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LostPhrack: The Sexiest Antidepressant
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| BBC News: Night Witches |
[13 Nov 2009|04:01pm] |
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Sadly I don't think this is the full piece, but it's still pretty damn neat and I thought I'd share it. Garth Ennis even pops up towards the end of the piece. Audio slideshow: Night Witches
Russia's three all-female air regiments flew more than 30,000 missions along the Eastern Front in WWII. At home they were known as Stalin's Falcons, but terrified German troops called them the Night Witches.
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| The Wire at Harvard! |
[12 Nov 2009|03:49am] |
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Earlier in the month several of the stars from the absolutely fantastic series, The Wire, attended a small panel and talk at Harvard about the series and the various topics it raised. I missed it but, thankfully The Boston Phoenix has the audio of the panel, hurray! PODCAST: The Wire's Kima, Bubbles, and Omar at Harvard
On stage: Sonja Sohn (Kima), Andre Royo (Bubbles), and Michael K. Williams, who may never again walk down a street without someone shouting, "Omar's comin'." From Harvard: Larry Bobo, William Julius Wilson (who, it was announced, will be teaching The Wire for credit at Harvard next year), and Yale scholar (and Huffington Post contributor) Brandon Terry.
There are some spoilers in the article and possibly the podcast, I'm only 13 minutes into the one and half hour podcast. Still, if you're a fan definitely give it a listen, if you're not.. then get out and watch the damn show!
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[07 Nov 2009|11:33pm] |
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Good God my reading list is backing up like crazy! I've got to get through The Cage Kenzo Kitakata still, plus I've got the two Dirty Pair light novels, Ninja Justice by Shotaro Ikenami, The Kouga Ninja Scrolls by Futaro Yamada, and tonight I've added Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Yokai Attack! to my list. I'm such a slacker in my novel reading.. shameful!
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| Intermitten Plug Ahead! |
[29 Oct 2009|02:45am] |
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Been a while since I've plugged what's going on at Manga Recon, so I'll do it now!
Earlier this month I reviewed the fantabulous book, The Summer of the Ubume by Natushiko Kyogoku and published in the US by the fine folks at Vertical. It's a fantastic, sprawling tale dealing with folklore, magic, murder and more. Twists are a plenty and the depth and scope of it is unlike anything I've seen from Japan prior to this. Parts of it really reminded me of Moore and Morrison's works that dealt with magic. Go click the review for more. Good, good stuff.
I also recently took a look at Silent Möbius: Complete Edition vol. 1 by Kia Asamiya. It's an older series from the 90s which is getting a nice rerelease in the US thanks to Udon. It's got an everything and the kitchen sink approach to it which I kind of dug.
I also contributed to a number of mini-reviews throughout the last month or so. Here's a few..
Manga Minis for 10/5/09 - I take a look at Gantz vol. 6 and Croquis Pop vol. 6, Sam checks out Detroit Metal City vol. 2, Chloe reviews Red River vol. 26, and much.
Manga Minis for 10/19/09 - I review Black Jack vol. 7, newcomer Jennifer looks at B.O.D.Y. vol. 7, Erin checks out Hikaru no Go vol. 16 and, of course, there's more as well.
Manga Minis for 10/26/09 - I take a gander at Jack Frost vol. 2, Michelle checks in with Nightschool vol. 2, Grant reviews Cat Paradise vol. 2 and, you guessed it, there's much more!
We also say hello to our newest review, Jennifer! All that and much more at Manga Recon, so head on over and take a looksee!
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| Woot! |
[21 Oct 2009|07:50pm] |
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Squeeee! Elizabeth Hand's working on a follow up to fantastic Generation Loss! Here's a snippit from her recent post discussing her research into the book. Tales from Topographic Berserkers
The things we do for Art: I've spent the last few weeks listening to an almost exclusively Norwegian Black Metal soundtrack, trying to educate myself to this intense and often intensely strange music, as research for the GenLoss sequel, Available Dark. A lot of the NBM schtick is easy to mock — these are bands that, in many cases, took their names and ethos from the Uruk Hai, lyrics from the Volsung Saga, wardrobe from Frederick's of Yggsdrasil and facepaint from Kiss by way of Nosferatu. I still have a hard time with the vocal style, a kind of strangled scream where the lead singers all seem to be straining way higher than their natural range (NMB is almost entirely male). It makes my throat hurt to listen to them. These guys must go through a lot of Choloroseptic. Also, it's a lot better when they sing in Norwegian and you don't know exactly what they're saying ("I close my eyes as fire swept clean the Earth/ Nothing left to strangle/ As the cords were torn from our hearts" etc.).
It goes on for a bit afterwards and the comments are definitely worth a read.
I absolutely adored Generation Loss, probably one of my favorite reads from last year, and I'm dying to hear and see more about Available Dark.
Generation Loss is a bit of a difficult read to really peg down. There are elements of the crime genre, contemporary fantasy and more, but it doesn't really adhere to any of these too strongly. Instead they tend to feature as more hints and vague suggestions. Cass Neary's a photographer who flirted with fame during the heyday of the New York punk scene. Things happen and decades later and all the drugs, drinking and sex have taken it's toll on her. Struggling to maintain a regular a job she jumps at the chance to interview a reclusive artist whom she admires. Unfortunately things aren't as straightforward as they seem and her quick trip to Maine ends up entangling her in a decades long mystery. Reading Neary's exploits is akin to watching a car wreck in slow motion. You'll be disgusted and aghast at some her actions, but it'll be hard for you stop turning the pages. Seriously good stuff.
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[15 Oct 2009|04:46pm] |
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So, a few days ago an article about women ruining Sci-Fi hit the web and it's caused a small stir and brought up some interesting topics regarding gender roles, relations and more. A nice combination between snark and interesting dicussion can be found... here, here and here.
The comments in third one in particular has some.. interesting stuff on the state of men and how it's affecting the dating pool. I thought that, by the end, the discussion almost seems to agree with sites premise, but that could just be me.
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| Monster, tonight! |
[12 Oct 2009|05:36pm] |
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Tonight sees the debut of Monster on Syfy's Ani-Monday block. Here's a brief synopsis from the official website. What would you do if a child you saved grew up to be a monster? An ice-cold killer is on the loose, and Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop him! Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon with a promising future, risks his career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy named Johan. When the boy, now a coldhearted and charismatic young man, reappears nine years later in the midst of a string of unusual serial murders, Tenma must go on the run from the police, who suspect him to be the killer, to find Johan and stop the monster he set loose upon the world.
Conspiracies, serial murders, and secret government experiments set against the grim backdrop of the formerly communist Eastern Europe are masterfully woven together in this compelling work of suspense
I'm really looking forward to this and I have high hopes for it! It all kicks off tonight at 11PM EST on Syfy, check local listings, schedules, etc.
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| Yay New England Mobile Book Fair! |
[10 Oct 2009|11:19pm] |
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I managed to swing by the New England Mobile Book Fair today, it's something I've been wanting to do since reading the write up for at Manga Critic and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Huge, more books than you can shake a stick at, and quite the range as well. Everything is organized by publisher, which might seem a bit tricky at first but it did allow me to find a small selection of Kodansha International releases including the one book I bought.. Ninja Justice by Shotaro Ikenami.
Ninja Justice is actually something I've kind of been looking for all year. Despite the title it doesn't seem to have a lot to do with ninjas, but what it does are several assassinations being carried out by an acupuncturist by the name of Baian. Long time readers and aficionados of Asian cinema/TV/DVDs might recognize that name, but for those just joining us...
Earlier this decade Media Blaster/Tokyo Shock released six DVD's containing a little known show called Baian the Assassin starring a young Ken (The Last Samurai, Batman Begins) Watanabe in the title role. The box references the original short stories and the author, but but finding any other Baian material has always been a bit tricky. Trying to search for Baian online has almost always proven fruitless, while searching for Shotaro Ikenami was only moderately more informative.
As far as I can tell, most of the Baian books that have been released in the US have been out of print for a while and the second hand copies are going for quite a bit online (Amazon has listings for used copies starting at $49.95), so you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this lone copy in the small Kodansha section of the store. Even better, it was under $10!
Very, very excited to have this and I'm dying to go back to the store and rummage around a bit more. Fantastic place and anyone living in the Boston area who digs books should definitely give it a look.
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| FTC Stuff.. |
[06 Oct 2009|04:48pm] |
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For those who don't know.. yesterday the FTC announced that they'll be enacting a set of rules regulating reviews on blogs. It's a weird, nebulous area and the announced guidelines are kind of vague at times and apparently don't apply to blogs/sites that are extensions of print media.
At the very least it will require bloggers to disclose whether or not they've received payment of some kind in exchange for a review. Unfortunately things get a bit confusing from there with questions being raised regarding Amazon ads/storefronts, making money from blogs with reviews and ads, keeping review copies and more.
Anywho.. here are a number of links to read regarding this mess..
FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials - The actual press release regarding the upcoming regulations.
Guides Concerning the Use of
Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising - The 81 page document in PDF form.
Blogger-Endorsers Must Disclose Their Freebies - An NPR piece focusing heavily on the disclosure aspect.
Interview with the FTC’s Richard Cleland - Edward Champion managed to score an interview with Richard Cleland, a member of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. This is where things start to get really weird and vague.
There's also a few neat little commentaries floating about, this being one of my favorite at the moment... I am going to sue the FTC for discrimination. You in?
Enjoy!
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| Finally! Kodansha To Publish in the US! |
[05 Oct 2009|05:02pm] |
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There's been teasing, and hemming and hawing for ages now. It really reached a boil in the last year or so thanks to rumors from various cons, Kodansha yanking licenses of certain series, a random commenter on several blogs, and questions asked during a job fair. All this was followed up with listings on Amazon for Akira vol. 1 and Ghost in the Shell vol. 1 earlier this year.. but still there was no official word.. until now. Kodansha Sets Up to Publish Manga in U.S.
After years of speculation about its plans, Kodansha, the largest publisher in Japan and a prolific manga licensor to U.S. publishers, is establishing an office in New York City to publish and sell manga directly in the U.S. market beginning this month. The new line of manga will be called Kodansha Comics, which will be published under Kodansha USA Publishing and distributed by Random House.
Kodansha USA Publishing is headed by Yoshio Irie, v-p and board member at Kodansha, and general manager Tomoko Suga, a familiar figure in the U.S. manga market and U.S. comics conventions through Kodansha’s relationship with Random House. Kodansha Comics will launch with two classic manga titles, the postapocalyptic sci-fi epic Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo and the metaphysical sci-fi police thriller Ghost in the Shell by Shirow Masamune. The two series have been published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Books, and both offer an extended array of multimedia franchises that include animated films, video games, prose novels, merchandising and more.
Irie said Kodansha Comics will begin gradually and announce more titles for its list later in the year. While the new line will focus on translating Kodansha’s prodigious backlist of bestselling titles into English, he did not rule out original publishing. “It is one of our eventual ambitions,” said Irie.
Huzzah! Backlist material and possibly even original works!
EDIT: PW interviewed Yoshio Irie, one of the heads of the Kodansha USA endeavor.
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| Gaiaonline Meets it's Chinese Sister |
[02 Oct 2009|07:02pm] |
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Sometime yesterday members of the US based site Gaiaonline discovered that they had a Chinese siter site! The sister site is the result of a deal between the Gaiaonline owners and a Chinese company, they share designs, can share items, NPC's, etc. Initially interest in the site began by admiring the different items, but the more trollish segment of Gaia users eventually headed over there and flooded one of the forums with crappy and offensive posts, including one discussing stir fry recipes accompanied by pictures of cute kittens and puppies.
It was pretty disheartening and popping by the Chinese site still shows a number of obnoxious Gaia users lingering about and posting various English language threads. Despite all this the Chinese moderators and forum assistants have actually attempted to translate TOS for the English speaking newcomers and have even been rather friendly and welcoming in both Chinese and broken English.
I'm not actually sure where I'm going with this, but it's just fascinating to see the whole thing play out and I felt the need to share. I'm sure there's probably something to be said about the English speaking users and their impulse to spam and offend, and the Chinese moderators attempts to actually welcome them in a friendly manner. Oh, and the stir fry thread seems to have vanish so I can only assume that while they're being friendly they're also not quite willing to lie down and get shit on.
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[30 Sep 2009|12:52am] |
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Haha! Criterion tweeted me and I totally squealed! It also gave me hope for a Criterion release of The Devil's Backbone, but for Mimic. You know, in the long run, I'd love to see Criterion editions of all Del Toro's non-franchise work. Just sayin'..
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| Seasonal Rambling |
[29 Sep 2009|04:00pm] |
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It's my favorite time of the year again, huzzah! The leaves change, the air gets cooler and there's this last gasp of energy before the cold, dark winter sets in. Love it. It doesn't hurt that October happens to hold Halloween, which of course means more horror movies and the like getting air time on TV.
I've done some poking around already and TMC seems to have some very good films in the lineup, most notably are the airings of Nosferatu and Vampyr, but there are a few other things kicking about their schedule that look good. A quick scan of IFC's line up was vaguely disappointing, there's a few horror movies listed but nothing that really grabs me and screams must see, then again they've been a bit dry for the past few Halloweens anyway so I shouldn't be totally shocked there. Meanwhile, Syfy will be doing their standard 31 Days of Halloween with a bevy of films to fill the time and Chiller should also be flourishing this month as well.
With regards to my LJ.. I'm not sure what I'll be doing this year. In the past I've generally tried to get some kind of horror product reviews up, whether it be manga, comics or movies, but at the moment I'm having trouble digging up horror manga and comics. I can find the odd volume of horror manga here and there, but a complete series is a rare find, for example.. I can find volumes one and two of School Zone locally, but the third and final volume is nowhere to be seen. Comics wise.. well, honestly, outside of Crossed I'd be hard to pressed to find a horror comic that interests me at the moment, plus I burned through my own personal supply during past Octobers. Movies are a possibility, but since I no longer rent.. eh.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see what comes to me.
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| Epitafios Season 2 |
[28 Sep 2009|07:33pm] |
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The long awaited return of HBO's first original Spanish language series kicked off a few weeks back. At the moment, the first three episodes are available with English subtitles on HBO On Demand, along with two behind the scene's featurettes which are sadly Spanish language only. No, I don't know why you'd bother subtitling the series but skip the extras, it's a mystery to me too.
The original series was a twisting, noir-ish, detective story about Renzo, a former police detective, returning to the force in an attempt to hunt down a killer linked to a incident he was involved in years ago. The killer was hunting down various victims and murdering them in elaborate ways while taunting the police with riddle like epitaphs.
The second season takes place several years after the events of the first and Renzo is still on the job but working within a new division. He soon finds himself entangled in the machinations of what may be a burgeoning serial killer, as the investigation quickly leads him to believe that his father might be a target.
I'm digging it so far, the quality is much higher than the first and several of the new supporting characters are interesting and quirky. Anywho.. all this is basically padding to let you know that HBO has put the first two episodes of the new season on their official youtube channel. They're subtitled in English too, so if you've got an hour to kill give it a looksee..
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| Stuff from Mexico and Chile |
[19 Sep 2009|04:53pm] |
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A recent deadly shooting in Mexico City's subway was caught on security camera. Shootings and violence aren't exactly anomalies in Mexico, but this is attracting quite a bit of attention due to the complete and utter randomness of it. Here's more from Daniel Hernandez and his Intersections Blog, which also happens to have the footage of the incident via a newscast for those interested. The deadly shooting on the Mexico City metro
There is a culture of violence in Mexico, definitely, but a crazy person randomly shooting people is not the sort of thing that happens here. To put it bluntly, that's an American thing. But something is shifting. A God-invoking Bolivian hijacked an Aeromexico flight last Wednesday between Cancun and Mexico City.
It's as though the collective madness of right now has been turned up a few notches. In the U.S., the extreme narco violence in Mexico is often (and unfairly) characterized as a creeping contagion "spilling" into the North. There's a flip-side to that. The U.S.-style violence of insanity, chaos, and senselessness is also being exported South. Along with everything else.
Some more interesting observations about Mexican/American culture and how it responds to violence, not to mention some stuff about the subway too. Good reading.
Speaking of stuff from south of the border.. I watched Kiltro last night on HBO on Demand. It was billed as a Chilean martial arts flick and I suppose that's partially correct. It felt more like a parody of martial arts flicks at time, right down to weird, laughable training regime, a dwarf master, and a villain dressed all in black complete with a cloak and sword cane. The fights are fast and kind of interesting, at one point CGI effects are added to highlight a rather nasty looking weapon the main character wields. Very over the top, pretty funny and quite quirky as well.
Have a trailer!
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| Manga Recon Plug O'rama! |
[17 Sep 2009|06:26pm] |
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Bit slow lately, but there's still several reviews kicking around, including three from yours truly, so let's get to it shall we?
First off... I take a look the Samurai 7 manga, which is a quick two volume read. It's based upon the Seven Samurai movie from Akira Kurosawa, and is a weird mishmashing of the movie and the anime Samurai 7. Is it good? Click and find out.
If sci-fi/samurai mash ups aren't your thing, then maybe my review of Summit of the Gods is more your speed. It's a look a the first volume of a very good series involving Japanese mountain climbing, George Mallory, and a mysterious camera found in the backstreet of Kathmandu. It's from Jiro Taniguchu, a man once describe as the manga-ka version of Jack London. Check out my review for more info and to find out why it's my first "A" in a while.
Then again maybe you're more of a shonen fan. If that's the case then swing by and give my review of Tegami Bachi vol. 1 a looksee. A new series from Viz's Shonen Jump label set in a weird, twilight world and focusing on... mail men. Make with the clickee.
And now that I look I see I haven't mentioned my review of Faust, Vol. 2, the cutting edge, light novel anthology from Del Rey. This volume actually caused me to eat crow regarding my review of the first volume as several of the tales are expanded upon and done so in a wonderful way. So swing by that review while you're at it.
Elsewhere on the site, Michelle takes a look at Sarasah, Vol. 1 which Michelle brilliantly describes as "The time-traveling adventures of Ji-Hae, psycho stalker extraordinaire." Hilarious review, definitely give it a look!
Grant checks out the popular series Yotsuba&!, Vols. 1-6, and Sam reviews The Battle of Genryu: Origin, Vol. 1.
We've also got two sets of Mini's for you..
Manga Minis for 9/7/09 kicks off with Sam's quick look at Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Vol. 2, and includes Michelle's take on Millennium Prime Minister, Vol. 1, Connies look at Maid Sama!, Vol. 2 and more!
Then in Manga Minis for 9/14/09 Connie looks at Le Chevalier d’Eon, Vol. 7, Phil kicks out a quick look at School Rumble, Vol. 12 and Michelle rounds things up with her review of Unsophisticated and Rude!
All that and more over at Manga Recon! Make with the clickee!
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| Shake Up at DC |
[09 Sep 2009|04:14pm] |
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There are press releases a-go-go about this, not to mention blog entries and pieces up at the various comic news sites.
To make a long story short.. Paul Levitz, President and Publishers of DC comics has stepped down. Jeff Robinov and Diane Nelson. At the moment there's no news about this affecting anything on the creative end of things, outside of Levitz staying on in some sort of Editorial role and apparently taking over Adventure Comics in a few months. That said it might be worth noting that Levitz was the one who hired Dan Didio, current EiC of DC Comics, and Karen Berger, the current Executive Editor of Vertigo.
The official press release is all over the place, but here's a link to The Beats copy.
Actually, the official press release doesn't really focus on Levitz stepping down, but about the creation of DC Entertainment. Here are the first three paragraphs, click the above link for the whole thing. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI) has created DC Entertainment Inc., a new company founded to fully realize the power and value of the DC Comics brand and characters across all media and platforms, to be run by Diane Nelson, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, and Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros.
DC Entertainment, a separate division of WBEI, will be charged with strategically integrating the DC Comics business, brand and characters deeply into Warner Bros. Entertainment and all its content and distribution businesses. DC Entertainment, which will work with each of the Warner Bros. divisions, will also tap into the tremendous expertise the Studio has in building and sustaining franchises and prioritize DC properties as key titles and growth drivers across all of the Studio, including feature films, television, interactive entertainment, direct-to-consumer platforms and consumer products. The DC Comics publishing business will remain the cornerstone of DC Entertainment, releasing approximately 90 comic books through its various imprints and 30 graphic novels a month and continuing to build on its creative leadership in the comic book industry.
In her new role, Nelson will report to Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, in order to best capitalize on DC Entertainment’s theatrical development and production activities and their importance to drive its overall business with each of the divisions of Warner Bros.
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[06 Sep 2009|05:08pm] |
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Wow. An 8 minute, live version of "Battle Without Honor or Humanity". Fantastic stuff, give it a watch.
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| [NEWS] Pinochet purges arrests ordered |
[02 Sep 2009|03:53am] |
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Huzzah! Might want to click the link too, there's a short video on the page about this as well. Pinochet purges arrests ordered
A Chilean judge has issued arrest warrants for 129 people for allegedly helping to purge critics of former ruler General Augusto Pinochet.
The suspects - the largest group so far to face arrest warrants - all worked for the secret police agency, Dina.
They are accused of taking part in killings and disappearances of dozens of leftists and opposition activists.
Since Gen Pinochet left power in 1990, arrests of his agents have been frequent - often dividing opinion.
The warrants also name dozens of former military and security officials who had never faced charges before.
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