• 6 December
  • Komi Can't Communicate, vol. 30 (Tomohito Oda)

An addendum to yesterday's QOTD from Jim Henson: When I was growing up, Jim Henson meant a lot to me. Not only because I enjoyed the shows and movies he created, but also also because I knew that he was also from Mississippi, so seeing what he was able to accomplish gave me hope that I would be able to rise above my geographic origins and do something worthwhile. When seemingly everyone who produces everything you enjoy or admire is from someplace else, you cling that much harder to the one example you have who came from the same place you do.

About a month ago, NMIXX came out with their latest sing, "Blue Valentine."

I loved it — I've listened to it so many times! One part of it really confused me, though: From the start of the prechorus (at 0:40) until the beginning of the chorus (at 0:56), the tempo suddenly drops, then has an accelerando until the chorus begins. But I was really confused, though, because the line "You'll always be my blue valentine" in the chorus took the same amount of the time as when the same line was sung at the beginning of the song, but it felt faster. Fortunately, when React to the K (a YouTube channel that feature classical and jazz music students reacting to K-pop songs) did their video reacting to this song, they had an entire section where Liam (a classical percussionist) explains what's happening rhythmically during the prechorus — it took him almost 2 minutes to explain what happened in that 16 seconds of the song, but to me, it was worth it — I'd listened to that part of the song over and over so many times trying to figure out what was happening there, so it was great to finally understand.