| LostPhrack: The Sexiest Antidepressant's Journal |
[entries|friends|calendar] |
|
|
LostPhrack: The Sexiest Antidepressant
|
|
|
| Manga Recon Plugs |
[07 Jul 2009|11:44pm] |
|
Just a few quick plugs for some recent Manga Recon updates.
First up, from yours truly comes the third of our Haikasoru reviews.. Zoo by Otsuichi. It's a short story collection with various works, some good, some great, some not so great. Overall it was definitely an enjoyable read, so go check out the review and keep your eyes open for the book come Sept.
Sam Kusek takes a look at the fantastic Children of the Sea, Vol. 1. It's the first release from the Viz/Ikki deal and you can preview and read the first volume at Viz's Ikki site. Beautiful art, wonderfully weird and intriguing story about children raised underwater. Good stuff.
Connie checks out Ballad of a Shinigami, Vol. 1. A series about a shinigami (think grim reaper) dealing with "people who are contemplating suicide or near death".
Meanwhile a whole bunch of people kick in review for Manga Minis, 7/6/09! Melinda saves me from reviewing Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom, Vol. 6 (Thank you!), Grant looks at a D. Gray-Man, Vol. 14, Michelle cover the bl title On Bended Knee, and more.
Make with the clickee!
|
|
| Epitafios II |
[02 Jul 2009|12:07am] |
|
WOW! After years of being in limbo the second season of Epitafios is done and on its way to the US! It'll be premiering on HBO in Sept, and right now HBO 2 is running a rerun of the first season Saturdays at 11 PM. I am pretty damn excited about this as I loved the first season.
Little background on the series.. Epitafios was basically the first HBO Latino program to air on the English language HBO channels back around 05/06. It was a co-production between HBO and an Argentinian company known as Pol-Ka. The first series did well enough for a second to get the green light buuuut.. it never happened. Rumor has it that there was some kind of falling out between HBO and Pol-Ka. And now.. it's happening! Huzzah!
The story focused on a retired police officer, Renzo Márquez, being forced out of retirement by a bizarre series of killings with ties to a past case. It's got a pulpy, vaguely Seven-ish vibe to it. The killings are elaborate and symbolic, the killer uber smart and fixated on Renzo for reasons that become clear as the series progresses. Things get even more complicated once Renzo's teamed up with another officer, Marina Segal, who has a dark and murky past of her own.
Aside from a few moments of plot inspired stupidity I found it to be a very entertaining and enjoyable watch. Definitely worth a look, though it isn't the most progressive show in its views and handling of certain topics. Still, I dug it.
You can watch the first episode, subtitled on their website.
I'm trying to dig up more information on the second series now, hopefully I'll be able to turn up a trailer or something.
Now if they'd just announce a second season of Capadocia..
Edit: Dread Central Review of Epitafios on DVD.
|
|
|
[25 Jun 2009|05:22pm] |
|
By way of Twitter comes this nifty little article about Asian Cinema in the US. Exit the dragon discusses the current state of Asian cinema in the US and where it all went horribly wrong. It's an interesting, if not a bit disheartening, article.
Speaking of disheartening things.. No apology for CIA coup plotting? Well, how about a photo then…
President Barack Obama artfully dodged a request from Chilean reporters Tuesday for an apology for CIA meddling in Latin America, but he caved in to another demand.
“President Obama, can you take a photograph with the Chilean press, please?” one reporter asked at the end of an Oval Office statement by Obama and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
“A photograph with the press?” Obama asked. “OK, why don’t we go outside?”
The U.S. leader was less forthcoming on the matter of apologizing for the CIA’s long history of meddling in the affairs of Latin American governments.
|
|
|
[25 Jun 2009|12:17am] |
There is no place for positive sexuality in Lovecraft’s universe. Half-naked women and veiled sex scenes (which hardly count as ‘positive’ sexuality anyway, of course) may have been a commonplace in Robert E. Howard’s primitivist male fantasies and Clark Ashton Smith’s self-aware West Coast jungle decadence, but Lovecraft’s work is aggressively chaste. Some people have accused him of misogyny due to his almost total lack of female characters, but I’d rather read stories in which women are absent than stories in which women are chained nude to sacrificial altars and ravished by brawny barbarians. If sex seeps through at all in Lovecraft (and it does; think of the hairy Beast in the Cave), it’s in the form of horror; not just cheesy Stuart Gordon kink, but truly negative sexuality, sexuality seen through the uncomprehending eyes of a terrified, unprepared child. From wet and slimy tentacled sea-things and gushing blobs, to Wilbur Whateley whose body is completely inhuman below the waist, to “Dream-Quest” with its short-haired, vertical-mouthed gugs, to the Great God Azathoth with its “pounding, clawing horrors of the void,” Lovecraft’s fiction expresses an absolute horror of physical contact, of even the slightest touch of sexuality. For this reason, Grant Morrison’s X-rated “Lovecraft in Heaven” (yes, that Grant Morrison – it’s reprinted in the Creation Books anythology “The Starry Wisdom”) is one of my favorite Lovecraftian short stories. As much as it would have repulsed HPL himself, it’s far truer to his spirit of sexual revulsion than August Derleth’s Paul Gauguin fantasies of sleeping with big-lipped Innsmouth fish-women.
An excerpt from Lovecraft Lives, a fantastic essay by Jason Thompson, author of the Manga: The Complete Guide, freelance editor and other such stuff. It's a good essay, give it a look.
|
|
|
[24 Jun 2009|02:22am] |
|
This got a hearty laugh out of me.
True Blood opening ala Buffy.
|
|
| Battle Royale novel, take 2! |
[23 Jun 2009|04:16pm] |
|
Yep, the folks at Haikasoru are re-releasing the Battle Royale later this year with a revised translation (YAY!) and "new content from some old friends". The translation for Battle Royale was always a sticking point for me. I loved the novel dearly, but it was a very awkward read at times. So, yeah.. looking forward to the new edition. Here's another gem from the blog entry in which this was announced... Most of our readers will be familiar with the classics of the high school classroom: the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, To Kill A Mockingbird, and…Battle Royale? Hey, it’s not that farfetched.
At first glance, placing Koshun Takami’s bloody thriller next to work like the American classic Mockingbird may sound strange. After all, one of these novels is about the political and personal awakening of an adolescent, the systematic injustice of an unfair system, and working to fight against injustice with the help of a few good friends and a competent and kind paternal figure. And that novel also became a classic motion picture. The author has yet to write anything else of length, perhaps having perfectly captured a theme the first time out. And the other book was written by Harper Lee. See, maybe not so strange.
|
|
| One more thing! |
[22 Jun 2009|04:34pm] |
|
Love is in the air, and so are the Bride and Groom. Congrats to the Erin and Noah.
|
|
| Another semi-regular Manga Recon plug post |
[22 Jun 2009|03:53pm] |
|
It's been a while and the Manga Recon crew have been busy bees! First off, con reports!
About 80% of the MR crew was at Anime Boston and several of us have churned out con reports.
There was my two parter (Part 1, Part 2), and now that's joined by two more..
Manga Recon @ Anime Boston 2009: Melinda’s Report and Manga Recon @ Anime Boston 2009: Sam’s Report. Swing by a check them both out for different takes and observations on the con.
Of course there's more then just con reports, we review.. a lot.
Yours truly read and reviewed Utahime: The Songstress from Aki and the folks at DMP. A fantasy tale about a kingdom protected by a group of mystical songstress', traditionally female, until now.
Michelle takes a look at Fire Investigator Nanase vol. 1 + 2, a new offering from the folks at CMX. It's been getting some buzz online lately, but what does Michelle think of it..? Read it and find out.
Elsewhere, Sam reviews the highly anticipated first volume of Detroit Metal City! I haven't read this yet but I've heard fantastic things about it. Fans of Metalocalypse, this might be right up your alley.
Meanwhile the Dread Spectre of Moe rears it's head as Grant reviews Ichiroh vol. 1
Not all the books we review are of the sequential art manner though.. a recent installment of the Otaku Bookshelf sees Sam review one of the first offering from Haikasoru, All You Need is Kill. It's a sci-fi war story featuring a character nicknamed "The Full Metal Bitch". If gritty soldiers battling aliens in the far flung future isn't your thing, then maybe Michelle's review of Eat or Be Eaten is your thing. It's a yaoi novel that, despite the title, apparently has nothing to do with cannibalism.
Then of course there are the mini's.. oh my god.. the mini's..
Manga Minis, 6/8/09 - Gantz vol. 5, Oh My Goddess! Colors, Sumomomo Momomo vol. 1 and more.
Manga Minis, 6/15/09 - Black Jack vol. 4, Living For Tomorrow, Kurohime vol. 12 and more.
Manga Minis, 6/22/09 - Black God vol. 6, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 9, Chocolat vols. 6-7 and more.
That's a whole lot of manga. Make with the clickee already.
|
|
|
[21 Jun 2009|02:49pm] |
|
I feel like I've been neglecting this lately due to Twitter. In fairness I haven't been neglecting it that much and even before Twitter my posting frequency had dropped off a fair bit. I'm not whether that's due to me being incredibly dull and uninteresting or if I'm just passing through a bit of an introverted phase. Ah well.. I'll ramble for a bit and see how that goes.
The other day on NPR they ran a piece with an astronomer who talked about the early morning viewing of Venus and Mars. He talked about it at length and noted that over the next few months Venus will become dimmer and dimmer while Mars becomes brighter, and that by early 2010 Mars will be the only one of the two visible in the early morning viewing hours. Naturally the paranoid part of my brain that loves reading into things kicked into gear, and now I figure 2010 will be a horrible, blood stained year full of strife and warfare in which no one gets laid. Ok, ok.. that might be a bit extreme, but really.. the image of Mars chasing Venus until Venus vanishes and Mars is in the spotlight.. that doesn't strike anyone else as fairly foreboding?
Of course now I'm having trouble digging up info to back me up on this, soo.. blah.
But persistence wins out, Science Friday: Summer Sky Guide (broadcast Friday, June 19th, 2009)!
|
|
|
[19 Jun 2009|11:22pm] |
|
This was kicked me way via Twitter and I figured I'd share. Incidentally, I did not hook up during my one trip to SDCC or during my two outings to Anime Boston. For SDCC it really wasn't something that was even in my mind and, while I had heard about cons being meat markets in the intervening years, the age differences between me and the majority of the con-goers at AB keeps the idea firmly out of my head. Geek Love: Sci-fi conventions ... are under-the-radar hook-up havens.
DO I STILL READ COMIC BOOKS? I do. Have I ever flicked the bean to some well-written Smallville fan fiction? It’s possible. (Hey, I’m a writer; a good metaphor turns me on.) But I generally keep these proclivities to myself (except when confessing them in international men’s magazines). When I think of large groups of people gathering to celebrate such geeky pursuits, I picture hundreds of men who look like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons arguing over who would win in a Roshambo between Han Solo and Captain Kirk.
So I was more than a little surprised when my friendly neighborhood comic-book-store clerk told me she was looking forward to this year’s New York Comic Con because “conventions are all about the sex.”
Yeah, right, I thought. In other news, the world is flat and simultaneous orgasms occur readily outside of Smallville fan fics.
“Really,” she said. “It’s all these people you see only a couple of times a year at hotels, you’re all into the same things, people are dressed up, you’ve been flirting online for months…It’s pretty hot.”
Hmm…it seemed logical, as Spock might say, but all those clunky costumes, those awkward people—was it even physically possible? There was only one way to find out: I had to don cape and cowl and infiltrate the nerd hordes to see for myself if these geek gatherings are actually hook-up havens.
It goes on from there.
|
|
| Tigerlily by Beat Mistress |
[17 Jun 2009|04:49pm] |
|
This song takes me back. It's on the third disc of the Goth Box, but sadly my copy has some production errors and rarely plays through properly. Note the skipping towards the end of this recording, it makes me wonder if my disc is unique or if that error was a universal problem.
At anyrate, nice to find it and hear the whole thing through again.
( Tigerlily )
|
|
| Audition - 2 Disk Edition + Blu-Ray Edition |
[16 Jun 2009|03:49pm] |
|
This popped up on my Twitter feed a little while ago. First look: New AUDITION DVD art and details
Both versions will include an impressive array of original special features; the lineup includes:
* New audio commentary by director Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan
* New video introduction by Miike
* Over 90 minutes of new interviews with the cast, including Ishibashi, Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi
* Trailers
* Liner notes by Tom Mes, author of AGITATOR: THE CINEMA OF TAKASHI MIIKE
Retail price is $24.98 each for both the DVDs and the Blu-rays.
Kick ass. I really don't know what else to say about it. Fantastic horror movie, one of my favorite to come out of Japan in the past decade or so.
|
|
| RIP Mitsuharu Misawa |
[14 Jun 2009|01:31am] |
|
From PWI.. PRO WRESTLING NOAH FOUNDER MITSUHARU MISAWA PASSES AWAY AFTER COLLAPSING IN-RING
I am extremely saddened to report that one of the greatest in-ring workers of the modern age and the founder of Pro Wrestling NOAH, Mitsuhau Misawa, just a few days short of his 47th birthday, died earlier this morning (tonight in Japan) following an in-ring accident stemming from a suplex.
Misawa was wrestling in a tag team bout at the Hiroshima Green Arena, teaming with Go Shiozaki to challenge Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito for NOAH's Global Honored Crown Tag Team championships Around 15-17 minutes in, Saito delivered with what was described to me as looking like a "routine" back suplex. Misawa went over for the bump but didn't get back up. The entire roster surrounded the ring as they attempted to revive him. The crowd, realizing something was wrong, went silent and then began chanting Misawa's name.
It is believed Misawa may have suffered a heart attack as he immediately stopped breathing. EMTS attempted to revive him in the ring via AED in the ring and he was rushed out to an ambulance.
In the wake of the Misawa incident, the show was immediately halted. The NOAH roster were instructed to return to their tour buses and were later informed Misawa had passed away.
Yomuri Online in Japan reported that Misawa passed away en route to the hospital at 10:10 PM Japanese time. It's possible he passed away before that, but 10:10 is the official time in media reports.
One of the things that most interested me about him was his six year stint as Tiger Mask II. It was my fascination with the Tiger Mask angle that really led me to him, and honestly most of the matches I've seen of his were from his Tiger Mask days. That said, he was one of the pillars of puroresu as a multi time Triple Crown Champion, founding member of the Pro-Wrestling NOAH promotion, and the creator of moves such as the Emerald Flowsion and Tiger Driver.
( Green Destiny Tribute Vid )
|
|
| [NEWS] N. Korea Jails Two US Journalists |
[08 Jun 2009|12:39am] |
|
Balls. North Korea jails US journalists
A court in North Korea has sentenced two US journalists to 12 years' hard labour, state media say.
Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, were found guilty of "hostile acts" and illegal entry into the communist state.
Twelve years. Fuck.
|
|
| Silly True Blood related video |
[06 Jun 2009|02:13am] |
|
True Blood season two is just around the corner and Blood Copy is back to running amusing lil' videos and faux news stories. This one cracked me up, figured I'd share it.
( It made me chuckle at least. )
Word is that HBO has reached some kind of deal with some other site to keep Blood Copy up permanently, or at least for the foreseeable future. It had previously closed down shortly after True Blood began to air, but they've reopened it to help promote season two. Sadly I haven't heard of anything as nifty as the vials of True Blood or mysterious black envelopes, though there is apparently some nifty promotional things turning up in Australia.
|
|
|
[04 Jun 2009|02:37pm] |
Kung Fu star Carradine found dead
Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on Thursday.
Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found naked by a hotel maid in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body.
The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film, Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder.
Mr Binder said the news was "shocking", adding: "He was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person."
A US embassy official confirmed the actor's death, but added that the cause of death had not yet been established.
Mark Kermode pays tribute to David Carradine
However, Thai newspaper The Nation reported that police believe the actor took his own life, and preliminary investigations found that he hanged himself.
Aw, man.
|
|
| Prostitution in Fictional Worlds |
[04 Jun 2009|12:14am] |
|
Jennifer Kesler cranks out an interesting lil' entry about portraying sex work in a positive light within a fictional world. Here's a little snippit. Portraying sex work as positive and prestigious
One of the elements that most intrigued me when I watched Firefly years ago was the idea of a sex work as a positive, healthy, prestigious occupation - which I believe it could be in a society more evolved than ours. But it didn’t take long to realize the creators either didn’t get it or were setting up a revelation that despite the Companion Guild’s great public relations buzz, it hadn’t really reformed sex work to the degree Inara claims. I suspect it’s a little of both (the creators not thinking it all the way through, and the intent to expose the Companion Guild as one more piece of Alliance hypocrisy), but whatever the intent, what we’re left with is a hodgepodge. We’re told Inara is respected; we’re often shown she’s not. We’re told the “whores” in “Heart of Gold” are different because they don’t belong to the Guild, but never get a satisfactory answer to the question of why the hell that should make such a difference.
This got me thinking: what would a writer have to do to create a fictional a society in which sex work is positive, safe and fulfilling for both workers and clients, and considered a good thing by society? Can it even be done, when you factor in the reality that many prostitutes are minors of both genders, too young for any sort of legal employment?
She goes on from there. Not quite sure whether I agree with all her points, but I'm still digesting and mulling it over. Definitely an interesting read though. Also, the responses here are actually worth a look.
|
|
| Awwww... |
[03 Jun 2009|03:19pm] |
|
Very cool. So in love they could float away: Brooklyn couple to wed in zero gravity
Their love is simply out of this world.
A Brooklyn couple will become the first on the planet to say "I do" in zero gravity when they tie the knot later this month.
Self-confessed sci-fi addicts Noah Fulmore, 31, and Erin Finnegan, 30, will travel to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to exchange their vows while literally walking on air.
"We would really prefer to do it in space or on Mars but living in the time that we do, this was the closest we could get to zero gravity," Fulmore said.
"We were shocked to discover no one had done it yet."
The Williamsburg residents will be joined June 20 by a handful of friends in a plane owned by the Zero Gravity Corporation's - the only federally approved provider of commercial weightless flights.
It was actually the featured story on yahoo, craziness! Still, congrats again you two!
For those curious to find out more, go check out ZeroGWedding.com. Lots of nifty stuff there about the dress, their engagement rings and more.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
lostphrack's journal