Kaskade

I freaking love Kaskade. Some explanation is needed.

Kaskade is a DJ formerly of Chicago and currently of Salt Lake City. He's made a name for himself producing and recording the subset of Electronica/Techno music called House. House is basically Techno out of the Chicago area which is heavily influenced by the soul and disco music common to the area. There are a whole mess of musical breakdowns that go into the categorization of House music but I'll keep it simply and say it's funky and midtempo (between 118 and 135 BPM).

Kaskade notably takes House in a slower, more soul-ish direction, adding things like a bassist and acoustic piano to a lot of his mixes. His vocal production is also to die for, deep and lyrical and evoking an emotional connection that a lot of dance misses. It's not exactly club music, but it is great to listen to.

It's great feel-good music and also great chill out stuff. Keeps me sane during my busy theater lifestyle.

Muah!
Lyrinoir

Evangelion: Hope

The first in a string of new movies that re-envision the animated classic, Shin Shiki Evangelion (Neon Genesis Evangelion for us Americans) was released in Japanese theaters less than 24 hours ago. Already, it is being hailed as the way the series should have been done and is breaking box office records in Japan.

NGE was a groundbreaking Anime series that received critical acclaim in the mid 90s for its radical and beautiful portrayal of the human condition. The series however was horrifically unfunded and the last two episodes inspired outright hatred from fans and cold reactions from critics because of their failure to satisfactorily end the story and they're highly stylized portrayal of human psychology.

Even the later release of four OVAs (or two movies) couldn't really redeem the series from the ignominious end. However, starting in 2000, the production studio GAINAX, which had profited so immensely from EVA, announced a project to reanimate a great deal of the series and clean it up. After the success of this project, the company decided to put into production a series of movies that would retell the story in a better way and with the budget it so richly deserved.

NGE was the show that got me hooked on anime. It was my initiation into a world that would dominate a portion of my life for years and still does. As it stands, I await the stateside release of the movies with breath held and hopes high.

Muah!
Lyrinoir