A little something for math and physics majors, via Fillyjonk.
Here’s Igudesman & Joo & Kremer’s take on the same tune:
Author: Don
Meet Dracula
Dracula ophioceps, to be precise, an odd visitor from Colombia.
I visited an orchid show yesterday morning. The lighting was terrible and I didn’t have the tripod with me, so I had to make do with the camera’s built-in flash. I did get a few okay pictures.
Dear Howie
Odds and ends:
I didn’t get very far into Haiyore! Nyaruko-san the first time I sampled it. Sticking a fork into a little girl is not amusing, even if the girl is actually Nyarlathotep. However, both Steven and Ken the Brickmuppet found the first two episodes not entirely worthless. So I gritted my teeth, put my feet firmly on the floor, gripped the armrests of my chair, and grimly stuck it out through the rest of the first episode. Well, it is an improvement over the wretched flash shorts of two years ago, and the forking is not quite as offensive. ((Kirika Yumera remains the only person in anime licensed to use the fork as an offensive weapon.)) Still, I found it more irritating than funny, and I doubt that I’ll watch more.
By the way, Howard Phillips Lovecraft for a brief period was a Miss Lonelyhearts, answering questions such as this:
I am Xah’gnui, who has long delved into the annals of subterranean lore, conducting forbidden researches into the unknown, with a view to resurrecting aeon-silent interplanetary necromancer-lizards. Why is it so hard for me to get a date?
(Via Lynn.)
*****
I see there is an “aniblog” tournament underway. The candidates were drawn primarily from AnimeNano, if I’m interpreting the rules correctly. Unfortunately, this leaves out some of the most interesting weblogs that deal with anime. For instance:
All of these are worth a visit.
*****
Allegedly, the more subtle your mind, the more difficult you’ll find this puzzle. I got it in about 30 seconds.
(Via AoSHQ.)
*****
Mahou shoujo anime is pornographic. So is anime set in high schools. In fact, probably every anime produced this century is pure pornography.
(Via Dustbury.)
*****
Quote of the week, sobering thought division:
The greatest legacy of the internet may wind up being Cute Overload.
*****
Quote of the week, anime division:
If I had a daughter, I’d want her to watch this.
(The Brickmuppet on Mouretsu Pirates.)
*****
Memo to Trek Bicycle Corporation: I see that your factory is in Waterloo, Wisconsin. There is a good chance that you can find literate native speakers of English there. Please hire one, and have him write directions for mounting your luggage rack on a bicycle, so customers don’t have to puzzle over the cryptic diagrams that come with the rack. By the way, it would be thoughful to note on the outside of the packaging that installing the rack requires a hacksaw and file, where customers can see it before buying the rack.
While at the bike shop earlier this week, I discovered that Trek bicycles include a line called “Neko.” Surprisingly, there is no suggestion of anything feline on the bike or on the Trek website. The Neko does feature “Women’s disc brakes.”
Hot news
Etna is in the middle of another paroxysm. This one seems to be different from other recent displays: more sustained, but no tall lava fountains yet. There are good views of the show here and here.
The doctor is in
The most common rose in cultivation, currently furnishing a purplish-red accent in many Wichita gardens, is not a hybrid tea, floribunda or shrub rose, but a hybrid of Rosa wichuriana called “Dr. Huey.” It’s widely used as a rootstock for bud grafting. If suckers aren’t regularly removed, or if the grafted portion weakens or dies, Dr. Huey will take over. The flower in the above picture is about two inches in diameter.
The flavors of evil
Dr. J. recently commented that “… there was no more deliciously evil character than Dolores Umbridge.” In the Potterverse, that’s unquestionably true. Umbridge is one of the best villains of recent years. But so is Kyubey. (And yes, Kyubey meets the Weatherwax criterion: he is indeed quite evil.)
So, how do you like your villains, delicious or cute? ((I’m aware that Kyubey is delicious, or at least edible. No wisecracks, please.))
Remembering the memories
These are the nominations so far for the most memorable anime episode:
Angel Beats #1
Aria the Origination #9
Azumanga Daioh #10
Banner of the Stars #1
Dennou Coil #16
Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles #13
Haibane Renmei #1
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni #4
Kamichu #3
Katanagatari #4
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica #10
Mushi-shi #1
Mushi-shi #5
Mushi-shi #15
Mushi-shi #16
Mushi-shi #17
Mushi-shi #22
Naruto #22
Paranoia Agent #8
RahXephon #18
Serial Experiments Lain #13
Sugar, a Little Snow Fairy #24
Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Robotech #18
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann #27
Some other episodes were mentioned, though not actually nominated:
Angel Beats #5
Azumanga Daioh #18
Kamichu #5, #9 (“Yamato”), #12
Kino’s Journey #2, #3, #13
Surely there’s more. Where are Cowboy Bebop, Cardcaptor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Princess Tutu, Nadesico, Suzumiya Haruhi, Noir, Petite Princess Yucie, … ? Please make suggestions in the comments. Feel free to explain your choices in general terms, but be careful of spoilers.
When I post the poll, I’ll probably limit the number of candidate episodes from a particular series to two. For Mushishi, those will mostly likely be #5 and #16.
Research aids: Wham Episode; Moment of Awesome.
The morning after
It’s a pleasant day today. The sun even came out for a while. It will probably require a few days for the damages from yesterday to be fully assessed, but my neighborhood looks fine.
Although we get some of the most violent weather in the world here in the plains thanks to North America’s topography, I don’t really worry all that much about tornadoes. During stormy weather, there are constant updates on the radio and radar on my computer monitor, and most homes have basements. Dangerous though they are, tornadoes are much less a threat in Kansas than they are in Bangladesh, where the deadliest twister on record struck not all that long ago.
What I do worry about are gangs with guns. I live in an older neighborhood that borders some very different worlds. Go a few blocks south, and you are surrounded by expensive river-front homes. Go a few blocks east, and you’ll hear norteño. A few weeks ago, the place nearby where a scholarly friend of mine used to live was the scene of a gang shooting.
Impending fun
I might be celebrating the ninth annniversary of my first weblog with the spiders in the basement this evening.
Update:
Here’s how things looked around here at about 9 p.m. Note the violet triangle near the Kansas/Oklahoma border. It signifies a tornado vortex; this is the first time I’ve ever seen one so indicated on the radar. It’s southwest of Wichita and heading northeast. It’s about an hour away, and with luck it should dissipate before it gets close. Here’s an excerpt from the official warning:
Statement as of 9:14 PM CDT on April 14, 2012
… A Tornado Warning remains in effect for southeastern Harper and
southwestern Sumner counties until 930 PM CDT…
At 910 PM CDT… a confirmed large and extremely dangerous tornado was
located 6 miles south of Argonia… and moving northeast at 35 mph.
There are at least two other tornadic storms on the radar image.
Update 2: And now (9:33 p.m.) the sirens sound.
Update 3: On the radio, I’m hearing phrases such as “stovepipe” and “half-mile wide.” I really may be communing with the spiders in my basement shortly.
Update 4:
Update 5: More sirens, lots of rain, lightning and wind. According the the guys on the radio, the the tornado might have lifted. However, the warning has just been extended.
Last update, I hope: The path of this tornado has been eerily similar to that of the 1991 Andover tornado. There will probably be lots of damage to see in the morning, but it did miss downtown Wichita. So far, there has been no mention of fatalities.
Who needs Gundam?
First look, last look
I recently sampled some of the winter and spring anime series. A few are watchable, but there’s no Dennou Coil or Madoka Magica among them. Mouretsu Pirates remains the only one I can unhesitatingly recommend, and I classify it as “light entertainment,” albeit an unusually well-executed example.
*****
I picked up the first disc of the original, quarter-century-old Saint Seiya to fill out an order in one of RightStuf’s 25-for-$100 sales. I made it though the first episode. The armor was pretty and the hair impressive, but the story was pure dumb shounen. Has the franchise improved any over the years? Nope. This is as far as I got in Saint Seiya Omega:
Jack London could not be reached for comment.
*****
I launched the first episode of the new, upgraded version of Nyarko-san to see if it was any better than the abysmal Flash shorts inflicted upon us two years ago. Within five minutes, the male lead stuck a fork into the wrist of the cute crawling chaos. The hell with it.
*****
I’ve been curious about a card game that occasionally turns up in such anime as Animal Yokocho, where it is called “100 poets.” Exactly how it played is not clear there or anywhere else I’ve seen it. It turns out to be uta-garuta, one of the many forms of karuta — sort of a literary hybrid of slapjack and concentration. A hundred cards bearing the last two lines of short poems are laid out on the playing surface. Someone reads cards from a second set bearing the complete poems, and each player tries to be the first to find the card bearing the ending lines of the poem being read.
It might be a pleasant diversion to devise an English-language version of the game, if someone hasn’t already done so. Variations come to mind — silly limericks for children, other limericks for adults, lyrics from the Great American Songbook, etc.
Competitive karuta is the gimmick of Chihayafuru, yet another damned series about quirky high school students. Unfortunately, I didn’t last long enough to see any card action. The josei art style didn’t appeal to me and none of the characters caught my interest. Jonathan watched the entire show and liked it quite a bit, so I might give it a second chance.
*****
I did make it all the way through the first episode of Ozma, which apparently has nothing to do with L. Frank Baum. As with Saint Seiya Omega, the character designs are appealingly old-style. So is everything else, except not quite so appealing. It’s set in a wasteland Earth, where competing quasi-military groups are interested in a Mysterious Woman. Giant whales swim deep in the desert sands; one of the commanders relies on tarot cards; there’s lots of shouting and shooting; I’m starting to lose interest. Maybe I’ll watch more. Maybe I won’t.
*****
The first episode of Polar Bear Cafe focused on a lazy panda’s less-than-wholehearted attempts to find a job. I generally don’t find slackers amusing, and I didn’t find it particularly funny. I believe the next episode concerns a penguin with money problems. I’ll see how that is and then decide whether to keep watching. If Polar Bear Cafe does turn out to be worthwhile, it will be valuable as a show for youngsters as well as adults.
*****
Sengoku Collection is another series in which Japanese historical figures are reimagined as pretty, busty young women. It looks like it’s going be mostly silliness and mild fanservice. If it maintains its tone and doesn’t get stupid, it might stay on my watch list.
I wonder: how would you go about making an American version? I’d probably pick characters from the Revolutionary War; the scars from the Civil War still haven’t healed. What kind of anime girl would George Washington be? Or Thomas Jefferson, or Aaron Burr? Where would you put them, and when?
*****
I watched the first two episodes of Inu x Boku Secret Service. An aloof, unfriendly girl with purple eyes moves into an apartment house for certain unusual individuals. There she finds, to her displeasure, that she has acquired an aggressively obsequious bishie bodyguard with mismatched eyes. The show poses the question: why would a multi-tailed fox want to be a dog? Also, is the dog a loyal golden retriever or a manipulative cocker spaniel? ((I generally prefer the company of dogs to that of people, but I’m not fond of cocker spaniels. I’ve been bitten more often by them than by any other breed of dog.)) I expect the underlying story to be the unspoken struggle for dominance between the girl and her bodyguard. As long as the series maintains its light touch and doesn’t devolve into kinkiness, I’ll probably watch more.
Antique
There was an unusual car parked nearby when I got home from Easter dinner.
Light, fantasy and physics
“… an exceptionally talented artist with excruciatingly bad taste” died yesterday. While discussing Kinkade’s significance, McDonald mentioned Roger Dean, who in turn reminded me of the Studio Ghibli curiosity, Iblard Jikan. The entire 30 minutes is now available online, and I’ve embedded it below. Whose fantasies do you prefer, Kinkade’s or Naohise Inoue’s?
Mysteries of anime, and the answers
Where are the lights in the Leijiverse? There are always at least two catch lights in each character’s eyes in Ozma, and usually three or four. Yet, as far as I know, there is still only one sun in the sky.
*****
Here are the answers to yesterday’s questions.
It’s a trap! Or is it?
Newtype is the largest of the magazines in Richard’s box, both in number of pages and in physical dimensions. The pages are too wide to fit entirely in the scanner, and many of the best pictures are two-page spreads. It may take me a while to figure out the most efficient way to handle them. Until then, here are a handful of 1990 Newtype scans with a couple of puzzles.
RG Veda, again. Guess the sex of Ashura, the youngster in white, without looking it up. This is a CLAMP project, so don’t assume anything.
Rule 5
I’ve been blogging for nearly nine years — the anniversary of the launch of my first weblog is a week from Saturday — and I long ago realized that I’ll never get a million hits in a year, or ever. I am not interested in blogwhoring, I’m too contemptuous of politicians to care about their blather and posturing, and I dislike making unnecessary enemies.
One thing I can do, though, is post pictures of pretty girls. Conveniently, Richard’s anime magazines are a rich source of such. Here’s another batch of scans. These are from two editions of a “New Video Magazine,” one from 1986 and the other from 1991. Both are similar in format to Vversion, which I looked at previously, so this time I’m focusing mostly on the cheesecake.
