Author: Don

It’s a cute, cute, cute, cute world

While going through this month’s search terms, I noticed a theme:

kawaii watches
criticisms of kawaii culture
kawaii car stuff
kawaii room maker
couple kawaii hat
how to be kawaii
kawaii oak panio
teenage kawaii
kawaii camera
kawaii sequencer
kawaii computer
kawaii software
english clothes kawaii
chicago kawaii
kawaii multiply theme
kawaii comments
kawaii culture

Also:
japan fake reality cute
silly japanese cute words

Some kowai searches:
jewish anime
why is jackson pollock named jack the ripper
hello kitty boots without socks
dokuro chan costume prop — Don’t. Just don’t.
when did solomon become a satanist
horribly good saki
asian bluegrass metal — Something like God of Shamisen?
miss mune mune costumes — You probably shouldn’t, even if (particularly if) you have the figure.
paprika ubik — There’s a term paper here.
bartok lambda calculus music
rock critics are idiots — Obviously.
chicken dance accordion — Be careful what you search for. You might find it.

More pictures

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I recently looked at various picture gallery plugins for WordPress. None of them were satisfactory. Therefore, I’ve established a gallery independent of my weblogs. The software I’m using, by a curious coincidence, is Gallery. Thus far, it works pretty well; I haven’t yet yelled at the computer. I’ve uploaded a selection of this year’s Winfield pictures for starters. There will be albums of dance and botanical pictures in the near future, and other kinds of subjects as well.

Update: I’ve added a selection of my old black-and-white SCA pictures.

Rangers and ragtime

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Right to left: Nana, Nana, Nana, Nana, Nana, Nana and Nana (Picture via Steven)

I’ve just added Seven of Seven to my buy list (though it will have to wait awhile):

Another thing that’s interesting is that they’re using a lot of Scott Joplin in the soundtrack. I think it works, too. It’s refreshing, and it does tend to support a light feel to the show. Joplin isn’t ponderous and certainly isn’t slow or depressing.

I used to play Joplin half a lifetime ago when my fingers were in shape. Using his music in the soundtrack could backfire, of course. I hated The Sting partly because I disliked Hamlisch’s arrangements. I hope Yoshihisa Hirano uses the original piano scores.

Incidentally, while most of Scott Joplin is lively and cheerful, he did write a few slow pieces, e.g., “Solace,” and some of his later rags, while not depressing, do leave a bitter aftertaste, e.g., “Scott Joplin’s New Rag.”

On Geneon

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My middle shelf, where I keep the top-shelf anime

To put the recent news concerning Geneon in perspective, here are some of the titles on my shelves with a Geneon (or Pioneer) label:

Haibane Renmei
Serial Experiments Lain
Cardcaptor Sakura
Someday’s Dreamers
Sugar, a Tiny Snow Fairy
Paranoia Agent
Ah! My Goddess Movie
Kamichu!
Magical Project S

… not to mention Bottle Fairy, both copies of which I bought I sent to nephews and nieces, and others on my shelves I haven’t watched yet.

That’s three of my personal top five and many more of my favorites. Geneon peddled a lot of crap, but the number of first-rate titles they released more than compensates for the garbage.

I wonder if the “pre-licensed” Seirei no Moribito ever will actually be available in America?

Tuesday morning miscellany

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Cute and silly?

One of the pleasures of Dai Mahou Touge is watching Punie and Paya-tan, her mascot, instantly transform from cutesy and playful to utterly ruthless, and back again. Paya changes seiyuus when he makes the transition. I thought Dark Paya sounded familiar, and I was right; he is voiced by Jouji Nakata, who is Giroro in Keroro Gunsou.

I’m surprised at how little attention DMT has received, despite its being one of the better examples of animated black humor. Once again, if Steven hadn’t spotted it, I’d have missed it. Why has this been ignored, while Dokuro-chan, which you couldn’t pay me to watch, has been endlessly discussed and now has a sequel?

*****

Not anime, but geeky: U.N. Secretary General or Star Wars character?

*****

Also not anime but still geeky: A new idea for a first-person shooter.

*****

And finally, a word from Shunpei:

oedomath2.jpg

*****

Bonus link: Put down the duckie. (Via the LLamas.)

*****

Update: Congratulations to Avatar.

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I’ve never been able to positively identify this. It’s either an aster or a close relative (my best guess would be a species of Senecio), but there’s nothing quite like it mentioned in any of my books on Kansas wildflowers. This is surprising, because it’s quite common around here. Normally the plants grow two or three feet tall, but if they are in a spot that periodically gets mown, they’ll form a mat an inch or two high, such as the plant pictured.

… kill them all!

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What’s the name of this weblog?

Steven’s recent discovery reminds of the punchline of an old Koren cartoon: (said of a movie) “The sex wasn’t much, but the violence was wonderful.” I don’t have much to add to what Steven says, except to note that there are also four brief omake episodes. Punie takes her friend Tetsuko on a visit to Magic Land. It is indeed the kind of place that Punie would call home. I’ve posted the opening of Dai Mahou Touge on my video weblog.

dmt04.jpg

*****

Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice, a.k.a. Tweeny Witches, has just been licensed. I watched the first several episodes a year or so ago and wasn’t sure what I thought of it. It certainly has a distinctive Studio 4°C look, but the main character is nearly as fatuous as Fuura Kafuka. People who like the series like it a lot, though, so I may give it a second chance.

I do like the closing theme. Here’s the full-length version, sung by KOTOKO. You might recognize the melody.

[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/kotoko.mp3[/mp3]

another way to ride a broom

Another way to ride a broom

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I don’t know which is more depressing: the fact that about half the buildings I passed downtown on my way home from Mass today had been vandalized this weekend, or that the vandals did such a perfunctory job. Don’t they take any pride in their work?

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Lycoris radiata.

You can expect to see more botanical pictures than usual for the next few weeks. We’re probably about a month away from the first hard freeze of the winter here, and after that it will be around March before there is good reason to take my camera to a garden again.