I watched Castlevania and it was interesting

(my plan for real-time posting of things has fallen completely flat, so I'm back to the "open a tab, write some stuff in it; revise and post when I have time" habit. Let's see how this goes.)

Castlevania (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6517102/) is an original Netflix animated series written by Warren Ellis. It's anime-inspired vampire-centric semi-horror, all three of which are outside my usual wheelhouse. But I like most things Ellis does so I decided to give it a go and have enjoyed the first two seasons enough that I'm looking forward to the announced third. (4/5 stars for what it is; don't expect high art)

Richard Armitage (who may be most well-known for playing Thorin in the various Hobbit movies) voices the lead character, a drunk and disgraced last-of-his-line Trevor Belmont. The Belmonts were a legendary family of highly trained monster hunters for centuries. But when the populace decided they feared the hunters more than the monsters, the Belmonts were driven to extinction. Or so everyone thought.

Trevor faces off against Vlad Dracula Tepesh (voiced by Graham McTavish, who you might also know from the Hobbit movies as Dwalin). Dracula is on a campaign to punish humanity for killing his wife. Fortunately, Trevor gets help from a couple unexpected sources leading to an oddball team-up and a surprisingly emotional story climax.

Along the way there's a fair bit of cartoon gore, dramatic flashing combat sequences, and some fairly pointed social commentary. The whole thing hangs together well and it's easy watching. Recommended.

In which I break a previous decision because Bucket List Item (music)

If you read my review of the Glitch Mob DJ set you'll recall that although I found it interesting as a sociological experiment, doing club nights with doors at 10 and a couple hours before I got to see what I came for was not on my "to do" list anymore.

But then Paul Oakenfold came to town and I could go see him live. This was always likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I didn't think he'd ever play a small enough venue I could afford it. Yes, he's certainly past his prime but Paul Oakenfold is the godfather of a tremendous amount of EDM.

I'd been listening to electronic music for a long time before that, of course. Go back to Kraftwerk and Devo and I was good with all that, but Oakenfold defined a new genre for me. First with Tranceport, then his Perfecto mixes, and finally with Bunkka he set and then re-set what I thought EDM could be. Ready, Steady, Go (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGMwmY_RaRI) and of course the epic Nixon's Spirit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6nuaBazo8) off Bunkka were staples of my listening.

So, yeah, Oakenfold live is all that and all you'd expect. As before there was an opener. Forgettable, but not bad. Oakenfold came out without fanfare and just started doing his thing. His live-mixing was amazing. He didn't use headphones - everything was in the moment as the music spun and the audience moved. He clearly had some set pieces and I could recognize bits he drew from his back archive but that wasn't the point. This was a master at work and you could see it.

Or, rather, you COULDN'T see it because there was constant, heavy, bright strobe lighting going on. Even when it wasn't directly in my eyes it was pervasive enough to be headache-inducing. I'm not particularly sensitive to strobes but a couple hours of that is more than I can take under the best of circumstances. I don't recall when we called it quits - earlier than I would have liked, later than my eyes wanted.

Overall a frustrating experience trying to fulfill a bucket-list item.