Caffè Arti e Mestieri

 Strange stuff you find sometimes in thrift shops. There is one such shop pretty close to where I live, and I sometimes wander there to see if they have something of interest (mainly 90s Sperling&Kupfer novels, which I sort of collect). Lo and behold, I find nothing other than a book in Japanese! How did it end up in the heartland of Italy? Pretty interesting story, I must say. 

You see, in what's pretty much the city right next to the one where I live, Reggio Emilia, there is a rather famous restaurant and coffee shop, Caffè Arti e Mestieri. Or, rather, I should say 'there was', as the establishment has been under new management for more than a decade now. I know nothing about this new management, but under the old one Caffè Arti e Mestieri used to be pretty much a fixture of city life, renowned both for its cuisine, and for the many art exhibits that took place in it. 

One thing many do not know (and neither did I) is that the coffeeshop also had an offshoot in... Tokyo. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information about this dining place - I assume that, as often happens in Tokyo, it didn't last more than a few years - but one such product of this parentage was the book I am reviewing today, aptly titled Tasty Italian Cuisine of Caffé Arti e Mestieri. 

Unlike what I usually review, this is not a dōjinshi, and it shows: hardcover, full color (date is 2005), it's really more of a coffee table sort of book. It does contain recipes, but the bulk of the book consists of pretty pictures of tasty- looking italian food with the restaurant's verdant locale as a backdrop. It's pretty much food porn: money shots of polenta, pizza, pasta and various regional cuisine displayed on lush table settings; interspersed by portraits of Alberto and Enzo, Caffè's creators and long-time manager and chef, busy preparing such dishes; and a few simple shots of the emilian countryside.

 A very idealized portrait of Italy (I can tell you, I live there, and it's one of the most polluted places in Europe), but still I had to pick up the item: not only it was cheap, but it reminded me a bit of those 80s and 90s cookbooks that my grandma and mother used to keep handy for when family notes failed them - which didn't happen often, but sometimes it did. Add to it that I've always been a sucker for cool coffee table books, and this rather curious item is now in my collection. Cool stuff. 

Jessie by John Smith

 So yeah, when I bought this 2016 dōjinshi by John Smith (a circle name, in case you didn't figure that out) I actually wasn't aware of them being sort of a big shot - from their web site and twitter I discover now they also do commercial work, cover art for novels in particular. 

Jessie is a small-sized, full color collection of illustrations ranging from pinups in abstract landscapes, to recreations of realistic scenes that I assume were either photomanipulated, traced or copied from pictures of real life locales. Little matter as, much like Inio Asano (one of my favourite mangaka), John Smith's tract injects new atmosphere in these protorealistic locales -- and, let's face it, with 3d modeling and such it's hardly a practice to scoff at. 

What matters is John Smith's visual style, which I happen to really dig: their wiry, flowery female figures almost seem at times almost created with traditional media (which I don't think is the case?), and reminded me a bit of another dōjin artist I have covered before. Just the right mix of materiality and abstraction. One could argue that the subject matter is the same old bishoujo but, at this point, who cares? I'd argue that, in the context of dōjin art, little girls are the new still life. Just a convenient subject the artist injects their own style into. As I mentioned before, some locales seem to recreate rewal life locales - probably American? the dōjinshi is, as customary, scant with info save for a few contacts. 

All in all a nice little sample of an artist that has seemingly moved to greater things. You can find much more art on their Instagram as well. 

Stay tuned, as the next review will be a double look at some very interesting ephemera...

プロニート家を出る by ですそーど

 Having been a NEET for quite a few years myself (before I fixed my life and... who am I kidding, my life is still a lovable mess lol), I always had a soft spot for the NEET character, expecially when it's played for comedy value over the social plague that it actually is, I guess - if you still buy into the 'get rich, find wife / husband, two and a half kids' meme. I don't, but that's neither here nor there.

I am, however, yet again reminded of how little of a weeaboo I am when ですそーど's プロニート家を出る starts dropping names I am only vaguely aware of - I do know Kantai Collection and Love Live are sort of a big deal; but, as you can guess from the topic of this blog, I approach Japanese media from a slightly different angle. I'm certainly nothing like the dōjinshi's protagonist, your average overweight otaku who thinks he's a modern day samurai (and uses samurai Japanese, such a pain to translate) because he's fighting evil... in Kantai Collection. 

Out of the blue he leaves the house, to install himself in the playground just across the street, where his first virtuous action is to help a cute but clueless middle schooler become a Love Live pro. Little he knows that his neo-samurai ideals will land him in hot waters with the girl, her friend, and his own little sister...

I do like comedy manga, especially when it doesn't devolve into the trite 4-koma format (I do like Azumanga a lot though). DeathSword's lines are super rough, and so is the lettering, but this only reinforces the alt-culture jabs delivered at the expenses of popular JP- culture products. The crude visuals are, in the end, functional to the manga's genre and topic. The story is, of course, simple and pretty much your stereotypical 'otaku makes fun of otakus' gag, but I won't hold that against the author - with such a limited number of pages you can only elaborate to a point. 

A fun little comedy dōjinshi, love it or leave it. No intention to oversell it, but I liked it! sadly, doesn't seem like the author has done much since 2014...

Quake Remix Jam and my first Quake map

It's here - the Quake Remix Jam, featuring my very first Quake map, one of many to come - a somewhat silly rendition of DWANGO5's thekeep2.wad. Enjoy! 

キドナプキディング 青色サヴァンと戯言遣いの娘 / 黒田何時子と私 by ぱへかへ

 So yeah, shipment from Japan, which was supposed to be here like a month ago - finally arrived, and it managed to dodge customs too! Used to get very lucky with that, then had a very bad streak in which every single order would get taxed. Good to see a return to the good ol' days. 

Pretty decent haul too, as also got a CD (Subarashii Sekai by Eufonius, who happen to be one of my favorite JP bands, scandals or not) and this thing here:

Now, I've heard some pretty dreadful things about this one - mostly, that it's basically a Zaregoto fanfiction tacked on to just sort of milk the main series on its publishing anniversary. Certainly it's been a while since Nisio got me excited at all, so expectations are not very high. I do have to say that I find the very concept of Ii-chan having a daughter rather preposterous, but meh. We'll see.

And here goes the first dōjinshi, and it's a curious one too. You might be familiary with CYOA books: whole series of novels where the text would be cut and scrambled in paragraph, and choices ('if you do this go to page 11, if you do that go to page 12) would create a sort of written visual novel. They used to be all the rage in the 90s, now they're sort of a historical relic of times past but I used to be hooked on stuff like Lone Wolf and GrailQuest.

黒田何時子と私 ("Ichiko Kuroda and me") is a short, 16 pages only, publication by ぱへかへ (circle name of Kazuto Izumi, mostly famous for the manga Binbou Shimai Monogatari, which was also turned into an anime. Here is their Booth in case you have a good proxy). It functions exactly as a CYOA book: every few scenes you are presented with a choice, which sends you to a specific page for a certain finale. 

The story is a super-simple take on the VN trope: you find yourself in the bedroom of your childhood friend / neighbor / love interest Ichiko. Will you wake her up to go to school, or jut let her sleep? make your choice, and go to the appropriate ending, or continuation - where, following different choices, she might play hooky to go to the seaside with you; trick you into drinking habanero coffee (not sure if that's actually a thing) and maybe even show you her pantsu if you really get lucky.

As one can imagine, given the medium and length, the concept is barely scratched: there are only a handful of choices, and no real 'branching' to speak of. Still, I find the idea of a CYOA  dōjinshi really charming, and Izumi's sometimes simple, but clean looking and attractive tract makes this one a pleasant surprise that doesn't overstay its welcome. Good stuff. 

Also, please enjoy my Xmassy tablecloth on the 20th of January. Yay. 

Some Doom and Strife maps

 So yeah, I do make Doom and Doom-adjacent games maps. While still waiting for that bloody dōjinshi shipment stuck in roasting Japanese airport hell, here is a few latest ones:

Strife: Low on Ice

One of those rare Strife mapsets. Requires the latest GZDoom, it's sort of an oddball (really plays more like Doom than Strife itself) but still rather proud of it. Custom OST by me. 

Sewer.wad

Three maps for Doom II, target port is DSDA. Very, very hard stuff - map02 is probably the most difficult map I've ever made. Really stretches a limited selection of IWAD resources. Custom OST by me as well. 

Penelope

A larger, single map all about atmosphere and mood - combat is weird. It's a re-release. Some people really seemed to like it, so you might enjoy it as well. Who knows. MIDI by me.