Author: Don

Status report

I bought myself some belated Christmas presents. I’ll eventually get to the anime, but for now the item in the foreground takes priority. Incidentally, although I have a computer full of soft synths, this is the first hardware synthesizer I’ve ever owned. ((Unless you want to count my old, very plastic Yamaha keyboard, but that’s essentially a large toy, unsuitable for gigs.))

Instead of following any current series, I have indeed been rewatching Shingu. I probably will check out a couple of upcoming shows, though. Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei is yet another blasted high school college story, but Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, Kaiba) is directing. Haiyoru! Nyaru-Ani features Nyarlathotep in the form of a cute little girl. It sounds like she might be a candidate to replace Pyun and Potaru if I redesign my site.

Enlightened pessimism

William Tenn, who wrote some of my favorite stories, died a week ago. I wanted to link to “Bernie the Faust,” which SciFi.com used to host, but when they changed their name from the offensive “SciFi” to the stupid “SyFy,” they dropped the story. However, I did find an interview with Tenn in which he reads “On Venus Have We Got a Rabbi.” The story starts shortly after the forty-minute mark, but the entire interview is worth hearing.

The Birds, Part Two

I’ve downloaded a number of first episodes from the fall and winter seasons, but I have yet to make it more than half-way through any of them. Some might actually be worth watching, e.g., Durarara, but I’m just not in the mood right now. I sent off an order for some older titles yesterday — the Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex, Moonphase and Black Heaven boxed sets (and a set of El Hazard playing cards) — but those are likely to remain in their shrink wrap for a while. I have things other than anime on my mind, and if I do pop a DVD into the drive, it more likely will be an old favorite like Shingu than anything new.

*****

A couple of silly links:

Another example of silhouette animation, this one recounting the avian terror in Clerkenwell.

If you play Dungeons and Dragons, stay out of prison in Wisconsin.

Maureen Fogle, 1959-2010

Maureen and Jerry

My sister Maureen passed away this morning after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

Maureen was the owner, director and principal teacher of the Portland Studio of Ballet and Highland Dance in Portland, Tennessee. A life-long ballet dancer, she performed with ballet companies in Kansas, Virginia and Tennessee. Later in her life she became interested in highland dance, and she won a closetful of trophies competing with girls half her age at highland games. She was particularly good at the sword dance.

Sword dance

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