just a pin prick

LAST. POST. EVER.

2005-11-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

Follow me here.

WordPress and Ecto?

2005-11-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

May just be the perfect storm. Now I just need to get my domian up in my new host. Install word press. Migrate my articles. And yah, start blogging with pictures!

Rozen Maiden: Traumend

2005-11-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

Traumend seems to be fated to follow the template of most anime that find themselves with unexpected success and an obligatory second season. There's a kind of halfway reset button that retains the chronology but reverts most of the character relations unexplicably to some point before the ultimate climax and resolution of the previous series. If you missed Rozen Maiden, it's about a dysfunctionally introverted boy who accidentaly aquires a magical victorian doll, Shinku. She comes to life and forces him to become her servant, promptly involving him in an ancient contest where these dolls are fighting to aquire human form. Aside from the unexpected tribulations and humiliations of being ordered around by a two foot tall porcelin simulcra, our hero undergoes a fairly predictable path of self realization through his struggles. Traumend starts right where the last series left off so you'll have no hope without watching the first season. The opening and closing (though losing the bondage overtones for our hero) are gorgeous and Shinku remains one of the few anime character designs that read as honestly beautiful rather than simply sexy or cute, despite her Elegant Gothic Lolita getup. Her character remains proud and powerful without degenerating into the spoiled brat or evil lady sterotypes that strong females in anime tend to and as a result I find her fascinating. Will the second season have only 4 worthwhile episodes like the first? The content still has weird harem cum soap opera cum magical girl conventions with 'wacky' humor that take the whole thing far from its creepy romantic goth roots. It looks like they're trying to shore up the whole thing with a new White Rabbit figure and more atmosphere, but at best it'll be a good save. Yet Shinku is the only heroine in anime I can recall who's having nightmares about having defeated her antagonist last season, and questions her motivations for proceeding on her quest.Time will tell. There's nothing really like Rozen Maiden, but for an equally dubious helping of cute and funny crossed with goth themes Moon Phase should be considered. This season I hear Blood+ may also serve as a good dark gothic alternative.

Omega Kawaii Of The Year!

2005-11-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

With it's Austin Powers garish opening sequence and catchy theme songs Pani Poni Dash is from the very first a frantic, upbeat, surreal comedy for Otaku by Otaku and pity the average viewer who stumbles upon the insanity. Plot and scenario have been dispensed with as much as they can to focus on humor, fan service and visual puns only graduate level Otaku can appreciate. The show is ostensibly about a Rebecca Miyamoto, a thirteen year old prodigy who comes to teach in a Japanese high school. However there is no story arc at all, and each episode is paper thin, such as "what is the new teacher's nickname going to be?" or "Becky lost at rock paper scissors in the teacher lounge and now her class must clean the pool." The school itself is merely an excuse to feature as many cute and well endowed girls as possible. Wth twenty some character introduced in the first three episodes, each is helpfully accompanied by an eyecatch pose and a listing of critical stats. The school is often shown to be merely a stage set, and "camera" crew is often on screen with reflectors and boom mikes. Even most of the generic filler students one expects in the halls and in the classroom are intentionally crudely rendered CG clones. The story and setting are undermined intentionally and humoursly so that everyone can focus on the real point: Girls and geeking out.

Rebecca (or Becky as her students finally decide on) is lazy, selfish, vindictive, brilliant, and fairly adorable at times - she cannot pronounce Massachustes Institute of Technology when asked where she went to school. The rest of the student body works hard at hitting every cute girl sterotype. The beautiful and haughty long haired megane, the study bug, the genki ahoge airhead, the post Osaka odd girl, and the sweet but ditzy girl. The other clasrooms provide girl who collects dangerous pets, cosplay girl, ninja girl, twins, under developed girl, Asuka girl, magical girl and more I've doubtless forgotten. The cast is rounded out with Mr Rabbit, Becky's useless Charlie Brown like pet who is perpetually abused and defeated, God who manifests as a creepy giant cat inside vending machines, and a spaceship full of vouyeristic alien robots who look like a cross between a zaku and that robot from the Yamoto and are incompetently studying Becky as a representative of human life.

With every scene stuffed with one or more visual gags refferencing anime, manga, console games, eroge, and American scifi and fantasy, and plenty of slapstick humor Pani Poni Dash is not quite the Japanese answer to South Park, but it may be the closest thing to Aqua Teen Hunger Force. For ensamble school humor Azumanga Daioh is far more accessible. For cute girls doing cute things, Ichigo Mashimaro beats Becky hands down. But Pani Poni Dash is not just a show, it's a challenege! Only fans are worthy of a subscription to Elfics.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha

2005-11-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

Summary Review:

Nanoha is your typical cheerful third grader until she stumbles across a cute magical ware-ferret who unleashes her latent magical power with the help of Raging Heart, a sentient jewel that transforms from magical staff to plasma rilfe. With interdimensional battleships, overly endowed cat girls, maids and a villian who's another magical girl, Nahona is clearly targeted more at the older male fan, yet remains age and sex appropriate for an average Magical Girl viewer. While the story is predictable and Nanoha lacks any significant character arc, her antagonist is tragic and unexpected. The production quality's average, but the geek factor is high. If you're an otaku with roricon sympathies this shows' definately for you, otherwise try Full Metal Panic for geek satisfaction with cute girls, or Kamichu, and Tweeny Witches for really innovative and broadly appealing reimaginings of the magical girl template.

The Whole Story:

Once upon a time in a land across the seas, Magical Girl shows were targeted at preteen girls. Mahou Shojo Lyrical Nanoha and Nanoha A's is only one of several shows over the last couple of years which instead are targeted at crossover audiences such as Kamichu or exclusively male otaku such as Uta Kata. It's an apparently odd phenomenon, but actually seems nearly inevitable when dissected. The otaku were always fans of cute girls in any setting. Sailor Moon had its fans simply due to the skimpy outfits and significant airtime for pretty girls of all styles rivaled only by the incredibly vapid shonen harem anime. In fact the quintissential harem anime Tenchi Muyo, actually spawned a magical girl show. As the heroines got younger over the course of the 90's the fan's tastes followed. Clamp's Card Captor Sakura was a notable milestone for the unusally high production quality in this genre, and the fan targetted convention flouting. Overall the genre focused on coming of age and friendship themes tending to the saccerine, but were broadly accessible and more narratively satisfying than the harem alternatives. Most importantly they provided an alternative at a time the main fanbase was rejecting science fiction, apocalyptic and messianic story telling in the wake of the Ayum cult massacres. Instead, its personal, emotional, yet just as fantastic and heroic.

So what about Nanoha? What makes her so fascinating as to actually have me endure the whole series? Nanoha is in many ways the perfect melding of genre conventions with geek boy sensibilities to create an alternative form of a traditional girl's narrative that becomes a uniquely boy's fiction. Genre defining quality? Definately not. However I'm enough of a geek to understand the appeal, and enough of a dork to be fascinated by the genre's evolution.

Nanoha has a particularly interesting pedigree - spinning off a minor character from a series of computer games (probably hentai I fear) and turning her into a full blown magical heronie.

Her main antagonist, Fate Testarossa (no relation), is another cute magical girl, doubling the visuals and almost completely dispensing with the unappealing villan. Fate's mother fits that role in the first season, but the second season finally hits the right solution with a whole evil magical girl team.

Fate's story is heartbreaking, yet she exhibits tremendous personal fortitude, which makes her really appealing. In a nutshell she's driven to oppose Nanoha out of a desire to please her cruel and manipulative mother. The irony is that Fate is only a simulcra of a dead daughter, who the mother grows to hate as her memories of the real girl become idealized. The more Fate is abused by her mother, the more she becomes desparate to please her and recover the realationship she 'remembers'. Then even when faced with the truth, Fate still tries to save her mother to the end. Her characters is far more interesting and inspiritng than Nanoha's genki girl template.

Fate and Nanoha also have an interesting dynamic which is quasi romantic (ala Card Captors) but definately verges more into the male fan service area. Practicaly the only character interest left to Nanoha is her development of "friendship" with Fate, including separation anxiety, tearful embraces, etc.

There's a ying and yang to Nanoha and Fate in capturing all the possible attributes which might appeal to the audience. Fate's completly age inappropriate fetish wear, with black spandex, capes and red leather straps bracket's Nanoha's unexpectedly demure knee length school uniforms.

But beyond the latent roricon, the catgirls, the live in maids of Nanoha's rich friend, the interdimensional battleship and it's well endowed captain, there's one core element that cements Nanoha as uniquely otaku appealing - she's the only magical girl with a boomstick. Raging Heart is a typical magical jem, granting Nahona her magical powers, however it's CG transformation sequence into a magical staff with voltron like assembly gives you a hint of what's to come. Raging Heart actually has multiple staff forms, and while Nanoha calls her attacks, Raging heart announces her power ups and mode changes in best sidescrolling shooter fashion complete with sexy english computer voice. And there's no sappy sprinkling of happy magical hearts here, Divine Buster and it's kin unleash a blast of destructive energy large enough to make the Yamoto jealous. Once a mission is acomplished, various bits extend and reveal exhaust ports which satisfyingly vent steam as testament to the technomagical powers involved.

The very first episode of the first series has an amazing sequence right after the comercial break of some lovely animation at the dinner table, but that was a true abberation, some kind of guest keyframer.

Overall the first series is not so watchable, but I was tempted into it by seeing the first episode of the second series, which has much higher production quality. The first series is only worthwhile for the tragedy of Fate since she was the only character toreally grow and change. Though it probally won't be all that relavent to enjoy the second.

Will there be something worthwhile eventually in this new genre? I rather doubt it, but honsetly if I'm going idly watch eye paublum I find I can stomach this far more easilly than any harem anime. Now which is more of a geek fest, Nanoha or Pani Poni Dash, that you'll have to decide for yourself. In the meantime...

Shooting Mode. Get Ready. Setup.

Mo' Betta Moe

2005-06-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

This article in the Asahi Times paints a frightening picture of the new self aware Otaku. Is it such a stretch to imagine a dystopic future where the sexes are segregated? A bit much I agree, but the first step towards healing is admitting you have a problem, not glorifying and justifying your social retardation and sexual additions.

Of course much the same could be said for Furry. Ugh, complicating this line of thought the Gay Pride parade last weekend lived up to expectations and didn't rise far above the sophistication of a FurCon. At least there was a good 40% of the participants who weren't patheticly out of shape!

Equivalence? Certainly not! Yet there are patterns here worth pondering...

I am gonna get my act together and put up all my thoughts on "Modern Visual Culture" up, which is yet more motivation for a better blog program that can categorize. Gonna hafta migrate though... Ouch!

Blogger sux

2005-06-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Wordpress looks better... and I need a host anyways.

Batman Begins

2005-06-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well that was definitely the best Batman movie ever, and also quite possibly the best Batman movie that I have any right to expect could get made.

Does that sound like I'm hedging a bit? Well yeah, I enjoyed it, but it was a pretty empty and shallow enjoyment. Stylistically I liked this much better than Tim Burton's version, but in the end I think that was probably the more solid story even though it survives only as a hazy memory for me. I still deeply dislike the weird Goth fantasy of the original, and quite liked the treatment and period of this one, I just didn't like the story.

My real beef was with the Illuminati - they just made things too pat, tied up too many loose ends, and ultimately diminished any future achievements of Batman - once you've saved all human civilization from the shadowy parasitic forces that keep it from flourishing what's a psychotic killer or two? Why couldn't they have just been crazed zealots who believed in violence as a way to lay waste to Western civilization and restore 'balance'? Would've been a heck of a lot more plausible, and dare I say, relevant.

Actually I would have been just as satisfied if the forces of evil were much more mundane and criminal. Superman and Spiderman should be fighting superpowered terrorists - leave to Batman the more sorid criminal element.

I did learn one important creative lesson though - never cheat the audience of honest loss. If you're going to burn your ancestral home, really burn it. Lose it. Replace it with a chrome and glass edifice and a poignant display of your father's burnt possessions. If loss is not real, it's meaningless and loses all dramatic power. Sure it's only a small storytelling flaw in this story, but it sticks with me because I've been tempted to do the same myself. Now I know better, so for that I am very well pleased with my ten bucks and two hours.

I think I probably need a new structure for talking about movies. One that separates the different layers I react to them at. Certainly the synthesized overall impression is the most interesting to most people - should I go see it or not? For fans of the comic book genre and young action movie buffs, buy all means yes! Don't expect genre transcendence, and enjoy the ride. Your girlfriends will really enjoy Cinderella Man more tho'.

But for you my narrow audience I want to dwell on the storytelling minutiae. Criticism not for the sake of judgment, but dissection for the sake of learning. Indulge me and don't think these long deconstructionist seguaes mean I disliked the experience. I enjoyed it, but I thought the antagonist weakened it unnecessarily. I also thought we dwelled too much on Bruce's past, and not enough on the building of the Batman legend. Alfred should have been hurt more, alienated more, and don't get me started on the girl. Bruce should have gotten no further than confused secret and resentful yearning in this movie.

And finally there's the real nits, the personal geek fest. Like how the fast tank really shouldn't lead with two big fat tires, and what's up with the bucking bronco seat action anyhow?!

So like I said, for comic buffs, must see with reasonable expectations. Otherwise, don't even rent with your sweetie, save it for the sick day.

Flag Burning and Property

2005-06-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Now for something completely different!

I know, if you're like me you want to pay as little attention to politics as humanly possible. Nontheless there does come a time when in the course of human affairs you just have to stand up straight and shout at the top of your lungs, "KAAAAAAAAAAAHN!!!" Sometimes you have to talk about politics too.

Flag burning. Yes, it does make you an unpatriotic jerk. However there's a large comfortable space between unpatriotic and treasonous. And being a jerk is hardly illegal, it can even make you rich on television. Why is anyone wasting time on laws trimming rights for the sake of weasly pandering?!

How about instead we get around to enshrineing the one right so obvious to the framers of the Constitution that they didn't bother putting it in the first ten? No, not life, thankfully that's still relatively obvious. Not liberty, they got around to that with good ol' XIII. That's right, property. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property - or as the latter versions put it, "happiness."

Property, personal possensions and specifically land ownership are the foundation for enfranchisement and investment in a community. A man's house is not just his castle, it's also his stake in society. Eminent domain is always tricky and negotiated as part of the social contract between the governed and the government. When some of the goverened get to usurp that contract simply because they're rich and powerful the entire social contract is at risk...

The latest Supreme Court ruling makes it obvious that we need to spell this out in the Constitution.

Howl's Moving Castle

2005-06-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed it. It was a great movie, but perhaps only a good Miyazaki movie - more inline with his cannon that Mononoke Hime but not as stunning as Spirited Away or Porco Rosso. It's definitely for older kids with several scary violent scenes depicting the wars between the kingdoms. Also uncharacteristically, the story was almost uniformly frenetic, with few of the tranquil still moments of beauty I have grown to expect.

In many ways it felt like more traditional fairytale fare than his other work, which is perhaps not surprising considering the source. Miyazaki's Occidentalisim has obvious crossed a new boundary, directly adapting a western work, whereas before he had at most adapted work by Japanese authors who were Occidentalists themselves. The more western flavor is hard to pin down. Certainly the designs are typical Miyazaki and reflect his fascination with turn of the century technology and insect forms. Something about the little details, roles, relationships, something in the sense of world... Western. I blame the source material, which is nonetheless delightfully fantastic!

The characters were excellent and deeply engaging, particularly Sophie. They formed the real core of this movie in contrast to some of his other work where the world itself is so engaging that it supports the characters and plot. The end of the movie felt rushed and was unsatisfying pat which hurt the complete experience, but the greatest weakness was one of plot and character which I will expand on in a minute.

It also continued his trend of having tour de force set pieces that are grotesque and frightening where in his earlier work that attention was reserved for flying, although there was a brief flying scene in Howl. Nothing compared to the nearly fetishistic scatalogical scenes of Spirited Away but there is a real fascination with the repugnant, perhaps a reflection of Miyazaki's age or his much advertised pessimism.

The equally ballyhooed anti-war sentiments were strangely subdued in my opinion. Porco Rosso felt much more poignant and focused on the personal tragedy of war, and Nausicaa was far preachier. Here the horrors of war were more of an abstract backdrop to a very personal story of conflict. Was Miyazaki unsuccessful? Was more read into his statements by his interviewers? Was he simply hampered by the source material? I dunno, but of all the themes of the movie, the anti war message which I had been keenly expecting seemed rather superficial and perfunctory.

The interesting thing about Miyazaki's latter career focus on the grotesque is how it reflects on his villains and his change in treatment of them. Miyazaki has long been interested in horror, and the contradiction between true nature and external appearance. The insects of Nausicaa, the giant robots of Laupta, Porco himself, all speak to the hidden nature of what is perceived as grotesque by society. Notably the attributes of monstrousness he touches on are universal human predjudices, not at all confined to western or eastern cultures. Nonetheless as his latter films begin to focus more and more on the grotesque, and simultaneously less and less on flight, there's a simultaneous movement to tar both the villain and innocent with a layer of slime, fat and wrinkles. At the same time the nature of the villainy becomes much more personal. Instead of succumbing to the somewhat abstract forces of greed and power hunger, the villains seem increasingly corrupted by cruelty. The evil witches from Spirited Away and Howl have an almost predatory sexual component to them, which puts a whole new spin on the typical wise and wizened old woman character we expect from Miyazaki. This more personal focus on evil itself seems to be a new facet of Occidentalisim as well.

Speaking of wizened old women, Miyazaki seems quite preoccupied with them as well, and the transformation of our young heroine into one provides the impetus for the plot of Howl's Moving Castle. In a way Sophie is a completely atypical Miyazaki heroine. She is anything but noble, pure, energetic or confident. She's trapped and insecure, cut off and lonely. Even a chance encounter with a powerful wizard doesn't really knock her out of her comfortable mental and emotional captivity. However being cursed into an old woman does - one of the greatest joy's of Howl is watching Sophie blossom as a person even as her place in society and her body itself wither. Howl's Moving Castle can be seen as a pair of Beauty and the Beast stories, where Sophie and Howl discover a character inside each other's monstrous bodies worth knowing and ultimately saving.

However that's also where the story falls short. Sophie's transformation energizes the first part of the movie, but Howl is instantly seductive. Though initially daunting and soon revealed as a monstrous brat, Sophie and the audience soon see the core of Howl's character as kind and noble. The middle lags because Howl seems to instinctively see through Sophie's curse. Unlike the traditional Beast he doesn't suffer from anxiety about his form, so the curse would lead one to expect that his challenge would be seeing through Sophie's, especially given how immature he is. Instead he seems to know her from the first, and there's little satisfying progression to his interest in her. In the end, the story regains some energy when Sophie's must make some hard choices but Howl's side of the story stays unsatisfying blank. Both characters are vivid and memorable, but their relationship remains a sketch, which was a real shame.

So now I've ordered the book to see if I can puzzle out a little better which piece fits where in the great enigma of Miyazaki's career!

Harry Potter Eat Your Heart Out!

2005-05-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Mauho Shoujo Tai aka Tweeny Witches officially kicks ass!

It's a Tim Burton take on the Final Fantasy world, where a tweenage girl (hence the English name) gets spirited into a world of fantasy and mayhem that doesn't confrom in the least to her expectations of a happy magical wonderland of good witches and cute fairies. It is however extremely well suited to her sassy and rebellious nature so she seems to have a shot at surviving!

It's an odd format, 40 episodes of 8 minutes each. Yet each episode is completely packed with story, instead of static panning shots or slow paced dialouge - the show is frenetic! There's plenty of artsy shot compositions desigend to cut down to the costs of lipsynching, and plenty of implied instead of animated action, but because the shots are quite stylishly composed, you really wont mind. More events of more significance have been crammed into the first 16 minutes of this gem than you usally get in a normal 30 minute episode.

Finally I have to give a nod to the character design which really breaks out of the typical Japanese anime look for an flat illustrative look that seems born of small press American comics. This site has plenty of screen grabs - and is all in French so it's casual spoiler proof!

If the story keeps pace with the richnes of the first two episodes this will definately be one of the best shows of the year!

Okay, Okay, I'll Just Snark Once!

2005-05-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Anikan, generic megalomaniacal ranting!

Obi-Wan, "What'cha talking about Willis?"

Anikan, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"

Obi-Wan, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" Obi-Wan attacks!

Er, what? Sorry, wooden dialogue I expected, but this one makes no sense.

"Only", at the beginning of Obi-Wan's quote means that the rest of it is an absolutist statement.

For example, "Only bad guys wear black hats," means that absolutely no good guy will ever be found wearing a black hat. Some bad guys might also be wearing colors other than black, but if you have a black hat, you are absolutely guaranteed to be a bad guy.

Another example, "Only people who are with me, are not my enemies." In other words, absolutely everyone who is not with you, is your enemy. Strangely enough, some people who are with you, might also be your enemy!

So, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!" means absolutely everybody who deals in absolutes, is a Sith. Not all Sith deal in absolutes, personally I suspect Darth Maul of being somewhat of a sophisticated moral relativist, but everyone who does deals in absolutes is definitely a Sith, including of course the person making that statement.

Obviously this isn't just about bad dialouge. When Anikan says, "From my point of view the Jedi are evil," Obi-Wan laments "You truly have lost your way my friend." It's a poignant expression of sorrow as Obi-Wan finally comprehends the depths of his friend's corruption. It's punchy, its logically consistent, and it evokes the spectere of Alec Guiness. Thank you Tom Stoppard!

However in the earlier instance Obi-Wan meant to express something along the lines of, "OMG, you're wearing all black, you must be one of the bad guys!" only, more poetical like. Something like "You sound like a Sith!" would have fit the bill.

After all, why does Obi-Wan really suspect Anikan is a Sith? It's not really the absolutist statement, it's the implications of the statement based on his past behaviour. There's no room for civil dissagreement. If you don't agree to my policy of Galactic domination, you are my enemy and I'm going to try and kill you like I've killed all other threats.

Meh. Whatever. I don't care anymore. The dialouge is bad enough, I'm sorry that modern political statements and sloppy philosophical positions make it worse and confuse the already shaky metaphysical themes of the saga, but it's no more damage than has already been done by carelessness or marketing ambition. I can't even summon proper energy for snarkiness.

Star Wars is over. It was an experience of our lives, part of popular culture, but grows increasingly irrelavent as revisions make it increasingly specific. Continuity to the fantasy world takes precedence over continuity of theme and character. The Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas of today aren't making film sagas, but writting cable TV shows.

More Sithious Thoughts

2005-05-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

In reaction to J:

I disliked the Jedi assassination montage. It made the Jedi seem weak and smacked of "Greedo shot first!" Worst of all it ended with Yoda decapitating two soldiers...

I really disliked the dismemberment in general. First because it made Anakin's fate cheaper to have seen it all before. Secondly because I can see in my minds eye thousands of boys across America and the world now playing at lopping off action figure limbs. In the old world, death by lightsaber was a gruesome reality considered only as one matured. Now it's pushed into the innocent mind.

Of course I'm an old fuddy duddy who was shocked when Jurrasic Park toy dinosaurs came with plastic chunks that could be removed to expose injection molded rib and viscera. It's wacky fun and educational!

If anybody still honestly doubts the desensitizing effects of visual media on the brain, please read On Killing by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

I enjoyed Revenge of the Sith - but I still think A New Hope was the best. Really, it was the only necessary one.

Revenge of the Nerds

2005-05-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

I saw Star Wars last night and enjoyed it. It was bad everywhere I expected it to be bad, and was better than the last installment. Like nearly everyone in the civilized world (er... American Hegemony?) I thought it was a bit of a shame that it was merely good and not great - as usual the New Yorker does the best job of ripping it up.

I though that review was too harsh, but frankly I walked away from this Star Wars less delighted than I did from The Phantom Menace. I know The Phantom Menace was terribly weak and confused, but it came closest to capturing the glee of the originals for me. The pod races, the duel at the end both captured something that the seething undulating noise of computer generated battles and comical Jedi somersaulting did not. The Phatom Menace was moronic, cheesy, slipshod, but occasionally, fun.

Not that there wasn't fun in this one. The opening action was delightful, depsite ArToo's sudden kung-fu antics. After that... meh. Still the possible story that might have been told about Anakin's descent will keep us geeks, and even non-geeks like my sweetie, talking for weeks. In our minds and in the chatrooms we'll be following a version of C.S.Lewis's advice on listening to uninspired preaching - if you can notice the flaws, well, just imagine the better version and pretend you heard that instead!

Of course everybody laughed when Yoda announced that he had "good relations" with the Wookies, and again at the tearful parting, so all in all, I'm really glad I saw it on the big screen!

I officially like Jeff Harrell...

2005-05-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Not because he properly rails against the indignities of web publishing (let me tall you about how completely useless I discovered CSS to be this weekend... well maybe another time, but the two word summary is "hack city"), rather because he answers the most important musical question of the last year: When is the Battlestar Galactica 2004 soundtrack going to be released? Let me tell you, that it's undoubtedly all about the beeping precussive bits of the cylon theme - oh yeah!

So in celebration, I'll add links to him and Lileks - the elder stateman modern geekiness and nostalgic design, to my blogroll. Me? I'll bring the anime.

In local concert news Madeline Peyroux rocks...er swings? Dang it, she's the cat's pyjamas already! Voice like a '30s Billie Holiday record and songs with lyrics and melody! I really longed to be hanging out in a swinging art-deco nightclub sipping martinis. I imagine a stark white theme with black accents simply because it films better in black and white...

Further Notes...

2005-05-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

Eric’s been sick for a long time now. It probably started when he was eight years old, and since then he’s grown to know the doctors and hospitals and more cities on the Eastern Seaboard than any boy should have.

His older sister’s in high school now, depressed, depressive, and neglected in her brother’s need. This weekend she’s in the hospital for a change, along with mom and dad, and Eric’s spending the night with his uncle George who lives in downtown Charleston. The house is hung with a disused mustiness of long bachelorhood and obsessive collection. To Eric, it’s dirty, cluttered, stifling. For long he’s been the center of attention, and consolations have spoiled him, but at his uncle’s house there’s no internet, no television, not even a plug with three prongs to charge his laptop.

His uncle is not a luddite, simply a man out of time, truly traveling, so preoccupied by his forays into the mind of the past that he’s blithely unconcerned with the here and now. Perhaps when it has stood the test of time, he could afford it the big picture, but for now he thrill sin the minutiae of history, the valueless and priceless accidental detritus which makes the word of history real under the flesh of his finger tips. Uncle George is in daily communion with bygone days, but not a very suitable nursemaid.

The doll technically belonged to Eric’s sister, or she was it’s intended recipient in the will. However she’d never taken strongly to the thought. She’d been rather repusled when she first saw her uncle’s promised gift. Certainly his clothes were dainty and delicate, far exceeding her 20th century fantasies of Victorian little lords – His extravagant silk blouse and brilliant azure pantaloons would have put him quite at home among Sargent’s royal family portraits. The bloom of his cheeks, the limpid blond locks, the depth of his eyes apparently lost in thought just for a moment before piercing you with rapt attention, these she found uncanny and disturbing in a way that softly strangled the first impression of delight. Her uncle’s over protective grasp was not challenged at that time and indeed he was too preoccupied by his memories of the doll’s own story to notice much of his niece’s reticence.

He’d come to buy some certain nick-nacks being sold by a certain elderly lady who suddenly seemed determined to personally dispose of much of her estate. The nursing home was built in the modern flimsy imitation of Georgian, the rooms small and reminiscent of motels. The old lady’s tin of chocolates hid a layer of miniatures, which she offered to Uncle George much to the embarrassment of her eldest daughter. Her husband’s ancestor had carried a few things to war when he donned the Confederate grey, and carried them and a Union musket ball in his thigh back from the battle of Yorktown. Once business concluded, Uncle George had asked about the doll half in jest, thinking of his then new young niece. He knew little of dolls, but had been immediately struck by the quality of the molding and clothing. The lady declined, and surprised him with a appraisal of more than three times higher than any Uncle George had ever heard for a doll.

He was even more surprised the next week to find himself summoned their ancestral home by the eldest daughter, and offered the doll for sale at a pittance. With little reluctance he accepted, but strangely disquieted, decided that he owed face to face confirmation from the owner, and so directed his taxi to the nursing home, where he learned that the old lady had passed away the day before.

Of course Eric knows none of this, and I don't think it's very relevant to the telling of the story just yet - I'm just wool gathering you see. Perhaps we'll knit something out of it in the end, perhaps not. Nonetheless it should be obvious that amusements for children, even older ones, are very limited in Uncle George's house so it was inevitable that Eric should encounter the doll...

Easy Syndication For Cheapskates

2005-05-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

Wanna let folks use a newsreader to follow your blog? (Using a newsreader is one of 43 Folders' tips for having more time in your life!)

Use Feedburner!

Easy enuff that even J can do it! ^_^

Amen!

2005-05-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Jeff Harrell reminds me why I hate the web (including Blogger). Not that I know anything else about this guys but this one post!

How is it that even as we make such leaps and strides in publishing and distributing content we can take such huge steps backwards in creating it?

- And why can't we automajically spellcheck inline? Or, to do the kind of thing that computers should be good at, have easy hooks for creating refferences... and maybe add the references's author to your addressbook and use it for your spellchecking? (Sorry Jeff!)

Lileks as always reminds us of all that is good and right in the world!

2005-05-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

For geeks that is...

Aishiteru ze Baby - Or Milly Molly Mandy meets 90210

2005-05-14T08:36:00.000-07:00

Highschool melodrama/romance shows like Marmalade Boy, Orange Road, His & Her Circumstance are the Anime answer to 90210 or the OC. These Japanese teen soaps aren't aimed at the nearly thirty something set, so intent on reliving their glory years that they're oblivious to the corruption of the tween set, but rather at the teen and tween set directly.

For an adult viewer they can trigger a spun sugar candy tooth ache, or, if you're lucky and the story's solid, a nostalgic memories and simple viewing pleasures. We're used to thinking of fiction in near categories of children's and adults, but of course young adult titles like Harry Potter occasionally enter our consciousness. Really a lot of our more vapid guilty pleasures could safely fall into the young adult category - Star Wars, comes to mind. In the same way that Winnie the Pooh and the Secret Garden span the age ranges of solid story telling for children, Watership Down and Little Women are damn good stories that properly belong in the young adult category.

Aishiteru ze Baby is no Little Women, but it's a solid story for a Anime high school romance, with a clever conceit that's of the type that fascinates me.

Kippei is an average highschool student. He's not particularly focused or ambitious but he does excel at his favorite subject - flirting! Unfortunately his casual ways are interrupted by an unusual family crisis. His aunt has disappeared from home, leaving behind Yuzuyu, her five year old daughter. Now Kippei's family must take Yuzuyu in and in a thoroughly implausible turn of events decide that the best one suited to be her primary caregiver is none other than our pretty boy slacker.

I can think of a half dozen ways in which the setup could have been made more plausible, but it really doesn't matter. Remember this is a highschool romance, and what could be more romantic to a teenage girl (and offer more episodes of unintended hilarity) than an attractive teenage boy, struggling to become a responsible "dad". Frankly it strikes me as brilliant. On the obvious level you two very appealing elements to both the teen and tween demographic - the romance with Kokoro the beautiful but aloof girl who Kippei grows to love, and the hefty dose of serious cuteness in the kindergarten antics of Yuzuyu.

More subtly this setup breathes new life into the formulaic romance structure. There's emotional jealousy and the struggles of balancing romance, friends and school, but the generic romantic rival who we know will go away is replaced by a child who needs attention as well and who cannot be abandoned. The typical treatment of 'modern issues' that provide narrative side stories in this type of show gain an extra dimension by Yuzuyu's reactions. In this case it's the physical abuse of a classmate of Yuzuyu's, Kippei's depressed and suicidal cousin, and Kokoro's anorexia. While we're not seeing the parent's and adults perspective, the view from an actor outside of the teen generation increases the emotional impact.

It's a risky juxtaposition, and implausible enough that if it didn't keep paying off in the stories you'd throw it out the window, but it works and that fascinates me. It's very much of a type with Starship Operator's trying to combine Grognard military geekiness with lipstick wearing bridge crew, or the Matrix justifying absurd gun-fu with hard-cyberpunk. I'm trying to think of more classical examples but they escape me...

Of course the show is slow and the animation is cheap. Don't look for genius in the dialogue or characterization either - 'course you're watching high-school anime, you know what you're getting into. Bottom line, if you're looking for a light teen fantasy with a twist that promises some surprises, this is the best the genre's had for years!

Now if you'll excuse me I hafta go watch The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe teaser again!

Safety Is Job One

2005-05-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, I'm an idiot. Obviously safety is the first topic to seriously cover after a basic Airsoft introduction.

Airsoft safety is just as important and just as serious a topic as actual firearms safety. You can easily shoot your eye out! Or somebody else's eye out. Even more importantly, because Airsoft weapons look like the real thing, uninformed bystanders and law enforcement officers will respond to your play with deadly force in order to justifiably protect themselves and those around them. Remember, a police officer doesn't have to confirm that your weapon is a toy before shooting you in self defense. Sure he'll be investigated, traumatized, your family will be distraught, the sport will suffer, and, oh yeah... you'll be dead!

There's three categories of safety rules I want to cover: safe handling of your airsoft weapon, safe behavior in your community, and safe play with other people. There's five rules in each catagory, which seems like a lot, but it's actually a lot simpler than the rules you have to follow to safely drive a car! Following these rules is your responsibility. If you can't or won't religiously follow all these rules, you have no business playing the sport or handling the Airsoft weapons.

If the people you're playing with aren't following these rules, you have a responsibility to warn them. It's not just good enough to leave and let them hurt themselves, because maybe they don't know what they're doing. You wouldn't walk away from children playing with matches would you? If you can't handle diplomatically raising that subject, then you have no business playing macho army guy with plastic guns. If players won't follow the rules then you have to tell the range master, game officer or one of the referees. If the game organizers or people in authority won't follow the safety rules then you should play somewhere else and you should let it be known, to the property owner, to your friends, on bulletin boards, where ever it's appropriate, that one field or those players are unsafe. Unless everybody follows the rules, people will get hurt, and the sport will be banned!

Ok, lets cover the first five rules!

Safe Handling
Safe handling of your weapon will keep you from hurting yourself or other people with the weapon you are responsible for. These rules are basically the same rules you should follow with any firearm, and the first three are the most important!

1. Always keep your weapon pointed in a safe direction (until you're ready to shoot).
Keep your weapon pointed up into the sky, or down into the ground. Never leave your weapon pointed at somebody else, whether it's in your hand or on the table. When you're moving your weapon around, getting in position to shoot on the field, or just carrying it - make sure it's never pointed at anybody. Don't let it even momentarily point at somebody! Not when you turn around, or when you're changing from point up to down. Never joke around, play around with your gun, or wave it around carelessly. Always know where it's pointed, and always make sure that direction is a safe one.

I know, I sound like a total kill joy. Where's the fun in playing with toy guns if I can't pretend to kill people and generally act all bad-ass like in the movies?!

The fun in Airsoft is in actually shooting people. Believe me it's way more fun than pretending and posturing to actually be bad-ass and actually 'reach out and touch someone'. If you want to look macho or pretend or whatever, don't use an Airsoft gun! If you're holding an Airsoft gun, always keep it pointed in a safe direction - until you're ready to shoot!

This rule is crucial even if you know the gun is unloaded or the safety is engaged. You need to get into this habit, because unless you do, someday you won't bethinking about weather it's ok or not. You won't be thinking about weather everybody is wearing googles or not. You'll forget to check the safety or make sure the ammo is empty. You're human, you will make mistakes in judgment - your habits are your only defense.

Finally this rule is doubly important because, as mentioned before, handling Airsoft weapons is training, is conditioning. The habits you develop with Airsoft will be your instincts when you hold a real firearm. Always treat your Airsoft gun as if it was a real firearm, and always assume it's loaded and ready to shoot, even if you just checked it.

2. Always keep your finger off the trigger (until you're ready to shoot).
Put your trigger finger along the side of the gun, above the trigger, or wrap it around the grip below the trigger guard like your other fingers. Don't put it on the trigger guard, because then it could easily slip into the trigger. Your hand has a natural tendency to grip, so when your finger is on the trigger, it wants to pull the trigger. If your attention wanders, you're suddenly distracted, or you're trying to do something while holding your gun, you will eventually pull that trigger at a time you didn't want to - unless your finger is not on the trigger! Remember with Airsoft you're learning actual firearms handling habits. So, don't ever hold the gun with your finger on the trigger until you are aiming at your target and ready to shoot!

3. Always keep your gun unloaded (until you're ready to shoot).
If you're not holding the weapon, and getting ready to shoot it, make sure you remove the ammunition. If you're putting it away, remove the ammunition. If you've just finished a game, and are putting the gun down for lunch, remove the ammunition. If you're leaving the game area, or shooting area, remove the ammunition. Unloaded weapons can't shoot and hurt somebody, even if they're accidentally pointed at somebody and accidentally have the trigger pressed. After you've made sure it's unloaded, still treat it as though it was loaded and ready to shoot! It's your responsibility to make sure that your weapon isn't in a state to hurt somebody when the first two rules are accidentally broken. Which leads us nicely into the next rule...

4. Know how to operate your gun safely.
If you don't know how to make sure a gun is unloaded, or how to operate it, don't touch it until you can get proper instructions. Even if you're familiar with one type of Airsoft gun, the next one may have totally different characteristics. Springs guns are different from electric guns, which are different from gas guns. To follow rule three, it's essentially to really understand the workings of your particular gun. Most airsoft guns still carry one or more BBs inside them, even when the magazine is removed. To remove all ammunition you're gonna have to learn the specifics of that gun. Many Airsoft weapons also use batteries or compressed gas, which can be hazardous if mishandled or disposed of improperly. Airsoft guns in general are much safer than paintball guns (its actually easy to kill somebody mishandling the compressed air that drives a painball gun), but that doens't mean they're harmless. Knowing how to safely operate your Airsoft weapon, means also knowing how to maintain it and ensure that it's in proper operating condition - if you have any doubts about the gun's functioning, don't take risks, have a competent Airsoft gunsmith look at it.

5. Always keep your gun safe
You know the rules, others don't. They're your guns and they're your responsibility to keep safe at all times, even when you're not physically holding them. Never store your guns where children or even pets could get into your guns, or knock them down. Store them out of reach. Preferably locked, and always unloaded - remember rule 3? It's your responsibility to make sure your guns never hurt anybody. Doesn't matter that you weren't the one who broke the other rules and hurt somebody, it's your fault if you let that person get to your guns. That also means if you're showing somebody your guns, or recruiting players for the hobby, it's your job to teach them the rules of safely handling the guns!

Whew... so much for the first five rules. Simple, but essential! Next up, rules for Safe Behavior.

Well Damn, Now Things Could Get Interesting...

2005-05-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

Lulu

The Doll Game

2005-05-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

To J's points in the comments of my previous Doll Game post, yes, the sins of the father are indeed visited upon the children...

One of the things I was trying to create was a scenario where the supernatural nature of the events would have suffciently deep and varied background. Not just so that the 'haunting' would be plasuible, but also so that I would have room to reveal enough of the backstory, but always keep a good buffer of unexplained mystery. Thus Emile's Pygmalion like obssesions, his youthful journies, his mysigonistic neglect of his daughters in favor of his son, etc. are indeed all intended to evoke justification for the creepy turn of events.

In a way the resentment and yearning for humanity of the dolls, is a mirror of the daughter's yearning for proper fathering. Indeed the late cribdeath of Amie's is intended to seem disquietingly unlikely...

Congential, genetic damage, as a physical metaphor for original, or at least hereditary, sin is just too yummy an idea to pass up! Given my second hand experience with chronically sick children and the ripples this has through out their familly, well I think there might be material to tap into there. Plus the contrast of modern medical technology, with its shamanistic attributes to us mere mortals, and creaky victorian clockwork possesions, is inviting both visually and thematically.

Format? Well I dream in twevle episodes per season these days ya know!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Airsoft

2005-05-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

What is Airsoft Anyways?
Airsoft is a modern infantry combat simulation sport. Players compete in mock battles with mock weapons that attempt to simulate modern and historical firearms. Airsoft is a brother to paintball, second cousin to Society for Creative Ananchronism sword-fights, and related by marriage to historical re-enactors.

The term Airsoft can be applied to a number of different games, sports, and competitions that use a particular type of mock weapon, or the the mock firearms themselves. There are also collectors of the Airsoft weapons who may have little or no interest in the competitive aspects of the hobby.

What distinguishes Airsoft weapons from other gun models, replicas, or non-firing weapons, is that they are functional. Airsoft weapons shoot spherical pellets when the trigger is pulled. The projectiles are commonly called BBs, though they are usually made of plastic or bio-degredable materials. Like paintball guns the projectiles are shot with relatively little force (~1 Joule of energy) and are quite safe to shoot at people wearing adequate eye protection, allowing Airsoft guns to be used in combat simulation games.

Unlike paintball guns, they look like, and are operated in a similar fashion to the weapon they are modeled after, giving Airsoft games the potential to be more accurate simulations. Airsoft rifles and pistols typically store their BB 'ammuniation' in the same magazine that the actual weapon would, support semi and fully automatic modes of fire, and may incorporate recoil and blowback mechanisims. The Airsoft weapons typically look almost identical to the 'real steel' and are accurate enough in reporducing their dimensions and configuration that many accessories, such as sights, grips and so on, are compatible between the toys and the originals. Also unlike paintball, the BBs are solid pellets that don't mark their targets on contact - therefore when competing good sportsmanship is essential, as players must honestly call themselves "out" when shot.

Why Airsoft?
From the most ad-hoc backyard game of cops and robbers to the most elaborate three hundred player games that utilize historically accurate scenarios and tactics, Airsoft offers players both the fantasy of armed conflict combined with the physical commitment and rewards of a team sport. Airsoft has a complicated history, but most of it's development was in Japan by firearms enthusiasts who, without the benefit of a Second Amendment, were unable to legally own firearms. Nonetheless they were still fascinated in the history, functioning, aesthetics, and design of firearms. Most of all they were also interested in the discipline and exercise provided by shooting. The legal restrictions to make toys that were safe even when accidentally shot at people also created the opportunity for the enjoyment, mental stimulation and exercise provided by using these toys competitively.

Appealing to the same audience that finds modern and historical combat fascinating, Airsoft provides interactive entertainment similar to that of First Person Shooter video games. Just like FPS games have widely varying degrees of realism, from tactical shooters like Rainbow Six and First to Fight, to fantasy shooters like Doom and Battlefield, Airsoft players can find a wide variety of clubs, teams, and playing styles to suit their interests. Some play rather abstracted war games, while others focus on specific historical periods, conflicts or SWAT and counter terrorist scenarios. Similarly players will find different level of physical exertion required to play, with some groups pushing themselves close to the degree of actual combat soldiers, occasionally even to the point of camping and living the part for several days.

Whatever your preferred playing style, Airsoft can be extremely rewarding. It teaches history, inspires teamwork and leadership, develops honor and good sportsmanship, provides a total body workout, and stimulates the mind and spirit with fierce competition in an evocative play setting.

Why Not Airsoft?
Airsoft weapons require responsible handling. Yes you *can* shoot your eye out! You must be mature enough to treat an Airsoft weapon with the same disciple and discretion that you would a real firearm. Always assume it's loaded and ready to fire. Never aim it at somebody, who isn't wearing eye protection or actively playing the game against you. Brandish an Airsoft weapon cavalierly and you will eventually find yourself looking down the barrel of the real deal. If you can't follow the safe handling rules religiously, you should stick to Lazer-Tag for a few more years.

Airsoft requires fortitude and discipline. Taking hits, re-spawning on time, complying with a demand to surrender, these are all difficult things to do in the heat of battle. The temptation to fudge the rules just a little can be tremendous, especially when you suspect your opponent may have fudged a little already. This is a really slippery slope, and if you cannot be committed one hundred percent of the time to acting honorably *depsite* everything else, then the games break down for everybody. If you don't want the pressure, or think you can't hack it, try paintball for a while first (though it too has some weenie techniques for ignoring hits).

Airsoft can be an expensive hobby, with an initial equipment outlay of several hundred dollars, and ongoing costs in ammunition and equipment maintenance. A basic automatic Airsoft rifle and accouterments will total around $400 US. Essential field equipment, like eye protection, boots, suitable clothing (usually camouflaged BDUs) will tack on an additional $200 US. After you're committed to the hobby, you'll probably want to upgrade your total kit by another $300 US. That doesn't count the ongoing costs to play, say a $25 dollar field charge and $30 for a day's worth of ammo. With an X-Box and a local basketball court you can get many of the benefits, albeit not in one package.

Airsoft enthusiasts are often real fire arms and military history enthusiasts. Many have served in the military, and many believe deadly force is morally justified under certain circumstances. If you're not comfortable around folks with NRA stickers on their cars, or can't be civil to them, you might wanna take up archery. At the same time there's another common type of players who are young, inexperienced and have absorbed most of their military history and firearms knowledge through Hollywood. Patience and tolerance are required!

Playing Airsoft *is* infantry conditioning. You will be learning to some degree or another the skills and basic muscle memory to point a weapon at a human being and pull the trigger. Experts still debate the effects of exposure to violence in TV and in videogames on kids. While that rages on the US Army has spent the last sixty years perfecting desensitization, and muscle memory conditioning techniques to demonstrably increase the capacity of soldiers to aim at the enemy and pull the trigger. Airsoft will not make you more violent, but it will give you skills that *should* you choose to become violent, will enable you to cause much more damage and loss of life than if you'd just stayed home and played Puyo-Puyo. Airsoft can be used by the military to train soldiers, and is used by some Police departments to train officers. It could also be used by criminals or terrorists to train as well. Therefore with these skills comes the responsibility for using those skills wisely and morally. If you can't handle that, or have serious discontent in your life, or anger issues, seek spiritual and psychological counseling before taking up the hobby. You should lay off the Time Crisis games too!

What's up next?
Topics to be covered:
- A brief history of Airsoft
- Types of Airsoft weapons
- Basic Airsoft Equipment, what to buy to get started
- Ways to play
- Basic infantry skills
- Internet resources

Rozen Redux

2005-05-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well adoring legions I must confess I am moved to say a few words... about Rozen Maiden.

It actually surprised me in the end by being quite a bit more satisfying than a formula kids show has any right to be. Actually I suspect it was a longer run in manga form, doubtless with more repetitive dull bits, but also with plenty of time to really cement and develop Shinku, who in the end really stays with me as one the more satisfying characters I've recently encountered. Her haughty elegance, cool demeanor, and relentless drive were all appealing enough, but her own frailty and compassion as revealed in the climax of the series were far stronger than what I've grown to expect. Best of all she showed that the Japanese can create a strong yet 'human' female lead that didn't fall into the domineering and neurotic Asuka trap.

Sugin Tou's secret motivations honestly surprised me and overall redeemed the Pokememon cum Dragonball nature of the face to face conflict in the series - frankly the biggest reason I can't unabashedly recommend it.

In the end there were a good three to six episodes of material really worth watching, including one absolutely hilarious comic relief episode that completely broke from mood of the story, but was well worth it for it's zanyness. Shinku's infatuation with Kun-Kun, the doggy detective puppet star of a children's TV show, sticks in my mind for being so random and seemingly out of character, yet feeling so *right* given that our heroine is a child's toy herself. For the most part I would have preferred a darker and more artistic treatment of the material, but I enjoyed it in a way that's hard to justify except as a fan of children's fiction who can imagine a magical fantasy in the tradition of Nesbit and an anime fan who can overlook all the usual failings.

My Doll's Game would probably be darker than anything suitable for younger children, and riff off the uncanny and the D/S themes lurking beneath the doll / owner relationship and my general (edited) backstory. I might even make all the action / interaction appear in dreams, daydreams and waking hallucinations, calling into the question the sanity of our protagonist and the veracity of the backstory. Certainly Amie's doll would have a dark, discarded, female doppleganger to be revealed at the end, and I think the three dead sisters and the more punitive aspects of the game would only be revealed later on.

But as for what the story itself would be, I haven't a clue. Certainly it would explore the nature of sibling relationships, and broken families. Perhaps part of my thesis would be that abuse creates patterns of behavior which are traps for future generations - not very shocking or deep eh? Certainly that childish cruelty can have adult consequences. The recursive nature of children playing out the experiences of their parents, and the doll as an expression of the child's hidden/forbidden self would be themes I'd want to touch on. I'd be tempted to touch on chronic illness, but I'm not sure if that would be merely a fetishistic formal element of the genres I'm dabbling in. I'll have to muse on the children I know, have known, and have been to see if there's any aspect of their character and situation that would be congruous with the ideas I've spread out on the table...

Zero Sum Game

2005-05-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

They make money, we get a wretched prequel, what's not to love about Macross Zero?

Maybe I'm being too harsh. It's a very pretty escapist military sci-fi adventure with the usual doses of incoherent pacifist cum noble-savage idolizing anxiety. Ironically it's also the military slash technology equivalent of a skin mag, lovingly 3D rendered, and so provides the viewer with some compensation for it's ideological mush and narrative aimlessness. Though I suspect the creators may have had exactly the opposite intention.

The five episode mini-series takes place in the year before the original Macross series, during the global war which the arrival of the epynonymous alien battle fortress (in the original) brings to an abrupt halt by threatening humanity with an even bigger problem (pun intended - sorry!). In this series the war is between a vaguely NATOesque coalition with ostensible UN authority and an equally vaguely neo-Soviet opposition. They're fighting in the South Pacific over the rumors of the possible remains of an alien artifact. Shades of every Nazi-occult adventures based around the Second World War (from Indiana Jones to Cryptonomicon) thus inform the setup, but these threads are never really explored.

Almost immediately the backstory starts to fight with the logic of the first series. In the original, the fighter jets that transform into giant robots (symbolic transformation of American military might into Japanese technological innovation ne?) are a secret military response to the carefully hidden fact that the alien battle fortress was manned by humanoids ten times the size of Earthlings (hey I resisted 'puny'!). In Zero, the transforming jets are simply part of the global arms race. By the end, a few more liberties detracting from the twists and turns of the original have been taken (regarding, songs, culture, the origins of humanity, etc.) None are really necessary, or more importantly justified by at least making this a strong self contained story. The narrative is your usual fighter-pilot-boy meets alien-descended-shaman-girl bringing wreck and ruin to her pristine island. Rather than destroying all humanity, which is of course her part time job, his faith in her lets them fly off into the stars to (presumably) live happily ever after. Really the ending and the 'big secret' of the islands make no sense at all in the Macross universe, playing out like a cliched Playstation RPG ending.

In the end it doesn't matter. The draw is seeing Roy Fokker do a CG version of the classic missile ballet and pursue an obviously tragically doomed love affair. I have to wonder if there's anything here for folks who didn't grow up with Robotech (the American name for Macross), and if for those of us who did, the undercutting of many of the original's key myths won't ruin it. Still it's explosive robot action in an anime scene that's mostly humorous antics of endearingly hapless preteens, so I suspect it'll be popular.

For more realistic and even more beautiful dogfights mixed in with an evocative creepy sci-fi setting I highly recommend Yukikaze. For some logical consistency with the original Macross combined with decent story and animation that won't make you stab your eyes out (a valid reason not to revisit the original), Macross Plus in either movie or mini-series form is the way to go!

Mal means bad...

2005-05-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

A firend was lucky enough to go see a test screening of Serenity last night. Report is better than I had hoped. Changing alert status to "Cautiously Optimistic". Report from Ginan and Nathan (at the event) says Firefly return to TV is unlikely - Boo! Hiss!

It's no Sonic Cruiser...

2005-05-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

But at least the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner looks a little bit more like the future. The curved wings are pretty, doubtless the result of computer modeling combined with composite materials and I suspect the development of refined supercritical wings. While I'd really prefer four engines, at least it doesn't look like it's suffering from a glandular disorder.

The Doll Game

2005-05-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Emile DuMontegris was the first son of a middle class procelin maker in the Alsace region of France. Born in 1796, Emile proved to be very much a prodigal son. At the age of seventeen Emile rejected the aspirations of his father to inherit the family's modest business and set out to find romantic fame and fortune, reportedly raging as far as Alexandria. Five years later Emile returned to his ancestral home with a beautiful young bride of questionable origin. However, she was a Christian, and Emile was back, and so even his younger brother found it possible to welcome the wayward rebel back into the roost.

Emile took up the family trade, and while his brother tended to the finances and negotiated lucrative distribution agreements, Emile proceeded to modernize and expand the factory. Nineteen months after Emile's return, his wife bore their first child, a daughter they christened her Capucina. To commemorate the birth of his first child, Emile created a fine bisque doll for his daughter, a special plaything for when she grew older. Thus the legend of the Montegris Belle Capuci dolls was born. Never made in such quantities or as commercially successful as the Bru or Jaumeu dolls of his contemporaries, Emile nonetheless was able to carve out a small and successful line of dolls and eventually porcelain figurines in addition to his stock in trade of tableware. The original Victorian era dolls are now extremely prized by collectors and sought after not only for their exquisite craftsmanship, but also the naturalistic tendencies and sculpting that reflect more of the German aesthetic than the French of the day. In fact the brand exists to this day, manufactured by Gotz of Germany, and you can find a version of this story printed in the cardstock collector's pamphlets bundled in the box of each doll.

The rarest of all the dolls Emile produced, and certainly the most exquisite, were the dolls he continued to make for birth of each of his children. During the next thirteen years, despite two miscarriages and one crib death, Emile's wife gave birth to eight more daughters. For each he made a special doll, uniquely designed and costumed in unmatched finery. These exquisite creations were more miniature works of art than the playthings he now mass-produced as part of his still growing porcelain offering. One would be better off comparing them to the jeweled eggs of Faberge, and in fact, Emile did produce ninety-eight custom dolls for the royalty and nobility of Europe (only fifty-six are now known to be in the hands of collectors). Despite the great material cost of those dolls, many dressed in fine jewels and rare furs, none matched the thirteen he produced for his family. They were played with when the girls grew old enough, but even then only on very special occasions, twice a year at Christmas and Easter. The children in their finery and the dolls in theirs were very much a part of Emile's social presentation during the holidays, and it was during the holidays that Emile emerged from the cocoon of work that normally surrounded him and properly doted on his family.

Which is not to say the dolls weren't played with, that is a doll's purpose after all, without which it's merely a figurine, a sculpture, and in the average case a not very refined one. Emile's doll's were played with, albeit a special kind of play, conscious of the great importance of the dolls, and for the children playing with the dolls was as much a part of the solemn ritual of the holiday as the decorations and songs and parties. Understandably some of the children were reluctant to let such festivities end, to return the dolls to their massive presentation cases in the grand hallway. That was actually how the doll game began. Each doll, and their corresponding daughter, naturally resisting their ultimate fate, petitioned Emile for a few more minutes in the fire's light. Pair by pair they were judged, and as the judgment was pronounced, one doll went to the cabinet and one daughter to bed, while the other pair remained for a few more minutes among the happy evening chatter of the adults. At first the game was little more than a begging contest, the child's recent behavior being heavily weighted in so that there was an almost court like proceeding. Yet soon it became more of a whimsical challenge to feats of etiquette, memory, or other parlour games. Eventually it evloved into direct competition between the girls with complicated decorum for the issuing of challenges and convoluted and mercurial score keeping. And each year the game began earlier, finally beginning as soon as the dolls were released from captivity.

The more arithmetically inclined among you may be already wondering how there came to be thirteen dolls since Emile had only nine daughters. There were thirteen dolls, because Emile had begun work on three for the daughters that would not survive. Those he locked in his in his workshop office in a glass cabinet behind his desk. The final doll of the thirteen was made in commemoration of the birth of his first and only son, and it became the only boy doll Emile ever made. Of all the dolls Emile made, Amie's was perhaps the finest. Emile had long wished for a son, but had many years since ceased to hope. Reworked quite extensively, practically re-imagined when Emile heard the happy news, the doll was the culmination of Emile's artistry. Obsessively doting on his new son, his own prodigal treasure, Emile envisioned a doll that would rise above the craft arts of which he was an undisputed master. With the most ingenious artifice and clever devices, weighted glass eyes and layered bisque glazes, Emile attempted a naturalism to rival the ancient greek masters. Indeed accounts of the doll suggest that Emile succeeded, eliciting great compliments from some witnesses, while other suggest that the creation was too effective, eerie and uncanny.

Yet Amie never had a chance to play the doll game with his older sisters, or even to play with the doll on his own, for he unexpectedly died in his crib at nineteen months. The boy's death devastated his father, who grew distant, distracted and abandoned his business to his younger brother. Refusing the company even of he became prone to long solitary walks, eventually late into the night. Some who knew him recorded that Emile was 'fighting with God' during these walks, though wether this was a metaphor for introspection or signs of an unhinged reaction to tragedy is not clear. Certainly the magnitude of Emile's reaction was extreme and unusual, for in those days death was not a stranger to the nursery. November of that year Emile disappeared while on a walk along the sea cliffs in his wife's native Catalonia. She was convinced he was dead, but no body was recovered. In any case Emile was never seen again, and as you might expect, the company's current marketing materials make no mention of Emile's despondency and demise.

That was the year the doll game changed, the Christmas it really began.

It was a somber Christmas indeed that year, but forms were to be observed, family expectations to be met. His brother still hoped that Emile might yet appear, again the lost brother returned miraculously. Somewhere in that hustle and bustle of strained joy, haunting guilt, and silent loss, the girls began to whisper. The game was different this year, the winner could go to see father. There was a new viscious urgency that year, as the girls met and prepared their riddles, puzzles and dares. And driven by desperation born of defeat, the case in the workshop was unlocked, the dead sisters joined in the game, and the first penalties entered the game.

It's been nearly two hundred games since that Christmas, and today the dolls have been scattered, practically to every end of the earth. Some of their new owners are familly, distant relations. Some are collectors, very rich or very persistent. Some were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, because no matter where they lie, each year the dolls are still driven to play the game. Through the gardens that lie on the other side of every mirror they lead their owners, inward, onward, towards the old abandoned house, towards their final judgment.

This year one child will receive a very special doll. Our story will begin, and the game will end.

...

Which is by the way of saying that as part of National Guilty Pleasure / Crappy Anime Download Week I've been watching Rozen Maiden. It's pretty good, for what it is, and certainly captures the imagination as basis for some more CLAMP(Clover don'cha know)esque idle musings. It's also delightfully Moe-less, depsite being an excersize in EGL aethetics. Who can resist a haughty porcelin doll ordering around a teenage boy forced into featal servitude?! Best of all (as I've mentioned before) its' part of the delightful new twelve episode a season trend - less filler, less time wasted on drek, less investment in partially tolerable series!

Oh and if you couldn't tell, the above is a product of mine own fevered imagination, a strange reflection of what could have been... did you notice there's actually a fourteenth doll?

Starship Operators

2005-05-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

Now it's no Nazi Space Elves, but it does provide a fair bit of Horatio Hornblower naval drama transposed into an unlikely future of cute anime girls.

Frankly, it sucks in all the expected ways, and it's actually worse in piddly considerations such as characterization and narrative logic. Pish-pish you say, how's the space combat and the ship design? Pretty solid all things considered if you ignore the unlikely pace and set piece nature of each episode's battle.

Normally this kind of show would go into the 'meh' bin, but there's one element that keeps me watching. The stereotypical exploits of our brave ship full of cadets suddenly thrust into active duty, patriotically fighting against all odds the evil expansionist space kingdom are all tempered by the fact that their struggle is the basis of a reality TV show.

Straining belief in a way usually reserved for American sci-fi writers of the techno thriller set (channeling Saucer and Red Thunder here) the story has nonetheless forced us into a situation that I find absolutely fascinating.

To recap, the graduating class of the Space defense Force Academy of independent planet Kibi has just completed the shakedown cruise of the SDF's newest space battleship Amaretsu, when the predictably haughty and expansionist Space Kingdom unexpectedly attacks one of Kibi's other battleships and destroys it. We'll assume this is the unfortunate outcome of months of escalating tensions as the Kingdom attempts to annex parts of Kibi's sovereign territory but this show isn't going to be bother with anything like realistic intergalactic politics - cut to the cute girls commanding starships in noble martial conflict already!

In any case, the government of Kibi immediately surrenders and the Amaretsu is rerouted for decomissioning and absorption into the Kingdom's Space Navy. Of course this means that all the adult instructors must immediately leave the ship leaving it to be piloted by computer with a cafeteria full of young cadets. At this point it's obvious that our pacifist but deeply patriotic young heroes will have no choice but to take the defense of Kibi and the honor of the Space Defense Force into their own hands (Dad having left the keys in the T-Bird, as it were), but what came as an utter shock was the reasonable objection that their ship would be useless even at harassing the Kingdom's forces without basic resupply.

Overcoming their brief bout of plausibility, the crew manages to negotiate a contract with the Galactic News Network, whereby the GNN buys the ship and supports it, and the crew all sign up as employees of a reality TV show about the ship's privateering efforts against the Kingdom. Yes you have to dislocate your jaw to swallow the story so far, but once you make it this far the rest is actually quite entertaining. For example the producers of the insiting that the most visible positions be manned by women, and requiring them to wear makeup on duty.

A handful of good screenshots and a blow by blow of the first two episodes can be found here.
Now if only I could find more fansubs...

Soft Sexism clarifed (albiet briefly)

2005-05-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

I did write a long bit, very humerously and articulately expressing what I meant but I failed to properly sacrifice a cookie at the altar of web based editors and lost it all! Note to self, must blog on the rhetoric of naming in computer concepts.

Point being that even in egalitarian geek heaven (Silicon Valley) the number of girl gamers aspiring to tuck thir hand into their waistcoat and wear pointy hats while fretting over the deployment of their cavalry is significnatly smaller than the contingent who just wants to dance (or alternitavely capture the flag). I'd say the ratio is simillar to that of ladies sport tuning their Camrys (Hollywood's opinions to the contrary).

I'd object to anybody using the ablilty to rebuild an engine as the standard by which women will be able to overcome the sterotype as bad drivers - even if it's being upheld by Miss Nitro of Pasadena County.

That's my point.

Bugger all, Blogger just deleted two hours worth of drafts

2005-04-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

By the ghost of J

2005-04-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

By the way, I know at least a couple of women who would break you like a twig for filing the control of massive armies as "male interest" - sure, you went on to cover your ass in the following paragraph, but that wouldn't save you!
You say back to us as though there was a reasonable chance we - or at least I - could significantly add to what you've written. [Though, yes, I know a couple of your readers, and they're each and every one better informed about MMORPGs than I am.]

Still, let me just formally direct your attention to a fairly high profile addition to the world of trans-virtual economies - Sony's decided to join in.

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2005/04/sonybay.html

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2005-04-20

Mark Jacobs, from Mythic, pitches a roaring fit . . .

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=9464§ion=feature&email=

. . . which is really worth a read. Those of you who've devoted more thought to game design - particularly MMOG design - than I can perhaps get into the question of the extent to which revenue generation will distort the practice of gameplay (his comments on camping issues alone are due some real consideration).

That said, there's obviously a difference in intent between Second Life and, y'know, most of the crap one can pick up for fifty bucks a box at Best Buy. What you're experiencing actually sounds like one of the more fun sociology experiments of recent years . . . .
That said, your basic point is a very good one. The second online games introduced crafting systems, we developed a need for less constrictive metrics for "success" in gaming. God knows I mostly played FF XI - when I did play FF XI - less for the thrill of bulking out my Red Mage than for the pleasure of acting like a doofus around overly polite Japanese girls.

. . .

That's what I choose to believe, and I'm sticking to it.

Regardless, the social protocols of these games - and, hell, as you suggest, their creative aspects - are increasingly the points upon which innovation distinguishes them from their localized, single-player origins. Pretending otherwise is kinda missing the point.

My two cents, anyway.

Of pixels and profit

2005-04-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Let's start with this...

MMORPG profits? Well, for some players/real estate moguls, it's at least in the thousands.
UK Telegraph article says so!

Then there's the question of sweatshops . . .
. . . about which I'm not really competent to speak. Do read some of the comments, though!
As for the publishers . . . well, I assume Blizzard's doing okay these days.

I was really wondering how my intrepid co-conspirators are doing?

Me? Well a certain unnamed company has now bought me an iPod shuffle for the priviledge of playing their game. That's right, I don't just get "free play" for participation in an MMORPG with significant monthly fees but small profit play - oh and I've generated intellectual property which I could resell for even greater profit at some point in the future. I must talk to my Tax attorney if I ever do make more than $100 on how to declare my hobby's income.

Sorry, one step back to provide context. Some multiplayer computer games allow you to create or amass virtual objects or wealth. Some folks spend their time "playing" so successfully that they have quite a lot. Many channel exist (within the terms of service and in violation of depending on the game) for exchanging virtual wealth with "Real Life" wealth (the metaphysics and economics area topic I don't wanna touch now!). The above articles have good pointers on more background - IGE and GOM are two companies that facilitate this exchange (see also eBay)

For example *I* play one of these games and (licitly I might add) on a weekly basis cash out my in game "earnings" into PayPal. From there I get money into my back account, where it's used to pay my credit card bill that contains my monthly bills for the game. Right now it all goes back into the game and totally covers my 'gaming expenses'. I have some left over, but using Excel I'm tracking it toward future payment of fees and (hopefully) an upgrade to a higher tier (bigger monthly bill in exchange for more gameplaying capabilities).

Sound like work? Well it is. But the funny thing is, running a shop *is* a fun game, especially when it's a shop that makes and sells crazy geeky stuff that I would have been making anyhow!

As for sweatshops, there was recently a little publicity in Second Life...

More evidence of the phenomenon? Maybe, but I doubt it, because the week before we had an article on Corey Doctorow of Boing Boing fame, who also happened to have written a bizarrely utopian and chauvinistic science fiction story about the triumph of geek over evil capitalist overlords running virtual sweatshops in MMORPG worlds. Now that's a convenient coincidence!

Actually I'd wanted to bitch about Anda's Game as soon as I read it so here's my beef. It's got a weak fairytale (complete with fairy godmother) "happily ever after" ending that undercuts a lot of the good characterization and engaging conflicting agendas built up over the course of the story. The theme of Corey's work seems to be, you can be a healthy well adjusted MMORPG geek working for social justice as you indulge in vapid entertainment. I'm very disappointed because the conflict of physical health and social adjustment in and out of the virtual world was raised quite realistically, but was solved by a wave of the magic wand. The sweatshop stuff was good, though the (on-going and real conflict in many MMORPGS) that I expected between the "elite players" and the "gold farmers" never materialized and the moral quandaries that loomed deftly avoided (and unresolved) by making the only conflict be between groups of the evil exploitive "gold farmers". Even the personal 'irreconcilable' conflict between Anda and her friend got patched up with magic fairytale juice.

Story telling score = cop-out!
Feel good geek ideology score = it goes to eleven!

Meh. Also I *hated* the way that achievement for 'girl gamers' was only ever rendered in terms of male interests and achievements. You knew the fairy god mother was a good gamer because she'd been the general of massive armies, not because she beat all comers at block dropping games, could out dance the boys with her eyes closed (or to take an existing example) generated a four figure monthly income through her line of virtual fashion boutiques.

Am I saying these things are 'naturally' the domain of women and they should stick to that and not say study math and science at Harvard? No I'm not.

Rather I am decrying the other soft bigotry that says "if you don't succeed according to my metrics - which happen not to match your interests or even possibly your brain chemistry - I can't possibly consider you a success."

Back to you...

J's being shy.. so I'll out him in his entirety...

2005-04-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Papam habemus, dammit.

Is Sin City worth seeing? I think I've already rumbled about this elsewhere, but . . . well, strictly in terms of the visuals, the answer's got to be yes. Miller's own sense of cinematography translates really, *really* well.

In terms of the story/stories, I'm increasingly thinking that I'd rather have seen an adaptation of "300." Somehow, ol' Frank's handling of the Spartans at Thermopylae strikes me as more compelling - in its own weird way - than does a lengthy exploration of the extremes of pulp sensibility. Maybe it's just that it's easier to believe in the consequences of a grand throwdown between the Greeks and the Persians.

Of course, then you lose Jessica Alba in a cowgirl costume. Hrm.

MMORPG profits? Well, for some players/real estate moguls, it's at least in the thousands.

http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/01/09/ccmmorpg09.xml

Then there's the question of sweatshops . . .

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2005/02/will_the_real_v.html

. . . about which I'm not really competent to speak. Do read some of the comments, though!

As for the publishers . . . well, I assume Blizzard's doing okay these days.

The cultural significance of the transforming fighter jet? Sir, you have my attention!

Actually, I don't know how far back the Transformer cult goes in Japan. I seem to remember that the earliest toys we saw here had actually been culled from Japanese Diacron and Microman/Micronauts lines - which came out . . . um, when? Probably the late `70s, if not earlier. [At the very least, I'm pretty sure that 1978 is when the Micronauts comic book - based on the domestic line of the toys - kicked up in the States.]

So what was in the air in Japan then? Back to you!

Cigar smoking? Enh. Seems very mid-`90s to me, somehow. If you're going to undermine your health and pick up distinctive odors, you might as well be cutting-edge about it.

;->

Let's see who bites...

2005-04-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

What shall I throw out as bait?

Habemus Papam?

Is Sin City worth seeing?

How much money are we making off our MMORPGs?

What is the cultural significance of the transforming fighter jet?

Should I take up cigar smoking?

Why is sex the least interesting thing I could think of adding to this list?