Recent arrivals

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Astropia was picked up by an American distributer earlier this year. My copy arrived a few days ago, and the story of a minor Icelandic celebrity who is assimilated into RPG culture was as enjoyable as I remembered. Now, would a region 1 distributer please license Faintheart, which is only available as a region 2 PAL disc?

Another recent arrival is Loituma’s Things of Beauty, which includes the “Ievan Polka.” It might sound vaguely familiar.

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/10 Ievan Polkka (Ieva’s Polka).mp3]

(yawn)

Holmes to Watson Victorique to Kazuya:

“As I’ve explained, my fives senses are on high alert, gathering fragments of chaos from the world around me. The fountain of knowledge inside me toys with them out of sheer boredom, reconstructing them. If the inclination strikes me, I occasionally verbalize this in a fashion that even a terribly ordinary person like you can understand. Normally, though, I can’t be bothered, which is why I remain silent.”
Gosick, page 30

… and that’s where I quit reading. I might watch the first episode of the series Gosick to see if the animated Victorique is any less obnoxious than her print conterpart, but I doubt that I’ll follow it.

I might also watch the first episode of Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love to see if it’s any better than the lousy OVA shorts I saw some time back. I expect that one episode will be sufficient. (Update: Never mind.)

The winter anime that look most promising are Fractale, a noitaminA offering, and Mahou Shoujo Madoka?Magica, directed by Shinbo. I might also take a look at Yumekui Merry for its Touhou affinities. Nothing else looks interesting. It may be just as well; real life continues to be annoyingly complicated, and I have plenty else to read and watch in what free time I have.

Shuffle mode

In lieu of a substantive post, here’s what iTunes recently thought I wanted to hear:

1. “Drug Train,” The Cramps
2. “Vingt Regards sur l’enfant Jésus: Regard du Fils sur le Fils,” Olivier Messiaen/Michel Béroff
3. “Hide and Seek,” Curved Air
4. “Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178 – Lento assai – Allegro energico – Grandioso – Recitativo,” Franz Liszt/Jorge Bolet
5. “Echo Sonata for Two Unfriendly Groups of Instruments,” P.D.Q. Bach
6. “3cm,” Yoko Kanno; Macross Plus OST
7. “Birds of Fire,” Mahavishnu Orchestra
8. “Sugar Plums,” Dometsch Ensemble/Elizabeth Poston/Felix Aprahamian/Lionel Salter/Eric Thompson/Peter Hemmings/Robert Ponsonby (Hoffnung Music Festival)
9. “A Quick One While He’s Away,” The Who
10. “Black Magic Woman (Live),” Fleetwood Mac
11. “I’ve Got a Feeling,” Pentangle
12. “Elephant Stomp,” Jennifer Batten & Tribal Rage
13. “Go Go Cactus Man,” Seatbelts (i.e., Yoko Kanno)
14. “Oh Well (Live),” Fleetwood Mac
15. “El Rayo-X,” David Lindley
16. “Sahara,” Sky
17. “St. Mary’s (12 String),” Adrian Legg
18. “Mizuumi,” Mayumi Kojima
19. “Next Stop Earth,” Steve Vai
20. “Sun Medley: Mystery Train/My Baby Left Me/That’s All Right,” Danny Gatton
21. “Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 53: I. Allegro ma non troppo,” Dvorák/Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
22. “Clarinet Polka,” Brave Combo
23. “Coal Boxes and Daisy Cutters,” Boud Deun
24. “My Monkey-no Satogaeri,” Mayumi Kojima
25. “Palladium,” Weather Report

That was fun, I guess. Let’s do it again:

1. “Taxicab,” Bunky and Jake
2. “Prelude #17 In A Flat, Op. 28/17,” Chopin/Martha Argerich
3. “Supercell Track 04,” Ryo (featuring Hatsune Miku)
4. “Yubiwa,” Yoko Kanno & Hajime Mizoguchi; Escaflowne Movie OST
5. “Is This Mexico or What?,” Stephen Bennett
6. “La Huida de Los Amantes por el Valle de los Ecos,” Leo Brouwer / Michael Chapdelaine
7. “Free Bird – Mahiru no tsuki heto,” Itou Masumi & Ueno Youko ((Not to be confused with the Lynyrd Skynyrd ode to masculine irresponsibility — this is an entirely different and much better song from an “image” album associated with Haibane Renmei.))
8. “The Guitar Rag,” Pat Kirtley
9. “Yoake Mae,” Yoshino Yuuji; Spice and Wolf OST
10. “Prism,” Ikeda Ayako; Dennou Coil OST
11. “Lovers Are Crazy,” Steve Vai
12. “Hunting Tigers Out in Indiah,” Bonzo Dog Band
13. “Truth Ola,” Steve Morse
14. “Hashiru,” Yoshino Yuuji; Spice and Wolf OST
15. “Searchlight Rag,” Scott Joplin/William Albright
16. “Bank On Me,” Yuki Kajiura; Madlax OST 2
17. “Piece Of Mind,” Curved Air
18. “Ab la dolchor del temps novel,” Camerata Mediterranea/Joel Cohen
19. “Kalamak Ya Habibi,” George Wassouf (from a sampler of Middle East music)
20. “Hikari Sake,” Masuda Toshio; Mushishi OST
21. “Chopin: Impromptu #4 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 66, CT 46, “Fantaisie-Impromptu”,” Murray Perahia
22. “Dancing In The Street,” The Mamas & The Papas
23. “Under The Double Eagle,” Asleep at the Wheel
24. “Idol Talk,” Yoko Kanno; Macross Plus OST 2
25. “Variations on ‘Annie Laurie’: Variation 3 (Alla gigolo),” Festival Ensemble/Gordon Jacob (Hoffnung Music Festival)

Just wondering: does anyone else remember Bunky and Jake?

Notes in passing

I visited my family last week. While there, I spent more time watching American teevee shows then than I have in all the previous 30 years. My folks don’t have cable, so the menu was mostly ancient reruns. In my last post, I suggested that early televised anime was not very sophisticated. Well, compared to I Spy, Dororon Enma-kun is a brilliant example of wit, subtlety and charm. I endured about ten minutes of a drearily preachy episode of Dragnet; I can’t think of any anime I’ve ever seen that was half as lame. Of contemporary series, I saw several “CSI” shows, which were slicker than, but not really much better than, The A-Team. The highlight of each evening was Wheel of Fortune, believe it or not, and at least half the time of that was devoted to commercials — the same damned noisy, stupid commercials, over and over and over and over again and again and again.

There was also an awful lot of “news.” I have a low opinion of newspapers, but sometimes they actually do convey information. Televised news is too dumb even to be a joke.

*****

National Review doesn’t quite know what to make of Hatsune Miku. I gather that there will soon be an English-language version of Miku; this is one of the very few reasons I have ever found to consider working with Windows.

*****

Here’s a nice piece of Taiwanese animation:

(Via Beneath the Tangles.)

*****

I don’t have a car, but if I did, this is the “coexist” sticker I would prefer on my bumper:

(Via Dustbury.)

Briefly

Life, always messy, has become even more complicated than usual, and I’m going to be absent from cyberspace for a while. Here are a few quick notes before I disappear.

• For those interested in unlikely crossovers, there’s finally a new page up at Sailor Ranko. How frequently the webcomic will be updated remains to be seen.

• We are living in the golden age of anime right now. If you don’t believe me, watch an episode or two of a recently-exhumed ancient series such as Mahou Tsukai Sally, Yusei Shonen Papi or Dororon Enma-kun (the last concocted by anime’s weird uncle, Go Nagai). Then watch some of the better recent shows such as The Tatami Galaxy or Kuragehime, and note just how far anime has come over the years.

• I’ve been obsessively following the events at Merapi in Indonesia. As major volcanic eruptions go, this is nothing extraordinary — spectacular though it is, it’s little more than a cough compared to Pinatubo in 1991 — but Java is one of the most densely populated islands on the planet, and this time Merapi isn’t following its usual script. The best source of information in English is Erik Klemetti’s Eruptions weblog, including the hundreds of comments.

Update
Continue reading “Briefly”

Notes for a November Monday

It looks like a lousy year for fall color. Maples that are usually brilliant red at this time are merely brownish orange. However, roses are doing just fine.

*****

Today’s forecast. I probably should have stayed in bed.

*****

If you’re wondering my political affiliation is, it’s with the Wet Blanket Movement:

I too have a fervor—a fever, in fact—for political inactivity. I want to be part of a movement that makes electoral politics so boring that rather than having term limits, we’ll need laws requiring politicians to serve their full term. I want to join a party that make politics and government work so dull that political journalists and elected officials dream of leaving their fields for the exciting worlds of actuarial science and telemarketing.

I want to thrown in my lot with others who want to throw a wet blanket over politics and whose desire is to dampen the enthusiasm for all forms of political activity. I want to consort with citizens who are willing to arrest the ardor, dash the devotion, sap the spirit, and zap the zeal from anything that remotely resembles political enthusiasm. I want to create a new party, dedicated to the mastery of the art of anti-propaganda and committed to the conscientious devotion of alert inactivity.

If this is your dream too, then I hope you’ll join me in the Wet Blanket movement.

*****

Don’t take seriously what the “experts” predict:

The dismal performance of the experts inspired Mr. Tetlock to turn his case study into an epic experimental project. He picked 284 people who made their living “commenting or offering advice on political and economic trends,” including journalists, foreign policy specialists, economists and intelligence analysts, and began asking them to make predictions. Over the next two decades, he peppered them with questions: Would George Bush be re-elected? Would apartheid in South Africa end peacefully? Would Quebec secede from Canada? Would the dot-com bubble burst? In each case, the pundits rated the probability of several possible outcomes. By the end of the study, Mr. Tetlock had quantified 82,361 predictions.

How did the experts do? When it came to predicting the likelihood of an outcome, the vast majority performed worse than random chance. In other words, they would have done better picking their answers blindly out of a hat. Liberals, moderates and conservatives were all equally ineffective. Although 96% of the subjects had post-graduate training, Mr. Tetlock found, the fancy degrees were mostly useless when it came to forecasting.

(Via Steven.)

*****

Charles G. Hill on tomorrow’s chore:

I will, of course, continue to perform my civic duty. But every year that nothing is done to curb the politicization of Damn Near Everything, you can expect me to perform it with less enthusiasm. If, two years from now, someone hasn’t thrown Barney Frank into Boston Harbor, I’ll consider the entire two years a complete and utter waste.

Fireworks

Recently I’ve been spending more time watching volcanoes than anime. In particular, I’ve been keeping an eye on Java’s Gunung Merapi, which is currently in the middle of a major eruption. (See Eruptions for continuous coverage.) There’s a webcam perilously near the mountain. It’s not always online, and when it is, the lens is likely to be be covered with ash. But when conditions are right, the view is spectacular. (Update: the camera is out of commission again and probably won’t be working again until things cool down. That may be a while, since this is apparently Merapi’s largest eruption in 50 140 years.)

Update: It looks like the view at night is clearer. I’d like to send someone to Java with a bottle of Windex.

Update II: Here are a couple of videos, this one and that one.

Update III: Some very good pictures here. And here.

Update IV: When the camera isn’t working or is covered with ash, you can check the seismographs. Here’s what’s been happening during the past 24 hours:

(For some reason, the preview image looks pale grey or invisible, depending on the browser. Click on it to see it at full size in full color.)

Digital archaeology

tancos.net was originally a GeoCities site, back at the dawn of the modern era. It was mainly a place to post pictures. If I remember correctly, I initially had a total of 10 megabytes of space — or was it 5? — available on the Geocities server, so the pictures had to be small. I eventually got premium account, partly for more space, partly to get rid of the damned pop-ups. Some years later I got a better hosting deal elsewhere and, after an arduous search of the Geocities site for the not-really-secret-but-curiously-hard-to-find relevant menu, cancelled my membership.

A year ago, the USA GeoCities site was shut down, though there is still a Japanese version extant. Before that, some organizations archived the GeoCities content. If you have a really fast connection and a spare terabyte drive, you can now download all of GeoCities as a 900-gigabyte torrent.

Pick six

Steven’s challenge:

Six episodes, plus maybe one extra, for your sampler disk to a newbie with the intent of getting him interested in the form.

I would tailor the sampler to the particular recipient. My friend Bill would probably be most interested in series with distinctive art, so for him I would choose such shows as Mononoke and Kaiba. John would be more intrigued by complex stories such as Serial Experiments Lain. Deborah has a taste for grand fantasies, so perhaps the Ah! My Goddess movie would appeal to her. And so on.

For a potential anime fan whom I don’t know, the following might might constitute a decent introduction to the charms and range of the medium.

Angelic Layer, episode one — Cute kids, dolls, fighting, high tech, problem families.

Azumanga Daioh, episode twelve — More cute kids, high school, sentimental comedy. (Better this Chiyo-centric episode for starters than the first, which has too much Tomo.)

Dennou Coil, episode one — Not-so-cute but very three-dimensional kids, affinities with both Miyazaki and Ghost in the Shell, high tech, mystery, humor. It also illustrates the shortcomings of the licensing non-system: it’s one of the best shows of recent years, yet it may never be legally available in region one.

Mushishi, episode one — For sheer strangeness.

Paranoia Agent, episode eight — For the exceedingly dark humor. (Kon’s series is for college-age or older viewers only. If the prospective fan is a youngster, substitute an episode from your favorite comedy.)

Seirei no Moribito, episode one — Fantasy adventure, court intrigue, a strong female lead, outstanding animation.

As an extra, I’d include a CD of music from Cowboy Bebop.

It’s impossible to represent all the salient aspects of anime with just six examples — there are no magical girl or space war shows listed above, for example — but these might give the viewer some vague idea what anime is capable of.

Oh yeah, there’s always the first episode of Haibane Renmei.

Addendum
Speaking of Dennou Coil: it’s Halloween weekend, which is a good time to mention Miss Michiko.

Java dawn

Gunung Merapi in Indonesia is beginning an eruption, and there are indications that it could be major — bad news in that densely populated region. I’ve been keeping an eye on the webcam (you will need to refresh the image every 30 seconds or so), ((Link removed — some creeps hacked the website.)) and I grabbed a few screencaps of the mountain in the early morning light. See the comments at Eruptions for discussion of the activity.

Update: Merapi did indeed erupt. There’s much discussion and many links here and here.

Update II: The eruption is turning out to be every bit as bad as feared. The best source of information remains the Eruptions weblog. Reuters pictures of Merapi, and also of Anak Krakatau (Krakatoa, Jr.), can be viewed here.

Update III: Here’s a regularly-refreshed link to the Merapi webcam. The camera has a good, close view of the mountain, which means that the image is frequently obscured by ash on the lens.

Update IV: Some very good pictures here.

Continue reading “Java dawn”