Via Story Boredom, where you can also find this.
Twenty-five starry nights
Cabbages and rhinoceroses
Robert notes that today is the birthday of Neil Innes, who, in addition to being the Seventh Python, was also part of the Bonzo Dog Band. Here are a couple of tunes Innes wrote or co-wrote for the band. The first was produced by “Apollo C. Vermouth,” better-known as Paul McCartney. The second features narration by the late, great Vivian Stanshall.
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Im the Urban Spaceman.mp3[/mp3]
Rhinocratic Oaths
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/Rhinocratic Oaths.mp3[/mp3]
A little more nightmare music
There are new videos out from Aleksey Igudesman and Richard Hyung-ki Joo, aided and abetted by Gidon Kremer.
Whole lotta Liszt
In a discussion of anime involving classical music, the writer at Transientem included links to several animated versions of Liszt’s second Martian Hungarian rhapsody, including performances by Tom & Jerry
Quills or hammers?
Here are two recordings of the Prelude and Fugue in C minor from Book One of The Well-Tempered Clavier: on harpsichord, played by Malcolm Hamilton; and, on piano, played by Takahiro Sonoda. Which do you prefer?
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/MH-Prelude 2 in C Minor.mp3[/mp3]
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/MH-Fugue 2 in C Minor.mp3[/mp3]
Piano:
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/TS-Prelude 2 in C Minor.mp3[/mp3]
[mp3]http://tancos.net/audio/TS-Fugue 2 in C Minor.mp3[/mp3]
A few more dance pictures
Agricultural space tragedy
Via Shamus, the story behind Star Wars. See also Shamus’ updated treatment.
I was never a Star Wars fan — I bailed out after The Empire Strikes Back — but I was surprised to learn just how much worse than the final product the original script was. (Via Dirty Harry.)
Towering sponge
Here’s the most bizarre video I’ve seen recently. (Patience is required; it takes forever to load.)
There are more sponges and other three-dimensional fractals here, here and here.
Addendum: For sheer trippiness, nothing beats the Mandelbrot set. Here’s the classic fractal video, “Nothing but Zooms,” presented in four parts. Unfortunately, the image quality is low, even for YouTube.
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
Here are some more videos of varying degrees of gimmickiness featuring the ultimate paisley.
This one
That one
This other one
What’s the Mandelbrot set? Let Jonathan Coulton explain. (N.B.: naughty words.)
Enjoy everything
It looks like there never will be an anime of Yotsuba&! It may be just as well. Movie adaptations of favorite books are invariably inferior to the originals, no matter how skilled the adaptors, and that probably goes for anime versions of manga as well (I wonder if I would like Cardcaptor Sakura as much if I were familiar with the manga). To assuage your disappointment, there does exist a soundtrack for Yotsuba&!, here and here. (Technically, they’re “image albums” inspired by the manga.) The music is by Masaki Kurihara and the Kuricorder Pops Orchestra, the same crew reponsible for the Azumanga Daioh soundtrack. ((There is quite a bit more music for Azumanga Daioh out there that has never been released in the USA, including a second OST album that is nearly as good as the first.)) Here’s a suite from the first Yotsuba&! album, titled “??????????????” which the Google translator renders as “I stand little risk of saliva.”
*****
While I’m on the subject of music, here are a couple of a capella pieces that caught my ear. The first is from the Kaiba soundtrack. The second you should all recognize.
Update: Actually, Yotsuba&! has been animated, after a fashion:
Bulgar, sher and freylekh
You can find good music in the most unlikely places, e.g., Klezmer on an anime weblog.
World music
You find the damnedest things on anime blogs, e.g., some very good Klezmer, including David Krakauer, the Amsterdam Klezmer band and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, not to mention a bit of Klezmer Nutcracker.
Patience rewarded
Those of you who are waiting impatiently for the next episodes of Macademi Wasshoi, cheer up. The translation is proceeding quite briskly in comparison to that of Master of Epic. The seventh episode of the latter has finally been fansubbed, nine months after the sixth.
Was it worth the wait? Not really. The first half showcases Tomoko Kaneda as an incompetent, thoughtless RPG character. Her performance almost redeems the lackluster writing — imagine Chiyo-chan’s hyperactive idiot twin sister in a dungeon crawl. The second half continues the Waragecha Five’s battles with the producer’s giant robots. It’s not that bad, but it’s not all that good, either. The previews for the eighth episode promise the conclusion to the robot story. That should be available around September, 2009. In the ninth episode, due out in late 2010 or early 2011, we perhaps can look forward to the return of the Waragecha Five to proper fantasy.
Wasting time
I came across yet another damned book meme over at Robbo’s, and I thought that adapting it for anime might be a pleasant way of spending a lunch hour.
• What anime are you watching now?
The only current series I’m following is Macademi Wasshoi, and if there are more episodes like the fifth, I’ll drop it, too.
• What is your favourite time to watch?
Evenings, after dinner.
• And your favourite place?
The only available place is the uncomfortable chair at the computer.
• Who is your favourite auteur?
The snap answer is either Yoshitoshi ABe (Haibane Renmei) or Mitsuo Iso (Denno Coil). However, each has really only one show to his credit. ((Lain was a group effort, and while NieA_7 is based on characters created by ABe, someone else wrote the scripts.)) Perhaps Junichi Sato or Akitaro Daichi, or maybe Masaaki Yuasa? I think I’ll go with Satoshi Kon for now.
• Your favourite OST?
Still Haibane Renmei‘s, though that of Oh! Edo Rocket, swing ripoff though it is, has been frequent listening for over a year now.
• What is the most difficult anime you’ve ever watched?
Serial Experiments Lain. I could also mention Angel’s Egg and Cat Soup, but I don’t think either adds up to much more than what you see. (I read somewhere that Oshii himself doesn’t remember what everything signifies in the former.) ((Incidentally, Angel’s Egg is the reason I started downloading torrents. I had read about it and was very curious, but there was no legal way to watch it.))
• What was the first anime you remember watching?
Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke, in the theatre in Brigham City, Utah, on a Saturday afternoon with my girlfriend Gloria a long, long time ago. Many years later came Princess Mononoke.
Update: Here’s a trailer for Magic Boy, as Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke was called in the USA, and here’s a website with screen captures.
• Do you have a comfort show that you re-watch?
Random episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura or Animal Yokocho.
• What is the most erotic anime you’ve watched?
Not Divergence Eve. Nothing much comes to mind; that’s not what I look for.
• Which classic should you have watched?
Monster, I suppose, or Legend of Galactic Heroes.
• Which series did you never want to end?
A good episodic series like Mushishi or Galaxy Angel A could be spun out indefinitely as long as the creators have ideas, but in general, a show isn’t good unless it ends well.
• What is your most overrated anime?
Neon Genesis Evangelion. I watched the first disc, and that’s two hours of my life wasted that I’ll never get back.
• Which character could you have an affair with?
This isn’t the sort of thing I fantasize about lest I end up like Sidney Kugelmass, but perhaps Lexshue from Crest of the Stars.
• Who is your favourite character?
Isako, from Denno Coil.
• Which character do you most dislike?
Kimura, from Azumanga Daioh.
• Which character do you identify with most?
Reki, from Haibane Renmei.
• Which anime changed your life?
None.
Update: Jumping on the bandwagon are Steven, Kiriska, Wonderduck and Mark. And Pixy. And Aziz. And Evil Otto and Nick. And Astro. And Ken the Brickmuppet.
Acqua alta
If you were planning to tour Venice this week, you might want to cancel your trip and visit Neo Venezia instead.
(Via Naked Villainy.)
Weblog numerology
Askimet informs me that it has blocked 666 spam comments here. Meanwhile, at my other weblog there are 404 valid comments.
Linkety-link
I’m going to be busy not watching anime for the next few weeks. There may be an occasional trivial post, but don’t expect anything more. I’ll probably be back around the middle of December. Until then, here are a few links of interest.
I would have thought that this was obviously true, but apparently it isn’t clear to some people. Further discussion here.
Fred Kiesche discovers Ghost in the Shell. His reaction reminds me of mine to Serial Experiments Lain the first time I watched it. (Lain, by the way, was first broadcast ten years ago this summer, so I think it’s old enough to officially call a classic.)
Back in February, I had other things on my mind than following the otakusphere. Consequently, I missed Martin’s survey of the worst anime has to offer.
Here’s a preview of this winter’s new series. A couple might be worth checking out. Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou is a continuation of what was probably the best show of the summer, and Kemeno no Sou-ja Erin is based on novels by Nahoko Uehashi, who wrote the books Seirei no Moribito was based on. Update: Here are a couple of additional surveys covering more shows, here and here.
Has the internet indeed gone too far?
Ken the Brickmuppet writes about his uncle.
I’d been considering whether to look at Tytania, but Pixy points out a serious defect.
*****
This week’s frightening search term: “life sized anime bishounen cutouts.” For target practice, I presume.
Nekomimi terror
Nick found a video of “Funky Cat Maybe” combined with “Thriller.” It’s clever, but I prefer the original:
Today’s horrifyingly cute pictures
(These aren’t my photographs (or cats, either).)
And a picture exemplifying a different kind of cuteness.
Just testing, part 2
Below the fold is the same brief video as in the previous post, this time as an flv file. In the past, I’ve used ffmpegX to generate flv files. It works, but it’s a pain to use. It often takes several tries to convert a Quicktime file to flv, and even then the video and sound are apt to drift out of sync. (See my video weblog for examples.) I was wondered if it was possible to skip the formatting headaches and embed Quicktime files in posts, but that presents a different set of problems. I recently found a couple of WordPress plugins that take care of the messy stuff, which I tested in yesterday’s post. They work, but it turns out that at least two of my readers, and probably quite a few more, refuse to install Quicktime on their computers. So embedding a Quicktime file is not an ideal solution.
This morning I looked for alternatives to ffmpegX and found a few. Some of them look dandy. Unfortunately, either the price tags have three digits to the left of the decimal point, or the system requirements are beyond the capabilities of my geriatric Mac. I did find one possibility, On2 Flix, the cheapest version of which is almost affordable at $39. I downloaded the demo, and it worked right the first time. You can see the results below the fold.