With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery (2012) by Moonface

With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery

Medium: Album

Artist: Moonface
Label: Jagjaguwar
Country: Canada
Released: April 17, 2012
First Consumed: June 29,2012
Genre: Art rock/Post-punk
Rating: 6.5/10

Moonface is a name the prolific musician Spencer Krug (Wolfparade, Sunset Rubdown) releases music under. I'm a fan of a couple of his bands, but this is my first Moonface record. Probably not a good intro considering he's enlisted the help of Finnish rock band Siinai, another band I'm unfamiliar with.

It's hard to describe why Heartbreaking Bravery underwhelming. Most likely I didn't care for the much for the synth-heavy music, but Krug's sung over synth-heavy music before. 

I think I just wasn't gripped by a single song. Krug's impressive lyrics are present, but the synths, along with the album's length kept me at a distance. 

If you're a fan of Krug, I'd still check it out.

The Legend of Korra, Season 1

The Legend of Korra, Season 1

Medium: TV
Created by: Michael Dante DiMartino & Brian Konietzko
Network: Nickelodeon
Dates Aired: April 14, 2012 - June 23, 2012
Consumption completed: June 29, 2012
Genre: Action/Animation
Rating: 9.0/10

In 12 episodes the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender have greatly expanded on the world they built over the course of three seasons, bringing it 70 years into the future. Korra finds the formerly feudal world right in the middle of an industrial age that has produced motor vehicles and steam-powered airships. It's a lot to take in with such a quick introduction. It's even harder when we're immediately forced to sympathize with a load of characters we don't know yet, and who have only tenuous connections to the characters from the earlier series. 

I'm happy to report that the creators of Korra prove very adept at bringing us up to speed and fleshing out their new characters. DiMartino and Konietzko have had practice, surely, but I had no reason to expect that Korra would be much better than Avatar at the same point in it's series.

This also has to do with the strict serialization of the new series. There are no Villages-of-the-week here. No exploring the world. Korra (and the audience) are thrown into Republic City, and the series moves briskly from there.

As a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I could not have asked for a more satisfying sequel series.

Pierrot le Fou (1965)

Medium: Film
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Country: France
Released: 1965
First Consumed: June 28, 2012
Format: Blu-ray
Rating: 6.5/10

Criterion Collection #421

The Criterion Collection description of this film describes it as Godard's final "frolic." That's works as well as any word to describe Pierrot le Fou. Despite its consumerist and political satire, it's never more than a beautifully shot playful romp through Southern France with two pretty people.

From Hell by Alan Moore

From Hell

Medium: Print (Graphic Novel)

Author: Alan Moore

Artist: Eddie Campbell

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

Issues Collected: Complete series (1-10)

Country: United Kingdom

Published: 1991-1996

Consumed: June 28, 2012

Genre: historical fiction, horror

Rating: 9.5/10

I don't know how art can be so ugly and still work perfectly with its material. This is an ugly book. Moore and Campbell did not make its completion an easy and pretty thing. But it's worth it. This is Moore at the top of his form. This is his obituary on the Victorian era. The masculine era.