more random thoughts, again w/ the Shiba Ryoutarou
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charmianSubD had an interesting tangential comment in the last entry. Unfortunately, I'm totally unqualified to respond to it in any way, because I didn't even know that apparently indie concerts are cheaper than rap/pop/metal concerts. According to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jokersama, though, this is mostly a reflection of the relative lack of popularity that indie acts have. Pop and rock cost a lot because they play arenas which use Ticketmaster. Such indie acts, even if they can sell out popular venues, can't fill up huge arenas, therefore, they don't play there, don't use Ticketmaster, and prices are low, so it seems to be less of a reflection of the nature of indie than a reflection on its relative popularity. (Unless a band gets to that level and deliberately rejects playing large venues)
Anyway, was talking to Sabina about this, and what seems to have happened, according to her, is that in recent years, indie bands which were formerly obscure are hitting the top ten, not because they've become more popular, but because everything else has gotten less. Indie fans often love to buy things like vinyl, therefore they're overrepresented among that portion of the music-buying public who actually puts down cash to buy albums. Therefore, they've become more influential.
(So the audience has been reduced to the hardcore fans, with everyone else streaming or buying less or downloading?)
In other news, reading Harimanan Monogatari, which is SUPPOSED to be about Kuroda Kanbei (the dude who was Hideyoshi's strategist after Takenaka Hanbei dies, and now a new character in SW3), but I'm like forty pages in, and Kanbei hasn't even been born.　This was serialized in a newspaper, so I'm kind of er dude are you trying to pad this story, which is why it's four books long? I was interested in reading this because I was wondering how Shiba Ryoutarou would portray the main character. Basically, Kanbei helped Hideyoshi out a lot, but Hideyoshi feared Kanbei's talent and saw him as a potential threat, therefore he didn't give Kanbei a position that was anywhere near what it should have been, given his contributions (he was stuck in Nakatsu in Kyuushu). In Sekigahara, Kanbei kind of comes off as not entirely a positive person, so I'm wondering what he'll be like as a protagonist: how will Shiba Ryoutarou portray his relationship with Hideyoshi? Also, considering that Kanbei converted to Christianity, how will that be portrayed, especially because Kanbei doesn't really come off as the saintly type in Sekigahara. (In other words, is Shiba Ryoutarou setting all of his historical works in the same fictional universe? So will he have the same personality in this work he does there? ) I'm also wondering about his relationship with his son, who in some anecdotes he comes off as disappointed in, and in others, having a rather dysfunctional relationship with.
jokersama, though, this is mostly a reflection of the relative lack of popularity that indie acts have. Pop and rock cost a lot because they play arenas which use Ticketmaster. Such indie acts, even if they can sell out popular venues, can't fill up huge arenas, therefore, they don't play there, don't use Ticketmaster, and prices are low, so it seems to be less of a reflection of the nature of indie than a reflection on its relative popularity. (Unless a band gets to that level and deliberately rejects playing large venues) Anyway, was talking to Sabina about this, and what seems to have happened, according to her, is that in recent years, indie bands which were formerly obscure are hitting the top ten, not because they've become more popular, but because everything else has gotten less. Indie fans often love to buy things like vinyl, therefore they're overrepresented among that portion of the music-buying public who actually puts down cash to buy albums. Therefore, they've become more influential.
(So the audience has been reduced to the hardcore fans, with everyone else streaming or buying less or downloading?)
In other news, reading Harimanan Monogatari, which is SUPPOSED to be about Kuroda Kanbei (the dude who was Hideyoshi's strategist after Takenaka Hanbei dies, and now a new character in SW3), but I'm like forty pages in, and Kanbei hasn't even been born.　This was serialized in a newspaper, so I'm kind of er dude are you trying to pad this story, which is why it's four books long? I was interested in reading this because I was wondering how Shiba Ryoutarou would portray the main character. Basically, Kanbei helped Hideyoshi out a lot, but Hideyoshi feared Kanbei's talent and saw him as a potential threat, therefore he didn't give Kanbei a position that was anywhere near what it should have been, given his contributions (he was stuck in Nakatsu in Kyuushu). In Sekigahara, Kanbei kind of comes off as not entirely a positive person, so I'm wondering what he'll be like as a protagonist: how will Shiba Ryoutarou portray his relationship with Hideyoshi? Also, considering that Kanbei converted to Christianity, how will that be portrayed, especially because Kanbei doesn't really come off as the saintly type in Sekigahara. (In other words, is Shiba Ryoutarou setting all of his historical works in the same fictional universe? So will he have the same personality in this work he does there? ) I'm also wondering about his relationship with his son, who in some anecdotes he comes off as disappointed in, and in others, having a rather dysfunctional relationship with.
