I’m crazy about the new Daft Punk album. I’ve always liked their music, some songs more than others, but I’ve never really been able to listen an album on a loop for hours. Random Access Memories is just what I need when writing or drawing. It’s melodic, soft and super fun with a sense of irony. And its great for dancing.

We’ve been dancing to the Soul Train video every day now, jamming away into the night. We’re slowly teaching ourselves to be part of the Soul Train Gang. Most important step to learning to dance is confidence, anything after that is just polish. Combine confidence with any repeating motion and you can call it dance. Trust me, it’s super easy to amaze people with just that.

I’ve been quiet on the reading side for a while, but I’ve promised myself to do better. Lately I finished Starship Troopers, Legend and Punk Rock Jesus. All extremely different stories, all very interesting reading experiences.

I’ll start with my favorite, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. There’s a high chance you’ve seen the movie Starship Troopers, an excellent movie, but who the hell would want to read a novel about it? I’m glad I was recommended to read the book, because I couldn’t have been more positively surprised. Starship Troopers the novel had very little to do with hardcore soldiering, which is good because I rarely care for that. Instead, it was intelligently articulated political debate about social order, morals and law. It’s funny, I rarely agree with anything totalitarian but the characters in the story had some valid points.

Once again, I want to point out that the novel is way different from the movie. Way.

Next was Legend by Marie Lu. Now this book was interesting for it was far more mainstream than Troopers could ever be. One might say it is riding the dystopia-wave that Hunger Games left behind and that it lacks some subtlety when it comes to foreshadowing plot or romance. But never the less it was a fun, straight-forward read that was very honest, innocent and thrilling. It was also very interesting to notice the influences of 1984 and Brave New World.

Dystopia in itself is quite a funny genre, I only hope it would broaden it’s range and mature from YA-romance to something what George R.R Martin did to fantasy with his gritty fantasy style. Then again, I guess that’s would be science-fiction then.

At last, Punk Rock Jesus by Sean Murphy.

Now this graphic novel is gorgeous. Each page is just a feast for eyes, the drawings are heavenly. I quite enjoyed the premise of Jesus being cloned as well. It’s an interesting story with a curiously unique setting, but I felt as if the plot could had been simplified closer to the ending. Never the less, it’s worth a read, you don’t miss out on this.

Just check out how gorgeous it is:

I just started reading Sex, Murder and the Meaning of Life by Douglas T. Kenrick and I have the Great Gatsby and the Secret Garden lined up for next. I’m looking to get back into some new epic fantasy, so if anyone has recommendations I’d love to hear them, they can range from Abercrombie to Brandon Sanderson.

Cheers,
Silver