Frankly, madam, ….

‘Im gallop. ‘Im gallop. ‘Im gallop. but ‘e couldn’t buss de tape.

Alright! A spinning record for you and some rocksteady. Or can we call this reggae? Perhaps, but it still a little bit too fast for reggae riddims. Totally, digging it, but The Selecter do a cover that Pauline Black sings sweetly.

“Why? Why? ‘Ow me goin’ home tonight?”

Sway to the songs rhythm while at your desk. You’ll thank me later.

Link of the Day [12.15.10]

I entitle interesting links I find while surfing the web, "Links of the Day," because it makes it easier to email links. If I came up with a clever title for each link of the day or as a regular post, then I would have to be able to log into blogger and use their posting functions. Sadly, when at IniTech, I am blocked from social networking sites, so I can't use blogger from work. And that app I bought for iPhone is good, but typing on iPhone is tedious.Today's link takes you to a maid café in Tokyo. It's a detailed description of the shenanigans that occur as a guest in a maid café. I laughed at some of this, and I cried at some of this. A great point was made that the clients are also being exploited for their need of love and affection. She pointed out that visiting a café is akin to visiting a strip club, but where the latter feeds off your sex drive, a maid café taps into your need for flirty, kawaii (cute) affection. Now would I visit a maid café if I ever went to Japan? I do sometimes crave some kawaii affection, but like going into a strip club here, I don't think I would enter one. It's just not my cup of tea. I'd be too embarrassed to admit my need for kawaii affection, and the need to spend money on it. Although, I just did.Anyway, the writer's experience fascinates and scares me. I always wondered what goes down in a maid café. Finding out what happens is the scary part. Does it make me want to go or to stay away?http://io9.com/5713121/i-paid-a-woman-to-be-my-friend-at-a-tokyo-maid-cafe

Be it your sister. Be it your brother.

Let’s get some music up in this place starting with a little bit of Pauline Black and the Selecter covering The Specials AKA’s “Racist Friend.” If you search youtube for the title you’ll also get the original, but also They Might Be Giants’ song as well. They are not the same song.

More ska please. Less racism.

Get up and dance at your desk if you enjoy this…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 opened while I was on the Hawaiian vacation and I couldn’t leave paradise for the three hours it takes for this movie to finish. And after three hours, there is still probably another 3 hours to come.

The problem with the later Harry Potter films (the Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows) is the novels. The books after Goblet of Fire had a lot of exposition of when, where, and why of Voldemort that needed to be explained. Reading of such is a more natural experience with the story and history of Voldemort. Unfortunately, the last few films tried to condense these stories into two and a half hour movies. Plot points were lost and sacrificed for the sake of movie telling. Threads that made sense in words didn’t when filmed, because of the missing information.

The Deathly Hallows novel gets the privilege of getting stretched out to two films so that all its information can be filmed. And this part was two and a half hours long but got through about two thirds of the book. Yet, the early part of this book was nothing but Hermione, Harry, and Ron wandering the wilderness. They were supposed to find Horcruxes, but did a terrible job at it. So did, Rowling as she just abandoned that thread to get to the ultimate battle.

I thought they could’ve gotten rid of the wilderness parts, but upon re-reading the book, it needed to be fully fleshed out so that the story can continue unabated.

These last few Harry Potter films have been slightly confusing because of all the exposition. This one isn’t, but I can’t wait for the second half.

3 of 5 stars.

Link of the Day [12.10.10]

I occasionally link to Jason Thompson's manga work at Anime News Network, because he writes articles that go over the history of manga, which I love reading. Today's link is Thompson's article on Battle Angel Alita.Alita was one of the first manga I read. I still have the early print editions of the VIZ comics, which I collected in the 90s. Along with Shirow Masamune's Appleseed, Alita was my early introduction to manga and it's weird to think that I have been reading manga for this long. Back then, manga were 30 page issues of a comic book bought at the comic store and not a hundred page volume of a soft cover graphic novel bought at Barnes and Noble. A comic is a comic, and manga is a comic. I still read lots of comics, but I buy them at Barnes and Noble.Looking over my early manga reading I find that I was into sci-fi worlds. Now, I'm into shojo, moe girls, but still find myself reading sci-fi manga. Pluto, Saturn Apartments, 7 Billion Needles are all on my reading list and they are sci-fi. I can't get enough moe girls, but it seems I can't get enough sci-fi. Thanks, manga!Battle Angel Alita is still ongoing! I hear that it isn't that great and Thompson says so to an extent. I still have my long boxes of comics from the 90s. I should dig up those VIZ comics issues from back then. I can't remember where I stopped reading. Maybe, I should dig up the volumes of the books on Amazon….http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/2010-12-09

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