Positively AMAZING Beatles/Monkees mashup:


''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Sure enough, the writing bug bites when I have three assignments due next week.

So I whipped off a few bits this evening. Posting a few of the high points to see what people think.

-----------------

"All officers, possible wild boomer advisory in the Shinjuku area.

Subject is described as wearing a Sailor fuku and impersonating an anime

character. Approach and apprehend with caution. Boomer may be armed."

Lisa rolled her eyes and snorted. :I doubt there's a law on the books

anywhere about impersonating an anime character,: she thought to

herself, the grin tugging itself back onto her face. She looked off to

the east where she could see the lights of several Firebees heading in

her direction.

"Oh well, I had a feeling this would happen eventually." She shrugged

and leapt up onto a nearby rooftop. "Okay. Gotta escape and evade, just

like Kate-san said."

and...

Across the city, an elegant woman stood at a heavily armored window

showing the Megatokyo skyline. The huge theater-quality screen filled

the main office area as Jenny continued to work quietly off to the side,

sparing only the occasional glance at her boss. The display was full of

images relating to the mysterious girl in the sailor fuku who'd taken

the Shinjuku area by storm. The tagline, "Human or Boomer?" could be

seen across the bottom of the screen, which was filled with a grainy

security camera video of a girl landing on a boomer, firing some kind of

kinetic weapon into the rogue machine, and vaulting over the skyline.

Katherine Madigan watched the moonlight play across the cityscape and

the waterline with a small smile on her face. "And so it begins," she

whispered softly, turning away to vanish deep into the shadows.

Opinions?
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

Well FUCK.

*SIGH*

Add Thunderstruck to the long line of webcomics that are orphaned stories.

I loved this guy.

http://www.latimes.com/ne...009sep17,0,1109640.story

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

However, there are a handful of concerns that I have, which I care to get an informed opinion on.

Concern #1: How to obtain/read it

As quoted from TV Tropes...

Quote: Lost In Translation (The Del Rey English adaptation of the original manga is distressingly
spotty. In particular, the first volume (and to a lesser extent the next three) seems to have been a misguided attempt at a Gag Dub. Volume 5 reads
like too much effort was spent on making it sound colloquial and not enough on making sure the translation made sense,
and volumes 20 and 21 are just lazy - even the Latin got ruined. Things are looking up, though, with the Nibley sisters
translating from volume 22 onwards...)

Anime News Network http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... shito-usui]reports that the body of Yoshito Usui, creator of Crayon Shin-chan, was found in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture this weekend.

A later http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... l-november]report says that two more manga chapters are on the spike, and will be run in October and November. The anime was on hiatus before the death of Usui-san; no word yet as to whether it will return to the air.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

I used to have a standing offer on the Marketplace, but it seems to have disappeared... as have almost all of my sources for pencilboards. (I'm only
getting them in Megami magazine, nowadays. )

If anybody's got anime-themed pencilboards (the plastic sheets that are supposed to be put under paper so that the pencil doesn't go through the pad)
that they want to sell, let me know - my board handle at gmail gets mail to me. I reserve the right to haggle on the price.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Meet Raptorex, "the king of thieves".

Apparently, the big thing is not that the T-Rex has a smaller cousin, but that this opens up all sorts of new reasons for the hilariously out of proportion
frontal limbs of everyone's favorite Tyrannosaur. It may be less that they were scavengers or whatever current theory was there, and more that the limbs
were merely vestigial because the T-Rex's development over the last hundred million years determined they were excess to requirements as the species grew
into the towering, carnivorous behemoth we all know and love.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

They must really want our business at CDJapan right now. Not only have they sweetened the coupon offers, they've got some prime merchandise on sale at the moment. (Including http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/goods/goods_de ... EOGDS-5364]this pre-order only figure of Mikuru-san. I know it's a canon pose, but the ero-doujin possibilities are what I first thought of...) But, honestly, the http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/goods/whimsical_sale.html]anime figures and goods sale is a niche interest. (As is their http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/rcms/anime/com ... arket.html]Comicket report, with photos of the 1:1 scale Gundam.)

The important sale is the http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/rcms/music/jap ... ition.html]Japanese Exclusive Edition CD sale - if you've ever been interested in what the Japanese bonus tracks are like, now's the time to find out. And the acts are big names, too - The Who, Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, John Entwistle, Jeff Beck, Avril Lavigne, Keith Moon, Sheryl Crow, The Yardbirds, Metallica, and many more.

I am so glad I just paid off my credit-card balance...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

"Gamer" marks the first movie I've ever seen that makes me want to puke so badly that I simply must recommend everybody go see it.

Yes, you read that correctly.

My wife and I came up with a one-sentence summary: it's as if an art noveau social commentary had a high-speed collision with a sci-fi action flick, with
JP Morgan as financier. The movie is not only contrived, it is pointedly so. It revels in its plot's mediocrity.

The basic premise is that the digital MMO has been replaced by flesh-and-blood ones. Players control i-cons (short for Interactive Convicts, one assumes, ha,
ha.) from the comfort of their living rooms. The icons die in gruesome and suitably explody ways. It is, in other words, a live-action first-person-shooter.
That's called 'Slayer', and is the most popular game in the world, evar, OMG. Our Hero 'Kable' (Gerard Butler, last notably seen in 300 as
King Leonidas) is the current record holder. You see, if an i-con surivves thirty rounds, he is set free. His player 'Simon' enjoys rock-star status
due to the proficiency with which he makes Kable perform.

Now this is strictly B-movie fare, and I think everyone will have recognized that by now. They could have made a decent B-movie with that alone. But they
didn't. Instead, you are treated to the metaphorical equivalent of two hours of the director (or writer, or whomever) dick-slapping you on the back of the
head, asking "DO YOU GET IT? HUH? DO YOU SEE YOURSELF UP THERE, YOU SICK FUCK?".

And somehow this utter jerk makes it not only palatable, but enjoyable on some levels.

To go into the real plot of the movie -- which is distinct from but closely related to the plot described above, like the offspring of incestous siblings --
would be to engage in massive spoilerisms. Suffice it to say that if you play MMOs -- or first-person shooters -- you will see something of yourself up there.
The movie consciously and deliberately apes every aspect of online gamer culture -- every negative aspect, that is -- and does it so well, and so obscenely,
that you can't help but come away admiring the craftsmanship with which they built this house of utter fail.

Pros:

* Good action bits

* The characters will seem familiar to you from moment one -- tropers, have fun

* The actors -- the majority of them, anyway -- turn in first-rate performances. Amazingly, given the glurge they're forced to work with, they make it
seem all too disturbingly real. And said glurge feels too deliberate to be anything but.

Cons:

* So many boobs that not only do they lose impact, they become boring. As usual with this flick, the director took the device that little bit too far into
disturbia.

* Yes, we know you're trying to make a point, Mr. Director, but must we so joyously fling poo while we're at it?

* (Spoiler) Nanotechnology. Seriously? C'mon.

Recommendation: See it. This is the first movie this year that I've seen that actually made me think. I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was $9
well-spent and I'm considering buying it.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs