Author: Don

Memo to Senator Pat Roberts

When the phone rings these days, I awkwardly rise out of my chair, lumber across the room with the walker and, struggling to not lose my balance, pick up the phone. It is a nuisance. I don’t mind making the efforts for friends and colleagues. However, when I put the receiver to my ear and hear a recording of a politician, I regret that I don’t know more maledictions. If you want to guarantee that I’ll never vote for you or any of your causes again, this is the way to do it.

Miscellany

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In the recent Kino no Tabi movie, The Land of Sickness — For You, Kino visits a country that seems mostly deserted. The traveler and motoradd eventually find a hermetically sealed city, where they are treated quite well. Kino is invited to tell travel stories to the ailing daughter of a hotelier. There is a disease in the land. The inhabitants desperately search for a cure and hope someday to reclaim the rest of the country outside the city, and they’ve made some progress. However, there’s a dark secret for Kino to discover.

I’m relieved to say that this movie (if you can call a 28-minute show a “movie”) is a vast improvement over the earlier movie, Life Goes On (recommended only for Kino completists). Ryutaro Nakamura is back at the helm and Chiaki J. Konaka wrote the script. It seems like an slightly extended version of a television episode, but that’s not such a bad thing when the show is Kino’s Journey.

*****

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It looks like Kaiketsu Zorori may finally be fansubbed. The series concerns the adventures of the scapegrace fox Zorori, whose ambition is to be the king of mischief. In the first episode he plots to win the hand of a princess using a mechanical dragon, but things don’t go according to plan. If the first episode is representative, this could be a good series for children and tolerable for adults.

*****

I’ve now watched all of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, and I dunno. It started off well, but it peaked at the second episode by my reckoning. Once all the girls were introduced, it became hit-or-miss. Sometimes it was pleasantly absurd, but just as often it seemed the creators had only one joke and were mechanically working out every possible permutation to fill the time. It’s probably the year’s best black comedy, but I’m not really looking forward to the second season.

*****

For the heck of it, here’s my top ten for 2007 as it currently stands.

1. Denno Coil
2. Oh! Edo Rocket
3. Seirei no Moribito
4. Mononoke
5. Baccano!
6. Mokke

Yes, that’s only six. I haven’t seen everything and I’ve probably missed a few of the best. Perhaps I’ll eventually fit ef and Gurren-Lagann somewhere on the list, but I have to watch them first. Ditto Bokurano and Manabi Straight. Perhaps also Moyashimon. Or perhaps not, if the eighth episode is as horrifying as rumored.

*****

When I was at the hospital last week, I acquired not only a cast but also a virus of some sort. While I’m not quite sick enough to stay home from work (darn), I’m usually dead tired when I get home. Posting will continue to be spasmodic until I feel better.

Still life with Marx and Engels

Fred recently discovered Komar and Melamid. I first encountered them half a lifetime ago when they made an appearance at Wichita State. Their schtick then was that they bought and sold souls. They were particularly proud of purchasing Andy Warhol’s. The business wasn’t as lucrative as they had hoped, though, so by then they only accepted souls on consignment.

They came to Fred’s attention through their fusion of musicology and statistics. By polling, they attempted to define the characteristics of the “most wanted” and “least wanted” songs, and then realize the songs. I’m afraid that I’m the in the 28% that dislike the wanted song. The unwanted song, however, is an amazing hodgepodge of accordion, bagpipes, tuba, banjo, operatic soprano and obnoxious kids, and it’s worth 22 minutes of your life. Once will probably be enough.

Oh, yeah, Komar and Melamid are painters, too.

*****

Mr. Darwin is the son of a planetarium lecturer. He reminisces about the artificial skies here.

Awards time

I’m not in the mood for deep thought and critical analysis, so here are the annual Kawaii Menace Anime Awards.

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Best idiot, male: Isaac Dian, Baccano!
Best idiot, female: Miria Harvent, Baccano!
Least enviable magical (or quasi-magical) ability: Sawaki’s in Moyashimon
Most noble dog: Densuke, Denno Coil

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Best spacesuits: Rocket Girls
Best resident deus ex machina: Oh! Edo Rocket
Most accurate botany: Mokke
Worst animated vehicle: Rocket Girls

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Best battle: episode four, Denno Coil (Runner-up: episode three, Seirei no Moribito)
Most shameless almost-but-not-quite plagiarism: Oh! Edo Rocket OST
Best opening song: Mayumi Kojima, “Poltergeist,” Ghost Hound
Best ending song: Polysics, “Rocket,” Moyashimon
Best completely extraneous musical number: episode ten, Oh! Edo Rocket
Ugliest musician: episode four, Mononoke
Most popular current series I haven’t the slightest interest in: Clannad
Best fusion of kawaii and kowai: Guchuko, Potemayo
Worst behavior from good kids: Manabi Straight opening

… and others as I think of them. Later. Right now I’m heading back to bed.

Addendum:
“Kids Say the Darndest Things” award: Czeslaw’s request of Ladd, Baccano!
Best show for children and adults: Mokke
Best choreography: Lucky Star opening

I’m back, sorta

There were a lot of firsts for me last Wednesday: first broken bones; first ride in an ambulance; first morphine; first surgery by a doctor I’d never met (and still haven’t talked to. I’m trying to make an appointment to see her for the follow-up on the operation, but her office hasn’t yet returned my call). You can see the before and after pictures of my ankle here and here. I’ve spent most of my time since then lying in bed with the left leg iced and elevated. I’ve read some and listened to a few CDs, but mostly I’ve been too drowsy to do much of anything at all. I’m starting to feel a bit more awake now, so maybe I can start posting a little.

Random notes

Some good news for Steven: it looks like there are plans for a Strike Witches TV series. I’m ambivalent, myself. The eight-minute OVA was perfect in its way (and perfectly absurd); a regular series, even if done well, is going to seem diffuse in comparison.

*****

I’ve got the week off. I’ve been reading Diana Wynne Jones rather than than watching anime, though, so I don’t have much to report. I have noticed that many recent visitors find this weblog through searches involving the terms “gothic,” “lolita,”, “Kei” and “Moyashimon,” which makes me apprehensive about the second half of the series. I suppose Kei does look a bit girlish, but I doubt that he’ll be as charming as Aspergillus. (If I were to tell a young woman that she’s as cute as a fungus, would she understand that I mean it as a compliment? Probably not.)

*****

We have an uncommon event here in Wichita: a white Christmas. That happens maybe once in ten years.

I considered posting a tune from the Sailor Moon Christmas albums today, but I’m not sure that punishing your readership is a good idea. If you would like to hear some less-familiar Christmas carols, there are some MIDIs on my other weblog.

*****

Not anime, but geeky: mathematical needlework; crocheting a Sierpinski triangle; a how-to book, with projects and papers. (The first link may be slow to load.)

Token Christmas post

When I first began maintaining a weblog, I posted a MIDI arrangement of a traditional tune every day. It was fun initially, but eventually it became more of a chore than a pleasure, so after a year I reduced the frequency to four times a week, and ultimately stopped posting the arrangements altogether. Earlier today I uploaded about 650 of the tunes. You can find them here. There are all kinds of melodies there, from Medieval bicinia to strathspeys and reels, rounds, Shaker songs and tunes from the Near East and Asia. The following are some of the Christmas (or Epiphany) songs I’ve arranged.

A la Media Noche
A la Nanita Nana
Berger Secoue Ton Sommeil
Brightest and Best
Corde natus ex parentis
Dziasiajw Betlejem
El Cant del Ocells
Masters in this Hall
Fum Fum Fum
Gesu Bambino le Nato
Hush, My Babe
La Journada
Menybol Ar Angyal
Nesem Vam Noviny
Noel Nouvelet
Pat-a-Pan
Puer Natus in Bethlehem
Quem Pastores Laudavere
Touro Louro Louro
Tu Scende Dalle Stelle
“Twas in the Moon of Wintertime

Observation

The concept of the “lethal radius” (the radius of the circle within which the number of survivors of an event equals the number of fatalities without), useful in discussions of bombs and music technology, is also relevant to perfume science.