"Yajima, I just want to make sure you fully grasp the situation. While you are trying to beat me up so that you can once again protect me (a headscratcher to be sure), the people you are allied with - your comrades - are destroying the town you and I grew up in. The place your mom, my mom and both our sisters are currently in, and, oh yeah! the place where the girl you love more than anything in the world is at. By the way, she is right at this moment in the building that is the main focus of your buddies' assault."

I just want to be sure you  got that before we start waving our dicks at each other. Good?"

Posted by: topmaker at 04:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Former NY City mayor Michael Bloomberg forced through controls limiting the sales of large volume soft drinks. In true big government fashion, he used the Board of Health to justify this as a health danger.

The New York State Court of Appeals backed two lower court rulings that this was excessive overreach of authority.

From the article: Two lower courts had already ruled against the city, saying it overreached in attempting to prohibit the purchase of sugared drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces, about the size of a medium coffee cup. By a 4-to-2 vote, the justices Thursday upheld the earlier rulings.

With today's Supreme Court rulings and our Presidents cratering poll numbers, are we finally starting to see the dangers of a government positioned to do everything to everyone every day?

Probably not, but a guy can dream, can't he?

Posted by: topmaker at 04:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Every season should have a well told, slow to develop romcom to watch. It is a nice palette cleanser from the higher energy, violent, slapstick or otherwise busy show. Last season gave us Mikakunin de Shinkoukei. This season, for me, it was Bokura wa Minna Kawiaisou.

Another boarding house romcom without quite as much violence as Love Hina, or quite as much psychosis as Mahraba, Heartfull Days, the show revolves around Usa Kazunari and his entry into living away from his parents for the first time, while attending his freshman year of High School. While working in the library, he sees Ritsu Kawai and is instantly smitten with her. As luck and plot devices would have it, she is also a tenant at his new boarding house. We find out further on that her family owns the place and her Grandfather's sister, Sumiko, is the manager.

The other tenants consist of a male masochist, a buxom, attractive woman whose attitude and demeanor make it impossible for her to hook up with the right kind of guy, and a college girl who acts very nice but is really quite calculating. These cliche characters provide the usual background for the two main characters to look normal against. It works well in these shows, since normal tends to be an unexciting stand alone item.

Like the aforementioned Mikakunin, not much happens over the 12 episodes in terms of romance between the characters. Instead, we have the small yet undeniable acceptance of the more reluctant character towards the other, more invested emotionally one. There's not so much as a hint of intimacy in contact, and it takes Ritsu's accidental drunkenness to see her admit to some affection (in this case, through jealousy) to Usa.

The threat to the budding romance wasn't heavy, no love conflicts, no shouting and hitting between the protagonists, nothing of the high energy sort at all between the two. Just a cautious approach by the awkward male and a slow de-icing of the socially inept female and the small development between them seems like a nice thing indeed.

Posted by: topmaker at 04:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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With all the miasma, muck and mire that is Iraq and Syria, is it actually time to think that, through the  inept actions of our fearless leader, his inept V.P. could end up up a prophet?

Wouldn't that be a kick in the rubber parts?

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Denpa Kyoushi is a manga about a serious otaku who suffers from a self proclaimed disease that makes him do "only what I want to do". His violent, yet overly protective younger sister is so concerned about him that she enrolls him as a teacher in her school.

This is a very clever manga dealing with, primarily, students who do not fit in and feel bad about it. He teaches them, and the others around them, that different is not only okay, but it is what makes the world a more interesting place.

As of chapter 33 the manga has been able to keep up this routine pretty well. It seems to be a plot that can have long term staying power, but it is also a set up that should work quite well as a one or two season anime. Since it has fairly short arcs with a rather subdued through plot, as long as they use the first three or fouor arcs, they can be very flexible with the rest of the arcs.

So far there are 116 chapters as of this writing. It is a weekly series. The author and artist is Azuma Takeshi.

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The Mississippi delta was shining like a National guitar.

Graceland - Paul Simon

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Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has an oft copied, usually parodied four point head movement - mostly before declaring "I'm in despair!"



You wonder where the original idea comes from when you see these things.

I might have found it. Stolen from right under the nose of my youth. Jump to 1:46 to see the inspiration:



As wrong as I likely am, who could blame the guy?

Posted by: topmaker at 04:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Episode eight of The daily Lives of High School Boys (which is often quite funny) and episode 9 of Bokura Wa Minna Kawaisou (ditto - and sometimes sweet also) both feature bits aboiut centipedes. Is there something in anime or the culture in general that greatly fears these insects? In both episodes the image is either obscured (HS Boys - in the pixilated manner) or cartoonized into a cute li'l thing (Bokura).

Are they much larger than the ones in new England? I see quite a few over here and, while they pinch a bit, as a general rule we are mightier than they.

Just asking.

Posted by: topmaker at 02:53 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 I think some of them are actually poisonous.

Posted by: Mauser at June 13, 2014 09:50 AM (TJ7ih)

2 Ok, that's something, anyway.

Posted by: topmaker at June 13, 2014 11:20 PM (2yZsg)

3 The Mukade  (Japanese centipede) is fairly large and has an excruciatingly painful bite. I't's not really any more dangerous than a tarantula though.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at June 16, 2014 12:40 AM (DnAJl)

4 oops....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at June 16, 2014 12:42 AM (DnAJl)

5 Holy crap!
Well, that settles that. Thank you.
I understand the sentiment now.

Posted by: topmaker at June 16, 2014 04:40 PM (2yZsg)

6 They have similar ones in Ukraine and south of Russia, and yes they can hurt and possibly kill small children. Not something that anyone with body mass greater than 50 kg should be unduly concerned about, however.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 17, 2014 02:42 AM (RqRa5)

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"Mr. Jusenkyo Guide. Can you show us to the Cursed Spring of the Drowned Man?"

"Thank you."

-the end-

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The Young Ones was one of the UK comedies I would set the dial to watch. It was "appointment TV" when that actually meant something.  Four college kids living in a flat ( or a townhouse?) and the daily misadventures that would befall them. Three were outstanding in their unique character designs and one was supposed to be a cool playboy, who was at best mediocre. The show also gave the "Landlord", Alexei Sayle, a chance to do a stand up routine nearly every show.

Rik Mayall played "The People's Poet", Rick. He self fashioned himself as the spokesperson of his generation and was generally the target of Vyyvian's punishment (when Neal wasn't on the receiving end). Mayall was one of the creators of the series. He, like Vyyvian, the nihilist and Neal (neal), the failure of a folk hippie played their roles with a passion. They threw themselves into the series completely and with great success.

Mayall was a very creative writer and appeared on many shows both as a guest and a featured performer. He co starred in  an American feature called Drop Dead Fred (if I remember right), but I never saw the movie, so no comment there.

There is so far no cause of death listed, but Scotland Yard does not suspect mischief at the moment. he was 56 years old.

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One of the better series (IMHO) this year has been Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, or The Irregular at Magic High School. I was turned onto this by Ubu Roi in a couple of his early posts about the series. Before I saw the first episode, I read the manga until the point where the translations stopped. I think that was chapter 22 at the time. I then read through all the translations at Baka-tsuki.

It is a very exposition heavy series, with further tech jargon as you read. Not especially my forte, but it is a good enough - and original enough - story that it has kept me very entertained. The series is now into the Nine Schools Competition arc. This arc is very long and highly detailed in the LN. As with the entrance ceremony arc, the anime is very careful and very successful in my opinion on distilling the information while moving the story along. The writers know they can't skimp out on the action, which forces them into surgical territory to explain as they entertain. So far so good.

I still do not see how they can get through it all in this season (12 or 13 episodes), but I have to say they moved the earlier arc along quite well. I hope we see all of the competition, but i just don't know how they will do it and still end the story with the huge reveal at the end. It is truly something else. This is where they justify all the hype about the "Irregular" student.

Tatsuya, our main hero, has been tagged a Marty Stu, and I can see why he gets that. He is truly a spectacular talent with few around him able to compete on his level. He compares in some respects similar to Kenshi in War on Geminar, but whereas Kenshi is physical, Tatsuya is both a physical and intelligent character. They both finally meet stiff competition deep into their respective stories.

I will continue reading the translations as they become available, and I hope they do so soon. I am not thrilled with them having Miyuki (his adoring sister, and immensely powerful magician in her own right) seemingly so accepting of an arranged marriage, but she is noted to be dutiful to the family, so they certainly might go in that direction. Indeed, even Tatsuya, who is only able to feel strong emotions towards his sister - by design - and no one else might also go the same route, if that is what his sister wants for him. It would be no loss emotionally for him anyway, but I pity his wife and their children. Ther biggest tragedy for him would be forced to both watch his sister grow away from him emotionally and lose her constant presence in his life.

If Miyuki does get pushed into that direction, they seem to be hinting that the perspective partner would be Masaki Ichijo, one of the other strong family heirs. Kind of an arrogant little prick, but frabnkly better than most of the privelidged cast in the series.

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Thank you, Don at Zoopraxiscope for nominating me for this honor (?).

I accept both the awrd and the challenge with but one exception. Here are the rules I so lazily copied from Don's site:

The Quasi-Official Rules of the Liebster Award
If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:
1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a "widget” or a "gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

So let's have at it. Starting with Don's questions.

1. Who should write your biography?
Melville would probably put the proper style I would like to have, but Lovecraft would frame it better.

2. Who should direct the movie version?
John Ford should direct the life I would like to have had, but Capra would be much more kind to my real history.

3. Who should do the musical score for the movie?
Ian Hunter and the late Mick Ronson as a collaboration. Good poetry and great arrangement.

4. Please tell a favorite joke (keep it tasteful, thank you).
A man decides to take a short vacation from his job and travel somewhere exotic. So, he books a trip to a small, essentially untouched Pacific island where the native culture is still intact.

So, he sets sail on his chartered ship to the island paradise. As the boat is approaching the island, he notices the sound of drums. "How quaint," he thinks, "the natives are engaging in an ancient ritual with drums." He arrives at the island and gets something to eat. All this time, the drums are going. Well, after a few hours, he begins to wonder when the drums are going to stop. So, he asks a native why the drums are going on so long. The native runs away screaming with a terrified look on his face.

Thinking he has probably disturbed the sanctity of the native ritual by asking an intrusive question, the man decides to just forget about the drums and enjoy his vacation. But, after another two days of continuous drums, it's really beginning to bother him. So, he asks another native, "When are the drums going to stop?" The native just looks at him. So, he asks, "Why are the drums going on so long?" This native, like the first one, runs away screaming.

So, after another two days, the man has had it with drums. He grabs the first native he sees by the neck & demands that he make the drums stop. The native replies "I would rather die than be the one who stops the drums." The man asks him why. Slowly, the native answers…"Because when the drums are over, the banjo solo starts!"

5. What book should everyone read?
Twice-told Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

6. What obscure movie is worth tracking down?
Wow, lots of possibilities. Here's three:

Brazil
Dreamchild
The Gods Must Be Crazy

7. Do you have a battle song, i.e., a tune that you hum, sing or stomp your feet to while on the way to a difficult day at work or an unpleasant appointment?
It varies, really. There is no song where the lyrics are geared towards inspiration (Big Time by Hunter/Ronson comes closest), but they always have a driving beat. The OP for the final Ranma season, Once Bitten Twice Shy by Hunter/Ronson, Jean Genie by Bowie, The Third Hurrah by Jethro Tull quite a few more, really.

8. What fictional character do you particularly identify with?
Any character who had big dreams but always chose the safer route. For family, for security. Small regrets until he sees his kids safe and his business secure, then he realizes the value in the smaller world. There must be a character like that somewhere. Walter Mitty?

9. Which mode of literature do you find most congenial: comedy, romance (in the Arthurian, high-fantasy sense), tragedy or satire?
Probably satire.

10. Who is a writer you once thought highly of but have since outgrown?
Actually a Playwright, Neil Simon.

11. What neglected writer, composer or performer deserves rediscovery?
Fred J. Eaglesmith,, before his voice went. Actually 'discovery' would be more apt.
..................................................................
11 random facts about myself.

1. I discovered anime very late in life, other than Saturday cartoons like speed racer that I had no idea were anime at the time.

2. I have been in musical groups on and off since High School.

3. I play bass, sing, write lyrics/music and dabble in piano and guitar.

4. I run  the family business. A countertop fabrication shop.

5. I have two wonderful kids.

6. Married/divorced twice. I have indeed learned my lesson.

7. I love boating.

8. I used to scuba dive often.

9. Block Island, R.I. is a wonderful vacation spot, but it used to be better when I was a kid, like many beach destinations were before regulations limited access and use.

10. I hate mosquitoes more than any other insect.

11. I am an extreme newcomer to blogs, and it shows.

...............................................................................


more...

Posted by: topmaker at 10:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In Asu no Yoiochi Washizu, the love rival turned friend of Yoichi is confronted by a gang he once clobbered other members of. They have kidnapped Ayame Ikaruga, sister to the girl he has a crush on. The leader tears off her skirt (hakama?) opens the top of her uniform, exposes her and threatens to take a picture and upload it if Washizu does not submit to a beating. It will be a severe beating and he knows it.

He submits. Our hero, Yoichi jumps in, and the two of them end up kicking the crap out of the bad guys. Ayuma's sister, Ibuki happens on the scene, surmises incorrectly that Yoichi was getting rude with her sister and beats the crap out of him. Hilarity.

There are a lot of scenes like this in anime and maybe I don't get the culture, or maybe the writers just want whatever scenario to set up the scene, regardless of how ridiculous it is, but I would like to think that Washizu would have appeared much cooler if he said the following to the leader of the gang:

"I just want to get this straight. You already have committed a serious crime in the kidnapping and sexual assault of this underage girl. you want me to submit to a beating so you can get away with the sexual assault, under the threat that you will humiliate her further if I don't. You have also threatened the lives of the rest of the family she belongs to.

Let em offer you an alternative.

I will kick the crap out of your fellow gang members. Then I will kick the crap out of you. I will beat you so bad you will be incapable of hurting anyone else for the rest of your life. I will take your phone and either delete the images or show them to the police when we drag you to the station to be arrested for assault on me, sexual assault on her, and whatever crime we can get you on for trying to humiliate her.

You will go to jail. When you get out of jail, since you are on record as threatening the family, if you go near them I will hurt you so bad you will never walk again.

Do I have this about right?"

Posted by: topmaker at 08:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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