I've moved.

http://tanekakoko.wordpress.com/



Head on over, I just transferred everything.

Movies 7/21

Applseed

I sat up and said "Hmmm" when I saw that this was based on a manga by Masamune Shirow. So I figured that this had a better than average chance of being good. I'm not yet familiar with the manga, I just got it after the I got the film, so this my first encounter with Applseed. I was not disappointed. Excellent story involving revenge, humankind saving, and a love story is presented using a combination of animation techniques that includes 3d, motion capture, and cell creates a really entertaining film. This film is from 2004 and is the second take at Appleseed. I'll be interested in tracking down the 1988 film for comparison's sake. Anyway, I recommend this film highly.

Pan's Labyrinth

Guillermo del Toro has created an excellent adult Faerie story. Fantastic to look at and interestingly set in the early years of Franco's Spain. Del Torro is as creepy as ever, remember Devil's Backbone?. Well it is that level of tension, add in a family's love of their daughter, some almost sadistic torture scenes and you've got a really good movie. I have really started to like his work. I was always impressed but he has created a truly distinct movie.

Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex

This is the first TV Series based on the famous Ghost in the Shell of Masamune Shirow. It is a mind-bender. Too many stories and ideas to have a go at right now but, I will talk about that which, as a Librarian, hit me most. That is how information is acquired, processed and used. In this world there really is no privacy, everyone is wired and can be watched in many ways. They, the powers that be, either already know everything about you or quickly can acquire that information. In the name of security, mind you. There is simply no way to avoid being caught in this world's electronic web/surveillance. Scary really.

You think the current web is fab, it is by the way, this world's has to be at least two to three orders of magnitude greater in scope. Truly it is all out there, somewhere. Think of all the digital book initiatives happening now are done and continued to expand? Not beyond the realm of possibility, barring a planetary meltdown of catastrophic proportions these initiatives will only continue and become ever more comprehensive, here is UPenn's listing of online books. Think of the variety of databases out there. These will only increase people. (No doubt I or folks like me will simply exist as people at the end of a video/chat reference interview, providing links and/or pertinent documents. Not a bad thing but face reality, human librarians are expensive creatures and I believe currently exist because traditional library users don't want to do without, we're part of a tradition and people like this tradition but money talks, sad but true. Let's all enjoy while it lasts!!!)

Wow, I digress.

Add in pervasive cybernetics and the possibilities for hacking humans implicit in that tech and off you go. The politics of privacy, human augmentation, religion, economics and well, pick a topic out the news and this series and the follow-on second season touch on it. Really these series underline for me what an amazing world we could create with all our tech and just how dangerous that tech could be when used for good old human things like greed, power and the usual amusements. Think of how much more vicious our world could get as we create all this amazing tech that theoretically is there to make our lives more convenient but demands that we share more of our-selves and our private lives in order to gain access to these conveniences.

Excellent for landscape, architecture and other stuff

All kinds of fun and cool stuff.

Afro Samurai

Afro Samuri is great stuff: excellent animation, interesting characters, revenge tale, "modern yet feudal" Japan is an interesting setting/technology and what else, well just watch it its really good stuff. Go watch and enjoy.

Ciao Facundo

Well, bye-bye Facundo. Not sure at all how I fell about this deal. Age and experience for youth and well Erp-Fu? We'll see in a few weeks if Vanney settles in well. Hopefully it works out, but I just don't feel good about this and I hope I'm wrong. Who knows maybe our style will suit him. I wonder how the locker room feels about this?

DCU 4(1) - 1(1) Colorado

"The first 25, 30 minutes we were flat, the same way we came out against Salt Lake," Perkins said. "Fortunately, they didn't capitalize on a couple things. Second half, we collected ourselves here [in the locker room] and came back out fighting."

Well said Mr. Perkins. Good game and closer than final score indicates. Alot of the guys had good second halves, Adderly, Moose, Fred, Gomez, and Perkins. This team is still giving away alot chances though and well, as long as we score more than anyone they can work on that.

Speaking of defenders and according to Steven Goff: "After the game, according to sources close to the team, United was trying to finalize a trade that would send Argentine defender Facundo Erpen to Colorado for former U.S. national team defender Greg Vanney." Whoa that's interesting, what's the deal, Colorado is the home of old DC defenders?

Cheers

Solo con tu pareja

Alfonso Cuaron, director of Y tu mama tambien made this delightful, mildly surreal and, at times, quite serious film in 1991. This movie is about relationships, people growing up, AIDS and Mexico City. The humor in this film is just great, endlessly poking fun at the oddities of men, women and their relationships while treating the serious issue of AIDS with respect. In this film all relationships are heterosexual and it is in this community that issues surrounding AIDS and its impact on individuals are discussed. I also quite enjoyed the lazy pacing of the film, it added a certain dreaminess to the film and that may be what I'm calling surreal. Well, anyway, here is a far better synopsis from the Criterion Collection, the version that I saw, than I have time write.

Found an awesome photography link

So I found the above link here. This is done by a photographer SAIGA Yuji and he documents the story of an artificial island, Gunkanjima, that has now been abandoned. Strange, evocative, and well sad in a way.

USA 2 (0) -1 (1) Mexico

Wow! Comeback win versus El Tri!!!! Wow! Salute the guts the boys showed!!!! I was quite honestly shocked. After the Sanchez's triple save and us being a goal down, I said to myself that it wasn't our day. We were playing well but had run into a red hot keeper. Then the pk and off we go. Excellent counter-attacking and Benny F., wow that was hard to do and gorgeous to see. Mexico kept coming and Tim HOWARD came up big! Wow. Been a long time since I felt that way about USMNT.

Realistically now there are still problems with team but right now I'm ignoring them. Something tells me we will see plenty of USMNT faults on display very soon.

Cheers

RSL 2 - 1 DCU

Wretched.

Good stuff this week-end

Busy week-end with lot of stuff going on.

So the easy part. US Mens National Team beats Panama. Great and we should, nuff said.

DCU beats Chicago. YES YES YES !!!!! We played well, have played well these last two games. Chicago was just at 6's & 7's for the fist half, clueless. They were depleted and we pounded 'em like we should, unlike when we played the LaLas. The fact that we didn't play down to the opposition and took full advantage is a good thing. We played our game regardless, good attitude if you ask me.

Dr Who - The Master has returned!!!! Derek Jacobi(Cadfael fame) plays The Master, initially, but then he is killed and he regenerates. Really good stuff. I had my reservations about this season but the last three episodes have really turned things around. Turning into a really good season. Grab 'em however you can!!!!

Friday Film Fest, love lazy fridays!!

So what did I watch? Basilisk, Ghost in the Shell (yes again), Final Fantasy VII, and Animatrix (yes again). Also I played around a bit with Suse Linux live cd on the Sony and it worked well.

But first the movies:



Basilisk

Basilisk is an animated tv series. It's a Romeo and Juliet set in feudal Japan. The warring families are, you guessed it, Ninjas. Yup that's right and it brings all the standard requirements for that sort of tale, and it is great fun. Looks fantastic, great animation and it is well plotted. A few flashback episodes slow things down but the background stories are needed. If you like this kind of stuff, then it is a great example of period storytelling genre, if you don't well, it could be a good introduction.



Ghost in the Shell

If you like anime and you haven't seen this yet, Go Away and Don't Come Back until you do! That's it, step away from the computer and GO GET THIS MOVIE!!! Yes it is important. It is gorgeous combination of traditional animation with digital. The color palette in this movie is stunning and a great soundtrack. Interesting characters and excellent plotting tells the story of an individual in search of meaning. Really if you have any interest in anime and have not seen this, please do! If you don't like it, fair enough, but I think you will.



Final Fantasy VII

NOT a sequel in any way to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It is a movie of the game with the same name. It's a cool flick, great to look at, enough story to keep interested (post apocalyptic world, planet in ruins, good guys save world but must resolve personal issues first - c'mon you know the plot). Get some beer in and enjoy some harmless fun.



The Animatrix

Yeah Yeah it's been around forever, like its the Matrix dude, whatever, get over it. This is good stuff, Matrix or not. Again,see Ghost in the Shell, if you have any interest in anime and have not seen this, Go Away and Don't Come Back until you've seen these various shorts. For me this is not a money making spin-off of The Matrix, these are almost all quality works that stand on their own, mixing a variety of styles and techniques. Renaissance or whatever the heck the name of the background story is a bit weak.




Suse Linux.

I used this a long time ago on my ol' 333 Pentium MMX, which I thought was the greatest box ever, man, and now I think my phone has more computing power less than six years later. So anyroad, I was playing with a live cd of 10.1. Nice stuff. I must say it was a clearer process of interaction than using Ubuntu. To be fair, it could be my familiarity with Suse rather than any problem with Ubuntu, tried Ubuntu thursday and I just couldn't get comfortable with the information it was feeding back to me, not enough and vague. That said, playing with the two definitely got the Linux bug back. But I've decided to hold off installing on my laptop. Speaking of my laptop, I've got Vista tweaked the way I think it should run ( about 3/4s effeciency of OS X is the about as good as I've got it running) and well, if it ain't broke...I think I'll see if can't find a refurb job and play with that.

By the way, Vista, from an avowed dis liker of all things MicroSoft, is the easiest Windows I've used (I have used 98, 2000, ME, NT, XP). My Mac blows it away for usability, memory management and other features too numerous to mention, but for a Windows OS, well it only took a little time to tweak it the way I want and I didn't have to replace everything on it to make it work. Now is that Windows or is it Sony, honestly seeing as Sony send patches, 3 so far, to make Vista work better with the hardware I have to lean towards it being Sony. Anyway, for what its worth, if you've got Vista on your machine (by choice or otherwise), look up "vista tweaks" online and use which ones you feel comfortable applying, they really help and they don't take long to put in place.

Good Stuff on Race and Diversity in Fiction

Ghanageek raises some very strong points/issues here concerning the current state of Science Fiction and particularly about the dearth of non-white authors in the field.

"How to promote Diversity in Fiction Markets" from The Angry Black Woman.

Migraines, I hate 'em

Just getting over a massive migraine from yesterday. Feels like I was drinking Budworser all day, man what a nasty one.

So US men's national team played their way through our Gold Cup first round group. Won all three games as we should have. Some big things: Gooch and Pablo need to stop collecting yellow cards and the Bradley/Nowak combo seems to have the team playing a style that really works well against CONCACAF teams, so did Bruce but I think we're playing a more pressing style that punishes the bunker and counter tactics that were being used against the USMNT previously. I saw only one bad half of ball from the boys and that was in the first game. Other than that they were too much for the other three teams, but as I said we should have been so the jury's out but I'm intrigued.

Quarterfinals on Sat. so the level of difficulty should go up. I'm looking forward to it.

So I took a Briggs-Myers and I'm a ......

iNTj - Mastermind Rational. Yup I'm a one percenter, Woot Woot Woot.

DCU 4(1)-1(1)Red Bulls

YES YES YES!!!!!

1. We beat the Red Bulls
2. Did not quit when suffering from a very poor referee performance, heat/humidity, conceding a lead and going a man down.
3. Goals Goals GOALS!!!!!! Benny OLSEN!!!!!!

Nice Post article on Benny and game.

Yup a good day out. Best game ever, no but best game this year? I think the closest we've had yet to a complete game this year in MLS, well done. Full strength we had good possession and played with tempo. I get the feeling that this is the way Tommy wants the boys to play, i.e. with guts and no stopping. Played through the refereeing and kept looking to press and attack. Even after going a man down! (Three goals!!!) Credit Tom for getting them out of the malaise that started last year.

Biggest criticism: still giving away too many chances and thank you for missing some easy chances Red Bulls, Same old Jersey....

Definitely a convincing and spirited win, thank-you boys.

Cheesy David Bowie vid for Heroes

Ultra Vivid Scene and Cocteau Twins

Or how I downloaded 71 songs in less than twenty minutes!!!!! Yup it was eighties night chez Bibliotheker. Delightful dream pop from the late eighties and early nineties. I got my hands on UVS' Joy: 1967 - 1990 and wow. I had completely forgotten what a wonderful record that was. Just missed it at the time. I was listening to My Bloody Valentine alot and I'm sure I was just too caught up in their more power rock/pop. Oh well, what can I say. Joy is just a pure pop delight, genius? Maybe but what caught my ear was I kept hearing little bits of Andrian Belew type guitar chops in the songs and that gave a bit of quirky King Crimson touches and when combined with some the obvious Lou Reed and MBV touches creates something that I now hear as far more unique than I thought. Just a really fun, rich, and intriguing sonic mix.



Next up Cocteau Twins. So I downloaded Lullabies to Violaine, Vols. 1 and 2 and well that was 59 songs right there, yikes. 59 Cocteau Twins songs what was I thinking!!! But hey in all honesty it takes that many songs to do justice to this band. This is all the eps and singles from '82 and '96. It shows just how much this band changed and grew over the years. Well what can I say that probably hasn't been said before. If you like dreamy pop music that is well crafted, rich in ideas, and subversive in quiet ways than check these guys out.

That was a bit of a let down!

USMNT 4(2) v China 1(1) - We are supposed to win this sort of fixture aren't we. Played decent ball in the first half and then countered in the second to good effect. We won, we were supposed too. So the real test is coming up later in the Gold Cup and other events, I'll judge USMNT then and until that, well ESB is my friend.

Okay DC United. Yikes that first twenty minutes was a disaster. LA should've been killing us, thank LA for being wretched. Changed formation, stabilized a bit and well, when that's the best you do in 45 mins... sad. Second half well we left two points in LA, played well enough in the second to steal three points, sad. Oh well. Not a loss but, not a good feeling either.

Bertrand Burgalat SSssound of Music

Bertrand Burgalat The Sssound Of Mmmusic
Uploaded by moulti

DCU vs. LaLas and USMNT vs. China

So big day in Soccerland today. Will the boys take out the LaLas out in CA. Will MNT do well against the Chinese. We will have to see.
For my money the match v the LaLas is tricky. They've been on bad run and need the victory more so than usual. We're on a bit of roll and want to maintain the momentum. So sounds good right, HA. It's the MLS regular season and you never ever should get yr hopes up but, dang I want another win. I really want a convincing win and not another nail-biter!!!!

My Bloody Valentine - Soon



PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED - Flowers of Romance

Quay Brothers

Surreal, creepy, beautiful, and not in a hurry to tell their tales. The Quay Brothers are twins from PA who create haunting/haunted puppet animations. I would have to say that they are not for everyone, say like Joel-Peter Witkin at his best, and mercifully the Quay Brothers do not descend into campy shock for the sake of shock as Witkin can do at times. Recommended for any-one with patience and black sense of humor.

Video for His Name is Alive



Commercial for FSN



Joel-Peter Witkin's Las Meninas

Here at the Millerntor things are a bit different

Enjoy this brief intro to FC St. Pauli though it is a bit out of date.



Interested? FC St. Pauli Amis is a site run by a friend who has a strong connection to the club. They update regularly with news and info.

Amon Tobin vid mania.

Amon Tobin "El Cargo"



Amon Tobin in his Cujo mode

Amon Tobin & Cujo - Traffic
Uploaded by arnaud34

Trailer #1 from Amon Tobin's Foley Room

Amon Tobin - Foley Room trailer #2
Uploaded by Pyxmalion

And Trailer #2

Foley Room trailer #2
Uploaded by Pyxmalion

Toronto FC 1 - DCU 2

Yes, an away win. Sadly I was unable to see the game. Work ya know! Reading the boards it sounds like we battled well and deserved the win. Though I'm getting the impression that alot of fans are waiting to be convinced by this years edition, myself included. Given our results so far, I say fair enough. Outside of winning first place, the regular season is one long grind and not of the greatest importance and as fans we do need to keep our feet on the ground. What is important is getting the team right. By that I mean right mix of Healthy players, right tactics with those players and a positive attitude. I'm getting the impression that Tommy understands that, as evidenced by some of the changes he has been making to the starting line-up and his subs. Credit to him for going for the win today as well, a willingness to go for the win if it there for the taking is nice to see. So yeah, winning as often as we can during the regular season is important to me as a fan but after our start this regular season looks like a rollercoaster ride. Its on upswing now but .....

And that is one of joys of fandom. That up and down swing which has you swinging between hopelessness and joy. Maybe that's what I'm seeing in this team right now. There are bits and pieces of something really good here but it seems to be not far away from really bad as well. That anticipation of something good is addictive. So in hope of Saturday v Houston.

Highlights



Now come on St. Pauli!!!!

Amon Tobin Verbal

China Mieville

China Miéville is a British author of what he describes as “weird fiction”. This description references the horror tales H.P. Lovecraft. Miéville is considered as a part of the New Weird literary movement which draws inspiration from Lovecraft and other early writers of weird tales. The authors in this genre often combine elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery and westerns in an effort to expand the storytelling opportunities within their works. Miéville’s fiction uses elements of various genres, strong characterization, compelling storytelling and a dose of politics to create award winning novels that would be of interest for readers looking to move beyond the sometimes limited parameters of genre fiction.

Miéville was born in Norwich, England and has lived in London since his youth. He has a B.A. in social anthropology from Cambridge and a master’s with distinction from the London School of Economics. He has written a number of books; KING RAT, PERDIDO STREET STATION, THE SCAR, THE IRON COUNCIL, and UN LUN DUN. LOOKING FOR FOR JAKE is a collection of short works. Miéville has also written a number of articles with a range of topics that include architecture, Marxism, world building in fantasy writing, and a bibliography for aspiring Socialists. The topics listed here read as list of a few of the themes which appear in his fiction. Other themes would include personal choice, physical and spiritual transformation, socio-economic struggle, technology, racial and cultural diversity, architecture and betrayal.

Mieville's reputation rests on his first three books; PERDIDO STREET STATION, THE SCAR, and THE IRON COUNCIL. In these books he has created the expansively realized world of Bas-Lag that is both familiar and alien. Bas-Lag is based upon an industrialized Victorian England and has all the smoke, filth and social ills of that age. New Crobuzon is the main city of Bas-Lag and in PERDIDO STREET STATION this sprawling Dickensian city becomes a character in it's own right. The fact that New Crobuzon is industrialized and the characters embrace urbanization is in opposition to the bucolic settings and pre-industrial nostalgia of many fantasy writers.

Bas-Lag is populated with humans and a menagerie of non-human life forms and cultures that add to the otherness of this imagined world. Creatures such as the scarab beetle headed Khepri, the Garuda with an avian head and feet merged with human body, the Cactacae plant people, the frog like Vodyanoi and others mingle with humans. An important creature that exists in this world is the Remade. The Remade were once human or otherwise who, as a result of a conviction by the city of New Crobuzon's judiciary, have been transformed or "Remade". This process grafts organic and/or non-organic appendages to the victims' bodies. The addition then serve to enslave the Remade and to mark them as both convicted and freaks.

Mieville uses the alien races, Remades and humans in a large cast of characters who drive his stories. These characters include scientists, linguists, artist, street urchins, socialist revolutionaries, blue collar industrial workers, thieves, beggars and more. He takes these characters on epic journeys, both physically and spiritually, during which horrible and amazing thins will transform them and their world. Bus as a self-described pulpist Mieville will make these journeys full of action and adventure in the form shoot-outs, revolutionary street battles, vampires, pirates battling at sea, unknown beasts in the wilderness, magic, espionage and political crises. There is a lot going on in Mevilles's fiction and a poor writer could lose the plot amongst all the description. Mieville does not and it is a testament to his skill that his characters and their development have always been the life blood of his work.

Novels
King Rat (1998)
Perdido Street Station (2000)
The Scar (2002)
The Tain (novella, 2002)
Iron Council (2004)
Un Lun Dun (February 2007)

Short fiction
"Highway Sixty One Revisited" (in Young Words, 1986)
"Looking for Jake" (in Neonlit Vol. 1, edited by Nicholas Royle, 1999)
"Different Skies" (in Brit-pulp!, edited by Tony White, 1999)
"An End to Hunger" (in Book of Internet Stories, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, 2000)
"Details" (in The Children of Cthulhu, edited by John Pelan and Benjamin Adams, 2002)
"Familiar" (in Conjunctions: 39, The New Wave Fabulists, edited by Peter Straub, 2002)
"Buscard's Murrain" (in The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts, 2003)
"Reports of Certain Events in London" (in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, edited by Michael Chabon, 2004)

Collections
Looking for Jake (collection, 2005)

Nonfiction
Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law (nonfiction, 2005)
"At the Mountains of Madness": An Introduction, 2005
"The Borribles": An Introduction, 2001

Bibliography is copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Mieville#Bibliography, 05/17/07

Interviews

Recent Movies - Multipass!!!

1. Fifth Element - Bought it, love it and now have seen it, well more times than I can count. Always have loved it, always will love it. Okay I haven't named my cat Corbin Dallas but still it is a classic in terms of look, story, and fun. Watch it if you haven't and watch it again if you have.!!!!!

2. Louis Malle - Phantom India and Calcutta. These are beautiful movies, just gorgeous. They were created in 1968-1970. A fascinating moment in time in the world and these films show India in interesting times as well. He is critical most of the time, not in a mean-spirited way, he just seems to find India absurd in its contradictions. He may be right. I've never been to India. I've lived in W. Africa for three years and much in the films seemed very similar to me. Where I lived there were no massive temples as the Hindu faith has but otherwise Africa was filled with extreme contradictions as well, so the film didn't shock me. The politics though, yikes, those were strange. Right-Wing v. Left-Wing communists. A placard at a rally: "They call it Gandhism, We call Fascism". These movies have some very powerful moments indeed.



3. Pitch Black (The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black) - The only Vin Diesel films I like are the Riddick films and this is the better of the two. It is just a good fun, creepy little adventure flick. Definitely worth the price to track down and rent/own.

Books 4/20 - 5/9

"Let's be about it"


Well not many new books. I've gone back and reread some of David Weber's Honor Harrington Series. There are seventeen books in this series and some do not involve Harrington, though most do, and the ones that don't are set in the same universe or Honorverse. I enjoyed the first ten novels in the series, "On Basilisk Station" thru "War of Honor". In these ten I felt as though Weber got the balance right between the military, action, aspects of stories and characters. Throw in some fascinating science, economics, references to the age of sail (Napoleonic War era, Nelson that sort of thing), some pretty interesting alien species and you've got yourself some cracking good space opera. If you must call it something then hard military space opera will get close, if you must. Really the only down-side I can think of is the military aspects of it. If you can't overlook the violence inherent in military sci-fi (insert Grail comment, go ahead I don't mind) and the regular killing off of characters well, then this may not be for you. If you can or you like military sci-fi and prefer that the cast of characters change then I highly recommend this series. Another point very much in this series favor is that Weber does not, I repeat, does not write the same book over and over again. What about the remaining seven novels in series? I don't know, I feel like they got too mushy. I preferred Harrington in full Valkyrie mode of the early books myself.




"Majestrum"

"Majestrum" is my first encounter with the author, Matthew Hughes. Based on this book I think I've got to start tracking down his other work, his web-site has some interesting tasters to get one started. So I got interested in this particular book by all the favourable references to good ol' Sherlock and the fact that it was set in the far far future, I mean science fiction and mystery in one book, you might as well put a pint of Guinness and shot of Knappogue Castle whiskey in front of me! However, combining my two favorite genres has often disappointed and so with a bit of trepidation I dug in.

I was not disappointed. The main character of this work is Henghis Hapthorn who is a discriminator, ie detective. His method is one of pure rationality or so he thinks. That is one the major themes of the book, rational thought v. intuitive thought, or as it called in this novel "suggestive association". Hapthorn's reliance on rationality is Holmesian as is his arrogance. He is arrogant about his methods, his successes, and his place in what he sees as his world and his times. His world is "Old Earth" which is our Earth but in this universe it just one of ten thousand planets populated by humans after a number of Diasporas. This world is rendered in vivid and concrete terms by Hughes. This Earth has gained a type monarchy, the Archonate, and it has become very fussy about protocols, class and etiquette. I had a vision of Europe in the 16Th century until the early 18Th century, in terms of social structure. Obviously this is a space faring time and technology that underpins this universe is appropriately complex. His times are "rational", without magic, but that is changing towards a period of magic. That imminent change forms one the crises for Henghis Hapthorn. The others are number of cases, discriminations, that he is employed to resolve. The the main discrimination that he must perform is complex and allows Hughes to discuss rational thought v. intuitive thought at length. This results in the book spending large amounts of time directed at the internal affairs of Hapthorn. The danger of becoming bogged down in these internal crises is avoided by a brisk writing style and healthy dollop of action sequences that force the characters out of themselves.

The novel is brief totalling 210 pages. The language used by the characters can be described as dense. Some times this can be difficult but worth the occasional obscure term as it just adds to the otherness of the novel's universe. The desciption of the language can also describe the novel; at times difficult but worth the effort.

My Goodness it has been awhile!!!!

Okay so let's start of with DCU.

Thursday 3 May we get a draw v. the Revs. 45 mins without conceding in the 1rst half. Good. Concede goal early in 2nd half. Bad. Quickly tie game up. Good. Continue to press and force their keeper into some fine saves. Good. Hit post with shot. Bad Luck. However I saw good attitude and good effort. We just didn't get the result.

Sunday 6 May, Chivas. Are we up to it? Again 45 mins without conceding in the 1rst half. Good. Goal conceded early in second, by Chivas. Excellent. Press on and get second goal. Excellent. They get one back and we hold on. Yes, signs of life are present. Like what I saw from Kpene, Moose, and others.

Key thing from these two games: Heart. Yup we saw some fine efforts over these two games. Simms against revos was impressive and the aforementioned Kpene.

"So do Press on, Slack not your zeal", as the hymn goes!!!!

"Border Radio" and "Fires on the Plain"

So what did I do on my 40th birthday? Laid around and watched movies!





So the first movie, "Border Radio". What an odd film. Done on the cheap in the eighties by a trio of UCLA Film School students using b&w film and a number LA punk luminaries. This little gem tells the tale of one man's existential crisis and its effect on those people around him. The movie took 4 years to complete and in the end cost in 80,000 dollar range to make. It is DIY before that was a cable channel. Anyroad the length of production time shows in all kinds of continuity errors, editing mistakes and most importantly, these guys had time to wait for the right light. There are some truly beautiful shots to be seen in this movie. Another casualty of the production length was the story, it just kept changing and reality this isn't bad thing because the movie gets progressively lighter and funnier, so no harm done really. So is it classic, sure for its spirit and simply being a brave effort
.




"Fires on the Plain", what to say? Appalling, terrifying, um let's see what else,a meditational portrait of what happens to men in war? I don't know really but it just does an exellent job showing the effects of war on soldiers, especially ones who are losing, starving and going out of their minds. This movie created by the man who brought us Burmese Harp is not for the faint hearted. It is set at the end of WWII in the Philippines and some Japanese soldiers are losing the war and their humanity. It is odd because it feels like a documentary. There really isn't a series of physical events just a slow slide into madness and murder. The movie however isn't hard to watch in that it is not a gore-fest. The actors are excellent and play the roles well. There even some darkly humorous moments. So do I recommend it, yes but, it is creepy and affective. If you want your war movies heroic and apple pie warm, this isn't for you.

Serge Gainsbourg

Who? Serge Gainsbourg was a brilliant, obnoxious, iconoclastic, often drunk French singer and provocateur. Yes, he was and is an Important Artist of Our Times. Why? Well because to him nothing and everything was sacred. Sure he let everyone and everything that pissed him off have a taste of temper. But was he just always ranting? No he wasn't, he could also express the joy and wonder to be found in this world when he found it. Don't speak French? No worries check out Mick Harvey's two excellent collections of Gainsbourg's songs "Intoxicated Man" and "Pink Elephants". These don't deviate all that far from the originals but enough to freshen them up and bring them swinging into these times.

Highly reccomended if you like retro-pop specifically or good pop music generally.

Here's Harvey's video of Harley Davidson from his MySpace site.

Harley Davidson

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Burmese Harp

This is a 1950's Japanese film that the deals with the changes that come over a Japanese soldier in Burma at the close of WWII as he deals with wasteful deaths and the souls of the dead. The movie is shot in b&w, image above is from 1985 color remake, and is attractive to look at but, it is not beautiful. The actors used in the movie are all very ordinary looking, which is a strength. These two simplifying aspects force the viewer to consider the process of change that the main character goes through as he finds his life's calling in Burma. It is a sad, slow-moving contemplative type of movie who's soundtrack, when the soldiers aren't singing, gently pushes scenes along. I enjoyed the movie and I disagree with other commentators that the image of Japanese soldiers as happy-go-lucky choirboys is misleading. Yes the Japanese commented atrocities, they weren't the first and they won't be the last. This movie isn't about soldiering it is about a soldier and his life altering confrontations with death.

Trailer

My oh My just Dreadful few days

DCU loses to the w w wan wizards. 2-4 no less. The third was just a punch below the belt. Well, 3 man back-line just isn't cutting it. The rally to two all was good then but, as I said, the third goal right before half was just brutal.

Anyroad life goes on and I get to work Monday and all the work I did on Friday for the project due Monday is gone. Power outage on Sat and a bunch lost files. Oh happy day!!!! Well I rebuilt parts of the project but I'm put back a few days. We'll see.

So any good news but of course.

Watched the entirety of Strange, see picture above. Nice supernatural thriller, chasing demons, so and so forth. Nice 6 part series plus pilot. Given the usual "Why are you trusting some-one you just met" moments, the interactions between the major characters are believable and understandable given their histories as explained within series. So we have well crafted characters. What about the world it is set in? It's our world with modern,UK, concerns. So good characters and believable setting lead to a worthy watch. PS not a Buffy clone!!!!

Also watched the last two Dr. Who installments. Nice
1. The Shakespeare Code.
2. Gridlock

So are we to make of this year's Dr. Who? Well the stories are fun and not to taxing, yet. By that I mean the stories are concentrating on action and danger and a bit character development. Just enough development to keep things moving without over explaining and slowing things down. The special effects are modern but are continuing the intentionally cheesy bits to keep the "Dr. Who feel". I especially enjoyed "The Shakespeare Code". (Double double, toil and trouble) The story is draws on the idea of a muse and how the muse may well be using the inspired.

Vonnegut and Libraries

Kurt Vonnegut on libraries.

"While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."



from: http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,1691370,00.html © 2005 Kurt Vonnegut Extracted from A Man Without a Country: A Memoir of Life in George W Bush's America, to be published by Bloomsbury on February 6, price £14.99

Unleash the Librarians (even if they are halflings!!!)

No joke people -> Librarians save the world!!!!!!!

The Sea Beggars or Les gueux de mer

Les gueux de mer

Well just finished book 2 of Paul Kearney's Sea Beggars series and what fun. So to get you up to speed. Sea Beggars is a series written by Paul Kearney. It contains two books so far: Mark of Ran (bk 1) and This Forsaken Earth (bk2). This is action adventure, nautical fiction and fantasy all rolled up into one nice beach ready or metro commutable package. Forrester and O'Brian fans this one is especially for you. So we have the main character, Rol Cortishane, who is truly a piece of work and who has a lot "maturing" to do. Over the course of the two books he does change, mature, in a believable manner and the sequence of events that shape him are well descibed. No miraculous changes here, Rol gains a gradual understanding of his own faults and strengths through experiencing some pretty grim stuff and occasionally the darkness does glimmer with a bit joy. Other points in this series favor are; that important characters die, yes this is good. Kearney doesn't keep the same people appearing over and over again. Kearney writes about what is at times heroic seamanship in an engaging and understandable way, at least for us landlubbers that is. I think those of you that like Forrester and O'Brian will find these sections excellent if at times a bit short and that brings us to the final strength: Characters. Kearney does a great balancing act between character development and action. Not always easy in fantasy where the author has to describe a whole new world and the peoples in it. This can lead to some fantasy writing being mostly description and short on characters. Not here as Kearney chooses to set his characters and story in a world not far from our own. Less description is required and increases the believability of his world. So with world building out of the way Kearney concentrates on his characters. They are full of range of human strengths, weaknesses, desires and needs. Even if they aren't always human. Cheers and Happy Reading.

HMS Surprise

Crummy Week then better.

Ugh! Lose at Chivas. Lose at Crapids. Crummy Crummy week. We played a decent game at Chivas but it were subpar against Crapids. UGH UGH UGH. Not a good week.

Reading-wise I've polished off three books in three days. Bks 1 & 2 of MacHale's Pendragon series. Great for the 14 yr old or there-abouts set. Bk 1 of Kearney's Sea Beggars Series. Great adult sea fantasy, fans of O'Brian and Forrester take note, this is good sea faring stuff.

New Anime Series I've been following:

Kurau: Phantom Memory 1 part 1



Kurau: Phantom Memory 1 part 2



Kurau: Phantom Memory 1 part 3

What I'm listening to these days

Cure Trailer

A.R. Kane , The Loft/The Weather Prophets, and other 80's english pop music. I am intrigued by which groups and songs are holding up over the years. AR Kane songs hold up but the production is just too tinny. It doesn't sound full. Same problem for a lot of bands. The Loft/The Weather Prophets did some great songs, "I Almost Prayed" is a classic and since they just were a guitar band they still sound great. The original stuff was done on cheaply by necessity and lacks depth. Dif Juz is still just one wonderful swooping instrumental after another but production is again thin.


Amon Tobin - Bath Tub

On the recommendation of a friend I've wandered through some Cure stuff: Pornography, The Head on the Door, and Seventeen Seconds. Best overall quality has to be HotD. Just still sounds great, the songs are tight, and only suffers from a few "epic" songs that just seemed silly then and well sillier now, Kyoto Song for one. Pornography is a 3/4 record. The title track is useless, Short Term Effect is a turgid mess, however Strange Day yes. I loved it then and Love it now. "Give me your eyes that I might see the blind man kissing my hands" just gets me every time. Nice midtempo driving and almost metal drum line with a linear guitar break (reminds me of RS's work with Souixie) and misty synth washing over top. Nice.

So the lesson learned here is that enjoy the old stuff but be prepared for things to not sound as good as you might remember.

The Cure "Strange Day"

A good night out DCU 1 - CD Billie-goats 1

It was cold, it was wet, I'm sick as a dog this a.m. and we didn't win. A battling draw in which for most of the game we were a step slow. They came to play, made some big adjustments at the half and with the own goal they neary got the away win. Luciano got us the extra-time equaliser which was just about a fair reward for the late efforts of our boys. Cheers to all who stood in the rain to support the boys in the face of a very large contingent of away fans. Forza DC!!!

XTC - Love on a Farmboy's Wages

DCU v. CD Guadalajara

Yup big-time now!!!! Weather ominous, twilight premature? Yeah so this could be good fun and I'm useless at work!!!

Funny video - Tonight's tailgate?

Shamrock Fest and why I hate Anheuser-Busch products.

Well had a good time at Shamrock Fest yesterday. Strange being in RFK's lot 8 and not doing a Screaming Eagles tailgate. C'mon MLS regular season! Enjoyed Scythian, Flying Cows of Ventry, Kelly Bell, and Flogging Molly. All of which were high tempo and had good senses of humor. Connells were mid tempo american rock which was kinda flat compared to the uptempo stuff, so a bit unfair to make a comparison.

Why I hate Anheuser-Busch products. I had a roaring headache before I even got home! Rubbish, just Rubbish!!!

Unrelated Flamenco (Carlos Saura) (1995)

Jesu

Jesu is the follow on band of Justin K. Broadrick, ex of Godflesh, Head of David and others. His previous endeavors combined metal, dance, and wallpaper shredding guitars. Personally I recommend the stuff. The current Jesu is titled Conqueror is much slower and clearer in expressing what he is doing sonically. Again recommended. Picture is from the Jesu website.

Rojos y Negros v. Lindos Guantes Blancos

3-2 to the good guys. Yes "Good Guys Near Black"(watch the trailer). Well it was cold, wet and fantastic soccer weather. Saw some good soccer last night, well at times. We still seem not a few miles from really sharp but next up Chivas. Um yeah now it gets a bit more serious and we'll see how it goes. But last night was enjoyable. Get the vocal chords going et cetera.

A little Bauhaus never did any harm.

Well Well Well. Home game tonight v that Honduran team Club Olimpia Deportivo. So having done a little stomp stomp stomp in their patch lets see what we can do 'round here.

Alita videos