I’m not saying that a studio can’t by and large be expected to produce at a certain level but follow staff, not studios
outside of smaller, creator-driven outfits, a lot of the major staff in a bunch of productions are more or less vagabonds
(vagabond is probably a bad word but I’m still drinking my coffee)
Super Cub is a fantastic Honda commercial. I feel like the color saturation in my life would increase if I had my own Cub. I could make friends on the basis of mutual Cub ownership and talk to myself about increasing its displacement by 5%. I would still constantly frown but I might get excited about off-label uses for safety goggles in lieu of a windscreen.
I felt it winds up having something unique to say about consumerism by being one of the only not-literally-an-ad works that’s 100% uncynical about it
At the same time as I watched Super Cub I happened to be reading Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. It made me think Super Cub owners are the very same kind of community. It sounds like kind of a thin idea in the abstract, certainly not anything worth living or dying for. But as the concrete details accumulate, you start to see how it’s one of the things that can be the seed from which a human being as a whole can flourish.
That’s my sense and feeling too, but having hypothetically “belonged” to several materially-based imagined communities there’s messy interactions with class, gender, race, etc. that an idealized presentation is going to elide, just like a “nation.” I can’t shake that discomfort—lots of time among older car and guitar guys wears thin.
Yet I am still immediately susceptible to the appeal. I could go for a Super Cub and Super Cub accessories even if I know it’s likely to be a solitary activity. I think this is a draw of acutely specific hobbies, though: aesthetic selection for friend-making. Your mileage may vary.
If you’ve got experience with old guitar and car guys then I think you’ve probably got a pretty good bead on what the broader “motorcycle community” is like. That said, the Honda motorcycles slogan isn’t entirely fictitious, and every city usually has its own group of queer weirdos to ride with—the trick is just locating them.
Deleted my previous post because I have a tendency to be a liiiittle enthusiastic when talking about motorcycles but I will say despite all the difficulties of riding as a hobby, they are just buckets of fun. Mostly these days I’m a solo rider and I have in-helmet headphones for this purpose, but however you prefer to get out there, being on two wheels is genuinely a really good time
Edit: also also I’m a huge advocate of small bikes for your first bike. First thing I ever rode was a Honda 125 and they’re super approachable and much less likely to kill you if you make an error. I’ve ridden everything from mini commuter bikes to “street legal” super bikes that honestly probably should not be on roads and it’s more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow
My extremely silly father fell off his vespa a few years back while riding to work to teach and ended up shearing his shoulder joint completely in half, but he reportedly was having a lot of fun up until then
Motorcycles are great and you should all get one
the combination of >50mpg, <$5k, fun to drive, and “you could die for no reason” is very appealing
also you get to buy a lot of novelty leather clothes and cosplay Kamen Rider helmets
I didn’t really like the Grom I learned on though, I would start above 150cc at least
oh speaking of which @bunchesofbees I might legally need an escort to retake my skills assessment in June or so, because if I fail the license test a fourth time next week because I’m constitutionally incapable of pretending to respect Canadian license examiners for the length of an exam, I need to get my permit reinstated without paying the expected kickback to the riding school
Unless, admittedly, you are me, a big idiot, although I have reined it in in recent years since I sold the Aprilia
Yeah no worries! Happy to. The skills test is a huge bummer and I won’t even do half that stuff on my bike unless circumstances actively demand because I’ve been through the experience of putting down a bike because you crossed a patch of gravel in a u-turn and no thanks. But it’s good for people to do, I suppose—I’ve had to emergency break a bike in traffic when an SUV did something insane and you should know how your bike responds, etc. I’ll still grumble about having to do it haha
Just lemme know if/when you need to go!
To avoid off-topic-ing this thread, my partner and I are rewatching Ancient Magus’ Bride as it looks like a new season is finally coming out? I unabashedly love this show—it’s pretty and sad and spooky with great worldbuilding and it’s very female-gazey for an anime with all those things. As much as I do enjoy a steady anime diet of dudes yelling and powering up I also want to know about magic hunks with animal heads who will protect me.
Also it’s funny to think about a culture in which Britain is exoticized, as when I think about the UK I think about it mostly as like America but with more congenitally insane male politicians whose granddads were the same royalty everyone worked so hard to evict and with some terfs thrown in for good measure
Absolutely floored by how good this show is. I’m obsessed with it. Definitely the best anime I’ve seen in probably the last decade.
Also very good to watch high!
I’m up to about Episode 10 now. Been slowed down by re-watching with various friend groups.
I’ve been watching Ranking of Kings with a couple friends myself, and we’ve been really enjoying it. It pairs very well with a board game night. I’m worried about this weird allegorical stuff I’ve heard comes in later… But man, the show is just so lovable. Also, am I totally off base, or does it seem heavily inspired by Dark Souls?
It might be berzerk refs because the souls games are lousy with those and it might be the single most influential bit of Japanese fantasy ever. But I haven’t seen ranking of kings so, I couldn’t say for sure without more specifics?
i posted my thoughts on that show in the other thread but they are maybe a little spoilery and also i do not enjoy being a hater, i really wanted to like it
i think it’s good that the big guy dual wields shields one time
Girls Und Panzer is one of the best shows i;ve ever fucking seen in my life. Let’s make a sports anime about tanks and make the world revolve around this stupid fucking sport we made up to the point where the fans of the sport actively want their livelihoods destroyed by this tank sport, and also the whole show is about several japanese high schools on aircraft carriers that essentially larp as other countries that were major players in world war 2, and the leader of the russian based school literally has a crib that is also a car. Do not go into this show thinking its going to be the same trash that you’re used to, this shit is gold.
I haven’t finished watching Ranking of Kings yet but like a lot of manga extended past the original planned arc, I think it’s very good until it goes off the rails and turns into a slightly desperate imitation of its past success.
It goes off the rails a bit gradually, but I think it’s definitely done so by the point that spear guy is revealed to be a secret bad guy and brings the old king back to life. Then I started to lose faith that any of the characters’ grave decisions actually entail the irrevocable consquences they should, or even that they’re the character’s own choice.
i like ranking of kings but personally thought it was a bit cloying at times. still haven’t finished it, though
partner wanted to watch elfen lied but this super clean bd rip with a 5.1 track is uncanny. I need to transcode it down to some really grungy bitcrushed blocky xvid so it looks as illegal as it feels