How is it August already? What happened?
Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you’re well in this strange year. I’ve been doing a lot better lately, as I’m sure you’ve seen me complain about health issues often enough on this blog. Having said that, I distinctly remember reviewing episode 4 of Tensura last week, and then posting it. I didn’t do this. And I spent a good while looking around for this ghost post I never actually wrote. For those of you who were looking forward to it, I can only apologize. To make it up to you guys, I’ll write an extra lengthy review this week, and I’ll make sure to include a recap of the previous episode!
Moving on, I want to talk a little bit more about the future of this blog. I’m not going to make any big promises about consistency, since I have been known to overestimate myself. I did write more in July than I did in either May or June, so that’s a good sign. Hoping to top that in August and keep going from there. The goal of this year is still to hit at least 300.000 words. That’s a lot for someone who struggled to reach 100.000 words last year, so bear with me folks. For the near future, I’m still thinking about updating the look of the website and doing some organizing. I’ve gone very chaotic with my tags and categories and I would like to streamline all of that. So that process will be started this month. I also want to get back to my old schedule of 2 to 3 posts a week. This includes chapter 7 of The Necromancer’s Daughter. The draft version is ready, it’s just gotta go through editing and proofreading. You know, the worst part. But it will be done on time, I promise. I’m also working on some other projects that I hope to unveil soon, but no promises on that yet, those might still take a little while.
As for music, I have a fun playlist put together once more. I didn’t go with a specific theme, unless “new” music is a theme, but there were a lot of good songs that popped up this month that I had to include. Early in the month I became enthralled by the song Saturday by Twenty One Pilots. I’ve included their music in previous playlists and I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m a big fan of their songs. A lot of their new stuff feels a bit more like pop-music and less eccentric than some of their other songs, but I really like this direction they’re taking. Coldplay’s Higher Power shows how consistent they are, and how Chris Martin’s voice will never get old. I’m personally also quite impressed with Yungblud’s rendition of Like a Virgin. I think it’s better than the original, but I’m not a big Madonna fan. Besides several western songs I’ve also added a few J-pop songs. Bump of Chicken and Man with a Mission are both bands that I’ve been following for a while, with Bump of Chicken doing the opening songs for 3-Gatsu no Lion, which is one of my favorite shows of all time.
The last song I want to highlight is this song by Glay:
I’m adding it like this because I was unable to find a version on Youtube that I could stream in the Netherlands, and my Japanese is not that great. And with not that great I mean I can barely say hello. It’s a particularly fun song since it seems to take influences from several western songs. My brother pointed out that the start of the song sounds eerily similar to Journey’s Don’t stop believing, and although we disagree on how similar it is, I have to admit it sounds like it. Not only that, one of the riffs (I hope that’s the word I’m looking for) sounds exactly like Michael Jackson’s Black or White, which I consider to be one of his best songs. The entire song is a joy to listen to.
As for the August playlist, I’m going to start thinking of a fun theme. I have some in mind, but it needs to have that summer vibe. Maybe pop-rock? Some 5 seconds of summer and other songs in that genre? Who knows, but I hope I see you all there!
Opal Kaharis 