An assortment of updates!
I went to look for more stationary/stickers, and found myself at the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. Let me tell you, if such a place existed in Phoenix when I was in middle school, I would have corduroy-ed myself in the ceiling and never left. There’s a full grocery store with speciality items, home goods, makeup, etc. The real kicker, though, was the bookstore. They had – can you fucking believe – ACTUAL JAPANESE LANGUAGE BOOKS AND COMICS! AAHHHH! I can’t tell you how precious I would hold anything with Japanese text on it as a kid, and in 2005 it was a lot harder to come by. Anime was big, sure, but Japanese/Korean stores like Daiso, not so much. This store is on another level, though.
I found myself thinking, should I study japanese again? (As I was typing that last sentence, I fumble pressed the world key that swaps to the japanese keyboard…) No, Robyn! Get a job, dumbass, not another useless hobby. …….anyway so I bought a study guide for the main 1000 Kanji. Since I started studying myself at 10, a lot of the basic grammar and conjugations are stuck like glue. My mother told me that after 12 years old it becomes exponentially harder to learn a new language, and I FREAKED and would obsessively listen to the tapes we got from the library every night – muttering the words, trying to get the pronunciation just right. The Chinese characters though, those alluded me. I’m not alone in that, but if I do take up studying again, I want it to be my focus.
I looked meticulously through all the comics to try and find a japanese yugioh one, but no dice (pun intended). I did, however, find Chobits, and Card Captor Sakura. Below is part of a video I filmed, which ended up too rambly – but here I’m talking about Chobits, and the difficult mixed feelings I have about the character Chi.
A few unfinished sketch pages – and yes, I am cutting parts out of the book I just bought T_T. Too be truthful, I bought it as equal parts nostalgic keepsake and scrapbook material.
Right next to Mitsua Market is this park/lake area. Now tell me, expidicously, with a straight face, how you pronounce the name of this place?
Fuck, sorry, I know that’s much cruder then my usual. Still. Oh also, if you heard me talk about where I’m staying, and you live here or know anything about anything, and you heard me say “Liz – lee”…….you didnt. That was a hallucination, you can’t prove anything. It’s always been Lie-l, and I’ve always said this. Sounding things out phonetically? In this economy? Please, I prefer my pronunciations arbitrary, thank you very much.
At the park I had another cloud moment. Clouds are fucking majestic, and our brains turn them into this 2d skybox we barely register. It takes a sec to tune in, but when you really start to See them..crazy. They are gigantic, suspended in this unfathomably vast blue void. Infinite gorgeous shapes and textures. For free! In this economy? (shut the fuck up it’s too soon for a call back)
What else… Oh! A litte update on Mii Danny, just because this one completely wrecks me —
Slightly related – idk how much danny sees of what is posted about him and his videos now-a-days, but the kids fucking ride for baby bug bug. I hope he sees a return, cus he is the star of EVERY comment section I see, holy moly.
That picture also reminded me of when I got a smart watch, and I added this picture of danny @_@. I think it was from an IG story where he was using a Las Vegas Sphere filter. Now, danny made a recent trip to Las Vegas, and as much as I would love to believe it was Jerma related, my realistic assumption is that he was going to investigate the new AI Wizard of Oz. Prove me wrong, though, universe! I won’t complain.
I think that Mii video gets me because danny is so rarely the one to be razzed. Kurtis did once, and danny flew a stranger to his house and faked a whole speed run to get back at him. 0_0. But, there was one person who was aaallways messing with him, and that was Nick Green. I was actually serendipitously reminded of him when I was listening to some video game music this evening. I left it on random autoplay after my playlist, and a few songs in I heard something vaguely familiar….It wasn’t a video game I had played, but something else…OH! It’s the little song Danny and Nick made, the same day they did the water collab. I remember when Nick teased they had made a song, I was vibrating with excitement. I even made this fanart in anticipation. The song was not quite this vibe, but ofc I loved it still.
The song sampled at the start was “Donkey Kong aquatic ambiance”.
I have one very precious memory related to that video – On stream, Nick memtioned that danny noticed the patreon stickers on the desk, and regonized it as my art. It’s funny how often I’ve had other people tell me about danny seeing or noticing something. In my world, he’s this shadowy, silent figure, watching when I least expect. Maybe not so much anymore, though.
One thing I will say with Nick is that, in their first collab, I was fucking STUNNED at how open and happy and comfortable danny seemed. They had only met a few months prior, afaik. It was so, so different to any collab I’d seen outside of Drew and Kurtis. Danny was just On. He was jazzed, he was giggly, he was in his element. Rapport out the wazoo! I was so so happy for him, and I thought damn, this Nick guy must really be something special. I do still think that’s true. The mental health issues he struggles with don’t mix well with a large online following, but I do think he is incredibly creative, vulnerable, and well meaning.
And ofc, maybe the most famous instance of Nick bamboozling danny, the Newspaper Monument incident —
I think that’s everything, probably more than enough. D-day is only 3 days away. Fuck. I’m so god damn anxious about driving and parking downtown. It’s fine though, I have the dissociation skills of a champion. And, I have to go anyway because I promised Laura I would go see the bean this time. Adelaide aparently has something very similar! Wouldn’t it be cool if you could see through to the other sculpture? Then me and Laura could put our hands to the glass like the Mirror of Desire in the first Harry Potter book. My found family, so close and yet so far. How I already dread returning to my family by blood, despite how much I love them. Let’s make every second here count!
>>robyns_ramblings 