Author: Don

Guess again

Nope

I uploaded a picture taken several pairs of glasses ago to How Old Do I Look? The MS robot is not very accurate, but give it credit for originality: throughout my life I’ve been told that I look young for my age, not a decade or two older.

(Via Steven.)

Musical immaturity?

If you’re worried about losing your love of new music, your fears are justified. That’s according to new research that finds listeners reach “maturity” around age 33. In other words, you’re done with discovering new music when you reach your mid-thirties.

Is that so?

On my way home from Overland Park this past weekend, I listened to Be Bop Deluxe, who fall within the 33-year limit. However, on the way up I listened to Floating Cloud and Onmyouza, both of whom are recent bands active in the 21st century. I recently compiled an iTunes playlist of favorite non-classical tunes. It includes plenty of pieces from my youth by Fairport Convention, Frank Zappa, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Spirit, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Cream and so on. But there are also such artists as the Hot Club of Cowtown, Jun Togawa, ((Hers is the only version of “Pachelbel’s Canon” I can tolerate.)) No Strings Attached, Gjallarhorn, Yuki Kajiura, Rare Air, Mayumi Kojima, Susumu Hirasawa and others whom I never heard until well after my 33rd year.

In fact, I’ve found more music in the past 15 years than in all my years in the previous century, thanks to the internet. I may be atypical, but I don’t think I’m unique. I seriously doubt that I’m the only person my age who actively searches for new music to listen to.

(Via Dustbury.)

Today’s literary anecdote

One recalls the literary writer who, after grasping a story of a Mars voyage as a metaphor for isolation and the precariousness of relationships, realized that at a deeper, more subtle level it might even be a story about an actual trip to Mars!

(From the comments here.)

Testing, testing

Picture is unrelated.
Picture is unrelated.

This is a test of the emergency blogging system. This is only a test. Had this been a real emergency, you would have been instructed to run around in counterclockwise circles waving your laptop overhead, screaming.

(This post should automatically appear on my Facebook and Tumblr pages. Theoretically.)

Update: The “publicize” function in WordPress’ Jetpack works perfectly with Tumblr, which matters very little because I rarely use my Tumblr account. It does not work with Facebook, which matters somewhat more. True, I loathe Facebook and almost never post there. However, it’s the best way to keep tabs on many friends and family, most of whom rarely venture into the more demanding realm of weblogs. It would be convenient for my posts here to automatically appear there, but I’ll have to find some other way to do it.

(If I ever do manage to connect my site to Facebook, it will be interesting to see how many of my “friends” unfriend me when they realize I have conservative tendencies.)

Miscellaneous notes

• While I applaud most efforts to annoy prissy leftists, I’m not all that concerned about the “Sad Puppies.” I’ve never regarded the Hugo award as anything but a popularity contest, no more significant than the Nobel Peace Prize. ((It doesn’t help that they’re named for a lousy writer.)) ((The Nebula awards, which are chosen by writers, are more meaningful, but only slightly: in 1971, Gene Wolfe and R.A. Lafferty, the best writer and the most original writer of our time, both lost to Noah Ward.)) It’s hardly worth all the histrionics.

• A useful term: “gong farmer.” (Via Professor Mondo.)

• Yesterday was the twelfth anniversary of the launch of my first weblog. It was not my first website, though; I’ve had a web presence of some sort since the final years of the last century.

First impressions

Does transparent hair indicate yokai?
Does transparent hair indicate yokai?

Re-Kan — Another Shinto 101 show, like Natsume Yuujin-cho and Mokke. It reminds me of Pupipo, but here the girl who sees things that other people don’t has generally supportive classmates. While there’s no hint of fanservice, there is a cat who behaves like the reincarnation of Mr. Kimura, and that might limit its watchability. I’ll probably watch more.

Shokugeki no Soma — Three minutes into it there were tentacles. Forget it.

Eye-catching eyecatch
Eye-catching eyecatch

Houkago no Pleiades — Formulaic mahou shoujo. However, the girls have distinct personalities, and some of the events take place in a conservatory I’d like to visit. There’s also no hint of fanservice, even in the transformation scene. ((except perhaps for the excessively detailed eyecatch.)) I’ll probably continue watching.

Hibiki! Euphonium — I didn’t find the story and characters as enthralling as Ben, but I wasn’t in band when I did time in high school. I gave up about half-way through the first episode. I might give it another try sometime when I’m less preoccupied.

Update: I sampled a couple more.

Etotama — The first episode seemed like a gag manga adaptation, but apparently it’s an anime original. It was energetic and sometimes funny, but it made very little sense. I might watch another episode to see if the writers have anything in mind beyond chibified kemenomimi, but I don’t have high hopes.

Punch Line — noitaminA has given us probable classics (The Tatami Galaxy, Mononoke), curiosities (Moyashimon) and lots of pretentious drivel (pretty much everything else). And now noitaminA presents outright trash. I made it half-way through, and that’s enough.

Seasonal entertainment

Little hook

I’ve been alternately watching new anime and the radar this evening. A moment ago I noticed a cute little hook in the radar echo. Sure enough, there’s a tornado warning couple of counties west-southwest of here, and the storms are heading east-northeast. I may be visiting the spiders in the basement later tonight. It is now officially springtime in Kansas.

Update (8:34 p.m.): There go the sirens.

200 years ago today

Tambora

Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa and at that time one of the tallest mountains in Indonesia, erupted violently, propelling a Plinian eruption column up over 18 miles high. Spectacular though it was, the April 5 event was just the warm-up for the main show five days later, when Tambora uncorked the largest eruption observed in historical times, vastly larger than the Pinatubo, Katmai/Novarupta or Krakatau eruptions. Mount St. Helens in 1980 was a mere hiccup in comparison. The top of the mountain was replaced by a caldera four miles across, and the injection of dust and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere led to the “year without a summer.”

Update: Just how big was the Tambora eruption?

Why not, indeed?

Big bubbles

After months of tedious waiting, there suddenly are not one but two different subtitled versions of Mouretsu Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace out. I’ve watched each once so far. As far as I can judge, WhyNot‘s is the better and more thorough translation; Doremi‘s is impressive for a fourteen-hour job. WhyNot’s 1080 fansub has a 5.1 FLAC soundtrack and is more than twice the size of the corresponding Doremi version, which might be important if you have limited disc space or a sub-optimal internet connection.

It’s an enjoyable movie. Abyss of Hyperspace is set after the end of the TV series. Hyperspace has become very turbulent, which plays havoc with businesses dependent on faster-than-light travel. Pirate captain and high school student Marika acquires a “hostage,” a blue-haired boy with a mechanical parrot and father issues, and who is pursued by swarms of mobsters. After various adventures and battles and a bit of psychodrama, all is resolved, conspiracies revealed, bad guys thwarted, and good guys rewarded. The story’s not bad, but the real pleasure of the movie, as with most of Tatsuo Sato’s better work, is spending time with the characters.

It’s not necessary to have seen the television series to enjoy the movie, but those who’ve met Chiaki-chan before will get more out of it. There’s nothing objectionable, and the movie is suitable for anyone old enough to follow a moderately complicated story.

There are more screencaps below the fold.

Continue reading “Why not, indeed?”