Trivia that matter
What does $1,186.27 look like?
If that had been the paperback edition of Lafferty in Orbit, you’d be looking at $2,162.26. However, a hardcover like the one pictured is available for a mere $23.98.
By the way, if you ever spot any collection of Lafferty’s stories in a used book store — Nine Hundred Grandmothers, Strange Doings, Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add, Ringing Changes, Lafferty in Orbit, Iron Tears — grab it. There never was any other writer like him.
If you’re planning to corrupt youthful acquaintances with anime this Christmas, you might want to check out the current weekly specials at RightStuf. Among the drivel and trash are such things as the complete sets of Bottle Fairy and Mao-chan, each for $15, both suitable for all ages (but keep them away from jackass anime critics). For school-age and older, there’s Petite Princess Yucie for $26. The outstanding bargain is the complete collection of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit for $20. Moribito was the third-best show of the banner year 2007 ((Second-best was Oh! Edo Rocket, due out soon from Funimation. The best was Dennou Coil, which remains unlicensed.)) and I can recommend it unreservedly for all grade-school age and older. The protagonist, Balsa, was my choice for the outstanding anime babe of all time.
Depending on which sample of text I use, I also write like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown (ugh), Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Chuck Palahnuik, Isaac Asimov, Daniel Defoe, Margaret Atwood, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde or James Joyce. But not R.A. Lafferty or Flann O’Brien. Oh well, nobody else can really write like them, either.
Actually, when I read my writing, it just sounds like me.
Update: A bit of background about that site.
Exceedingly miscellaneous links and videos.
Via Jonathan T., Jonathan C. on “adapting” anime for western viewers.
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From kowai to kawaii: the Queen of Night’s aria, sung by Hatsune Miku:
Update: This aria (but not this particular “performance”) has been voted one of the top ten arias of all time. (Via Steven R.)
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Mono no aware: Steven Greydanus on the trailer for Tales of Earthsea:
Here is a mainstream Japanese animated film with a trailer that has an evocative, haunting power that eludes virtually the whole of American animation—and that’s just the trailer. And it’s not just American animation either, but pretty much the whole Hollywood machine. What was the last Hollywood box-office blockbuster that made you think of beauty, loss, longing and mystery? (Yes, other than The Lord of the Rings.)
Whether this particular film turns out to be good or not, it’s part of a cinematic culture that aims at, and sometimes achieves, something that isn’t even on the radar in Hollywood. This trailer reminds me of how I felt during the first five minutes of Howl’s Moving Castle, even though the film ultimately turned out to be a disappointment: Just the promise of the first five minutes, even a promise unfulfilled, was worth more than some American animation studios have delivered in whole films if not their entire outputs.
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American mecha: spiders for now, but eventually they’ll get to Gundams and EVAs (via the Borderline Sociopath):
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The Lelouch Lamperouge Picture Show: Is there such a thing as “anime camp”?
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I suppose it’s not that surprising that there is a large fanfiction community devoted to Ranma 1/2-Sailor Moon crossovers. Still, I did not expect to find a Sailor Ranko webcomic.
I knew that there are active volcanoes along the west coast and in Alaska and Hawaii, and that Yellowstone might explode catastrophically at any moment during the next million years, but I didn’t realize that there are also erupting volcanoes in the midwest until I read this headline: “Small ash emission from a Cleveland, OH volcano.” Gee, I hope TSO and Maureen are okay. ((This is the mountain in question.))
(Via Eruptions.)
Those who are fascinated by volcanoes might be interested in a recent addtion to my links, Volcano Picture of the Week.
In alphabetical lists of anime, “Hello Kitty” falls between “Hell Girl” and “Hellsing.” It’s no coincidence.
Via Charles G. Hill, who notes, “… we should not mock the Japanese for Anpanman, unless we’re willing to take the responsibility for the Hamburglar.”
More than you ever wanted to know about the Japanese music industry.
(Via Anime Instrumentality Blog.)
Speaking of mullets …
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In case there is anyone on the planet who still hasn’t seen the grandest of all Pythagorean devices:
Here’s a story and some videos about it.
(Via Steven Riddle.)
Update: here’s another noteworthy contraption currently under construction:
(Via the Borderline Sociopath.)
Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge dock florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry ladle cluck wetter putty ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
In related news, Tom Lehrer has found a rhyme, sorta, for “orange.” (Via Dustbury.)
The website for Satoshi Kon’s current project is active. Yume-Miru Kikai looks like a significant departure from Kon’s previous work, at least visually, and unlike Paranoia Agent and Paprika, this “future folklore story” might be suitable for all ages.
An appreciation of the background art of Oh! Edo Rocket.
For anyone who’s ever said “Huh?” at a renaissance faire.
If you’re in the Minneapolis area, you can catch a performance of “A Christmas Carol” in Klingon. (Via Maureen the Suburban Banshee.)
A three-dimensional Mandelbrot set? (also via Maureen.)
Bored with caricaturing Roman Catholicism, manga artists have discovered the Eastern Orthodox.
An old interview with the late John Sladek I came across recently. Sladek, discoverer of the thirteenth sign of the zodiac (Arachne, May 13 to June 9), ((For the morbidly curious, my own sign is “No parking — violators will be towed at owner expense.”)) was one of the last century’s best satirists and is of my favorite writers.
Meep.
Keep an eye on those ducks:
Public service announcement: the complete Dirty Pair TV is out there, subtitled, if you know where to look.
Frëd Himebaugh of the Fredösphere has composed a fifteen-minute opera using Terry Bisson’s short story “They’re Made Out of Meat” as the libretto. You can purchase it here. See also Frëd’s earlier posts here and here.
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Here’s one of the more impressive videos I’ve seen recently. The characters and tune are from the vast Touhou project, but you don’t need to know anything about that to appreciate the phantasmagorical transformations.
Several otherwise sane and sensible people recently have been posting their Champions Online or City of Heroes characters. I thought I’d check the games out. Fortunately for me, the former is Windows-only, but the latter does have a Mac client and a free trial period, so that’s how I spent a couple of lunch hours this past week. (Actually, I spent the first lunch twiddling my thumbs while the client downloaded nearly three gigabytes of additional content — if I had realized that it would do that, I wouldn’t have bothered.) It is fun to play with the character creator; you can make a (rather skanky-looking) schoolgirl, which isn’t possible with such sites as Hero Machine. The game itself, though, looks as dull as every other MMORPG I’ve visited, as far as I could judge from the tutorials (I tried both the heroic and villainous options). It’s nifty to design colorful avatars, but “jogging heroically” to fight random enemies is tedious. I’d rather listen to music —
— which is what I do in Second Life. My initial impressions of SL were rather negative, and if you want to find intelligent people to discuss anime with, you’ll do better hanging around Steven’s place. But there is lots of music there, some of it good, and there are other people with tastes as wide-ranging as mine. It’s possible to stream music from your computer to sites within Second Life, which I’ll be doing Saturday evenings for while. If you have a SL account, stop by Grizzy’s Café between 6 and 8 p.m. SL time (i.e., California time; between 8 and 10 p.m. in the central USA time zone). Tonight I’ll be playing very miscellaneous Japanese music, from Yoko Kanno to Hatsune Miku.
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I’ve sampled some random examples from the fall anime season. So far I haven’t finished a single episode. Surprisingly, the one I watched longest was Kämpfer, this season’s attempt to create the ultimate anime. Let’s see … we have
• high school students
• fighting
— with guns
— with swords
— with magic
(… but no forks)
• sailor fuku
• panties
• sexual ambiguity (question of definition: is a guy who actually changes to a girl truly a “trap”?)
• a meganekko
• henshin
• absolute territory
• .4 Rushunas — and that’s the hero. He also runs like a girl.
I hesitate to say whether there are any moeblobs or tsunderes in the show. I think one character qualifies on both counts, but that isn’t my field of expertise.
That’s in just the first fifteen minutes or so. There are also hints of a developing harem, a ridiculously powerful student government and perhaps a vast conspiracy. I expect future episodes will include copious steam. There are unlikely to be nekomimi, mecha or winged people, but I wouldn’t put it past the writers — it really is a silly show. Sad girls in snow are probably too much to hope for.
My only hope for the fall season is Kuuchuu Buranko, or Trapeze, whose crew includes Kenji Nakamura and Manabu Ishikawa of Mononoke.
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A couple of odd links:
