ROSWELL'S DEFINITIVE LIST OF MEDIA THEY NEED YOU TO EXPERIENCE IN ORDER TO KNOW THEM INSIDE AND OUT
Joe Hawley Joe Hawley is a "hip-hop" "comedy" "album" released by Joe Hawley of Tally Hall and Hawaii Pt. II fame.
Unironically, the thing I love the most about this album is how absolutely fucking nuts and personal it's allowed to get. Not personal as in "Oh, lemme talk about my horrible upbringing right now", mind you, but personal as in "Lemme just insert a reference to one of my favorite musicians." "I'm gonna sample something from one of my favorite video games in this one!" "This song is gonna be based off of something I worked on half a decade ago." Stuff like that. And vis a vis "absolutely fucking nuts", I think that's pretty self explanatory. I don't know how else to explain I like the song that's essentially someone rapping a shopping list over the Punch-Out!! theme other than that that's conceptually pretty funny.
The technical skill (yes, really) of the album is something I've been thinking about for nearly six years now. As alluded to previously, the album utilizes tons of samples, but I don't think it's to its detriment!! Rarely, if ever, do the samples sound out of place; and even when they are jarring, it's done so purposefully and adds to the song as a whole. Additionally, in tandem with how personal the album is, the various samples as well as the fluctuating styles of music make the album feel like a Musical Scrapbook of sorts. It's fun.
It never feels like the album loses momentum, and every song feels fresh and exciting. More than that, songs - and the album as a whole - feel fresh and exciting on repeat listens. I love picking out little details about how everything is put together. Made all the easier by Joe Hawley putting demos and stems on his youtube channel.
This was the first album I had ever thought "If I ever made music, I'd want it to sound like this." about. I always liked alt hip-hop, comedy musicians, and experimental music, but I had truly never heard anything like Joe Hawley Joe Hawley before in my life. It's really stupid to say (especially with everything we know now) but the Bring Her Along music video legitimately changed my life. It was what got me into Tally Hall, which led to me being more active online and talking to other fans. It led me to drawing more, and pursuing other creative endeavours like music and video editing. For better or worse, I legitimately would not be the person I am without this album.
(I feel like it goes without saying, also, but I do not support Joe Hawley. There's too much evidence against him to pretend it's not true, and he's repeatedly been so cagey responding to the allegations (though, I don't think the people outright harassing him are in the right) that I don't have any sympathy for him. However, I think pretending that this album isn't important to me wouldn't be productive, and I think separating it entirely from Joe - and, more broadly speaking, erasing Joe from the history of Tally Hall and Hawaii Part II - is incredibly immature and unhelpful. I do not think you can separate this album from him, I do not think you can pretend that he didn't have a huge part in Tally Hall and Hawaii Part II's creation and identity, but I think you can enjoy all three projects without praising the man himself.)
Green Vs. Red is a 2008 OVA created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Lupin III.
Lupin is such an interesting franchise on it's own. I've never gotten into anything where Every Single Entry is of such varying and often divisive quality. I could easily fill up several pages with reviews on each installment of Lupin, but I don't want to. I'm really not strong enough. And, if I'm being honest, Green Vs. Red is the only one I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone, regardless of their tastes. Or, to put it a different way, Green Vs. Red is the only one I want everyone on Earth to see, whether they like it or not.
You have no idea how much it pains me to give a synopsis of Green Vs. Red. I think this movie is best experienced completely blind but - for reasons I'll explain later - some people may find a summary completely necessary. For these reasons, I'm putting the synopsis behind a spoiler, and you can just hover over to read it. But genuinely, I do think the best way to watch GvR is knowing almost nothing going in - except maybe the characters, and what Lupin is, obviously.
Green Vs. Red is set in a world where Lupin III media exists alongside Lupin and his gang. The real Lupin mysteriously disappeared a long time ago, with nobody, including the Lupin Gang, knowing where he went. Both of these facts have led to men around the world dressing up and imitating Lupin, claiming to be the real one, to varying degrees of success. The movie follows, among other plot threads, Yasuo, a down on his luck server as he tries to prove himself as the real Lupin. It's a big oversimplification of the plot, but the most consice one I can give without spoiling absolutely everything.
You may wonder why I'm so hesistant to give any sort of concrete information about GvR's story. Surely, you may think, simply the basic premise of the OVA would become apparent within the first few minutes. Well, no, obviously, and you're wrong for ever thinking that. Because Green Vs. Red, infamously 1. Does not explain it's basic premise and 2. Has every scene placed out of order. Both of these are done as deliberate stylistic choices, and I think they're awesome. Does, what is supposed to be a celebration of a franchise's 40th birthday, need to be as confusing as humanely possible? No, and it probably shouldn't. But I mean, it's funny, and honestly for a franchise like Lupin it's pretty on brand. Like I said, Lupin is a franchise of EXTREMELY varying quality, with confusing artistic choices left and right from everyone involved. There's much to be said about the film wanting to ilicit confusion from the viewer for plot/story reasons, and that's definitely the more plausible reason than any kind of meta commentary on the tone of the franchise. But I think it's fun it ends up working out that way. And, again, more than anything, it's just funny and interesting to me. Non-linear storylines are so rare - or, at least, I haven't experienced many yet - so to see one of the most popular anime franchises of all time have the balls to pull one of, let alone for an anniversary special, is really commendable to me.
Borderline Forever is the 200th episode of Scott the Woz, a series about a guy who talks about (among other things) Stupid Nintendo Games.
I'm not the first person to say it, Scott the Woz has incredible and FUNNY writing, but it feels embarrassing for me to say as much because it's 1. Weird Post-Ironic Gaming Youtuber Humor and 2. Dumb as Hell. But there's something about
