Quote of the Day [8.20.08]
Farewell, and adieu to you Spanish ladies,
Farewell, and adieu to you ladies of Spain!
For we’ve received orders for to sail for old England,
But we hope in a short time to see you again.
Ancient sea chanty
Farewell, and adieu to you Spanish ladies,
Farewell, and adieu to you ladies of Spain!
For we’ve received orders for to sail for old England,
But we hope in a short time to see you again.
Ancient sea chanty
Macross Frontier is the latest iteration of the Macross anime. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the first Macross saga, the franchise goes back to all the hallmarks of the first one. The love triangle is there. The city on a spaceship is there. The mecha is there. The drama is there. And the singing. Boy, howdy, the singing!
When you watch it, you will recognize the plot beats that Macross Frontier mimics from the original. Yet, the milieu has been changed. I’ve been watching a lot of anime and the ones made today are vastly different than those of the 80s. For one thing, I don’t remember there being so much fan service in the original Macross. There was that one shower scene, but no fascination with boobs. Macross Frontier, while not overt about it, doesn’t shy away from fan service. And moe seems to have creeped into this one. Girls with glasses, maids, nekomimi, absolute territory: they’re there. Still, I wonder if its because I watch a lot of current anime that I notice these things or are they really embedded in the show.
The songs are also a nice touch, but not knowing the Macross universe too well, I don’t know if they are singing a new song or something from the previous stuff. It’s good to listen to, but I wonder which ones to download for my anime playlist.
I hope you are taking my advice and watching Macross Frontier, because damn if that first battle ain’t the most fun thing you’ve seen in a long time, then you may be some kind of android. A cyborg or something.
So watch this episode. Then back up and start from the beginning. You have a chance to catch up as they’re just short of the 20th episode.
“You see Hopsi, you don’t know very much about girls. The best ones aren’t as good as you think they are and the bad ones aren’t as bad. Not nearly as bad.”
Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), The Lady Eve
If you’re reading this, then it’s probably too late. Still, run to your TV sets and turn on TCM, they’re hosting a Summer Under the Stars and Miss Barbara Stanwyck is today’s classic movie star. It’s got a wonderful set of her films — lots of rarities that haven’t been shown in a long while. Also, I have to eat my words from a week ago, when I said that there was no movie by the name of You Belong to Me starring Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. There is. Oops, my bad. I read imdb before posting that and must’ve glossed over it completely. Oops, my bad, again.
Anyhow, I set my tivo to do some extra recording, dumping all Olympic coverage. I suggest you do the same.
“We’ll always have Paris.”
Rick (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca
Here’s one for CapitolSwell. Hope you pre-order this one.
Watch it! Watch it now.
If you don’t like my suggestions for anime because they lean too much towards romantic comedies for guys, and you are more interested in mecha, then watch Macross Frontier. It’s that good.
The story is extremely similar to the original. A young brash kid joins up with the military to fly a veritech fighter. He’s caught in a love triangle with the older lady and the young singing ingenue. He’s got the Skull Squadron leader giving him hell. He’s got two buddies who back him up wherever he goes.
But the mecha. It rocks. I want one of those VF-25, but as a transformable figure. With the armor on it.
“I can run wild for six months. After that, I have no expectation of success.”
IJN Admiral Isoroku Yamamato, 1940

Math is Hard
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
Winnie Cooper geeks out on trigonometric functions. What’s a nice girl like her doing in math geek heaven? And she’s a doctor to boot!