Trivia that matter
From a discussion in the comments at TSO’s place:
>Reminds me of my System/360 days when we had to suggest to the programmers that rather than ask the operator at the console to type “1 for Yes, 2 for No”, the program should request “Y for Yes, N for No”.
>And what’s wrong with “1” for Yes and “2” for No exactly? 🙂
>One for yes and two for no is great if you have at least one position to the right of the decimal point.
>”And what’s wrong with ‘1’ for Yes and ‘2’ for No exactly?” 1thing.
Odds and ends, some of them involving animation, Japan or spandex.
Via Ken the Brickmuppet, who also found this bit of nostalgia:
Barry has a new t-shirt.
See if these play for you:
Click on the icon in the lower-right corner of the players to turn off the on-screen comments.
(Via the LLamas.)
Some more of that good old traditional Japanese rock ‘n’ roll:
Via JT, a brief history of physics.
My sister sent me a link to an “identify the album” quiz. The page is no longer maintained — the link to the answers returns a 404 — and at least one of the identifications is wrong, but you might find it amusing anyway.
The above is one of my favorite covers, though the album, a collection of medieval dances, is too obscure to be fair game for such a quiz. Here it is in higher resolution.
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Is there a superhero in your neighborhood? Check the registry. (Via Ken the Brickmuppet.)
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Introducing Edward, the Veggie-Vampire.
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(Via John Salmon.)
What I saw of Hare & Guu left me indifferent, but this ending is an outstanding production number. It’s my pick for the best anime ending, at least for today.
[flv width=”640″ height=”480″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/GuuDlxEd.flv[/flv]
Jungle wa itsumo Hale nochi Guu Deluxe, “Fun Fun and Shout” by Sister Mayo.
You can see the videos in full size at my video weblog, and you can compare my list with Astro’s.
Number three:
[flv width=”640″ height=”480″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/ExcelEnd.flv[/flv]
Excel Saga, “Menchi Aishou no Bolero” by Excel Girls. I’m not posting the clean version because the words matter, and because some who frequent this corner of the otakusphere might recognize one of the names in the credits.
Astro is counting down his top five endings. It looks like fun, so I’ll probably post my own list, though it will have to wait until next week. Astro’s fourth choice, incidentally, almost made my list. It will be interesting to see if there is something we both pick.
As Astro notes, it’s harder to find good endings than good openings. Openings are intended to sell the show; often the trailer for a show is the opening. Consequently, producers typically lavish great care and expense on the opening. In contrast, the ending usually just serves to list the necessary credits, and the production is consequently perfunctory. Sometimes the ending tune might be worth hearing, but the visuals are rarely interesting. Nevertheless, I managed to come up with five that are worth both hearing and seeing.
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Here’s something I forgot to post back in October. It’s from the ninth episode of Denno Coil.
[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/michiko stories.flv[/flv]
Robert notes that today is the birthday of Neil Innes, who, in addition to being the Seventh Python, was also part of the Bonzo Dog Band. Here are a couple of tunes Innes wrote or co-wrote for the band. The first was produced by “Apollo C. Vermouth,” better-known as Paul McCartney. The second features narration by the late, great Vivian Stanshall.
Rhinocratic Oaths
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Rhinocratic Oaths.mp3[/mp3]
There are new videos out from Aleksey Igudesman and Richard Hyung-ki Joo, aided and abetted by Gidon Kremer.
