Year's End Twilight

 

                January feels like yesterday, but it’s closer to being tomorrow.  This year has sped by in the blink of an icicle.  Sorry, I am veering from cliché.  Anyways, I feel spirited to write, seeing it is Year’s End Twilight – the days betwixt Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

                Since my last entry, I have busied myself with making harp videos, releasing a new short story on Amazon, and of course holiday shopping.  To avert another cliché, instead of brewing lemonade from life’s lemons, I say – When life browns your bananas, make banana bread.

                To my dismay, I did not win the short fiction contest I entered this year.  However, even if you lose, you still have created something.  It’s not like a baseball game, where winning gains you a shiny trophy and losing gains you immaterial experience.  I gained experience and retained a story to share with others.  My mom likes hearing me read my work to her, but I don’t always have time, so I had a Christmas gift idea.  I recorded myself reading, Shapes and Holes, and made an audiobook for my mother.

If you're curious to read the story, here it is: Shapes and Holes

In a way, it was like making banana bread out of over-browned bananas.  Besides, I kept having recurring incidents involving banana bread.  There was banana bread at home.  Then, banana bread came up randomly in a semi-heated argument in Lyra Hoop class, and when I saw Banana Bread flavored Pop Tarts at the grocery store, I felt this had to be an omen, hence the name of the first Lyra Hoop Harp video.  The Pop Tarts were good, by the way.

Hoop Harp Video 1

Hoop Harp Video 2 

Hoop Harp Video 3 

                Regarding harping, I still had numerous songs left over from my harp shoot back in October, and although the focus was off on the visuals, the audio was still good.  I salvaged some elegant improvised songs and used them as background for my Lyra Hoop clips.  Moreover, I had more time to tinker with the new video editing software, ClipChamp, that came with the automatic Windows update.  Using both ClipChamp and the legacy software of Windows Video Editor, I was able to experiment with new visual effects.  Thereafter, I made two more videos with the salvaged harp music, hoop content, and special effects.

Then I needed to make two holiday harp videos, one for Hanukkah and one for Christmas.  This year, my family bought a new artificial tree.  It has three different settings on the lights.  I wanted to make a harp video with the new tree in the background, but tragedy struck and creative plans came second to caring for my family.  I’m not going into detail – it’s not for the internet to know.  I couldn’t even complete my audiobook and wrapping presents had to wait.  After the chaos cleared, I made a Yuletide harp video, using photos of the new tree.  In utilizing three different editing softwares, I created visual effects that complimented the Hanukkah video I had made before.  The holiday videos were a good pair this year.

On Christmas Eve, I had to burn the audiobook onto disc and complete it with a CD cover.  All the blank CDs were at my parents’ house, so I had to complete this task without my mother finding out.  My dad and I worked together to insure the audio transferred properly.  Once I slipped the printed cover into the jewel case, I was relieved to know I was finished with gifting for the year.  I still needed to wrap, though.

                Christmas Eve and Day were wonderful.  During the evening prior, my mother and I baked blueberry scones for Christmas breakfast.  Before then, we carried out a recent tradition of driving around local neighborhoods to view Christmas lights, especially the houses that were really decked out.  One detoured turn led us to discovering a new house bedazzled with lights synchronized to radio music.

                As per the usual holiday traditions, we enjoyed scones, berries, and tea; opened presents of course, and watched movies.  My mom really thought my audiobook was cool.  My dad loved his 48 episodes of Rin Tin Tin that I gave him.  When I was a kid, I loved receiving presents, but as I grew into womanhood, I appreciate giving presents more.  I don’t usually ask for a lot, and my folks usually urge me to add more to my Christmas list.  A notable gift I received this year was a book of Japanese tales.

Halloween, Harp, Poetry, and Life

This year has been busy, and I feel like this blog is collecting cobwebs for the season.  Back in May, I wanted to post a blog about The Little Mermaid and its original soundtrack, but I got sidetracked with work, life, and other projects.  Pretty soon the Barbie movie whirled a pink hurricane into the media, and my topic became less relevant media-wise.  Barbie was a fun to see in the theater, which was mostly empty.

I haven't straight out typed up a blog entry since the 00's, and this time I just feel like writing.  If you want to get to the harp video, skip ahead.  I am not stopping you.

This year has been full of work, Spring cleaning, dance classes, reading random books, practicing German and Russian, squeezing harp into my schedule, and reconnecting with someone I hadn't talked to in a few years.  I hardly had time to write until September when a contest motivated me to flex my creativity once more.  Deadlines can be inspiring, because opportunities don't last forever.

Okay, I guess I'm getting to my harp video sooner.  This year I almost did not make a Halloween harp video, due to technical issues with my camera, my computer, and I misplaced a specific costume I wanted to use.  I wish I had more time to do more harp videos, but I must work to pay my bills. 

If you would like some more fun facts about this video, feel free to check out my music page on Facebook, Faery Halo. 

Otherwise, carry onward and enjoy my harp video for the Halloween season.

Besides harping, I have been meming lately.  Memes are quicker art sometimes, so it was easy to find time to slip a meme onto my meme page.  Still, I didn't get to complete all the memes I wanted to create this Halloween, so a few ideas will be saved for next year, along with my costume for the next Halloween Harp video.

Here is my meme page, Caro Memes.

Beware, some of my memes are edgy, but most are geared toward a nostalgic millennial audience.

Also, I feel spirited to write a Halloween poem.

Hallowed Air

The sickle's edge fades
as tears dry and memories raise.
The year nears the end,
but not the end
of life - just the bend
in the wheel of the year.

Candles bloom, and carmel sticks
to unbobbed apples.
Children cheer
in a lack of fear,
treating death like a mirror.

Moonlight looms, and souls rest
in graves unrobbed.
The scarecrow warns
nothing that is known,
yet in the air,
the season is never outgrown.

Anime with Adult Protagonists

 

                My love for anime and manga started in my early adolescence, and the main characters were relatable since they were around my age.  Now as a woman who has voyaged far into adulthood, I’ve grown tired of the redundant, formulaic high school themes in anime with teenagers and tweenagers taking central roles.  I’ve searched and found animes that are geared towards more mature audiences – that are NOT hentai!  There are plenty of anime nerds, otherwise known as otakus, who are not perverts and appreciate Japanimation for its colorful art and complex storytelling.

                If you’re an adult otaku who wants anime that’s reflective of your grownup circumstances, there’s something for everyone.  There always is with anime.  Studio Ghibli is the choice for people who want to sound sophisticated but not oblivious to Japanimation.  Alternative to Hayao Miyazaki’s productions, there are still acclaimed films marketed to wider audiences, like Millennium Actress, Read or Die, and Akira.  However, this entry focuses on series rather than full motion pictures.

The following list involves anime with grownup protagonists and plotlines that are relatable with older age groups, produced as recently as 2021 and as early as the 1967.  The school scenery disappears, and say good-bye to the sailor school uniforms.  Characters are professionals or enduring life transformations.  The careers are diverse, whether the main character is an accountant, a racecar driver, or even a brain surgeon.  Some situations are fantastical, or absurdly comical.  Some premises take place in the future or the ancient past, or maybe just 1986 or 2017.  The setting doesn’t have to be Japan, either.  The only children in these series are related to the adult characters, hospital patients, or the random coworker who is a computer hacker.

 

1.       The Way of the Househusband (2021) – An ex-yakuza marries a beautiful working woman, and he lives his life as a house husband.  Despite leaving his life of crime, his gangster ways are still imprinted in his perspective on everything.  Even yoga positions are yakuza related to him.  There are a lot of yakuza jokes every time a white powdery substance is involved with cooking and cleaning, but the substance is never cocaine.  This show is definitely not for kids.  The main character, Tatsu (aka the Immortal Dragon) is about 30, and his wife is 26 and loves anime.

2.       God Troubles Me (2019) – On short notice 24-year-old Su Moting’s parents reveal that they are otherworldly, and kick her out of the house so they can start traveling.  Su is a picky young adult who searches for the perfect apartment, and once she signs the rental contract, her roommates turn out to be gods.  The landlord is a god too.  One god transfigures into a cat, and the other is a humanoid cellphone.  Both are controlling since mortal humans seem easily manipulated by cats and cellphones.  Su can be a jerk sometimes, but they all get along.  Moving out and living on your own is a milestone that adults can empathize with.  The series is in Mandarin Chinese, has short episodes, and there are no English dubs yet.  Although it’s not technically Japanimation, the animation style and abnormalcy in plot make it good enough for this list.

3.       Aggretsuko (2018) – This is like Hello Kitty for adults.  The female protagonist is a 25-year-old accountant, and the plot is centered in office life.  In Aggretsko’s free time, she sings heavy metal, in which she expresses her frustrations of everyday life.  The episodes involve grownup situations like relationships, networking, and problems like stalkers, and corporate corruption.

4.       Uncle from another World (2018) – A man wakes from a 17-year coma at the age of 34, and proves to his nephew that he has virtual reality powers that make ordinary telekinesis look yawn-worthy.  While he was comatose, he lived in an alternative universe that aired on television in the real world.  He and his nephew review the online episodes of his life in the other world, Granbahamal.  The worst part about waking up is the downfall of SEGA, the uncle’s beloved video game company.  A lot of millennials can identify with Uncle Yousuke, for his nostalgia for a time that no longer exists and his gradual adaptation into the present.

5.       Cells at Work (2018) – This is a sci-fi where the characters are humanized body cells.  The workplace is a human body.  The heroine is a red blood cell who tends to get lost while making deliveries, and she frequently meets a white blood cell who fights pathogens.  The other characters have names like Killer T Cell, Macrophage, Platelet, Helper T Cell, Dendritic Cell, etc.  This series is great for someone studying biology or nursing.

6.       Thermae Romae (2012) – The main character, Lucius, is an architect living in Ancient Rome.  He discovers a tunnel that spirits him to present day Japan.  From the future, he gets ideas for spas, theme parks, zoos, and other places.  In returning to ancient Rome, he encounters architectural problems in trying to implement his discoveries in his time period.

7.       Monster (2004) – A Japanese brain surgeon works in West Germany in 1986.  Dr. Tenma faces the ethical dilemma of patient intake based on socioeconomic status and fame, and upholding his hospital’s high reputation.  Dr. Tenma faces consequences for doing the right thing.  Then a string of murders occur inside the hospital.  Dr. Tenma is suspected, but could not be arrested.  Nine years later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a murderous spree continues, and the main suspect is being treated by Dr. Tenma.  With his medical knowledge, he may find the answer to solve the murders. However, his work is based in ethics, not the crave for money or publicity.  This series has adult situations involving bureaucracy, discrimination, gold digging, and morality.

8.       Witch Hunter Robin (2002) – Robin was raised in Italy to track down genetically empowered witches who psychically attack people.  Robin also has witch powers but she only uses them for fighting evil witches.  In this series witchcraft is not a religious path, but a genetic phenomenon that lays dormant in any individual until the gene becomes expressed through supernaturally antisocial acts.  Obviously the villains are not happy, tree-hugging Wiccans.  Anyone with the negative powers in the dormant state is a “seed,” which includes Robin, who looks to be in her 20s.

9.       Hellsing (2001) - A royal order of guardians serves to protect England from supernatural monsters.  Led by a knighted woman, she discovers a vampire sworn to protect her, Alucard, who became her most powerful defender.  Alucard turns a police woman into a vampire, and she joins the guardians in fighting evil forces.

10.   Trigun (1998) – This is one of the few animes set in the Wild West.  An outlaw, Vash the Stampede, travels around fending off bounty hunters, and sometimes with the help of his motorcycle riding priest friend, Wolfwood.  Two journalists trail Vash and document his adventures.  One journalist falls in love with Vash.

11.   Cowboy Bebop (1998) – In contrast to Trigun, the main characters in this series are the bounty hunters.  Set in the future of 2071, Earth is no longer habitable and space is colonized.  The team consists of an Inter Solar System Police officer, an estranged hitman; a con artist with amnesia and a gambling problem.  The only child on the team is a skilled hacker.  Also part of the team is a genetically enhanced Welsh Corgi who is probably smarter than most people.  They are all aboard the ship, Bebop, hunting for criminals.

12.   Ghost in the Shell (1995) – A series of films surrounding a female cyborg, who nearly died in childhood.  Her brain was preserved and the rest of her was replaced with a prosthetic body with an operable computer chip connecting the mind and body.  She is literally a ghost living inside a shell body.  In this form, she prevents crime.  Her main weakness is that hackers can breach her mind’s computer chip.  There was also a live action version of this in 2017, starring Scarlett Johansson.

13.   Dragon Ball Z (1989) – A muscle bound warrior, Goku, who once collected the dragon balls and fought in tournaments, becomes a father.  Goku refused to conquer worlds with his brother, Raditz, who then kidnaps Goku’s son.  Raditz demands a hefty blood ransom, and the child eventually conquers the villain.  That’s only one adventure.  The Dragon Ball franchise has a lot of epic tales involving multiple alien races and intergalactic battles.  It runs as long as a soap opera for transcending fictional generations, but it’s definitely nowhere near as boring as a soap opera.  This world is filled with aliens, androids, and monsters, therefore the cast of Days of our Lives can take a hike.  Most of the DBZ characters have muscles that bodybuilders fantasize in achieving.  The men have chiseled faces unlike other animes where male characters have pointy, feminine jawlines.

14.   Speed Racer (1967) – The plot surrounds an 18-year-old racecar driver named Gou Mifune, who competes in his Mach 5 challenge car.  His family manufactures cars, and his father used to be a professional wrestler.  His girlfriend travels by helicopter during his races, and she is not the “damsel in distress type.”  Not all grownup situations are centered around office cubicles.  This anime even has a pet chimpanzee.  I remember this show being on MTV, so it was marketed to an older audience.

 

Slick Santa

 

My family has a tradition that we don't necessarily do every year, only when the opportunity arises.  My family tends to buy Christmas presents near or right in front of each other without getting caught.  This tale is just one example, but it's a Yuletide memory worth telling.

It was many Decembers ago.  I believe I was a teen or a pre-teen.  My dad, my brother, and I went jewelry shopping for my mom.  We looked around, and I used to really love going to jewelry stores.  My dad asked me which ones I liked as usual, and I said I liked the semi-precious stone items, particularly a blue topaz ring.  Since I was a kid and obviously could not afford to give my mom anything in the store, my job was the try on pieces of jewelry and give my expert opinions.

Dad said that we were going to play jokes on Mom, since Mom always likes to snoop around.  Really, she doesn't always snoop around.  Sometimes she finds things by accident, ....just like I do on occasion.  Dad had decided on some earrings, and he said as a joke we would have each earring in a separate velvet box to make Mom think we got her two pieces of jewelry.  Technically, two earrings were two pieces of jewelry.

When we got home, Dad decided to keep playing jokes on Mom.  Dad told her to hide in the basement, saying we got her something large; no peeking and no snooping!  He told me to get out of the way, and told my brother to help him with the large box.  They mimed and heaved the imaginary box through the house and up the stairs.  They pretended it was very heavy and difficult to haul up the steps.  This was to make Mom think that she was getting something really big.

On Christmas day, I was happy, and opening presents with the family.  Mom was opening one of the little boxes that had an earring in it.  I stopped unwrapping my presents to see her surprise.  To my surprise, both earrings were in one box.  Dad handed me the other box and said it was for me.  I opened it, and it was the blue topaz ring.

 

Poetry for the Hallowed Eve

 

For this Halloween season, I wrote four poems: two sestinas and two villanelles.  One of each poetic form expresses the holiday in the contemporary and ancient senses.  In other words, one sestina and villanelle are for the current ideas surrounding Halloween, and the other poetic pair covers the older traditions of Samhain that predate Christianity.  So, there is old and new for each poetry formation.

At first, it was just going to be one sestina.  I looked back on a sestina I wrote in college, titled, “The Skeleton Key.”  I was confused when I noticed it did not fit the poem’s standard formation, which I researched.  If I had made that type of error, my professor who was quick to criticize would have been on it like white on snow.  After some contemplation, I recalled that the professor intentionally changed the rules because it was an intro course.  The student was free to choose the order of end words, but the stanzas could not have repeat placements, and all six words could be anywhere in the envoy at the end.  Since the format has become its own variation, I would like to call it an Edelman, after my professor.  

This time I wrote the sestinas in the traditional format, and I independently learned to write villanelles long after graduation.  The following are my poems, and I hope you enjoy reading them.  The Sestinas come first, and then the Villanelles.  Thematically, the Halloween ones come first and then the Samhain verses.


The Revered Eve Kept Aglow

With Autumn long broken, the hickory air haunts,
and the heat of daylight is now a ghost
of the waning sunlight casting a spell in the waxing dark.
Friendly faces are now guarded by masks,
traversing streets with footprinted webs,
and greeted by carved pumpkins aglow.

The revered eve weathered through centuries but kept aglow
by children romping, with our memories haunting.
Nightmares melt into chocolate webs
as people portray their opposites, as children are ghosts.
The soul is free behind the shield of a mask,
and whispers are louder in the dark.

The more the nights grow darker,
The more the pumpkins glow.
Until the sun rises, can the dancer be unmasked.
For now, identities unknown in the masquerade haunt
minds like cauldron apples bobbing for skin ghosts.
Is it depth or merely corn on the cobwebs?

Nature decorates with spider webs
that get stepped on in the dark.
We scarcely see a ghost,
Outside of stories around the bonfire aglow,
Yet they still haunt
the superstitious, with or without a mask.

Visitors donning jeweled masks,
Casting giggle webs,
Approach an abandoned, once loved haunted
house, mocking the darkness
that dares to obliterate the glow
of the dwelling ghosts.

Dwelling within, loners watch films of ghost
stories, enjoying dangers masked
by a screen that glows.
Plots link to new tales, like a web
of lies that don’t cut in the dark,
but screams echo until haunting.

The glowing moon casts a ghost upon the ground,
Guiding the haunting spirits who don masks,
Lurking for one night, the web of time darkens.



Midautumnal Candlelight

Betwixt the realms exists the veil,
Unthickening in the sparkling darkness of midautumn.
Nightfall cloaks the sacred candles
With cold shades of dusk whilst spirits
Of ancestors crossover to talk past death
In the third harvest.

Apples, corn, and pumpkins are harvested,
and carved to guard against evil past the veil.
Passed are those who reached death,
with loving backward gazes in Autumn.
Praying in circles, we whisper to the kindred spirits,
Well willed, casting spells with candles.

Solemn is the air around the candles,
Reaping the physical crops and the ethereal entities harvested
By time itself, the wheel of the year, the spirits
Sing through the glittering veil
The dancing fire matches the leaves in this autumn
Eve, where life meets death.

Believing gives the living hope after death.
Cold rhythms flicker the candles
We are reminded that life is ephemeral in Autumn
Years, in the cut vegetables we harvest,
and as the waning thickness even in darkness, secrets are unveiled.
No one lives in the graves, known by the spirits.

To the ancestors, we drink fermented spirits,
Embracing life before we’re embalmed by death,
Reuniting on the other side of the veil.
Wishing upon annual candles
Brings peace and hope in this cyclical harvest.
We bask in the midst of Autumn.

Dreams tend to be thicker by Autumn,
and the wind carries words to beloved spirits.
At the end of the harvest,
There is no end to death.
The wax wanes downward upon dripping candles.
Night ends, and light ascends again, but remaining still is the veil.

Harvest moonlight glows well with the hickory autumn air
Unveiled is my heathen hair, we’re spirited to a spiraling dance.
Death does not snuff out candlelight – life has meaning in every chance.



Gallivanting Revelers

There they go, parading in costume.
Door to door, they do not fool,
Collecting candy in the gloom.

Waltzing around the room
Adorned masks with jewels,
There they go, parading in costume.

Vampiric bride and skeleton groom
Unite with the village ghoul,
Collecting candy in the gloom.

Skyward on the witch’s broom,
Craving company after stirring cauldron gruel.
There they go, parading in costume.

Masquerading with peacock plumes,
Feeling the brisk breezes cool,
Collecting candy in the gloom.

Never fearing ghosts from the tomb,
Nor dreading werewolf’s drool.
There they go, parading in costume,
Collecting candy in the gloom.



The Hallowed Veil

On the other side of the veil,
The fallen and the living can reunite.
We meet and part on this trail.

Circle cast, and candles lit despite gales,
Nothing blows out the light
On the other side of the veil.

Recanting ancestral tales,
Astral entities may overhear midflight.
We meet and part on this trail.

Quicker than a nightingale,
Rhythmic messages sent, spelled with insight,
On the other side of the veil.

Clinking goblets of seasonal ale,
Catching warmth of the bonfire light
We meet and part on this trail.

The aether thins and the stars gleam pale,
Wise crafters speak to parted loved ones in rite
On the other side of the veil,
We meet and part on this trail.