きゃーーー！(Me screaming, “kyaaaaa!”)
Sure, I got 14k in experience points in Japanese during the COVID safety era; sure, I made it to Section 2 / Unit 32… but I don’t feel like I remember a thing.
きゃーーー！
Language Study: Returning to Japanese
Life: Business Travel
Valley Lights
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
This year, I’ve traveled by plane three times for my career, but only once for recreation, which likely does reflect my priorities (ouch). It also feels like a lot of flying after the pandemic shelter-in-place times, even though it pales beside my old regular-commute-to-Europe phase.
This past week, I attended a conference in Las Vegas, where it reached 107 degrees outside. The conference schedule was packed and in a large hotel/conference center, which made it easy to stay engaged while hiding indoors from the heat. There were coffee and even espresso stations to help balance out the increasingly aggressive air conditioning with inner warmth. It was a good experience, and I even dreamt about new (highly sci-fi versions) of the presentations last night, so I am still processing what I experienced.
I’ve only been to Las Vegas twice, both times for this conference.
I have found it difficult to explain to friends who like Vegas why I don’t: just because I don’t enjoy drinking to excess, smoking of any kind, gambling, dressing for attention from hard-partying strangers, etc., doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with those activities. They just aren’t my cup of tea. And when it is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside, it isn’t like I can escape to the great outdoors – even frozen tea wouldn’t be enough to cool me to functional temperatures.
Returning home, I was filled with joy at the fog, plainly visible from the airplane, as we approached the City… It’s so good to be back in my natural habitat!
Coffee: Verve Coffee Roasters & Cafe
I finally went into Verve at Church and Market, and enjoyed a superb almond milk latte.
The space is nice; other customers are relaxed; the air is redolent of coffee roasting smells… It is cozy and pleasant. My latte was less sweet than I expected, but also just right.
The company has several locations in Los Angeles, but have been in this sweet SF spot since 2017. This location is often PACKED (because of its pleasantness), so I felt lucky to relax there yesterday morning.
Book (Manhwa): The Dark Lord’s Confession by Topseoung
The Dark Lord’s Confession
by Topseoung
published by Webtoon (100+ chapters, ongoing)
2022 – present
Lapis is a girl living in a world divided between people naturally marked with a symbol of good / holy magical power, ordinary people, and unfortunate people naturally marked with the symbol of an incurable curse and magical powers. Those with the mark of the curse are automatically deemed evil as a result of their potentially contagious illness, and must live in hiding or risk being murdered at any age upon discovery. Their murderers blame their victims for being inhuman, so that they can feel better about slaughtering their own friends and neighbors who bear the mark. Those who survive by hiding their mark will inevitably turn into literal monsters if they don’t kill themselves first.
Lapis has the curse. Optimistically, after living with two sweet girls who have their own sad backstories, Lapis is determined to go to a holy school to become a holy knight – surely, if she can master holy powers, she can find a cure!
After failing the entrance exam for knight school countless times, Lapis is attacked by monsters while practicing magical symbols, and accidentally summons the Dark Lord, the being who is supposedly responsible for the curse. When holy soldiers turn up to see what all the ruckus is, Lapis… somehow barely passes the holy power test, and can study to be a Holy Knight!
If anything goes wrong, Lapis will be murdered in cold blood by her classmates and teachers. If things go right, Lapis will be forced to murder innocent people who bear the curse, something she is far too kind and ethical to do.
Meanwhile, the Dark Lord, to the extent she can be trusted, is telling Lapis that holy and magical powers are the same, and that the curse CAN be undone – but the holy knights and will try to prevent that from happening. Lapis has a role to play in fixing the world, saving those with the mark, and exposing the thousand year old plot that made the world this way – if she can survive in the heart of a holy place founded by the Dark Lord’s rival.
This is a story of religious corruption, a goddess from outer space, cults with their own agendas, lasting traumas over murdered loved ones, the persecution of minorities, land poisoned with curses/diseases/magic based on Roman mythology, health crises, girls swooning over handsome women, secret basements, broken swords, unique powers, dancing with romantic interests who would kill you without a moment’s hesitation if they knew which mark you had, violent sibling rivalries, betrayals, arena duels, the unconditional love of friendship, and falling stars.
I didn’t want to put it down (see me recharging my phone after hours of reading), and read through 100+ chapters in three sessions – and I’m eager for more! I like high stakes fantasy tales, and look forward to this story continuing.
Book: Nobrow 10: Studio Dreams
Nobrow 10: Studio Dreams
published by Nobrow
2018
This is a collection of art from 70 illustrators on the theme of fantasy art studios. For those of us involved in art, this is a powerful theme: we all want a dedicated space to create, and this often feels like a challenging fantasy, so – yes, go for it!
There are underwater art studios, jungle art studios, underground studios, studios where up and down change from area to area… The art is vivid and presented in many different traditional illustration styles.
Nearly everyone’s dream studio has a cat, dog, or bird in it. (But you expected that!). There are far more dinosaurs than I anticipated.
After decades of dominance of photography-as-illustration, hand drawn, creative illustration in various 2-D styles with highly stylized color schemes has come roaring back. I have theories about this, as a photographer who once worried for classmates studying illustration as a profession. Graphical styles come and go, and the ubiquity of photography had to give way to something to feel novel. Illustration, especially in non-photo-realistic, representative, semi-traditional styles can feel softer and can have more gentle emotional or mood content. (A drawing of a simplified person crying is gentler and less painful than a photo of a real person crying, if you know what I mean.)
This collection contains both contemporary and retro elements. The range of styles is highly contemporary, including everything from painterly 20th century art to cartoon approaches. The flatness of the planes and shapes, the simplicity of the forms, the primary printing color scheme used by some of the artists, and the slightly offset color layers to emulate certain older printing processes all contribute to a retro-timelessness of intentionally chosen styles.
This collection is so varied and printed on such great paper that I purchased it so I could spend more time studying these largely wordless illustrations.
As someone who tended to include too much detail in my architectural drawings and some architectural photos, there is something I’m trying to learn about simplifying forms that this collection hints at, in a medium I don’t use myself.
Book (Manhwa): Turning the Mad Dog into a Genteel Lord by V_An, Yepbee, zuisha
Turning the Mad Dog into a Genteel Lord
by V_An, Yepbee, zuisha
published by Tappytoon (28 chapters, ongoing)
2024 – present
This is another comedy that makes me laugh out loud (so I read it when I’m alone, as I don’t want people to fear me on BART), and one I eagerly await new episodes for.
Diarin is a priestess who always gets the worst assignments. Her new project is to take a magically-brainwashed, berserker veteran soldier from a notoriously murderous military unit, and spruce him up so he can be a regional noble.
It’s… an impossible task, and one that puts her own life at risk – she is dealing with a man who can hear a heart beating from a great distance away, and then seek that heart out to kill – but Diarin will try with a smile! Especially since she gets to live in a mansion with her charge who, despite is formidable size and strength, she protectively comes to think of as an unruly puppy.
As with other manhwa, I want to point out the effort that went into the background art:
Diarin is extremely expressive, and I laugh at her reactions to being blinded by someone attractive (illustration below), her eyes bulging at her first sight of Ceres’ attempts to write, or her mental process after attractively-built Ceres stands naked in front of her (pieces of fruit on a table have never been funnier). The use of exaggeration is well executed.
Before reading manhwa, I hadn’t realized how I also want cartoon letters to float around me for emphasis, though I admit they would create problems for me professionally.
This is a light, fun, well-executed comedy about an ambitious, optimistic clergy member trying to re-train a dangerous man-puppy whose head has been magically reprogrammed in what might be some kind of trap. It’s fun! I recommend it.
Book: Don’t Go Without Me by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
Don’t Go Without Me
by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
published by Shortbox (link to their X page, their website is broken)
2019
This is an enjoyable and visually pleasing collection of three illustrated stories: of a couple becoming unintentionally separated during an inter-dimensional trip, a spacecraft that runs on human memories malfunctioning explosively, and people preparing for a giant to wake.
Valero-O’Connell’s illustrations are extremely charming – I love the shapes of their inter-dimensional animals, the softness of their characters’ noses (some so similar to my bi-racial nose), and the detailed illustrations created with such nicely chosen limited color palettes.
Whatever you want to do, do it now.
Wherever you want to be, be there tonight.
Concise, well-told stories; skilled and pleasing illustrations; and somehow also lessons about valuing life and what you have. This is a great collection!
This selection was highly praised by the staff at Silver Sprocket, but there are so many good choices to be made there, that I can’t take too much credit.