, they probably wouldn't have won.

Finally, and the worst way in which the competition broke, is that the final two queens were chosen by the eliminated queens. Bebe, Kennedy, Shangela, and Trixie all had claims to victory, but the decision on which of those two would lip sync for the finale was put in the hands of the people they eliminated. Shockingly, they chose Kennedy and Trixie. This is shocking because, while a strong competitor and a great drag queen, Kennedy won the least number of challenges of all of the top four. Shangela, who won the most, was eliminated by the queens who were no longer a part of the competition. For whatever reason, they chose Kennedy. The finale was between someone who was top 2 twice but won no lip syncs (Trixie), against someone who was top 2 once, won that lip sync, but spent most of the competition in the bottom (Kennedy). Trixie won the final lip sync.

Trixie Mattel is an all star. She deserves to be recognized as such. But her win was cheapened by the changes to the competition that turned it from a best-of-the-best to a best player of the game finale. In the end, this was not the Olympics of drag. It was the Catan of drag. It was a game that could be lost by the best player for simply not having the personal connections to assure victory. While Trixie was crowned, no one achieved a victory because the best player could've been in the competition but they were recognized too soon and eliminated by those who could see it, and the front runner walked out. While I expect twists and surprises in these kinds of shows, I hope that the next season of All Stars sets out the rules fairly from the start and reduces the amount of input by the eliminated queens so that they have less influence in the finale. It's just not fair to anyone to call someone an all star if they're not competing on an even playing field.

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

 

SIDE QUESTS: Synthesizers, A Love Story

Today's episode of SIDE QUESTS is more than a little personal. That's right, it's about my favorite inanimate objects: synthesizers!  - G


What Are We Talking About?

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument that produces sound waves. The earliest and basic method is called analog subtractive synthesis. An oscillator produces sine, square and/or sawtooth waves with electrical current. A filter and envelope generator then cut into, or subtracts from, the waveform to alter the sound. With the advent of digital synthesis in the late 1970s, new forms of synthesis became possible, including wavetable, FM (frequency modulation) and S&S (sample and synthesis).

The synthesizer has actually been around since the 1930s, but didn't really catch on until Bob Moog's voltage-controlled synthesizers made their way into studios in the late 1960s, and onto albums by Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles and The Monkees. By the mid-1970s, synthesizers were a thing, though it wasn't until the 1980s that they threatened to displace the sainted guitar. 

Bob Moog with some of his 1960s and 1970s synths.

Nowadays you hear far more music made with synthesizers--or samples of synthesizers--than with guitars. That's a sad fact if you're the kind of person who yells at clouds and hates Millennials because they love avocado toast and refuse to spend money on Budweiser or Applebees. For someone like me, it's bittersweet. I love the synthesizer, and am proud of its ascendence to the pinnacle of music making; but I love the guitar too. 

The Rabbit Hole

So, basically I've been obsessed for as long as I can remember. Why? Because, in their purest form, synthesizers don't sound like anything you make with strings, reeds or stretched out skin. They sound like the future. They still sound like the future, even though now it's more often the future we dreamed of in the past.

I don't know how it started. I certainly didn't get it from my parents: my dad mostly listens to classical music and a smattering of rock and folk, while my mom refers to all music as "noise." But my dad did have the Vangelis album Spiral on vinyl--in retrospect, that was probably ground zero.

Flash-forward to 1983. We were just getting music videos at that time--not on MTV (no cable), but on weekly shows that came on just after the news. If I was lucky enough, I could watch half before my parents shut the TV off and told me to get ready for bed. Those shows played a bit of everything, but the only songs I remember were the ones with killer synth lines, like "Jump" and "The Message."

The school I went to had a really strong music program, and in the music room, they had a Casio CZ-5000 and a Roland Juno 106. Whenever possible, I'd sneak in early and move the knobs and sliders around. I didn't know what I was doing--I was just a dumb kid. Most of the time, I ended up playing the baseline from "Blue Monday" on the Juno, or some Flock of Seagulls chords on the Casio.

In 1991, I finally convinced my parents to go halfsies on a Roland D-50. My keyboard teacher, Carl, assured me it was the "best one in the biz," and that his guy could get me an unbeatable price. I adored Carl, who was an old timer from the northside of town--an area mostly known for red sauce joints and organized crime. So I mowed lawns and shoveled sidewalks until I'd earned half.

Now, $500 in 1991 was a lot, but it wasn't a lot for a new Roland D-50. Looking back, I've often wondered if my synth just fell off the back of the truck, as they used to say. More likely, Carl's guy just wanted to liquidate stock. After all, by 1990 the D-50 was out of production and had been emphatically replaced by the mighty Korg M1.

The Roland D-50 used something called Linear Arithmetic (LA) synthesis, which was proprietary speak for "sample and synthesis" (S&S). What that means is that the D-50 paired the attack transient from 8-bit samples (think the precise moment a trumpet blares or a mallet hits a xylophone) with the decay, sustain and release from a synthetic waveform (think everything that comes after that moment). It sounded otherworldly--and in fact, you'll recognize the D-50 from basically every late '80s New Age cliche ever. Perhaps the most iconic use of the D-50 was on Enya's 1998 song "Orinoco Flow," which used the Pizzicato Strings patch.

Unfortunately for young teenage me, the D-50 was also brutally difficult to program. Unlike the Juno 106 we had at school, you had to go menu diving to make anything happen--there was nary a slider or knob in sight. But I didn't care--I had my first synth.


The Music of Futures Past

By the mid-1990s I'd discovered techno, house and ambient music. This wasn't music featuring some electronic instrumentation; it was all electronic instrumentation. I did like some sample-based house music, but by and large I gravitated towards the stuff that sounded like science fiction expressed musically.

A lot was made with really cheap gear that had been repurposed from its original intention. For example, the Roland TB-303 Bass Line--a cheap-looking plastic box with a single oscillator designed to provide accompaniment for practicing guitarists. It didn't sound much like a bass guitar, and was kind of a pain to program. But it did have this wonderfully squelchy filter and a characterful way of tie-ing notes together. In 1987, a producer from the South Side of Chicago named DJ Pierre discovered that sweeping the filter along short patterns created an irresistible hypnotic effect. Techno producers from Detroit (and, later, New York, Canada and Europe) achieved a similar effect with other synths, including the same ones I'd used from school--the Roland Juno 106 and the Casio CZ-1000. I can think of no better vision of the future, as seen from 1997, than "Organa" by Dutch producer Steve Rachmad:

I started making my own techno in 1996, though I never really finished anything. I had a mental block--a fear of failure, I think. Basically, if I never finished anything, then I never had to experience the pain of rejection. So I'd muck around, make loops and then fuck off for a few months at a time. Looking back, I regret that I wasn't more serious and driven from the get-go.

That changed in 2015, when I discovered synthwave. Actually I already knew Kavinsky and College, who are widely credited with inspiring the genre. But I didn't realize there was this whole scene of people inspired by magenta-tinted '80s retrofuturism.

That changed soon after we began our series Cyberpunk Revisited. I was re-reading Neuromancer, Mindplayers, Software, etc. and I wanted to find something that captured the mood in musical terms. I found a couple cyberpunk playlists on Spotify and immediately got shoved down the rabbit hole. Makeup and Vanity Set, Perturbator, Miami Nights 1984...I couldn't get enough. I was hooked.

Slowly but surely I got back into making music, and found that--with kids and far less free time--I suddenly had the drive and discipline that had been missing during my 20s and early 30s. I started finishing songs, decorating them in lush, lovely synth tones--I even released some of them. And then made an album!


Synthesizers: The Greatest Thing on Earth

But enough about me--let's talk synths. There are many kinds of synthesis, but I'm mainly into subtractive--the studio sound of the late '70s and early '80s, and the underground sound of the late '80s and early '90s. One of my all-time favorites is, of course the Roland Juno 106. Released in 1984, was basically the older Juno 60 only with MIDI (which allows electronic instruments to communicate with one another) but no arpeggiator.

The 106 features a single digitally-controlled analog oscillator (DCF), which means it produces sound via electrical current but also features an electronic pulse that keeps the oscillator in tune. It has a single digitally-controlled filter (DCF), a single envelope generator, which modulates both amplitude and the frequency cutoff on the DCF, and a single low-frequency oscillator (LFO), which can modulate either pitch, pulse width or the filter cutoff. The 106 also has a silky smooth chorus effect that makes everything sound like gold. So while the 106 has a more limited feature set than some of the other synths I'll talk about, it's almost impossible to make a bad sounding patch with it. It has been called, rightly in my view, the ultimate beginner's synth. And boy does it sound lovely...

Next up is the Oberheim OB-8. Released in 1983, the OB-8 replaced the more famous OB-Xa (made famous in "Jump"). For my money, however, the OB-8 is the best of the bunch. It featured two voltage-controlled analog oscillators (VCOs) per voice, with 8 total voices of polyphony, a Curtis ladder-design voltage-controlled filter (VCF), two envelopes and a whole junk ton of LFO modulation capabilities. You can also pan individual voices across the stereo field (i.e. left to right speaker), leading to some seriously out there stuff.

The last hardware synth I'll present for you is brand new, the Korg Prologue. It's not out yet, but I've had the pleasure of playing one in the shop--and let me tell you, it is mighty fine. The Prologue features a pair of VCOs, a VCF and two envelope generators, but also has a digital multi-oscillator that can do simple FM or wavetable synthesis. What that means is that you can do classic analog, '80s digital or more complex patches that blend the two.

Of course, one of the great things about being alive today is how cheap, convenient and good software synthesizers have become. Some are truly excellent, like Diva by Germany's u-He: a synth that lets you mix and match modules emulated from various classic pieces of kit. It can even simulate the character analog synthesizers pick up as they age...bad tuning and oscillator drift! Here are a couple videos made by my favorite sound designer for Diva (and now friend), Swan Audio. The first is a synthwave track using sounds be made for the preset pack Analog Hits, and the second are his OB-8 recreations, which sound amazingly realistic if you ask me.

Well, that about wraps it up! But just for good measure, here are a couple love songs I've written to the synthesizer. Enjoy!

***

POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator, since 2012. 

SIDE QUESTS: M*A*S*H

I'm not sure, when my parents let me stay up past 8:00 p.m. for the first time to watch a show about a medical unit in the Korean War, they meant for it to have any profound effect on me. Or perhaps they did - my mom is the biggest bleeding heart liberal you're likely to meet, so maybe that's why I got to watch it. Whatever the case, watch it I did, and I fell in love with it.

Backing up a bit - my family aren't big TV watchers. My aforementioned mother is a self-styled hobbit, very content to dig in her dirt and make massive amounts of food for anyone and everyone who stops over for dinner (that's a side quest post for another day). But we watched M*A*S*H reruns together - honestly, I don't remember if it was every night, or once a week, or just when my parents were tired of me falling asleep after reading literally all night, and it was easier to let me watch a show.

I loved that show, as a little kid, not getting half the humor. I think the first episode I saw was 'the Joker is Wild', a war of escalating practical jokes. It was hilarious, lowbrow and slapstick enough that my young mind got it. I watched it just the other day; I have seen it north of 20 times now. It's actually not as funny these days. It's better than that; a twenty minute expiration of the psyche and paranoia.

If you want to know what M*A*S*H is about, the one thing, you're left grasping for straws. Looking back, I see how much that influenced me. I have been accused of being a dichotomy - my own opposite - many times, and while I doubt that came from M*A*S*H, I think I saw myself in it. Want to make a serious point? Tell a joke. Want something to be funny? Set it against something serious. M*A*S*H does that, in spades, to beautiful, human affect.

I doubt on that weeknight that I got to stay up two-and-change decades ago that my parents thought I'd watch that show again. After graduating a local college, I left that house, though, and, as I said, didn't watch much TV - I didn't have cable, or even an actual TV. But every paycheck from my new Real Job, I bought another season of M*A*S*H on DVD.

I still watch them, even though some of the episodes skip, and I recently (a couple years ago) discovered you can turn the laugh track off, and that infinitely improves the show.

I'm not sure what they intended, but I doubt my parents thought I would ever seek out cast and crew members at book signings or events, and greet them like they were old friends - because they were. The most amazing thing, though, is that those people, who influenced countless lives, who were part of revolutionary, groundbreaking television, were just as happy to greet me in kind.

I grew up with Star Trek and Wars, Babylon 5. I've seen Firefly nearly as many times as M*A*S*H, and I feel a kinship with all of you who feel those people are family, because they are. It's one of the things that, to me, to the point which is the title of this site, is so great about being a nerd. We're all excited by and for the same things. We really do feel like family, to people we've never met.

David Ogden Steirs died last Saturday. Charles Emerson Winchester is one of the roles he will be remembered for; it certainly should not be the only one. I never got to meet him. I hope you'll permit me to ramble for a moment, but last year, Carrie Fisher died. I wrote the... post? Eulogy? Whatever? for her on this site. To borrow a sports cliche, I tried not to do too much with it. For the first time in my life, Leia was gone - Carrie was gone.

I never met her. I never met David. But there is a very small collection of individuals who poured themselves into their work - not in the sense that they worked hard to portray a character; those are myriad; no, these are people who allowed themselves to shine through into their work. The stories from the set of M*A*S*H tell the story of the dedication they all had, not simply to their craft, but to the philosophy and message, is singularly unparalleled.

With your very kind permission, I am going to make myself a martini and toast my old friends with whom I was privileged to grow up, and who I learned so much from.

Many thanks, my friends.

SIDE QUESTS: Fonts and Typefaces!

Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together. The name kind of says it all. Collectively, we share a love of science fiction, fantasy, and horror — and the tendrils that both braid those together and simultaneously allow them to branch out in so many different directions. But while Nerds of a Feather is a genre blog, as individuals we're nerds about way more than just science fiction and fantasy. SIDE QUESTS is a new essay series where we explore some of the other stuff we geek out about. A nerd cannot live on but sci-fi and fantasy alone...though it's certainly fun to try.

What Are We Talking About?

Today, friends, we're talking typefaces and fonts. I know there's a difference between the two words, but I don't want to be pedantic, I just want to share the joy of making letters in slightly different ways. Who knew there could be so many!? For today's purposes, I'll be using "font" because it's the more prevalent term in the parlance of the times.

The Basics

At what is probably the most fundamental level, you have two varieties of fonts: Serif and Sans Serif. A "serif" is the little embellishment we find at the terminus of a line, like the little flare at the bottom of a "t." What you're reading now is a serif font. In general, serif typefaces are thought to be more readable, so the vast majority of books and magazines will use a serif font for their body text. A couple examples probably everybody's familiar with are Times New Roman and Garamond. Serif fonts aren't afraid to linger a little, to take just that tiniest little moment to put a little flourish on the otherwise rote exercise of, say, writing an "R."

Sans serif fonts, or gothic fonts, don't have time for any of that ornamental nonsense. They're all about precision and control. They're clean and efficient, and their eyes are on the horizon — not for the sunset (save that for the serifs), but for the future. The archetypal gothic font is Helvetica. Starting in the late 1950s, Helvetica became the go-to font for logo designers because its clean, spare lines seemed to capture the essence of living in the jet age. Apple computer licensed Helvetica and it is the default font on Apple devices. Microsoft didn't want to license it, so PC users got Arial, or "Crappy Helvetica." It just doesn't have the same grace and balance of Helvetica.

The Rabbit Hole

A capital "F" is always a (more or less) vertical line and two (more or less) horizontal lines (more or less) intersecting it. On my computer, I have 956 typefaces. They all make that capital "F" in a different way. Some are almost identical to others, some are wildly different. The limitless variety of ways that designers have found to make letters while keeping them recognizably letters is bewildering and, for me anyway, a testament to our endless creativity, and our ability to create beauty and express our personalities even when working within narrowly defined limits.

I fell in love with fonts at the same time that I stumbled into design, which was in my late teens while playing in a metal band. There were cassettes to be made, and inserts to design, and eventually, a CD to make and design. I didn't do a great job. BUT! The world of metal is a tremendously valuable case study. Metal — like sci-fi and fantasy and horror — is littered with sub-genres. So, so, so many. So, take a look at three typography examples. These are all metal bands, and, from top to bottom, they get more extreme. You can see that in the logos. Black metal has gotten bonkers about the ornate, illegible logos, and that's a fun tangent to explore on its own. But the fact that simply a typeface can act as a logo — not just for bands, but for products and services, giant corporations and the little restaurant on the corner — points to the thing that I think I find most meaningful and intriguing about fonts:

Fonts are storytelling.

The choice of font can convey elegance or earthiness, optimism or pessimism, momentum or rigidity. A million different things. Fonts can conjure images of the past or capitalize on the promise of the future. They can help us tell our stories better, and they can allow others telling their stories to manipulate us (no negative connotation implied...but, you know, be wary). So in my humble, geeky opinion, we would all do well to have at least some understanding on how something as "simple" as a font can have an impact on our emotional reactions to something that we are presented with out in the world, in a store, on TV, or on the web.

It's also worth thinking about how the fonts you use say something about you. It's not an accident that I described serif and sans serif fonts in terms of personalities above. If you choose to employ Copperplate Gothic Bold, for instance, people might assume that you never made it out of the 90s. Fair warning. If you use Comic Sans, you are announcing to people that you don't have great taste, and that you also don't know what comic lettering actually looks like. And Impact is now forever "the meme font." Unless you're making a meme, or a fake meme, or a meta meme, use it at your peril.

We Are Not Alone

There are so many great resources about fonts and typography. Here are some that I enjoy, and you might, too:

• Butterick's Practical Typography. An online primer about typography. It's clear, concise, helpful, and lovingly done.
• Typeset in the Future. A look at how sci-fi films employ typography in world-building and set design. With the occasional Homestar Runner reference thrown in. So, win-win-win.
• Blambot. Comic book fonts. So many of them. You can lose a day on this site, easy.
• Fonts in Use. A site that breaks down what fonts were used in actual design examples. Want to know what font they used on the Speak and Spell or the labels on your dad's old stereo receiver? This is your stop.
• My Fonts. Get your fonts here. Pay the designers. They earned it.
• Website Planet. You should pay the designers, but if you simply can't (I've been there), here are some free fonts approved for commercial use.
  

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, sometime designer, musician, Emmy-winning producer, and all-around rabbit hole dweller.