Trivia that matter
Experimenting with “Orton” photography. Essentially, you work with two layers, one sharp and one blurred, and blend them together to get a surrealistic effect. Some images work better than others.
Experimenting with “Orton” photography. Essentially, you work with two layers, one sharp and one blurred, and blend them together to get a surrealistic effect. Some images work better than others.
Although the 2003 Kino’s Journey is a favorite of mine and the first series I would recommend to someone who thinks he doesn’t like anime, I don’t like all the stories equally. I occasionally re-watch “Land of Prophecy” for its blend of absurdity, whimsy and horror, for instance, but I’ve never much cared for the two-episode “Coliseum.” I was disappointed therefore when the New! Improved! Kino’s Journey remade the latter story as its second episode; I would strongly have preferred that all the new episodes be based on stories not previously adapted. Given that there are something like 20 volumes of Kino stories now, there should be plenty to choose from.
I notice that fans of the earlier series find the new version of the story, now called “Colosseum,” much inferior to the first. I recently loaned out the DVDs of the first series and therefore can’t compare the older episode with the newer. However, I do have the Tokyopop paperback of Keiichi Sigsawa’s Kino no Tabi, translated by Andrew Cunningham, that was available for 15 minutes in 2006. It includes the original version of “Coliseum.”
“Colosseum” (2017) is a serviceable adaptation of the original story, not outstanding but acceptable. It’s necessarily streamlined to fit within the limits of one episode, but the missing parts — mainly the details of the first four fights — are expendable.1 There are some inelegancies in Crunchyroll’s translation, e.g.,
Perhaps that’s accurate, but it’s clumsy. From the book:
Given their recent experiences, Hermes was not nearly so enthusiastic. “I hope you let me rest awhile when we get there,” he muttered. “Some place cool, dark and not too damp.”
Further comments will be increasingly spoilerous.
I’ve posted a few more portraits of cactus seedlings at the photo site.
All started back in May. The pictures are stacked focus, each assembled from between 17 to 73 individual frames in Helicon Focus.
All started back in May. The pictures are stacked focus, each assembled from between 17 to 73 individual frames in Helicon Focus.
I finally finished processing the pictures from last week’s ballet rehearsal. You can see them here.
Coming all too soon: Nutcracker season.
The final batch from the Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. As usual, click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
The final batch from the Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. As usual, click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Friends University Ballet fall concert dress rehearsal, October 5, 2017. Click to embiggen and to see with better color; right-click and open in a new window to see at maximum size.
Further pictures from the dress rehearsal for the fall dance concert at Friends University.
Further pictures from the dress rehearsal for the fall dance concert at Friends University.
More pictures from the dress rehearsal for the Friends University fall dance program. (Click to embiggen, and also to see the pictures with better color. For some inexplicable reason, the WordPress algorithms make the reduced-size pictures look dull.)
More pictures from the dress rehearsal for the Friends University fall dance program. (Click to embiggen, and also to see the pictures with better color. For some inexplicable reason, the WordPress algorithms make the reduced-size pictures look dull.)
If the first episode is indicative, Kino’s Journey II2 survived the loss of Ryutaro Nakamura, who directed the 2003 anime. It felt very much like old times, with a little more detail, and a little more blood. Once again, I was reminded of The Twilight Zone. This week’s thought experiment involved a country where murder is legal. It’s not necessarily a paradise for psychopaths. The story inevitably brought to mind a certain Heinlein comment. If the show maintains the level of the first episode, there finally will be something worth waiting for every Friday.
Watching Kino’s Journey has the unfortunate side-effect of making everything else seem trivial. Nevertheless, there are a couple of other first episodes I watched all the way through which deserve comment.
Urahara is yet another variation on the majou shoujo theme, this time set in a pastel version of the Harajuku neighborhood in Tokyo. Aliens, called “scoopers,” who have no culture of their own, invade the Earth and scoop up anything that interests them, such as the the Arc de Triomphe, the Statue of Liberty, or a pyramid or two. It falls to three girls in Harajuku, one with little horns, one with nekomimi and a tail, and one who sews, to defend their world, Harajuku style.
It’s a silly show. The counterpart of Sailor Moon‘s Luna and Cardcaptor Sakura‘s Kero-chan is a talking fried shrimp, for instance. Silly doesn’t mean stupid, though, and absurd though the episode was, it was always entertaining and visually playful. I probably will continue watching it. For a discussion of Harajuku and this episode, see Emily.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie concerns a young woman who drops out of society to play an online fantasy RPG game. Although it’s not explicitly stated in the first episode, it’s strongly implied that she and her online friends all visit (or work at) the same convenience store, though they aren’t aware of that yet, and that their online and offline lives will get muddled together. I might watch more to see how it develops.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride will have to wait until I have more time. Hozuki no Reitetsu II will have to wait until the discs are released in North America and I can budget their purchase. (Amazon Strike Hi-Dive, grrr.)
The 2017 fall ballet performance at Friends University was a lecture-demonstration covering the history of ballet, including a look at forms of dance that preceded ballet. (Click pictures to embiggen.)
The 2017 fall ballet performance at Friends University was a lecture-demonstration covering the history of ballet, including a look at forms of dance that preceded ballet. (Click pictures to embiggen.)
I shot too many pictures at the dress rehearsal Thursday evening for the Friends University Ballet fall program, and it will take the rest of the weekend or longer to go through them all and process the best. They’ll be at my photo site, soon, I hope.
I spent Thursday evening photographing the dress rehearsal for the Friends University Ballet fall program. Expect a lot more pictures here soon.
I spent Thursday evening photographing the dress rehearsal for the Friends University Ballet fall program. Expect a lot more pictures here soon.
I took the day off and spent the morning taking pictures at the botanical garden. You can see them here.
So, Frank Zappa’s kids are thinking of presenting holograms of him in concert, just like Hatsune Miku? Holograms of Miku are fine, since she’s computer-generated anyway, but re-animating Frank seems ghoulish to me. I doubt that he’ll ever dance as well as Miku, either, no matter how skillfully his hologram is programmed.
Speaking of Miku: While it’s not difficult to make songs with Vocaloids on your computer, it’s not so easy to perform with Miku live, in real time. Yamaha is making it a little easier with a new “keytar.”
There was also a Miku guitar stompbox released a few years ago.
And now for something completely different: The Lord of the Rings Silent Movie. (Via the Local Malcontent.)
Gunung Agung on Bali may be ramping up to an eruption. If so, this could be more than interesting on the densely-populated island. Agung’s 1963 eruption was VEI5, i.e., at least as large as Mt. St. Helen’s in 1980. It has some noteworthy neighbors nearby on the Sunda arc. Rinjani is visible from Agung’s summit when the weather is clear. Tambora is a bit further east.
Meanwhile, there is a state of emergency on Ambae in Vanuatu.
If Flickr decides that there has been suspicious activity involving your account, or if you want to access Flickr from a different browser or a different computer, you need to prove to them that you are indeed whoever it is that you are. It’s a simple matter. In my case, I need only respond to emails sent to either of two long-defunct addresses.3 This doesn’t quite make sense to me; I used a different address, which they have, to launch my account there. But the ways of IT are mysterious and not for ordinary mortals to comprehend.
At this time, I can log into Flickr only with one browser and only on one computer. It’s just a matter of time before I’m locked out of my account entirely. Therefore, I’ve started a weblog for my photography, here. I’ll occasionally post a picture or two on Zoopraxiscope, but the full galleries will be at the new site. You can see the rest of the pictures from yesterday’s visit to the Great Plains Renaissance Festival there, for instance.
