Monday 14 January 2013

ThreeA - Adventure Kartel : Cherry Bomb.










Look at these my child-bearing hips
Look at these my ruby red ruby lips
Look at these my work strong arms and
You've got to see my bottle full of charm

- Sheela-Na-Gig, PJ Harvey.

A (mis) interpretation :

Name : Eliza von Sydow.
Alias : Cherry Shadow.
Age : 400 years old.
Affiliation : The Sydow Famiglia / The Sheba's Hill Gang.
Standard Armament : "The Cherry Bomb" - a variant of the "Skull Boom", the human skull energy blast bomb.
Abilities : "Sekhmeth's Wrath" - ancient martial art; dhampir enhanced physiology; healing factor; extrasensory perception; vision based powers; emotion manipulation; mental manipulation; biological manipulation; immortality; enhanced wisdom/knowledge; magic adept; expert hand to hand combatant.    

New Andria. 6th District "Gurdjeiff". The Adventure Kartel and the N.L.C.S. are engaged in yet another Zombs battle, with the horde being led by the plague champion, Rehel the Dragos Eraphis. A sudden message comes in from the cyborg defender of the Northern Frontier, 0024491. The encrypted vox caster said Cherry has been abducted by the Zombot mercenaries, The Notorious Ten Fingers Gang. Due to the cyborg vigilante built in protocol, it could not go beyond the boundary of the Northern Frontier without being deactivated. Lil Shadow leaves the battle, and alerts her father and mother, the Baron and Baroness von Sydow, ruler of city. Cherry, of course, would be able to protect herself easily against the Zombot champion, but she actually allowed herself to be kidnapped, for she is bored and wants some excitement.
Within half an hour, two divisions of ANKOUs are assembled and marched toward the Northern Frontier, border of the Robot Islands.
The leader of the Notorious Ten Fingers, King Thumb, announced through a pict vid, 'The day has come. Remember this date. 15th October 1992. In our hand is one of your precious daughter, Cherry. My demand is simple in exchange for her. Give me the Necronomicon, and we promise to return her, though I cannot guarantee whether in her entirety or as a re-assembled borg. And I wonder if the curtain matches the carpet, hahaha! You have an hour, f***ers!'
Big Shadow intercepts the message as well. The eldest sister immediately ordered her current, personal Tomorrow Queen, Lolli and a team of SXCLB ANKOU EX to re-inforce the rescue mission. Johan, the ANKOU trainer and champion is also deployed.   
Eliza von Sydow, more popularly known as Cherry Shadow due to her naturally fiery red hair, is one of the three dhampir daugthers of the Shadow Family. Unlike the more serious, disturbing, elder Big Shadow and the youngest, more level headed righteous Lil Shadow, Cherry comes across as being playful and flirty, vivacious and exhibits slight immaturity of the three. Nevertheless, beneath all the charms and quasi-innocence she exudes, Cherry hides a deeply temperamental, fiery behaviour if pushed to the brink emotionally. Her mastery of the "Sekhmeth's Wrath" is said to be equal to Lil Shadow, as well as carries a red Skullboom with her all the time. Together with Johan the ANKOU Sydow Famiglia retainer, they are the original founding members the Sheba's Hill Gang until its dissolution after the Battle of Five Points.
Cherry loves to play pranks on Tommy Mission, often involves doubling up as Lil Shadow with the objectives of working up Tommy emotionally, as she knows how obsessive the young mage is with her little sister.
The rescue mission is a success though King Thumb and his gang once again escape and retreat back into their Fortress of Hate. And to add salt to its wound, the Necronomicon is a deliberately written backwards by the Baron (with the actual copy keep safe within his Black Library), causing all forms of havoc upon the Zombots. This would lead to the beginning of the Robot Islands War.
.........................................................................................
 
Exclusive to 2012 3AA members, this is the new version of the Cherry Shadow character introduced as the alter ego to Lil Shadow early in the series. Loves her colorway, but not particularly fond of the manner the characterisation is made, particularly to the overture of the character's sexuality, so I re-imagine her as separate persona, with stronger sense of feminism instead.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dreams, Pisces Iscariot, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Deluxe Version).



More than twenty years have passed, and I still haven't gotten over these guys (and a gal) with their second album, The Siamese Dream (1993), the collected b-sides, Pisces Iscarus (1994) and double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995). Those were the times. College days. Long discarded, the cassettes format of these albums were played ceaselessly 'till the tapes themselves worn out. I never did replace them with any CDs version. The famous singles never need to be replaced. A box set got it covered. Its the un-discovered jewels packed amongst the song lists which I really miss. I never got their debut, Gish (1991) and probably won't. But the Lull LP (1991) from a second hand shop gave me taste, and that's fine enough. I am still personally divided over Corgan's whiny, high pitch voice. And I can't really place their songs in any specific category. Some are simply beautiful, lush and breezy. Others grabs me by the throat with its walls of feedback guitars, thumping bass and monstrous drumming. Re-listening to these three re-issued albums, memories from those years came back to me. The aeroplane flies high, turn left, looks right...

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Chloe & Dylan - New Year 2013.


An outing at Subang Parade, some friends vist, and Dylan got a new caesar haircut courtesy of Dad.