Goth or Moth?
A recent search for 'Moth Rock' bands led me to this online quiz on vole.wtf, 'Goth or Moth?'. Links to videos of all mentioned artists are provided as you progress as well as short bios on each of the darkly named moths of Britain. Cousin German and The Engrailed were two of the moth species I made sure to take note of. 'Hoplodrina octogenaria (otherwise known as The Uncertain) may need to have its genitalia examined to distinguish it from the similar-looking The Rustic.'
The Owl Service
We recently watched the complete 1969 series on youtube and were consistently gripped and confused.
The Red Book of Saints
I recently finished reading Christine Chaundler's 'The Red Book of Saints', a collection of short stories that describe the lives of several prominent saints of the Christian canon. The way these stories are formatted as folkloric-style children's stories made them easily digestible and memorable and inspired me to attempt a similar simpleness in some of my own stories. I was also reminded of the prominence of archetypes and symbolism in such tales and contemplated how I might strengthen my own images when it comes to writing with meaning or purpose.
Tomie GB
Tomie GB is a videogame adaption of the first chapter of the Tomie manga by itch.io user zombizzle. Despite being only a short demo, the 8-bit graphics and monochromatic colour palette compliment the eeriness of Junji Ito's school days-horror manga really well. As a fan of the original comic, it got me excited to support and play a full release of the game and I can't wait to see how it evolves. I also downloaded a copy of the gb-studios game maker engine that the adaption was made on and am looking at designing and developing my own demo using those tools.
The Monster Scroll
I'm currently playing through Nioh 2, a soulslike Action-RPG on the PS4 and set in feudal Japan. I've tried several times to get into Bloodborne and Dark Souls but each time I frustratingly give up early. Nioh 2, although similar mechanically has, in my opinion, a much more interesting and engaging mythology and world. The ability to block, absent in Bloodborne, makes combat feel much more satisfying and strategic, and the level of customisation available from the very start had me absorbed immediately. The game has also piqued my interest regarding the folklore and demonology of Japan. Browsing The Bakemono Zukusihi, the 19th Century Monster Scroll, I recognise many of my favourite enemies and bosses from the game like the ushi-oni and rokurokubi. This article on The Public Domain Review includes some high resolution images of the scroll and some great biographies of the many yokai it depicts.
NightCafe AI Art Generator
I've used this online AI Art Generator to create some of the covers for short stories here on Cobweb Castle, namely 'Sugar In a Gas Giant' and 'Eclipsed'. The program creates some really cool images with just a few a prompts and I've recently had a lot of fun punching in random words associated with things I like and seeing what comes out. The three included below were generated by the prompts 'geometric nuclear mobile', 'saturn samurai camera' and 'wolf spider sun'.
Playlist - Subterraneans
A playlist of songs from the Under-Earth featuring Anita Lane, Jesper Kyd and
Björk.
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