Saturday, April 3, 2004
Is it a sign that my brain is completely destroyed and gone when, while reading Dave Sim's misogynist writings about the Seminal Male Light being devoured by the Emotional Female Void, all I can think of is, "That's kind of like Princess Kraehe trying to seal the prince away in darkness; but then how does Princess Tutu fit into that? Or is she also a Devouring Void for trying to restore the prince's heart to him?" Or is the only disturbing thing here the fact that I am getting this much into an anime with a title like "Princess Tutu"?
By the way, I've never read any of Dave Sim's Cerebus comics -- the ones that come in huge and impressive-looking volumes at the store -- but I've just now learned that the guy is some kind of a woman-hating wacko, eh?
So, by last Monday I finally managed to finish all my school business, at the cost of my poor brain. Oh yeah, and my stomach. So since then, I've been keeping myself busy, trying to finish the first chapter of that comic before we leave for the States this coming Wednesday. And aside from that, I've been watching Princess Tutu. Lots and lots of Princess Tutu, about as fast as I can download it. Note to anime companies: please don't send ninja assassins after me. Put out the English DVDs and I will buy them. It's like Utena for kids! Only in ballet form! I can't get that damned Swan Lake music out of my head! Martians attacked at 01:15 a.m.! Where were you? ~
Friday, March 12, 2004
I am so full of sushi. Tonight was my Tito Kaiku's birthday event thingy and there was catering. I had rushed straight there from class and I was starving; I immediately grabbed like five big unagi sushi and some tekka maki and gulped them down. And then had some more after that. Then when the guests had all left and it was just the family milling around figuring on who would take home what, there were three whole pieces of unagi sushi left, and I couldn't just let them go to waste... X___x
Also, I bought the first volume of Fruits Basket in English, from Tokyopop. Pretty nicely done. If I had any complaints, it would just be that 1) they had to leave out the geeky little Nausicaa reference ("It's the Sea of Corruption!") ^o^ and 2) the print quality. I don't know if it was just my copy, but on a lot of the pages, the blacks seemed very muddy and and the thinner lines seemed to disappear altogether. Hopefully they can fix that for future volumes. Martians attacked at 11:18 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Watched Lost in Translation yesterday. Interesting movie. Not any kind of comedy, though; more of a drama with humorous moments. It was a bit sad, actually.
Also, Enterprise premiered tonight on Star World, at a time slot when I'm not in class/eating dinner. So the good news is I can actually follow the series now. The bad news is that it's on at the same time as Astroboy on Animax. ;____; (Whaaat? What's that look for? Astroboy rules.) Martians attacked at 11:24 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Friday, March 5, 2004
So now that the presentation I'd been dreading for more than two weeks is over and done with, I feel like I can kick back and rant about whatever random thing I think of.
So. Fans! is a webcomic about a group of sci-fi nerds who somehow become an elite team saving the world from supernatural, extraterrestrial, and extradimensional threats. I read through the massive archives just a few months before it moved to GraphicSmash, and found it to be generally entertaining, with a few shining moments, though often rather ridiculous or pretentious. The latest storyline, though, -- a side-story entitled "Otaku", focusing on the character Rumi -- is an all-time low. Not that the story so far is entirely without value; on the contrary, I think there are a number of valuable life-lessons one can glean from it. Namely:
1. If you want to create a halfway-believable portrayal of life in Japan, do not let your main source of information on Japanese culture be Ranma 1/2 fanfiction.
2. If you do not, in fact, want to portray any kind of real-life Japan, but instead wish to create a wry spoof of anime characters and fans, then please watch some goddamned anime. Seriously. This thing feels as if it's stuck in a time warp to the mid-90's, back when crossing Ranma 1/2 with Sailor Moon seemed like such a fresh and exciting idea.
3. Okay fine, so you've only seen like two anime in your entire life and you haven't loitered in any anime fan circles since before 28k modems were invented. That's not a crime. Who can keep up with these things? So you only want to spoof a very specific series or segment of fandom. That's okay, too. But please, please, for the love of God and all the saints, don't try to pretend you know Japanese by randomly sprinkling the dialogue with bollocks Japanese phrases. A little girl adressing her much older sister as "Akane-chan", or a cocky, macho, Ranma-knockoff guy going "Eraidesune! Arigato!" does not make the setting seem more authentic, or make you look more learned. Rather, it confirms beyond a doubt that you don't know the first piddly-toot about Japanese.
......Anyway. Just wanted to get that off my chest. Speaking of Japanese, here is a fun and interesting site which teaches you all kinds of useful things, like how to talk like a samurai and how to say "I was late for the meeting because I was banished to a deserted island for criminals." Martians attacked at 04:01 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Masters In Writing Fails To Create Master Of Writing
Dammit, now The Onion is making fun of my life. ;__; Martians attacked at 04:43 p.m.! Where were you? ~
PALO ALTO, CA—Despite completing all the requirements for a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing from Stanford University in January, Jeremy Craig Kessler somehow failed to become a master of creative writing, sources reported Monday. "Mr. Kessler's short stories, all written in the style of T.C. Boyle, show little more than excellence in spelling and grammar," said literary agent David Conrad. "Somehow, Kessler advanced to the very highest level of the academic program and has only an average body of work to show for it." Photocopies of Kessler's short-story collection can be purchased at jckessler.com.
Friday, February 27, 2004
Have been working, or failing to work, all week on a project presentation for my Translation Theory class. I knew presentations were supposed to start today, but I wasn't certain if mine was today. Turns out it wasn't; I got nervous stomachaches and skipped this week's comic update, all for nothing. And I was so incredibly RELIEVED.
Apart from dread of that impending presentation, another thing that made me sad this week was the end of both Ultra Maniac and Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex on Animax. The former was dinky shoujo magical girl fluff, while the latter was brain-hurting cyberpunk talking heads cop drama; but they both made me happy, coming on every day. Then they both had happy endings and were replaced by other series. I'm glad I can finally see .hack//Sign in its entirety, but it's just not the same! Also, Wolf's Rain showed four straight clip episodes. Four episodes made up entirely of clips from previous episodes. You know, just to make quadruple-extra sure you haven't completely forgotten everything that happened within the past ten episodes.
In awesomer news, Ken freaking Watanabe is in the new Batman movie. And the Batman in question is not George Clooney or Val Kilmer. Batman AND Ken Watanabe both in one movie; can my little heart handle it? *___*
Despite my fangirlish excitement, though, I have some misgivings. I only have vague memories of Ra's Al Ghul from the cartoons, but I know he's one of those really super menacing bad guys. He's immortal or something; and I heard somewhere that one time in the comics he dug up the corpses of Batman's parents -- Batman's freaking dead parents -- and ransomed them for Batman's super secret "How To Kill The Justice League" files. You don't get much eviler than that. But Mr. Watanabe's English is, uh... not exactly awe-inspiring. Oh, it was exceptionally good for a 19th-century samurai supposedly isolated from Western cultural influence. But for an immortal criminal mastermind... eh. Well, who knows. Maybe Ken's Al Ghul and Batman will have many guud convahseishuns.
Heck, just have Ken Watanabe play Batman, with a samurai sword. Then my heart would explode, and I would be dead and gone, and they could go right on with making their George Clooney movies. Martians attacked at 11:35 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Friday, February 20, 2004
Finally getting to watch that Enterprise show. The more I look at that opening, the more it resembles a tire/gasoline commercial. Hang on, this chick can't do mind-melds? What kind of lame-ass Vulcan is she? Both Spock and Tuvok could do mind-melds. Mind-melds are what Vulcans do. What's she good for, then, aside from prancing around in a cute little jumpsuit and glowering at people with her arched eyebrows?
Martians attacked at 09:51 p.m.! Where were you?
~
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Okay, there's no particular reason why I've slacked off blogging for so long. No, it's not because I've been spending all my time watching anime on that new cable channel, although I have been doing quite a bit of that. I'll obviously never be able to recap all the stuff that's happened since last I wrote; so I'll just try to touch on some of the more noteable bits. Finished Perdido Street Station. Saw The Last Samurai. Dog nearly got poisoned. Blah blah blah.
Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville: It stinks. Oh, it's good, quite good. What I mean is that the book, apart from holding your interest by constantly throwing more and more bizarre stuff at you, goes to extraordinary pains to describe every detail of the filth and squalor of the city it's set in. If you were to play a drinking game where you take a sip every time some synonym of "feces" is used, either in a metaphorical or literal sense, you'd be dead of alcohol poisoning before you were halfway through the book. The author, he's quite brilliant, but he seems to have a bit of an obsession with the poopy. If you're not too squeamish, I highly recommend you check the book out. Creepy and engrossing, and as I said, absolutely chock full of weirdness.
The Last Samurai: Very cheesy, but pretty; and worth seeing many times over just for Ken Watanabe <3 (see: my circa-2001 blog blatherings about Japanese historical drama show called Hojo Tokimune. He played Tokiyori. <3 <3 <3)
We had a real scare last last Saturday, after coming home from another Beach trip. While eating dinner, we noticed that Blue was acting listless and drooling heavily all over the place. As it turned out, she had been spotted playing with a toad in the garden earlier that evening. So, after having spent most of the day on the road, we had to look up a vet that was open at that late hour, get Blue in the car, and rush her over before they closed at 10. She had to stay there overnight for observation and IV fluids; but when we came to pick her up the following afternoon, she seemed much recovered, and barked at everything she saw out the car windows. Anyway, the moral of the story is: toads are poisonous, keep your pets away from them. And know a vet that stays open late. Martians attacked at 10:39 p.m.! Where were you? ~
E-mail: daedalus@icarusfalls.com
Website: Icarus Falls
Age: 21
Location: Manila, Philippines
Material Desires: see here
How Many Roads Must A Man Walk Down?: 42
FAQ:
Q: What the heck is that?
A: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a cool steampunk-ish comic series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill which has several prominent literary characters banding together to form a Victorian-era superhero team. Aside from the principal characters, the series also contains cameos and references to just about every bit of fiction ever written in the Victorian era. This layout features the cover from Volume 2, issue 3 of the series. And now that I've finally read the issue in question... LOOK OUT, MINA! Don't run into any invisible and brutally violent psycopaths plotting to sell England out to the Martians! Oh God... X____x
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A: Oh. Well, it's my weblog. I write junk in it.
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A: What, that? That's a walrus. Careful, they're very territorial.
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