Trivia that matter
A new box of noisemakers just arrived. You will probably see even less of me than usual for the next few weeks.
Have a happy Ragnarök.
Update: It does take a while to install twelve DVD’s worth of applications and sample libraries, but not quite 90 hours.
What do you call a hexagon with ten sides?
Just because. (Via A Journey Through Life.)
John C. Wright watched the second Hobbit movie, “this craptastic jerktrocious smegbladder of a film“:
To be quite honest, the actress Evangeline Lilly is not only quite attractive, she handles both the demands of the acting and a physical stunts very well. Indeed, I am afraid I have a bit of a crush on her, with her long lustrous hair, her finely chiseled cheekbones, her kissing-soft feminine lips, her soft curves aching with the promise of luscious loveplay … Oh, wait a minute. I am think I am looking at Orlando Bloom. Er, never mind. Sorry, Miss Lilly.
… But I am glad that Ishmael and Queequeg will appear in the sequel.
(For the record: I found Jackson’s version of The Fellowship of the Ring barely tolerable and was disgusted with the rest of his Ring cycle. You’d have to pay me to watch him trash The Hobbit, and pay me well.)
Afterthought: Lousy though they are, Jackson’s movies did make DM of the Rings possible.
*****
My more economically savvy readers may think that all of this is so obvious as not to need to be said, but listen around next time you hear some far less savvy young people talk about what people “should have” and what people “need” and what things “should cost.” You might get a surprise. Nobody has, apparently, ever explained to these people that neither money nor pharmaceuticals nor fully-trained doctors grow on trees. It’s just an astonishing thing, but the fairies don’t distribute goods and services.
I thought immediately of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, in which the fairies sometimes do distribute goods and services. This may be related to the fact that the English-language title of the show is “Humanity Has Declined.”
Continue reading “The stupidcallafragilisticexpeallidumbass stupidity hammer”
Anthony Sacramone thinks this is the funniest sketch ever performed, and perhaps it is. R.I.P., Sid Caesar.
Politics should be limited in its scope to war, protection of property, and the occasional precautionary beheading of a member of the ruling class.
… (yesterday, actually) Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur debuted. (The live-action first half of Gertie is here.)
*****
Today’s headline: Russia Issues Terror Alert For ‘Moose And Squirrel’
*****
So, what is the state of animation a hundred years later? Let’s take a quick look at the winter 2014 anime season.
The only show I can recommend is the hellish comedy Hozuki no Reitetsu. Much of the humor depends on knowledge of Japanese legends and folklore as well as contemporary Japanese culture. If you’re not familiar with the story of Momotaro, for instance, you’ll miss many of the jokes in the first episode. Even so, enough of the humor survives translation, ((Sometimes excessively free translation; e.g., in the fourth episode, the rabbit’s victims are tanuki, not badgers, but “We don’t need no stinkin’ tanuki” doesn’t have the same impact.)) and this account of the life of a competent, dour oni in an underworld populated largely by flakes and silly people nicely illustrates the close relationship between humor and horror. It also features the second-most bizarre ending animation of the season, starting with the second episode.
If you’re interested in the art of animation, Space Dandy might be worth watching. (There are episode-by-episode discussions here.) The title character is an unsympathetic jerk, however, and the stories aren’t particularly interesting. It’s probably best enjoyed without subtitles and without sound.
The third episode of World Conquest: Zvezda Plot reminded me of Cold Turkey and Yasutaka Tsutsui’s “The Last Smoker,” and I wondered if it might be another Excel Saga. However, the fourth episode was merely weird, and the fifth dumb, and I’m losing patience.
Witch Craft Works has the winter’s most bizarre ending animation. It’s also the second series to feature an iron maiden (but not Iron Maiden). Five episodes in, it looks like the dweebish protagonist is caught in the middle of a war between the witches of order and the witches of chaos, and that every female he knows is more than she appears to be. It also seems that he himself has a past he doesn’t know about. I hesitate to give Witch Craft Works a recommendation. Every episode adds complications and new characters, and I will be surprised if the crew can bring the show to a satisfactory resolution in just twelve episodes. However, thus far it’s held my attention, and, despite the female lead’s over-ample bust, fan service has been negligible.
Nothing else I’ve sampled is worth mentioning.
From last September in Carp Camp. The fiddler on the bar stool is Roger Netherton, whose career I’ve been following for some time.
Beware: Valentine’s Day is next week. (From episode five of Hozuki no Reitetsu.)
… Dalek.
A melody with no agenda: the Irish tune “Dennis Murphy’s Polka”:
From Episode four of Hozuki no Reitetsu. Translation by Crunchyroll.
(Via the Borderline Boy.)
It’s time for another batch of miscellaneous nonsense. I forgot where I found most of these.
Here’s a curiosity I came across, the “Know Nothing Polka,” ((There’s at least one other “Know Nothing Polka,” archived online, as well as a “Know Nothing Waltz.”)) composed by “Nobody” and dedicated to “Everybody.” I dedicate this arrangement to Jamie Stiehm.
Sinabung, a volcano in Sumatra disconcertingly close to Lake Toba, has been erupting spasmodically since September. Above is a time-lapse video of pyroclastic flows there, the same phenomena that destroyed Pompeii and St. Pierre.
You can watch the eruption here during daylight hours in Sumatra. When visibility is good, you probably won’t have to wait long for a pyroclastic flow. See Eruptions and Volcano Café for updates and more information on Sinabung.
While you’re waiting breathlessly for my next substantive post (and you may wait quite a while), here’s a little puzzle to occupy you.
It’s obvious if you look at it right.
Course evaluations for the Sermon on the Mount:
The instructor pandered to the lowest common denominator – “meek” and “poor.” As an AP student, I did not feel adequately challenged.
Way too demanding for Gen Ed requirement. Prof expected us all to exceed best students in the class?! LOL. Not even my major!
Best prof ever! Loved it. Changing my major.
(Via Eve Tushnet.)
Spengler’s Universal Law #11: At all times and in all places, the men and women of every culture deserve each other.
Spengler’s Universal Law #14: Stick around long enough, and you turn into a theme park.
Spengler’s Universal Law #17: If you stay in the same place and do the same thing long enough, some empire eventually will overrun you.
(Via AoSHQ.)
Death by ellipsis: annotating Dan Brown.
(Via First Thoughts.)
After all this, if you still feel the urge to experience dimethylcadmium – stay out of my lab – you can make this fine compound quite easily from cadmium chloride, which I’ve no particular urge to handle, either, and methyllithium or methyl Grignard reagent. Purifying it away from the ethereal solvents after that route, though, looks like extremely tedious work, which allows you the rare experience of being bored silly by something that’s trying to kill you.
The human mind requires regular doses of absurdity to maintain sanity. Not just any nonsense will do, though; otherwise, you could obtain your recommended daily allowance of absurdity by perusing the editorial page of any newspaper. The best nonsense is as rigorously logical as it is absurd, e.g., Lewis Carroll. The anime industry supplies much nonsense every season, and winter 2014 looks to be particularly rich. Here’s a quick look at some first episodes to see which might be properly silly and which are likely just dumb.
A recent genre of anime is travesties involving Oda Nobunaga. There are two this time, Nobunagun and Nobunaga the Fool. One involves a military-otaku girl who wields a gun embodying the spirit of Nobunaga; the other has mecha. Both feature random historical characters, from Joan of Arc to Jack the Ripper, and both feature lots and lots of action. Yawn.
Silly/dumb rating (enjoyably absurd = 10; just plain stupid = 1): 3 (both shows)
An imperious little girl riding a pink bicycle with training wheels intends to conquer the world in World Conquest Zvezda Plot, and she just might do it. There are lots of explosions, and many strange people wearing masks run around, acting threatening and shouting slogans. So far, it makes no sense at all — which is not necessarily a bad sign, but I do expect some exposition in the second episode.
Silly/dumb rating: 7
I sampled three separate shows about people with magical powers, two of them in high school settings. Magic is more contagious than the flu in Magical Warfare. Norio Wakamoto is a frog familiar in Wizard Barristers. A young man learns that he is a princess in Witch Craft Works. There are also giant armored bunnies.
Silly/dumb ratings: Magical Warfare, 5; Wizard Barristers, 6; Witch Craft Works, 5.
Space Boobies Dandy is nothing like Cowboy Bebop. The first episode was pure farce. This could be fun if the writers are deft, but Dandy is a flake who could easily become tedious. I suspect the dub is unwatchable.
Silly/dumb rating: 6
Robot Girls Z is an improved Love Pheremone (not recommended), in which the not-quite-competent heroines present a greater threat to their city than do the villains they fight. It could be fun, but the third short episode was too off-color for my taste.
Silly/dumb rating: 5
In Tonari no Seki, a student maintains his sanity at school by undertaking various complicated projects at his desk in the back of the classroom, such as building a Pythagoras-Switch arrangement using erasers as dominoes. This annoys the girl at the next desk over, and she annoys me. The best part was the music, which reminded me of Masaki Kurihara.
Silly/dumb rating: 4
Hell is a complicated place in Hozuki no Reitetsu. Hozuki is the demon king’s right-hand oni, handling crises, solving problems and raising goldfish flowers (which are nothing like Nematanthus). I usually find “slice of life” series tedious, but this slice of afterlife has promise.
Silly/dumb rating: 8
I’ll probably watch more of Hozuki no Reitetsu and World Conquest Zvezda Plot, and maybe Space Dandy and Wizard Barristers. The rest — meh. At least there’s more Kill la Kill.
From Witch Craft Works, episode one. I’m sure there’s an innocent explanation.
In case anyone has missed it.
