Sun, 26 December 2010
With this episode, Manga Out Loud has completed it's first year. Thank you to everyone you have been listening to Manga Out Loud. I deeply appreciate your support and feedback. One housekeeping announcement. Since Johanna and I co-host, I will not be including her name as a guest in the show titles anymore. You can assume that she is a part of the episode unless stated otherwise. I just want to streamline the titles a little more. As always you can read our reviews at www.MangaWorthReading.com and www.ComicsWorthreading.com You can follow us on twitter: @johannadc and @edsizemore. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. Again thanks.
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Thu, 16 December 2010
Johanna mentioned Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doris. Here is the Amazon listing: Tim mentionsed Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Feel to Earth by Andrew Smith. Here is the Amazon listing: Sam's website, A Life in Panels, is here: http://alifeinpanels.wordpress.com/ Daniella's website, All About Manga, is here: http://allaboutcomics.wordpress.com/author/allaboutcomics/ Tim's website, Tim Maughan Books, is here: http://timmaughanbooks.com/ You can follow us on Twitter. Sam is @SamKusek, Daniella is @allaboutmanga, Tim is @timmaughan, Johanna is @johannadc, and I'm @edsizemore.
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Thu, 9 December 2010
The One Piece Manga Moveable Feast can be found here: http://precur.wordpress.com/one-piece-mmf/ I highly recommend you read David's, Sean's, & Erica's blogs. David Welsh's website's, The Manga Curmudgeon, is here: http://precur.wordpress.com/ Sean's Gaffney's website's, A Case Suitable for Treatment, is here: http://suitablefortreatment.blogspot.com/ Erica has three website's, her manga review site is Okazu http://okazu.blogspot.com/ . Her social media website is Social Optimized http://socialoptimized.blogspot.com . Her publisher's website is Yuricon http://www.yuricon.org/ . Kate's One Piece article I refer to can be found here: http://mangacritic.com/?p=8319 Reverse Theieves did a Speakeasy Podcast on One Piece: http://reversethieves.com/2010/11/30/repost-the-speakeasy-one-piece-podcast/ Heidi MacDonald's piece on a shoujo's artist's weekly schedule is here: http://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/12/02/sample-work-schedule-of-a-manga-artist/ Anime 3000 is found at http://www.anime3000.com Jason Thompson's House of A 1,000 Manga column is here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/ Brian's Brain Diving column is here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/brain-diving/ There is now a One Piece Restaurant in Japan. Here is the news article http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2010-12-07/one-piece-anime-official-restaurant-open-until-may You can follow us on Twitter I'm @edsizemore, Erica is @Yuricon, David is @MangaCur, and Sean is @Toukochan. A big thanks to Chesterfield County Library system for having all the volumes of One Piece ( http://library.chesterfield.gov/ )
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Mon, 6 December 2010
***This is not an episode of the Manga Out Loud podcast. This is a posted to allow friends and family of Wade and Clare to be able to access the wonder of thier engagement.***
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Sun, 5 December 2010
***This is not an episode of the Manga Out Loud podcast. This is a posted to allow friends and family of Wade and Clare to be able to access the wonder of thier engagement.***
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Sun, 5 December 2010
***This is not an episode of the Manga Out Loud podcast. This is a posted to allow friends and family of Wade and Clare to be able to access the wonder of thier engagement.***
The Proposal
It was a miracle I heard anything at all. It was 5am on Friday, November 12th, and someone was moving around in the hall bathroom. I woke to find that the earplugs I usually sleep with had mysteriously disappeared, and as I’m generally dead to the world at that hour, I decided to hit the restroom and crawl back into bed. But my excellent plan was foiled when I opened my door and saw a wide streak of bright red on the floor, leading from my bedroom to the bathroom. I didn’t have my contacts in and am generally catatonic before 8am, so it took me about a minute of hard thinking and getting nose-to-nose with the carpet to realize that the red stuff on the ground wasn’t blood but rose petals! The petal trail ended at the bathroom vanity, with a long-stem red rose, a plane ticket and a card with the following:
Clare,
Meet me in Richmond after class.
I love you. Wade
Being a very discerning man, Wade also included a postscript about what clothes to bring and told me that a driver would be waiting for me when I arrived. I promptly shrieked, hugged my mom (a.k.a. rose-petal-scatterer extraordinaire) and began running around like the proverbial headless chicken. It took me a whopping twenty minutes to figure out that putting in the aforementioned contacts would help the outfit-selection and packing processes immeasurably. Once packed, I went to Mass and to class, giving fervent thanks for Wade, his romantic extravagance for my good, and the fact that I only had to proctor an exam that morning. The sole coherent thought in my head was “Yeah!!!”, so it was best for everyone involved that I didn’t have to lecture.
My parents dropped me at LaGuardia airport after class, and then moseyed their way to JFK to drop my stepfather off for a flight out to Las Vegas to visit my stepbrother. I checked in and made it through security without setting off any alarms, only to discover that my 3pm flight wouldn’t take off until 4pm. 4pm became 4:45pm on the runway, when the pilot announced we were 20th in line for takeoff. This prompted much reflection on what it means to wait for good things and the discovery that you really can’t “blow out” airplane traffic the way you can red traffic lights. More’s the pity!
The plane made it to the gate in Richmond around 6pm (Hallelujah!), and as soon as the plane door was open, a lovely US Airways employee entered and loudly inquired if there was “a Clare Brown on board?” The stewardess took up the cry over the intercom, asking “Clare Brown [to] please press the stewardess call button.” If you’ve ever wondered if that button makes a sound, it does, and the “Ding!” is really loud, and the whole planeful of people turned to look at me when I obeyed the summons. The woman who first shouted my name spied me then, grinned significantly, and began shoving passengers out of her way to present me with a gorgeous red rose. Everyone else on the plane had significant grins by this point too, and I’m pretty sure I was the same color as the flower.
After an agonizing wait for plane-side luggage and a frantic costume change, I arrived suitably attired, if breathless, at the baggage claim. I then wandered outside, looking for the driver Wade mentioned, and assuming the driver would be one of Wade’s friends. Mom called to ask if I’d arrived, and then Wade called to ask where I was, because it appeared the limo driver (!!!) and I had missed each other. Wonderful, phlegmatic man that he is, Wade calmly rearranged sumptuous transport for me, and I was swept off to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in limo number two.
Wade met me outside the museum with three red roses and a kiss, and upon entering the lobby, Stephen, the security guard, handed me a red rose. The rose-giving theme continued with the waiter who seated us at a table in the museum’s restaurant that overlooked a glorious sculpture garden. I was immensely grateful for Wade’s forethought in ordering for us, because my capacity to choose between entrée options had been utterly bested by excitement! After we finished our meal, we walked through the Asian art section of the museum, reminiscent of a gallery we toured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on our first date. We ended our brief wandering (by design I later found out) in front of a beautiful stained glass window of the Resurrection. When we stopped to look at it, Wade began to talk about our relationship, saying he’d wanted to show me this window because it symbolized the joy of the Resurrection we were experiencing in each other, and how God was healing suffering we’d both known in the past in and through our love. I was in an excellent position to ascertain that Wade’s heartbeat was positively hammering, and agreed with him as vehemently as I possibly could while being held so tightly!
After leaving the stained glass window, we turned a corner and proceeded down a flight of stairs into a large atrium. I saw a lot of people milling around the open space, and a string quartet assembled at the foot of the staircase. I assumed the milling-people and musicians were part of a cocktail party going on that night at the museum, but was quickly disabused of this notion. A man, who I later discovered was Wade’s friend Peter, jumped up from one of two chairs placed in front of the quartet and gestured for Wade and me to sit down. I began shaking in earnest at this point, a reaction that only increased when I saw Wade’s dear friend Tiffany and her two year-old daughter Moira. Seeing them was my “Ahhhhh! This is really happening!” moment. The first violinist presented me with a red rose, and Moira came flying up to me with another. I hung on to the flowers and Wade’s hand for dear life as Peter read an essay Wade crafted that explained the genesis of “Quartet for Clare” – the composition he wrote for me (!!!). The essay is too complete an exposition of the artistry and love Wade poured into this work to attempt a summary, so the full text is appended below for your reading pleasure. Suffice it to say here that the quartet sketches out in melody the first part of our story – how the Lord drew us to Himself, the suffering we’ve both endured in waiting for each other, Christ’s presence in the midst of that suffering, the joy He has brought us in our relationship, and our trust in the joyful plans He has for our marriage. As I listened to Peter explain the significance of the music Wade had written, and then listened to the musicians play the piece, all I could think was “stunning – these words are stunning and this music is stunning. The man who created this music is stunning beyond expression, and the God who brought him into my life is even more so!”
When the music ended, I turned to find Wade down on one knee with a card in his hand, from which he read the following:
Sonnet for Clare
Will you, dear heart, draw close to me until
in mixing we are one? For you are, my lady, every inch exquisite, a jonquil leg and foot to head, and made soul-strong by yielding, you have a resplendent spirit that overflows with Him, wholly sublime. Come, unite with me, and through His grace and what Mary and the saints may pray, we’ll become an ornate icon, joining until two, or rather, three are one. My love, come live, die, resurrect with me. Let me war for you, be your shield, take your blows, and by martyrdom give myself to you whole, enraptured by you, body, mind, and soul. When he finished reading, Wade handed the card to me and asked me to read the first letter of each line, which you’ll see from the text above spells out “Will you marry me?” I was pretty punchy with wonder by that point, so Wade had to literally show me what to do. I tried my hardest to get “Yes!!!!!!!” out when he reiterated the question, though I think I only managed to mouth the word. Wade slipped the most gorgeous engagement ring onto my ring finger, and I threw myself into his arms. Then we began hugging all of the blessed engagement-conspirators who’d gathered to witness the event. And at the back of the crowd, I saw my parents! They’d been standing behind us, right next to Wade’s parents, watching the whole thing! My stepfather’s Vegas flight had been a ruse. Wade had flown my parents down to witness the big moment! The rest of that marvelous night and the fabulous engagement party the next day were a joyful blur of family and friends and revelations of all the behind-the-scenes logistics that went into crafting this truly exquisite proposal, including the fact that I’d inadvertently trapped my parents and Wade’s mom in the airport. When they attempted to leave the terminal on Friday night to go to the parking garage, they had to turn right back around again because I was waiting for the limo at the curb! Sixty or so of Wade’s nearest and dearest celebrated with us on Saturday, and the party was absolutely fantastic. Even the Ring Pops Wade chose as favors were diffusive of joy! There was great rejoicing when I distributed the leftovers to my students on Monday morning, and great shrieking from the girls when I explained the candy’s origin!
And that, my family and friends, is the story of how Wade proposed to me. I pray it gives you a sense of how extraordinary this man truly is! In him, the love of Christ is made flesh for me, and the wonder of him is a joy I can’t really articulate – though I am humbled and eager and thrilled beyond words to spend the rest of my life in the attempt.
Explication of Quartet for Clare, First Movement
Tonight we’ll be listening to the world premiere of Quartet for Clare, First Movement, written by Wade Kane. Tonight’s performance is only the first movement of a piece describing Clare and Wade’s lives and relationship. Other movements will be written sometime in the future.
The string quartet is one of the most prominent ensembles in classical music, with most composers from the late Eighteenth century on writing a string quartet. The quartet generally consists of four movements. The first movement is most often in sonata form, is allegro (or moderately fast) and is in the tonic key. The second movement is slow and is in the subdominant key; the third is a minuet and trio and returns to the tonic; and the fourth is sonata-rondo form, again in the tonic. These descriptions are the general guidelines that string quartets traditionally follow; however, recent composers do not feel constrained to these guidelines and regularly abandon them as need requires.
Again, the first movement of a string quartet is usually in sonata form. Sonata form has three main sections: the exposition, the development and the recapitulation. The exposition introduces the first theme material, then, after a transition, the second theme material, which is in the dominant key. The development returns to the tonic, and takes the theme material and embellishes it, while the recapitulation restates the material from the exposition. In addition to these three sections, a sonata may also include an introduction at the beginning and a coda at the end.
The motifs that form the melodies in this piece were derived using a numbering system based on important dates in Clare and Wade’s lives. For example, the date of Clare’s baptism was the source of the second theme in the exposition. That date is Tuesday, October 2, 1979. This translates to the numbers 3 (for Tuesday), 10 (for October), 2, and 1979. Wade used a formula to reduce numbers larger than 7 to more appropriate numbers, so 10 and 1979 became 3 and 5. This meant that Tuesday, October 2, 1979 became 3, 3, 2, 5 on the scale. After Wade arrived at these numbers, he added accidentals and rhythms to taste, and then just played around with them until he arrived at a melody he liked.
Quartet for Clare, First Movement begins with a lengthy introduction of 84 measures. It portrays a grand introduction to Clare and Wade’s relationship, starting with the existence of God, moving to the creation of the world, then to the Fall, the Incarnation, the Passion, the Resurrection and Second Coming of Christ, then the saints and the church. The piece begins with a sustained tonic from the cello. Just as the tonic is the source of the key, God is the Source of us all.
The overtones of the tonic are notes that sound simultaneously when the tonic sounds; they are part of the tonic even though they are not usually heard by the ear. After the sustained note in the cello, the first three overtones are then played by the viola and represent the Trinity.
In measure 8, the Creation theme, based on a series of fourths, begins. The Creation is a series of fourths – an interval reflecting the fifth, of which the tonic and its overtones are an example. In a sense, the fourth derives from the fifth, yet is still distinct from it – a musical relationship that reflects the relationship-in-distinction between God and His Creation.
Measure 17 introduces a repeated note into the Creation theme that is a tritone away from the tonic, reflecting the Fall. Because of its dissonant nature, the tritone was an interval generally avoided in classical music until recently, and was referred to as “Diabolus in Musica,” or “the devil in music.” The tritone and the tonic alternate in war with each other, with the tonic and the Trinity’s theme playing simultaneously. In the final beat of measure 22, however, the Theotokos’s theme is introduced in the second violin part. The theme plays twice, then is absorbed into the Incarnation theme, which started at the beginning of measure 22.
The Incarnation theme sounds with the tritone still making itself known until measure 32, which begins a setting of the Memorial Acclamation: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” “Christ has died” has a descending melody; it descends into the tritone, symbolizing how Christ “trampled down death by death” ? overcoming death by entering into it. Christ’s Resurrection is, naturally, an ascending melody, and the final part of the Acclamation has both ascending and descending parts. The themes of Passion and Resurrection are repeated throughout the course of the First Movement.
The Acclamation repeats; then at measure 46, the theme of the saints begins. Wade arrived at this theme by taking the feast days of his and Clare’s patron saints, St. John the Theologian and St. Clare of Assisi, and applying his formula. He found that both were a perfect fourth. He then took the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, a saint beloved by both Clare and Wade, which was a minor third, and joined the two fourths together with it. This fourth-third-fourth pattern became the theme of the saints. The theme of the saints sounds simultaneously with the Memorial Acclamation because the saints, as icons of Christ, join in His passion and new life. The theme of the saints ends at measure 73; measure 74 begins the transition to the exposition.
The first theme of the exposition, starting at measure 84, is based on the date of Wade’s baptism (November 25, 1973) and concludes at measure 115. Measures 116 to 135 are a transition to the second theme, which is based on the date of Clare’s baptism (October 2, 1979) and continues from measures 136 to 155.
The development begins with measure 162. The development chronicles the struggles that Clare and Wade went through as they waited for each other to appear. Before Wade met Clare, he prayed fervently for a wife for about 19 years, and the last ten years of that were particularly dark. Clare, for her part, also, endured quite a long wait, with troubles of her own. The first four notes in the second violin are based on the date Saturday, March 15, 2003. On this day, Wade was at a Welcoming Prayer retreat. What stood out during this retreat were the few hours he spent in prayer about his continuing lack-of-wife problem. But this time he prayed to Mary, something he was, at this point in his life, still learning how to do. He poured his heart out to her, and even though his prayer would not be answered for another seven years, he sensed that that prayer was important, to him, to God and to the Theotokos. This prayer to the Theotokos symbolizes the pain that both Clare and Wade endured while waiting for each other. After this melody is introduced, it repeats while the first and second theme play over it in a modified form. All the while, “Christ has died” plays underneath it.
Measure 218 introduces the more dissonant section of the development, where the sadness alluded to during the first part of the development reaches a crisis point. The melody becomes a tone row, which repeats while other notes not in the key of F minor sound as counterpoint. But the observant will note that while this dissonance is raging and building, the cello is repeating the tonic. God has not left the two, but is with them even in the midst of their dissonance. The tension builds until, at measure 228, the tonic alone resounds, vanquishing the dissonance. Then, above the tonic, the Memorial Acclamation returns, this time with the triumph of the Resurrection, that “Christ is risen”. Measure 238 introduces the theme based on the date eHarmony matched Clare and Wade together, then measure 243 introduces a melody comprised of important dates in Clare and Wade’s relationship: their first date, the date they officially started dating, their first kiss, their first time praying together, the date of their engagement, and the date of their marriage.
The quartet plays these themes up to measure 258, where the piece begins to transition into the recapitulation. The recapitulation restates the first and second themes of the exposition, with slight variations; then the piece concludes with the coda, which starts at measure 338. The first two measures of the coda’s melody are based on the engagement motif, while the rest of the coda’s main melody is based on the wedding day motif. The four whole notes in the cello part are the Theotokos’s theme, first introduced in measure 22, and introduced again because Clare and Wade have dedicated their relationship to Mary.
“The Proposal” © 2010 Clare Brown “Explication of Quartet for Clare, First Movement” and “Sonnet for Clare” © 2010 Wade Kane
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Thu, 2 December 2010
***Please note the explicit language warning on this episode. This podcast has some frank discuss of sexual behavior.*** Also be warned there is some speculation on the ending of the series. Melinda's wonderful website is Manga Bookshelf (http://www.mangabookshelf.com) You can find her on Twitter as @mbeasi Here are my reviews of Sundome: Vol 1 (http://comicsworthreading.com/2008/01/08/sundome-book-1/) Vol 2 (http://comicsworthreading.com/2008/06/04/sundome-book-2/) Vols 3 & 4 (http://comicsworthreading.com/2009/01/21/sundome-books-3-and-4/) Vol 5 (http://comicsworthreading.com/2009/07/04/sundome-book-5/) You can find current and past episodes of the ANNCast with Zach Bertschy (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/anncast/) The Speakeasy Podcast is park of the Anime 3000 network (http://www.anime3000.com/). You can find episodes of the podcast here (http://www.anime3000.com/a3k-network/the-speakeasy.html) You can find episodes of the Anime World Order(AWO) here (http://www.awopodcast.com/)
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Thu, 25 November 2010
I wanted to do this podcast to show how articulate my nephew is on his own. So that when I quote his ideas or insights in written reviews people don't think I'm inflating his eloquence. I love what he says about the series. I'm very thankful I can discuss books with him. There is a great website for Chi's Sweet Home (http://www.chisweethome.net/ ) You can watch the anime of Chi's Sweet Home free on Crunchyroll (http://www.crunchyroll.com/chis-sweet-home) You can see the Simon's Cat videos here (http://www.simonscat.com/)
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Thu, 18 November 2010
CORRECTION: Wandering Son is by Shimura Takako not Moto Hagio. I apologize for the error. Thanks to Julia for correcting me. They Were Elven were published as four comic issues under Viz's Flower Comics label in 1995. You can see the covers here: http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=list&title=87279571026&snumber=1 Andrea's blog: http://ahorbinski.dreamwidth.org/ Julia's blog: http://goldenagegirl.blogspot.com/ My review of the book: http://comicsworthreading.com/2010/11/10/a-drunken-dream-and-other-stories-recommended/ The NY Times comics writer includes A Drunken Dream on his gift giving list: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/books/26graphicbooks.html?_r=1 Here is the audio from Hagio's San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) panel: http://www.thecomicbooks.com/Audio/10-07-23-SD-MotoHagio.mp3 Here is a transcript of the Hagio's SDCC panel: http://manga.about.com/od/mangaartistinterviews/a/Interview-Moto-Hagio.htm Here is Shannon Garrity's interview of Hagio: http://www.tcj.com/manga/an-interview-with-moto-hagio/ Johanna's review of Ooku: http://comicsworthreading.com/2009/11/25/ooku-the-inner-chambers-books-1-and-2-recommended/ You can follow us on Twitter: I'm @edsizemore, Johanna is @johannadc, Andrea is @tmcqu22n, & Julia is @mizzelle |
Thu, 4 November 2010
***Spoilers Alert Spoilers Alert Spoliers Alert Spoilers Alert*** With this episode, I hope to bring the podcast back to its intended biweekly schedule. I can’t do a weekly podcast because of the amount of time it takes to edit these. Look for new episodes every other Thursday. I’ve also given in to convention and started numbering the episodes. Here is KC's review of the first box set of Batman: The Brave & the Bold http://comicsworthreading.com/2010/08/29/batman-the-brave-and-the-bold-season-one-part-one/ Be sure to visit Sam’s blog, A Life in Panels http://alifeinpanels.wordpress.com/ Here are some factual corrections. 1) The Golden Age Spectre did kill his villains 2) The 70’s Spectre was written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by Jim Aparo 3) The Green Latern/Green Arrow stories of the 70’s were written by Denny O’Neil and drawn by Neil Adams You can follow us on Twitter. Sam is @SamKusek and I’m @edsizemore |
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Manga Out Loud Manga discussion hosted by Ed Sizemore & Johanna Draper Carlson of MangaWorthReading.com
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